A WordPress website for an Indian business typically costs ₹15,000–₹35,000 for a simple 5–7 page site on a ready-made theme, ₹40,000–₹1,00,000 for a professionally designed site with a blog and lead capture, and ₹1,00,000–₹3,00,000 or more for a custom theme, a large store or heavy integrations. After launch, most business sites cost roughly ₹4,000–₹50,000 a year to keep running. WordPress itself is free; the money goes on everything around it.
These are market ranges as of 2026, excluding GST, not a rate card.
Where the money goes: seven line items
Every WordPress quote, from a ₹12,000 freelancer to a ₹3 lakh agency, mixes the same seven things in different amounts. (This guide covers self-hosted WordPress from wordpress.org; WordPress.com is a separate hosted service with its own monthly plans.)
| Line item | Typical range (2026) | How it is paid |
|---|---|---|
| Domain (.com or .in) | ₹600–₹1,500 | Yearly |
| Hosting | ₹2,000–₹30,000 | Yearly |
| Theme | ₹0 (free) to ₹2,00,000 (custom) | One-time, or yearly for many premium licences |
| Premium plugins | ₹0–₹30,000 | Mostly yearly |
| Developer time | ₹10,000–₹2,00,000 or more | One-time |
| Content (words and photos) | ₹0 if you write it yourself | One-time |
| Maintenance | ₹0 (DIY) to ₹5,000 a month | Monthly or yearly |
Theme: free, premium or custom
The theme controls how the site looks and, more than most owners realise, how fast it loads.
- Free themes, such as the free versions of Astra, Kadence or GeneratePress, cost nothing and are perfectly good for a simple site. The limits are design options, not quality.
- Premium themes cost roughly ₹3,000–₹6,000. Some are one-time purchases; many are yearly licences that stop receiving updates when you stop paying. Ask which you are getting.
- Custom themes are designed and coded for your business, usually ₹40,000–₹2,00,000 depending on how many distinct page layouts you need. You get a lighter site that looks like nobody else’s, but structural changes later need a competent developer.
Plugins and their yearly licences
A small business site can run entirely on free plugins. Paid versions are yearly licences, usually priced in US dollars, so rupee costs move with the exchange rate. Rough 2026 figures for one site:
- Page builder (Elementor Pro and similar): about ₹5,000–₹8,000 a year. The built-in block editor is free and enough for many sites.
- SEO plugin, pro version: about ₹5,000–₹9,000 a year. The free versions of Yoast or Rank Math cover what most sites need.
- Advanced forms: about ₹4,000–₹15,000 a year, needed only for payments, conditional logic or sending leads into a CRM.
- Caching and backups: often free or included with good hosting; paid tools cost about ₹5,000–₹7,000 a year each.
- WooCommerce extensions for subscriptions, bookings or advanced shipping: about ₹4,000–₹25,000 a year each. A store can quietly collect five or six of these.
Two warnings. A lapsed licence does not break the site overnight, but it stops updates, and outdated plugins are among the commonest ways WordPress sites get hacked. And some cheap quotes include “premium” plugins with no renewal cost because they are nulled (pirated) copies, a well-known route for malware. For every paid plugin, ask whose account holds the licence and when it renews.
Hosting tiers
- Shared hosting, about ₹2,000–₹6,000 a year: fine for a brochure site with modest traffic.
- Managed WordPress or cloud hosting, about ₹8,000–₹30,000 a year: faster, usually with staging, daily backups and better support. Worth it for lead-generating sites and small stores.
- VPS or dedicated cloud server, from about ₹1,500 a month: for busy stores and high-traffic sites, and only if someone is clearly responsible for the server.
Our guide to web hosting cost in India compares these tiers in more detail.
Developer time
The largest and most variable line. A premium theme set up with five to seven pages is roughly 15–40 hours of work; a custom design with a blog, lead forms wired to WhatsApp or a CRM, and speed tuning is 50–120 hours; a custom theme with integrations can pass 200. Agencies cost more per hour than freelancers but usually include design, project management and testing, so compare scope and hours, not just totals.
Content
Words and photographs are the cost most budgets forget. Writing your own copy is free but slow, and waiting for it often delays launch by weeks. Hiring a writer or photographer is a separate cost, so decide before you sign; “client to provide content” appears in almost every quote.
Maintenance
WordPress, themes and plugins update constantly. Someone has to apply the updates, check nothing broke, keep off-site backups and renew licences. Doing it yourself costs an hour or two a month; freelancers and agencies typically charge ₹1,000–₹5,000 a month depending on what is covered.
A worked example
A clinic wants 10 pages, a blog, an appointment enquiry form and a WhatsApp button on managed hosting. Illustrative first-year figures:
- Domain: ₹1,000
- Managed hosting: ₹10,000
- Premium theme (yearly licence): ₹5,000
- Paid form and backup plugins: ₹8,000
- Design and build, about 60 hours: ₹45,000
- Maintenance at ₹2,000 a month: ₹24,000
That is about ₹93,000 in year one and ₹48,000 a year after that, before GST. With free plugins, shared hosting and in-house updates, the same clinic could bring year one closer to ₹55,000, which is a reasonable choice if someone reliable owns the updates.
Three budget bands and what each buys
| Band | Build cost | Yearly running cost | What it buys | Right for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | ₹15,000–₹35,000 | ₹4,000–₹10,000 | Free or premium theme, 5–7 pages, free plugins, contact form, WhatsApp button, shared hosting, basic on-page SEO settings | Consultants, service businesses and local shops that need a credible site |
| Professional | ₹40,000–₹1,00,000 | ₹15,000–₹50,000 | Custom design on a lightweight theme, 10–20 pages, blog, lead forms linked to WhatsApp or a CRM, speed work, managed hosting, a few paid licences, training to edit pages | Businesses that expect the site to bring in leads from search and ads |
| Custom | ₹1,00,000–₹3,00,000+ | ₹40,000–₹1,20,000 | Custom theme, custom content types (listings, projects, courses), large WooCommerce catalogue, CRM or ERP integrations, multiple languages, staging site, maintenance contract | Stores, portals and content-heavy brands |
The main risk at Starter is nobody minding updates; at Professional, paying for licences you do not need; at Custom, forcing WordPress to do what a custom build or Shopify would do better.
For comparison, our pricing at Codelith Lab is ₹24,999 for a business website of up to 7 pages, ₹49,999 for Business Pro + SEO with up to 15 pages and a blog, and ₹99,999 for an e-commerce store, all plus 18% GST, with the domain, hosting and every login created in your name. The website development page lists what each includes, or enter your own requirements in the website cost calculator for an itemised estimate.
Hidden costs that make a cheap quote expensive
- Renewal pricing. Hosting and domains sold at a first-year discount often renew at two to three times the price.
- Licences in someone else’s name. If the developer bought the theme or plugins on their account, your updates stop when the relationship does.
- Page-builder lock-in. Pages built heavily in one page builder rarely move cleanly to another theme; switching usually means rebuilding them.
- Plugin pile-up. Thirty plugins doing what eight could makes the site slower, harder to update and more exposed.
- Logins held by the agency. If the domain or hosting is registered to them, leaving later costs time and sometimes money.
Checklist: what to ask before you accept a WordPress quote
- Which theme is it — free, premium or custom — and whose account holds the licence?
- Which paid plugins are included, and what does each cost to renew every year?
- Which hosting plan, and what are the first-year and renewal prices?
- Will the domain, hosting and WordPress admin be in my name, with full administrator access?
- How many pages, design options and revision rounds are included?
- What mobile page-speed target will the site meet, and how will it be tested?
- Who handles updates and backups after launch, and at what monthly cost?
- Is GST included in the quote or added on top?
When WordPress is the right choice, and when it is not
WordPress fits when
- The site is mainly pages and articles: a service business, clinic, school or manufacturer showing (not selling) products.
- You plan to publish regularly, grow search traffic and edit pages yourself without calling a developer every time.
- You want freedom to change vendors. WordPress developers are easy to find across India, so you are not tied to whoever built it.
Shopify is usually better when
Selling products online is the main job of the site. WooCommerce can run a good store, but hosting, updates and security are then your job. Shopify handles those for a monthly plan fee plus app subscriptions and, depending on the plan and payment gateway, a per-sale transaction fee; check the current terms. For a small catalogue with no in-house technical help, Shopify is often less stressful even when it costs more to run. Our Shopify vs WooCommerce comparison works through the numbers.
A custom build is better when
The site is really an application: customer logins and dashboards, complex booking or pricing rules, a multi-vendor marketplace, or data that must sync with your ERP in real time. WordPress can be pushed into these, but you end up paying developers to fight the platform, and every update carries risk. A custom build costs more up front (our pricing for a web app starts at ₹1,49,999 plus GST) but does exactly what the business needs.
Sometimes you need less than WordPress
If you need one page with your services, phone number and a WhatsApp button that rarely changes, a simple static page plus a well-kept Google Business Profile may be enough for a few thousand rupees. Move to WordPress when you start publishing.
The short version
- As of 2026, a simple WordPress site costs ₹15,000–₹35,000 to build, a professional lead-generating site ₹40,000–₹1,00,000, and a custom build or store ₹1,00,000 and up.
- Budget for running costs every year — domain, hosting, licences and updates — roughly ₹4,000–₹50,000 for most business sites.
- Free themes and plugins are fine for many sites. Pay for licences only when a feature needs one, and keep every licence and login in your own name.
- Pick WordPress for content-led sites, Shopify when selling products is the main job, and a custom build when the site is really an application.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is WordPress free to use in India?
The WordPress software is free and open source, and you can download and use it without paying anyone. What you pay for is everything around it: a domain name, hosting to run it on, any premium theme or plugin licences, and the time of whoever builds and maintains it. A basic site can be built entirely with free themes and plugins, so the only unavoidable costs are the domain and hosting, roughly ₹3,000–₹7,000 a year for a small site.
How much does a WordPress website cost per year to run?
For a small business site on shared hosting with free plugins, expect roughly ₹4,000–₹10,000 a year for the domain and hosting. A lead-generating site on managed hosting with a few premium licences usually runs ₹15,000–₹50,000 a year, more if you pay someone for monthly maintenance. Stores with several WooCommerce extensions cost more again. These are 2026 ranges; licence prices are mostly set in US dollars, so they shift with the exchange rate.
Should I buy a premium WordPress theme or get a custom one?
A good premium theme, around ₹3,000–₹6,000, is the sensible choice for most small and mid-sized businesses. It is tested, updated and fast enough when set up properly. A custom theme, often ₹40,000 or more of design and development, makes sense when your brand needs a distinctive look, when you have unusual content types, or when speed matters enough to strip out everything you do not use. Whichever you pick, make sure the licence is in your name.
Can a WordPress website handle an online store?
Yes. WooCommerce, the free WordPress store plugin, runs many Indian online shops and connects to the main Indian payment gateways. The catch is responsibility: you or your developer handle hosting, updates, security and plugin compatibility, and useful extensions for subscriptions, bookings or advanced shipping carry yearly licences. For a small catalogue with no technical help, Shopify is often less work. For a large catalogue or custom checkout rules, WooCommerce gives you more control.
Why do WordPress quotes in India range from ₹10,000 to ₹3 lakh?
Because they buy very different amounts of the same things. A low quote usually means a free or premium theme with your logo and text dropped in, shared hosting and little or no support after launch. A higher quote pays for custom design, more pages, integrations, speed work, testing, content help and ongoing maintenance. Neither is wrong. Ask each vendor to list the theme, paid plugins, hosting plan, number of pages and post-launch support, and compare those rather than the total.
