SEO
How much do Web designers charge in South Africa? You can create a website for as little as R1000 if you use a do-it-yourself website builder. However, if you want a professional web designer to create one for you, it could cost between R2000 and R10,000 depending on what kind of website you want.
Like this, several factors come into play when determining the cost of a website including the cost of your domain name, web hosting plan, marketing and promotions, and so on.
We’ll give you a complete breakdown of website building costs depending on the type of website you want and how you want to build it.
Table of Contents
- How Much Do Web Designers Charge in South Africa?
- Hourly Rate
- Flat Rate
- Here’s a basic web design price list:
- How Much Do South Africa Web Designers Charge per Hour?
- How Much Do Web Designers Charge per Website?
- Different Ways to Make a Website
- What Do You Need to Build a Website?
- How Much Does Building a Website Cost?
- How Much Does It Cost to Build a Small Website?
Here’s a table of contents to show you what we’ll be covering. Feel free to skip ahead to the section that interests you the most.
- Different Ways to Make a Website
- What Do You Need to Build a Website?
- How Much Does It Cost to Build a Website?
- Cost of Building a Basic Website
- Cost of Building an Advanced Website
- Cost of Building an Online Store
- Estimating the Cost Based on Your Goals
- Building a Website – How to Avoid Overpaying
How Much Do Web Designers Charge in South Africa?
Web designers either charge by the hour or a flat fee per project.
Hourly Rate
Reasonably skilled freelance web designers make about R800 to R1,000 per hour. This figure can vary though, according to website needs.
Website Builder Expert estimates that the cost to design a website is R500 to R800 per hour and the cost to develop it is R1500 to R2,500 per hour.
Freelancers typically make a higher rate than in-house web designers because they don’t receive health insurance and other perks that employees receive. Freelancers also have much less job security. They go from contract to contract. A higher rate compensates them for the lack of long-term commitment from clients.
A few factors determine whether a freelancer will charge more or less than $75 per hour:
- Pet projects. A freelancer might offer a non-profit, a friend or family a lower rate.
- Project length. Long-term projects might deserve a slightly lower hourly rate.
- Project difficulty. Will you need help from a programmer, developer or graphic designer? Charge more. Is the project similar to another one you did? If you can copy and paste much of your past work, charge less (unless you don’t want to).
- Page count. More pages to design means more work. Extras like a blog or an e-commerce component can cost more, too.
- Commitment level. If you can only put in a few hours work here and there instead of committing to the project full time, consider lowering your price.
- New or old client. Some web designers will charge a new client less to land the project, though this might set a bad precedent.
Flat Rate
Clients love paying web designers flat rates because they know exactly how much they’ll pay upfront. Web design freelancers hate flat rates because you can never be 100 percent sure how long a project will take, especially if the client asks for endless changes, according to CSS-Tricks.
It’s a good idea to question the client extensively before providing prices to make sure you understand their budget and project requirements.
Here’s a basic web design price list:
- Setup: R2,000
- Design and building: R5,000
- Content creation: R1,500
- Client training: R1,000
- Website Maintenance R500
- Total: R5,500
The average cost of basic website creation by a freelance website designer is R6,760, according to Website Builder Expert. This cost only covers the first year.
That said, each cost can vary. Setup can cost as little as R750 and go as high as R2000, depending on the website domain cost and other factors. A custom website design will cost R5,000 at minimum and can go upwards of R10,000.
Content creation varies from R500 to R5,000 depending on how much content the client wants. And the annual cost of website maintenance costs about R500 to R1,000.
People also ask:
- How Much Should a Web Designer Charge?
- How Much Do Web Designers Charge per Hour?
- How Much Do Web Designers Charge per Website?
How Much Should a Web Designer Charge?
A freelance web designer should charge an hourly rate based on his cost of living and any business expenses. It’s best not to charge what you made when working as an employee.
A web design company pays for overhead like equipment, training and conferences, health insurance, utilities, software licenses and much more. A freelance web designer must set their minimum hourly rate to accommodate all of these expenses to keep their business afloat.
Going below your minimum hourly rate sets a bad precedent. Clients will start expecting this rate and you’ll start valuing yourself at this rate, which is even worse. You may get less work, but you’ll get paid well for the work you do get and have the time to do the job well.
How Much Do South Africa Web Designers Charge per Hour?
South African Web Designers Charge between R1,000 to R2,500 per hour, with the average being R450 per hour, according to Salary.com.
The caveat is that this number includes all web designers, including those who work in-house at agencies. Freelancers make higher hourly rates because they have more overhead expenses.
Freelance web designers charge based on skill level. They typically charge between R500 to R1,500 per hour to design a website, according to Website Builder Expert.
How Much Do Web Designers Charge per Website?
Freelance web designers charge between R500 to over R5,000 per website, according to 99designs. The flat rate depends on the complexity of the job and the experience level of the designer. The more pages required, the more the website will cost.
That said, if the pages will look fairly similar, some web designers create templates that the client can fill out themselves. This method cuts costs.
- For example, if a client wants an e-commerce site the web designer can create a template for the product pages that the client can populate with content themselves.
Web development services are R1200 to R4,500 extra per hour. Some web designers also do development work, others outsource this job to a developer and bump up their hourly rate as a result.
Sites that need constant revisions and updates will also cost more in maintenance after the first year. This can cost R6,000 to $12000 yearly, according to Website Builder Expert.
Different Ways to Make a Website
There are different ways you can create a website and this is the #1 factor that affects your website cost. If you choose to do it yourself, your cost will obviously be much lower than hiring a professional web developer. But you may not get the quality and functionality you want for your site.
When you want to create a website, you generally have 3 options:
1. Hire a website developer in South Africa
Estimated cost: R3000 to R30,00
There are professional web developers who will build your site and launch it for you.
Website designers don’t have a standard rate that’s applicable to all websites. Across the globe, website designers and developers charge between R3000 to R10,00 per hour.
There are some web developers who charge an upfront fee and determine the total price based on your requirements.
The pricing also depends on the website content and whether you want a one-page website, landing pages, or multiple pages that include a homepage, contact us, about us, and more.
You can find web developers and freelancers on sites like Upwork or Fiverr. Keep in mind, a lower price doesn’t mean it’s a better option. It’s important to choose a developer who knows what they’re doing and is worth the price they charge.
2. Hire a web designing agency in South Africa
Estimated cost: R5000 to R100,000
Agencies let you tap into a pool of resources because they usually have expert web designers, developers, graphic designers, and marketers working together.
Web design in South Africa costs can be in a price range of R3000 to R10,000 or higher depending on the agency you pick and your requirements.
After your site is built, most agencies offer to manage your site and they’ll charge you website maintenance costs. They’ll take care of backend technical tasks and make sure your website is updated, backed up, and secure.
3. Do it yourself (DIY)
Estimated cost: R300 to R500
There are plenty of website builders that make it easy for anyone to build a website.
Hosted platforms like cybersmart and GoDaddy let you get started for as little as R20 to R100 per month. The cost may vary depending on your country. But they take care of web hosting, servers, maintenance, updates, and more.
You also get platforms like WordPress and Joomla that are 100% free to use, but you’ll need to buy a domain and hosting plan. This can cost around R50 to R100 per month. You’ll also have to handle website maintenance on your own.
All of these builders let you easily make your own website without any coding knowledge! You don’t need even basic HTML skills.
If you’re starting a small business and don’t want to spend a fortune on your website, you can still make a website within your budget.
By doing it yourself, you get complete control of customizing your site. And though website building seems like a tedious task, it’s actually quite easy and can take just a couple of hours.
Next, we’ll focus on the cost of making a website on your own and give you a cost breakdown depending on the type of site you want to build.
First, let’s take a look at what you’ll need to build a site so that we can determine the average cost.
What Do You Need to Build a Website?
Designing a professional website on your own is easier than you think. It’s also budget-friendly which is great for small business owners.
To get started, here are the top 3 requirements for any type of website.
- Domain name (e.g. Google.com, IsItWP.com)
- Web hosting (depending on your website builder)
- Website builder (e.g. WordPress, Wix, Weebly)
1. Domain Name
Your domain name is your website’s address on the internet, like Google.com or IsItWP.com. It’s what your customers type into their browsers to access your website.
There are ways to get a domain name for free with a web hosting plan or a website builder. Otherwise, domain names start at a few dollars and can run into the millions depending on how valuable and marketable the domain name is.
Once you register a domain name, you’ll get the right to use that name for your website for a year. You are required to renew your domain from the same domain name registrar as long as you want to keep the name for your site. And if you ever lose interest in a domain name, then you can let it expire so that someone else can purchase it.
2. Web Hosting
Domain names registration and renewal fees are usually around R200 to R300 per year.
Web hosting is like the home of your website. This is where you store the content and files of your website.
When a visitor tries to access your website by typing in your web address (domain name), then they’ll be directed to the website files stored on your web hosting server.
Oftentimes, the term web hosting refers to the company that rents out their computer/servers to host your website and provides internet connectivity to ensure your website is available online around the clock.
Some of the popular web hosts in South Africa include Afrihost, GoDaddy, Mweb, Cybersmart, Xneelo and Web4Africa. These companies offer different types of web hosting services such as:
- Shared hosting
- Dedicated hosting
- Managed WordPress hosting
- VPS hosting
- Blog hosting
- eCommerce hosting
On average, a decent web hosting plan costs R70 per month. But you can get a good plan for much lesser using Designtalks hosting discounts.
Also, shared hosting is the cheapest option but it means you’ll be sharing a server with hundreds, maybe thousands, of other websites. A more secure option would be dedicated hosting but it comes at a higher price.
3. Website Builder
Whether you’re an absolute beginner or a seasoned designer or developer, you’ll need to use a website builder to make a website. Regardless of your skillset, a website builder makes it easy to create a website the way you desire. Plus, it also enables you to easily add essential features like SEO tags, navigation menu, sidebar, and plugins without any hassle.
There are some builders that serve as an all-in-one platform and take care of the domain name and web hosting for you. But we don’t recommend them because you lose control of your site’s configurations, web development, and customizations.
Out of all the website builders in the market, we strongly recommend WordPress.org. It’s the most flexible and easy-to-use web builder, not to mention that it’s free! It’s popularly known as a content management system or CMS.
WordPress is #1 not just for us. 40% of all website owners around the world also choose this platform. You get complete control over your website’s configurations, design, and functionality.
There are themes and templates you can use to get started so you won’t have to create a website from scratch. Plus, it gives you endless possibilities to customize and enhance your website the way you want.
As your website grows, WordPress makes it easy to scale. This is something a lot of other website builders lack.
Though WordPress is free and open-source software, you’ll need to purchase a domain name and web hosting in order to install WordPress and start building a website on top of it.
For more on this, we’ve covered our reasons for choosing WordPress here: Why use WordPress.
How Much Does Building a Website Cost?
The cost of a website greatly depends on what kind of website you want. Simple websites are much cheaper than eCommerce sites.
If you’re looking to create a website with advanced features, then you’ll need to be prepared for a higher cost.
To explain this better, we’ve broken this section down into 3 parts:
- Cost of Building a Simple WordPress Website
- Cost of Building an Advanced WordPress Website
- Cost of Building an Online Store
How Much Does It Cost to Build a Small Website?
Depending on your website or business needs, website development costs anywhere between R100 and R5000.
To build a small website, you’ll need to have a budget for the domain name and web hosting. A domain name usually costs around R300 per year and web hosting around R100 per month.
This means you can get started with an initial investment of R400 This will include a domain name and hosting plan for 1 year.
How much do Web designers charge in South Africa?
