Showing prices instead of "request a quote": why we chose it

Visit ten agency or B2B service provider websites: on eight of them, the price comes down to three words, “request a quote”. A business owner we came across recently on LinkedIn, who runs outsourced prospecting, did the opposite: three plans shown down to the cent, no commitment, setup included. We made the same choice on this site. Every offer shows its price, and when that price depends on the project, it says what makes it vary.

Buyers decide before they talk to you

The B2B buying journey has changed shape. Gartner estimates that buyers spend only about 17% of their buying journey meeting with suppliers, all suppliers combined. The rest goes into research, comparisons and internal discussions. In a more recent survey by the same firm, 61% of B2B buyers said they prefer a rep-free buying experience.

What these buyers look for first is well known. Since the review platform TrustRadius started asking in 2023, transparent pricing has topped their wish list for vendors four years running. Its 2022 edition already found that 81% of buyers wanted to find pricing information on their own. These surveys mostly cover software purchases and come from a review platform whose business depends on that transparency: they show the trend, not an exact measure for an agency.

In practice, an operations director looking to automate invoicing wants to know whether the project costs €5,000 or €50,000 before blocking forty-five minutes in their calendar. If the website does not say, they do not book a call to find out. They book one with whoever did say.

What “on request” makes buyers think

Sellers who hide their price think they are keeping room to manoeuvre. Buyers read something else. The same TrustRadius report notes that an opaque price is often read as a high price, or as a negotiable one, and that it can be enough to drop a vendor from the shortlist.

“On request” often means “it depends on who you are”, and clients sense it. Two companies of the same size, for the same project, should not pay two different prices because one looks more rushed or more prosperous than the other. A public price settles the question once and for all: it is the same for everyone.

Showing a price forces clarity

The least visible benefit is internal. To show a price, you have to know exactly what that price covers: how many users, which integrations, what data migration, how many days of training. A hidden price lets that vagueness settle in, and it comes back later as change orders and disagreements.

Showing your price also means accepting comparison. A buyer will put three offer pages side by side. It is uncomfortable, and it is healthy: it pushes you to defend what is included rather than defend a number.

A price that varies can be shown honestly

The classic objection: “every project is different”. That is true for some of them. The answer is not to hide everything, it is to grade what you show.

On this site, we chose three levels:

• A fixed price for entry offers, whose scope does not move. The SEO audit costs €1,500, and the page says up front what falls outside that frame: a catalogue of several thousand pages is priced during scoping, before we start, never along the way. In the CRM offer, Twenty is shown at €4,500.
• A range with the factor that moves it when scope changes from one client to the next. Our monthly retainer runs from €4,000 to €17,000 a month, depending on the bundle chosen and the length of commitment.
• A “from” price for large projects, where the precise estimate is precisely what the audit delivers. The static site migration starts at €5,900.

When we offer a bundle, its price is always below the sum of the services in it, with the difference shown: a struck-through price only makes sense if the reference price is actually charged, which is also what EU rules on price reductions require.

Where we do not show a price

There is one case where we publish nothing: white label for agencies. An agency resells our work under its own name, to its own clients, at its own rates. Publishing our wholesale price would mean showing its margin to its clients. So the price list is sent once the company has registered, with its VAT number. This is not “on request”: the list exists, it is the same for every agency, it is simply not public.

The rule we draw from it fits in one sentence: you hide a price to protect someone else, never to keep room to charge by the look of the client.

What it changes for you

If you sell services, the question deserves an honest answer: does your “on request” protect you, or does it drive away, before the first call, the people who would have signed? Showing a price, even a range, filters enquiries, shortens meetings and forces you to write down in black and white what the client gets.

And if you buy, a price on a website is not necessarily the right price. But it is a price you can compare, before you have handed over your phone number.

Sources

1. Gartner: the B2B buying journey (new tab)gartner.com
2. Demand Gen Report: 3 in 5 B2B buyers prefer a rep-free buying experience (Gartner) (new tab)demandgenreport.com
3. HG Insights: TrustRadius 2026 B2B buying report (new tab)hginsights.com
4. TrustRadius: buyers want honest, up-front pricing (new tab)solutions.trustradius.com