Straight answers with real numbers — no "it depends", no quote-gated PDFs. These are the same price bands and timelines we work from ourselves.
| What you're building | Cost in India | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Business website (5–10 pages) | ₹25,000 – ₹60,000 | 2–3 weeks |
| E-commerce store | ₹40,000 – ₹2,50,000 | 3–8 weeks |
| Simple mobile app (Flutter) | ₹50,000 – ₹1,00,000 | 4–6 weeks |
| Medium app (logins + payments) | ₹1,00,000 – ₹2,50,000 | 8–14 weeks |
| Custom web app / portal | ₹1,00,000 – ₹5,00,000+ | 6–16 weeks |
| SaaS product (MVP) | ₹1,50,000 – ₹5,00,000 | 10–24 weeks |
| Keeping it running (per year) | ₹3,000 floor – ₹1,80,000+ on a plan | ongoing |
About ₹12,500 per finished screen for a single-role app, and every extra kind of user is a second set of screens, not a feature. The market as a whole quotes ₹50,000 to ₹25,00,000 for the same app — here is why, plus the tax and store lines no quote mentions.
Add one week for every three days you take to approve something — six gates in a normal build. On next-day approvals: business website 2–3 weeks, simple app 4–6 weeks, complex platform 4–7 months. Plus the store and statutory clocks that run outside the build.
Freelancer under ₹1,00,000, agency above it — and why. Real rate bands, the same project priced both ways, the GST and TDS difference nobody mentions, and the five contract terms that matter more than the choice.
₹25,000 to ₹5,00,000+ by site type — business site, WordPress, e-commerce, custom web app — plus domain, hosting and maintenance costs over the first year.
₹1,50,000 to ₹5,00,000 to build in 10–24 weeks — priced by how many workflows it proves, not features. Plus the ₹58,000–₹3,00,000 of year-one running costs nobody quotes, what to cut, and when not to build one at all.
One test: does it run patchable software, and does it take money? If neither, ₹3,000–₹8,000 a year. If either, ₹3,000–₹15,000+ a month — a 20× difference set by your stack, not your budget. Real plan prices, the AMC percentage trap, app store fees, and when you should not buy a plan at all.
The build cost is identical — ₹50,000–₹1,00,000 simple, ₹1,00,000–₹2,50,000 medium, in both. The framework decides your year-two hiring cost. Plus the Play Store rule that delays either by 14 days, and when we tell clients to overrule our own default.
The crossover is ~900 hours a year — about 18 hours a week. Below it an agency is cheaper; above it a salary is. A ₹8,00,000 CTC really costs ₹8,45,000–₹11,02,840 and returns 215 days. Plus the EPF/ESI/gratuity headcount thresholds that make the same hire cost two companies two different amounts.
Pick the platform from your annual sales, not the build price: no store under ₹2 lakh, Shopify to about ₹13 lakh, WooCommerce above it. Building costs ₹40,000 to ₹2,50,000 and running costs ₹31,000 to ₹1,36,000 a year. The Shopify vs WooCommerce maths at four revenue levels, the extra transaction fee only Indian merchants pay, and the ₹13 lakh crossover where each one wins.
Never more than 30% before you can open a link and use working software — the 30/40/30 milestone structure, and the GST line no quote in India explains: an advance for a service is taxed on day one, but the 18% you paid is not claimable as input tax credit until a tax invoice exists.
If nobody signed an assignment, the developer owns it — paying the invoice does not move the copyright. Plus the two statutory defaults that quietly shrink a vague IP clause to five years, India only, and the one sentence that removes both.
Eleven lines — count them before you compare prices, because the cheaper-looking quote is nearly always the one that answers fewer. On a ₹2,00,000 build the three lines usually missing add ₹39,000–₹2,48,000 in year one, plus the four invoice fields that decide whether your 18% GST comes back or expires on 30 November.
Three switches — platform, stored data, URLs — and only one has to flip. All three off is a redesign at ₹25,000–₹75,000; any one on is a rebuild from ₹1,00,000. Plus the four things a rebuild does not inherit free, and the 3 October go-live date that halves your year-one tax deduction.
More guides are being added. Need a number we haven't published yet? Ask us directly and we'll answer honestly, whether or not you hire us.
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