The website RFP checklist for an architecture practice.

Most architecture practices commission a website roughly once a decade, so the person writing the brief has almost certainly never written one before. This is the checklist we would want to receive.

Most architecture practices commission a website roughly once a decade, which means the person writing the brief has almost certainly never written one before. That is not a criticism. It is the reason so many practice websites end up beautiful on the project pages and useless everywhere else: the brief asked for a portfolio, so a portfolio is what arrived.

This is the checklist we would want to receive. Use it, send it to three studios and compare answers that are actually comparable.

What to put in the brief.

1. Who the site is for, in order

Name your audiences and rank them. A practice chasing public work, a practice chasing private residential and a practice chasing developer clients need three different sites. Most briefs skip this, and the result is a site that addresses everyone at once in a register that suits nobody.

2. What happens after someone is impressed

This is the question practice websites most consistently fail. A visitor has looked at nine projects and decided they like you. What do you want them to do, and how many clicks away is it? If the answer is a contact page with a single email address, say so in the brief and let the studio argue with you.

3. Who updates it, and how often

Be honest here rather than aspirational. A practice that will realistically post four times a year needs a different content system than one with a marketing coordinator. Overbuying content tooling is one of the two most common ways architecture practices waste money on a website.

4. The state of your assets

Photography, drawings, plans, awards, press, text. What exists, what is licensed for web use, what needs reshooting and who owns it. Practices routinely discover mid-build that the photographer's licence does not cover the website, and that conversation is far cheaper before contracts than after.

5. Accessibility and procurement requirements

If you bid for public work, the site itself may be assessed. Say which standard applies. It affects the build and it is much more expensive to retrofit.

What to ask every bidder.

Ask all three the same questions and compare the answers side by side.

1. Who does the work? Not who pitches. The person who writes the code and the person who designs it, by name, with their other work.
2. What is fixed and what is variable? A fixed price with a defined scope is a different product from a day rate with an estimate. Both can be fine. Being unclear which you are buying is not.
3. What happens if we need a change mid-build? Ask for the actual process rather than a reassurance.
4. Who owns the code and the content when we are done? Get the answer in writing.
5. What can we edit ourselves without calling you? Be specific: a project, a team member, a press item, the homepage order.
6. What does year two cost? Hosting, support, updates and what is not covered.
7. What happens if we leave? Can the site be moved, and what goes with it.

The answers to 4, 6 and 7 separate studios more reliably than anything in the visual portfolio.

Red flags.

• A quote with no ongoing cost. The cost has not gone away, it has been left with you.
• A proposal that will not name a number until a second call. You are being qualified rather than quoted.
• Discovery sold as a separate paid phase with no deliverable you keep. Discovery is fine, and paying for it is fine. Walking away from it with nothing is not.
• Claimed results from other people's projects. Percentages attached to somebody else's site tell you nothing about yours.
• A stack recommendation before anyone has asked what you publish. The answer arrived before the question, which means it is the answer they always give.

How to compare what comes back.

Score each response on four things rather than on how the deck looked: whether they understood the audience ranking you gave them, whether the price is genuinely comparable to the others, whether you can tell who will do the work, and whether year two is clear. A studio that is weaker visually but clear on all four is usually the safer commission.

For what the better practice websites are doing right now, we keep a benchmark of the architecture firm websites worth studying. Our own approach is on architecture website design, and there is a cost breakdown in what a company website costs in 2026.