Pricing a redesign is a different problem from pricing a first website, and the difference is not technical. There is an incumbent, there is a previous invoice the client remembers, and there is a comparison. A first website is a decision; a redesign is a comparison, and you are being compared whether or not anybody says so.
The first job is therefore to find out which of three quite different pieces of work is being asked for, because they differ by a factor of five and the client usually has not distinguished them.
Three jobs, one word
| What changes | What stays | Quote (India) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Refresh | Colours, fonts, images, speed | Structure, platform, content | ₹8,000–20,000 |
| Redesign | Visual identity, templates, navigation | Platform, most content | ₹25,000–60,000 |
| Rebuild | Everything, often the platform too | The domain | ₹50,000–1,50,000 |
The same three-level structure the US market uses, at Indian numbers.
Quoting a rebuild when they wanted a refresh loses the job and makes you look expensive. Quoting a refresh when they need a rebuild loses money and produces a client who is unhappy in month two, because the underlying problem — a site that is slow, unmaintainable or on a platform nobody supports — is still there under the new colours.
The diagnostic question is simple: "What is it about the current site that made you start looking?" Answers about how it looks are a refresh. Answers about not being able to find things, or the site being wrong about what the business now does, are a redesign. Answers about it being broken, slow, or impossible to update are a rebuild.
The previous invoice is your anchor problem
Unlike a first website, the client has a number in their head, and it is what they paid last time — usually years ago, often to somebody cheaper, and it is the number you are being measured against.
You cannot ignore it and you should not attack the previous supplier, which reads as sales talk and frequently insults a decision the client made. What works is separating the two purchases explicitly: "What you bought last time was a website. What you need now is one that does X" — where X is the thing they just told you is missing.
It is also worth asking directly what they spent before. Most people answer, and it tells you immediately whether you are in a ₹15,000 conversation or a ₹60,000 one, before you have committed to a number.
Price the mess, not the pages
The thing that actually determines a redesign's cost is the state of what exists, and it is invisible from the outside. Two identical-looking five-page sites can be a two-day job and a two-week one.
Look before you quote. Who has the hosting login, and does anybody still have it. What platform is it on and is that platform still maintained. Is the content usable or does all of it need rewriting. Are there working forms, integrations or a payment flow that has to survive. Is anybody currently getting email at that domain.
That last one has cost more people more money than any other item on this list. Migrating a site while the business's email lives on the same hosting is how a redesign turns into an outage.
How to present the number
Two things make a redesign quote land, and both are about the comparison you are already in.
Quote the three levels, not one. The client asked for "a redesign" without knowing which one they meant, so showing the refresh, the redesign and the rebuild with what each does is genuinely helpful rather than a sales tactic. It also moves the conversation from whether your price is right to which option to take.
Price the discovery separately if the site is a mess. For anything where you cannot see the state of the existing site, a small paid audit — a few thousand rupees, credited against the project — protects you from quoting blind and filters out clients who are collecting quotes. Anyone unwilling to pay for an hour of assessment was never going to buy a redesign.
Who the redesign market is
Worth being clear about, because it determines where this work comes from.
In metros and developed markets, redesign is most of the available work. Bengaluru sits around 26% without a website, Mumbai around 28%, and the 17.0% UK national rate means the overwhelming majority of British businesses already have something. That is a redesign market whether you like it or not.
In tier-2 India the reverse holds, and chasing redesigns there is choosing the harder sale in a market full of easier ones.
The useful pattern for most agencies is to take redesigns as they arrive — they come from referrals and from businesses who found you — while prospecting for first websites, which are the sale you can actually go out and generate.
A market that mostly needs redesigns
Live from the same index the product searches — 1,300 businesses in Bangalore currently have an active Google listing and no website.
URU - JP Nagar
The Rameshwaram Cafe @ JP Nagar
V. V. Pura Food Street
Bob's Bar
Know which market you are in.
Check what share of businesses in your city already have a website before deciding what you sell.
Check your cityFrequently asked questions
How much should I charge for a website redesign?
It depends which of three jobs it is: ₹8,000–20,000 for a refresh of colours, fonts and images; ₹25,000–60,000 for a genuine redesign of identity, templates and navigation; ₹50,000–1,50,000 for a rebuild, often including a platform change.
How do I know if a client needs a refresh or a rebuild?
Ask what made them start looking. Complaints about how it looks are a refresh; not being able to find things, or the site being wrong about the business, is a redesign; broken, slow or impossible to update is a rebuild.
Is a redesign cheaper than a new website?
Not reliably. It can be cheaper when hosting, domain and content survive, and more expensive when the platform changes or the content needs rewriting. The state of what exists determines the cost far more than the page count does.
What should I check before quoting a redesign?
Access to hosting, domain and platform admin; whether the platform is still maintained; whether the content is reusable; anything transactional that must survive; and above all where the business's email lives, because migrating a site that shares hosting with email is how a redesign becomes an outage.
Should I focus on redesigns or first websites?
It depends on your market. Metros and developed markets are mostly redesign markets — Bengaluru is around 26% without a website and the UK national rate is 17.0%. In tier-2 India, chasing redesigns is choosing the harder sale in a market full of easier ones.
Related reading
pricing a first website · which market you are in · defending the number · the model underneath · finding redesign prospects · where functionality work comes from
