Website Design In Uganda: The Cost Of Developing And Hosting.

How much does a website cost in Uganda? This is a frequent query we receive from people who want to own websites in Uganda. Before considering developing a website for your business, it is critical to understand the stages and prices involved in the process. In this article, we will walk you through the cost of designing, constructing, and hosting a website in Uganda.

Our own experience as  Ugandan web designers who have been in the web design profession for over 7 years, as well as our interactions with top-notch web designers in the Ugandan web design market, have impacted the breakdown we providing here.

According to information on the Forbes website, the internet has 8.3 billion users worldwide, with Uganda having 27 million of them. If you operate a business, large or small, it is past time to get it online, because any firm that is not online does not sell.

What exactly is a website?

A website is a collection of websites, such as the one you currently see. Read my other article for more information on what a website is and why every business needs one.

What Motivates People to Visit Websites?

In general, individuals visit websites and blogs for two reasons:

To find the information they require. It could be a student conducting a study or someone looking for the location of a nearby hotel or school.

To finish a task. For example, you may buy the most recent goods on the market, download software, or engage in an online discussion.

Website categories

Websites exist in a variety of styles and can be utilized in a variety of ways. A website can be a personal website, a government website, a commercial website, a non-profit organization website, or a business website (small, medium, or large business website).

Websites are typically dedicated to specific themes or purposes. This can include everything from social networking to entertainment to education to breaking news. The World Wide Web [WWW] is made up of all public websites, whereas private websites, such as a university’s e-learning system [for its students], are essentially part of the intranet.

The following is a list of the most common types of websites in Uganda.

Websites for Individuals

Websites for doing business online

Websites for Sharing Photos

Websites for Community Building

Websites for Writers / Authors

Websites for Mobile Devices

Catalogue/Brochure for Online Businesses

Websites that provide information

Website Directories

Blogs

In Uganda, how much does it cost to design and develop a website?

We began designing professional websites seven years ago and have directly or indirectly contributed to the development of over 1000 websites. However, we are still unable to answer this question. In fact, there is no simple or black-and-white answer to this topic.

Anyone with web programming skills can create a website, but how much does it cost to create an effective website, one that will work for you and help you expand your business online?

We frequently receive calls and messages inquiring about the cost of creating and developing a website in Uganda. Many of them ask this question before giving us with the specifications for their website.

We have always told them that there is no set cost for developing a website. The cost of web design varies depending on a variety of things. Any experienced web developer would not quote you a price for a website before fully understanding your needs.

Many Ugandans are typically wary about paying for intangible services such as web creation. They find it difficult to pay for something they can’t truly hold in their hands. They are left questioning how much a website is truly worth.

Creating a good website is not an easy task. It is one of the most difficult and complicated duties for any web developer. It takes a lot of hard work. I mean, just to develop a simple web page, you have to write hundreds of lines of code.

Creating a website is a multi-stage process that takes a lot of time and work because it necessitates a variety of methodologies, resources, and team compositions.

The cost of designing and developing a website is determined by the number of requirements you require in a website, such as how complex these requirements are, how many resources are required, and how much time and effort is required to have your website fully developed without compromising its quality.

Major stages of website development

Building a website will entail three key stages, which are as follows:

Purchasing a website domain name

Designing and creating

Purchase of a Web Hosting Server

What Exactly Is a Domain Name?

When you consider owning a website, the first thing that should come to mind is what you will call it. And what should its address be? A domain name is what your website’s address is called.

A domain name can be thought of as a virtual address for your website on the internet or online. The “location” that internet users can travel to on their internet browser to access a certain website is a unique combination of numbers and letters followed by a domain extension, such as “.com”. Of course, “www.adbertagency.com” is a classic example of a domain name.

Your website domain name is unique, and once you’ve registered it, no one else can. It’s more like your online fingerprint – it’s unique to you. Although other websites may have domains that are similar to yours, they will never be identical. Extensions can always be used to distinguish them. We may own the domain adbertagency.com, but someone else owns adbertagency.net and someone else owns adbertagency.org.

However, in order to have exclusive rights to your domain, you must register it and renew it on an annual basis. Domain renewal fees are typically the same as the purchase fee. For example, if you purchased a domain for Shs.50,000, you can renew it for the same price or slightly more depending on the domain registration firm. This is now included in the expenses of website maintenance.

Your domain name is critical. It gives your website an online identity and establishes your company to website visitors and potential clients, all while assisting you in growing your brand.

If you change hosting providers, your domain name will remain with you. Your domain name is also crucial because it expands your internet advertising options. Online advertising is now one of the most effective strategies to drive traffic to websites.

A Domain Name’s Price Uganda is a country.

The price of a domain depends on the domain extension you wish to register. Common domain extensions such as.com, .net,.org,.biz,.co, and so on will cost between UGX 60,000/- and UGX 100,000/-. Uganda’s country-specific domains, such as. ug, co. ug, com.org.ug, com. ug, and so on, will cost you between UGX 100,000/- and UGX 200,000/-.

Why are? Are domain names more expensive than other extensions?

Other domains, such as.com and.net, start at Shs.50,000, which is nearly three times less than.ug domain names. .ug domains are very expensive because global registrars of Top-Level Domains (TLDs) such as.net benefit from economies of scale due to their larger customer base, as opposed to small country-specific domain registrars like his. .ug domain extension list or categories

co. ug – Suitable for commercial or business companies

com. ug, org. ug – Appropriate for non-profit or non-governmental organizations (NGOs). ac.ug – Appropriate for higher institutes of learning, such as universities and institutes.

sc. ug – This category is reserved for lower educational institutions from the secondary school level and below

. ug – This category is reserved for government agencies such as Ministries, Automated Agencies, and Authorities

. ug, net. ug – This category is suitable for Network Infrastructure services such as Internet Exchange Points, wholesalers of Internet bandwidth, and so on.

Design and development costs [in Uganda]

As previously said, the cost of designing a website is determined by the project’s complexity and labour intensity; the more features the website has and the more difficult its implementation, the greater the cost of building the website. For the time being, we assume you want a conventional dynamic website with basic functionality. We anticipate the following features on your website:

Home, Services, Products, Blog, About, and Contact are six [6] dynamic web pages.

Design on demand

Forms for contact and other purposes

Content Management System with Custom Logo Gallery Search Facility

A website that is responsive across all devices

Designing graphics

Basic Search Engine Optimization with Social Media Integration

If you require a conventional CMS dynamic with the features listed above, design and development will cost you between UGX 1,200,000/- and UGX 1,900,000/-, depending on the business you pick. This amount may or may not include a domain and hosting fee. Everything is dependent on your first agreement with the developer.

A highly customized and database-driven website will undoubtedly cost much more. For example, if you want to create a music streaming website, you will need a very robust Content Management System [CMS] that allows you to manage users, artists, songs, videos, comments, and so on. If you were to hire a competent web development agency in Uganda to create such a one-of-a-kind website, they would price you at least UGX 10,000,000/-. Yes, I’m talking about 10 million or more.

The Price of Website Hosting in Uganda

Webhosting is a service that allows Internet users to visit your website via the Internet. Once your website has been planned and developed, you must upload it to a powerful computer known as a server in order for it to be publicly available on the internet. Website hosting is the process of storing a website [website files] on a server.

You can also convert your personal computer into a web host (webserver), but this will be very expensive to operate because you will need to connect the server to the internet 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This means you’ll always need an active internet connection and electricity.

Your website will not be accessible online if your server goes down or the power goes out. The costs of running a home server are simply too high, especially if it is only for personal use. On the Intractable website, you may learn how to set up your own web server.

The quality of your hosting server might impact the loading speed of your website pages [webpages], the technical support you receive, and the future scalability of your website. Your website’s host has a significant impact on its functionality. If you choose free hosting services, the tech assistance you will receive will be inferior to that of premium or paid hosting services.

The cost of hosting a website in Uganda is determined by the amount of information on your website and the amount of traffic it receives in a given time period. Web hosting prices range from UGX 200,000/- to UGX 1,000,000/- for shared hosting, which places your website on the same server as other people’s websites.

So, how much does a fully functional website in Uganda truly cost?

We recently worked with a client who requested a dynamic website for his business, and this is how We charged him:

Fee for domain name: UGX 100,000/- Fee for design and development: UGX 1,200,000/- Fee for hosting: UGX 200,000/- Total Costs: UGX 1,500,000/-

The cost of designing a basic dynamic website in Uganda ranges from UGX 1,500,000 to UGX 2,000,000/-, as shown above.

Static websites cost between UGX 600,000/- and UGX 1,000,000/-. However, static websites lack dynamic functionality such as forms and lack a Content Management System [CMS]. This means that you will be unable to update your website if you are not a technical expert.

Fees That Recur

It is important to note that a domain and hosting are only renewed once a year. Both must be renewed every 365 days for the same price you paid when you purchased them. For example, if you paid UGX 200,000/- for your hosting, you must renew it for the same amount after a year.

What should you spend?

The cost of developing a website has decreased somewhat as of 2023. A completely functional dynamic template website should cost between UGX1.8M and UGX3M, while a custom-created website should cost between UGX4M and UGX10M. If your website has fewer pages and less complicated functions, you may be able to pay slightly less than this.

Unless you have extremely specific and specialized demands, I believe you should not spend more than UGX 1,600,000/- on a simple template site design.

Typically, the price you will spend will be determined by the type of website you desire. A website can cost as much as UGX 18 million and yet be considered inexpensive, whilst another can cost as little as UGX 2 million and be deemed quite costly. Essentially, this is determined by the resources utilized to do the task.

Disparities in Ugandan web design prices (pricing)

A client questioned us about a month ago why certain web development firms charge so much for website creation while others charge so little. It is true that pricing in the web development sector varies enormously.

Some are inexpensive, while others are extremely costly. I was recently on a freelance website in Uganda. A client had posted a custom web project and was looking for a seasoned firm to complete it.

On his project, we bid UGX 4,000,000/-, while another guy offered UGX 900,000/-. The client wondered why we were so much more expensive than the other individual who bid on his job for only 900,000 dollars.

We mentioned to him that web development is similar to running a consulting firm. The quality of service you receive is determined by your budget. A website produced for UGX 8M cannot be of the same quality as a website developed at UGX 1.8M with equal specifications.

At the end of the day, it is all about achieving satisfactory results. Pay more for higher quality. Pay less for less quality. In our opinion, you should deal with a company that does the greatest job. An adequate budget must be one of the variables if you want the greatest quality.

We take pleasure in billing our clients fairly and appropriately, and we also give excellent support and technical know-how. Even clients that terminated our working relationships due to our ‘High Pricing’ have always returned, illustrating the adage “Quality doesn’t cost… it pays.”

The web development industry, like many others, is one where you get what you pay for. Let us all agree that cheap is costly, but don’t spend your time and money on subpar services.

Other fees that may be incurred; In order for a website to be completely functional, you will need to pay for more than just a domain, hosting, and a web design fee. If you want a professional website, you will also need to invest in the following:

1. Creation of content

Before you consider the actual design of a website, you should consider why you want to develop one. This allows you to determine what you want to share with the rest of the world. A web designer is not expected to convey your story for you because you are the most knowledgeable about your company.

You may not be able to do everything on your own, no matter how well you understand your business. Your website, like any other, may or may not require content in the form of text, graphics, video, or music.

If you lack expertise in writing such content, you will need to employ a professional. If your website will have text, you will need to engage a copywriter. Copywriters in Uganda start at UGX 15,000/- per write up.

On this blog, we provide freelancing writing services and charge UGX 10,000/- for every 100 words written. Some copywriters charge up to UGX 80,000 for a single blog post.

You may also need to make a promotional film for your website. Although many people overlook it, a promotional video is a critical stage in your internet success. Just to let you know, there were 7.46 billion web pages indexed in 2022 alone, according to Worldwidesize. All of these websites are competing for the attention of the world’s 8.3 billion internet users.

You must budget for website promotion and market your website on web platforms such as social media or search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing.

Please keep in mind that most Ugandan web designers include the cost of content generation in their site design quotes. When your web developer gives you an estimate, make sure to inquire if the cost of content production is included.

2. Brand recognition

Branding is the process of projecting your company’s image in order to distinguish it from competitors in the minds of your target customers. A good logo for your website will help you stand out from the crowd. Branding is more than simply a logo, for now, we’ll just concentrate on the logo.

In Uganda, the cost of logo creation is still low. For a basic logo, most skilled graphic designers in Uganda charge as little as UGX 100,000/-. In Uganda, a premium logo can cost as much as UGX 500,000/-.

3. SEO (Search Engine Optimization

Once your website is finished, you will need to take additional steps to make it visible in search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing. This is possible because to a site optimization technique known as Search Engine Optimization (SEO). A website that is not optimized for search engines is rendered useless because no one will access it through search unless they type your website address straight into the browser URL bar.

How much does Search Engine Optimization cost in Kampala, Uganda?

Search Engine Optimization costs as little as UGX 300,000/- in Uganda. Keep in mind that SEO is a process that might take up to six months to produce results.

Please keep in mind that you may incur additional charges as a result of additional features and services that were not previously indicated in the first web design agreement. These cost components are not intended to be frightening. Some, such as a promotional video, can be skipped if your budget is limited. You are not required to pay money for each of them. You can handle some jobs as a small business owner if you have some of these skills. You don’t have to completely disregard them.

Be wary of impersonating web designers and developers in Uganda.

Most inept and fraudulent web developers in Uganda will hide behind the concept of low-cost web design prices, and in most cases, they will dupe unsuspecting clients into wasting thousands of shillings in the name of saving. Many clients are duped, while others receive subpar websites that are frequently incomplete. You will encounter some unprofessional developers who promise to provide quality work for a very low price.

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