How much does an e-commerce website cost in India? (2026 guide)
Every founder we meet asks the same first question: "How much will this cost me?" The honest answer is it depends — but that's a cop-out. Here's what actually costs what, in India, in 2026, with numbers we've seen and paid ourselves.
The four kinds of e-commerce build
Before you can compare quotes, you need to understand the four buckets a build can fall into. Cost differences within a bucket are usually small; differences across buckets are huge.
| Bucket | What it is | Build cost (India, 2026) | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. DIY templates | You buy a Shopify/WooCommerce theme, add products, tweak colors. No developer involved. | ₹15,000 – ₹40,000 | Solo founders testing an idea, low product count, limited time budget for design |
| 2. Agency-built off-the-shelf | An agency builds on Shopify or WooCommerce with a customised theme and app integrations. | ₹89,000 – ₹3,00,000 | Serious D2C brands, 1–3 product lines, expecting real traffic within 90 days |
| 3. Custom-coded stores | Bespoke back-end (Laravel, Django, Node), custom front-end. Full control, no platform lock-in. | ₹4,00,000 – ₹15,00,000 | Regulated categories, multi-vendor marketplaces, unusual checkout flows, large catalogs |
| 4. Headless commerce | Commerce engine (Shopify+, Medusa, commercetools) + custom front-end (Next.js, Nuxt). | ₹8,00,000+ | Brands scaling past ₹5Cr GMV, needing performance + storytelling + omnichannel |
The real Shopify cost breakdown for Indian brands
Shopify's platform fee is only part of the picture. Here's the full monthly bill for a typical Indian D2C store doing about ₹5L monthly GMV:
| Line item | Monthly cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Shopify Basic plan | ₹2,050 (~$25) | Reverse-charge GST applies if GST-registered |
| Domain (annualised) | ₹100 | ~₹1,200/year for a .com or .in |
| Payment gateway (Razorpay/Cashfree) | 2% of GMV | ₹10,000 on ₹5L GMV; higher for international |
| Email marketing (Klaviyo starter) | ₹1,700 | Or Mailchimp free tier for <2K contacts |
| Reviews app (Judge.me / Yotpo) | ₹1,500 | Or free tier with reduced features |
| Shipping/logistics app (Shiprocket) | ₹1,000 | Free tier available, paid unlocks features |
| Analytics/heatmap (Microsoft Clarity) | Free | Free forever; adequate for early stage |
| GST invoice app | ₹800 | e.g. GST Invoice by Webplanex |
| Total monthly | ~₹17,150 | Excludes ad spend and content costs |
The real WooCommerce cost breakdown
WooCommerce is free — but the stack around it isn't. Here's a fair-comparison monthly bill for a similar ₹5L/mo store:
| Line item | Monthly cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Managed WordPress hosting (Cloudways, Kinsta) | ₹1,500 – ₹5,000 | Shared hosting is a false economy; Woo needs real resources |
| SSL certificate | Free (Let's Encrypt) | Included with most hosts |
| Premium theme (annualised) | ₹500 | ~₹6,000/year for Astra Pro or Blocksy Pro |
| Payment gateway (Razorpay) | 2% of GMV | Same as Shopify |
| Backup + security (BlogVault, WordFence) | ₹800 | Non-negotiable for e-commerce |
| Email marketing (MailerLite) | Free tier – ₹1,000 | Cheaper than Klaviyo starter |
| Booking/shipping plugins | ₹500 – ₹1,500 | Woo India Shiprocket plugin, etc. |
| Maintenance retainer (updates + fixes) | ₹5,000 – ₹10,000 | You'll want this by month 3 |
| Total monthly | ~₹10,300 – ₹19,800 | Cheaper on paper, similar in practice |
Hidden costs nobody warns you about
The quotes you'll get from most agencies stop at "build cost". Here's what shows up in months 2–6 and blows the budget for founders who didn't plan:
Payment gateway transaction fees
Razorpay and Cashfree charge 2% on domestic UPI/cards and 3% on international cards. AmEx and international wallets can hit 4.5%. On ₹10L GMV, that's ₹20,000–₹30,000/month straight to the gateway before you even count your platform fee.
Refunds and chargebacks
Gateways charge ₹100–₹300 per refund and can hold ₹1,500–₹4,000 per chargeback. Set aside 3% of GMV in a "refund float" account so you're never surprised.
Product photography
A single day of professional product photography in India runs ₹15,000–₹40,000 per session (10–30 SKUs). Model shoots start at ₹50,000/day. This is a real cost most founders forget.
Content writing
Good product descriptions, category pages, and landing pages cost ₹1.5 – ₹5 per word from a senior copywriter in India. A launch with 50 SKUs + 5 landing pages is typically ₹25,000–₹80,000 in content alone.
SEO and content marketing to actually get traffic
A store without traffic doesn't sell. Budget ₹25,000 – ₹75,000/month for ongoing SEO or paid ads once you launch. This is not optional if you want revenue in the first 6 months.
GST compliance
Every invoice must be GST-compliant. Every state you ship to has different HSN codes and state-code logic. Expect ₹800–₹3,000/month for compliance apps + ₹5,000–₹15,000/month for a CA if you go multi-state.
ROI framework — when does the site pay for itself?
A build of ₹1.5L pays itself back at a net margin of ₹1.5L in generated profit. If your net margin per sale is ₹500 (say a ₹1,500 product with 33% margin), you need 300 orders to break even on the build alone.
At an average conversion rate of 1.5% for D2C stores in India, that's roughly 20,000 qualified visitors to break even. If you're spending ₹50,000/month on ads with a ₹20 CPC, that's 2,500 visitors/month → payback in about 8 months.
What we'd actually recommend for each stage
- Pre-revenue idea validation — Instamojo store or basic Shopify theme, ₹15K–₹30K total. Don't over-invest until you have a customer.
- Post-first-100-orders — Agency-built Shopify or WooCommerce, ₹89K–₹1.5L. Get proper analytics, SEO foundations, and a real brand look.
- ₹50L+ annual GMV — Custom theme with performance optimisation, ₹1.5L–₹3L. Invest in CRO, headless-lite front-end if speed is a bottleneck.
- ₹5Cr+ annual GMV, multiple channels — Full headless build or Shopify Plus, ₹8L+. This is a scale problem, not a starting-out one.
The single biggest mistake we see
Founders pick the wrong bucket and either underspend (a DIY store when they need agency-grade UX to convert their traffic) or overspend (a custom build when Shopify would've done it in 1/5 the time and cost).
The right question isn't "how much does an e-commerce website cost?". It's "what bucket am I in, given my traffic plan and gross margin?" — answer that first, then get quotes within the bucket.
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