Guide
How many quotes should you get?
Three, in most cases. Here is the reasoning, and the situations where that is the wrong answer.
Why three
One quote gives you a price with no context. Two gives you a difference but no way of knowing which one is the odd one out — if they are £2,000 apart, you cannot tell whether one is high or the other is low. Three gives you a shape: two clustered and one adrift tells you something useful about all three.
Three is also roughly where the effort curve turns. In categories that need a home visit or a site survey, each additional quote costs you an hour or two of your day, and the fourth rarely moves the decision.
When a fourth is worth it
Get more when the work is genuinely bespoke and the variation between suppliers is large: a curved stairlift, a custom website, a complex commercial insurance risk, a solar installation on an awkward roof. In these, quotes for the same job can differ by a factor of two or three, and an extra quote can still find real money.
Also get more when the first three came back suspiciously close together, or when none of them properly engaged with your brief.
When one is enough
Low-value, low-commitment purchases where the time cost of comparing exceeds the likely saving. A single 240 litre bin collection, a one-off shredding sack, a basic online will for a simple estate. If the total sum at stake is smaller than the value of the hours you would spend, take a reasonable quote and move on.
Also when there is genuinely only one supplier who serves you, which happens with rural waste collection and specialist equipment more often than you would expect.
Getting them at the same time
The number matters less than the timing. Quotes are only comparable when you have them all in front of you, so ask each supplier for a written quote with a stated validity period rather than deciding on the day.
In categories sold by home visit, this is the whole game. Book them within the same week, tell each one you are getting three, and decide afterwards with all three on the table.
Common questions
Should I go back to the first supplier with a better price?
You can, and in competitive categories they will often match it. Just be sure you are comparing the same specification, or you will get a matched price for less work.
Do comparison sites count as one quote or several?
Several, usually — the point of the enquiry is that it reaches more than one supplier. Check how many will contact you, because that determines whether you have covered your three in one form.
Ready to compare?
Every category we cover, what it costs, and which of our sites handles it.