9 min read
Website maintenance cost in India: what you really pay each month and year after launch
Realistic monthly and yearly website maintenance costs in India, from domain and hosting renewals to AMC packages, plus the renewal traps and red flags to avoid.
On r/web_design, someone described a friend whose designer kept every login and then wanted "to charge her $2k to transfer assets after she'd already paid for the initial website and monthly maintenance." On r/Domains, an Indian founder found a cheaply bought domain renewing at "approx 4,000₹(50$)" a year. Neither story is unusual, and both come down to the same thing: nobody told the owner what the site would cost after launch, or who held the keys.
Website maintenance cost in India for a small business site usually lands between about ₹5,000 and ₹60,000 a year ($55 to $700), depending on what the site is built on and how much help you buy. Online stores and custom web apps cost more.
Here is where the money goes, how our numbers compare with the AMC packages agencies advertise, and how to spot an AMC that charges for nothing.
Website maintenance cost in India at a glance#
These are our rough yearly estimates, built from current list prices (cited below) plus typical freelance and agency rates. Dollar figures assume roughly ₹88 to the dollar.
| Site type | Must-pay running costs per year | With hands-on maintenance help per year |
|---|---|---|
| Simple brochure site (static or Next.js, 5 to 10 pages) | ₹3,000 to ₹12,000 ($35 to $140) | ₹10,000 to ₹30,000 ($115 to $340) |
| WordPress with premium plugins | ₹8,000 to ₹35,000 ($90 to $400) | ₹25,000 to ₹80,000 ($285 to $900) |
| Ecommerce (Shopify or WooCommerce) | ₹25,000 to ₹80,000 ($285 to $900), plus payment fees | ₹60,000 to ₹3 lakh ($680 to $3,400) |
| Custom web app or SaaS | ₹25,000 to ₹2 lakh ($285 to $2,300), scales with usage | ₹1 lakh to ₹5 lakh+ ($1,150 to $5,700+) |
Per month, that works out to a few hundred rupees for a simple site that you edit yourself, and ₹2,000 to ₹7,000 a month for a WordPress site with someone looking after it.
What agencies quote, and why it looks higher#
Search for website maintenance cost per month in India and most of what ranks is agency pages selling AMC plans. Their numbers make a useful cross-check:
| Source | Basic site | Business or WordPress site | Online store |
|---|---|---|---|
| Red Pulse Software | ₹1,500 to ₹3,000 a month | ₹3,000 to ₹7,000 a month | ₹7,000 to ₹15,000 a month |
| Web Digital Development | ₹2,000 to ₹8,000 a month | ₹8,000 to ₹25,000 a month | ₹10,000 to ₹40,000 a month |
| iTrobes | From ₹600 a month | From ₹900 a month (corporate) | From ₹1,600 a month |
These are service prices, so they include someone's time, and the higher tiers fold in SEO, reports and fast support. That is why they sit above our "must-pay" column. Red Pulse makes the same point we would: when you compare AMC quotes, check whether the price includes hosting and domain renewal, because that alone explains most of the difference between two similar quotes.
Our WordPress "with help" range of ₹2,000 to ₹7,000 a month sits inside the lower agency bands. Where we part ways is on simple sites. A ₹5,000 a month plan on a six-page static site is ₹60,000 a year for something that may need a few hours of work. Ask what you get each month before you sign.
What you have to pay#
1. Domain renewal#
A .com or .in domain is a yearly fee you cannot avoid. The trap is the first-year price. Hostinger India currently advertises .com for ₹1 for the first year, against a regular ₹1,499. Fine, if you know what comes after.
Some registrars price flat. Porkbun lists .com at $11.08 and promises "no surprise renewal hikes". Budget ₹700 to ₹1,800 ($8 to $20) a year per domain.
2. Hosting#
- Static and Next.js sites can run on very little. Vercel's free Hobby plan is for personal, non-commercial use only, so a business site belongs on Pro at $20 a month.
- Shared WordPress hosting looks cheap upfront. Hostinger India's WordPress Premium plan shows ₹139 a month on a 48-month term, renewing at ₹449 a month.
- Managed WordPress handles backups, caching and security for you. Kinsta's entry plan is listed at around $30 a month.
- Ecommerce platforms fold hosting into the subscription. Shopify India's Basic plan is ₹1,800 a month billed yearly, or ₹1,994 monthly. Shopify Payments is not offered in India, so Indian stores also pay Shopify a 2% fee on top of their gateway's charge.
3. SSL certificate#
You should not be paying for this on a normal business site. Let's Encrypt gives trusted certificates at zero cost, and almost every host, plus Vercel, Netlify and Shopify, sets one up automatically. If someone bills you ₹3,000 a year for "SSL", ask what you are getting beyond a free certificate.
4. Business email#
Email on your own domain is charged per user, per month. Zoho Mail Lite is ₹59 per user a month on yearly billing. Google Workspace India lists Business Starter at ₹270 per user a month on monthly billing, before tax, with a discount for a yearly commitment.
For a three-person Noida interior design studio, that is about ₹2,100 a year on Zoho Mail Lite or ₹9,700 on Workspace Starter.
5. Paid plugins, themes and licences#
This catches WordPress owners. A page builder, caching, forms and SEO plugin may each carry a yearly licence. WP Rocket alone lists $60 a year for one site, and its first-year sale price renews at the regular rate. Four or five of these can add ₹10,000 to ₹25,000 a year.
A lapsed licence usually means no more updates, which is how old sites end up with security holes.
What is optional (but often worth it)#
- Content updates: new services, prices, photos. On a well-built site you can do most of this yourself.
- Updates and security monitoring: important on WordPress, much less so on a static site.
- SEO: growth work rather than upkeep. Our guide to SEO for service businesses covers what moves the needle.
The build you choose decides a lot of this. A static or Next.js site has fewer moving parts to patch than a WordPress site with fifteen plugins. We compare the two in Next.js vs WordPress for a business website.
Website AMC charges: what a fair package includes#
An AMC (annual maintenance contract) is the common way Indian agencies and freelancers sell upkeep. A fair AMC for a small WordPress site would spell out:
- Updates to core, theme and plugins on a set schedule, with a backup taken first.
- Off-site backups (a backup on the same server is no help when that server fails), and a restore tested at least once a year.
- Uptime monitoring and a stated response time if the site goes down.
- A fixed number of hours for content changes each month, and the hourly rate after that.
- Renewals for domain, hosting and licences passed through at cost, with invoices you can see.
- A short monthly or quarterly note on what was done.
If the contract only says "website maintenance" and a number, you cannot tell whether anything happened.
Red flags to watch for#
1. The domain is in the agency's name#
This is the big one. If the domain is registered to the agency, you cannot leave without their cooperation. ICANN's registrant rights and responsibilities say the registrant assumes "sole responsibility" for the domain, so make sure the registrant is you. Check a WHOIS lookup and ask for the registrar login.
2. Hosting resold at a big markup#
Some agencies charge ₹8,000 to ₹15,000 a year for hosting on their own reseller account that costs them a fraction of that. A management margin is fair. Hiding it is not.
3. No access to your own site#
You should have admin access to the site, hosting panel and domain, even if you never log in. Our checklist for hiring a web agency puts ownership at the top for this reason.
How to cut costs safely#
- Register the domain yourself at a registrar with flat renewal pricing, and turn on auto-renew.
- Delete plugins you do not use and drop licences that duplicate each other.
- Ask for renewal prices in writing. ₹1 domains and ₹69 hosting both renew higher.
- Do not cut updates or backups. Cleaning up a hacked site usually costs more than a year of upkeep.
The cheapest maintenance decision is made before launch. Our guide to what a website or MVP costs in 2026 covers the build side. For reference, our Starter Sprint starts at ₹24,999 / $499 and Launch System at ₹74,999+ / $1,499+ (see pricing), and either way the domain, hosting and code sit in your name.
Common questions#
What is the website maintenance cost per month in India?#
For a simple site you edit yourself, a few hundred rupees a month covers domain, hosting and one email inbox. With someone handling updates and small changes, ₹2,000 to ₹7,000 a month is a fair range for a small WordPress site. Agency plans with SEO and reporting go well past that.
What is the website maintenance cost per year in India?#
Roughly ₹5,000 to ₹60,000 for a small business site, and more for online stores. Many agencies sell this as a yearly AMC, which Red Pulse prices at ₹18,000 to ₹36,000 for its basic band. Check whether hosting and the domain are included.
How much does WordPress website maintenance cost in India?#
Running costs are usually ₹8,000 to ₹35,000 a year once you add hosting renewals and paid plugin licences. Add ₹25,000 to ₹80,000 a year if someone else handles updates, backups and content changes.
How much does ecommerce website maintenance cost in India?#
More than a brochure site, because of the platform plan, apps and payment fees. On Shopify Basic, the plan alone is ₹21,600 a year on yearly billing. Our guide to ecommerce website cost in India breaks down the monthly bills of an online store.
The short version#
Running a business website in India costs very little if you own your accounts, avoid first-year pricing traps and keep the build simple. It gets expensive when renewals are hidden, the domain sits in someone else's name, or an AMC bills for work you cannot see.
If you would like a second opinion on what you are paying now, or a site that is cheap to keep running, book a free strategy call and we will go through your renewals with you line by line.
