How much does a website cost in Kenya? A plain guide

Quotes for a website in Kenya range from a few thousand shillings to several hundred thousand, which makes the question hard to answer. This is a plain guide to what you get at each level, what it costs to keep a site running, and how to judge a quote.

By Dylan Makori26 February 2026Updated 23 September 20267 min read

The four levels

Templates and do-it-yourself builders · Roughly KES 15,000 to 40,000

What you get: A ready-made theme with your logo, text and photos, on a builder platform or a basic WordPress install.
Good for: Testing an idea, a personal project, or a very small business that needs to exist online quickly.
Watch for: Limited design, often slow on phones, and hard to grow once you need bookings, payments or custom pages.

A professional business website · Roughly KES 50,000 to 150,000

What you get: A designed site of around five to ten pages, built for phones first, with contact and WhatsApp done properly, basic search setup and analytics.
Good for: Most service businesses, clinics, schools, firms and non-profits. This is where most of the organisations we speak to land.
Watch for: Ask exactly what is included: content writing, photos, revisions, and who hosts it afterwards.

Sites with systems behind them · Roughly KES 150,000 to 400,000

What you get: Everything above, plus a working system: online booking, M-Pesa or card payments, a client portal, or an online shop.
Good for: Businesses whose website needs to do work, not just describe it.
Watch for: The system is where most of the cost and risk sits. Get the scope written down in detail.

Custom platforms · From around KES 400,000

What you get: Larger or unusual projects: marketplaces, multi-branch portals, integrations with other systems.
Good for: Organisations with specific operational needs that off-the-shelf tools cannot meet.
Watch for: Phase it. Launching a smaller first version and building on it is usually safer than one large release.

What moves the price

Number of page types. Ten pages that share one layout cost less than five pages that are each different.
Content. Whether you supply the text and photos, or the agency writes and sources them.
Systems. Booking, payments, portals and integrations take far more work than pages.
Design depth. A customised template and a fully original design are different jobs.

Running costs people forget

A website is not a one-off purchase. Budget roughly for:

Domain name: renewed every year. A .co.ke address usually costs less than a .com.
Hosting: from a few thousand shillings a year for simple shared hosting, more for faster, managed hosting.
Security certificate (HTTPS): included free with most good hosting today. Be wary of anyone charging extra for it.
Care and updates: security updates, backups and small changes, usually as a monthly plan.

How to judge a quote

When it looks too cheap

The design is a template presented as custom work.
Nobody mentions phones, speed, search setup or analytics.
There is no written scope, so what you get is decided later.
You would not own the domain or the site if you parted ways.

When it looks too expensive

Large fees for meetings and strategy before anything is scoped.
Features you did not ask for and will not use.
No clear explanation of what each part costs.

A good quote is written, itemised, says who owns what, and explains what happens after launch. That last part matters most: a site that nobody maintains slowly breaks.

Frequently asked

Can I pay in instalments?

Many agencies, including us, split payment into a deposit and a balance on delivery, with larger projects paid in milestones. Agree the schedule in writing before work starts.

How long does a website take?

A professional business website usually takes two to four weeks, depending largely on how quickly content is ready. Sites with booking or payment systems take longer.

Should I choose .co.ke or .com?

For an organisation serving Kenyan customers, .co.ke is a good choice and signals that you are local. If you serve an international audience, a .com can make sense. Many organisations register both and point one at the other.

Is a website builder good enough?

For testing an idea, often yes. Once your website needs to bring in enquiries, take bookings or payments, or load quickly on phones, the limits of a builder start to cost you. You can check how your current site performs with our free health report.