Ask five providers what a website costs and you'll get five non-answers. That's partly because "a website" describes everything from a one-page brochure to a booking-and-payments platform — and partly because vague pricing benefits the seller, not you.
These are the honest 2026 ranges we see in the South African market, including where our own pricing sits, so you can compare properly.
The Real Numbers
| Route | Typical Cost | What you get | What you own |
|---|---|---|---|
| DIY builder (Wix, Squarespace, etc.) |
R99–R400 per month, forever | Template site you assemble yourself. Fast to start, generic result. | Nothing. Stop paying, the site is gone. You cannot take it elsewhere. |
| Freelancer | R3,500–R15,000 once-off | Usually a WordPress or template build. Quality and availability vary enormously. | Sometimes the files; rarely the full stack. Ask who owns the hosting account. |
| Agency | R20,000–R60,000+ | Custom design, project management, usually decent quality. | Read the contract. Many agencies keep the code, the CMS licence, or the hosting. |
| Engineered custom build | R15,000–R80,000+ | Purpose-built platform: integrations, compliance, performance engineered to spec. | Everything — source code, database, hosting access — if you choose the right firm. |
Ongoing costs apply to every route: a .co.za domain runs roughly R100–R200 per year, and hosting ranges from R50/month for shared hosting to R500+ for managed infrastructure. Budget for maintenance too — a website is an asset, and assets need upkeep.
Why the Same Site Has Three Different Prices
When quotes differ by tens of thousands for "the same" website, the difference is almost always in one of these:
- Integrations. Online booking, payment gateways (PayFast, Ozow, Yoco), WhatsApp automation, invoicing — each integration is real engineering work.
- Compliance. POPIA-compliant forms, consent management, and secure data handling are engineering line-items. Their absence is cheaper — until it isn't.
- Performance and SEO foundations. A site that loads in under two seconds on a South African mobile connection is built differently from one that doesn't.
- Ownership terms. A build you own outright costs more upfront than one you rent — and costs far less over five years.
The five-year maths most buyers skip
A R300/month builder subscription is R18,000 over five years — for an asset you still won't own, on a platform you can't leave without starting over. A R18,000 engineered build with R100/month hosting is R24,000 over the same period — and it's yours, permanently, with resale value if you ever sell the business.
Questions That Expose a Bad Quote
- "Who owns the source code and the hosting account when we're done?" — If the answer isn't an immediate "you do", walk.
- "Is the fee fixed, and what exactly does it exclude?" — Hourly billing on a fixed-scope build shifts all risk onto you.
- "What happens if we part ways in a year?" — You should be able to take everything and leave. If leaving is painful by design, that's the business model.
- "Is POPIA consent and privacy handled, and how?" — Vague answers here predict vague engineering everywhere else.
- "Can I see live client sites, named?" — Portfolios of unnamed screenshots prove nothing. Live, named, verifiable work does.
Where we sit: ASi builds start from R12,000 for a tender-ready corporate site and R18,000 for engineered business builds, with custom platforms scoped per engagement up to R80,000+. Every engagement is a fixed written quote, and you own everything at handover — here's exactly how the process works, and our named client work is live on the homepage.