Short answer: for a small business in India in 2026, a professionally built website usually lands somewhere between the price of a good smartphone and the price of a small car, depending on what it has to do. A five-page site for a clinic or a shop sits at the lower end. A site with online bookings, payments, logins or a lot of custom design sits at the upper end. Anyone who quotes a single number before asking what you need is guessing.
Below: what sits at each end of that range, what actually moves the price, and the costs people forget to budget for.
Why there is no single price
“A website” can mean a one-page card with your address, or a system that takes orders, sends invoices and talks to your calendar. The second is a different amount of work. Agencies that publish one flat price are either selling a template with your logo dropped in, or will add the real cost later as “extras”. Neither is a bargain.
At Webrique we quote per project, in writing, after one conversation. This article is the context that conversation usually covers.
The three tiers you will be quoted in
1. Template site
A pre-made theme with your text and photos swapped in. Cheapest, fastest, and the reason so many local businesses look identical. Works if you need “something” quickly and plan to replace it within a year. Fails if customers need to trust you on sight, or if you need anything beyond pages.
2. Custom-designed business site
Designed around your business: your services, your customers, your words. Typically five to ten pages, built on WordPress so you can edit it, with proper search setup, forms and WhatsApp integration, tested on real phones. This is the right tier for most clinics, restaurants, coaching centres, agents and trades. It is where most of our projects land.
3. Web application
Anything with logins, bookings against live availability, payments, member areas, dashboards or integrations with other software. Priced by features and complexity, often in phases. If you are asked for this tier and all you need is pages plus a booking button, push back.
What moves a quote up
- Number of unique page designs. Ten pages that share two layouts cost far less than ten pages that each need their own.
- Functionality. Online payments, booking against real availability, logins, multi-language, product catalogues.
- Content. If nobody has written the text or taken the photos, someone has to. Copywriting and photography are real work and should be quoted, not hidden.
- Integrations. Connecting to WhatsApp, a CRM, a billing tool, a calendar, or an aggregator. Each one is design plus testing.
- Brand work. If you do not yet have a usable logo, colours and type, the site cannot look consistent until you do. Honest agencies will tell you this up front.
- Speed of delivery. Rushed timelines cost more because people are pulled off other work.
What moves a quote down
- Ready content: final text, decent photos, your logo files.
- A clear scope: you know which five pages you need and what each should do.
- Fast feedback: approvals within a day or two keep the project short.
- Starting smaller: launch the pages that matter, add the booking system next quarter.
The costs people forget
| Item | Typical frequency | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Domain name | Yearly | Register it in your own name, always. |
| Hosting | Monthly or yearly | Cheap shared hosting is slow; it is the most common reason a good site feels bad. |
| Email on your domain | Monthly per user | info@yourbusiness.com beats a Gmail address for trust. |
| SSL certificate | Yearly or free | Non-negotiable; many hosts include it. |
| Care and updates | Monthly | Software updates, backups, security, small changes. Optional, but a site nobody maintains breaks eventually. |
| Payment gateway fees | Per transaction | If you take payments online, the gateway takes a small percentage. |
| Third-party tools | Monthly | Booking software, WhatsApp API provider, email marketing. Ask for the list before you sign. |
Questions to ask before you accept a quote
- Is the price fixed for the written scope, or an estimate?
- Will the domain, hosting and all accounts be in my name?
- Can I edit the content myself afterwards, and will you show me how?
- Which recurring costs will I have, and which are optional?
- What happens in the first 30 days after launch if something is wrong?
- Can I see a scope from a similar project (with the client’s details removed)?
If you want a number for your own business, tell us what you need. One conversation, then a written scope with a fixed price. See how our packages are shaped and what every website project includes.