Two prices only mean something when you know what each person plans to deliver. One quote might cover a working screen and its happy path. Another might include tests, existing-data migration, deployment, and support for failure cases. The first is not necessarily a bad deal. It is a different deal.
Compare the work, not just the total
Read each quote and look for the details that often disappear from a feature description:
• What happens when a user enters incomplete or unexpected data?
• Does the work include tests for the business rules?
• Who sets up the production environment and deploys the code?
• Is existing data being moved? Who checks that it arrived correctly?
• Who owns the source code, hosting accounts, and domain?
• What documentation or handover is included?
If a quote does not mention one of these, ask whether it is included, excluded, or simply not decided yet. The answer matters more than guessing from the price.
Work out who is carrying the risk
When testing, deployment, or handover is left out, the work does not vanish. Someone has to do it later. That might be you, the next developer, or the person who quoted the work at an additional cost.
Write down what “done” means for the first release. It can be a small release, but say whether it is a demo, an internal test, or something users can depend on. Then compare the quotes against that same definition.
The cheapest quote can still be the right choice. You can tell more confidently once you know what it covers and what you will need to fund next.