Do you actually need an RFP?

When an RFP is worth it

The format exists to make competing offers comparable and the decision defensible. Both of those matter in specific circumstances and are pure overhead outside them.

• More than three suppliers are in genuine contention and you need like-for-like answers.
• Someone who is not you signs off, and the reasoning has to survive scrutiny later.
• Procurement rules require a documented process, as in public sector or regulated industries.
• The commitment is long enough that switching later would be genuinely painful.

What it costs you to run one

Writing a usable RFP takes a week or two of someone's attention. Answering questions, receiving proposals and evaluating them adds several more. During that time nothing is being built.

There is a second, less visible cost. Formal RFPs favour suppliers who have staff dedicated to answering them. Excellent independent engineers and two-person studios generally do not respond, because the effort-to-odds ratio is poor. You end up choosing from a pool selected for administrative capacity rather than engineering quality.

What replaces it for smaller work

For most projects a short brief works better. Two pages: what the business problem is, who uses the result, what it must connect to, what your constraints are on budget and timing, and how you will judge the answers.

Send it to three or four suppliers. Ask each for a written approach, a range rather than a fixed price, and the name of the person who would do the work. You will have comparable answers in a week rather than six.