How to give a quote range

When a range is the right answer

There's a moment in every enquiry, before discovery, before the scope is firm, when the client asks "roughly what are we talking?" and you don't yet have a defensible fixed number. A range is the honest answer to that question. "£18,000 to £24,000 depending on the integrations we confirm in discovery" tells the truth, gives the client something to react to, and doesn't lock you into a figure you'll regret.

A range is a communication tool for uncertainty to the client. It's the counterpart to contingency, which absorbs uncertainty for you once you've committed. Use a range while the scope is still moving; commit to a fixed price once it's firm.

How wide should the range be?

Wide enough to be honest, narrow enough to be useful. A range of £5,000 to £50,000 tells the client nothing except that you haven't thought about it. As a rough guide, the spread should reflect the real uncertainty:

• Tight scope, few unknowns, a spread of around 15–20% (e.g. £20k–£24k).
• Moderate uncertainty, around 25–35% (e.g. £18k–£24k).
• Genuinely fuzzy brief, if you'd need a spread wider than that to feel safe, don't quote yet.

Propose a paid discovery instead. A range so wide it's meaningless is a signal you're not ready to price.

The narrower you can make an honest range, the more competent you look, so the way to a tight range is a tighter scope, not wishful thinking.

Anchor with the number you actually want

Clients anchor on the first figure they see, so lead with intent. If you present "from £18,000", the client fixes on £18k and everything above feels like a surcharge. Present a range and they tend to settle mentally around the middle or lower-middle. Neither is wrong, but choose deliberately based on where you want the conversation to start, and make sure the bottom of your range is a number you'd genuinely be willing to do the work for.

Never quote a low figure you're hoping to talk them out of. The anchor sticks, and you'll spend the rest of the project fighting the number you set yourself.

Explain what moves the number

A range without reasons feels like guesswork. A range with reasons feels like expertise, and it sets up the scoping conversation you want to have.

"£18,000 to £24,000. The lower end assumes you supply final copy and we integrate with your existing CRM only. The upper end covers content migration from the old site and a second integration. Discovery will confirm which."

Now the range is doing double duty: it prices the work and teaches the client what drives cost, so they arrive at scoping already understanding the trade-offs. This is also where optional extras fit, the parts that move the number can become choices the client makes.

Collapse the range to a fixed price

A range is a stage, not a destination. As discovery firms up the scope, the range should narrow and then resolve into a single agreed figure. Present the fixed number confidently once you have it, the range did its job of getting you both to a shared picture.

This is exactly how ScopeDeck handles the two stages: the Quote can show a rounded lower/upper bracket while the Specification locks to a single fixed figure, so early commercial uncertainty becomes one agreed build number without re-quoting from scratch. See live pricing and estimates and the quote-to-spec workflow.