The honest answer to ‘how much does a website cost in India?’ is ‘it depends what the website has to do’. Publicly quoted prices run from a few thousand rupees for a template to several lakh for a custom ecommerce build. The useful question is not the price. It is what you are paying to be able to do afterwards.
For reference, our own website and UI/UX projects start at ₹60,000 and exclude GST. That is a starting point, not a quote. The rest of this guide shows you how to work out where your own project sits.
The three kinds of website, and what each tends to cost
Price guides are mostly vendor blogs and the figures vary a lot, so treat these bands as the commonly quoted ranges, not as a rate card.
- A brochure site: a handful of pages that say who you are and how to reach you. Commonly quoted from about ₹5,000 for a template build up to roughly ₹80,000 for a custom-designed small business site.
- A lead-generation site: built around one job, which is getting a stranger to enquire, with structured pages, speed work, tracking and content. Typically a lot more than a brochure, because strategy, copy and testing enter the work.
- An ecommerce site: catalogue, cart, payments, shipping, returns and integrations. Commonly quoted from around ₹1 lakh to ₹4 lakh and beyond when an agency builds it.
The jump between the first two bands is rarely design. It is whether anyone is accountable for the site producing enquiries.
What actually drives the price
- Number and type of pages, and how many unique layouts they need.
- Template or custom: starting from a theme is faster and cheaper, but you inherit its limits and its weight.
- Content: who writes the words, who shoots the photographs, who handles translation if the site needs Hindi and English.
- Functionality: bookings, payments, search, member areas, integrations with accounting or a CRM.
- Speed, accessibility and search setup: invisible when done well, expensive to retrofit.
- Who does the work and how many rounds of feedback are planned.
Costs people forget
The build fee is one line in a larger budget.
- Domain: commonly quoted at roughly ₹500 to ₹1,500 a year.
- Hosting: free on some modern platforms for small sites, paid for the rest. Ask what is included and where the site is hosted.
- Maintenance and updates: commonly quoted retainers run from about ₹5,000 to ₹20,000 a month, depending on how much support you want. Some sites need very little.
- Content and photography: often the biggest overrun. A site full of stock images and placeholder copy will look like everyone else's.
- Tools and licences: paid plugins, forms, analytics, email.
- Your time: someone on your side must approve things and supply content promptly. Delays here cost more than any line item.
Why speed and mobile cost something
Most visitors arrive on a phone, often a mid-range one on an uneven connection. Search engines publish thresholds for what counts as a good experience: the largest element should load within about 2.5 seconds, the page should respond to a tap within about 200 milliseconds, and the layout should not jump around while loading. Meeting those numbers on a real phone takes deliberate work: lighter images, less script, careful fonts and a structure that does not fight the browser. A theme with twenty plugins rarely gets there by accident.
This is the quiet reason a custom build can cost more than a template and still be cheaper to own. A faster site turns more of your existing traffic into enquiries and ranks better, and neither shows up on the invoice.
Where projects overrun, and how to avoid it
- Content arrives late. The site is designed around words and photographs that do not exist yet. Decide who writes and shoots before design starts.
- Scope creeps by small favours. Each ‘can we just add’ is cheap. Fifteen of them are a second project. Agree how changes are priced.
- Too many decision makers. Five people reviewing every screen doubles the rounds. Name one person who can say yes.
- Late discovery of integrations. Payments, a CRM or accounting software can change the build. List them up front.
- No plan for the old site. Redirects, page titles and existing rankings need care, or a redesign can lose traffic you already earn.
A sensible way to set the budget
Work backwards from what a website should return. If an enquiry is worth a few thousand rupees to you and the site should bring a handful each month, you can see what the build should be allowed to cost, and what ongoing care is worth. If you cannot estimate what an enquiry is worth, start there before you ask for quotes.
- Decide the job: enquiries, bookings, sales, hiring or credibility.
- Estimate the value of one successful outcome.
- Set a range for the build, then a separate line for content, photography, tools and care.
- Ask each agency to price the same list of pages and features, so quotes compare like with like.
Template or custom?
A template is a good choice when you need to be online next week, your message is simple and your competitors are not winning on their sites. Custom pays off when the website is where customers decide, and when speed, search visibility or a distinct feel matter. Be wary of ‘custom’ that is a template with your logo on it.
Hosting, domain and who holds the keys
Three accounts decide whether you really own your site: the domain registration, the hosting account and the website’s admin login. Each should be in your name or your company’s name, with the agency added as a user. If an agency registers your domain in its own name, you can end up negotiating to get your own address back later. Ask for the three logins at handover, and keep them in a password manager the business controls.
Also ask about backups and who restores the site if something breaks. For a small business site this can be a simple routine, but it should exist and have an owner.
Search visibility is part of the build, not an add-on
A site that cannot be found is an expensive brochure. The basics are inexpensive when done during the build and tedious to retrofit: clear page titles and descriptions, a sensible page structure, fast loading, mobile-friendly layouts, a sitemap, redirects from any old addresses and a place for your address and contact details that search engines can read. Ask each agency which of these are included, and who will check them after launch.
How long it should take
Simple sites can go live in a few weeks. Custom builds usually run longer, because structure, design, build, content and testing each need time. Our indicative window for website projects is on the pricing page, and it assumes you supply content and feedback on schedule.
How to brief an agency so quotes are comparable
A vague brief gets vague quotes. A page of clear answers gets comparable ones.
- Goal: what must the site make happen? Enquiries, bookings, sales, hiring?
- Audience: who is visiting, on which device, in which language?
- Pages and features: a list, even a rough one.
- What exists already: current site, brand, photographs, copy.
- Examples you like and dislike, with a reason for each.
- Timeline and budget range. Giving a range helps you receive realistic options.
What to ask before you sign
- Who owns the site, the design files and the content when it is finished? You should.
- Where is it hosted, and can you take it elsewhere?
- Will it work well on a mid-range phone? Ask to see a similar site on one.
- How is speed measured, and what is the target?
- Is search setup included: page titles, structure, redirects from the old site?
- What happens after launch: a fixed support window, a maintenance option, or nothing?
- How are changes to scope handled, and in writing?
Taxes: for services supplied to clients in India, web design and development is generally charged GST at the standard 18% on top of the fee. Our published starting points exclude taxes, so confirm the figure on your own invoice.
If you want a range for your own project, try the website cost calculator. See where projects start on pricing, read how we build on the web design service page, or look at a website design company in Jaipur built for customers on phones. If you are not sure the site is the real problem, our free brand audit is a good first step.
