How to Choose a Web Development Company in India: Checklist

You have two or three quotes for a website and they don't agree. Say the first is ₹12,000, the second ₹38,000 and the third ₹85,000, and each company says it is the right choice. This guide is for that moment: what to check, which questions to ask, which red flags mean walk away, and how to put the quotes side by side so you are comparing the same thing.

I'm Ashish Sharma. I've run Codingclave, a web development company in Lucknow, since 2017, and we're rated 4.9 on Google from 92 reviews. We'd like your project, so hold us to every point below; how we answer this checklist is at the end. Where this page describes us, it says so; everything else applies to whoever you hire. Already holding a quote? WhatsApp it to me and I'll check it free.

The short answer

• Shortlist 3 companies. More than that and you stop reading the quotes properly.
• Open their live sites and call one past client. Screenshots prove someone can design; a live site and a client on the phone prove they deliver.
• Get a written scope and a fixed price for it. Pages, features and what is not included, all on paper.
• Pay in milestones tied to things you can see. Never 100% up front.
• Get the code, domain and hosting in your name, with a written copyright assignment in the contract.
• Check each price against a published one for similar scope (ours are below). A quote far lower than the rest usually leaves something out.
• Compare the first-year cost, not the build price. Renewals, licences and maintenance decide which quote is really cheaper.

The 10-minute checklist

Run every company on your shortlist through this table before you read the price. A company that fails three or more rows is not worth negotiating with, however cheap it is.

To check speed on their live work, put two or three of their sites through Google's PageSpeed Insights and open them on your own phone. If their own client sites are slow, ask why before you hire them.

What a fair price looks like in India

The quickest way to sanity-check a quote is to hold it against a published price for similar scope. Here are ours. Use them as a reference point, not as the only fair price.

These are our prices, not a market survey. Our published prices don't state whether GST is included, so ask us to state it in the quote, the same as everyone else. Prices checked on 2026-10-19.

What each quote should list, and what to ask if it is far lower:

• Small website: the pages, the theme (free or paid), contact form, basic SEO setup, SSL. Ask: is it a ready theme with your logo swapped in, and whose name is the theme licence in?
• Custom-coded website: design rounds, pages, whether there is a CMS, hosting setup. Ask: is it really custom or a template, and will you get the code?
• Business site with a CMS: pages, CMS admin panel, blog, SEO setup, who writes the content. Ask: is content writing included, and how many design rounds?
• Shopify or e-commerce store: products loaded, payment gateway, shipping, and the paid apps or plugins with their monthly fees. Ask: who uploads the products, and which apps will you pay for every month?
• Mobile app: the screens; Android, iOS or both; backend; admin panel; store submission. Ask: is there a real backend, or is it a web page wrapped in an app?
• Custom software, CRM or ERP: modules, user roles, reports, data migration, hosting. Ask: which modules are left out, and who hosts it at what monthly cost?

For typical ranges across the market, see our website cost guide for India, the website cost calculator or, if you are local, website development cost in Lucknow.

Then add what you pay every year. The build is a one-off; these keep the site running, and a good quote names each one:

• Domain renewal, every year, and whose account it renews in
• Hosting, monthly or yearly: which plan, and who it is billed to
• Business email, if you want mailboxes on your own domain
• Paid theme and plugin licences, many of which are sold as yearly licences
• Maintenance after the free bug-fix period: updates, backups and small changes. Our website maintenance guide explains what it covers.
• GST: ask whether every figure in the quote includes it or is "plus GST", so you compare like with like

The do-it-yourself floor. If you only need a small shop and can set it up yourself, Shopify's Basic plan in India costs ₹1,499 a month billed yearly, or ₹1,994 billed monthly, plus a 2% fee on orders paid through a third-party payment provider instead of Shopify Payments (Shopify India pricing, checked 2026-10-19; the page doesn't say whether GST is included). If a company's offer is a store on a builder like this, the quote should say which plan you will pay for and that the account is in your name.

Got a quote and not sure it's fair? WhatsApp Ashish on +91 92771 84741 and send a photo or PDF of it (remove the company's name if you like). I'll check it free and tell you what's missing, what looks over- or under-priced, and what to ask them, even if you don't hire us. We reply within 2 hours (Mon–Sat 10:00–19:00 IST).

12 red flags in a quote or a sales call

1. A 100% advance, or most of the money due before you have seen working pages.
2. No live URLs. Mock-ups prove someone can design. Only a live site proves they shipped it.
3. A one-line lump-sum quote, such as "Website: ₹25,000". You can't compare it with anything, and you can't hold anyone to it.
4. A price far below the others with no list of inclusions. Often something has been left out: content, product uploads, revisions, hosting or the code itself.
5. "Guaranteed #1 on Google." Google's own guidance for site owners says: "No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google." (Google Search Central, "Do you need an SEO?", last updated 2026-06-05, checked 2026-10-19.)
6. The domain or hosting is registered in the agency's name. If you fall out, they hold your web address. You can look a domain up on ICANN Lookup, but owner details are often hidden for privacy, so also ask for the registrar login.
7. The site only runs on their own builder and can't be exported. You are renting, not owning, and leaving means starting again.
8. Bursts of identical one-line reviews. Google's Maps content policy bans reviews that are paid for or rewarded, and bans businesses from asking only happy customers for reviews (Google Maps user content policy, checked 2026-10-19). Read the 3-star reviews and how the owner replies; they tell you more than the 5-stars.
9. "Today only" discounts, or pressure to sign before you have a written scope.
10. The seller can't name who will build it. Ask whether any part is subcontracted, and to whom.
11. "Unlimited revisions" with no definition. Revisions to what, and until when? Undefined revisions are where disputes start.
12. Renewal fees not disclosed, or a refusal to sign a copyright assignment. Either way, the real cost or the real owner turns up later.

12 questions to ask before you sign

Ask these on a call and ask for the answers in writing. A company that is good at its job answers most of them in a sentence.

People

1. Who will design and build my site, and is any part subcontracted? A good answer names the people or roles, and gives a plain yes or no on subcontracting, with who to if yes.
2. Can you show me three live sites similar to mine, and can I call one of those clients? A good answer is URLs you can open today and a phone number.
3. Who is my single contact, how fast do you reply, and will I get a staging link? A good answer is one named person, a reply time during working hours, and a private link where you watch the site take shape before it goes live.

Price

4. What would change this price? A good answer is a list (extra pages, new features, content they write for you) and a promise of a written estimate before any extra work starts.
5. Which payment is due against which deliverable? A good answer matches each payment to something you can see and check.
6. How many revision rounds are included, and what counts as a round? A good answer is a number, and what you can change in each round.

Ownership

7. Who owns the code, the design files and the accounts, and from when? A good answer is: you do, from final payment at the latest, including the source files and the admin logins.
8. Is the copyright assignment written into the contract? A good answer is yes, signed, naming the work, the rights, the duration and the territory. The contract section below explains why this matters under Indian law.
9. What happens to my site if I stop paying you? A good answer is that a site you have paid for stays yours. You lose only the services you stop paying for, such as their hosting or maintenance, and you get a copy to move elsewhere.

After launch

10. How long is the free bug-fix period, and what counts as a bug versus a change? A good answer gives the period in writing and a simple definition: a bug is the site not doing what the agreed scope says; a new idea is a change.
11. What does maintenance cost after that, and what does it include? A good answer is a monthly or yearly price and a list of what it covers, given before you sign.
12. What happens if either side stops midway? A good answer is that you pay for the work done to that point and receive everything built so far.

If a company recommends an unusual stack, ask why it suits the people who will edit the site. Our headless CMS comparison for India explains when Strapi, Sanity or Contentful makes sense and when WordPress is enough.

How to compare two or three quotes

Step 1: Put every quote on the same scope

Write a one-page brief before you ask for prices: the pages, the features (enquiry form, booking, payments, login), who writes the content, how many products, which languages, and anything it must connect to, such as WhatsApp, a CRM or Tally. Send the same brief to every company and ask them to quote against it. Quotes built from different conversations can't be compared. You can send it to us too: WhatsApp the brief to Ashish and you'll get a free quote within 24 hours.

Step 2: Fill in the comparison table

Copy this table and fill one column per company. A blank cell is a question to send back, not a zero.

Step 3: Work out the first-year cost

First-year cost is the build price, plus anything the quote leaves out that you will still need (content, product uploads, paid plugins), plus the domain, hosting, email and licences, plus maintenance for any months after the free bug-fix period. Our website cost calculator gives you a rough figure to check against.

Step 4: Call a past client of the top two

Five minutes each is enough. Ask: did they deliver what the scope said? How did they handle the first problem? Do you have your own logins for the domain, hosting and admin panel? Would you hire them again?

Step 5: Pick the clearest quote, not the cheapest

The clearest quote is the one where you can say what you will get, what you will pay and when, and what you will own at the end. A cheap quote you can't hold anyone to can end up costing the most by the end of the first year.

A made-up example, not a client case study. A clinic wants a 10-page website with an enquiry form and gets three quotes:

Quote A looks cheapest until the clinic asks what "all inclusive" means. In this example the agency replies that content writing is ₹8,000 extra, fixes after launch are ₹1,500 a visit and the domain stays in its account. Quote A is now ₹20,000 before the first fix, the clinic has paid it all up front, and it still doesn't own its web address.

Quote C isn't an expensive version of Quote B. It is a different scope: it includes the writing and three months of SEO. To compare fairly, the clinic asks C for a price without the SEO work, and asks B what it would charge to write the content. Only then are the numbers side by side.

In this example Quote B wins, not because it is the middle price but because every line can be checked. Its 50/30/20 split is fair too; there is no single correct split, only payments that match things you can see.

Want a second opinion before you sign? Send the quote to Ashish on WhatsApp (+91 92771 84741) with the scope, the price, the payment terms, what is included and the timeline they gave you. I'll tell you what's missing and what to ask them, free, whether or not you hire us. We reply within 2 hours (Mon–Sat 10:00–19:00 IST).

Contract terms to insist on

A quote tells you the price. The contract decides what happens when something goes wrong. Before you sign, check it has these:

• Scope with a page and feature list, plus acceptance criteria. How will you both agree a page is done? For example: it works on mobile, the form reaches your email, and the content matches what you approved.
• A fixed price for that scope, and a written change-request estimate, agreed by you, before any extra work starts.
• Milestones tied to deliverables. Ours are 40% at the start, 40% at an agreed mid-project milestone and 20% at launch. Other splits can be fair; what matters is that each payment matches something you can see.
• A written copyright assignment. This clause matters more than it looks, because of how Indian law treats code:
  • Under the Copyright Act, 1957, a "literary work" includes computer programmes (section 2(o)).
  • The author of a work is the first owner of its copyright. Work made by an employee in the course of their job belongs to the employer, unless they agree otherwise (section 17). So code written by an agency's staff, or by a freelancer, belongs to them by default, even after you have paid for it.
  • An assignment is valid only if it is in writing and signed by the person assigning it, and it must identify the work and state the rights, the duration and the territory (section 19(1) and (2)).
  • If the assignment doesn't state a duration, it is treated as five years from the date of assignment (section 19(5)). If it doesn't state a territory, it is presumed to cover India only (section 19(6)).
  • So ask for a clause that assigns to you all rights in the code, designs and content made for your project, worldwide and for the full term of copyright, from final payment.
• Third-party licences listed: themes, plugins, fonts, stock images and apps, bought in your name where the licence allows it.
• Accounts in your name: domain, hosting, business email, Google Analytics and Search Console, and for an app, the Google Play and Apple developer accounts. The developer can be added as a user on each.
• A defined bug-fix period. Ours is 6 months of free bug fixes after launch. The contract should say what counts as a bug (the site not doing what the agreed scope says) and what counts as a change.
• Optional maintenance with a stated price, and a list of what it covers, so you can say yes or no to it separately.
• Termination and handover. Either side can stop with notice; you pay for the work done to that point and receive the code and files built so far.

Replacing an existing site? Add who sets up the redirects from your old page addresses to the new ones, or you can lose the search traffic you already have. Our website migration SEO checklist lists what to ask for.

Sections 2(o), 17 and 19 were read on Indian Kanoon on 2026-10-19; the official India Code page for the Act did not load that day. This is not legal advice; for a large contract, have a lawyer read it.

Freelancer, agency or a DIY builder?

• Build it yourself on a builder if the site is small, you have a few evenings, and you are happy to stay on that platform. For a very small site this is the cheapest route.
• Hire a freelancer if the scope is clear, it needs one main skill, and you can live with a delay if they are ill or busy. Ask exactly the same ownership questions.
• Hire an agency if the work has several parts (design, a backend, payments, an app) or your business can't run without it, because more than one person knows your project.

Our freelancer vs agency guide goes through the trade-offs, and WordPress vs a custom website helps with the platform question. Hiring from outside India? Our guide to outsourcing software development to India covers what changes for buyers abroad.

Hiring for an app, store or software?

The checklist above still applies. Add these checks:

• A mobile app. The Google Play and Apple developer accounts should be in your name. Ask who submits the app to the stores, who handles the yearly platform updates, and whose cloud account the backend runs in. See our mobile app cost guide and mobile app development.
• An online store. Ask whether you can export your products, customers and orders, whose payment gateway account takes the money, and which apps or plugins carry a monthly fee. See our e-commerce website cost guide and Shopify development.
• Custom software, a CRM or an ERP. Ask how you get your data out in a standard format, who holds and renews the API keys (payment gateway, SMS, WhatsApp), whether you get documentation, and whose server or cloud account it runs on. See our custom software cost guide and custom CRM and ERP development.

How Codingclave answers this checklist

Here is where we stand on the points we can state publicly. Ask us the rest (who will build your project, revision rounds, maintenance) before you sign, and hold us to the same checklist.

• Who we are. Founder-led by Ashish Sharma in Lucknow since 2017; our office is at 280/10A, Vrindavan Colony. We have delivered 200+ projects since 2017 for clients worldwide, including 11+ pharmacy deployments. More on our about page and our web development company in Lucknow page.
• Reviews. 4.9 on Google from 92 reviews, 5.0 from 37 Upwork reviews, and 5.0 on Freelancer from 58 reviews. Read them on our reviews page.
• Live work you can open today:
  • 20+ government polytechnic websites across Uttar Pradesh, including GP Unnao, Bighapur, Banda, Auraiya and Etawah, built on one template system. Open gpunnao.com to see one.
  • anandmedicochemist.com, a WooCommerce pharmacy store (Anand Medico Chemist case study).
  • richakhemka.com, a Shopify storefront we worked on for a fashion label. Its footer credits another agency, Overnight Digital, so ask us which parts we did. We are not a Shopify Partner.
  • runningrace.com.sa, a race-event website in Arabic and English for a running race in Saudi Arabia.
  • esmed.org, the European Society of Medicine's membership and publishing website (ESMED case study).
  • correctprices.com, a React and Node.js price-checking web app (Correct Prices case study).
• Terms. A fixed price once the scope is agreed. Payments of 40% at the start, 40% at an agreed mid-project milestone and 20% at launch. The code and IP are yours on final payment. 6 months of free bug fixes after launch. Package prices are on our website packages page.
• Replies. We reply within 2 hours, Monday to Saturday, 10:00-19:00 IST, and send a free quote within 24 hours. Contact us or use the WhatsApp links above.
• When we're not the fit. If you need a very small site and are happy to build it yourself, a DIY builder will cost you less than hiring us. And if a quote you already have passes this checklist and you trust the team, go with them.

Sources checked on 19 October 2026

• Google Search Central: Do you need an SEO? (page last updated 2026-06-05)
• Google Maps user-generated content policy: prohibited and restricted content
• Copyright Act, 1957 on Indian Kanoon: section 2(o), section 17 and section 19
• Shopify India pricing
• ICANN Lookup and Google PageSpeed Insights
• Our own prices: website packages, website development, e-commerce development, mobile app development and custom software