How Much Does a Website Cost in India in 2026? (Complete Breakdown)

The honest answer before we begin

A website in India in 2026 can cost anywhere from Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 15,00,000 or more. That range sounds absurd, but it is accurate. The cost is driven by what you actually need, who builds it, and whether you prioritise short-term savings or long-term value. This guide breaks all of it down so you can make an informed decision.

If you have searched for website development costs in India recently, you already know how confusing it gets. One agency quotes you Rs. 8,000. Another quotes Rs. 80,000 for what sounds like the same thing. A third sends a proposal for Rs. 3,50,000 and you have no idea what you are paying for.

The confusion is not accidental. The web development industry in India has no standardised pricing, and the gap between a cheap website and a good website is massive. Understanding what drives cost is the only way to protect yourself from overpaying for very little or underpaying and regretting it six months later.

This guide will walk you through every tier of website pricing in India in 2026, what you get at each level, where developers cut corners when budgets are tight, and the hidden costs that nobody tells you about upfront. By the end, you will know exactly what to expect when you sit down with an agency or freelancer.

Why Website Costs Vary So Dramatically in India

Before we get into numbers, it helps to understand why two agencies can quote wildly different prices for what looks like the same project. The variation comes down to a handful of factors that are almost never explained clearly to clients.

The first factor is who is building it. India has a huge range of web developers, from college students doing freelance work on the side to senior developers with ten years of experience to boutique agencies with dedicated project managers, designers, and developers working in teams. A student charging Rs. 5,000 for a website is not the same product as an agency charging Rs. 1,50,000, even if both deliver something that looks similar in a screenshot.

The second factor is the technology stack. A website built on a drag-and-drop builder like Wix or Squarespace takes far less time to put together than a custom WordPress site, which itself takes far less time than a fully custom-coded web application. Each step up in technical complexity adds cost, but also adds flexibility, performance, and longevity.

The third factor is scope. A five-page brochure website is completely different from a 50-product e-commerce store, which is completely different from a membership platform with user accounts, payment gateways, and a content library. Many clients come in with a vague idea of what they want, and the final scope ends up being very different from what was initially discussed. Costs change accordingly.

The fourth factor is ongoing maintenance. A lot of cheap quotes you see in India cover only the initial build. They do not include hosting, domain registration, SSL certificates, security updates, plugin renewals, or content updates. These costs add up significantly in year two and beyond, making that cheap initial quote far more expensive over time.

The Real Cost Tiers of Website Development in India in 2026

Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 20,000: The Budget Tier

At this price point, you are almost always working with a freelance student or someone very early in their career. The website will typically be built on a template-based system, require minimal customisation, and come with very little in the way of ongoing support. For a simple personal portfolio or a very basic online presence for a local business, this tier can work.

What you need to understand about this range is that the low cost reflects low time investment, not necessarily low effort. A developer at this price point is moving fast to make the economics work for them. You will likely get a template with your logo and text swapped in, maybe a contact form, and a site that looks fine but performs poorly on mobile, loads slowly, and has no real SEO foundation.

There is also a reliability concern. Developers at this level often have no formal process. Timelines slip. Communication drops off. If something breaks after handover, you may find the person is unavailable or has moved on entirely. This is not a criticism of every budget developer in India, but it is a consistent pattern that clients in this tier encounter frequently.

If your budget genuinely cannot go above Rs. 20,000 right now, set realistic expectations. A website at this price is a starting point, not a finished business asset.

Rs. 20,000 to Rs. 60,000: The Small Business Tier

This is the most common range for small business websites in India in 2026, and it is where you start to see genuine professional work. At this level, you can expect a properly built WordPress website with a theme customised to your brand, good mobile responsiveness, basic on-page SEO, a contact form, a Google Maps integration, and a clean, professional layout.

Freelancers with two to five years of experience and small agencies typically operate in this space. The quality varies considerably, but you have enough budget to ask for revisions, expect a proper handover, and get some level of ongoing communication. Projects at this level usually take three to six weeks to complete.

What you will not typically get at this price point is a custom design built from scratch. You are working with premium themes or page builders like Elementor or Bricks Builder, which are genuinely excellent tools but still template-driven at their core. You will also not get deep technical work like custom plugin development, complex integrations, or performance optimisation beyond the basics.

For a restaurant, a local service business, a professional consultant, or a small retailer looking to establish an online presence, this tier delivers real value when you find the right developer.

Rs. 60,000 to Rs. 2,00,000: The Professional Tier

This is where serious business websites live. At this price point, you are getting a properly scoped project with a dedicated designer, thoughtful UX, a custom design either built from scratch or heavily customised from a premium base, technical SEO setup, page speed optimisation, security configuration, proper hosting recommendations, and a structured handover with documentation.

Agencies operating at this level typically have a process. You will go through a discovery phase, receive a formal proposal, work through design mockups before any development begins, and have a testing phase before the site goes live. Timelines are clearer, communication is more structured, and there is accountability built into the relationship.

E-commerce websites for small to medium businesses fall comfortably in this range. A WooCommerce store with twenty to one hundred products, a proper checkout flow, payment gateway integration with Razorpay or PayU, and inventory management will typically sit between Rs. 80,000 and Rs. 1,80,000 depending on the agency and the complexity of the requirements.

This is also the tier where you start getting proper post-launch support. A good agency at this price point will offer a maintenance package, help you understand how to update your own content, and be reachable when something needs attention.

Rs. 2,00,000 to Rs. 8,00,000: The Advanced Business Tier

At this level, the conversation shifts from building a website to building a digital platform. You are looking at large e-commerce operations, membership sites, multi-vendor marketplaces, custom booking and scheduling systems, portal development, or websites that integrate deeply with third-party business software like CRMs, ERPs, or inventory management systems.

Custom plugin and module development is standard at this price point. The team working on your project will include a project manager, one or more developers, a UI/UX designer, and often a QA specialist. The development cycle is longer, typically two to four months, and the process is significantly more rigorous.

Businesses choosing this tier are usually those for whom the website is a core revenue channel, not just a digital brochure. A travel booking platform, an online learning portal, a B2B procurement system, a real estate listing portal with advanced search and filters, or a healthcare appointment system would all fall in this range.

Rs. 8,00,000 and Above: The Enterprise Tier

Enterprise web projects are scoped entirely differently from everything below them. Pricing at this level is based on detailed requirements documents, estimated hours, team composition, and sometimes dedicated project timelines spanning six months to over a year. You are building complex, scalable systems that often require server architecture decisions, security audits, custom API development, and integration with multiple internal business systems.

If you are at this tier, you almost certainly know it already. You are not Googling website costs. You have an internal IT team or a procurement process. We include it here simply for completeness.

What Specifically Drives Cost Up Within Each Tier

Understanding the tiers is useful, but understanding what moves you from the low end of a tier to the high end is where things get practical. Here are the most common cost drivers that clients either forget to factor in or discover only after a project has started.

Design: Custom vs Template

A fully custom design built by a UI/UX designer, taken from wireframe to high-fidelity mockup before any development begins, adds significant cost to any project. For most small businesses, this is not necessary. Premium WordPress themes and page builders in 2026 are genuinely excellent, and a skilled developer can make them look completely unique without charging for a ground-up design process.

Where custom design becomes worth the investment is when your brand has very specific visual requirements, when you are in a competitive industry where differentiation matters, or when the user experience of the site is itself a core part of your product. For everyone else, a well-customised premium theme delivers 90% of the value at a fraction of the cost.

Number of Pages and Sections

This sounds obvious but it is frequently underestimated. Every additional page, every additional section within a page, every additional content type adds development time. A ten-page website with a blog, a portfolio, a testimonials section, a team page, and a multi-step contact form is a very different project from a five-page brochure site even if both are described as small business websites.

Before you approach any developer or agency, write down exactly what pages you need and what each one needs to contain. A clear brief almost always results in a more accurate quote and fewer surprises later.

E-commerce Complexity

An e-commerce website has layers of complexity that go far beyond the product listing pages. Payment gateway integration, particularly in India, requires compliance with RBI guidelines and testing across multiple scenarios. Shipping integrations with partners like Shiprocket or Delhivery add development time. GST-compliant invoicing systems, inventory management, return and refund workflows, abandoned cart recovery, coupon systems, and customer account management all add to the scope.

A basic WooCommerce store with ten products and a Razorpay checkout might cost Rs. 60,000. The same store with one hundred products, multiple variants, automated invoicing, shipping integrations, and a custom loyalty programme might cost Rs. 2,50,000 or more. Both are technically e-commerce websites.

Multilingual and Regional Requirements

If your business operates across India and needs content in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, or any other regional language alongside English, this adds meaningful development work. Proper multilingual implementation requires a plugin like WPML or Polylang, translated content management, hreflang tag implementation for SEO, and testing across all language versions. Budget at least Rs. 20,000 to Rs. 50,000 extra for a properly implemented multilingual setup.

Third-Party Integrations

Every external tool you want your website to talk to adds development time. CRM integrations with tools like Zoho or HubSpot, email marketing connections with Mailchimp or Brevo, WhatsApp business API integration, Google Analytics 4 and Search Console setup, Facebook Pixel and conversion tracking, live chat systems, appointment booking tools, all of these are real development tasks that take time and cost money. A surprising number of cheap website quotes simply exclude all of these.

The Hidden Costs Nobody Talks About

This is where most website buyers get caught off guard
The upfront development cost is only part of what you will spend on your website. The ongoing costs over three to five years often exceed the initial build cost, particularly when you choose budget options that lock you into expensive recurring fees.

Domain registration in India costs between Rs. 700 and Rs. 1,500 per year for a .com or .in domain. This is a fixed cost regardless of who builds your site, and it renews every year.

Hosting is where the range gets wide. Shared hosting on Indian providers like Hostinger India or BigRock starts around Rs. 2,500 per year but delivers poor performance for anything beyond a basic brochure site. Managed WordPress hosting that actually delivers good speed and reliability starts at around Rs. 8,000 to Rs. 15,000 per year. For a properly performing e-commerce site, expect to spend Rs. 20,000 to Rs. 60,000 per year on hosting. Budget quotes almost always assume the cheapest shared hosting, which is a false economy.

SSL certificates, which are essential for any website in 2026 and affect both Google rankings and customer trust, are often included with good hosting but can cost Rs. 3,000 to Rs. 10,000 per year separately if not.

Premium plugins are another area where costs accumulate invisibly. Page builders, SEO plugins, security plugins, backup plugins, form builders, and e-commerce add-ons all have annual renewal fees. A well-equipped WordPress site might have Rs. 15,000 to Rs. 30,000 worth of annual plugin renewals that a cheap quote will either ignore or substitute with free alternatives that underdeliver.

Content, meaning the actual text, photography, and video on your website, is almost always excluded from development quotes entirely. Professional photography for a business website in India costs Rs. 8,000 to Rs. 30,000. Copywriting for ten to fifteen pages of professional website content costs Rs. 15,000 to Rs. 40,000. If you plan to write your own content or use stock photos, this reduces your cost but also reduces the quality of the finished product in ways that directly affect how visitors perceive your business.

Maintenance is the cost that clients most consistently underestimate. WordPress requires regular updates to its core, its themes, and its plugins. These are not optional, they are security necessities. A maintenance plan from a good agency costs Rs. 3,000 to Rs. 10,000 per month and covers updates, security monitoring, uptime monitoring, and minor fixes. Without this, you are either doing it yourself or leaving your site vulnerable.

Freelancer vs Agency in India: Which Should You Choose?

This question comes up in every client conversation we have, and the honest answer is that it depends on what you need and how much project management you are willing to do yourself.

A skilled freelancer in India can deliver excellent work at a lower price than an agency because they have lower overheads. If you find someone with a strong portfolio, good references, and clear communication, a freelancer is a perfectly reasonable choice for a straightforward business website. The risk is that if something goes wrong, if they get busy, if they fall ill, if they simply disappear, you have very little recourse. There is no team to step in.

An agency brings structure, accountability, and breadth. You have a project manager handling communication, a designer focused on visuals, a developer focused on code, and often a QA person checking everything before it goes live. If one person is unavailable, the project continues. Agencies also tend to have more formal processes around contracts, revisions, and handovers, which protects you as a client.

The practical guidance is this: for websites under Rs. 40,000, a freelancer is usually the right choice because agencies at that price point are cutting corners just as much as freelancers, with more overhead built in. For websites above Rs. 60,000, particularly if the site is a core business tool rather than a digital brochure, working with an agency that has a clear process and a portfolio you can verify is worth the additional investment.

What to Ask Before You Sign Any Agreement

The questions you ask before committing to a developer or agency are the difference between a smooth project and a frustrating one. These are the questions we recommend every business owner ask before signing anything.

Ask whether the quote includes hosting, domain, and SSL, or whether those are separate. Ask what happens if you need changes after the site goes live and whether revisions are included or billed hourly. Ask who owns the website files and database when the project is complete, because some cheap providers build sites in a way that makes it difficult or impossible to move elsewhere. Ask what the timeline is and what milestones exist for payments and deliverables. Ask whether any premium plugins or themes are included in the cost and whether their renewal fees are part of your ongoing commitment. Ask whether SEO setup is included and what specifically that covers.

If a developer or agency cannot answer these questions clearly and in writing, that tells you something important about how the rest of the project will go.

What a Good Website Actually Delivers for Your Business

It is easy to get lost in cost discussions and forget why you are building a website in the first place. A website is not an expense, it is an asset. A well-built website generates leads, builds credibility, ranks on Google, converts visitors into customers, and represents your business twenty-four hours a day. A poorly built website does the opposite. It drives visitors away, fails to rank for anything, and often costs more to fix than it did to build incorrectly in the first place.

The businesses we work with at Inspired Monks that see the best results are those that treat their website as an investment rather than a purchase. They budget appropriately, they brief their developer thoroughly, they invest in good content, they choose reliable hosting, and they maintain the site properly after launch. Their websites work for years and generate meaningful returns.

The businesses that struggle are those that chose the cheapest option, got a site that looked acceptable at launch but underperformed technically, and then spent the next two years trying to patch things or eventually rebuilding from scratch. The savings at the beginning became significant costs later.

Frequently Asked Questions

Inspired Monks is a WordPress and custom web development agency helping businesses across India build websites that perform, convert, and grow. We have delivered 50+ projects across cybersecurity, interior design, manufacturing, retail, and more.

Written by the Inspired Monks Team