We recently put out a RFP and we got 7 proposals from different website companies. Pricing ranged from $6,400 to $28,000 and several proposals recommended technologies we have never heard of.

We don't have an IT staff or anyone who knows about websites in our office. How can we make an informed decision?

Some website companies will quote a very low price, but come back for additional development costs by not including all the required features in the main part of the proposal.

On the the other hand, the most expensive proposal may have included additional features or a unique approach to the project, or, because your RFP lacked enough detail, it may be that that particular website company "padded" their project price to cover themselves for some unexpected problems.

Tips:

• Review all proposals to make sure they all contain the same amount of project work.
• Make sure the proposals use industry standard programming approaches.
• Be wary of "proprietary" solutions which may lock you into a system that you can never own or require yearly license fees.
• Ask the vendors you are considering pointed questions about the pricing, making changes or corrections.
• Check references of the vendors and review similar website solutions.
• Make sure the website will be Search Engine "friendly".

Additional Information:

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