Why is a website in Bhutan more expensive than a Wix or Squarespace plan?

It is not, over three years. A builder plan is billed monthly in US dollars and you still do the design and writing yourself. A studio site is paid once in Nu., then costs hosting and a domain each year. The studio price includes the hours; the builder price hides them in your evenings.

Can I get a website for under Nu. 10,000?

Yes, from a freelancer or a template, and for a one-page site with your phone number and hours that can be the right choice. Below that price nobody is designing for your customers' phones, writing your copy or setting up redirects and backups, so check what is left out before you compare.

Do prices include the domain and hosting?

Usually not, and a good quote says so. Hosting, domain and the yearly renewals are running costs that continue after the build, so they are quoted separately. Ask for the first-year total and the second-year total, and compare those.

Are these prices fixed?

The figures here are nine75's 2026 starting prices and they are real. Every project gets a written quote in Nu. within 3 working days, and that quote is the price. We do not bill by the hour or add a retainer afterwards.

How much does a website cost in Bhutan in 2026?

People ask us this on WhatsApp more than anything else, and the honest answer takes more than a message. Here are our own starting prices for 2026, what pushes a quote above them, and the questions to ask any studio in Thimphu or elsewhere before you sign. Prices are in Nu. because that is what you will pay in.

Starting prices in 2026

These are nine75’s starting prices as of 2026. They are the floor for a small, well made version of each thing, not an average. Other studios in Bhutan will quote differently, and a freelancer will quote lower.

What	From (Nu.)	Roughly (US$)	Billed
WordPress website	Nu. 18,000	≈ US$ 220	Once
AI-assistant website	Nu. 35,000	≈ US$ 420	Once, plus running cost
Brand identity	Nu. 25,000	≈ US$ 300	Once
Hosting, backups, updates	Nu. 3,500 / yr	≈ US$ 40	Yearly
.com domain	Nu. 1,200 / yr	≈ US$ 10	Yearly
.bt domain	Nu. 2,000 / yr	≈ US$ 20	Yearly

The dollar figures are approximate and move with the exchange rate. The Nu. figures are the ones we quote.

A first year for a typical small business, a WordPress site on our WordPress hosting plan (Nu. 7,500 a year) with a .bt domain, starts around Nu. 27,500. The second year is around Nu. 9,500, for hosting and the domain. Anyone comparing quotes should compare both numbers, because the cheapest first year is often the most expensive third one.

What a WordPress site at the starting price includes

At Nu. 18,000 you get a site of roughly 5 to 8 pages, designed for the phones your customers own, built on WordPress so your own staff can edit text and images, with a contact form that reaches your inbox, a WhatsApp button that opens a chat, basic search-engine setup, and a handover session. See the WordPress development page for the full list of what is and is not included.

What it does not include at that price: writing all your copy from nothing, photography, an online shop with payments, a booking system, or translation into Dzongkha. Each of those is a real piece of work and is quoted as one.

What moves the price

In our experience, six things account for nearly every difference between a Nu. 18,000 site and a Nu. 65,000 one.

Page count. Eight pages is a business site. Forty pages is a small publication. Each page needs design attention, content and a place in the navigation, so the count matters more than people expect.

Custom design versus a strong template. A site designed from a blank page for your brand costs more than a well chosen, well adapted theme. For most businesses the adapted theme is the right call; for a hotel competing with international chains, custom design pays for itself.

Content. If you hand us finished text and photographs, the price stays low. If we write the copy, brief a photographer and source images, it rises. Content is usually the part clients underestimate and the part that delays launch.

Integrations. Online payment through a local gateway, a booking engine, a stock system, a CRM, a newsletter tool. Each one is a connection that has to be built, tested and kept working.

An online shop. E-commerce is its own project. Product data, variants, shipping rules, payment, order emails and tax all add up, and in Bhutan the payment gateway options need particular care.

Languages. Dzongkha, or any second language, roughly doubles the content work and needs a font and layout that handle the script properly.

The price of a website is mostly the price of the decisions nobody has made yet.

What branding costs, and why it is separate

Brand identity from Nu. 25,000 covers the logo system, colour and type choices, and a short set of rules so the brand looks the same on a signboard, a WhatsApp profile and an invoice. It is priced separately from the website because it is used in far more places than the website, and because a site built on an unfinished identity gets rebuilt.

If you have a logo you are happy with, you do not need this. If you have a logo that a cousin made in 2016 that only exists as a small JPEG, you probably do. See branding.

What an AI-assistant site costs, and the running cost

From Nu. 35,000 you get the website and an assistant that answers visitors’ questions from your own pages, prices and policies, and hands over to WhatsApp when a person is needed. It costs more than a plain site because the content has to be prepared for the assistant and the handover rules have to be built and tested.

There is also a monthly running cost for the model usage, which we quote and cap in writing. It is small for a small business, but it exists, and a quote that does not mention it is incomplete. The scope, and what the assistant is not allowed to do, is set out in what an AI assistant on your site can and cannot do.

Hosting and domains: the yearly costs

Hosting from Nu. 3,500 a year includes the server, nightly backups, security updates and someone to call when something breaks. Cheaper hosting exists. It usually leaves out the backups and the someone.

A .com domain is from Nu. 1,200 a year and a .bt from Nu. 2,000, the difference being the registry’s own fee and the paperwork a .bt needs. Whether you want one or both is covered in why your Bhutanese business needs a .bt domain. Whether the server should sit in Bhutan or abroad is covered in hosting in Bhutan vs abroad.

Domains and hosting are the costs that keep going after the studio has left. Make sure the logins are in your name, not the studio’s.

What to ask a studio before you sign

Any studio should be able to answer these in writing, in Nu., without a follow-up meeting.

What exactly is included at this price, and what is the next thing that would cost extra?
What will the site cost in year two and year three?
Who owns the domain, the hosting account and the WordPress login when we are done?
Will you show it to me on a mid-range Android phone over mobile data before launch?
What happens if the site goes down at 11 p.m. on a Saturday, Bhutan Time?
Can my staff change the text and the prices without calling you?
Is there a retainer or a minimum monthly fee after launch?

If any answer is vague, the price is not the number on the quote.

Our own answer

Fixed quotes in Nu., in writing, within 3 working days, from the starting prices above. No hourly billing, no retainer, and the second-year cost is on the quote. Tell us what you are making and we will tell you what it costs.