Website development cost in India: what you'll actually pay in 2026

Ask five developers what a website costs and you'll hear five very different numbers. That's not because anyone is hiding the real price. “A website” can mean a three-page brochure or a store with thousands of products, and the build is only part of what you pay. This guide separates the one-time cost from the running costs so you can budget for both.

The short answer

Published market ranges in India are wide. Hostinger's 2026 guide, for example, puts a freelancer-built small static site at roughly ₹10,000–₹40,000, an agency-built small business site at ₹50,000–₹1,50,000, and an agency-built online store at ₹1,50,000–₹4,00,000 or more. Those figures exclude GST.

For comparison, these are our own published starting prices:

The pricing page lists exactly what each package includes. The rest of this guide explains what pushes a quote above its starting point.

What drives the one-time build cost

• Number of pages or products. Each page type needs design, content and testing. For stores, every product variant adds data to set up.
• Custom design or a template. A custom design takes longer, but it's built around your customers rather than someone else's.
• Features. Booking, calculators, customer accounts, B2B pricing and multiple languages each add development and testing time.
• Integrations. Payment gateways, courier services, CRMs and accounting tools all need setting up and testing end to end.
• Content. Writing copy and producing photos often takes longer than the build itself. Decide early who is responsible.
• Migration. Moving an existing site means mapping old URLs to new ones so you don't lose search traffic. Our redesign SEO checklist covers how that works.

The running costs most quotes leave out

These are paid every year (or every order), usually directly to the provider:

• Domain name. Hostinger's guide puts this at about ₹500–₹1,500 a year.
• Hosting. The same guide gives ₹2,000–₹5,000 a year for shared hosting and ₹6,000–₹20,000 a year for cloud or VPS hosting. Static sites can often be hosted for much less: Cloudflare, for example, serves static files on its free plan.
• Payment gateway fees. Razorpay's standard plan, for example, charges a 2% platform fee on domestic cards, netbanking, wallets and UPI, plus 18% GST on that fee, which works out to about 2.36% of each payment. Gateways change their offers often, so check current rates before you decide.
• Platform fees. Hosted store builders charge a monthly subscription, and some add a fee on each order. Our platform comparison breaks these down.
• Maintenance. Hostinger lists monthly retainers of about ₹1,000–₹5,000 for small sites. Our plans start at ₹2,500 a month with a defined scope.

Does GST apply?

Website design and development services fall under SAC code 998314 and attract 18% GST when the provider is GST-registered. If you're registered too, you can usually claim it as input tax credit. Ask your chartered accountant how it applies to your business, and check whether a quote is shown with or without GST.

How to compare quotes fairly

Two quotes are only comparable if they describe the same work. For each one, check:

1. Are the pages, features and integrations listed one by one?
2. How many rounds of design revisions are included?
3. Will the domain, hosting and code be in your name?
4. What's excluded, such as content, photos, paid plugins or running costs?
5. What support is included after launch, and for how long?
6. Is there a written timeline, and what do you need to provide to keep to it?

Warning signs

• Guaranteed rankings. No one controls Google's results. A promise of “page one in 30 days” is a reason to walk away.
• The domain registered in the developer's name. It makes leaving difficult. Your domain should always be yours.
• No written scope. Without one, the price can only go up.

Getting a reliable number

The fastest way to an accurate figure is a short list: what you sell, which pages or features you need, sites you like, and your timeline. Send that through our enquiry form and you'll get a written scope with a fixed quote.