Your own talk-to-astrologer platform: chat, call and video billed by the minute from a wallet that only works inside your app, kundli and panchang that match the charts your astrologers trust, astrologer onboarding and weekly payouts, and a puja and remedy store written in careful language. For established jyotish families, founders building a network of astrologers, and temples and puja providers who want consultations to feed their seva.
Reply within one business day · Navi Mumbai team · Website, app and admin under one roof
Four pieces on one wallet and one set of records: the customer app, the astrologer app, the website that brings free traffic, and the admin panel that tracks every minute and every payout.
A fast, search-friendly site that earns visits from people looking up rashifal, panchang and muhurat, and moves the serious ones to a paid consultation.
Android and iOS apps for customers, and a separate app for astrologers to go online, take sessions and see what they have earned.
Run the platform from one panel, and sell pujas, gemstones and rudraksha without making claims that land you in trouble.
Most paid astrology in India no longer happens across a table. A customer in Nagpur opens an app at 11 at night, picks an astrologer who speaks Marathi, recharges a small amount by UPI and chats for eight minutes about a job offer. The astrologer may be sitting in Varanasi or Ujjain with a basic Android phone. The platform in the middle collects the money first, bills by the minute, keeps a share and pays the astrologer weekly. Large marketplaces built this model, and thousands of astrologers now earn through them.
Customers dispute minutes when a chat lags or a call drops. Astrologers slip their phone number into the chat and move the client to WhatsApp, where the platform earns nothing. Payouts are worked out in Excel, so every Monday someone argues about refunds and commission. Free tools like kundli and panchang give different answers from the charts senior astrologers make by hand, because nobody fixed the ayanamsa or checked time zones for births before 1950. And on a festival night or an eclipse, demand spikes while half the astrologers are offline.
Astrology itself is not specially regulated in India; in August 2026 the Department of Consumer Affairs told the Central Information Commission it has no guidelines written only for online astrology platforms. That does not mean anything goes. General consumer law, the Central Consumer Protection Authority’s rules on misleading advertisements and dark patterns, the ASCI code, and an old law on “magic remedies” all apply to how you sell. A banner that promises a guaranteed marriage date, a gemstone said to cure diabetes, or a countdown timer that lies about free minutes can all cause trouble.
Infoways, a web, app and software company in Mahape, Navi Mumbai, builds astrology platforms from a single astrologer’s website with paid booking up to a multi-astrologer app with live per-minute billing. Below: how each module works, the rules it has to respect, how your own app compares with listing on a marketplace or buying a clone script, the numbers worth tracking, and what to ask any developer before you sign.
Talk to us about your astrology businessWho uses each part, what they do on screen, and the awkward situations that decide whether customers trust the bill.
Runs on the server, never on the phone. When the astrologer accepts, the server starts the clock and deducts from the wallet in small steps, usually per second with a minute shown on screen. The customer sees a running balance and a warning before it runs out; at zero the session ends, so there is no unpaid time. The hard cases: the customer’s network drops for 40 seconds, the astrologer’s app is killed mid-call, both tap End at once, or the customer opens a second session on another phone. Each case has a written rule, such as a grace window before billing pauses, and every second is logged so support can settle disputes from facts.
Solved in your appCustomers recharge by UPI, card or net banking through a payment gateway account in your company’s name. The balance can only be spent on consultations and products sold by you, and cannot be withdrawn as cash or sent to anyone else. That shape matters: the RBI treats instruments used only to buy from the issuer as closed-system instruments that do not need its authorisation. Bonus credit on a first recharge is kept as a separate balance that expires, so refunds return only what the customer paid. Every movement sits in a ledger with a reason, which your auditor will ask for.
Solved in your appChat runs on a real-time channel with typing status, image sharing for palm photos and a transcript the customer can read later. Calls go through a cloud telephony provider with masked numbers, so neither side sees the other’s phone. Video uses a media SDK and needs more testing on cheap phones and weak networks. A filter flags phone numbers, UPI IDs, links and social handles typed into chat, in digits and in words, because that is how astrologers take clients off the platform. Flagged chats go to a review queue rather than being blocked silently, so genuine messages are not lost.
Solved in your appAn astrologer applies in the astrologer app with photo, ID, PAN, bank details, languages and systems (Vedic, KP, Lal Kitab, tarot, numerology, vastu). Your admin team checks documents, runs a paid or unpaid test session, sets the per-minute rate and approves. After launch, every session gets a rating, low-rated chats go to review, and repeated complaints can reduce visibility or suspend the account. Astrologers set their own online hours, and the panel shows who is online by language at each hour, so you know where to recruit before the next festival rush.
Solved in your appPlanet positions come from an established ephemeris library or a paid astrology API. We fix the ayanamsa you follow (most Indian astrologers use Lahiri, KP users want Krishnamurti), chart style (North or South Indian), house system and dasha rules, and look up the correct time zone for the birth place and date, including India’s wartime and pre-1955 time changes. Matching uses the Ashtakoota points and the dosha checks your astrologers agree on. Before launch, we compare the output against charts your senior astrologers made by hand. Check the licence of any library: Swiss Ephemeris, for example, is offered under AGPL or a paid professional licence.
Solved in your appUsed by accounts every week or fortnight. The panel adds up each astrologer’s billed minutes, applies their commission split, subtracts refunds approved by support and shows a net payable with a downloadable bank file. Astrologers see the same numbers, session by session, in their earnings screen, which ends most Monday arguments. Tax deducted at source, GST on your commission and any GST collection duty as an e-commerce operator depend on how your platform is structured; the reports carry PAN, invoice and tax fields your CA chooses, and the rates live in settings, not in code.
Solved in your appPujas are booked with the devotee’s name, gotra, nakshatra and the date, assigned to a temple or pandit partner, and closed with a short video or photo uploaded to the customer’s order. Gemstones, rudraksha and yantras go through a normal cart with stock, courier tracking and returns. Product text is reviewed before it goes live: describe the stone, its weight and certificate, and the traditional belief around it. Do not say it cures an illness or guarantees a result. The store can also sit inside the chat, so an astrologer suggests a remedy and the customer buys it without leaving the app.
Solved in your appCustomers raise a ticket from a session or order: wrong minutes billed, astrologer did not reply, puja video not received. Support sees the second-by-second log, the transcript and the wallet ledger on one screen and can refund to the wallet or to the original payment method, with a reason code. Grievance contact details are shown in the app, every complaint gets an acknowledgement and a target date, and the panel shows open tickets by age. Sensitive chats, such as health worries or thoughts of self-harm, can be flagged so the astrologer sees a script pointing to professional help.
Solved in your appTell us how many astrologers you will start with, which languages, and whether you need chat only or call and video too. We will tell you which version to build first.
Astrology has no dedicated regulator, but how you take money, advertise and handle personal data is covered by general laws. These are the ones that shape the software.
| Term or rule | 1What it means | 2How the software handles it |
|---|---|---|
| Closed-system prepaid instrument (RBI) | The RBI’s FAQ on prepaid payment instruments says instruments issued by an entity only for buying its own goods and services are closed-system instruments. They are not treated as a payment system needing RBI authorisation, and cash withdrawal is not allowed. Wallets usable with other merchants are semi-closed and need RBI approval. | The wallet can only be spent on your own consultations and products. No withdrawal, no transfer to other users, no payments to outside merchants. If you later want any of these, take legal advice first. |
| Consumer Protection Act 2019 | Covers unfair trade practices, deficiency in service and misleading advertisements, with the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) able to act on false or misleading ads. In August 2026 the consumer affairs department said it has no guidelines specific to online astrology platforms, so the general law is what applies. | Clear terms, a published refund policy, a session log for every bill and a support desk with reason-coded refunds, so a complaint can be answered from records. |
| CCPA misleading advertisement guidelines (2022) | Ads must not make claims that cannot be backed, and endorsers share responsibility. The CCPA can order an ad withdrawn and impose penalties. | Banners, push messages and astrologer bios go through an approval step in the admin panel, with a list of banned phrases such as “guaranteed”, “100% accurate” and “cure”. |
| Dark patterns guidelines (2023) | The CCPA lists 13 dark patterns, including false urgency, basket sneaking, drip pricing (showing a lower price and adding costs later) and subscription traps (hard-to-cancel plans, card details forced for a free trial). | Per-minute rate shown before the session starts, no fake “only 2 left” timers, no pre-ticked add-ons in the store, and a one-tap cancel for any subscription plan. |
| Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act 1954 | Defines a “magic remedy” to include a talisman, mantra, kavacha or charm said to have miraculous power to cure or prevent disease, and prohibits advertising such remedies for the listed diseases and disorders. | Product and puja descriptions are checked against a word list for disease claims before publishing. Remedies are described as traditional practice, never as treatment. |
| ASCI code | The Advertising Standards Council of India is the industry’s self-regulatory body. Its complaints council has upheld complaints against guaranteed-outcome claims in other trades, such as “100% visa” promises. | The same banned-phrase list covers ASCI concerns. Testimonials are stored with the customer’s consent and shown as one person’s experience. |
| Tax on astrologer payouts and your commission | The Income-tax Act 2025 replaced the 1961 Act from April 2026; the old section 194O on e-commerce payments is reported to sit in section 393 now. Whether TDS applies under that or another provision, and whether you must collect GST as an e-commerce operator, depends on your structure. | Payout reports carry PAN, gross billed amount, commission, refunds and tax deducted as separate fields. Rates and sections are settings your CA confirms, so a change in law does not need new code. |
| App Store and Play Store rules | Apple’s guideline 4.3(b) names fortune telling among saturated categories and accepts new apps only if they offer a meaningfully different experience. Guideline 3.1.3(d) lets apps selling real-time one-to-one services between two people use payment methods other than in-app purchase. | We plan the iOS app around live consultations, saved family charts and real tools, not a thin horoscope reader, and decide the payment flow for iOS before the build starts. |
| DPDP Act 2023 and DPDP Rules 2025 | Birth details, chat transcripts and phone numbers are personal data. The DPDP Rules were notified in November 2025 in phases, with the main duties on notice, consent, breach reporting and user rights reported to apply about 18 months later, around May 2027. | Consent at sign-up with a plain notice, chats visible only to the customer, the astrologer in that session and authorised support, deletion requests from the app, and logs of every data export. |
We have taken these points from the RBI’s published FAQ, the laws and guidelines named, and reports by legal and tax publications. Rules change and how they apply depends on your structure. Confirm each one with your lawyer and CA before launch. We build the rules you approve; we do not decide them for you.
Most people who ask us for an astrology app have already seen the large marketplaces. Astrotalk, AstroSage, Astroyogi and InstaAstro are well-known names, and many individual astrologers earn through one or more of them. For an astrologer starting out, joining a marketplace is a sensible way to test demand: you get customers on day one and need no technology of your own. The trade-off is that the marketplace owns the customer, the chat history and the repeat booking, sets the rules and keeps its share.
The second route is a ready-made “clone script” sold by many development agencies, which promises an Astrotalk-like app in a few weeks. It can work for a founder who wants to test a network quickly. Before buying, ask who owns the source code, whether the billing runs on the server, how the wallet is structured, whether the kundli engine’s licence covers commercial use, and whether you will get updates when Android, iOS and payment gateways change. A script that fails Apple review under the saturated-category rule, or bills from the phone’s clock, is expensive however cheap it was.
Your own platform makes sense in a narrower set of cases: an established astrologer or jyotish family with a following that already pays them directly, a founder with 20 or more astrologers ready to go online at night, or a temple or puja provider who wants consultations and seva bookings in one place. A single astrologer is usually better served by a website with paid booking and WhatsApp follow-ups, and we will tell you so. Our guide on custom software vs off-the-shelf covers the general trade-off.
A plain comparison of the three routes most astrologers and founders weigh up.
| Factor | 1Listing on a large marketplace | 2Ready-made clone script | 3Your own platform |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | An astrologer testing paid demand alone | A founder testing a network fast | Established brands, networks of 20+ astrologers, temples |
| Who owns the customer | The marketplace | You, if the contract says so | You |
| Billing accuracy | Their system and their rules | Check whether billing runs on the server | Server-side, with rules you write down |
| Kundli engine | Theirs | Check the library and its licence | Chosen and tested against your astrologers’ charts |
| Brand and claims | Their brand, their policies | Usually generic text you must rewrite | Your voice, with claim checks built in |
| App Store approval | Not your concern | Higher risk of a saturated-category rejection | Planned around real, distinct features |
| Time to start | Days | A few weeks plus fixes | About 3-4 months for a lean version |
Brand names are mentioned only to help you compare. We make no claims about their products; features and terms change, so check each one directly.
All of these come straight from the billing log and wallet ledger. None needs a data team.
Share of new installs that recharge at least once within seven days. If it is low, the problem is usually before the session: nobody online in the customer’s language, rates shown too late, or free minutes that are hard to claim. Split it by source, because search traffic and paid ads behave very differently.
Solved in your appTotal billed minutes in the week divided by customers who had at least one paid session. It tells you whether people come back after the free minutes and is a better health check than installs, which can be bought.
Solved in your appCustomers with a second paid session within 30 days of their first. Repeat use comes from trust in one astrologer, so also look at how many repeat sessions go to the same astrologer, which shows who is building a following on your platform.
Solved in your appSession requests that timed out because the astrologer did not accept, by hour and language. This is lost money you can see. It tells you which hours to recruit for and which astrologers mark themselves online without being available.
Solved in your appRefunds as a share of billed amount, split by reason code: network drop, no reply, rude behaviour, wrong rate shown. A rising network-drop share points to a technical problem; a rising behaviour share points to one or two astrologers.
Solved in your appAverage rating and complaints per hundred sessions for each astrologer. Use complaints, not only stars, because many customers do not rate. Review anyone well below the platform average before their numbers hurt your brand.
Solved in your appChats flagged for phone numbers, UPI IDs or social handles, per astrologer. A few are innocent. A pattern means that astrologer is moving clients off the platform, which costs you every future session with that customer.
Solved in your appVisits to kundli, matching and rashifal pages that lead to a session within the same week. It shows whether your content is bringing customers or only traffic, and which pages deserve more work in each language.
Solved in your appSay you run a network of 40 astrologers from Pune covering Vedic, KP, tarot and numerology in Hindi, Marathi and English. The numbers here are only to show the flow. A customer in Nagpur finds your Marathi rashifal page on Google, installs the app, enters her birth date, time and place once, and her kundli appears in seconds, worked out with the Lahiri ayanamsa and the correct time zone for her birth year. A banner offers the first three minutes free with astrologers marked as new on the platform.
She recharges a small amount by UPI. The wallet shows her paid balance and a separate first-recharge bonus that expires in a week. She picks a Marathi-speaking astrologer, sees his per-minute rate before tapping Start Chat, and his app rings in Kolhapur. When he accepts, the server starts the clock and her chart opens next to the chat on his screen, so he does not have to ask her details again. At minute nine her network drops for 30 seconds; billing pauses inside the grace window and resumes when she reconnects.
Near the end of her balance, the app warns her and offers a quick recharge. She ends the session, rates it and reads the transcript. The astrologer suggests a Navagraha shanti puja; she books it from the store inside the chat, the order goes to a temple partner in Trimbakeshwar, and a short video of the puja done in her name appears in her order a few days later. The puja page describes the ritual and its tradition; it does not promise an outcome.
Meanwhile, the panel flags a chat where another astrologer typed a phone number in words. The quality team reviews it the next morning and sends a warning. On Monday, accounts opens payouts: each astrologer’s billed minutes, commission, two refunds approved by support for dropped calls, and net payable, with the tax fields your CA asked for. One bank file goes out, and every astrologer sees the same figures in their earnings screen. The weekly report shows that Marathi requests went unanswered between 11 pm and 1 am, so recruitment starts there.
Per-minute rates, free-minute offers, how bonus credit expires, the grace window for dropped networks, refund reasons, commission splits and the payout cycle. Your CA reviews the payout and tax fields and your lawyer reviews terms, refund policy and claim wording before design starts.
We set the ayanamsa, chart style, house system and dasha rules, choose a library or API with a licence that fits commercial use, and check its output against at least a few dozen charts your senior astrologers made by hand, including births before 1955 and outside India.
Billing and the wallet are built first, because everything else depends on them. Astrologer screens are tested on the low-cost Android phones your astrologers actually use, in Hindi and Marathi where they prefer it.
Dropped networks, apps killed mid-call, zero balance, two sessions at once, refunds to wallet and to card, and a full payout run compared line by line with a spreadsheet. Nothing ships until every second can be explained.
Astrologers upload KYC, set rates and run test sessions with your team. We train them by video call in their language on going online, handling the queue, reading the chart panel and what not to promise customers.
Android first to a limited audience, then iOS after Apple review. Pre-launch checks cover payment gateway settlement into your account, grievance contact in the app, privacy notice and consent, and a data export of the first week’s ledger for your auditor.
Rashifal and festival pages in each language, local SEO for a physical office if you have one, and maintenance and support for store updates, gateway changes and rule changes.
Send it to us. We will tell you honestly what it covers, what it misses on billing, wallet and claims, and whether building your own is worth it.
Every astrology business is different, so we quote after understanding yours. A website with free kundli and rashifal tools plus paid booking for one astrologer is a small project. A customer app and astrologer app with chat and masked calls, a closed wallet, kundli and matching, payouts and an admin panel is a medium one. Adding video, a full puja and remedy store with courier shipping, several languages and a temple partner network makes it a large one.
Cost goes up with video (media servers and much more testing on weak networks), each extra language (every screen and every rashifal in that language, every day), a physical-product store (stock, shipping, returns), and custom calculation rules such as KP sub-lords or Lal Kitab charts. It comes down if you start with chat and calls only, launch on Android first, use a well-tested astrology API instead of custom calculations, and add the store once consultations are steady.
Timelines: a website with booking and free tools usually takes 4-8 weeks. A lean chat-and-call app with wallet and payouts takes about 3-4 months, most of the risk sitting in billing and calculation accuracy. A full platform with video, store and several languages runs 5-8 months in phases. Our guide on app development cost in India explains how features add up, and the app cost calculator gives a feature-by-feature view.
Do not launch an app before you have astrologers who will be online at night. Demand peaks late in the evening, on festival days and around eclipses. A customer who opens the app and finds nobody online in their language rarely comes back. Recruit and test your first astrologers before the build finishes, and launch with their hours mapped.
Do not let marketing copy run ahead of the law. “Guaranteed result in 21 days”, “100% accurate predictions” or a gemstone “for diabetes” invite complaints under consumer law and the magic remedies law. Write remedies and predictions as guidance and tradition, keep a clear refund policy, and have your lawyer read the store before launch.
Do not copy a marketplace feature list. Live streaming with gifts, a hundred filters and astrologer leaderboards can wait. Billing that never overcharges, birth details stored with the right time zone, payouts that match and a support desk that can explain every bill come first.
And do not build an app if you are one astrologer with a loyal client list. A good website, paid booking by UPI, a calendar and WhatsApp reminders will serve you well, and our website development team can set that up in weeks. Build the full platform when you have a network of astrologers or a brand that already draws customers.
Ask us on WhatsApp. A real person from our Navi Mumbai team replies.
Ask on WhatsAppThe customer recharges a wallet first. When the astrologer accepts a session, the server starts the clock and deducts the astrologer’s rate in small steps, usually per second. The app shows the running balance, warns before it runs out and ends the session at zero. Every second is logged so support can settle disputes.
The RBI’s FAQ says instruments used only to buy goods and services from the issuing entity are closed-system instruments that do not need RBI authorisation, and cash withdrawal is not permitted. If customers could withdraw money, transfer it or pay other merchants, it changes. Confirm your design with a lawyer before launch.
That is a policy you decide and publish in your terms. Most platforms refund disputed sessions to the wallet and handle balance refunds case by case. We keep paid balance and bonus credit separate, so a refund returns only what the customer actually paid, to the wallet or the original payment method.
There is no dedicated regulator. In August 2026 the consumer affairs department told the Central Information Commission it has no guidelines specific to online astrology platforms. General laws still apply: the Consumer Protection Act 2019, the CCPA’s rules on misleading ads and dark patterns, the Drugs and Magic Remedies Act and the ASCI code. Take legal advice on your terms and claims.
You should not. Guaranteed-outcome claims are the kind of thing consumer law and the ASCI code treat as misleading, and claiming a talisman, mantra or kavacha can cure disease is covered by the Drugs and Magic Remedies Act 1954. We build an approval step and banned-phrase list into the admin panel so risky wording is caught before it goes live.
Planet positions come from an established ephemeris library or astrology API, worked out for the exact birth place, date and time zone. You choose the ayanamsa, chart style and dasha rules. Before launch, we compare the output with charts your own astrologers made by hand and fix any differences in settings.
Most Vedic astrologers in India use Lahiri (Chitrapaksha). KP astrologers use the Krishnamurti ayanamsa, and some prefer Raman. The app can store a default and let astrologers switch, but your free kundli tool should use the one your astrologers agree on, so customers do not see two different charts.
Calls use masked numbers, so neither side sees the other’s phone. The chat flags phone numbers, UPI IDs, links and social handles, including numbers typed in words, and sends them to a review queue. Repeated flags appear in the astrologer’s quality record, and your terms with astrologers should cover it.
Apple’s guideline 4.3(b) lists fortune telling among saturated categories and accepts new apps only if they offer a meaningfully different or improved experience. Apps with live consultations, accurate saved family charts and real tools stand a much better chance than a thin horoscope reader. We plan the iOS release and its payment flow before building.
The panel adds up each astrologer’s billed minutes for the payout cycle, applies their commission split, subtracts approved refunds and produces a bank file. Which TDS provision applies, and any GST duty on the platform, depends on your structure, especially after the Income-tax Act 2025 took effect in April 2026. Your CA decides; the reports carry the fields they need.
Yes. Pujas are booked with the devotee’s name, gotra and date and closed with a video or photo from the temple partner. Gemstones and rudraksha go through a normal cart with stock, courier tracking and returns. Product text describes the item and tradition without health claims.
Yes. Screens, rashifal content and astrologer filters can be in any Indian language. Each language adds daily content and testing, so many clients start with two or three and add more once those are earning.
If you are one astrologer testing paid demand, a marketplace is a sensible start. Build your own platform when you have a following that already pays you directly, a network of astrologers, or a temple or puja business that wants consultations and seva in one place.
Birth details, chats and phone numbers are personal data under the DPDP Act 2023, with the DPDP Rules 2025 coming into force in phases. We build a plain consent notice at sign-up, access so only the customer, that session’s astrologer and authorised support can read a chat, deletion requests from the app and logs of every export.
A website with booking and free tools usually takes 4-8 weeks. A lean chat-and-call app with wallet and payouts takes about 3-4 months. A full platform with video, store and several languages takes 5-8 months in phases.
Talk to our Navi Mumbai team about your astrologers, languages, billing rules and store. We will give you a clear plan, an honest view of marketplaces and clone scripts, and a price.
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