You should see the fix list before you see the price. If a studio cannot show you what is wrong with your site before it quotes, it is pricing its own uncertainty, and you are paying for it.
The number
On a site in build in September 2026, one read-only audit ranked every issue blocker, should-fix or polish. The fix pass that followed took the accessibility scan from 205 issues to 34.
One missing landmark accounted for 169 of the 205, which is the point: most of what looks like a long list is a short list with one thing repeated.
How it was built
Read before you price
The audit runs on the live site before any number is quoted: accessibility, performance, responsive, links and search, each issue ranked by severity. The client sees the list.
The list is the scope
A Site Reset buys the most severe fixes that fit in ten working days, and the audit shows where the cut line falls before the price does. The rest is sized in hours, into the retainer.
Branch, staging, publish
Every fix is made on a copy of the site, checked on a staging link, and published when you approve it. Then we read the live site back, because on one eleven-publish day the last read-back caught a style that never shipped.
Then it cannot drift back
Your colors and type are rebuilt as Brand Rules inside the site, with a Styleguide page that shows them in use and a page of the mistakes this particular site has made before. Then Maintain if you take it, with the first month free, and we stay on.
What it means for you
Ask for the audit before the quote. If the answer is a discovery fee, the studio is charging you to find out what it is selling. A reset here is from $6,500, ten working days, and you see the list first.
Showing the diagnosis gives some of it away. That is the trade for letting you see the work before you pay for it.