Last Updated on October 23, 2026
An agency quote tells you the price. It rarely tells you the terms, and the terms are where the money goes. When Whito read 39 UK agency pricing pages in September 2026, 19 did not say when and how you can leave. This checker does two things: compares the quoted monthly price with published UK bands, and scans the quote text for the seven contract terms that cost people most when they go unmentioned.
Paste with confidence: the text never leaves your browser. It is not uploaded, stored or sent to Whito or anyone else.
The checker needs JavaScript. The seven terms it scans for are listed below; checking them by eye works too.
The silent-terms check
The silent-terms check looks for seven contract terms being mentioned at all: notice period, minimum term, setup fee, ownership, ad spend, reporting and price reviews. A quote is not wrong for staying silent, but you are agreeing to whatever the unmentioned term turns out to be, and you find out what that is when you try to leave.
The seven, and why each one matters:
| Term | The question it answers |
|---|---|
| Notice period | How do you leave, and how long does leaving take? |
| Minimum term | How many months are you committed to before notice even starts? |
| Setup fee | Is month one really month one’s price? |
| Ownership | If you leave, who keeps the ad accounts, the domain and the work? |
| Ad spend | Is media budget inside the fee or on top, and who pays the platform? |
| Reporting | What will you actually see each month? |
| Price reviews | Can the fee rise mid-relationship, and by what rule? |
How the price comparison works
The quoted price is placed against the published band for that service in the Whito UK Marketing Cost Index: the middle 60% of prices found for UK providers, excluding VAT, last verified 5 October 2026. Below the band usually means a smaller scope than you think. Above it is not wrong, but the quote should say what the extra buys.
Who this is for
Any UK business holding a quote and a pen. It is a pre-signature check, not legal advice. For the market-wide picture of what agencies leave unsaid, read the fees UK agencies do not quote.
Questions people ask
Is my quote uploaded or stored?
No. The scan runs in your browser on the text you paste. Nothing is sent to Whito or any third party, and nothing is kept when you close the page.
What is the silent-terms check?
The silent-terms check looks for seven contract terms being mentioned at all: notice period, minimum term, setup fee, ownership, ad spend, reporting and price reviews. Missing terms are the ones to ask about before signing.
The checker says a term is mentioned. Am I safe?
No. Mentioned is not the same as fair. The check confirms the term appears; read the excerpt and judge what it commits you to. In our study, two agencies that passed the leave-date test on their pricing page contradicted it in their own terms documents.
Can it read a PDF proposal?
Not directly. Copy the text out of the PDF and paste it. If the text cannot be copied, that is worth noticing too.
Is this legal advice?
No. For a contract you are unsure about, pay a solicitor for an hour before signing a year.
