Plus recurring (every site): domain ~₹800–₹1,500/yr · hosting ₹3,000–₹36,000/yr · maintenance (optional AMC) ₹6,000–₹24,000/yr · premium plugins/licences ₹0–₹15,000/yr.

A professional build's cost splits roughly:

• Discovery & strategy (10–15%): understanding your business, customers, and conversion goals — the difference between a site and a brochure
• Design/UX (20–30%): custom vs template-customised vs template-as-is — the single biggest price lever
• Development (30–40%): build, responsiveness, forms/WhatsApp integrations, payment gateways (Razorpay/PayU), speed configuration
• Content (0–15%): who writes the words? "Client provides content" quotes are cheaper — and stall for months when clients can't deliver; professional copy (or AI-assisted professional copy) costs but ships
• SEO foundation (5–15%): structure, schema, metadata, GSC/analytics setup, AEO-ready formatting — cheap quotes skip this entirely
• Testing, training, launch (5–10%)

1. Template vs custom: ₹15,000 buys a template with your logo swapped in; ₹80,000 buys design around your customers and conversion path. Both are "a website."
2. Freelancer vs agency vs studio: solo freelancers (₹10,000–₹50,000 typical) can be excellent value with the right person; agencies (₹40,000–₹2,00,000+) price in teams, process, accountability, and post-launch support
3. What's excluded: the ₹12,000 quote often excludes hosting setup, SSL, speed work, SEO basics, content, revisions beyond two, and any support — each becoming a billable "extra" later. Total-cost the quote, not the headline.
4. Copy-paste vs performance: sites built to exist vs sites built to rank and convert (speed engineering, schema, CRO patterns, analytics) are different products at different prices
5. City/overhead effects: metro agencies price higher than Tier-2 studios for comparable work — geography arbitrage is real and legitimate

• Who owns the domain and hosting accounts? (You should. Always.) Developer-owned domains are the #1 hostage situation in Indian web dev
• Renewal pricing after year-one bundles ("free hosting" year one, ₹12,000/yr after)
• Stock photos/licences, premium plugin renewals, page-builder licences
• Revision limits and hourly rates beyond them
• Content migration, email setup, training
• GST (18% on services — a ₹50,000 quote is ₹59,000 invoiced)

Match the site to the job:

• Validating an idea → AI builder/landing page (₹5,000–₹15,000)
• Local service credibility + WhatsApp enquiries → small business site (₹25,000–₹45,000)
• Competing on Google for real revenue → professional SEO-ready build (₹50,000–₹90,000) — the tier where speed, content, schema, and CRO are included, not extras
• Selling products seriously → WooCommerce at ₹60,000+ (platform economics in our WordPress vs Shopify comparison)

Evaluate quotes on: live portfolio sites you can speed-test yourself (PageSpeed their work), what's itemised in writing, ownership terms, post-launch support terms, and whether they ask about your business before quoting. A developer who quotes without questions is pricing a template, whatever they call it.

The value frame: a ₹60,000 site generating three extra clients monthly at ₹15,000 average pays for itself in 45 days — while a ₹12,000 site generating nothing costs infinitely more. Websites are priced as expenses but perform as assets (or don't).