Web developer in Kolkata, India — the process I run for overseas clients
I'm Sandipan Das, a web developer in Kolkata, India, and my team and I build WordPress and Next.js sites from an office here. Most of the record behind us is work for clients abroad, with 600+ projects for US clients among it. A business in the city gets the same process those clients get, from the written scope to the handover note.
Overview
What working that far apart teaches you
Building for clients overseas taught me to put everything in writing. A scope goes down line by line before work starts. Decisions that matter are written into it, not left to memory after a phone call.
I keep the same habits for a business in Kolkata, India, even when we can sit across a table from each other. At the office you can meet the people building your site, the designer included. We can look at the preview on a big screen and talk the scope through in the same room.
What a scope from me looks like
What phase one holds, and what waits
Included
- A written scope: every page and feature as its own line, agreed before work starts
- Design to build, reviewed on a staging URL that stays open the whole project
- Mobile first — checked on a real phone
- Domain, hosting and every account created in your name from day one
- Basic on-page SEO: titles, descriptions, headings, sitemap, Search Console connected
- A runbook at handover: how to edit it, what renews and when
Phase two
- Online payments, bookings or a login area
- A Bengali version of the pages that need one
- Ongoing SEO once the site has traffic to read
- A maintenance plan once the site is live
- Logo and brand design, quoted separately from the build
Not doing
- Guaranteed rankings
- Registering the domain or hosting in my own name
- A launch before your sign-off
If a feature isn't on this list, it isn't in phase one. The preview goes up with the first page, so you see the site take shape as each line is built.
Before any quote there's a conversation, in person at the office or on a call. I don't start without the call.
Side by side
Which stack, and why
The job the site has to do decides the stack. I'll tell you which one I'd pick, and why.
Pages you'll edit yourself
- The stack
- WordPress
- Why
- Text and photos change without calling anyone
A shop
- The stack
- WordPress with WooCommerce
- Why
- A dashboard where you add and price products yourself
Doing something — logins, bookings, data
- The stack
- Next.js on Node
- Why
- A login or a booking needs real code behind it
An existing site that's breaking
- The stack
- Whatever it's already on
- Why
- Repair first; a rebuild is a separate decision
My own view of what fits, from the work so far — an opinion, not a rule.
Where this comes from
A food exporter's site, named with consent
Advanced Food Science, a food exporter, agreed to be named. I built their WordPress site, and you can open it from the link to see it live.
Other consented builds, most of them for US clients, are on the project page.
What gets built here
Three habits I keep on every build
If your current site is already in trouble, website repair is a service of its own.
- Bad news early — if something can't be done the way you'd like, you hear it before the scope is signed, not after.
- A preview link, open throughout — you check it yourself, no status email needed.
- I stay on it — I lead the project from the opening conversation to the handover, and I'm the one you ask afterwards.
What moves the number
What sets the figure
The page count and the moving parts come first. How a quote is built lays out the method.
- How many pages are different, and how many repeat one layout with new words
- Features with moving parts — booking, logins, payments, a second language
- Whether the words and photographs already exist, or the build starts from a conversation
- Anything already running that the new site has to talk to
- Whether English covers it, or some pages need a Bengali version too
Nearby
Howrah, Hooghly, and the districts around the city
Howrah and Hooghly first, then SEO work in the city and how hiring me works.
FAQ
The practical questions
Answered as I would across a desk.
Is there a website designer in Kolkata, India on the team, or is it just you?
- I lead every project, and the team building with me includes three developers, a designer and three SEO specialists in the Kolkata, India office, plus around six people working remotely. All of them are employees.
Do we need a Bengali version of the site?
- A Bengali version is decided page by page. A business selling mostly to buyers abroad stays in English. A shop whose customers search in Bengali gets a Bengali version, written by someone who writes Bengali.
Can we meet at the office?
- Meeting at the office works well for a first website, both to agree the scope and to hand the finished site over. Book the call first, so the visit isn't spent on logistics.
Can bookings or payments be added after launch?
- Bookings, payments and a login area can all wait for phase two. They're named in the first scope, so adding one later doesn't mean starting again, and the stack is chosen with them in mind.
Do you quote by the hour or by the job?
- Every quote is for the whole job. Each page or feature in the scope is its own line, so you can see what each one adds before anything is built.
Next step
Come in, or call first
Bring what you have, however early it is. A site that's stopped working counts too, and so does an idea with no site behind it. You leave knowing what a first scope would hold, and whether you need one yet.
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