Two rounds of revisions per major deliverable — one round on the homepage or initial design, one round on the full site — is the standard that keeps a web design project moving without feeling stingy to the client. Write it as a number in the proposal, not as "a reasonable amount of revisions," because vague language is what invites unlimited requests later. Anything beyond two rounds should have a stated cost attached, decided before the project starts, not negotiated mid-way through it.
Here's why that number works, what actually counts as a "round," and the exact sentence to put in your own proposal.
Why "unlimited revisions" is a trap, not a selling point
"Unlimited revisions" reads like generosity in a proposal. In practice, it removes the client's incentive to give clear, consolidated feedback the first time. If there's no limit, there's no cost to sending five separate rounds of small notes over three weeks instead of one organized list — so that's what happens.
Projects that promise unlimited revisions tend to run longer and pay worse per hour than projects with a stated limit, because the open-ended promise gets used. It's not that clients are acting in bad faith; it's that a limit is the only signal that tells them when feedback needs to be final. Remove the signal and you remove the reason to be decisive.
A stated round count isn't a lesser offer than "unlimited" — it's a clearer one. Clients who've worked with freelancers before often read "unlimited revisions" as a red flag rather than a perk, because it usually means the freelancer hasn't scoped the project tightly enough to know what they're agreeing to.
What counts as one "round"
This is where most proposals get vague, and vagueness is what causes disputes later. Define a round explicitly: one consolidated set of feedback delivered at one time, not one revision per comment or per email.
Write it into the proposal like this:
"Revision round" means one set of consolidated feedback delivered in a single document or message. Feedback sent across multiple emails or messages on the same deliverable counts as one round if it addresses the same version of the design.
That single clarifying sentence prevents the most common argument: a client who sends three separate emails over a week, each with a few more notes, and later insists none of those "counted" as a full round. With the definition in writing, you can point to it calmly instead of negotiating the point after the fact.
What happens after the included rounds run out
State this up front, in the same document, not as something the client discovers mid-project when they ask for a third round and you have to explain a new charge for the first time.
Example wording:
This proposal includes two rounds of revisions per deliverable. Additional rounds beyond this are billed at $150 per round, or $95/hour if the requested changes go beyond minor adjustments (e.g., new pages, restructured navigation, or a different design direction).
Two things are doing the work in that sentence: a flat per-round fee for small additional rounds, and an escalation to hourly billing for changes big enough that they're really a new request, not a revision. Without that second clause, clients sometimes use "just one more revision" to smuggle in work that's actually a scope change — a new page, a different layout entirely — at no extra cost.
Should the number change by project type?
Two rounds is the right default, but the practical range shifts slightly with project size and complexity.
Brochure sites (3–6 pages): Two rounds is usually enough on its own — one on the homepage design, one on the full site once all pages are built out. The scope is small enough that feedback rarely needs a third pass.
Full redesigns: Two rounds per phase (design, then build) is standard, but consider splitting them explicitly — one round on the homepage concept before you build out interior pages, so a direction change doesn't mean redoing work across the whole site. Pricing a redesign is where revisions matter most, since a redesign client is usually reacting to years of accumulated opinions about the old site, and that tends to produce more feedback than a new build.
Shopify builds: Similar to brochure sites for the storefront design, but add a separate, smaller revision allowance for product page templates specifically, since clients often want to see real product data in the template before approving it. A Shopify proposal needs a few things beyond revision counts — app dependencies and theme licensing chief among them — but the revision structure itself follows the same two-round default.
In all three cases, the number that changes is how you split the rounds across phases, not whether two rounds is roughly right. Going much above two as a default mostly just delays the point where feedback has to become decisive.
The exact sentence to put in your proposal
If you want one line to copy directly into a proposal today, use this:
This project includes two rounds of revisions per deliverable (one consolidated set of feedback per round). Additional revision rounds are billed at $150 each. Requests that go beyond minor adjustments — new pages, restructured navigation, or a different design direction — are scoped and priced separately.
Place it directly under the price line or the deliverables list, not buried in a terms section at the end, so the client reads it at the same moment they read the number they're agreeing to.
Checklist before you send the proposal
- Is the revision count written as a number (e.g., "two rounds"), not a phrase like "reasonable revisions"?
- Is "one round" defined as one consolidated set of feedback, not one revision per comment?
- Is the cost of additional rounds stated in the same document, with a dollar amount or hourly rate?
- Is there a clause distinguishing a revision from a scope change (new pages, new direction)?
- For redesigns and larger builds, have you split the round count across phases rather than offering one blanket number for the whole project?
Writing this from scratch for every new lead is where most freelancers either skip it or get it vague. The scope of work template in The Web Design Proposal Kit spells out revision rounds for you, alongside the rest of what belongs in a scope of work — so the revision limit ships with every proposal by default, instead of being the clause you forget to write until the third "just one more thing" request arrives.