About Nikhil Kalia
I’ve been building for the web since 2009. Over those years I’ve delivered well past a hundred substantial projects — custom websites, ecommerce stores, software and SEO — for clients in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany and across India. Most of my work now comes from clients I’ve had for years, and from the people they refer.
How I got here
I didn’t start as a developer. Before 2009 I worked in computer hardware — assembling and repairing machines — for Pawan Wadhwan, a web and software developer whose business I came up through.
At some point he decided I was better suited to building things than repairing them. He taught me web design and coding and pushed me toward development. Seventeen years on, he’s still the person I take hard problems to, and we still share work on larger builds. Calling him a mentor undersells it.
That route through hardware turned out to be useful. I came to development from the machine upward rather than from design inward, which is probably why I care more about how a site performs than how it looks in a portfolio shot.
What I’m strongest at
I work across industries — what matters more than sector is whether your customers find you through search and whether the sale is worth enough to justify the work. But three kinds of project are where seventeen years have concentrated: B2B websites that have to convince trade buyers rather than browsers, ecommerce at genuine catalogue scale, and SEO held over years rather than months.
That isn’t a positioning exercise. It’s simply where my longest-running clients are.
How I work
You deal with me. Not an account manager, not a project coordinator, not a team you never meet. I do the design, the development and the SEO myself.
On larger builds I bring in specialist help where it genuinely improves the outcome, and I share work with Pawan on projects that benefit from two experienced developers rather than one. You’ll always know who is doing what.
Being a one-person operation has a real trade-off worth stating plainly: I take on fewer projects at once than an agency can. What you get in exchange is that the person who quoted your project is the person building it, and nothing gets handed down to a junior after the contract is signed.
What I believe about this work
Timelines should be real. I’d rather quote four weeks and deliver in four weeks than quote two and disappoint you. I finish on the schedule we agree.
No bought links. SEO built on purchased links and private networks works until an update kills it, and then the client pays twice. I won’t do it, even when a client asks.
Sometimes the answer is don’t build it. If off-the-shelf software already does eighty percent of what you need, I’ll say so — before you pay a deposit, not after.
A site nobody finds is an unfinished site. Design and search aren’t separate jobs handed to separate people. That’s why I do both.
Skills and tools
Languages: Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, HTML, CSS.
Front end: React, for interfaces that need to respond to what the user is actually doing.
Back end: Node.js with Express for APIs and server logic; Python with FastAPI or Django where the work is data-heavy.
Ecommerce: WooCommerce and custom builds. I lean towards custom where it is viable, so clients aren’t paying monthly subscriptions on a stack of plugins forever.
Design: Adobe tools, alongside whatever suits the project. I’m not attached to a particular tool — the design matters, not the software it came out of.
Integrations: payment gateways, shipping and delivery providers, inventory, CRM and accounting systems.
Where I work from
I’m based in Jalandhar, Punjab, working with clients across several timezones. I don’t hide that — it’s the practical detail that matters, and here it is: I don’t keep fixed office hours. My clients run from Australia to the US west coast, so I build a schedule around each project rather than around a clock. In practice I’m reachable across most of the working day in every market I serve, and I reply to enquiries as soon as they reach me.
Locally, I meet clients in person around Jalandhar and Punjab. Everyone else I work with the same way I’ve worked for years — by call, message and written update.
Clients
Corporate and luxury limousine services in the United States. Channel letter and signage manufacturing in Canada. Trade jewellery ecommerce in the United Kingdom. Vehicle repair and restoration in Australia. Plus clients in Germany and across India.
Most of my work now comes from clients I have had for years, and from the people they refer. The case studies are here.
Get in touch
Most people just call or message. That’s the fastest way to reach me.
- WhatsApp / phone: +91 98886 01728
- Email: design@nikhilkalia.com
Tell me what you're trying to grow.
I'll come back with an honest read on what's possible — whether or not it turns into a project.