The question everyone asks

"How much does a website cost in India?" is the question every founder, marketing head, and small-business owner asks. The honest answer is: it depends on what you actually mean by website.

This guide breaks down realistic 2026 pricing across six tiers, what's included at each tier, and what you should expect for your money.

Tier 1: Freelancer brochure site — ₹15,000-50,000

You're hiring a single freelancer through Fiverr, Upwork, or a referral. The site is built on WordPress, Wix, or a Webflow template. You get 4-8 pages, a contact form, and basic mobile responsiveness. SEO is one round of meta tags and an XML sitemap.

Best for: First-time founders, hyperlocal businesses, side projects.

Watch-outs: Freelancers disappear. Get the source files in writing before the project starts. WordPress sites built this cheaply often skip security hardening — you'll pay for that later when the site gets hacked.

Tier 2: Small agency or studio brochure site — ₹50,000-1,50,000

You're hiring a 2-10 person agency. The site is custom-designed (not template), built on WordPress, Webflow, or Framer. You get 6-12 pages, custom photography or stock-curation, basic CMS for the client to edit, and 1-3 rounds of revisions. SEO is usually included as basic on-page work — schema, sitemap, robots, image alts.

Best for: Established small businesses, professional services, growth-stage startups that need credibility.

Watch-outs: Quality varies wildly in this tier. Ask to see live work — not just screenshots. The good agencies are 3-4x better than the median.

Tier 3: Custom Next.js or Astro marketing site — ₹2,00,000-5,00,000

You're hiring a development-led agency. The site is custom-built on Next.js, Astro, or Remix. You get strong performance (LCP under 2 seconds), full CMS integration (Sanity, Contentful, Payload), animation work, accessibility passes, and proper analytics setup. SEO is built into the architecture — server-side rendering, programmatic page support, advanced schema.

Best for: SaaS startups, D2C brands, agencies, anyone who treats the website as a real product surface.

Watch-outs: The tech stack matters less than the team. A great team on WordPress beats a mediocre team on Next.js every time. Don't pay for the stack — pay for the team.

Tier 4: E-commerce build (Shopify) — ₹1,50,000-6,00,000

You're launching an online store on Shopify. The build includes theme customization or a custom theme (Liquid + Tailwind), payment gateway integration (Razorpay, Cashfree, Shopify Payments), shipping integration (Shiprocket, Delhivery), basic product photography editing, and 30-90 days of post-launch support.

A custom Shopify theme starts around ₹3L. A heavily-themed plus-tier store with 100+ SKUs runs ₹5-6L. Subscription apps and headless work push higher.

Best for: D2C brands ready to scale beyond Instagram DMs.

Tier 5: E-commerce build (custom or headless) — ₹6,00,000-15,00,000

You're going off Shopify or pairing Shopify with a custom headless storefront (Next.js + Shopify Hydrogen, or a fully custom build on PostgreSQL + Stripe). You get performance and SEO leagues ahead of stock Shopify, custom checkout flows, ERP integration (Zoho, SAP), warehouse and 3PL integration, and proper analytics.

Best for: Scaling D2C brands doing ₹3 Cr+ annually who have outgrown Shopify's limits.

Watch-outs: Custom builds need ongoing engineering. Budget another ₹50K-1.5L/month for maintenance.

Tier 6: Custom web application or platform — ₹8,00,000-50,00,000+

You're building a SaaS product, a marketplace, an internal platform, or a multi-stakeholder system. The build is full-stack — frontend, backend, database, infrastructure, DevOps, third-party integrations. Timelines run 12-32 weeks.

This isn't a website. It's a product. Pricing depends entirely on scope.

What changes the price

Animation and motion design adds 15-30% to a marketing-site build
Multilingual (Hindi + English + regional) adds 20-40% depending on scope
CMS depth — a 4-page CMS is cheap, a 200-page programmatic CMS is a serious project
Custom photography or shoots can add ₹50K-3L depending on scope and locations
SEO depth — basic on-page is included; technical SEO audits, content programs, and programmatic SEO are separate workstreams
Post-launch retainer — most agencies expect a 2-6 month support retainer at 15-25% of build cost annually

What we charge

For full disclosure: at CodivaCore our brochure sites start at ₹25,000 (Next.js, 5-7 pages), our custom marketing builds run ₹1.5-4L, our Shopify storefronts start at ₹2L, and our custom web applications start at ₹6L. We share a fixed quote within 48 hours of a brief.

What to actually budget

If you're a small business and the website is your storefront, budget ₹50K-1.5L and treat it as essential infrastructure. If you're a startup raising capital, budget ₹2-5L and treat the site as a sales asset that closes deals. If you're a D2C brand launching, budget ₹3-8L including product photography. If you're an enterprise, budget ₹10L+ and accept that the website is a 12-month project, not a 6-week sprint.

Want a quote?

Tell us what you're trying to build. We'll send a realistic, no-nonsense estimate within 48 hours. Start a project.

How Much Does a Website Cost in India (2026): A Realistic Pricing Guide