Ask five agencies what a website costs and you'll get five different numbers — ₹15,000 from a freelancer, ₹2,00,000 from a mid-size agency, and a blank stare from an enterprise studio that only does discovery calls first. None of them are lying. They're quoting different things.
This is a breakdown of what website development actually costs in India in 2026, why the range is so wide, and — more importantly — what determines which end of it you land on.
The short answer
For most small and mid-size businesses in India, a professionally built, mobile-responsive, SEO-ready website costs somewhere between ₹80,000 and ₹2,00,000. That's not a marketing number — it's the realistic range once you account for actual design work, functional development, content, and basic technical SEO, rather than a templated theme with your logo dropped in.
Here's how that breaks down by project type:
| Website type | Typical cost | What's included |
|---|---|---|
| Basic informational site | ₹10,000 – ₹50,000 | 5–10 pages, template-based design, contact form |
| Standard business website | ₹50,000 – ₹2,00,000 | Custom design, CMS, moderate functionality, basic SEO |
| Custom-coded website | ₹1,50,000 – ₹5,00,000+ | Fully custom build, no page-builder bloat, performance-optimized |
| E-commerce / custom platform | ₹3,00,000 – ₹15,00,000+ | Custom storefront, payments, admin panel, ongoing dev |
At the very top end — large e-commerce platforms, multi-region B2B portals, anything with custom backend logic — costs can run into the tens of lakhs. That's a different conversation from what most small businesses need.
Why the range is so wide
1. Template vs. custom-coded
A freelancer using a WordPress theme and a page builder can turn around a "website" in a week for ₹20,000–₹40,000. It'll look fine in a screenshot. It will also load slowly, break on mobile in subtle ways, and become a liability the moment you want to add anything the theme wasn't built for.
A custom-coded site — built page by page, component by component, for your specific business — costs more upfront because there's no template shortcut. What you're paying for is a site that's actually fast, that you own outright, and that won't need to be rebuilt in two years.
2. Freelancer vs. agency
Freelancers in India typically charge ₹500–₹2,000/hour, or ₹15,000–₹80,000 for a full small business site. That can be a genuinely good deal — if the freelancer is skilled and reliable. The risk is scope: many freelancer quotes exclude design, content writing, or post-launch support, so the "cheap" quote becomes three separate cheap quotes once you actually need the whole thing done.
Agencies charge more because the price includes design, development, content strategy, QA, and support as one accountable package — plus the ability to actually be reached six months after launch when something needs fixing.
3. What's not in the base price
Almost every quote — cheap or expensive — leaves a few things out:
- Domain: ₹1,000–₹2,000/year
- Hosting: ₹2,000–₹50,000/year, depending on traffic and whether you're on shared hosting or something faster
- Content writing: often quoted separately, and often skipped entirely (which shows)
- Ongoing maintenance: updates, security patches, backups — usually 10–20% of build cost annually if you want someone else handling it
Ask for these upfront. A ₹40,000 quote that turns into ₹75,000 after hosting, content, and "small" add-ons isn't actually a ₹40,000 website.
The real cost isn't the build — it's rebuilding
The most expensive website isn't the one with the highest quote. It's the one you have to throw away in eighteen months because it was built cheaply, on a theme nobody can extend, with no thought given to how it would rank in search.
We recently rebuilt a client's site that had been running on WordPress for years — solid SEO history, but held back by performance issues and technical debt that had piled up under the hood. The rebuild had to preserve every bit of that SEO equity (URLs, metadata, content) while moving to a faster, custom-coded architecture. That kind of project costs more than the original WordPress build did. It also costs less than losing years of search rankings would have.
If you're choosing based on price alone, you're optimizing for the wrong variable. The right question isn't "what's the cheapest site I can get live" — it's "what's the cheapest site that won't need to be rebuilt."
What actually drives your specific cost
Once you're past the "template vs. custom" decision, a few concrete factors move the number:
- Number of unique page templates (not total pages — a 50-page site using 4 templates is cheaper than a 10-page site where every page looks different)
- Custom functionality — booking systems, calculators, dashboards, integrations with your CRM or inventory
- E-commerce vs. informational — payment gateways, product catalogs, and admin panels add real development time
- Content — if you need copywriting, photography, or video, that's a separate (and often underestimated) budget line
- SEO depth — basic on-page SEO is often bundled in; technical SEO (schema, Core Web Vitals work, structured internal linking) usually isn't
A simple way to budget
If you're a small business or startup in Mumbai comparing quotes, use this as a sanity check:
- Under ₹50,000: Expect a template-based site. Fine for a basic online presence, not built to rank or convert seriously.
- ₹80,000–₹2,00,000: The realistic range for a custom-designed, properly built, SEO-ready business website.
- ₹2,00,000+: You should be getting custom functionality, not just custom design — e-commerce, integrations, or a build complex enough to justify the number.
If a quote is far outside these bands in either direction, ask why. Too cheap usually means templated and unmaintained. Too expensive without added functionality usually means you're paying agency overhead, not development time.
Red flags to watch for when comparing quotes
Not every low quote is a scam, and not every high quote is justified. A few things worth checking before you sign off on either:
- "Unlimited revisions" sounds generous but often signals a loosely scoped project that will drag for months while both sides argue about what "done" means. Ask for a defined number of revision rounds instead.
- No mention of hosting or domain in the proposal. Someone has to own this — find out who, and what it costs annually, before you commit.
- A portfolio with no live links. Screenshots can be edited. Ask to see the actual live sites, ideally ones still online a year or two after launch — that tells you whether the relationship (and the site) held up.
- Payment entirely upfront. A reasonable structure is a deposit to start, a milestone payment at design approval, and a final payment at launch — this protects both sides, not just you.
- Vague scope documents. If the proposal doesn't specify number of pages, what "custom" actually means, and what's excluded, expect scope disagreements later — this is where quotes silently balloon.
None of these automatically disqualify an agency or freelancer. But if you see two or three of them together, ask more questions before signing.
FAQ
Is WordPress cheaper than a custom-built website?
Upfront, usually yes. Long-term, not necessarily — WordPress sites accumulate plugin costs, security maintenance, and performance issues that a lean custom build avoids. See our Next.js vs WordPress comparison for the performance and SEO tradeoffs.
How long does a business website take to build in India?
A standard business website typically takes 3–6 weeks from kickoff to launch, including design revisions. E-commerce or custom platforms take longer — often 2–4 months depending on scope.
Do I need to pay for SEO separately from web development?
Basic on-page SEO (titles, meta descriptions, clean URLs) should be part of any professional build. Ongoing SEO — content, link building, technical audits — is a separate, continuous service, not a one-time cost.
What's a fair price for a small business website in Mumbai?
For a professionally designed, mobile-optimized, SEO-ready 5–10 page website, ₹80,000–₹1,50,000 is a reasonable range from an established web development company in Mumbai. Below that, expect real tradeoffs in design quality, performance, or support.
The bottom line
Website cost isn't really about the number on the quote — it's about what that number buys you: a site built to last, built to load fast, and built to actually generate enquiries, versus one you'll be redoing in a year. If you're evaluating quotes and want a second opinion on whether you're comparing like for like, we're happy to look at what's on the table and tell you honestly where the gaps are.