Will a responsive design website look exactly the same on all browsers?
No, the page elements are resized and usually stacked vertically for narrow screens so users can simply scroll down to access all contents. Tables may reformat and present differently. The main menu is typically made available through a drop-down link.
Is responsive design more expensive?
Yes a responsive design website template is far more complex to design and setup than a conventional fixed size design - there is a substantial amount of extra setup and coding involved and that adds up to time - often a lot of time depending on the complexity of the website.
As a rule of thumb it is usually faster and easier to build a responsive website completely from scratch, rather than to try to adapt an existing one where content and functions which may not be compatible have been added over several years and possibly by different contributors or designers. Reverse engineering such sites often takes much longer to achieve than a fresh start.
Should you be considering responsive design for your website?
That will really depend on a number of factors - what type of website, what type of user, how complex, how old is the current website, etc. and on your perception of how important the mobile browser users are likely to be for your website offering. As an example, if a high percentage of your users/customers are in younger age groups, then the likelyhood that they will be using handheld devices will be higher than if your target audience is corporate and the website is aimed at businesses who are more likely to be browsing from desktops.
Some statistics now indicate that over 50% of all browsing is conducted from mobile devices and Google now require that websites are responsive before returning them on searches conducted from handheld devices. Most companies and commercial websites are now designed to be responsive and we strongly recommend updating if your website is not responsive already.