Website RFP template and supplier response checklist
When several providers are quoting, it helps to ask everyone the same questions. This pack gives you an editable website RFP, a supplier-response sheet and a launch responsibility matrix, so you can set out the work, agree how it will be checked and compare complete prices. It is free to use with any provider, with no signup required.
Planning a trade-ordering website? Download the B2B ecommerce requirements (.csv), a six-row supplement to the general pack, and read the scope notes.
See what you’re sending.
A clear request, a comparable response and an owner for each launch decision.
Website request for proposal
- The business decision
- What we do, who the site is for and what needs to improve.
- Scope and starter requirements
- The pages and functions we want priced.
- Commercial response
- One-off and recurring costs, exclusions and dependencies.
Requirements workbook
Supplier response, quoted deliverable and acceptance evidence stay together.
Open the Excel workbookAll download formats and pack details
One brief. A comparable response.
Download the editable procurement pack, remove anything outside your project and give each provider the same version.
Free, ungated files. The Word RFP has editable questions and tables; replace the bracketed fields with your answers. The Excel workbook combines the requirements and launch responsibilities with filters, frozen headings and dropdowns. Markdown and CSV versions remain available. Your completed procurement information stays in the files you manage.Choose the level of procurement the project needs
A website request for proposal, or RFP, asks providers to explain how they would carry out your brief. Each answers the same requirements, sets out the price and inclusions, and explains what they need from you or another supplier. It also asks how you will check the finished work before accepting it.
Use this pack when several people need to approve a website or several suppliers are quoting. It includes an editable request, a requirement-by-requirement response sheet and a launch responsibility matrix. There is no signup gate, and you can use it with any provider.
If one person can decide on a clearly scoped website, a useful website brief may be enough. An RFP becomes valuable when the cost, integrations, migration or approval process needs a more formal comparison.
The brief explains the business; the RFP helps you compare the proposed work in detail. Keep it proportionate to the project. Remove requirements you do not need, and settle the important unanswered questions before asking everyone for a fixed price.
The table scrolls sideways on smaller screens.
| In the download | What you use it for |
|---|---|
| Editable Word or Markdown request | State the decision, scope, response deadline, proposal format and commercial questions. Edit the Word document directly, or use the Markdown version in a text editor. |
| Requirements CSV | Give each requirement an ID, a priority and acceptance evidence. Ask suppliers to answer each row, including exclusions and dependencies. |
| Launch responsibilities CSV | Name the executor and approver for content, access, URLs, DNS, email, enquiry checks, publication and handover. |
The CSV rows are starter requirements, not a specification already approved for your project or a list of everything included in UpOnUp's standard offer. Keep blank commercial fields unknown until a supplier answers them.
B2B ecommerce requirements to add to your RFP
A trade customer may need their agreed prices, a purchase order and approval from a colleague before an order can go ahead. If that is how you sell, ask suppliers to show the whole route. A general promise to include ecommerce leaves these decisions open.
This optional checklist supplements the general website RFP. Use it with any provider, keep only the rows that apply and agree the detail with your team. The Word and Excel pack above remains the general website pack; these six additional rows are in a separate CSV.
Download the B2B ecommerce requirements (.csv)
Every row starts as Unconfirmed. Decide whether it is required, optional or not applicable before asking suppliers to answer Included, Separate quote, Excluded or Needs clarification. Add the buyer owner, quoted deliverable, price reference, dependencies and review milestone in the CSV. Ask suppliers to explain which requirements use standard configuration, custom work or a third-party service, including the costs and dependencies. Keep prices in the RFP's single commercial summary.
B2B01: Trade accounts and permissions
Ask for: Define who may apply for a trade account, who approves it and what each agreed user role can see or do.
What to ask the supplier to demonstrate
Evidence to agree: Show an application awaiting approval, the approval step and the permitted actions for each agreed role. Confirm an unauthorised account cannot access restricted information.
B2B02: Account pricing and quantity rules
Ask for: Specify the prices, quantity breaks, minimum quantities and pack sizes that apply to each agreed type of trade account.
What to ask the supplier to demonstrate
Evidence to agree: Use two test accounts to demonstrate their agreed prices and quantity rules, including an invalid quantity. Confirm restricted prices are not exposed to an unauthorised account.
B2B03: Quotes, purchase orders and payment
Ask for: Name the routes you need: a quote request, purchase order, online payment or agreed credit terms. State who approves each route and what confirms an accepted order.
What to ask the supplier to demonstrate
Evidence to agree: Demonstrate each retained route from the buyer request to its agreed confirmation. Include a declined or pending approval and show that it does not become a confirmed order.
B2B04: Product and stock information
Ask for: Name the source for product details and availability, how often changes should appear, and what visitors should see if the data is unavailable.
What to ask the supplier to demonstrate
Evidence to agree: Change a test product or stock value in the agreed source and check the storefront within the agreed interval. Demonstrate the agreed behaviour when that source is unavailable.
B2B05: Back-office connections
Ask for: Name each connected system, the data it receives, who owns failures and how missed or repeated updates are handled.
What to ask the supplier to demonstrate
Evidence to agree: Trace a test order into the named system. Demonstrate a failed transfer, its alert and retry, and confirm the retry does not create a duplicate order.
B2B06: Delivery, changes and returns
Ask for: Specify delivery areas, charges and restrictions, customer messages and who handles order changes or returns. Identify which steps happen outside the website.
What to ask the supplier to demonstrate
Evidence to agree: Try an eligible and an excluded delivery destination. Check the agreed charges and messages, then demonstrate how an order change or return reaches the responsible person.
What a useful B2B supplier response looks like
“Yes, quotes included” leaves a lot to discover later. Does the website calculate a price, send a request to a person or create an order? Ask the supplier to describe the route they have priced.
The worked example below uses B2B03: Quotes, purchase orders and payment from the downloadable checklist. Imagine a buyer who wants trade customers to request a quotation, with staff reviewing the request and replying manually. Online payment and credit approval are outside this particular brief. This is an illustrative response to help you read proposals, not a supplier quote or an UpOnUp delivery commitment.
The table scrolls sideways on smaller screens.
| Response field | Useful detail to record |
|---|---|
| Supplier response | Included in the proposed scope: a quotation request. No online quotation calculation or order acceptance. |
| Quoted deliverable | Customers provide agreed product references, quantities and a reply address. The request reaches the nominated sales inbox. The visitor is told that the request will be reviewed and that no order has been placed. |
| Buyer owner | The buyer's sales lead approves the questions, inbox and reply process. Add the actual person's name before agreeing the work. |
| Acceptance evidence | An authorised test reaches that inbox with the correct details. The visitor sees the agreed request confirmation. A failed submission gives a recoverable error. A request awaiting a reply never appears as an accepted order. |
| Dependencies and exclusions | The buyer supplies the reply owner and approved wording. Pricing, stock checks and the quotation are handled by staff. Account permissions, purchase-order approval, checkout, credit terms and back-office connections are not included in this row. |
| Review milestone and price reference | The supplier demonstrates the complete route to the buyer before launch. Reference its line in the supplier's commercial summary; if that line or any recurring cost is missing, request it before accepting the proposal. |
That answer is useful because you can see what it leaves out. If your business needs purchase orders, account-specific pricing or order approval, this response does not meet the whole requirement. Keep those needs open and ask for a revised scope, a separate quote or an explicit exclusion. A tidy row is not a reason to remove something your customers need.
The downloadable supplier-response fields remain blank for your own project; this example does not prefill or approve them. Agree the final wording and commercial summary together, so a supplier's “Included” applies to the same version you intend to buy.
Ask for outcomes you can inspect
“Professional,” “fast” and “SEO-ready” leave too much open to interpretation. Describe the deliverable and the evidence you expect to review.
The table scrolls sideways on smaller screens.
| Broad request | More useful acceptance criterion |
|---|---|
| “The website must explain our services.” | The agreed page map identifies each service, its audience and the next action; the business owner approves the final facts and copy. |
| “It must work on mobile.” | Review the agreed pages and core journeys at the agreed small-screen and desktop sizes; record any layout or interaction exception. |
| “The contact form must work.” | An authorized test reaches the intended recipient, the visitor sees the expected confirmation and the reply owner is known. |
| “Keep our SEO.” | The old-URL inventory has an agreed disposition for each relevant address, with matching redirect, canonical and crawl-access checks where applicable. No unchanged-ranking promise is implied. |
| “We need accessibility.” | State the target standard and scope, the evaluation method, who tests it and how unresolved findings affect acceptance. |
W3C's WCAG reference supplies testable accessibility criteria. A target in an RFP still needs a defined scope and evaluation; a provider's general accessibility claim is not a test record. W3C WCAG 2.2 reference.
For a move that changes URLs, Google's guidance covers mapping old addresses, updating internal links and annotations, and appropriate redirects. Make those deliverables someone’s responsibility rather than writing “SEO included” beside the redesign. Google's site-move guidance.
Give suppliers one response format
Ask for a row-by-row response using Included, Separate quote, Excluded or Needs clarification. “Yes” without a deliverable, limit or dependency is often too vague to compare.
For each response, ask what will be delivered, what you must provide and when it can be reviewed. Keep the commercial summary separate from the requirement rows so a fee covering several requirements is not accidentally added several times.
The downloadable request asks for:
- The proposed scope and any difference from your request.
- A response to every retained requirement ID.
- One-off charges, recurring charges, currency, tax treatment and quote validity.
- The milestones, required inputs and approval responsibilities.
- Exclusions, third-party dependencies and the process for a scope change.
- Ownership, delivery files, hosting choices and ongoing-service terms.
If you need regional or translated content, identify the actual versions and who approves them. A single “multilingual” tick box cannot describe the pages, forms, messages and maintenance involved. Use the language and regional-version guide to define that part of the request.
Name who can approve each part of launch
A website provider may coordinate the move without controlling every account. The business, outgoing provider, registrar, DNS operator and email provider can each hold a different part of the process. Record named people before the switch, and never put passwords in an RFP or public form.
The table scrolls sideways on smaller screens.
| Launch decision | Person who normally needs to confirm it | Evidence to retain |
|---|---|---|
| Business facts and content | The authorized business approver. | The approved version and unresolved exceptions. |
| Old pages and their destinations | The business owner with the website provider. | An agreed URL disposition map. |
| Domain/DNS changes | The authorized account operator and business approver. | A bounded change plan and preserved prior settings. |
| Existing email remains usable | The email owner or provider. | Agreed checks before and after the switch. |
| Enquiry delivery and response | The recipient and the person responsible for replies. | Authorized test receipt and a known follow-up owner. |
| Public release and rollback | The named release approver and operator. | Go/no-go decision, release identity and reversal plan. |
| Ongoing service and file handover | The business owner and selected supplier. | Delivery record and agreed future responsibilities. |
These are proposed roles to adapt, not permission for a supplier to access or change an account. Cloudflare's email-record documentation illustrates why website and email checks need separate owners: mail routing and authentication depend on provider-specific DNS records. Confirm the actual setup with the email provider involved. Email-record guidance.
Record the decision, not just the winning price
First check whether each proposal covers the things you cannot do without. Then compare the full cost, relevant examples, approach and any help still needed from elsewhere. A scoring sheet can help, but a high total should not hide a missing requirement that matters to your business.
Keep a short decision record: the selected proposal version, accepted scope, exclusions, unresolved points, price and currency, approver and reason. The downloadable request includes this section. An unanswered question remains open; it does not become included work when the supplier is selected.
Questions before you send the request
Is this suitable for a small website?
Yes, if you shorten it. Keep the requirements that affect your actual decision. For a straightforward purchase, the brief builder and provider comparison worksheet may be quicker than a full RFP.
Should every supplier include every starter requirement?
No. You decide what applies, and suppliers confirm what their proposed scope includes. Some projects need a new enquiry website; others include migrations, languages or integrations that require separate work. An honest exclusion is more useful than an ambiguous promise.
Does completing the template commission the work?
The template asks for proposals and explicitly asks suppliers not to start work or incur costs before separate authorization. Agree the final scope and commercial terms through your own purchasing process before work begins.
Bring us the requirements that matter
You can use the same requirements when asking us for a proposal. Our standard offer covers original design, copywriting and responsive development for up to 25 agreed pages with an agreed enquiry route. Additional languages, ecommerce, bespoke software and complex integrations need a separate agreement.
Send the current website and the work you want priced. We will explain what fits the offer, what needs clarification and what belongs in a separate scope.
Ask UpOnUp about your requirements · Review current scope and terms · Plan an international website