Website cost in Nepal in 2026 depends mostly on who builds the site and how much of it is custom: a simple template-based business site from a freelancer typically costs NPR 20,000 to 60,000, a small business site from an established company NPR 50,000 to 1.5 lakh, a custom-designed site NPR 1.5 to 4 lakh, and an e-commerce store with eSewa or Khalti NPR 1.5 to 6 lakh or more. Yearly running costs for a small site add roughly NPR 5,000 to 30,000, more if you pay for maintenance.
These are typical market ranges, not a price list. They vary with how much of the design is original, who writes the content, what the site has to connect to, and what happens after launch. The rest of this guide explains each of those so you can read a quote and know what you are paying for.
Website cost in Nepal at a glance
The table shows typical market ranges seen in Nepal in 2026. One lakh is NPR 100,000. Quotes are often given excluding 13% VAT, so check which way yours is written.
| Type of website | What it usually includes | Typical range (NPR) |
|---|---|---|
| Template site from a freelancer | 3-6 pages on a licensed theme, contact form, basic mobile layout | 15,000-60,000 |
| Small business site from a company | 5-12 pages, customised theme, basic SEO setup, Google Business Profile, training | 50,000-1.5 lakh |
| Custom-designed business site | Original design, CMS, speed and accessibility work, optional Nepali version | 1.5-4 lakh |
| E-commerce store | Catalogue, cart, eSewa/Khalti/Fonepay, delivery zones, order admin | 1.5-6 lakh+ |
| Booking site (hotel, trekking, clinic) | Booking engine or enquiry workflow, galleries, multilingual pages | 1-5 lakh |
| Web application or portal | Logins, dashboards, integrations, roles and permissions | 5 lakh+, scoped individually |
The ranges overlap on purpose. A well-organised freelancer can deliver a better small site than a disorganised company, and a "simple" site becomes expensive once someone asks for a Nepali version, a booking calendar and a payment gateway.
What makes one quote NPR 30,000 and another NPR 3 lakh?
The difference is mostly how much work and how many decisions the developer takes on for you, not the number of pages. Two quotes for "a 7-page website" can describe very different projects.
- Design. Installing a theme and swapping the logo takes days. Designing layouts around your customers, photos and brand takes weeks.
- Content. Someone has to write the pages, and often translate them. If the quote assumes you supply finished text and photos, the price is lower and the launch date depends on you.
- Page templates, not pages. A site with 40 product pages built from one template can cost less than a site with 8 pages that all look different.
- Integrations. Payment gateways, booking engines, SMS notifications, CRM forms and accounting exports each add build and testing time.
- Invisible quality. Mobile speed, security hardening, backups, accessibility and correct SEO setup do not show in a screenshot, and they are the first things cut from a cheap quote.
- Who does the work. One developer, or a team with a project manager, a designer and someone who tests on real phones.
- Support after launch. Whether bug fixes for the first weeks are included, and what updates cost afterwards.
What are the yearly running costs of a website in Nepal?
For a small business site, expect roughly NPR 5,000 to 30,000 a year before maintenance, and NPR 25,000 to 2.5 lakh a year if you also pay someone to keep it updated. Many owners budget for the build and forget these.
| Running cost | Typical range | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| .com domain | NPR 1,500-3,000 a year | Priced in US dollars by most registrars, so it moves with the exchange rate |
| .com.np domain | Historically free for eligible applicants | Needs supporting documents; see our guide to .com.np domain registration |
| Shared hosting | NPR 3,000-15,000 a year | Fine for small brochure sites |
| Cloud or VPS hosting | NPR 2,000-15,000 a month | For stores, busy sites and web apps |
| SSL certificate | Usually free | Let's Encrypt certificates come with most hosting |
| Premium theme and plugin licences | Roughly USD 50-300 a year | Needed for updates and security fixes |
| Business email | Per user, per month | Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 bill in US dollars |
| Maintenance | NPR 2,000-20,000 a month | Updates, backups, uptime checks, small edits |
Anything billed in dollars needs a card that can pay abroad. Nepali banks issue dollar cards within limits set under Nepal Rastra Bank rules, so decide early whose card pays for hosting and licences. If it is your developer's card, the account usually ends up in their name.
How much does an e-commerce website cost in Nepal?
An e-commerce website in Nepal typically costs NPR 1.5 to 6 lakh to build, with simpler WooCommerce stores at the lower end and custom builds with stock sync and several gateways at the top. Running costs are higher than for a brochure site because stores need better hosting, pay gateway commissions and need more maintenance.
What pushes the price up:
- Payment gateways. eSewa, Khalti, Fonepay and ConnectIPS are each a separate merchant application and a separate integration. Our guide to eSewa, Khalti and Fonepay integration covers what each involves.
- Delivery rules. Different rates inside and outside Kathmandu Valley, weight bands, cash-on-delivery limits.
- Product entry. Uploading 300 products with photos and variants is days of work. Agree who does it.
- Stock and accounting. Syncing inventory with a shop's POS or accounting software is where custom work starts.
- Platform fees. Shopify charges a monthly subscription in US dollars; WooCommerce is free software but needs better hosting and more upkeep.
If you are planning a store, how to start an e-commerce website in Nepal walks through the platform, payment and delivery decisions to make before you ask for quotes.
Where do cheap websites end up costing more?
A low quote is fine when the scope is genuinely small. It becomes expensive when the savings come from things you only discover later. These are the patterns that most often lead to a paid rebuild:
- The domain is registered in the developer's name or on their reseller account, and you cannot move it when the relationship ends.
- The theme or plugins are "nulled", meaning pirated copies of paid products. They cannot be updated and are a common route for malware.
- There are no off-site backups, so a hacked or expired hosting account takes the site with it.
- The site is built with a heavy page builder and loads slowly on mobile data, which is how most Nepali visitors arrive.
- You never received the admin login, so every text change becomes a paid request.
Each of these costs more to fix than it would have cost to do properly. Asking about them before you sign costs nothing.
What should a website quote in Nepal include?
A usable quote describes the work in enough detail that two developers could price the same thing. Before you accept one, check that it states:
- The list of pages or page templates, and the features on each.
- Who writes, translates and supplies photos for the content.
- The number of design revision rounds.
- The timeline, including the dates that depend on you.
- A payment schedule tied to milestones, not the full amount upfront.
- Whether VAT is included, and whether you receive a VAT bill.
- That the domain, hosting, code and admin accounts are in your business's name.
- What is covered after launch (a bug-fix period) and what maintenance costs.
- What is explicitly excluded.
If you are comparing several companies, the checklist for choosing a website developer in Nepal covers what to check beyond price.
How Meritbyte Technologies prices website work
Meritbyte Technologies is a Nepal-based web and software development company. We do not publish a price list, because the ranges above show how much depends on scope, but we do try to make the number easy to reach.
The first step is a free scoping conversation. You get back a written scope, a timeline and a price, without paying for a discovery phase first. The first milestone is a fixed price. After that, work runs in two-week blocks with a demo at the end of each, and you can stop at the end of any block. You get a staging URL you can open at any time and a written update every week.
The domain, hosting, code and accounts are set up in your name, and documentation comes with the handover, so nothing breaks if you later move to another firm. Small businesses can also ask for a free website design idea before committing to anything. More detail is on our web development services page and our page for businesses looking for a website developer in Nepal.
Frequently asked questions
Can I get a website in Nepal for under NPR 10,000?
Sometimes, usually as a single page or a site on a free builder with a subdomain, built by a student or part-time freelancer. That can be enough to test an idea. Check who owns the domain and hosting, whether the theme is licensed, and whether you get the admin login. For a business that relies on enquiries, budget for a properly set-up site instead.
Do website prices in Nepal include VAT?
Often not. Many companies quote excluding 13% VAT and add it on the bill, while freelancers who are not VAT-registered cannot charge it at all. If your business claims input VAT, you need a VAT bill from a registered supplier. Either way, confirm in writing whether the quoted figure includes VAT, so that two quotes are compared on the same basis.
How much does website maintenance cost in Nepal?
Typical monthly maintenance for a small business site in Nepal ranges from about NPR 2,000 to 20,000, depending on what is included. Basic plans cover updates and backups; fuller plans add uptime monitoring, security scans, small content edits and faster response times. Ask for the list of tasks and the response time in writing, not just the monthly figure.
Is a website from Nepal cheaper than hiring a developer abroad?
Usually, yes. Rates in Nepal are generally lower than in the USA, UK or Australia for comparable work, which is one reason overseas businesses outsource here. The saving only holds if the work is scoped, tested and handed over properly. A cheap site that must be rebuilt within a year ends up costing more than a fairly priced one that lasts.