A local business in Jaipur once showed me three quotes for the same five-page website: ₹4,999, ₹28,000 and ₹1,40,000. “Which one is lying?” he asked. The honest answer was none of them, and all of them, because they were quoting three completely different products under one name. That conversation is why this guide exists. Whether you are a student planning your first portfolio site, a business owner comparing quotes, or a freelancer trying to figure out what to charge, the question “how much does a WordPress website cost in India?” has a real answer, and it is not a single number: it is a short list of costs you can understand in ten minutes. I have built and maintained WordPress sites for clients and my own ventures for 12 years, including the one you are reading; every number below is the 2026 market rate cross-checked against what I actually pay and charge. No sales pitch for the expensive option, no fantasy ₹999 website either.
In 2026 a WordPress website in India costs roughly: ₹2,500 to 6,000 for the whole first year if you build it yourself (domain plus hosting; the software and good themes are free); ₹15,000 to 70,000 as a one-time build by a freelancer for a typical 5 to 10 page business site; and ₹35,000 to ₹3,50,000+ from an agency, with the high end for custom design, WooCommerce stores and integrations. On top of any build, plan for recurring costs of about ₹4,000 to 10,000 a year for domain and hosting renewals, and optionally ₹2,000 to 5,000 a month for professional maintenance. The huge gap between quotes is not lying; it is what is included, what is excluded, and who owns the result. This guide shows you exactly how to tell.
• WordPress powers about 42% of all websites and close to 60% of sites using any content management system (W3Techs, mid-2026)
• Indian freelancers typically charge ₹500 to 1,500 per hour; agencies ₹1,500 to 3,500 per hour, the difference buying design, QA and project management (industry pricing guides 2026)
• Basic maintenance retainers run ₹2,000 to 5,000 a month; comprehensive plans ₹12,000 to 30,000
• A properly built 10-page business site with forms, WhatsApp integration and SEO structure lands around ₹65,000 in documented 2026 agency case studies
• The software itself: ₹0, forever
1. Where Every Rupee Goes: The 7 Cost Components
Every WordPress website quote in the world, from ₹4,999 to ₹4 lakh, is just a combination of these seven items. Learn them once and no quote will ever confuse you again.
1. Domain name (₹700 to 1,500 a year). Your address, like yourbusiness.com or .in. A .in is often cheaper; a .com renews around ₹1,000 to 1,500. Many hosts include year one free. Register it in your own name with your own email; section 4 explains why this single habit saves businesses from disaster.
2. Hosting (₹150 to 300 a month for most beginners). The rented server space your site lives on. Shared or cloud hosting from a reputable provider handles a small business or blog comfortably at this price on longer plans; I run DGMI and client sites on Hostinger at this tier. Sites with heavy traffic or big stores move to managed hosting at ₹2,000 to 15,000 a month, but that is a future problem, not a starting one. The WordPress.com vs WordPress.org guide explains why this self-hosted route beats the “all-inclusive” plans on cost.
3. Theme (₹0 to 5,000 a year). The design foundation. Free themes like Astra, Kadence and GeneratePress are good enough for the vast majority of business sites in 2026, and their pro versions cost about ₹3,000 to 5,000 a year only if you need extra features. Custom-designed themes from agencies are where budgets climb into lakhs.
4. Plugins (₹0 to 15,000 a year). Add-on features: forms, SEO, caching, WhatsApp buttons, booking. Free versions cover most needs. Premium plugins (a page builder pro, a form builder pro, a premium SEO plugin) add ₹3,000 to 15,000 a year, and, importantly, they renew every year.
5. Design and build (₹0 to lakhs). The labour. This is the row that explains the entire quote gap: zero if you learn to do it, ₹15,000 to 70,000 for a freelancer, ₹35,000 to several lakh for an agency. Section 3 breaks down what each tier actually includes.
6. Content and images (₹0 to 25,000). Words and photos. Most quotes assume you supply them; when you do not, copywriting adds ₹5,000 to 25,000 and photography more. Real photos of your business beat stock every time, as we noted in the Business Profile guide.
7. Maintenance (₹0 to 5,000 a month). Updates, backups, security. About fifteen minutes a month if you do it; ₹2,000 to 5,000 a month if a professional does. Skipping it is the most expensive choice of all, as the hidden costs section shows.
2. Cost by Website Type (The Table You Came For)
Realistic 2026 ranges for the total build, by who does the work. DIY figures are annual (domain plus hosting); freelancer and agency figures are one-time build costs, with renewals extra.
| Website type | DIY (per year) | Freelancer (one-time) | Agency (one-time) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Portfolio or personal blog | ₹2,500 to 5,000 | ₹8,000 to 20,000 | Rarely worth it |
| Small business site (5 to 7 pages) | ₹3,000 to 8,000 | ₹15,000 to 35,000 | ₹35,000 to 80,000 |
| Service business with booking, WhatsApp, blog (10+ pages) | ₹5,000 to 12,000 | ₹30,000 to 70,000 | ₹60,000 to 1,50,000 |
| Online store (WooCommerce, up to ~100 products) | ₹6,000 to 15,000 | ₹40,000 to 90,000 | ₹1,00,000 to 3,50,000 |
| Custom platform (LMS, marketplace, integrations) | Not realistic | ₹80,000+ | ₹2,00,000 to 10,00,000+ |
Two things to notice. First, the DIY column is tiny because the software and good themes are free; you are paying only for the two things every website needs. Second, the freelancer-to-agency jump is not double, it is often five to ten times, and section 3 explains what that money buys and when it is worth it.
3. DIY vs Freelancer vs Agency: What You Actually Pay For
DIY (₹2,500 to 15,000 a year, plus your time). You buy hosting and a domain, click “Install WordPress,” pick a free theme, and build. What you pay for: nothing but infrastructure. What you invest: a weekend to learn, then a few hours per page. The honest catch: your first site will look like a first site, and you will make the classic beginner mistakes around speed, SEO settings and mobile layout unless someone shows you. That is exactly why DGMI students build their first site live with guidance: the same ₹2,500 budget, minus the six months of trial and error.
Freelancer (₹15,000 to 70,000 one-time). A good freelancer installs a quality theme, customizes it to your brand, sets up pages, forms, WhatsApp buttons and basic SEO, and hands over a working site in two to four weeks. What you pay for: skill and speed. What is usually excluded, and this is the crucial part: original design (a theme is adapted instead), professional copywriting, deep SEO beyond plugin setup, and support beyond a short warranty. None of that is dishonest; it is why the price is a third of an agency’s. Just know what you are and are not buying.
Agency (₹35,000 to several lakh one-time). Custom design, a project manager, quality testing, performance engineering, a maintenance path, and accountability if things break. Industry breakdowns of a typical ₹65,000 agency quote show most of the extra money going to design, QA and project management: the invisible work that makes a site fast, stable and consistent. Worth it when the website is the business (stores, lead-generation machines, platforms). Overkill for a five-page brochure site, where a skilled freelancer delivers 90% of the value for 30% of the cost.
The rule I give business owners: match the spend to what the website must do. A site that only needs to exist and look trustworthy: DIY or freelancer. A site that must generate leads every day or sell products: freelancer with SEO skills, or agency. A site that runs your operations: agency.
4. 8 Hidden Costs the Quote Did Not Mention
This is the section that saves the most money, because these costs arrive after you have paid and cannot renegotiate.
Three of these deserve a closer look because they hurt the most.
Year-two renewals. That ₹99-a-month hosting price is an introductory rate for the first term; renewal is typically double or more. Not a scam, but a surprise if nobody told you. The fix is simple: buy the longest term you are comfortable with (two to four years) at the intro price, and note the renewal date in your calendar.
Hack cleanup (₹5,000 to 20,000). A site with no updates and no backups will eventually be compromised, and cleanup by a professional costs more than two years of maintenance would have. Worse, hacked content is a Google spam policy violation, which we covered in the August 2026 spam update post, so a hack costs you rankings too. Fifteen minutes a month prevents all of it.
Domain not in your name. The most expensive line on the card, because the price is potentially your entire online identity. I have personally helped three businesses whose former developer registered the domain under his own account and then disappeared, went abroad, or demanded money to release it. One of them lost a domain they had printed on 10,000 visiting cards. The rule has no exceptions: the domain and hosting accounts are registered with your email, your phone, your payment method. The developer gets access; you keep ownership.
🎯 The Cheapest Website Is the One You Can Build Yourself
DGMI students build a complete, self-hosted WordPress website as their first project, then learn the SEO, ads and analytics that make it earn. A ₹2,500 site plus a skill worth ₹15,000 to 50,000 per client. See how in a 100% practical crash course class, FREE this week.
5. Three Real Budgets, Line by Line
Numbers become real when attached to people. These three are composites of actual DGMI student and client projects, with details changed.
Budget 1: Rohit, final-year student, portfolio site (DIY). Domain (.in) ₹699 for year one. Hosting on a 2-year plan at about ₹179 a month, paid upfront. Theme: Astra free. Plugins: all free (SEO, forms, caching). Content: his own. Total year one: about ₹2,850, built over two weekend sessions with guidance. Six months later that portfolio site landed him his first internship, because the interviewer could see his GA4 setup and his blog posts ranking. Cost per outcome: unbeatable.
Budget 2: Meera, interior designer in Jaipur, 7-page business site (freelancer). Domain and hosting registered in her name: ₹4,200 for year one. Build by a DGMI-trained freelancer: ₹24,000, including Astra Pro (₹3,500, first year included), a portfolio gallery, WhatsApp click-to-chat, an enquiry form landing on a thank-you page for tracking, and basic on-page SEO. Photography: her own. Maintenance: ₹2,500 a month, agreed upfront. Year-one total: about ₹58,000 including 12 months of maintenance. Her Google Business Profile plus this site now bring three to five enquiries a week; the site paid for itself in the first project it won.
Budget 3: A small D2C skincare brand, WooCommerce store (agency). Domain, business hosting and email: ₹18,000 a year. Agency build with custom design, payment gateway, shipping integration, product photography direction and speed optimization: ₹1,40,000. Premium plugins and renewals: ₹12,000 a year. Maintenance: ₹8,000 a month. Year-one total: roughly ₹2,66,000. Expensive? Compared to a brochure site, yes. Compared to the ₹10 to 15 lakh they would pay in marketplace commissions on the same sales, it was the cheapest sales channel they had.
6. How to Pay Less Without Regretting It
Use a quality free theme, not custom design. Astra, Kadence or GeneratePress with a light builder cover 80% of business sites and cut design cost by more than half; even agencies increasingly recommend this. Custom design is for brands whose look is the product.
Buy hosting for two to four years at the intro price. The single biggest recurring saving available to beginners, and it removes the year-two surprise entirely.
Write your own content. Nobody knows your business like you, and a good freelancer can polish rough drafts far cheaper than writing from zero. Our 100 prompts library has prompts built for exactly this, with the honesty rules that keep AI-assisted content useful.
Resist plugin bloat. Every premium plugin is a yearly bill and a speed cost. Ask “what happens if I do not have this?” before buying; the answer is usually “nothing.”
Learn to do the maintenance. Fifteen minutes a month saves ₹24,000 to 60,000 a year in retainers. It is genuinely easy, and we teach it in the first week of the course.
Do not save money on ownership. Never let anyone else register your domain or hosting to “make it easier.” The ₹500 of convenience can cost the whole business.
7. For Freelancers: How to Price a WordPress Website
If you are reading this from the other side, wondering what to charge, here is the 2026 rate card I share with students starting out, drawn from current market data and our own client work.
Four pricing rules that took me years to learn. Price the outcome, not the hours: a client pays ₹25,000 for a site that brings enquiries, not for 30 hours of your time; never show an hourly breakdown for project work. Scope in writing: number of pages, forms, integrations, revisions, and what is excluded (content, photos, ongoing SEO); scope creep is where freelancers lose money. Always take 40 to 50% advance, which filters non-serious clients and funds your hosting and theme purchases on their behalf. And attach maintenance to every build: a ₹2,500-a-month retainer on ten sites is ₹25,000 of predictable monthly income, which is how website work becomes a business rather than a series of gigs. The complete client-getting and pricing system is in our SEO business checklist and the freelance clients guide.
8. Red Flags in a Website Quote
“Complete website for ₹2,999.” Below about ₹8,000, a build cannot include real customization, testing or support. You are buying an unedited template, and usually a hosting reseller markup hidden in year two.
No mention of who owns the domain and hosting. Ask directly. If the answer is anything other than “you, in your own accounts,” walk away.
No maintenance conversation. A professional always asks who will handle updates after launch. Silence means they have not thought about it, or they plan to bill you at emergency rates later.
Everything built in a builder you cannot access. Some vendors build on their own proprietary platform “on top of WordPress,” so leaving them means starting over. Ask: “If I leave, do I keep a normal WordPress site I can move anywhere?”
No thank-you page, no tracking, no SEO settings. A site without measurement is a brochure, not a marketing tool. If the quote does not mention GA4, Search Console or basic SEO setup, you will pay someone else to add them, as our analytics guide explains.
9. FAQ
How much does a basic WordPress website cost in India?
Built yourself: about ₹2,500 to 6,000 for the first year, covering a domain and hosting, with the software and a good theme free. Built by a freelancer: ₹15,000 to 35,000 one-time for a 5 to 7 page business site, plus ₹4,000 to 10,000 a year in renewals. Agencies start around ₹35,000 for the same scope with design and process included.
Is WordPress free?
The software is free and open source, forever. What costs money is what every website needs regardless of platform: a domain (₹700 to 1,500 a year) and hosting (₹150 to 300 a month for beginners). Optional premium themes and plugins add ₹3,000 to 15,000 a year, and professional design or maintenance are separate services. See the WordPress.com vs WordPress.org guide for why the self-hosted version is the affordable one.
What are the yearly recurring costs of a WordPress website?
For a typical small site: domain renewal ₹700 to 1,500, hosting ₹2,000 to 4,000 (more at year-two renewal rates unless you prepaid), and premium plugin or theme renewals ₹0 to 15,000. Optional professional maintenance adds ₹24,000 to 60,000 a year. Doing maintenance yourself and prepaying hosting keeps most sites under ₹6,000 a year.
How much does an e-commerce WordPress website cost in India?
A small WooCommerce store with up to about 100 products costs ₹40,000 to 90,000 from a freelancer and ₹1,00,000 to 3,50,000 from an agency with custom design, payment gateway, shipping integration and speed work. Recurring costs are higher too: business hosting, premium plugins and maintenance typically add ₹40,000 to 1,00,000 a year. Compare that against marketplace commissions before deciding it is expensive.
Freelancer or agency: which should I choose?
Freelancer for brochure sites, portfolios and most small business sites: 90% of the value at about a third of the cost. Agency when the website runs the business: stores, lead-generation machines, custom platforms, where design quality, testing and accountability justify the price. In both cases, verify skill through past work, and insist on owning your domain and hosting.
How much should I charge as a beginner WordPress freelancer?
Start around ₹15,000 to 25,000 for a 5 to 7 page business site, ₹6,000 to 15,000 for a single landing page, and ₹2,000 to 3,000 a month for maintenance, with a 40 to 50% advance. Raise prices after every three to five completed projects with results you can show. Price outcomes, scope in writing, and attach maintenance to every build.
Can I build a WordPress website myself without coding?
Yes. One-click installers, free themes like Astra and visual editors have removed the need for code for standard business sites. The learning curve is a weekend for basics and a few weeks for confidence, and the main risks are beginner mistakes in speed, SEO settings and mobile layout, which guided training prevents. Every DGMI student builds a self-hosted site as their first project for exactly this reason.
Why do quotes for the same website vary so much?
Because they include different things. A ₹15,000 freelancer quote typically excludes original design, copywriting, deep SEO and long-term support; a ₹65,000 agency quote includes design, testing and project management. Neither is lying. Compare quotes line by line against the 7 components in section 1, and ask specifically what is excluded and who owns the domain and hosting.
🚀 Turn Website Costs Into Website Income
DGMI’s 3-month Digital Marketing + AI Course (₹29,999) teaches you to build WordPress websites, then rank them, run ads on them, track them and sell that skill, live and 1:1, with 9+ real projects and worldwide-recognized certification. One client project repays the fee. Start with a free practical crash course class.
Questions? Contact us · hello@dgmi.in · +91 96940 03464
Sources: W3Techs: WordPress usage statistics · QTC Infotech: WordPress website cost guide India 2026 · Zethic: WordPress development cost India 2026 · Akoode: WordPress development and maintenance costs 2026 · WordPress.org: Astra theme (free)
Keep learning: the WordPress.com vs WordPress.org guide · the SEO business checklist · the freelance clients guide · the GA4 and Search Console guide · the SEO checklist · the 100 AI prompts library · the how to choose an institute guide · discuss in the DGMI Community.