Cost of Website Design in Kenya

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. As with other investments an individual or organization, cost and budget are essential considerations before embarking on any project. Will the cost be affordable? Is that enough to get what is needed? With this questions answered, the ultimate goal is to always get a return on investment (ROI) from the final out come of the website designed.

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.

The overall cost of the website, is usually calculated based on, hosting, security, design and development, and maintenance.

Getting an exact figure of designing a website wholesomely is impractical. Reason being that several factors come into play that dictate the cost of any website.

The requirements of a particular websites is what dictates the cost of creating that website. These requirements are based on the fact that the website owner doesn’t understand anything about computers, programming, website design and development procedures. Hence, needs someone else, a website developer, to create the website on their behalf.

Read also: The Top 10 Website Designers in Kenya: A Comprehensive Guide

What Factors Dictate the Cost of a Website?

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

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

(i). Blogs/personal websites are the cheapest

(ii). A startup/small business

(iii). Enterprise/organizational sites and lastly

(iv). 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.

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.

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 disk space your website will need, the number of emails, expected visitors jus to mention a few dictates the storage or hosting cost.

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.

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.

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.

This is done by setting 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.

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.

Cost of Creating a Website in Kenya (2024 Estimates)

Additional Website Costs to Keep In Mind

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. 3,499/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, the website owner provides all the content needed. Mostly text and sometimes photos. When the website designer provides them, it adds to the total cost of the website.

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

Development

The development stage is 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 and inter connected as laid down in the earlier stages.

Frameworks and CMSs, Custom Codes are used in this stage. The developer has to consider proper installation and configuration to ensure the process is running smoothly.

Testing, Review and Launch

Testing is the most important part of the process. Links, responsiveness, color, fonts, payment gateways and general functionalities including forms.

Before the website is launched or goes live, the Quality Assurance tester ensures Code validation and browser compatibility is checked at this stage.

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

Testing and reviewing will take about 2 to 7 days, though it’s a continuous process during development. It 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.

Read Also: How To Create A Free Website In Kenya (Helpful Illustrated Guide)

Conclusion

The Cost of Website design in Kenya with all the above factors considered starts from Ksh. 49,280 . The process is continuous and ongoing depending on the magnitude of changes at hand and cost may vary.

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.

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