Web design companies in India: list, contracts and how to choose

The quick answer

There is no official register of web design companies in India: no licence is needed to build websites, so the "top 10" lists that rank for this search are written by agencies, marketplaces or review sites, and often put their own name first. Starleads' web design, development and hosting list has 17,460 firms across 27 states and 118 cities, most of them in Delhi (2,840), Mumbai (2,256), Bengaluru (1,509), Hyderabad (1,284) and Pune (1,123). To choose one, shortlist five in your city or your industry, open the live sites they say they built, check their GST and company registration, and sign a written contract that assigns the copyright in your design and code to you and keeps your domain in your own name.

This guide is for two kinds of readers. Most want to hire a web design or website development company and want to know where they are and how to pick a good one without being locked in. Others want to sell to web design firms: hosting resellers, theme and plugin sellers, payment gateways, design tool and stock-image sellers, and recruiters. It covers what "web design company" means in practice, where the firms are by city and state in Starleads' data, a step-by-step way to choose one, who owns a website under Indian law, what the contract should say, how to reach web firms within TRAI's rules, and where Starleads' data falls short.

What a "web design company" is in India

People searching for web design companies in India usually have one of six kinds of business in mind. They differ in what they make, how they charge and how long they stay with you after launch, so decide which one you need before you collect a single phone number.

The counts are from the all-India list pages on 30 October 2026. They are counts of contacts in Starleads' data, built from business directories and listings, not an official census of India's web design industry. The categories overlap: a firm labelled "hosting" may design sites, and a graphic designer may build WordPress sites on the side. The labels are what the firm called itself in a directory, not a test of what it can do.

The line between a "web design company" and a "web development company" is also blurred. In practice, designers decide how the site looks and how a visitor moves through it, and developers write the code that makes it work, connect the forms, payments and databases, and keep it running. Small firms do both; larger ones have separate teams. When a firm calls itself both, ask who on its team will actually design your pages and who will code them.

Web design companies in India by city and state

Starleads' list shows where the trade is concentrated, at least among firms that list themselves in business directories. The three biggest states (Maharashtra 3,634, Delhi 2,914 and Gujarat 1,684) hold 47% of the 17,460 rows; the other 24 states share the rest.

Counts are from the city and state list pages on 30 October 2026. A few things stand out:

• Hosting is the biggest label almost everywhere. In Delhi, Hyderabad and Pune the largest category is server hosting, not design. Many of these firms resell hosting and also build sites; some only sell hosting. If you need design, filter by the developer and designing categories in the Excel file, or ask on the first call.
• Ahmedabad and Bengaluru lean towards online shops. Ecommerce website development is the biggest category in Ahmedabad and the second in Bengaluru, which fits their large bases of traders and D2C brands.
• Gujarat is spread out. Of its 1,684 firms, Ahmedabad has 836, Vadodara 375 and Rajkot 264, with more in Surat, Jamnagar and Bhavnagar, so a manufacturer in Saurashtra need not hire from a metro.
• Graphic designers are far more numerous. The graphic designers list has 43,381 rows, led by Mumbai (11,070), Delhi (4,802), Bengaluru (4,401), Hyderabad (3,770) and Pune (3,512). Many of them design websites too, and 92% have an email address, against 54% in the web design list.

Live figures from the list

Our Web Design, Development & Hosting list has 17,460 firms in 118 cities. 98% have a mobile number and 54% an email address. Most are in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune. Every list page has 60 sample rows and a free Excel download, and you can buy one of 13 cities instead of all of India.

Web design firms by city

• Mumbai 2,256 contacts · 51% email · 96% mobile ₹499
• Bengaluru 1,509 contacts · 46% email · 99% mobile ₹499
• Hyderabad 1,284 contacts · 45% email · 97% mobile ₹499
• Pune 1,123 contacts · 56% email · 98% mobile ₹499
• Chennai 1,017 contacts · 61% email · 97% mobile ₹499
• Ahmedabad 836 contacts · 61% email · 99% mobile ₹499
• Coimbatore 484 contacts · 68% email · 98% mobile ₹499
• Jaipur 461 contacts · 54% email · 100% mobile ₹499
• Lucknow 420 contacts · 63% email · 100% mobile ₹499
• Kolkata 415 contacts · 47% email · 97% mobile ₹499
• Indore 408 contacts · 66% email · 100% mobile ₹499
• Vadodara 375 contacts · 61% email · 97% mobile ₹499

Graphic designers, agencies and related lists

• Web Design, Development & Hosting 17,460 contacts · 54% email · 98% mobile ₹1,999
• Graphic Designers 43,381 contacts · 92% email · 97% mobile ₹1,999
• Digital Marketing & SEO Agencies 1,620 contacts · 63% email · 92% mobile ₹499
• IT & Software Companies 64,547 contacts · 34% email · 88% mobile ₹1,999
• Website Owners 77,003 contacts · 96% email · 87% mobile ₹1,999

How to choose a web design company, step by step

Ranking pages tell you who is "best". They cannot tell you who is right for a 12-page site for a pump maker in Coimbatore or an online shop for a saree wholesaler in Surat. This process takes about two weeks and works for any size of project.

1. Write a one-page brief. What the site is for (enquiries, catalogue, online sales, recruitment), the pages you need, who updates it after launch, the languages, what it must connect to (WhatsApp, a CRM, a payment gateway, Tally or your ERP), your budget range and your deadline. A firm that quotes without asking about these is guessing.
2. Make a long list of 15 to 20 firms. Take firms from your city, so you can meet them, and firms that have built sites in your industry. The Starleads list for your city gives names, mobiles and addresses; Google Maps, your industry association and suppliers whose websites you like add more.
3. Look at their own website first. A web firm's own site is its best sample. Is it fast on a phone, secure (https), up to date, and does it list a real office address and a GSTIN? Drop the ones that fail.
4. Open the live sites they say they built. Not screenshots: type the addresses into your phone. Check that the sites load, the forms work and the design is not the same template with the logo changed. Call one or two of those clients and ask whether the firm met deadlines and still answers the phone.
5. Check the business. Look up its GSTIN on the GST portal and, if it is a company or LLP, its registration on the MCA site. Our company search guide explains each register. A firm that cannot give you a GSTIN cannot give you a GST invoice, which matters if you claim input tax credit.
6. Ask four firms for a written quote against your brief. Ask each to break it down: design, development, content, hosting, domain, email, maintenance, and what is charged yearly. Compare like with like; a low quote that leaves out content entry or hosting is not cheaper.
7. Ask who owns what. Before you sign, ask in writing: in whose name will the domain be registered, who will hold the hosting account, will you receive the source code and admin logins, and will the copyright in the design be assigned to you? The next section explains why these four answers matter more than the price.
8. Sign a contract with milestones. Pay in stages tied to approved deliverables (design approval, development on a test link, launch, handover), not by dates. The contract table below lists the clauses to include.
9. Take a full handover at launch. Domain account, hosting account, admin passwords, a backup of files and database, and a short note on how to update the site. Change the passwords after the handover.

Who owns your website: copyright, domain and hosting

The most common complaint about web design firms is not ugly design; it is a business that cannot move its own website because the domain, hosting or code sits with the agency. Indian law and the .IN domain rules explain why this happens and how to avoid it.

Copyright in the design and code

Section 17 of the Copyright Act, 1957 (text of section 17) makes the author the first owner of copyright. An employer becomes the first owner only for work made by an employee "under a contract of service". A web design firm you hire is not your employee: it works under a contract for service, so unless your agreement says otherwise, the firm, not you, is the first owner of the copyright in the design, graphics and code it creates for you. (Section 17 has a separate rule making the person who pays the first owner of commissioned photographs, paintings and portraits, but it does not cover website code or layouts.)

Section 19 (text of section 19 on Indian Kanoon) sets out how copyright can be transferred to you. An assignment is valid only if it is in writing and signed by the assignor. It must identify the work, the rights assigned, and their duration and territory. If the duration is not stated it is deemed to be five years, and if the territory is not stated it is presumed to be India only. And if the person receiving the rights does not use them within a year, the assignment lapses unless the document says otherwise. A one-line "all rights belong to the client" in a quotation may not meet these requirements, so ask for an assignment clause that names the website, covers all rights, is perpetual and worldwide, and states the payment as consideration.

Firms often build on themes, plugins, fonts and stock images licensed from others, which they cannot assign to you. That is normal. Ask for a list of these third-party parts and their licence terms, and make sure the licences are in your name or transferable.

The domain name

The .IN Registry's policies page sets out the rules for .in domains. A .in name can be registered for one to ten years and renews automatically at the end of its term through the registrar. The registrant must give true and accurate contact details for four contacts (registrant, administrative, technical and billing), and all but the billing contact are shown in the .IN WHOIS. A domain cannot be moved to another registrar within 60 days of being created. The registry charges registrars ₹500 a year for a second-level name such as example.in and ₹400 for a third-level name such as example.co.in, and registrars set their own retail prices.

What this means in practice: the registrant named in the record is the holder of the domain. If the web firm registers it in its own name or with its own email, you depend on it for every renewal and transfer. Ask for the domain to be registered with your business as the registrant and your own email address on the account, and keep the registrar login yourself. If you already have a site, look up your domain in the WHOIS to see who it is registered to.

The hosting account

Hosting is a service contract, not property. If the firm hosts your site on its own server, you are its customer, and moving away depends on its cooperation. Either hold the hosting account in your own name (the firm gets access as a user), or get a contract clause that obliges the firm to hand over a full backup of files and database within a set number of days of your request, whatever the dispute.

What the contract with a web design company should say

Most Indian web projects run on a quotation and a WhatsApp chat. That works until something goes wrong. These are the clauses to ask for; a lawyer can turn them into an agreement, and many firms already have a standard one you can mark up.

Two more checks before you sign. First, a GST invoice: website design and development are taxable services, so ask for a tax invoice in your business's name with the firm's GSTIN, and check it on the GST portal. Second, the price over three years, not one: domain renewal, hosting, email, SSL (if charged), maintenance and any paid plugins recur every year, and a cheap first year can be followed by expensive renewals.

How much should a website cost? There is no official rate and prices vary from a few thousand rupees for a template site to lakhs for a custom portal. What drives the price is the number of unique page designs, custom features (logins, calculators, booking, integrations), ecommerce (product entry, payment and shipping setup), content writing and photography, and the yearly hosting and maintenance. Quotes from four firms against the same written brief will tell you more about the going rate in your city than any published average.

Selling to web design firms

Web design firms are buyers too. They buy hosting and servers by the month, domains in bulk, themes, plugins and fonts, stock images, design and development software, laptops and monitors, payment gateway partnerships, and staff. They are also partners for printers, digital marketing agencies and software firms that need a web team for their own clients. The web design list says hosting resellers, theme and plugin sellers and businesses looking for a web agency are its usual buyers.

• Hosting and cloud resellers: start with the firms labelled "Internet Web Server Hosting" and "Website Hosting Services", which already resell, and offer them better margins, local support or data centres in India.
• Theme, plugin and design-tool sellers: the graphic designers list has the reach (43,381 rows, 92% with email), and email suits a product with a free trial.
• Agencies looking for a white-label web partner: look for firms with a website and a team of more than a few people; only 28% of rows in the web design list have a website, so filter for it in the Excel file and visit each one.
• Businesses that need websites: the reverse direction is also common. Web firms look for clients in the website owners list (77,003 businesses that already have a site, 96% with email), whose sites may need a redesign, and in industry lists of firms with no website at all.

The rules for calls, SMS and email

Selling to a firm by phone is commercial communication under TRAI's Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations (TCCCPR), 2018. TRAI's preference registration page explains that any mobile user can block commercial calls and SMS fully or by category (one of them is "Communication/Broadcasting/Entertainment/IT"), by mode (voice and SMS, auto-dialler or robo calls), by time band and by day, by SMS or call to 1909, an app or a web portal. A number on a business list can still be on the DND (NCPR) register: check every number before you call, as our DND check guide explains. Bulk SMS senders must register as a principal entity and register their headers and content templates, as TRAI's pages for senders set out (see our DLT guide).

Email to a business address is not covered by DND, but the big mail providers filter bulk mail from senders who do not authenticate their domain. Send small batches, write to one firm at a time about something specific (a site they built, a city they work in), and honour every request to stop. Our cold email templates give wording to start from. Many web design firms are one-person businesses whose mobile number is also personal, so treat a call as a business conversation, at business hours, and stop when asked.

Where Starleads' data falls short

A list is a starting point, not a ranking. Be clear about what the web design and graphic designer lists can and cannot tell you.

• No quality signal. The lists tell you a firm exists and how to reach it, not whether it is good. Portfolios, live sites and references do that.
• Mixed categories. The free sample shows hosting resellers, development firms and even a computer training institute under web design labels. Use the category column and check each firm you plan to hire.
• Email and website coverage is uneven. 98% of web design rows have a mobile number but only 54% an email and 28% a website, so the list suits calling more than email. The graphic designers list is better for email (92%).
• Directories miss newer firms. Freelancers who find work only through marketplaces or Instagram, and agencies set up in the last year, may not be listed. Freelance platforms and design communities fill that gap.
• Details change. Small firms move and change numbers. That is why each list page shows 60 real rows free before you buy; check them against what you know about your city.

Prices: each city or state list costs ₹499 and the all-India web design and graphic designer lists ₹1,999 each, plus 18% GST, with 60 contacts free first. For the wider IT market, see our list of IT and software companies in India, and for agencies that also build websites, our guide to digital marketing and advertising agencies.

Questions people ask about web design companies in India

Which are the top web design companies in India?

There is no official ranking, and most "top 10" lists are published by agencies that include themselves or by marketplaces that rank paying members. "Top" also depends on the job: a firm that builds large portals for banks is not the best choice for a 10-page site for a dealer in Indore. Shortlist by city, industry experience and live work, using the steps above.

How many web design companies are there in India?

No official count exists, because web design needs no licence. Starleads' data has 17,460 web design, development and hosting firms and 43,381 graphic designers, and many software and marketing firms also build websites. These are counts of contacts in Starleads' data, not a census.

Which city is best for hiring a web development company?

Delhi (2,840 firms in Starleads' data), Mumbai (2,256), Bengaluru (1,509), Hyderabad (1,284) and Pune (1,123) have the most, but much of the work is done remotely now. Hiring in your own city makes meetings, references and any dispute easier; hiring elsewhere widens the choice. Either way, the contract and handover rules are the same.

Who owns my website, me or the designer?

Under section 17 of the Copyright Act, the firm that creates the design and code is the first owner of its copyright unless your agreement says otherwise, because it is not your employee. Get a written, signed assignment under section 19, and keep the domain and hosting in your business's name.

Should I register the domain myself?

Yes, if you can. The .IN Registry's rules treat the registrant named in the record as the holder of the domain, and a transfer needs the registrar account. Registering it with your business and your own email keeps you in control; you can still give the web firm technical access.

Is a freelancer cheaper than a web design company?

Often, but the risk is different. A freelancer may cost less and work faster on a small site, but there is no team to cover illness or a job change, so insist on the same handover, ownership and backup terms. For anything with ecommerce, logins or integrations, a firm with several developers is usually safer.

Can I get a free list of web design companies with contact numbers?

Every Starleads list page shows 60 real rows free, as an Excel sample or a PDF, with phone numbers and emails partly masked; the full list is a paid Excel download. Google Maps and business directories are free but must be copied one firm at a time.