The short answer
Because schools divide the same service up differently: a low basic fee can come with a higher price per lesson, and the other way round. What matters is the sum across the number of lessons you really need — and that depends more on the quality of teaching than on the price tag.
Two driving schools with the same offer can differ noticeably in the final bill without either being dishonest. The reason is how they split their prices.
The trade between basic fee and lesson price
The basic fee covers registration, administration and all the theory classes. A school that sets it low has to recover it somewhere else — usually in the lesson price. A school that sets it higher can keep lessons cheaper. Both are legitimate, but the two offers are only comparable once you assume a number of lessons.
What actually matters when comparing
- Is every item shown separately, or does something disappear into a flat rate?
- Do special drives and the test drive have their own rates?
- Are there fees for things that are included elsewhere — materials, registration, re-registration?
- What happens if a test has to be retaken?
- How often does theory run, and does repeating a topic cost extra?
The item that outweighs the rest
The number of driving lessons. A few lessons' difference weighs more than any gap in the lesson price — and how many you need depends on how good the lessons are and how regularly you drive. A school that sends you to the test too early is the most expensive in the end, because the test fee, the entry fee and extra practice lessons all fall due again.
The awkward question
Ask a driving school how it decides when you are entered for the test. Anyone with no answer beyond “when you want to be” has no stake in you passing first time.
What comparison sites do not show
How often theory runs and whether the times fit your life. How quickly you can get a lesson. Whether somebody tells you honestly after each one where you stand. Whether you can reach anybody when something goes wrong. None of that appears in a table, and all of it decides how long you take.
Our items are listed individually on the prices page, and the theory dates are in the timetable. If something stays unclear while you compare, ask — including the others.