"How much does a website cost?"
It's the first question in almost every conversation we have, and it's the one nobody answers honestly. So let's do it — with real numbers, in rupees, for the Sri Lankan market.
The short answer
A small internal tool: roughly LKR 300,000–700,000. A marketing website: LKR 400,000–1,500,000. A mobile app: LKR 1,000,000–5,000,000+. A web platform with accounts, payments, and admin panels: LKR 1,500,000–6,000,000+. An ERP that replaces Excel and connects your departments: LKR 3,000,000+.
These are ranges, not quotes. Every project is different. But they're honest ranges — the ones people quote in private, not in proposals.
Where the money actually goes
Most people assume they're paying for code. They're not. A project's cost is mostly: discovery and scope (understanding what you actually need), design (getting the screens right before code), engineering (writing, reviewing, testing), and — the part everyone forgets — communication and project management.
The team matters more than the hours. A senior engineer at a higher rate will finish a project a junior team stretches into months. Cheaper per hour is almost never cheaper per project.
Red flags in low quotes
If a quote is dramatically below the range, ask what you're not getting. Common shortcuts: offshore code with no one to maintain it, a template you could have bought for LKR 20,000, no documentation, no testing, and no one who'll answer the phone when it breaks.
How to budget properly
The number you should focus on isn't the build cost — it's the cost over time. A system that saves one person a day is worth more than the project cost within a year. Cheap software that needs a rewrite in two years is the most expensive software you can buy.
Get a scope document. Get a timeline you can trust. Get a team that will be there after launch. The rupees will make sense once the value is clear.
Want a real estimate for your project? Send us a few sentences about what you're building — we reply within one business day. Start a project →