The agency billed two line items as "web design and coding" — are both really necessary, and what is what?

The simplest way to distinguish the two is this: 1) Design: It's the architectural blueprint of a building; it sets the aesthetics and the room layout, but you can't live inside it. 2) Coding: Laying the bricks of that building, running the plumbing, and installing the door locks. Without the first you only have a sketch, and without the second you have no idea what to build.

The designer works on pixel-based visuals in Figma or a similar tool. The developer takes those graphics, styles them with CSS, builds filtering mechanisms with JavaScript, and hooks up the database connections on the backend. One is a graphic file, the other is working software.

We received a similar quote last year for our cooling systems site: they quoted 45k for design, 55k for coding. Instead of custom-designing everything from scratch, we picked an off-the-shelf corporate template. Design cost dropped to 15,000 TL, and we wrapped up the whole project for 60k including coding.

if they try coding without a design, you end up with a site with grey buttons straight out of the 90s. if they design without code, you just end up with pictures you can look at like a pdf. both are mandatory but the prices are a bit high.

If you want to cut costs right away, tell the agency directly: "We don't want a custom UI designed from scratch. Let's move forward using 3 ready-made corporate templates you recommend, please revise the design line item." They'll significantly lower the design fee.

What kind of admin panel is envisioned for the product catalog under the coding line item? An 18-person kitchen manufacturer will have hundreds of product codes, dimension charts, and PDF documents. Who is going to input all these products into the system one by one? If content entry isn't included in the coding price, they might bill you extra later.

The contract must explicitly guarantee the transfer of financial rights to your company for approved mockups under the design line item in accordance with Fikir ve Sanat Eserleri Kanunu, as well as the unencrypted delivery of source code under the coding line item.

Three years ago, to cut costs, we only hired a freelance designer. He created fantastic visuals for us handed them over, and left. Then we pulled our hair out trying to find a developer to code those mockups, because coding some of the things he drew was outrageously expensive. Having both done by the same agency might seem pricey but it's much healthier in terms of coordination.

Exactly like that. The real issue isn't the number, but what it's based on.

Hope this helps.

I think it's hard to be that definitive about web design and coding. Most time waste accumulates in tasks waiting for approval.

Hope this helps.

The opposite happened to me, that's why I'm writing. Processes without records never improve, because you don't know what to fix.

If I were you, I'd go this route.

Don't miss this: If you don't write this down from the start, it leads to arguments later.

Of course, it varies if your situation is different.

i'm curious too. when you try to change everything at once, nothing settles.

im also curious if anyone does it differently.

Noted, thanks. The biggest time-waster for us was not knowing who had the final say.

Any unwritten clause becomes a point of disagreement later, as both sides remember it differently. If I were you, I'd go this route.

Same here.

I partly agree, partly disagree. Every "we'll look at it later" in a meeting means unbilled work.

My questions are cleared up, thanks.