If you run a business in Mumbai and need a new website, there are three ways to get it built: hire a freelancer, hire a developer onto your own team, or work with a web development agency. Each one suits a different kind of business.
Search for “web developers in Mumbai” and you get thousands of results. They range from college students charging a few thousand rupees to large firms with sales teams. Prices, promises and portfolios all look different, so it is hard to compare like with like.
As a web design and development company in Mumbai since 1998, Reternetics has built websites for businesses from our studio in Andheri West, and we have taken over plenty of projects that started with the wrong choice. This guide sets out the real trade-offs of each option, so you can pick the one that fits your budget, timeline and how much the website matters to your sales.
Quick Answer: Choose a freelancer for a small, simple website on a tight budget. Hire in-house only if your website changes every day. Choose an agency when the website brings in enquiries or sales and needs design, development and SEO done properly together.
A freelancer is usually the cheapest way to get a website live. That makes it a sensible choice for small, simple websites where a delay or a gap in skills won't hurt the business much.
Mumbai has a large pool of freelance developers, found through referrals, Instagram, LinkedIn and platforms like Upwork and Fiverr. The good ones are very good. The difficulty is that from the outside, a good one and an average one look much the same.
💡 Reternetics Insight: The most common rescue job we see is a business that cannot get into its own domain, hosting or website admin because only the freelancer had the logins. Whoever builds your website, register everything in your own business name from day one.
Best for: a first website on a tight budget, a one-page site for an event or launch, or small changes to a website you already own and control.
Hiring your own developer makes sense when your website changes every week. It rarely does for a business that needs one good website and occasional updates.
A web developer in Mumbai earns a median of about Rs 4.1 lakh a year, and the middle half earn between Rs 2.5 lakh and Rs 6.8 lakh (Flexiple, August 2026). That is salary alone. On top of it come recruitment, a laptop, software licences, leave cover and your own time spent briefing and checking the work.
Best for: e-commerce stores, portals and businesses whose website or app is the product itself, with enough work to fill a full-time job.
An agency costs more per project than a freelancer and less per year than a full-time hire. In return you get a whole team: design, development, content, SEO and hosting, under one contract.
Mumbai has hundreds of web development companies, from two-person studios to large firms. Size matters less than whether the people who pitch to you are the people who build your website, and whether the agency will still be around in five years to support it.
Best for: businesses where the website brings in enquiries or sales, websites that need design, SEO and development together, and owners who want one accountable partner, not a team to manage. See our website design and development services for how we work.
No option wins on every count. It comes down to which risks your business can live with.
| Freelancer | In-House Developer | Agency | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Upfront cost | Lowest | Monthly salary (median about Rs 4.1 lakh a year) | Project fee, higher than a freelancer |
| Skills covered | Usually one (often coding) | Usually one or two | Design, development, SEO, content, hosting |
| Speed to launch | Fast for small sites, slips on larger ones | Slow to start (hiring takes time), fast once settled | Steady, with set milestones |
| Day-to-day changes | When they are available | Same day | Through a support plan |
| Quality checks | Self-checked | Hard to judge without a technical manager | Reviewed by a team before launch |
| If someone leaves | Project stops | Knowledge walks out | Another team member takes over |
| Who holds logins and files | Often the freelancer | You | Should be you (put it in the contract) |
| Best fit | Small, simple websites | Websites that change every day | Websites that drive enquiries or sales |
Match the option to how much your website matters to your sales.
For a closer look at what each option costs, read our website cost guide for Mumbai.
Whichever route you take, ask these before you pay a deposit. The answers will tell you more than the portfolio.
Our guide to hiring website designers in Mumbai covers the design side in more detail, and how to choose the best web design agency in Mumbai goes deeper on comparing agencies.
A freelancer is usually cheaper upfront. An agency often costs less over the life of the website, because design, SEO, security and support are included rather than bought separately or fixed later.
The median salary for a web developer in Mumbai is about Rs 4.1 lakh a year, with most earning between Rs 2.5 lakh and Rs 6.8 lakh. Recruitment, equipment, software and management time come on top of salary.
Sometimes, for a small website. For a website that needs to bring in business, design, development and SEO are separate skills, and most people are strong in one or two of them.
You should, always. Make sure the domain, hosting and website admin are registered in your business name, whoever builds the website.
Call two recent clients, meet the people who will actually build your website, and get the scope, timeline and post-launch support in writing before paying a deposit.
Yes. Reternetics has designed and built websites for businesses in Mumbai, across India and worldwide since 1998, from our studio in Andheri West. Contact us at +91-9819-155389 for a free consultation.
Weighing up a freelancer, an in-house hire or an agency? Reternetics has designed and built websites for Mumbai businesses since 1998, from our studio in Andheri West. We are happy to give you an honest view of what fits your business, even if the answer isn’t us.