Website Development Cost in India 2026: Real Prices from a Dev Agency

Every client call starts the same way: 'What will it cost?' And every agency gives the same answer: 'It depends.' That answer is technically correct and completely useless. This is the version we actually give clients — real INR prices for real projects based on what we've invoiced in 2026. No asterisks, no 'starting from' ranges that span 40x.

“If a vendor can't give you a ballpark without a 3-hour discovery call, they're either incompetent or they haven't built enough projects to know.”

The 60-second price sheet

• Static landing page / brochure site (5-10 pages, no CMS): ₹15,000–₹25,000. Done in 2-3 weeks.
• WordPress marketing site (up to 20 pages, blog, contact form, basic SEO): ₹25,000–₹45,000. Done in 3-5 weeks.
• WordPress + WooCommerce store (up to 500 products, Razorpay, basic shipping): ₹35,000–₹60,000. Done in 4-7 weeks.
• Shopify store (up to 200 products, standard apps, INR payments): ₹25,000–₹50,000. Done in 3-6 weeks.
• Custom Next.js / React website (design + dev, no backend): ₹45,000–₹90,000. Done in 5-9 weeks.
• Web app / SaaS MVP (auth, dashboard, CRUD, payments): ₹80,000–₹2,50,000. Done in 8-20 weeks.
• Mobile app — React Native or Flutter (iOS + Android, standard features): ₹80,000–₹2,50,000. Done in 10-20 weeks.
• Enterprise / large custom platform: ₹3,00,000+. Requires proper scoping.

What drives cost up

• Custom design from scratch adds 30-50% vs adapting a proven template or component library. Most clients don't need fully custom design — they need their brand applied well to a solid structure.
• Third-party integrations (CRM, ERP, payment gateway, logistics API, WhatsApp Business) each add ₹8,000–₹25,000 depending on the API quality and documentation.
• Multi-language / multilingual sites (Hindi+English, regional languages) add 15-25% for i18n routing, font handling, and content translation.
• Admin panels and dashboards add significant scope — a clean CRUD admin for a web app can be ₹20,000–₹60,000 extra depending on the number of entities.
• Compliance requirements (DPDP, accessibility/RPwD, healthcare data handling) add scope and testing time.
• Migration from an existing platform (moving from Wix/Squarespace/old WordPress) adds ₹10,000–₹30,000 for data migration, URL redirects, and QA.

What drives cost down

• Starting with a proven template or theme saves 2-4 weeks of design/dev. For most business sites, a well-customized premium theme beats a custom design at 3x the budget.
• Clear, written scope before we start. Every week of unclear scope adds 1-2 weeks of build time. We scope in writing before quoting.
• Staged delivery — MVP first, then iterate. Don't build the full feature set in version one. The features founders think they need in week 1 are rarely the features users actually use.
• Limiting the app stack. Every third-party app/plugin adds integration risk and ongoing cost. A Shopify store with 12 apps has 12 failure points.
• Existing brand assets (logo, brand guidelines, photography). We've added 2 weeks to projects where the client needed everything created from scratch.

WordPress: what you actually pay

WordPress is the most underquoted platform in India. Agencies quote ₹8,000–₹15,000 'WordPress websites' and deliver template installs with minimal customization. Here's what a real WordPress build looks like:

• Hosting: ₹3,000–₹12,000/year (Cloudways, Kinsta, or SiteGround — not ₹99/month shared hosting that makes your site run at 4s load times).
• Theme: ₹3,000–₹8,000 one-time for a premium theme OR ₹0 for a free theme like Astra or GeneratePress customized properly.
• Essential plugins: Rank Math (SEO), WP Rocket/LiteSpeed (caching), Smush (images), Gravity Forms or WPForms (forms). Budget ₹5,000–₹12,000/year for the paid versions of plugins you'll actually need.
• Development labour: ₹20,000–₹40,000 for a 15-20 page site with proper page builder customization, ACF fields, and a basic child theme.
• Total year-one cost for a properly built WordPress site: ₹35,000–₹65,000. Not ₹8,000.

Shopify: what you actually pay in India

Shopify India pricing has two hidden costs most founders miss:

• Shopify Basic: ₹1,994/month (2026 India pricing). BUT: 2% transaction fee on every order because Shopify Payments doesn't exist in India. On a ₹5L/month store, that's ₹10,000/month to Shopify alone.
• App stack costs: Reviews, upsells, abandoned cart, email, returns — plan ₹8,000–₹20,000/month in app fees for a mid-stage store.
• Development: ₹25,000–₹50,000 one-time for a properly built Shopify store. Under ₹15,000 is a template-install, not a build.
• Annual break-even: a ₹3-4L/month GMV store pays about the same for Shopify all-in as WooCommerce all-in. Above that, WooCommerce is materially cheaper. Below that, Shopify's simplicity is worth the premium.

Web app / SaaS: why the range is so wide

When we quote ₹80,000–₹2,50,000 for a web app MVP, the range isn't vagueness — it reflects real scope variation:

• ₹80,000–₹1,20,000: CRUD-heavy internal tool or simple SaaS — auth (email + Google OAuth), dashboard, 3-6 data models, basic Razorpay integration, admin panel. Single developer, 8-12 weeks.
• ₹1,20,000–₹2,00,000: Multi-role app with complex business logic — role-based permissions, multi-tenant architecture, file uploads with S3, email notifications, mobile-responsive admin, API for a future mobile app. 12-18 weeks.
• ₹2,00,000–₹2,50,000: Full-featured SaaS v1 — subscription billing (Razorpay recurring), usage metering, onboarding flow, transactional email, activity logs, multi-currency. 16-22 weeks.
• Above ₹2,50,000: Real-time features (WebSockets), marketplace (two-sided platform), compliance requirements, large data volumes, or government-grade audit trails.

Mobile app: React Native vs Flutter cost difference

Both frameworks produce a single codebase that compiles to iOS and Android. The cost difference between React Native and Flutter is small — 5-10% in our experience. The choice is driven by your team's existing skills and ecosystem needs, not by cost. Flutter has a slight edge on custom UI animation. React Native has a larger library ecosystem and easier JavaScript/TypeScript integration.

• Simple utility app (auth, 3-4 screens, REST API integration, notifications): ₹60,000–₹1,00,000. 8-12 weeks.
• Standard consumer app (onboarding flow, maps/location, in-app payments, social features, push notifications): ₹1,20,000–₹2,00,000. 12-18 weeks.
• Complex app (real-time chat, video, live location tracking, marketplace, or hardware BLE/Bluetooth integration): ₹2,00,000–₹3,50,000. 16-28 weeks.
• Add ₹20,000–₹40,000 for App Store + Play Store submission, ASO setup, and first-version compliance review.

Why Indian agencies quote so low (and what you get)

The ₹5,000–₹15,000 'website' quotes you see on IndiaMART and Freelancer.com are not fake — they're real deliverables. Here's what you're actually buying:

• A pre-built theme installed with your logo and text dropped in. No customization, no mobile testing, no performance optimization.
• Shared hosting on a ₹99/month plan. 4-8 second load times are common. Your SEO will reflect this.
• No Google Analytics, no schema markup, no sitemap submission, no Search Console setup.
• No ongoing support. When the theme breaks after a WordPress update (and it will), you're on your own.
• Stock photography that's visibly fake to any Indian visitor. The same headshots showing up on dozens of sites.

This isn't a pitch to pay more. Some projects genuinely need a ₹15,000 site — a local kirana store's first web presence, an event landing page, a personal CV site. The problem is when founders expect ₹15,000 output to compete with well-funded competitors who invested ₹1-2L. The market doesn't have pricing tiers; it has output tiers.

What to ask before signing any contract

1. Can you show me 3 live URLs of similar projects you've built? (Not a portfolio page — actual live websites.)
2. What happens if the project runs over the quoted timeline? Is there a change order process?
3. Who will actually write the code? (Not who's on the call — who commits.)
4. What does handover look like? Do I get the code repo, admin credentials, and documentation?
5. What's included in the warranty/bug-fix period after launch?