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Cost of Website Design in Kenya varies, anyone who wants to have an online presence has to put into consideration the cost of such a project so that s/he can get as much as possible from the investment. As with other investments an individual or organization considers, cost and budget are essential considerations before embarking on the project. Will the cost be affordable? Will the cost afford what is needed?

When establishing an online presence through a website, more so in Kenya, you have to take into consideration several factors, among them the overall cost of the website. This is calculated, simply, on hosting, security, design and development, and maintenance. To get an exact figure that can be used wholesomely is impractical as several factors come into play that will dictate the cost of any website.

The cost of website design in Kenya is dictated by the requirements of the website being developed. These requirements are based on the fact that the website owner doesn’t understand anything about computers, programming and website design and development procedures and needs someone else, a website developer, to create the website on their behalf.

What Factors Dictate the Cost of a Website?

As a whole, the following factors determine the cost of that particular website.

1. Type of Website: websites can be classified according to what the owner has in mind. This is dictated by the type based on size: the developer can categorize them as blogs/personal websites are the cheapest, then a startup/small business, then enterprise/organizational sites and lastly, ecommerce/online stores. Sometimes, the number of pages can also be a classification of what a developer considers when grouping a website into the above categories.
2. Domain: like any other business out there, a website needs a name; a domain name. That is what will identify and differentiate it from several other websites out there. The differentiation also can be based on the Top-Level Domain (TLD) extension used. The most common TLDs being .com, .org, .net, .biz and also, based on the country (.ke, .co.ke, .ac.ke) or industry one is in (.tech, .edu, .shop). The TLDs generally affect the overall cost of a domain name. For example, a myshopwebsite.com and myshopwebsite.shop will have different costs as each has a different TLD with common TLDs being cheaper and unique ones being more expensive.
3. Hosting: every website on the Internet has a physical location where the files, images and videos it contains as accessed by users are stored. Hosting therefore, is storing your website files on an online computer, which is on the Internet throughout, so as to make your website accessible from any corner of the world at any time of the day. The overall availability of this server computer to be online is called uptime. This needs to be at least 99%! The storage or hosting cost is dictated by many factors including the amount of disk space your website will need, the number of emails, expected visitors and much more.
4. Technology in Use: if the website you need is to be code-written, one code line after another, the cost will be high. Writing code by hand by your developer needs time and resources to get the website up. All this makes the process expensive. Also, depending on languages used to write your website adds to the cost. For example, a simple HTML5 website will cost much lesser than an animated and complicated functionality website written in Python programming language. Don’t despair. In comes the Content Management Systems (CMSs) like WordPress, Drupal and Joomla and drag and drop website builders. These being the most popular. These CMSs makes setting up and creating a website easy and faster than hand-coding one. Even non-coders can create their own websites with these CMSs and website builders.
5. Functionalities: depending on what the overall functions of the website are, these can drive the cost of the website high. For example, a simple, responsive HTML5 website with text and a few photos will not compare costs with a dynamically interactive, ecommerce website that needs integration of other third-party services.
6. Setup, Design and Development: the technical knowledge needed to setup and configure an Internet server is not easily available to most website owners. Hence, there lies a need to have someone versed with such technicalities to set and configure the server, and set the necessary parameters to ensure smooth communication between the server and the requesting user browser. The design stage involves showcasing the relationship amongst the different pages, sections, images and videos to link seamlessly with each other. This process involves sketches of how pages are interlinked (structure), the fonts and colors, the placement of different information on pages and the general look and feel of the whole website. The development stage is where all the design processes are put down and made into a functional website. This process is mostly what most consider the critical process in the development of a website and hence takes the most amount in the costing budget.
7. Maintenance:  the process of making updates and correcting errors, growing with the changing trends, putting additional functionalities and modules as need arise down the road, redesign and change of providers are all aspects of website maintenance. This adds to the overall cost of the website one is trying to build. For one to have a website designed and developed, the above steps are followed, but not in order, and each cost associated with each step given. The total process costs are summed up and the total is the cost of creating your website.

Generally, when hiring a web designer or developer, most of whom develop using CMS WordPress, the standard website (5 pages) cost starts from Kshs. 15,500 and above.

The general website development process, though it differs depending on the developer, and its cost are as follows:

Information Gathering

Get full and clear understanding what the purpose and the aim of the website. Here, domain name and hosting are first priority. The content and all photos needed is considered but not necessary.

This can take a few hours to 5 days with costs (domain name and hosting) starting from Kshs. 6,500/year.

Planning: Wireframing and Sitemap Creation

This stage, using the information provided in the stage above tries to show the structure and layout of the website. It shows the relationship between the different web pages and how they interact (interlink).

This stage is time consuming and tedious, hence few if any website owner at all goes through it. The easiest way to navigate this stage is to have the website designer have a look at suggested, already existing websites to try and replicate the feel and look.

As most developers and website owners don’t do planning much, this stage is skipped. But if it was to be implemented, it can take about 5 to 10 days and cost from Kshs. 8,500.

Design: Page Layouts, Review and Approval

The number of pages is known. The needed visual content is created or a way to get them is laid down. This is all collaborated using the information gathered in the first stage.

Most of the time, all the content needed, mostly text and sometimes photos are provided by the website owner. When such is to be provided by your website designer, it adds to the total cost of the website.

This can take about 3 – 7 days and cost from Kshs. 2,500.

Development

The development stage when the creation of the website starts, textual content and the visual graphics are used to bring the website to live.

Together with the sitemap, all links and structure and functionalities are executed as laid down in the earlier stages.

Frameworks and CMSs are used to ensure the website is live. The developer has to consider proper installation and configuration to ensure the process is running smoothly.

The stage that is considered website development by many.

It takes from 1 day and cost from Kshs. 15,000.

Testing, Review and Launch

Testing is the most important part of the process. Links, responsiveness, color, fonts, payment gateways and general functionalities including forms. Code validation and browser compatibility is also checked.

As the website owner, you have chance to see if it meets that laid down specifications. When done, the website is launched and go live.

It takes about 2 to 7 days, though it’s a continuous process during development, and can cost more depending on changes introduced or structure reconstruction.

Maintenance

Change is inevitable. Updating content, rectifying dead links, deleting content, software and plugins software to newer versions. Any changes to structure and layout, the look and feel of the whole website can be part of maintenance.

The process is continuous and ongoing depending on the magnitude of changes at hand and cost may vary.

From the above cost figures, it can be concluded that to get a website done in Kenya, you’ll need about Kshs. 32,500 at a minimum for a functional, responsive, and secure website. 

If you want to build any type of websites, with any number of pages and functionalities, including login portals, reach out to us and we'll be glad to help you get online. Ensure that whichever website price is given, the cost is inclusive of an SSL security certificate.

Credits: sinosoft.guru