Small business website statistics India (2026)

How many small businesses are there in India?

The Udyam registry is the only running count. It adds formal MSMEs on the Udyam Registration Portal to informal micro enterprises on the Udyam Assist Platform, so the total jumps as shops are formalised.

1. 9.16 crore MSMEs (91.6 million) were registered on the Udyam platform as on August 2026, employing more than 40 crore people.Source: PIB / Ministry of MSME factsheet, 2026
2. More than 8.9 crore enterprises were registered on the Udyam Registration Portal and Udyam Assist Platform by 14 July 2026, employing over 38 crore people.Source: PIB, 14 Jul 2026
3. 7.30 crore enterprises registered between 1 July 2020 and December 2025: 4.37 crore on the Udyam Portal and 2.92 crore informal micro enterprises on the Udyam Assist Platform.Source: PIB, 15 Feb 2026
4. MSMEs account for 31.1% of India's GDP, 35.4% of manufacturing output and 48.58% of exports (Economic Survey 2025-26).Source: PIB / Ministry of MSME factsheet, 2026
5. 1.65 crore businesses were registered GST taxpayers in May 2026, up from 66.5 lakh in 2017; gross GST collections were about ₹22.27 lakh crore in 2025-26.Source: PIB, 30 Jun 2026
6. 35% of MSMEs surveyed by SIDBI in 2025 were still unregistered on Udyam or Udyam Assist, citing lack of awareness and fear of scrutiny (survey of more than 2,000 MSMEs in 19 sectors).Source: SIDBI, May 2025 (PDF)

How many Indian MSMEs have a website?

Nobody has counted recently. The Ministry of MSME publishes no web-presence data; the last primary study with a stated sample is from 2017, and SIDBI's 2025 survey measures marketing channels and payments, the closest current proxy.

1. 68% of Indian SMBs were completely offline and only 2% actively sold or promoted their business online in 2017 (Kantar IMRB telephone survey of 504 SMBs, November 2016).Source: KPMG-Google, Jan 2017 (PDF)
2. Digitally engaged SMBs grew profits up to two times faster than offline SMBs, and 51% of digitally enabled SMBs sold beyond their city against 29% of offline SMBs (2017).Source: KPMG-Google, Jan 2017 (PDF)
3. Digitally enabled SMBs employed up to five times more people than offline SMBs (2017).Source: KPMG-Google, Jan 2017 (PDF)
4. More than 90% of MSMEs surveyed by SIDBI in 2025 accepted digital payments, while about 18% had availed digital lending.Source: SIDBI, May 2025 (PDF)
5. Only 13% of surveyed MSMEs used digital marketing in 2025; 24% relied on in-person marketing, 18% on referrals, 16% on print and 18% on mail or telemarketing, and almost 70% preferred traditional modes.Source: SIDBI, May 2025 (PDF)

Claims that "only 1% of MSMEs have a website" or "16 to 18 million MSMEs are online" circulate widely but could not be traced to a published study with a stated sample, so they are not listed.

How many Indians are online, and on mobile?

TRAI counts subscriptions (connections); IAMAI-Kantar estimates unique people who used the internet in the last month. Both answer different questions.

1. India had 1,092.79 million internet subscribers at end-March 2026, up 12.76% from 969.10 million a year earlier; 1,065.88 million were broadband and 26.91 million narrowband.Source: TRAI PR 127/2026, 5 Oct 2026 (PDF)
2. 1,046.26 million internet subscriptions were wireless and 46.54 million wired at end-March 2026, so about 96% of Indian internet access is mobile or fixed-wireless.Source: TRAI PR 127/2026, 5 Oct 2026 (PDF)
3. Internet subscriptions per 100 people were 76.59 nationally, 126.80 in urban India and 48.31 in rural India at end-March 2026 (651.93 million urban, 440.87 million rural).Source: TRAI PR 127/2026, 5 Oct 2026 (PDF)
4. The average wireless data subscriber used 25.51 GB a month in 2025-26, up from 21.53 GB, and operators realised ₹8.02 per GB, down from ₹8.97.Source: TRAI PR 127/2026, 5 Oct 2026 (PDF)
5. Total telephone subscribers reached 1,348.08 million at end-June 2026 (1,300.25 million wireless), tele-density 94.31%; 792.06 million urban and 556.01 million rural.Source: TRAI PR 104/2026, 28 Jul 2026 (PDF)
6. Broadband subscribers reached 1,087.50 million at end-June 2026 (1,039.78 million wireless, 47.71 million wireline); active wireless subscribers on peak VLR were 1,201.06 million.Source: TRAI PR 104/2026, 28 Jul 2026 (PDF)
7. IAMAI and Kantar estimated 886 million active internet users in 2024 (55% of the population), 488 million rural and 397 million urban, and projected more than 900 million in 2025.Source: IAMAI-Kantar ICUBE 2024 (PDF)
8. Indian internet users spent an average of 90 minutes a day online in 2024, and 332 million people shopped online for products.Source: IAMAI-Kantar ICUBE 2024 (PDF)

How big is UPI?

UPI figures are NPCI data as tabled in Parliament and published by PIB, citable without the NPCI dashboard. A business that shows a UPI QR code online or at the counter plugs into this network (free UPI QR code generator).

1. UPI processed 24,161.69 crore transactions worth ₹314.23 lakh crore in FY 2025-26, up from 18,586.60 crore and ₹260.56 lakh crore in FY 2024-25 and 4,595.61 crore and ₹84.16 lakh crore in FY 2021-22.Source: PIB / NPCI data, 20 Jul 2026
2. 55.49 crore users had been onboarded on UPI as of June 2026.Source: PIB / NPCI data, 20 Jul 2026
3. July 2026 was UPI's record month: 2,365.8 crore transactions worth ₹29.87 lakh crore with 741 banks live; monthly volume first crossed 2,300 crore in May 2026.Source: PIB factsheet, 24 Aug 2026 (PDF)
4. UPI handles more than 66 crore transactions a day; annual volume grew from 1.78 crore in FY 2016-17 to over 24,162 crore in FY 2025-26 (almost 13,000-fold), and banks live grew from 44 to 703.Source: PIB, 24 Aug 2026
5. As of 2024, UPI carried about 49% of global real-time payment volume (cited by the IMF, June 2025), and it is live in 11 countries.Source: PIB factsheet, 24 Aug 2026 (PDF)
6. RBI's Digital Payments Index was 516.76 in September 2025 against a base of 100 in March 2018, up from 465.33 in September 2024 and 493.22 in March 2025.Source: RBI, 12 Feb 2026

How do Indians search for local businesses?

Google publishes no India-wide "near me" time series, so these are Google's own published examples plus its stated Business Profile effects (see how to get your business on Google).

1. Customers are 2.7 times more likely to consider a business reputable if they find a complete Business Profile on Google Search and Maps.Source: Google Business Profile Help
2. Customers are 70% more likely to visit and 50% more likely to consider purchasing from businesses with a complete Business Profile.Source: Google Business Profile Help
3. "Earthquake near me" was the #1 trending "Near Me" search in India in 2025, and "Air Quality near me" also trended.Source: Google India, 4 Dec 2025
4. Searches for "thrift store near me" rose 600% and "how to thrift" 850% in India in the year to October 2026.Source: Google India, 1 Oct 2026
5. In January to March 2020, Google Trends India showed "grocery delivery near me" up 550%, "ration dukaan" up 300%, "vet doctor near me" up 60% and "pharmacy near me" up 58%.Source: Think with Google India, 2020 (PDF)

How much does a website cost in India?

These are Neweb's October 2026 price check, not survey statistics; the full breakdown is in the website cost guide.

1. A small business website in India costs ₹3,000 to ₹2,00,000 or more depending on the route, as of October 2026.Source: Neweb price check, Oct 2026
2. Freelancers typically charge ₹5,000 to ₹50,000 upfront plus ₹5,000 to ₹15,000 a year for domain, hosting and edits; agencies start near ₹25,000 and exceed ₹2,00,000 with ₹5,000 to ₹25,000 monthly retainers.Source: Neweb price check, Oct 2026
3. Dollar-priced builders such as Wix and Squarespace convert to roughly ₹1,000 to ₹2,500 a month; a .in or .com domain is ₹600 to ₹1,500 a year and shared hosting ₹2,000 to ₹10,000 a year.Source: Neweb price check, Oct 2026
4. Neweb's Starter plan is from $9 a month billed yearly ($19 month-to-month) including domain, hosting, SSL, Google Business Profile setup and SEO, with a free $0 plan to start; Hostinger's long-prepay plans, at roughly ₹149 to ₹299 a month, are the cheapest builder route without those services.Source: Neweb price check, Oct 2026

Which website builders are most used in India?

No primary source publishes India-only builder share (BuiltWith and W3Techs country data are paid), so global figures and company disclosures are listed. India skews more towards WordPress hosting and WhatsApp-first selling than these averages. Neweb's hands-on comparison: best website builder in India.

1. WordPress runs 39.5% of all websites, Shopify 5.3%, Wix 4.2%, Squarespace 2.4%, Joomla 1.1% and Drupal 0.6%, while 32.1% use no detectable CMS, as of 29 October 2026.Source: W3Techs, 29 Oct 2026
2. Wix reports more than 300 million users worldwide across 190 countries.Source: Wix, About Us
3. Hostinger states it serves more than 5 million customers worldwide, having passed 4 million clients in 2025.Source: Hostinger, About

What does this mean for a small business?

• Customers are online before businesses are. About 1.09 billion internet subscriptions and 886 million active users, against the only primary study of SMB web presence finding 68% offline. The gap is widest in rural India, where subscriptions per 100 people (48.31) are under half the urban figure.
• Payments are solved; discovery is not. Over 90% of surveyed MSMEs take digital payments and UPI moves ₹314 lakh crore a year, yet only 13% use digital marketing. A website plus Google Business Profile is the cheapest fix.
• Mobile first is not optional. 96% of internet subscriptions are wireless and the average user consumes 25.51 GB a month at ₹8 per GB. A site that is slow on a mid-range Android phone is invisible to most of India.
• Google Maps is the front door. Google's figures (2.7x reputable, 70% more visits, 50% more purchase consideration) are about the Business Profile. The website's job is to be the link the profile points to.
• Budget realistically. A credible site costs from $9 a month on a bundled builder or ₹25,000 and up from an agency, small against not appearing when someone searches "near me".

How to cite this page

Cite the primary source alongside this page where possible; each statistic links to it. Suggested citation:

Sources

Every external source used on this page. Internal Neweb pages are linked inline above.

1. PIB factsheet, The MSME Development (Amendment) Bill, 2026 (Udyam count as on August 2026): https://www.pib.gov.in/FactsheetDetails.aspx?Id=150826®=48&lang=2
2. PIB, Ministry of MSME, Udyam Registration Portal and Udyam Assist Platform, 14 July 2026: https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2284414®=48&lang=1
3. PIB, Union Budget 2026-27: Building Champion MSMEs, 15 February 2026: https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleseDetailm.aspx?PRID=2228306®=3&lang=2
4. PIB, Nine Years of GST: Simplifying Taxation, Strengthening India, 30 June 2026: https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2279318®=3&lang=1
5. SIDBI, Understanding Indian MSME Sector: Progress and Challenges, May 2025 (PDF): https://www.sidbi.in/uploads/Understanding_Indian_MSME_sector_Progress_and_Challenges_13_05_25_Final.pdf
6. KPMG in India and Google, Impact of internet and digitisation on SMBs in India, January 2017 (PDF): https://assets.kpmg.com/content/dam/kpmg/in/pdf/2017/01/Impact-of-internet-and-digitisation.pdf
7. TRAI, Indian Telecom Services Yearly Performance Indicators 2025-26, press release 127/2026, 5 October 2026 (PDF): https://trai.gov.in/sites/default/files/2026-10/PR_No127of2026.pdf
8. TRAI, Telecom Subscription Data at the end of June 2026, press release 104/2026, 28 July 2026 (PDF): https://www.trai.gov.in/sites/default/files/2026-07/PR_No104of2026_0.pdf
9. IAMAI and Kantar, Internet in India 2024 (ICUBE 2024), January 2025 (PDF): https://www.iamai.in/sites/default/files/research/Kantar_%20IAMAI%20report_2024_.pdf
10. PIB, Ministry of Finance, Nearly 55.49 crore users onboarded on UPI (NPCI data), 20 July 2026: https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2286608®=48&lang=1
11. PIB, UPI Completes 10 Years of Digital Payments Revolution, 24 August 2026: https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2302657®=48&lang=2
12. PIB factsheet, UPI: Transforming India's Payment Landscape, 24 August 2026 (PDF): https://static.pib.gov.in/WriteReadData/specificdocs/documents/2026/aug/doc2026824968201.pdf
13. Reserve Bank of India, RBI Digital Payments Index for September 2025, press release 12 February 2026: https://rbi.org.in/scripts/BS_PressReleaseDisplay.aspx?prid=62213
14. Google Business Profile Help, Complete your Business Profile on Google: https://support.google.com/business/answer/10515606
15. Google India blog, India's Year in Search 2025: The A to Z of Trending Searches, 4 December 2025: https://blog.google/intl/en-in/products/explore-communicate/indias-year-in-search-2025-the-a-to-z-of-trending-searches/
16. Google India blog, Thrifting hits an all-time high on Google Search in India, 1 October 2026: https://blog.google/intl/en-in/thrifting-hits-an-all-time-high-on-google-search-in-india/
17. Think with Google India, What is India searching for? Insights for brands, 2020 (PDF): https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/_qs/documents/9536/What_is_India_searching_for_-_Insights_for_brands.pdf
18. W3Techs, Usage statistics of content management systems, 29 October 2026: https://w3techs.com/technologies/overview/content_management
19. Wix.com, About Us: https://www.wix.com/about/us
20. Hostinger, About us: https://www.hostinger.com/about