It's the first question almost everyone asks, and the one most agencies dodge. So here are real numbers, what moves them, and where the money actually goes.
The honest short answer for 2026: a professional small-business website in South Africa costs somewhere between R3 000 and R15 000 to build, plus roughly R200 to R800 a month to host and look after. An online store starts higher, usually from about R9 000.
That's a wide range, and the width is the interesting part. Here is what moves you along it.
What drives the price
1. Page count, but less than you think
Everyone assumes pages are the main cost. They aren't. The fifth page costs far less than the first, because the design system, navigation and templates are already built. Going from five pages to twelve might add 30% to a quote, not 140%.
2. Whether the design is custom
This is the real fork in the road. A template site can be assembled quickly. A custom design means someone drawing layouts specific to your content, your brand and what you need visitors to do. It costs more, and for most businesses it's the difference between a site that exists and a site that earns.
3. Functionality
A contact form is trivial. A booking system with availability, deposits and confirmation emails isn't. Every piece of logic, payments, stock, user accounts, integrations with your existing systems, adds real development time. Be specific about what you need when asking for a quote, because vagueness gets padded.
4. Who writes the content
The single most underestimated line item. If you supply finished copy and good photographs, you save both money and weeks. If the agency has to write it, expect R500 to R1 500 per page. Neither is wrong, but it should be an explicit decision, not a surprise.
The costs nobody mentions
These are the ones that turn a R12 000 quote into a R16 000 invoice if they aren't agreed up front:
- Domain registration: around R120 a year for a .co.za. Small, but it should be in your name, not the agency's.
- Stock photography: R150 to R500 an image if you need licensed photos.
- Paid plugins or licences: booking systems, premium themes and integrations often carry annual fees.
- SSL certificate: should be free and included. If someone bills you separately for a basic certificate, ask why.
- Content migration: moving hundreds of existing pages or products is real work.
- Training: being shown how to edit your own site.
Ask for a written scope that lists what is excluded as well as what is included. The exclusions tell you far more about a quote than the inclusions do.
Why the cheapest quote is usually the most expensive
You can get a website for R2 500. People do, constantly. The pattern that follows is predictable enough to set your watch by: the site is a template with the demo content half-replaced, it's slow because nobody compressed the images, it can't be edited without the original developer, and the developer has stopped replying by month four.
Then it gets rebuilt properly, and the R2 500 becomes R2 500 plus the real cost, plus a year of lost enquiries in between.
This isn't an argument for spending the most. It's an argument for understanding what you're buying. A fair quote should tell you who owns the result, what happens when something breaks, and what it costs to change a phone number on the site in eighteen months.
Questions worth asking any agency
- Is this a fixed price, or an estimate that can move?
- Who owns the domain, the design and the code when we're done?
- Can I edit my own content, and will you show me how?
- What is included in support after launch, and for how long?
- What are your hosting costs, and can I host elsewhere if I want to?
- What is explicitly not included?
Any agency worth hiring will answer all six without hesitating.
What we do
We publish our pricing rather than hiding behind "request a quote", we quote a fixed price before starting, and we register your domain in your name. If you ever want to leave, we help you move rather than making it awkward.
If you want a real number for your specific project, tell us what you need, usually same-day, and there is no obligation attached.