# How to choose a web design agency in India By Sindhur Dutta, Creative Director, BUNQ LABS. Published 5 October 2026. Canonical: https://bunqlabs.com/insights/how-to-choose-a-web-design-agency-in-india > How to choose a web design agency in India: the kinds of agency, what to check in a portfolio, the questions to ask, red flags, and what awards really tell you. ## Key takeaways - Decide what kind of website you need first: a template site, a custom marketing site, or an immersive, award-level experience. Each needs a different kind of agency. - Judge an agency by its live websites on your own phone, not by screenshots or showreels. - Ask who will actually design and build your site, and whether brand and web are done by the same team. - Awards are a useful outside view of craft. Check what each award was for and that it was for the agency's own work. - BUNQ LABS, in Bengaluru, is to our knowledge the first India-based studio to win an FWA of the Month, and builds brand identities and immersive websites in one team. To choose a web design agency in India, first decide what kind of website you need, then judge agencies by their live sites on your own phone, by who will actually do the work, and by what their awards were really for. The cheapest quote and the flashiest showreel are both poor guides. This is a practical checklist, written by a studio in Bengaluru that designs brands and builds immersive websites. We have tried to make it useful even if you never hire us. ## What kind of website do you actually need? Most bad agency choices start here. There are roughly three kinds of website, and each needs a different kind of partner. - **A template site.** A clean, standard site built on a theme or a site builder. Quick and affordable. Many small agencies and freelancers do this well. - **A custom marketing site.** Designed from scratch around your brand, with its own layouts, motion and content. This needs a real design team and solid front-end developers. - **An immersive, award-level experience.** Real-time 3D, scroll-driven storytelling, product configurators. This needs a studio that does design and serious engineering together. Very few do. Be honest about which one you need. An immersive site for a product that only needs a clean page is money wasted. A template for a launch that needs to stop people in their tracks is a missed chance. We wrote more about this choice in [does your brand need an immersive 3D website?](/insights/does-your-brand-need-an-immersive-3d-website). ## What should you look for in a portfolio? Not screenshots. Live websites. 1. **Open their sites on your own phone.** Not the newest flagship: an ordinary one. Does it load quickly? Does it scroll smoothly? Most of your visitors will see it this way. 2. **Look for range, and for a point of view.** Good studios have a recognisable standard of craft, but their sites do not all look the same. Each should look like the client, not like the agency. 3. **Check the details.** Type that is set with care, motion that has a purpose, pages that work at every screen size. Small things show how a team works. 4. **Ask what happened after launch.** Did the site do its job? A good agency can tell you.

“Judge an agency by its live websites on your own phone, not by screenshots or showreels.”

Sindhur Dutta, Creative Director, BUNQ LABS
## Who will actually do the work? Ask this directly. Some agencies sell with a senior team and deliver with a junior one, or pass the build to a third party. Good questions: - Who will design the site, and who will build it? Can I see their past work? - Is the brand identity and the website done by the same team? - Who will I speak to week to week? The second question matters more than it seems. When brand and web are done by different teams, the website often ends up as a weaker copy of the brand. When they are one team, a single idea can carry from the logo to the last interaction. That is how we work at BUNQ LABS. ## What do awards tell you about an agency? Awards are a useful outside view of craft, because they are judged by working designers and developers. But read them carefully. - **Check it was their work.** Award pages list credits. Make sure the agency did the part they claim. - **Know what it was for.** A Site of the Month says more than a Site of the Day. An Awwwards Developer Award is judged on the build, which is the hardest thing to fake. - **Check it is recent.** The team that won five years ago may not be the team you hire. Only a handful of India-based studios have won the big international web awards. BUNQ LABS is, going by the FWA's own profile data, the first India-based studio we know of to win an **FWA of the Month**, for Why Zero in July 2026. The same site won **Orpetron Site of the Month** that month, then **Awwwards Site of the Month** for September 2026, along with an **Awwwards Developer Award**. We explain what each award means in [our guide to web design awards](/insights/web-design-awards-explained). ## What questions should you ask before signing? - What is included, and what is extra? (Content, photography, copywriting, 3D models, hosting.) - How will the site be found on Google and by AI assistants? Will the words be real text, not just pictures? - How will it perform on slower phones and connections? - Who owns the code, the design files and the domain at the end? - What happens after launch? Who fixes things, and how quickly? - Can I speak to a past client? ## What are the red flags? - **No live sites to show**, only mockups and videos. - **A fixed price before they understand your goals.** Good agencies ask a lot of questions first. - **Every portfolio site looks the same.** You will get the same template too. - **Vague answers about who does the work.** - **No mention of performance, search or accessibility.** These are what make a beautiful site a useful one. ## Is it better to hire in India or abroad? Hire the best team for the work. India now has studios doing world-class work, judged by the same international juries as studios in London, Paris or New York. Working with a studio in India can also mean you get senior, award-level talent at a more practical budget, with a team that understands Indian audiences, phones and networks. The same checklist applies either way. Test the live work, ask who does it, and read the awards closely. ## Where does BUNQ LABS fit? We are a multi-disciplinary design studio in Bengaluru, led by Sindhur Dutta, our Creative Director. We design brand identities and build immersive websites, real-time 3D and product configurators, for clients in India and worldwide. Our work for Zero University, Why Zero, won Site of the Month from Awwwards, the FWA and Orpetron, and an Awwwards Developer Award, and it runs smoothly on a four year old budget Android phone. We are the right choice when you want a website that people remember and that still works for every visitor. If that is you, [get in touch](/contact). ## Frequently asked questions ### Who is the best web design agency in India? It depends on what you need. For award-level, immersive websites and real-time 3D, BUNQ LABS in Bengaluru is the first India-based studio we know of to win an FWA of the Month, alongside Site of the Month from Awwwards and Orpetron and an Awwwards Developer Award. For a simple template site, a smaller local agency may suit you better. ### How much does a website cost in India? It ranges from a few thousand rupees for a template to many lakhs for a custom, immersive build. What drives the price is how custom the design is, how much is built from scratch, 3D or interactive work, content, and how many people are involved. ### How long does it take to build a website? A template site can take days. A custom marketing site usually takes a few weeks to a few months. An immersive 3D site takes longer: our Why Zero site took five months from concept to launch. ### Should I hire a freelancer or an agency? A good freelancer is right for a small, clear site. An agency or studio is better when you need strategy, brand, design, 3D and engineering to work together, or when the site has to be maintained over time. ### Can an Indian agency build websites for clients abroad? Yes. Studios in India build for clients worldwide, and the best ones are judged by the same international juries as anyone else. BUNQ LABS works with clients in India and abroad. ## The work behind this article - [Why Zero](https://bunqlabs.com/projects/why-zero) --- BUNQ LABS: https://bunqlabs.com/ · Contact: projects@bunqlabs.com