How Much Does a Website Cost in India? (2026 Pricing Guide)

"How much will my website cost?" is the first question every client asks — and most answers online are either vague or written by agencies with something to sell. Here are real numbers, based on what I actually charge and what I see across the Indian freelance market in 2026.

The short answer

• Basic website (3–5 pages): ₹10,000 – ₹25,000
• Professional business website (CMS, animations, admin panel): ₹25,000 – ₹60,000
• Full-stack web application (auth, database, payments, dashboards): ₹50,000 – ₹2,00,000+
• Hourly work (fixes, features, consulting): ₹500 – ₹1,500/hour

For reference, my own packages start at ₹15,000 for a basic website and ₹800/hour for ad-hoc work — you can see the full breakdown on my services page.

What actually drives the price

1. Number of unique page designs

A 3-page site where every page shares one layout is cheap. Ten pages with distinct designs is not. Most of the cost is design and content work, not code.

2. Custom functionality

The moment you need logins, payments, bookings, or an admin panel, you've crossed from "website" into "web application" — the engineering effort roughly triples. A contact form is trivial; a customer dashboard is not.

3. Content management

If you want to edit content yourself, you need a CMS or admin panel. That adds cost up front but saves you paying a developer for every text change later. For most businesses it pays for itself within a year.

4. Who you hire

• Freelancer (direct): best value — you pay for the work, not office overhead. ₹15k–₹60k for most business sites.
• Small agency: ₹60k–₹3L for the same scope. You're paying for project managers and margins.
• Website builders (Wix/WordPress templates): ₹0–₹10k, but you'll fight the template, load slowly, and rank poorly. Fine for a hobby; risky for a business.

Costs people forget

• Domain: ₹800–₹1,500/year
• Hosting: ₹1,500–₹8,000/year for most sites (a small VPS runs several sites comfortably)
• SSL: free with Let's Encrypt — never pay for basic SSL
• Maintenance: budget a small monthly retainer if your site changes often

Red flags when comparing quotes

• Quotes with no scope in writing ("website: ₹40,000") — you'll pay for every change later
• No mention of mobile responsiveness or page speed — in 2026 both are table stakes
• "SEO included" with no specifics — real SEO is structured data, performance, and content, not a checkbox
• You don't get the source code or hosting access — you should own what you pay for

How I price projects

I quote a fixed price against a written scope: pages, features, timeline, and what's included (responsive design, SEO basics, deployment). Anything outside scope is discussed before it's built — no surprise invoices. If you're planning a website or web app and want a real number for your specific case, tell me what you're building — I reply within a day with an honest estimate, no obligation.