How much does a website cost in South Africa? Real prices in rands
24 September 2026 · 6 min read
A website for a small South African business costs R5 000, R12 000 or R25 000 to build with us, depending on what the site has to do. After that there's a yearly subscription of R1 500 (R3 000 for the biggest tier) that covers hosting, backups and the admin you edit it with. Over three years that's between R9 500 and R34 000, all in.
Other studios charge more or less than that, and most won't tell you until you've filled in a form. We'd rather you see the numbers first. Our full price list is on the pricing page, and the rest of this article explains how we arrive at a quote, what it doesn't include, and what to ask anyone else who quotes you.
What are the three price levels?
We price by what the site has to do for your business, not by how many pages it has. A ten-page site that only tells people who you are costs less than a four-page site that has to track which ad brought in each enquiry.
| Tier | Build (once-off) | Website subscription | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Profile | from R5 000 | R1 500 a year | Who you are, what you do, how to reach you |
| Business | from R12 000 | R1 500 a year | A page per service, an enquiry inbox, and a blog you can edit |
| Enquiries and ads | from R25 000 | R3 000 a year | Campaign pages, plus every enquiry tracked to the ad, call or WhatsApp that brought it |
If you'd rather pay monthly, the subscription costs 20% more. That works out to R150 a month for Profile and Business, and R300 a month for Enquiries and ads.
Which one does my business need?
Profile suits a business that gets most of its work from referrals. People hear your name, look you up, and need to see that you're real, what you do and how to call you. A plumber, a tutor or a small practice with a full diary often needs nothing more.
Business is for when people find you through Google and compare you with others. Each service gets its own page, because someone searching for "geyser replacement Pinetown" wants a page about geysers, not a list of twelve services. The enquiry inbox keeps every message in one place instead of scattered across email and WhatsApp. The blog lets you answer the questions customers ask you on the phone.
Enquiries and ads is for businesses that spend money on advertising and want to know what it returns. Each enquiry is recorded with where it came from: which Google ad, which phone call, which WhatsApp tap. After a month you can see which campaign brought in work and which one only brought in clicks.
If you can't tell which one you are, that's what the 20-minute call is for. If the cheaper tier will do the job, we'll say so.
What makes a quote go up?
The tier sets the starting price. A quote moves above it when the site has to do something the tier doesn't cover. Anything extra is quoted on the call, in writing, before you agree to anything.
Page count isn't one of those things. A Business site with eight service pages sits in the same tier as one with five, because the tier is about what the site does.
You also see working pages on a private link from the first week. That way a misunderstanding shows up while it's still cheap to fix, instead of on launch day.
What does the yearly subscription cover?
The subscription pays for everything that keeps the site running after launch:
- the admin you use to edit pages and post to the blog
- the enquiry inbox
- hosting on Cloudflare's network
- backups, and monitoring that tells us when something stops working
- the connection our SEO team publishes through, if you use them
We don't build on WordPress. A lot of cheap sites in South Africa are WordPress sites, and they need regular plugin updates (a plugin is an add-on that gives WordPress a feature it doesn't have by default, such as a contact form). A plugin that falls behind on updates can leave a gap someone can break in through. That upkeep is either your job, your developer's paid job, or nobody's job. On our sites it isn't a job you have to think about.
What will I spend over three years?
The build price is the number everyone compares, but you'll pay the running costs for years. Here's the three-year total on yearly billing:
| Tier | Build | 3 years of subscription | Total over 3 years |
|---|---|---|---|
| Profile | R5 000 | R4 500 | R9 500 |
| Business | R12 000 | R4 500 | R16 500 |
| Enquiries and ads | R25 000 | R9 000 | R34 000 |
Use the same sum on every quote you get. A R3 000 site that costs R400 a month to host and maintain is R17 400 over three years. A "free" website builder costs the monthly plan plus the hours you spend on it. We worked through what Wix costs from South Africa in Wix or a web designer?, with the plan prices we checked this month.
What isn't included?
Be ready for these, whoever builds your site:
- Your words and photos. Nobody knows your business better than you, so expect to supply the facts: services, areas, hours, prices if you publish them. Photos of your actual work, shop or team beat stock photos, and they're yours to arrange.
- SEO. SEO means the ongoing work of getting your pages found on Google. It's R950 a month if you want us to do it, and free monitoring stays if you stop. We won't promise you a ranking, and you should be wary of anyone who does.
- Google Ads. Management is R2 500 a month, whatever your ad spend. The ad spend itself is paid straight to Google, and the account stays in your name. For a local service business we'd suggest at least R5 000 a month in ad spend, or the results are too thin to learn from.
What do I own at the end?
This matters as much as the price, so here it is plainly. You own the domain, registered in your name. You own your content and data, and you can export them any time. We keep the platform and the code, licensed to you while you're subscribed. If you leave, give us 30 days' notice and we'll hand you a static copy of the site's pages, which any host can serve.
If owning the code outright is important to you, we're not the right fit, and you should hire a developer who hands it over. We explain the trade-off in who owns your website, including how to check whose name is on your .co.za domain right now.
What should I ask anyone who quotes me?
These questions work on any quote, ours included:
- What will I pay each year after launch, and what does that cover?
- Whose name will the domain be registered in?
- If I leave, what do I get, and how much notice do you need?
- Who updates the site's software, and is that included?
- How quickly do you reply when something breaks?
Our answers: the yearly subscription above; your name; your content, your data and a static copy after 30 days' notice; we do; and within one working day.
When is a cheaper option better?
If your budget is under R5 000 and you have a free weekend, build it yourself. A website builder will get a simple page online, and a simple page beats no page. If you're after a free website, we're not the people to call.
If you're a new business still working out what you sell, start small. Profile can grow into Business later, and you won't pay for features you'll only use next year.
How to get a number for your business
You can get a written estimate in a few minutes on the price page, or see every tier on the pricing page. If you'd rather talk, WhatsApp us on +27 73 453 8352. After a 20-minute call you'll have a fixed quote within two working days.