If you run a service business — catering, landscaping, photography, entertainment, embroidery, whatever it is — the way you handle quote requests is probably costing you sales. Not because your prices are wrong, but because the request-to-quote process is broken.
We see it constantly. A potential client visits your website, clicks the Contact Us button, types “Hi, can I get a quote?” and hits send. Now you email back asking for details. They reply two days later with half the info. You email again. They ghost you for a week. By the time you finally send a proper quote, they’ve booked someone else who was quicker off the mark.
After building websites for more than 300 businesses since 2009, we got tired of watching our clients lose deals to slow, clunky quoting workflows. So we did something about it — through Rixden, our sister company that builds WordPress plugins. The result is a plugin we now install on almost every service business website we create.
Why the usual “solutions” don’t cut it
Before Rixden Quote Builder existed, we tried everything.
Contact forms are too vague. Clients don’t know what to ask for, and you get a flood of “just checking pricing” emails that go nowhere.
WooCommerce is massive overkill for a service business. It forces your business into a retail cart mindset — customers add products, checkout, pay. That’s not how a landscaping quote or a wedding catering enquiry works. You end up disabling half the features and still have a bloated site with 30+ extra database tables.
Fancy CRMs like HoneyBook or Dubsado are great — but they cost R2,500 – R5,000 per month, take weeks to set up, and pull your customer away from your website to a third-party portal.
Custom-coded quote forms work, sort of, but every time you add a new service or change pricing, you’re back to the developer. And they still look like a form from 2015.
None of these actually solve the real problem: the client wants to build their own quote instantly, on your site, and get a professional response back the same day.
Enter Rixden Quote Builder
Rixden Quote Builder is the plugin our sister company Rixden developed specifically to solve this problem — after we spent years fielding the same frustration from our web design clients. It turns your website into a visual quote builder — think of it like an ordering experience for services.
Your clients browse your services (with photos and descriptions), select what they want, adjust quantities, add event or job details, and submit the request. You get an email notification within seconds. The request shows up in a dashboard on your WordPress admin, fully itemised, ready to review.
If you’re on the Pro version, you can then click Edit & Send Official Quote, tweak the pricing if needed, add discounts or a message, and send the client a branded PDF quote. They accept or decline online. Payment gets marked. An invoice generates automatically. Done.
The whole point is to compress a two-week back-and-forth into a same-day response.
Here’s what makes it different:
It looks good out of the box. No wrestling with theme conflicts or clunky forms. The interface is modern, mobile-friendly, and works with every WordPress theme we’ve tested it on.
No WooCommerce required. It’s a standalone plugin, so your site stays lightweight.
It works for any service niche. It’s already being used by catering businesses, entertainment bookings, embroidery studios, and it works equally well for landscapers, photographers, moving companies, solar installers, and salons. If you sell services with variable quantities or scope, it fits.
Free version does the basics. Categories, products, quote requests, admin dashboard, email notifications. Enough for most small businesses to get started with zero cost.
Pro adds the full quote-to-paid workflow. Branded PDF quotes, online acceptance, automated follow-up reminders, invoice generation, and email customisation.
Features that actually matter
A few things we’re particularly impressed with in the plugin:
- Category shortcodes for SEO landing pages. Want a dedicated page for wedding catering, another for corporate lunches? Use
Request a Quote
Browse our services and build your quote
- Variable pricing for products where price depends on demand. Entertainers charge more on public holidays. Photographers charge based on package. Toggle “Variable Pricing” and display POA, Varies, or Contact for quote instead of a fixed number.
- Fully translatable. Every customer-facing string works with Loco Translate. Paying customers are already running the plugin in Dutch, Afrikaans, and English.
- Custom form fields. Ask for the event date, delivery address, dietary requirements, whatever your business needs.
- Follow-up reminders. Automated emails go out if a client hasn’t accepted after X days. No more manually chasing quotes.
Real businesses using it
An entertainment booking company in the US uses it with the category shortcode on separate pages for face painters, magicians, and DJs — each page ranks for its own search term.
An embroidery studio in the Netherlands migrated their entire quoting workflow off spreadsheets and email to Rixden Quote Builder. They now send professional PDF quotes in under 30 seconds.
For our own web design clients, we’ve been installing it on catering sites, event management sites, and service-based small businesses across South Africa. The most common feedback: “I’m actually closing more quotes because I’m responding faster.”
Pricing
The free version is live on the WordPress.org plugin directory. Install it in two clicks, no signup needed.
The Pro version starts at $79/year (roughly R1,450) for a single site, or $229 (roughly R4,200) once-off for a lifetime licence. If you compare that to R5,000/month for HoneyBook, or the developer hours of custom-coding a quote form, it’s an easy call.
If you want to see it in action before installing anything, there’s a live demo running here — click around, add items, submit a test quote, break it if you can.
Should you use it?
If you build websites for service businesses, or you are a service business owner, and you’re using anything other than a purpose-built quote system — try it. Even the free version will probably outperform whatever you have now.
Rixden built it because we — as their sister web design agency — needed it for our own client work. It’s now being used by service businesses across three continents.
You can grab it here:
- Free version on WordPress.org: wordpress.org/plugins/rixden-quote-builder
- Pro version + full features: rixden.com/quote-builder
- Live demo (no signup): rixden.com/quote-builder-demo
- More about Rixden: rixden.com
Questions or want to see it in action on a client project? Get in touch and we’ll walk you through it.