Website development cost in India ranges from under ₹10,000 for a template site set up by a freelancer to well over ₹10 lakh for a custom portal. Most small and mid-sized businesses spend somewhere between ₹20,000 and ₹2 lakh on the build, plus a few thousand to a few lakh rupees a year to keep the site running. The spread is wide because "a website" can mean a five-page brochure or a full online store with inventory and payments.
Below are typical ranges by type of website, the yearly costs people forget, and the factors that move a quote up or down. All figures are indicative market ranges and exclude 18% GST. For what a professionally built site includes, see our website development services.
Website development cost in India by type of website
| Website type | What you typically get | Typical build cost (₹, excl. GST) | Typical timeline |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic brochure site | 4–6 pages on a template, contact form, WhatsApp button, mobile-friendly layout | 8,000 – 30,000 | 1–2 weeks |
| Business or corporate website | Custom design, 8–30 pages, CMS, blog, lead forms, on-page SEO setup, speed tuning | 30,000 – 2,00,000 | 3–8 weeks |
| E-commerce store on a platform | Shopify or WooCommerce, catalogue with variants, payment gateway, shipping integration | 30,000 – 1,50,000 | 2–6 weeks |
| Custom e-commerce or B2B ordering | Custom catalogue logic, dealer pricing, ERP or Tally sync, custom checkout rules | 1,50,000 – 10,00,000+ | 2–5 months |
| Portal or custom web app | User logins, dashboards, workflows, integrations, admin panel | 1,50,000 – 15,00,000+ | 2–6 months |
EthicsComputer's starting prices, listed on our pricing page, sit at the practical end of these ranges: a business website package from ₹18,000, an e-commerce store from ₹32,000 and a custom web app from ₹45,000, each + GST. The final quote depends on scope.
What each type of website involves
Brochure websites
A brochure site tells visitors who you are, what you do and how to reach you. For a local clinic, workshop or consultant, that is often enough. The cheapest versions use a purchased theme with your text and photos dropped in. They work, but they tend to look like many other sites and can be slow if the theme loads heavy scripts.
Corporate websites
A corporate site has to support sales: service pages written for search, project or case material, downloadable brochures, careers, enquiry forms routed to the right team, and sometimes more than one language. Most of the cost goes into information architecture, custom design and content rather than code. Our corporate website development work starts with a sitemap and a page-level keyword plan before any design begins.
E-commerce websites
An online store adds a catalogue, cart, payments, shipping, tax and returns. A Shopify or WooCommerce store with a well-chosen theme is the right start for most new D2C brands. Custom development makes sense when you sell B2B with dealer-specific pricing, need inventory synced with your ERP or Tally, or have checkout rules a platform cannot handle cleanly. Our e-commerce development page compares these routes.
Portals and web apps
Once users log in to do work, such as placing orders, tracking service requests or managing bookings, you are building software rather than a website. Pricing then follows software logic: roles, workflows, integrations and security. Our guide to custom software development cost in India covers that in detail.
Template vs custom design
A template is not automatically the lesser choice. Here is an honest comparison:
| Factor | Template or theme | Custom design |
|---|---|---|
| Upfront cost | Low | Higher, mostly design and front-end time |
| Time to launch | Days to two weeks | Three to eight weeks |
| Brand distinctiveness | Limited, since others use the same theme | Designed around your brand and your buyers |
| Page speed | Often weighed down by unused features and plugins | Easier to keep lean |
| Flexibility later | Constrained by the theme's structure | Structured around your content plan |
| Best for | New businesses, tight budgets, testing an idea | Businesses where the website is a main source of leads |
A sensible middle path is a lightweight theme or framework with custom designs for the pages that sell: the home page, key service or product pages, and contact.
Yearly costs after launch
The build is a one-time cost. The items below recur every year, and a cheap build quote sometimes hides expensive renewals.
| Item | Typical yearly cost (₹) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Domain name (.in or .com) | 500 – 1,500 | Register it in your own name and account, not the developer's |
| Shared hosting | 2,000 – 8,000 | Fine for brochure and small business sites |
| VPS or cloud hosting | 8,000 – 60,000+ | Needed for busy stores, portals and web apps |
| SSL certificate | 0 – 20,000 | A free certificate is enough for most sites; paid OV or EV certificates show company details but bring no SEO advantage |
| Business email | Depends on mailboxes | Providers charge per user per month, so budget for each staff mailbox |
| Premium theme or plugin licences | 0 – 20,000 | Common with WordPress and WooCommerce sites |
| Maintenance and security updates | 15–20% of the build cost, or a monthly retainer | Updates, backups, uptime monitoring and small content changes |
E-commerce sites also pay payment gateway charges on each transaction and, on hosted platforms, a monthly subscription. EthicsComputer's maintenance retainer starts at ₹4,500 per month + GST.
What affects the price of a website
- Number of unique page designs. Twenty pages built from three layouts cost far less than twenty individually designed pages.
- Content. Writing service pages and product descriptions, and arranging photography, is often the largest hidden cost. Check whether the quote assumes you will supply all content.
- Features and integrations. Payment gateways, CRM or WhatsApp lead routing, booking calendars, ERP or Tally sync and courier APIs each add effort.
- Languages. A Hindi and English site is more than translation. Navigation, SEO and forms must work properly in both.
- SEO foundations. Clean URLs, schema markup, redirects from an old site and page speed work add time, but they protect your rankings.
- Security. Login areas, payments and personal data need hardening and testing before launch, and that effort belongs in the quote.
- Who builds it. Freelancers are the cheapest. Agencies cost more but bring design, development, testing and continuity under one roof.
How to compare website quotes
Two quotes of ₹25,000 and ₹1,20,000 can both be fair, because they often describe different websites. Ask each vendor to confirm in writing:
- How many pages, and how many unique page designs?
- Who writes the content and supplies the images?
- Which CMS or platform, and can your team edit pages without a developer?
- Are the domain, hosting and email registered in your name?
- What is included for SEO: titles and descriptions, schema, sitemap, redirects, speed targets?
- How many rounds of design revisions are included?
- What happens after launch: warranty period, maintenance cost and response times?
- Will you receive full admin access and the source files?
Domain and hosting ownership deserves special attention. Businesses that let a developer register the domain in the developer's own name sometimes struggle to get it back when the relationship ends.
When a low-cost website is enough, and when it is not
A ₹10,000 template site is a reasonable choice if you need a basic presence quickly and most of your business comes from referrals. It becomes expensive when the site is meant to generate leads. Slow pages, thin content and weak structure mean you later pay again for a rebuild, on top of the months of enquiries you did not receive.
If search traffic and enquiries matter, put the budget into content, structure and speed rather than visual effects. Judged that way, the right website development cost in India is the amount that gets you a site able to win business, not simply the lowest quote on the table.
FAQs
How much does a basic business website cost in India?
A basic 4 to 6 page website on a template typically costs ₹8,000 to ₹30,000, depending on who builds it and whether content is included. A custom-designed business website usually costs more. EthicsComputer's business website package starts at ₹18,000 + 18% GST, and the final quote depends on scope.
How much does an e-commerce website cost in India?
A Shopify or WooCommerce store typically costs ₹30,000 to ₹1,50,000 to set up, plus platform, hosting and payment gateway charges. Custom e-commerce with dealer pricing or ERP sync usually starts around ₹1,50,000. EthicsComputer's e-commerce store package starts at ₹32,000 + GST, and the final quote depends on scope.
What are the yearly costs of running a website?
Expect a domain renewal of roughly ₹500 to ₹1,500, hosting from about ₹2,000 a year for a small site to ₹60,000 or more for a busy store or portal, optional paid plugins, business email per user, and maintenance. Maintenance is often 15 to 20% of the build cost per year, or a monthly retainer.
Is WordPress cheaper than a custom-coded website?
Usually yes for content-led sites, because themes and plugins cover common features. Custom code becomes better value when you need specific workflows, integrations or performance that plugins cannot deliver cleanly. Many corporate sites use a CMS for content pages and custom code for tools and portals.
How long does it take to build a website?
A template-based brochure site can go live in one to two weeks. A custom corporate website typically takes three to eight weeks, and an e-commerce store on a platform two to six weeks. Content readiness on the client side is the most common cause of delay.
Plan your website budget with us
If you are planning a new website or a rebuild, send us your requirements and we will recommend the simplest build that meets your goals. Explore our website development services in India, or request a quote from our team.
