Cost of Building a Website in India 2026 – A Real Breakdown
Search “how much does a website cost in India” and you get answers from “Rs.5,000” to “Rs.5,00,000” with no clarity on what changes between them. This post tells you honestly what each price gets you.
TL;DR
| Path | One-time | Year 1 total | Best for | |—|—|—|—| | DIY (Wix/Squarespace) | Rs.0 | Rs.10,000-15,000 | Trying things out | | DIY (WordPress) | Rs.0 | Rs.3,000-5,000 | Owners with 20 hours to spend | | Freelancer Starter | Rs.3,000-7,000 | Rs.4,000-8,000 | Single-page brochure | | Freelancer Standard | Rs.10,000-25,000 | Rs.12,000-30,000 | 5-10 page small business site | | Freelancer Pro / Small studio | Rs.30,000-1,00,000 | Rs.35,000-1,20,000 | E-commerce, custom features | | Agency | Rs.1,00,000-10,00,000+ | + 30% retainers | Mid-market and enterprise |
What’s included at each price
DIY (Wix / Squarespace) – Rs.10,000-15,000/year
- Drag-and-drop builder
- Hosted, SSL, CDN included
- Email support (slow)
- Limited SEO control
- Hard to migrate later
- Hidden cost: you get locked in. Moving away in year 2 means rebuilding.
DIY (WordPress) – Rs.3,000-5,000/year
- Domain (Rs.500) + Hosting (Rs.2,500) = Rs.3,000
- Free theme (GeneratePress, Astra)
- Free plugins (Rank Math, LiteSpeed Cache, Wordfence)
- ~20 hours of your time learning + building
- Total ownership of code and data
- Hidden cost: you’re the developer if anything breaks
Freelancer Starter – Rs.3,000-7,000
What you should expect:
- 1-3 page brochure site
- Mobile-responsive
- Contact form
- Google Maps embed
- No SEO (or very basic)
- 0-15 days of post-launch support
- What you should be careful of: developer disappears after launch; site uses pirated themes/plugins; no documentation
Freelancer Standard – Rs.10,000-25,000
What you should expect:
- 5-10 page site
- Custom design (or premium theme customized)
- WordPress with proper plugins
- On-page SEO basics
- Domain + 1 year hosting included
- 1-3 months of edits
- 1-hour training call
- Bdeb Technology’s “Business” plan sits here at Rs.6,999 – by being a lean one-person operation we can do it cheaper than most agencies but with better support than most freelancers.
Freelancer Pro / Small studio – Rs.30,000-1,00,000
What you should expect:
- E-commerce (WooCommerce or Shopify)
- Payment gateway integration (Razorpay/Cashfree)
- Multi-language or multi-currency if needed
- Custom plugins for unusual requirements
- 6-12 months of support
- SEO content for the first 5-10 keywords
- A small team (1-3 people)
Agency – Rs.1,00,000+
What you get:
- Account manager + dedicated developer + designer
- UI/UX research, wireframing, A/B testing
- Custom backend if needed
- Quarterly retainer for ongoing work
- What you also get: layers of management, slower iteration, higher per-feature cost
Year-by-year ongoing costs (most people forget)
Whatever you build, expect:
- Domain renewal: Rs.500-1,000/year
- Hosting: Rs.3,000-6,000/year (Hostinger Business / DigitalOcean droplet)
- SSL: Free with most hosts (Let’s Encrypt)
- Plugin updates / security: Rs.500-2,000/year if DIY, Rs.500-4,000/month if outsourced
- Email hosting (admin@yourdomain.in): Rs.500-2,000/year for 1-5 mailboxes
- Backups: Rs.0-1,000/year (use UpdraftPlus + Google Drive for free)
Total for a typical Indian SME: Rs.5,000-15,000/year ongoing after the build.
What drives cost up
In rough order of impact:
1. Custom design – going beyond a theme triples cost 2. E-commerce – payment + shipping + tax adds 2-3x to a brochure site 3. Custom backend – any logic that doesn’t have a plugin equivalent 4. Multi-language – 1.5x for each language 5. Animations – parallax, scroll-jacking, video backgrounds 6. Long content (50+ pages) – just from the time to write it 7. Migrations – moving from Wix to WordPress is real work
What does NOT drive cost up (despite what you’ll be told)
- Number of “features” if those features are well-known plugins
- Hosting brand (most $5-10/month plans are equivalent)
- Domain extension (.in vs .com vs .co)
- Whether the developer is in Bangalore vs Kolkata vs a tier-3 city
When to hire vs DIY
Hire if:
- Your time is worth more than Rs.500/hour
- You need it live in under 2 weeks
- You sell online (e-commerce is genuinely complex)
- You’re not comfortable touching code
DIY if:
- You enjoy learning new tools
- You have 20-40 weekend hours
- You only need a brochure site
- You want full control of the code
How to tell a good freelancer from a bad one
Ask these: 1. “Show me 3 live sites you built in the last 6 months.” Bad sign: stale portfolio. 2. “What hosting do you recommend and why?” Bad sign: vague answers like “any good one”. 3. “What happens if I want to change something in 3 months?” Bad sign: “you’ll need to pay for it again”. 4. “Can I see the code repo?” Bad sign: there is no repo, files only on FTP. 5. “Do you give GST invoices?” Bad sign: cash-only operations have lower accountability.
Bdeb Technology’s pricing
We are transparent about what we charge:
- Starter: Rs.2,999 – 1 page brochure, hosting included
- Business: Rs.6,999 – 5-page site, hosting + 6 months edits
- Pro: Rs.14,999 – 10-page site with shop or booking, 1 year support
- E-commerce starter: Rs.14,999 – 50 products, Razorpay
- E-commerce business: Rs.29,999 – unlimited products, 2 gateways, 2 couriers
GST invoice on every project. Source code yours. Direct WhatsApp access.
