For brochure sites, redesigns, and Shopify builds with a defined scope, put a fixed price in the proposal — it's what clients can approve without a second meeting or a finance conversation. Hourly only earns its keep when the scope genuinely can't be pinned down yet: ongoing retainers, work that depends on content the client hasn't finished, or a client who explicitly asks for time-and-materials billing. Everything else should default to a flat number, tied to a written scope, with a stated revision limit and a clear exclusions list.
That's the short answer. The rest of this is how to pick correctly and how to word either line so it doesn't get renegotiated three weeks into the project.
Why clients prefer fixed price
A fixed price removes mental math. The client reads one number, compares it to their budget, and either approves it or doesn't. There's no multiplication, no guessing at hours, no fear of an invoice that creeps past what they expected.
It also travels better inside the client's own organization. If they need to get sign-off from a business partner, a boss, or a spouse, "$4,800 for the redesign" is something they can forward in one sentence. "Somewhere between $3,000 and $7,000 depending on how it goes" is not — it invites a follow-up question you're not in the room to answer.
Fixed price also protects you, as long as the scope behind it is written down. When the number is tied to a defined deliverable — page count, platform, revision rounds — you have something to point to if the client asks for more later. Hourly billing without a ceiling does the opposite: it puts the burden of control back on the client, who now has to police their own requests to avoid a bigger bill, which creates friction neither of you wants.
The three situations where hourly is the right call
Hourly isn't wrong. It's wrong for the wrong project. Use it when one of these is true:
1. Ongoing maintenance or retainer work. There's no fixed deliverable — you're on call for updates, small fixes, and requests that arrive unpredictably. A monthly retainer billed hourly (often with a minimum number of hours) fits this better than any flat fee, because the work itself has no edge.
2. The scope depends on the client's own unfinished decisions. If a client says "we're redesigning the site, but we haven't decided if we're also moving to a new CMS, and the copy isn't written yet," you cannot responsibly flat-fee that. Quote hourly or day-rate for a first phase, with a not-to-exceed ceiling, until the unknowns resolve.
3. The client asks for time-and-materials billing directly. Some clients — often ones who've been burned by fixed-fee freelancers who cut corners to protect margin — prefer to pay for actual hours and see a log. If that's their stated preference and you're comfortable with it, don't fight it. Just still cap it.
Outside these three, default to fixed. If you're quoting a brochure site, a standard redesign, or a Shopify build with a known feature list, there's no real ambiguity left to hide behind hourly billing — you're just avoiding the work of scoping it.
How to word a fixed-price line so it doesn't get renegotiated later
The price line fails when it's just a number. It holds when it's a number attached to three things: what's included, what's excluded, and how many revision rounds are covered.
A fixed price with no scope attached is an invitation to scope creep — the client didn't agree to a boundary, they agreed to a total, and totals get argued with. Learn how to price a redesign specifically if that's the project type you're quoting; the audit steps there are what makes a flat number defensible in the first place. Pair the price with a scope of work that makes a fixed price defensible — page count, platform, what's in, what's out — and the price stops being a number the client can push on, because it's attached to specifics they already read and accepted.
How to word an hourly line so it doesn't scare the client off
Hourly billing spooks clients when it looks open-ended. Fix that by giving a not-to-exceed range and a concrete example of what a normal week looks like, so the number stops being abstract.
Example wording:
Billing: $95/hour, billed in weekly increments with a detailed summary of work completed. Estimated range for Phase 1 (discovery and initial structure): 15–20 hours ($1,425–$1,900). You will be notified before any work that would exceed this range.
That last line matters more than the rate. A ceiling with a check-in clause is what turns hourly from "a blank check" into "a bounded estimate with a safety valve." Clients can approve a range with a stated maximum far more easily than an open hourly rate with no ceiling at all.
A hybrid option: fixed for the defined phase, hourly for the rest
This is the most common structure for redesigns and larger builds, and it's worth naming explicitly in the proposal rather than leaving it implied.
Example wording:
Phase 1 — Design (fixed fee): $3,200. Includes homepage and 4 interior page designs, two rounds of revisions, delivered as approved Figma files. Phase 2 — Build and ongoing changes (hourly): $85/hour, billed monthly, covering development, content entry, and any post-launch adjustments beyond what's defined in Phase 1.
The client gets certainty on the part that's actually scoped (design), and you both get flexibility on the part that isn't (build, which often shifts once the client sees the design and starts requesting small changes). Writing this as two distinct lines, rather than one blended estimate, is what makes the hybrid model easy to approve — the client can see exactly where the certainty ends and the flexibility begins.
The default recommendation
Default to fixed price. Switch to hybrid only when part of the client's own scope is still moving — undecided features, unwritten content, a platform decision that hasn't been made. Reach for pure hourly only for retainer work or when the client asks for it directly. If you're ever unsure which one to write, ask yourself: "Can I define what's included well enough to defend this number in three weeks?" If yes, fixed. If no, hybrid or hourly with a ceiling — never open-ended.
Checklist before you send the price line
- Is the price tied to a written scope (page count, platform, features), not just a total?
- If fixed: is the revision limit stated as a number, not "reasonable revisions"?
- If fixed: are exclusions listed (copywriting, stock photos, third-party app fees, hosting)?
- If hourly: is there a not-to-exceed range for at least the first phase?
- If hourly: is there a stated check-in point before costs exceed the estimate?
- If hybrid: are the fixed and hourly portions written as separate line items, not blended?
If you want this structure already built rather than assembled from scratch each time a lead comes in, The Web Design Proposal Kit includes a proposal template with the pricing section already structured this way — fixed, hourly, and hybrid versions included, along with the scope of work and revision language that makes the number hold.