“How much will it cost?” is the first question every founder asks, and most agencies dodge it until they have your phone number. This guide does not. Below are the real 2026 rupee ranges for websites and mobile apps built in India, what sits inside each band, the running costs nobody quotes, and how to tell a serious quote from a cheap one.
Every number here is a starting point that BytePatch publishes openly on its web development and app development pages. Your final figure depends on scope and is fixed in writing after a free discovery call.
The short answer
| What you are building | Typical 2026 range | Realistic timeline |
|---|---|---|
| Landing page or small brochure site | ₹13,000 – ₹25,000 | 1–2 weeks |
| Business website with a CMS | ₹28,000 – ₹70,000 | 3–6 weeks |
| Custom web application | ₹1,20,000 + | 8–16 weeks |
| E-commerce store | ₹45,000 – ₹1,50,000 | 4–10 weeks |
| Mobile app MVP (iOS + Android) | ₹26,000 – ₹60,000 | 4–8 weeks |
| Production mobile app | ₹1,00,000 + | 12–20 weeks |
If a quote sits far below the bottom of these ranges, something in the scope is missing. It is usually security, testing, or the second half of the content.
What actually drives the price
Two projects both described as “a website” can differ tenfold. Four things account for almost all of that gap.
1. Scope — how many distinct things exist
Not page count. Distinct page count. Twelve product pages driven by one template is one design problem; four pages that each look different is four. The same applies to app screens. Ask any agency to quote by unique templates, not by pages, and the number becomes comparable across vendors.
2. Complexity — what happens behind the screen
A brochure site renders content. An application holds state. The moment you need accounts, roles, payments, a dashboard, a search index, file uploads or a third-party integration, you have crossed into software, and the cost structure changes with it. Payment gateway integration alone — Razorpay or PayU, with webhooks, reconciliation and failure handling done properly — is typically ₹15,000 to ₹40,000 of work on its own.
3. Design — template, customised, or drawn from scratch
A licensed template costs a few thousand rupees and days of adaptation. A bespoke design system with its own type scale, components and motion is weeks of work before a line of production code is written. Both are legitimate; they are simply not the same purchase.
4. Timeline — speed is a line item
Compressing a six-week build into three does not remove work, it adds people and overlap. Expect a 25 to 40 percent premium for genuine express delivery, and be suspicious of anyone who offers compression for free.
Website cost in India, band by band
Landing page or small site — from ₹13,000
A handful of pages, responsive on every screen size, a working contact form, basic on-page SEO and analytics. Right for validating an idea, running ads to a single offer, or replacing a business listing with something you own.
- Included: custom responsive layout, contact form, meta tags, sitemap, SSL, analytics
- Usually excluded: a CMS you can edit yourself, blog infrastructure, multi-language
- Watch for: quotes that omit hosting setup and DNS, then bill it afterwards
Business website with a CMS — ₹28,000 to ₹70,000
Around six to twelve templates, a content management system so your team edits copy without a developer, structured data, and integrations with the tools you already run — a CRM, a mailing list, a booking calendar. This is where most established Indian SMEs land.
- Included: CMS, blog, structured data, form routing, performance budget, staging environment
- Usually excluded: content writing, professional photography, ongoing SEO retainer
- Watch for: “unlimited pages” — it means one template stretched thin
Custom web application — from ₹1,20,000
Authentication, roles and permissions, a database you own, an API, dashboards, background jobs, and a deployment pipeline. At this tier you are commissioning software, and the questions that matter shift from “how many pages” to who can see what, what happens when a payment half-completes, and how you recover from a bad deploy.
At this price point, insist that a security review is named in the scope rather than assumed. A permissions bug found after launch in a system holding customer data is far more expensive than the review that would have caught it. See the OWASP Top 10 for what that review should cover, and the VMITR build for how subscription state can drive an entire permission model.
Mobile app cost in India, band by band
| Tier | From | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| MVP / single purpose | ₹26,000 | Five to eight screens, cross-platform via React Native, core flow only, one environment |
| Production app | ₹57,000 | Custom UI, accounts, push notifications, several integrations, offline handling, both stores |
| Complex / scalable | ₹1,00,000 + | Real-time features, in-app payments, native modules, automated tests, staged rollout |
Cross-platform frameworks such as React Native and Flutter typically save 30 to 40 percent against building the same app twice natively. They are the right default. They stop being the right default when you need heavy camera work, Bluetooth peripherals, background location or platform-specific hardware access, at which point native modules erode the saving.
The costs nobody puts in the quote
Build cost is the beginning. These recur, and leaving them out of a budget is the most common planning mistake we see.
| Item | Typical annual cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Domain name | ₹800 – ₹1,500 | More for a premium .in or .com |
| Hosting | ₹3,000 – ₹30,000 | Shared at the low end; managed cloud at the high end |
| SSL certificate | ₹0 | Let's Encrypt is free and adequate for almost everyone |
| Apple Developer Program | ₹~8,900 | Per year, mandatory to ship on iOS |
| Google Play registration | ₹~2,100 | One-off, not annual |
| Maintenance & updates | 15–20% of build | Dependency patches, OS changes, small fixes |
| Transactional email | ₹0 – ₹12,000 | Free tiers cover low volume |
| Payment gateway | 2% + GST per txn | Charged on revenue, not upfront |
The maintenance line is the one to argue about before signing, not after. A codebase that is never patched becomes a liability within about eighteen months — and under India’s DPDP Act, an unpatched vulnerability that leaks personal data is now a reportable event with financial consequences. Our DPDP compliance checklist covers what that obligation actually requires.
Freelancer, agency, or a small senior studio?
| Option | Typical rate | Best for / risk |
|---|---|---|
| Freelancer | ₹400 – ₹1,500 / hr | Best for well-defined single-skill work. Risk: one person, no cover, availability gaps. |
| Large agency | ₹2,000 – ₹5,000 / hr | Best for multi-team programmes. Risk: seniors sell, juniors build, you pay for the overhead. |
| Small senior studio | ₹1,200 – ₹2,500 / hr | Best for one serious product. Risk: limited capacity, so booking lead time is real. |
Rates in Delhi NCR, Mumbai and Bangalore run roughly 20 to 30 percent above Tier 2 cities for equivalent skill. That gap is narrowing as remote delivery normalises, and location matters far less than whether the people who scoped your project are the people who build it. We publish our own positioning on that openly on the Gurugram and Noida pages.
How to read a quote
Ask these five questions before comparing any two numbers. They surface almost every hidden assumption that turns a cheap quote into an expensive project.
- What is the fixed price, and what re-opens it? A fixed price with unlimited change requests is not fixed. A fixed price with a written change procedure is.
- Who owns the code and the accounts? Domain, hosting, repository, app store listings and analytics should all be in your name from day one, not transferred later.
- Is content included? Copywriting and photography are commonly excluded and commonly assumed. Confirm which.
- What happens after launch? Get the warranty period, the response time and the maintenance rate in writing before you sign, not when something breaks.
- What security work is in scope? Ask specifically: dependency scanning, security headers, authentication review, and whether a retest is included after fixes.
Why the cheapest quote often costs the most
The lowest bid is rarely cheaper work; it is usually less work. What tends to be missing is invisible on day one and expensive on day two hundred: no test coverage, no dependency management, secrets committed to the repository, an admin panel with no rate limiting, and no environment separation between what customers touch and what the developer experiments on.
Rebuilding a site or an app because the first one could not be extended typically costs 1.5 to 2 times the original quote, and the months lost cost more than either. The useful comparison is never quote against quote. It is quote against what you will own in two years.
Frequently asked questions
Why do quotes for the same brief vary so much?
Because the brief is doing less work than it appears to. “An e-commerce site” can mean a hosted Shopify theme or a custom catalogue with warehouse integration. Give every vendor the same written scope — templates, integrations, user roles, content ownership — and the spread between quotes narrows sharply.
Should I pay a deposit?
Yes, and 30 to 50 percent upfront is normal in India. What is not normal is paying the full amount before launch. Tie the remaining payments to milestones you can see and check yourself.
How long does a website take?
A small site takes one to two weeks, a CMS-backed business site three to six, and a custom application eight to sixteen. The single biggest cause of overrun is not development. It is waiting for content and for feedback, so agree a review turnaround in the schedule.
Is GST included in these prices?
Assume not, unless a quote says so explicitly. GST on software services in India is 18 percent, so a ₹50,000 quote is ₹59,000 payable. Always ask whether a figure is inclusive.
What does BytePatch charge?
Websites from ₹13,000, mobile apps from ₹26,000, and security engagements from ₹16,000, all published openly on the services page with a full sample quotation on the penetration testing page. Every engagement is fixed in writing after a free discovery call, and scope changes are re-quoted in writing rather than billed as a surprise at the end.
Tell us the scope and get a fixed price in writing within 24 hours. Free discovery call, no obligation.
Prices are indicative starting points in INR; your final quote depends on scope and is confirmed after a free discovery call.