The cost of designing and hosting a website in Uganda is surrounded by a lot of myths, most people in Uganda are afraid to get online because they don’t know what’s involved and how much it costs to get online. Many just assume that it’s expensive. And they are not to blame.
Some Myths are really humiliating to mention. According to UgTechmag One of their writers recently discovered this
“To prove my case, recently I was going through my WhatsApp messages when I landed on the hinted topic in one group. So these fellows were arguing about how it’s not possible to design and host a website in Uganda at a flat fee of 50$ (approximately 180k). To make it clear, this came about after a certain freelance chap was promoting his web hosting and designing packages to the fellows”
People who develop and design websites either confuse them with various technical terms or sell them a lot of features, they don’t even need to make it expensive. But that ends today.
What Does Website Mean?
A website is a collection of publicly accessible, interlinked Web pages that share a single domain name. Websites can be created and maintained by an individual, group, business, or organization to serve a variety of purposes. Together, all publicly accessible websites constitute the World Wide Web.
Although it is sometimes called a “web page,” this definition is wrong, since a website consists of several webpages. A website is also known as a “web presence” or simply “site”.
Why Do Persons Visit Websites?
Usually, people do visit websites and blogs for two primary reasons i.e.;
- To find the information they need. It could be a student doing research or someone looking for the address to the nearest bar or restaurant.
- To complete a task. E.g. buy the latest product on market, download software or participate in an online discussion.
Types of Websites You Can Create
- eCommerce Website
- Business Website
- Entertainment Website
- Portfolio Website
- Media Website
- Brochure Website
- Nonprofit Website
- Educational Website
- Infopreneur Website
- Personal Website
What you need to get online.
We will explain everything in the simplest way possible. So that you don’t get confused with technical terms. So, there are three things needed to get online:
- Domain name.
- Hosting provider.
- Website design.
What is a Domain Name?
In simple terms, a domain name is what uniquely identifies a site on the internet. An example of a domain name is www.tushawebsites.com. So, where can one get a domain name? You can buy a domain name from various sites online.
How much does it cost to buy a Website Domain in Uganda?
The cost of a domain differs depending on domain extension you want to register. Common domain extensions like .com, .net, org, .biz, .co etc will range from will range from UGX 60,000/- to UGX 100,000/-. Uganda’s country based domains such as .ug, .co.ug, .com.org.ug, .com.ug etc will cost you between UGX 100,000/- to UGX 200,000/-.
Domain names also have various extensions, and examples of extensions include; .com, .net, .org and more. Choosing an extension depends on what kind of business or organization you have and what it does.
List of categories of .ug domain extensions
- ug – Suitable for business or commercial entities
- ug, org. ug – Suitable for Not for profit or Non-Government Organisations (NGOs).
- ug – Recommended for Higher Institutes of Learning e.g Universities and Institutes.
- ug – This Category is set aside for lower Educational Institutions from Secondary School level and below
- ug – This category is reserved for government agencies such as Ministries, Automatic Agencies and Authorities
- ug, net. ug – This is suitable for Network Infrastructure services such as Internet Exchange Points, wholesalers of Internet bandwidth, etc
How much does it cost to host a business website in Uganda?
A hosting provider is one that runs and maintains your site on the internet. The process of storing a website [website files] on a server is called Website Hosting. For your site to be live online you need a hosting provider to host it. And their many various hosting providers and their charges depending on the specification that comes with hosting.
When your server goes offline, or the electricity goes off, your website won’t be accessible online. The costs of maintaining a home server are just too big to handle especially if you have set it up just for personal use.
The quality of your hosting server can affect the loading speed of your website pages [webpages], the tech support you get, and the scalability of your website in the future. Your website host has a big impact on the functionality of your website. If you choose to use free hosting services, the tech support you will receive will not be as good as the one for a premium or paid hosting services.
Similar to personal websites, when you’re going to host a business website you need to consider the following factors
- The bandwidth of hosting package
- Hosting Space
- Cpanel
- Customized email accounts
- Availability of 24/7 technical support
And for a basic website, it can cost you about 50,000 to 1,000,000UgX for hosting per year. And if you are to ask me, that’s really a good deal. If you can’t even pay that at once, you can choose to pay monthly, quarterly, or bi-annually. That’s how affordable it is.
How much does it really cost to design a business website in Uganda?
Like I said before, the cost of designing a website depends on the complexity and labor intensity of the project; the more features the website has, and the more difficult its implementation, the higher the cost will be to build the website. For now, I will make an assumption where you want a standard dynamic website with basic features. I assume your website will have the following features:
Factors web designers consider while developing business websites in Uganda include ;
- Number of pages of the website
- Functionalities of a given website
- Maintenance and support over a given period of time
- Type of design appearance
- Search Engine Optimization
- Hosting cost
- and many others
Business websites can include hotels, agencies, restaurants, schools, companies, NGOs, many other forms of websites and their prices vary from 600K to 1.5M depending on the type of freelancer or company and the type of work to be done.
How much does it cost to design an Ecommerce website in Uganda?
Have you thought about it and decided that you need a website for your shop, or perhaps you just need to sell your homemade stuff online. Designing an eCommerce website is vital today. Ecommerce websites range from between 800k to 3M Ugandan shillings depending on functionalities and many other factors described above. I designed my first eCommerce platform with Tusha websites last year and I recommend them for your e-commerce project since they are a set of skilled freelancers who will meet your project deadlines at such affordable prices.
So how much does it really cost to have a complete functioning website in Uganda?
We worked with a client who wanted a dynamic website for his business company and here is how I charged him:
- Domain name fee: UGX 50,000/-
- Design and Development fee: UGX 600,000/-
- Hosting fee: UGX 200,000/-
- Total Costs: UGX 850,000/-
From the above, you can see that the cost of designing a standard dynamic website in Uganda ranges from UGX 850,000 to UGX 1,000,000/-
Periodic Fees
Note that a domain and hosting are renewable once every year. You will be required to renew both after every 365 days at the same amount you purchased them. For example, if you purchased your hosting at UGX 250,000/-, you will have to renew it at the same amount after a year. And unless you what to make modifications on the site. Once, you have your site up and running. It’s only hosting and domain charges that you keep paying.
Generally, we think you shouldn’t spend more than UGX 2,000,000/- on a basic template web design unless you have very custom and specialized needs.
Feel free to contact us (0705184142) today for more details
Source credits: Ugtechmag & ictguy