Free quote maker: create a professional quote online
You don't need paid software to send a quote that looks professional and gets signed. Here are the free options, what each is good at, and how to make your first quote in ten minutes.
You can make a professional quote online for free in three ways: fill in a quote template in Word or Google Docs, use the free tier of an invoicing app, or use a free quote maker such as Offinal, which turns your quote into an interactive page your client can approve and sign online. Templates are fine for the occasional quote; a quote maker saves time as soon as you send more than a few a month, because prices, products and client details are reused instead of retyped.
Below we cover what a quote needs to contain, compare the free options honestly, and walk through making a first quote in about ten minutes.
What a professional quote needs
Whatever tool you use, a quote that clients take seriously has the same building blocks:
- Your business details: name, address, VAT or company number, contact person.
- Client details and a quote number and date, so you can both refer to it later.
- Line items with a clear description, quantity, unit price and total, so the client sees what they pay for.
- VAT shown separately, with the total excluding and including VAT.
- Validity: how long the price holds (often 30 days; see how long a quote should be valid).
- Terms: payment terms, delivery date or timeline, and what happens with extra work.
- A way to accept: a signature line, or better, an online approve-and-sign button.
Our quote checklist goes through each of these in detail. The point here: a free tool is good enough as long as it covers all seven without you having to fight it.
The free options compared
| Option | Cost | Good for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Word or Google Docs template | Free | One-off quotes, full control over layout | Retyping prices and totals by hand, calculation errors, no idea if the client opened it |
| Excel or Google Sheets | Free | Quotes with many line items and formulas | Looks like a spreadsheet unless you invest in formatting; still a static file |
| Free tier of an invoicing app | Free with limits | Businesses that mainly need invoices and occasionally a quote | Limits on clients or documents, quotes are basic, upgrades push you to a paid plan |
| Offinal | Free during early access | Sending quotes clients can configure, comment on and sign online | Focused on quotes: no invoicing or accounting |
A template costs nothing but your time, and that is exactly where it gets expensive: every quote means copying the last one, changing the client, recalculating totals and exporting a PDF. Invoicing apps solve the retyping, but their quotes are usually a variation of an invoice: a static PDF. If you want to see how the paid tools compare too, read our overview of the best quoting software.
Why an interactive quote beats a PDF
Most free quote makers end with a PDF attachment. That works, but it leaves the client to read, compare and reply by email. An interactive quote is a web page: the client opens a link, chooses between packages or options, sees the total update, asks a question next to a line and approves with an electronic signature. You see when it is opened, and you get an email when it is signed.
Choose your package
Choose oneAdd-ons
OptionalThat matters because the slow part of quoting is rarely writing it. It's the back-and-forth afterwards. We wrote more about that in why PDF quotes lose deals.
Make your first quote in 10 minutes
- 1Create a free account at offinal.com. No credit card is needed.
- 2Add your company: name, address, VAT number and logo. This appears on every quote.
- 3Add your products or services with a price, or add them while writing the quote. They're saved for next time.
- 4Create the quote: pick the client, add line items, and group them into sections. Make a section optional or let the client choose one of several packages.
- 5Set the validity and terms, and preview the quote as your client will see it.
- 6Send the link by email from Offinal or copy it into your own email or chat. You'll see when it's opened.
- 7Get it signed: the client approves with an electronic signature, and both of you can download the signed quote as a PDF.
Try it on your next quote
Start from an example for your kind of work and send it today. No credit card needed.
Get startedIs a free quote maker good enough for a real business?
For quoting, yes. What you need from a quote tool is accuracy, a professional look, and a clear way for the client to say yes. A signed online quote is just as valid as a signed PDF; see is a quote legally binding and our guide to electronic signatures on quotes in the EU.
Where free tools stop is everything after the yes: invoicing, bookkeeping, project planning. If you need those in one system, an all-in-one platform may suit you better; we compare a few in Teamleader alternatives. If quoting is your bottleneck, a dedicated quote maker is the simpler choice.
