Guide
How much does a small business website cost in South Africa?
It depends less on the website than on everything around it: who builds it, who hosts and updates it, what happens to the domain, and how much of your own time it takes. This guide sets out the costs to compare, with our own prices as one example.
The short answer
There are three common ways to get a website, and they spread the cost differently. A once-off build puts most of the cost up front. A do-it-yourself website builder spreads a smaller cost over time but asks for your time instead. A managed monthly plan, like ours, spreads the build and the upkeep over one monthly fee.
Prices for each vary widely with the provider and with what is included, so compare what you get for the money over a year or two, not only the first number you are quoted.
What you are actually paying for
- Design and build: planning the pages, writing the words, preparing photos and putting it all together.
- Hosting: the service that keeps the website online. It is a running cost for as long as the site is live.
- Domain name: your address, such as yourbusiness.co.za, registered for a year at a time and renewed every year.
- Email on your domain: addresses like info@yourbusiness.co.za, often priced per mailbox.
- Security: the certificate that puts the padlock (HTTPS) in the address bar. Check that it renews by itself.
- Changes and upkeep: new prices, new photos, new hours, and keeping the software behind the site up to date.
- Your own time: writing, taking photos and making changes yourself has a cost too, even when no invoice arrives.
- Your Google Business Profile: Google does not charge for it, but setting it up properly takes time.
A once-off build
You pay a designer or agency to build the site, usually with a deposit up front and the balance on completion. Hosting, domain renewals, email and later changes are then paid separately, to the same provider or to someone else.
- Ask what the price includes: how many pages, who writes the words, and whether photos are prepared for you.
- Ask who hosts it afterwards, what that costs per month, and what a change costs once the site is live.
- Ask whose name the domain is registered in, and whether you receive the website's files if you move.
A do-it-yourself website builder
You pay a monthly or yearly subscription and build the site yourself from the builder's templates. The subscription usually covers hosting. The design, the writing, the photos, the search settings and every later update are yours to do.
- Check what the domain costs after any first-year offer, and whether email on your domain is included.
- Check what happens to the site if you stop paying, and whether you can take it with you.
- Be honest about your time: a site that is never updated after launch day costs you enquiries.
A managed monthly plan: our prices
We design, build, host and look after the site for one monthly price, with no separate design or set-up fee. These are our current plans:
- Local Business: R299 per month (R3 588 over twelve months). Your website, hosting on Cloudflare with HTTPS, a free .co.za for as long as you are a client, Google Business Profile and Search Console set up, and one website change every month.
- Local Business + 5 Email Accounts: R399 per month (R4 788 over twelve months). Everything above, plus 5 email accounts on your own domain.
- An extra change in the same month: R350 once-off.
There is no fixed contract, and if you cancel within 7 days of your first payment we refund it in full. See the full comparison on our pricing page.
Questions to ask any provider
- Whose name is the domain registered in, and what happens to it if I leave?
- What happens to the website if I stop paying, and can I have my text and photos?
- Are changes included, and what does an extra one cost?
- How fast does the site load on a phone? Ask to see a Lighthouse mobile score.
- Will you write about my business from my real details, or fill gaps with claims and reviews?
- Is there a fixed contract, and how much notice do you give before a price change?
About the prices in this guide
Our prices on this page come straight from our current plans. We have not quoted other providers' prices, because they change often and depend on what is included. Ask each provider for a written quote that lists the build, hosting, domain renewals, email and changes separately, and add up the cost over two years.
Where to go from here
More guides: How to get your business on Google Maps · Free .co.za domain: what you get and what happens if you leave · Does my website need a POPIA privacy policy?
Get your business online, from R299 per month
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