A website costs approximately how much in South Africa?
Assuming that you are searching for a once-off website design service, you can expect to pay approximately R5000 for a simple website and up to R15000 or more for a large and complex website, such as an e-commerce website. There are several factors that ultimately determine the cost of building a website in South Africa, including:
- Domain name registration
- Hosting fees
- Website content creation
- Website design costs
- Website marketing
Domain name registration
When building an online presence, it is extremely challenging to choose the right domain name. The second most challenging part is selecting the appropriate domain name, which comes close behind in terms of difficulty, because there are many options to choose from. Top-level domains (or TLDs) are short strings of text that play an important role in the development of your online presence.
TLDs are intended to serve as a summary of the main characteristics of your website, and have a significant impact on how visitors perceive your business. As a result, once you are familiar with the concept of a domain name, you need to be familiar with the top-level domain concept and the different types of TLDs to identify the most appropriate domain name for your website.
Following the last dot in a domain name, the top-level domain (TLD) is located at the rightmost point. Known as domain extensions, TLDs are used to identify certain elements of a website, such as its purpose, its owner, and its location. As an example, the top-level domain .gov allows users to immediately identify a government agency site.
Top-level domains are classified by ICANN into five categories based on their purpose, owner, and geographical location.
- Generic Top-level Domains (gTLD)
- Sponsored Top-level Domains (sTLD)
- Country Code Top-level Domains (ccTLD)
- Infrastructure Top-Level Domain (ARPA)
- Test Top-Level Domains (tTLD)
For your business in South Africa you will likely choose the most popular country code (.co.za) or generic (.com) top level domain. It costs between R80 and R120 per year for co.za domains, while .com domains can cost up to R300.
Hosting fees
Hosting plays an essential role in ensuring your website runs smoothly. The hosting company and plan you choose must meet your website and business needs. Web hosting fees in South Africa range from less than R50 to well over R500 per month. For any business we recommend at least 5GB of storage space which costs around R99+ depending on the service provider. Anything less than this would be a total red flag as it has so little computing power to keep up with your website and business emails.
Afrihost is one of the most popular and preferred hosting companies in South Africa by many businesses. While they offer a variety of hosting packages, many business owners choose their Silver Home and Gold Home packages understandably for their affordability. However, with a limit to 1 MySQL database, both of these packages are resource limited to optimally running a database driven website such as a WordPress site.
Also while these packages allow up to 75 email accounts, this is not realistic with most business communications happening via email. An email account may use as much as 500MB of storage each year depending on the number of attachments that you send. Therefore, a hosting package with 1GB storage space is unlikely to meet the needs of a business with multiple email addresses and a website.
As a business owner, it’s challenging to choose a hosting package because you’re not sure what’s appropriate for your website and hosting needs. The most effective approach is to consult with a web design company about your website and email requirements. They’ll advise you on the most suitable hosting solution based on your needs.
Website content
Many businesses in South Africa lack quality content on their websites. The websites of those companies who invest in quality content are more likely to generate leads and achieve top search rankings.
Generally, you will be able to create all the content for simple websites on your own. However, if you intend to achieve higher search rankings to attract more qualified traffic and generate leads, you should hire a professional content writer. Depending on the content type, whether it is a blog post or a service page, content writing services can range from R500 to R2500+.
Website design costs
Once you’ve gathered all the required resources to build a website it is time to decide whether to hire a professional or test your creative skills with a website build. It doesn’t really matter which option you choose as long as it’s designed to help your business grow.
You should skip the DIY process if saving money is the only reason you want to build your own website. When you decide to hire a professional to design your website, the cost will be approximately R3000 or more.
Website marketing
A website without a marketing plan is similar to planning a party without inviting anyone and expecting people to attend. Digital marketing offers many options for marketing a website. Search engine optimisation (SEO), Google paid ads and social media paid ads are some of the most popular options. When it comes to digital marketing, the return on investment is equal to the amount of money invested. For example, a company that invests R5000 per month will see better results than one that spends R1500 per month.
