November 5, 2026 · 10 min read

Website Cost in India (2026): What ₹1 Lakh Actually Buys You

You can get a website in India for ₹8,000, and you can pay ₹5 lakh for one. I build websites for a living, and both of those numbers are fair for what they buy. Website cost in India depends far less on the number of pages than on how much planning, speed work and after-launch support is baked in.

This post breaks down what each price band gets you in 2026, where the money goes inside a ₹1 lakh project (my own business website package starts there, so I'll show you mine), and the running costs that rarely appear on a quote. If you're comparing quotes right now, the seven questions near the end will save you more than any discount.

What's inside

The short answer: website price bands in India
Why two quotes for "the same website" can differ 20x
Where ₹1 lakh actually goes
When ₹1 lakh is too much (and you should spend less)
The running costs nobody puts in the quote
Two typical scenarios
Common mistakes when buying a website
7 questions to ask before you pay
FAQ

1. The short answer: website price bands in India

These are the ranges I see in quotes from freelancers and agencies across India this year, for a typical business site of 5 to 10 pages. They are ranges, not promises, and your project can land anywhere inside one.

Price band	What you usually get	Good for
₹0 – ₹15,000	A DIY builder (Wix, Hostinger Website Builder) or a template with your logo and photos	Getting online this week, testing an idea
₹15,000 – ₹40,000	A WordPress site from a freelancer, theme-based, a few plugins	Content you'll update often, tight budgets
₹40,000 – ₹1,00,000	A basic custom-coded site: fast, fewer moving parts, light planning	Businesses that know exactly what they want to say
₹1,00,000 – ₹2,00,000	Custom build planned around getting enquiries: structure, copy help, speed, SEO setup, support	Businesses that get customers from Google, Instagram or referrals checking them out
₹3,00,000 and up	Agency projects, or anything with logins, payments, dashboards or bookings tied to your systems	Brands with a team, or products (that's a web app)

If your site needs people to sign in, pay or manage data, you're not buying a website any more. That's a web app, and it's priced differently. I broke that down separately in How much does a web app MVP really cost in 2026?

2. Why two quotes for "the same website" can differ 20x

Put a ₹12,000 quote and a ₹2.4 lakh quote for a five-page site side by side and both can be fair. The difference is in everything that isn't "five pages":

Who writes the words. The cheap quote assumed the client would send all the text. The expensive one included planning what each page should say and in what order. Most small businesses underestimate how long this takes them.
Design versus decoration. A template gives you someone else's layout with your colours. A design pass decides what a visitor should see first on a phone, what makes them trust you, and where they tap to contact you.
Speed. A theme loaded with a page builder can take 5+ seconds to show anything on mobile data. A lean custom build usually shows content in under 2. On mobile in India, that's the difference between an enquiry and a back button.
Search setup. Titles, descriptions, social share images, structured data so Google understands your business, and a sitemap submitted to Search Console. None of it is visible on the page, all of it affects whether anyone finds the page.
What happens after launch. A support window, a handover, someone who answers when the form stops sending emails in month four.

None of that shows up in a screenshot of the homepage, which is why quotes are so hard to compare.

3. Where ₹1 lakh actually goes

My business website package starts at ₹1,00,000, and I quote a fixed price before any work starts. Here's roughly how that budget splits on a typical five-page project:

Part of the work	Share	What it covers
Planning and page structure	~15%	What each page says, in what order, and the one action you want visitors to take
Design	~20%	Layout for phone, tablet and desktop, trust sections, enquiry flow
Build and responsive testing	~35%	Clean custom code, real-device checks, contact form with spam protection
SEO setup	~15%	Search titles and descriptions, share images, structured data, sitemap, Search Console
Launch and support	~15%	Deployment to your domain, handover, and a support window after launch

The finished site loads fast, works on a ₹9,000 Android phone as well as an iPhone, and has nothing that needs weekly plugin updates. It usually takes 2 to 4 weeks, and I take 50% upfront and 50% on completion.

In my WordPress vs custom website post I put a basic custom brochure site at ₹30,000 to ₹80,000. That's still true. The extra in a ₹1 lakh project is the planning, copy structure and SEO work that a basic build leaves to you.

4. When ₹1 lakh is too much (and you should spend less)

Spending more doesn't make sense for everyone, and I'd rather lose the project than sell you something you don't need.

Spend less if:

You're testing whether a business idea works at all. A ₹5,000 builder site for three months tells you more than a ₹1 lakh site you're not sure you need.
Almost all your customers come from word of mouth and nobody ever Googles you. A one-page site with your WhatsApp number may be enough.
You'll post content every week and want to do it yourself on a familiar editor. A lean WordPress site in the ₹20,000–₹40,000 range fits.

Spend more if your customers check you out online before calling, you compete with five other businesses on the same Google search, or a single new client is worth more than the whole website.

5. The running costs nobody puts in the quote

The quote covers year one. These come every year:

Cost	Typical yearly range
Domain (.in or .com)	₹500 – ₹1,200
Hosting	₹0 – ₹8,000 (static sites can be near zero; WordPress needs PHP hosting)
Business email (you@yourbusiness.in)	Paid per user per month with Google Workspace or Zoho Mail; Zoho has a small free tier
Maintenance and updates	₹0 – ₹24,000 depending on the platform and how often things change
GST	18% on services if your developer is GST-registered; check whether the quote includes it

A WordPress site with premium plugins and a paid page builder sits at the top of these ranges. A static custom site sits near the bottom. Over three years, that gap can be bigger than the difference in launch price.

6. Two typical scenarios

Picture a physiotherapy clinic in Pune. Patients find clinics on Google Maps, then tap through to the website to check treatments, timings and whether it looks trustworthy. The site needs to be fast on mobile, show reviews and make booking a call one tap away. That's a ₹1 lakh-band project: the spend is in structure, speed and local SEO, and one or two extra patients a month cover it.

Now picture a home baker starting out. Orders come through Instagram DMs and family referrals. A ₹1 lakh site would be a waste. A simple builder page with a menu and a WhatsApp button does the job until orders outgrow DMs.

Same city, same question, very different answers.

7. Common mistakes when buying a website

Comparing quotes by page count. Five pages can mean five hours or five weeks of work. Compare what's included instead.
Letting the developer register the domain in their name. If they disappear, so does your website. The domain should always be in your name, with your email.
Not asking about yearly costs. Ask for the year-two bill in writing.
Leaving the words until the end. Content is the most common reason projects slip. Start writing (or budget for help) on day one.
Treating Instagram as your website. It's rented space, and it doesn't show up when someone searches your service in your city. I wrote about that in Your Instagram isn't a website.

8. 7 questions to ask before you pay

Is the price fixed, and what exactly is in scope? Get the page list and features in writing.
Who writes the content, and who chooses the photos?
Will the domain and hosting be in my name?
What will this cost me per year after launch?
Can I edit text and images myself, and how?
What SEO setup is included? Titles, descriptions, structured data, sitemap and Search Console are the minimum.
What happens if something breaks after launch, and for how long is support included?

A good developer answers all seven without hesitating. If you get vague answers to 3 and 4, keep looking.

Before you spend anything, it's also worth checking what your current site (if you have one) is getting wrong. I walk through that in What I check in a free website audit.

FAQ

How much does a basic website cost in India?

A basic business website costs ₹15,000 to ₹40,000 with WordPress, or ₹40,000 to ₹1,00,000 custom-coded. A DIY builder can get you online for under ₹10,000 a year.

Is ₹1 lakh too much for a small business website?

Not if the site is how customers decide to contact you. It is too much if you're still testing the idea or nobody searches for your business online. Match the spend to how many customers the site will bring in.

How long does it take to build a business website?

A template site can be live in a few days. A planned custom site usually takes 2 to 4 weeks. The most common delay is content, not code.

Do I have to pay every year for a website?

Yes, for the domain at least, and usually for hosting and email. A lean static site keeps that to a couple of thousand rupees a year. A plugin-heavy WordPress site can cost far more.

Should the quote include GST?

Ask. A GST-registered developer charges 18% on top of the service fee, which on a ₹1 lakh project is ₹18,000.

Want a fixed price for your website?

Send me a few lines about your business and what you want the site to do. You'll get a written fixed-price proposal before any work starts. Until mid-November there's 20% off a new business website for Diwali, and if a cheaper option fits you better, I'll tell you that too.

Get a fixed-price quote