If you have collected three quotes for a website and they read ₹18,000, ₹95,000 and ₹4 lakh, you are not being cheated by two of them. You have asked three companies a question that has no single answer, and each has assumed a different project. This page sets out what each price band actually buys in India, what the recurring costs are, and the three questions that make quotes comparable.
The four price bands
Almost every website quote in India falls into one of four bands. The band is decided by how the site is built and how much of it you can change yourself afterwards — not by how it looks.
| Type of site | Typical range | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Static or brochure | ₹10,000 – ₹30,000 | 5–10 fixed pages. Changes usually need the developer |
| CMS business site | ₹25,000 – ₹1,00,000 | WordPress or similar. You can edit content yourself |
| E-commerce | ₹50,000 – ₹2,50,000 | Catalogue, cart, payment gateway, order management |
| Custom web application | ₹1,00,000 upward | Logins, workflows, dashboards. No standard product |
The realistic middle of the CMS band is ₹40,000 to ₹70,000. The jump from a static site reflects two things: real design work rather than a purchased template applied as-is, and the fact that somebody has to build a structure a non-technical person can safely edit without breaking the layout.
E-commerce spans a wide range because the platform choice changes the arithmetic. A Shopify build typically comes in ten to twenty per cent cheaper than an equivalent WooCommerce build, because less is being assembled from parts — but Shopify then charges a platform fee every month for as long as the store exists. Over three years that gap usually closes and often reverses.
Custom applications have no upper bound in any useful sense. ₹1 lakh buys a small internal tool; enterprise systems run past ₹10 lakh. If your requirement includes the words 'user roles', 'approval workflow' or 'integrates with our', you are in this band regardless of how many pages the site has.
The costs that are not in the quote
A build price is a one-time number. A website is an ongoing expense, and quotes routinely omit the ongoing part — not dishonestly, but because it is not the developer's charge to make.
| Item | Typical annual cost |
|---|---|
| Domain registration | ₹500 – ₹1,200 |
| Hosting | ₹1,800 – ₹42,000 |
| SSL certificate | Free with most hosts; paid options exist |
| Maintenance and updates | ₹6,000 – ₹36,000 |
Hosting spans that range because shared hosting and a managed cloud environment are different products. A brochure site is perfectly served by the cheap end. An e-commerce store on shared hosting will be slow during exactly the traffic spike you were hoping for.
Maintenance is the line most often skipped and most often regretted. A WordPress site with no update routine accumulates outdated plugins, and outdated plugins are the most common route by which small Indian business sites get compromised. The annual cost of maintenance is almost always less than the cost of one clean-up.
Why two quotes for the same brief differ so much
Assuming both suppliers are competent and honest, the variance comes from a small number of decisions that a one-page brief leaves open:
- Template applied versus design created — the single largest factor
- Number of unique page layouts, not number of pages
- Who writes the content and who sources the images
- Whether existing content is migrated from an old site
- Integrations: payment gateway, CRM, WhatsApp, accounting
- Whether SEO basics are included or quoted separately
- How many rounds of revision are included before it costs extra
- Whether post-launch support is included, and for how long
A quote that looks cheap frequently excludes several of these. That is not necessarily a problem — you may not need them — but it is the reason the comparison is not like for like, and it is where the disputed invoice at the end of the project usually originates.
Three questions that make any quote comparable
Ask all three suppliers the same three questions, in writing, and the quotes become genuinely comparable regardless of how differently they are structured.
**Who owns the code, the hosting account and the domain when this is finished?** The answer should be you, in writing. A domain registered in the developer's name, or hosting on their account, means leaving them later is a negotiation rather than a decision. This happens often and it is entirely avoidable at the start.
**What happens after launch, for how long, and at what cost?** Two weeks of bug fixes is standard. Ongoing changes are a separate arrangement. Establish which is which before you sign, not when you send the first change request.
**Which parts can I change myself?** Point at specific things — a price on a product page, a photograph on the homepage, a new blog post — and ask whether you can change each one without calling anybody. The honest answer varies enormously between builds priced identically.
How to brief so you get useful quotes
You will get more accurate and more comparable numbers by supplying four things: the number of distinct page layouts you need, a list of anything the site must connect to, who is providing the written content, and one or two existing sites you would point at as reference. That is fifteen minutes of work and it removes most of the guesswork that produces a fivefold spread.
If you would rather talk it through than write a brief, that is what our initial conversation is for — and it is free whether or not you go ahead with us.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a basic website cost in India? +
A static or brochure site of five to ten pages typically costs ₹10,000 to ₹30,000. A CMS-based business site you can edit yourself runs ₹25,000 to ₹1,00,000, with most projects landing between ₹40,000 and ₹70,000.
Why are my three quotes so different? +
Usually because they describe different projects. The biggest variables are whether a template is applied or a design is created, how many unique page layouts there are, who writes the content, and whether integrations and post-launch support are included. Ask all three suppliers the same written questions and the quotes become comparable.
What does a website cost to run each year? +
Domain registration is ₹500 to ₹1,200 a year, hosting ₹1,800 to ₹42,000 depending on type, and maintenance ₹6,000 to ₹36,000. SSL is included free with most hosts.
Is WordPress or a custom-built website better? +
WordPress suits most business websites — it is cheaper, faster to build, and you can edit content yourself. Custom development is warranted when you need logins, workflows, dashboards or integrations that a content management system was never designed for.
How long does a website take to build? +
Two to six weeks for a typical business site. The largest delay is usually not development but content — sites wait on text and photographs far more often than they wait on code.
Who should own the domain and hosting account? +
You should, in your company's name, from day one. A domain registered in your developer's name means leaving them later becomes a negotiation rather than a decision. Get this in writing before work starts.
