The real cost of a cheap website for institutions
A ₹15,000 website looks like a saving. Three years later — security injections, broken mobile layout, and a managing committee that doesn't trust the platform — the real cost becomes visible.
The upfront number is the least important number
When a school managing committee evaluates a website proposal, the first question is usually: what does it cost? That is the wrong question. The right question is: what will it cost over three years, including the time and reputation spent managing its failures?
Year one: the site works, mostly
A ₹15,000 WordPress site built in a week usually looks functional on launch day. It has the school's name, some photos, a notice page, and a contact form. The principal is satisfied. The vendor is paid. The website is 'done'.
Year two: the cracks appear
The vendor who built the site has moved on. Nobody on the school staff knows the WordPress admin password. A plugin update breaks the navigation on mobile. A new notice needs to be added but nobody knows how. The notice from six months ago is still the most recent one. Parents who check the site stop trusting it. Parents who don't check it miss important communications.
Year three: the real cost
A new vendor is hired to 'fix' the site. They rebuild parts of it on a new template. The old URL structure breaks. All the Google rankings built over two years disappear overnight because nobody knew about redirects. Meanwhile, the school's email domain gets blacklisted because the shared hosting server was used to send spam. The managing committee asks for a full audit. The audit reveals that the site has had a gambling injection in its source code for four months.
The actual cost comparison
The ₹15,000 site costs more over three years — in emergency fixes, in lost Google presence, in reputation damage that never appears on any invoice. The retainer site costs more upfront and on paper. But it runs. It stays current. It does not surprise you.
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