How much does a website cost in Kenya? This is one of the most common questions that we get from our customers.
In this post, I will be answering this question to help point you in the right direction.
I will talk about the cost for different type of websites including e-commerce stores, business websites, portfolio websites, and corporate websites among others.
Furthermore, I will also tell you about some of the factors that influence the costs of website designing in Kenya.
Cost of creating a website in Kenya
Before looking at the various website prices in Kenya, let us first understand what usually influences these prices…
Some of these factors are independent of whether you’re creating the website yourself or outsourcing it while others are dependent on who is doing the work for you.
Factors affecting website design cost in Kenya
1. The top-level domain (TLD) that you choose
In simple terms, a TLD is that section that comes after the domain name.
For instance, in google.com, the TLD is .com. Similarly, in Safaricom.co.ke, the TLD is .co.ke.
You see, different TLDs have different prices depending on the domain registrar you’re using.
Below is a table to give you the average industry prices for registering and renewing some common TLDs in the market:
TLD | Registration price (Ksh.) | Renewal price (Ksh.) |
.com | 750 – 1,699 | 1,500 – 2,000 |
.co.ke | 900 – 1,200 | 1,400 – 1,600 |
.org | 1500 | 1,900 – 2,400 |
.online | 800 – 5,000 | 5,5000 – 6,000 |
.digital | 1,000 – 1,500 | 6,000 – 6,500 |
.ke | 3,000 | 3,000 |
Tip: These are the average figures if you’re using a local domain registrar.
2. The web hosting package you choose
Once you have registered your domain name, you’ll need to buy a hosting package.
Basically put, this is where your website files will be stored to make sure that your website is always accessible 24/7.
Now, hosting companies offer different hosting packages.
Nonetheless, there are three main categories of packages across all hosting companies:
- Shared hosting: This is the cheapest hosting option. Here, you will be sharing a server’s resources with other users hence the lower cost.
This type of hosting is best for smaller websites that are yet to get a lot of visitors.
- Dedicated hosting: With this type of hosting, you will be renting a whole server from the hosting provider where you’ll have total control of all the resources and security of the server.
This hosting is best high-traffic websites, large databases, and resource-intensive applications.
- VPS hosting: This type of hosting provides you with dedicated resources on a server with multiple users.
This provides a balance between cost and performance. In other words, this is a mix of shared hosting and dedicated hosting.
This type of hosting is best for websites with moderate to high traffic which needs more resources than shared hosting can provide.
With that in mind, here’s the average cost of these hosting types in Kenya:
Hosting type | Average annual price (Ksh.) |
Shared | 2,500 – 19,800 |
VPS | 10,320 – 36,480 |
Dedicated | 124,800 – 312,000 |
3. Website content
Once your website is live, it will need to attract visitors. And this is where a content creator comes in – they will create content that helps your website to rank on Google.
Normally, this is what is called Search Engine Optimization (SEO) content creation.
Usually, an SEO specialist can charge you per word, per blog, or per project.
As such, it’s up to you to find one that aligns with your budget.
Just so you know, the average SEO Kenyan writer will charge you between Ksh. 1 and Ksh. 3 per word.
4. The type of website you need
Long story short, smaller websites such as portfolio or personal websites are much cheaper.
Usually, you can get such websites from as low as Ksh. 18,999.
As the website gets more complicated (or has more pages), the more expensive it shall be – we shall see the cost for different websites in a minute.
5. The website developer you hire
Of course, the more experienced the web designer, the more they will charge you.
Just so you know, more experienced website developers can charge you upwards of ksh. 150,000 per website.
Other than that, at times, hiring an agency can be more expensive compared to hiring a freelance website developer.
However, this comes at a risk of the freelance developer overpromising and underdelivering.
Some other factors that might affect the cost of website creation costs in Kenya
- Training: Running and managing a website can be challenging especially if you’re not technologically advanced.
As such, you might need to undergo some training (from the website developer) on how to manage and run your website.
This will help you to understand how to add new content, edit or delete existing content, and manage inquiries.
- Photography: While some website types might be okay with stock photos, other websites such as e-commerce stores, real estate, institutional, and hospitality websites will require photos of your business or products.
Here, you might need to hire a professional photographer to take professional photos and videos.
Now that we have seen some of the common factors that might affect the cost of your website, here’s a breakdown for the average website design prices in Kenya for different website types:
Website design packages and prices in Kenya
| Type of website | Features | Average website cost in Kenya (Ksh.) |
| Landing page |
| 10,000 – 18,000 |
| Personal/portfolio website |
| 15,000 – 24,000 |
| Small business website |
| 20,000 – 30,000 |
| E-commerce website |
| 38,000 – 80,000 |
| Corporate website |
| 45,000 – 80,000 |
| Real estate website |
| 32,000 – 45,000 |
| Institutional website (for learning institutions) |
| 25,000 – 35,000 |
Remember, cheaper is not always better
For any web design project, different website developers will give you different quotations for your site.
While it might be tempting to choose the cheapest option, this could end up messing you big.
Similarly, choosing the most expensive web developer does not automatically guarantee you high-quality work.
That’s why, I always advice one to first look at the designer’s portfolio and also request talk to some of their past clients.
This will help you decide on whether to hire the designer or not.
Other than that, never pay the full cost upfront.
While the developer will request for a deposit to cater for certain costs such as domain name registration, web hosting, and photography costs, most developers will require a 40-50% deposit which is normal.
For the remaining 50-60%, create a payment plan that suits both of you.
This will help reduce your losses if thing go south.
Need help with your next website?
If you need more advice, or you have any questions, or wish to get a website, visit our contact page to send us a message.
Alternatively, you can call or WhatsApp us on +254 748 880 468.