Web Design RFP: What to Include, What to Skip, and When to Skip the RFP

An RFP gives buyers a structured way to compare agencies on equal terms, and it works best when the decision fits that format. Applied to the wrong decision, it tends to bring back proposals that read alike, a long questionnaire that neither side enjoyed completing, and a shortlist that comes down to price.

A web design RFP is a formal request for written proposals, and it’s useful when you have several stakeholders, procurement requirements, and a scope clear enough to compare. Include your business goal, the scope and constraints you know, who decides and how, your evaluation criteria, response limits, and the timeline, and leave out generic capability questions, free spec design work, and long questionnaires. You can skip the RFP entirely when the shortlist is already obvious, when speed matters more than a formal comparison, or when the scope is still unclear, in which case a paid discovery phase is the better first step. Keep finalists to three or four, and use live conversations to judge the team.

An RFP compares vendors, and a brief describes the work

The two documents get confused. A brief describes what you want made, including the goal, the audience, the constraints. An RFP is a procurement process for comparing vendors, or the questions agencies answer, the format they answer in, and how you'll score them. You always need the first, and only sometimes need the second. Our guide to briefing a B2B design agency covers the brief, and a good RFP starts from one.

Use an RFP when comparison and process matter

An RFP earns its place when procurement or legal requires a formal process, when several stakeholders need to see comparable answers, when the scope is defined enough that agencies can price and plan against it, and when you're genuinely open to switching partners. If none of those hold, the document mostly creates work.

Skip the RFP when you're not sure what you need

If you can't yet describe the scope, an RFP forces every agency to guess, and you end up comparing guesses. Advertising industry pitch guidance published in 2026 by the ANA and 4As says that if a client isn't sure what type of agency or solution it needs, it should say so, or postpone the review until there's clarity. The guidance is written for advertising agency reviews, and the page says it applies to creative and other agency relationships too.

When scope is the open question, a short paid discovery phase is usually a better first step than an RFP. It turns unknowns into a defined scope that you can then compare or commit to, as we explain in our guide to the software discovery phase. Skipping the RFP also makes sense when referrals and past work have already made the shortlist obvious, since conversations and reference calls will cover what you need, and when speed matters more than a formal comparison.

What to include

A useful RFP is short and specific. Cover the business goal and the context behind it, so agencies know what the project is for. Describe the scope and deliverables as far as you know them, and flag what's still open. List the constraints, including timeline, technology, compliance or security requirements, and a budget range. Say who decides and how, including who will be in the room for the final conversations. State the evaluation criteria in order of importance, set a page limit for responses, and give dates for questions, submissions, and the decision.

Share a budget range, since proposals can’t be compared without one and even strong agencies end up guessing at what you can spend. Ask agencies to state their assumptions, which often explain more about why two proposals differ than their prices do, and to name the people who would actually do the work. Expect the winning proposal to become a written scope, a statement of work that names deliverables, exclusions, and how changes are handled.

What to skip

Leave out the long questionnaire, since the same guidance describes the initial request for information as a focused screening tool for narrowing the field. Generic capability questions that an agency’s website already answers can go too, along with requests for a full design as a test. If you do need spec work to judge an agency, the guidance recommends providing a clear brief, scope, and budget for it, and agreeing up front on compensation and who owns the work. It also helps to avoid locked response formats that hide the differences between agencies, and templates copied from projects that have nothing to do with yours.

Run the process the way you'd want to be treated

The same guidance recommends keeping the field small, since adding agencies doesn’t make a pitch more effective. For an advertising review, it suggests a long list of eight to twelve agencies for the RFP and a short list of three or four. A web or brand project can follow a smaller version of that approach, screening broadly and then talking in depth with three or four finalists. Meet them live, with the real team in the room alongside the people who will make the decision, and keep the timeline tight, letting agencies know right away if it shifts.

Weigh each proposal’s assumptions and proposed team alongside price and deliverables. Our guide to how to evaluate a B2B agency lists 12 questions that help show how the work will go. Give every finalist feedback, whether or not they win, since it takes little of your time, keeps the door open for future projects, and shows you how each agency responds to input.

Not sure whether you need an RFP?

If you're writing an RFP, or deciding whether to, that's a fair question to bring to an agency before you send anything. At BRIGHTSCOUT, we're glad to look at a draft brief and tell you what we would ask and what we'd need to know to scope the work.

Let's talk about what your project needs.