Most organizations are planning to launch a new website or upgrade their existing one to give themselves a competitive edge in the digital space and increase revenue opportunities. However, many find themselves sinking in an ocean of choices while trying to find the right fit for their particular goals and budgets.
Get a head start with this analysis of the top 5 website design companies in South Africa.
1. Peachweb
Peachweb is revolutionizing the industry with an exclusive website-as-a-service offering. Their vision is that every small to medium business should be free to focus on operations while a permanent website partner ensures that their site remains functional, on-trend, and evolving.
Using modern design techniques, Peachweb is creating bespoke websites that stand out from the crowd and achieve their customers’ goals, with referrals and case studies to back it up.
Their pricing model follows a pay-as-you-go concept, where the upfront cost of website design & development is virtually free, after which customers can expect to pay R650 per month for the website and ongoing management & support services.
Included in their website management offering are digital solutions such as website design & development, SEO, E-Commerce, AI-driven automation, professional email, cloud storage, domain registration, and more.
2. Elemental
Elemental is an established website development agency with offices and employees based in Cape Town and London. They offer an array of premium web services tailored for enterprise-scale organizations.
They do not publicly disclose pricing models and instead provide a quote based on the scope of work for each project. With typical project values ranging from R100,000 to millions, businesses should ensure that they budget sufficiently.
Elemental’s solutions are vast and include website audits and development, mobile app development, SaaS platforms, and the implementation of advanced applications with complex APIs.
3. Franco Adams
Franco Adams is an individual freelancer developing websites with a particular focus on graphic design and hard-copy content. Their pricing is not publicly available, meaning projects are priced individually.
Their work primarily features print material, such as brochures and pamphlets, which have a sleek, minimalist design with a predominantly black & white theme. They also have referrals for complementary website development with a rigid template that doesn’t show significant variation between referrals.
The once-off nature and lack of ongoing partnership for their developed websites is evident in their referrals, where images have since broken, content is outdated, and links are broken. While this is not a shortfall or fault of Franco Adams, it illustrates the need for businesses to have an ongoing website partner to keep things functional and fresh.
Overall, Franco Adams is a great choice for small to medium businesses that primarily require hard-copy content and graphic design along with a basic website to boot.
4. Cozan Consulting
Cozan specializes in consultation and the implementation of digital systems for small to medium businesses. They also offer basic website services, including development and management.
They resell Google Workspace and assist businesses in implementing those tools for R340 per user per month, and offer the same for anti-virus implementation starting at R50 per user per month.
Website development costs are quoted per project, while ongoing website management will set businesses back a relatively chunky R1438 per month.
While Cozan is a good choice for small businesses seeking a partner to assist them with deploying internal systems, they lack referrals and evidence to back up their work, particularly in the website space.
5. Web Partner
Web Partner is a relatively established digital services company with services ranging from website design, Google and social media marketing, graphic design, and maintenance.
Pricing estimates are available on their website, where each service part is chargeable at either a once-off or monthly/hourly rate. Once-off custom website development starts at R25,000, adding E-Commerce is R699 per month, and website management services start at R10,000 per month.
Web Partner’s focus is scale and serving as many customers as possible, illustrated by their investment in paid Google Ads to rank high in search results and attract the masses. While their referrals indicate happy customers, their customers’ websites appear basic and mostly cut from the same mold.
For businesses in the market for a new website or upgrade, it’s worthwhile evaluating Web Partner’s services and costs. Prospects should also be cautioned against getting lost in the crowd with slow support services, cookie-cutter development, and escalating costs for additional functionality.
What To Consider
Organizations should carefully plan their goals and budget, both short and long-term, when setting out to find a website design vendor. If they don’t, they risk getting something that they don’t actually need or getting ripped off because they don’t understand the technical requirements.
Here are some quick tips on what to consider when planning out a new website.
Cost
Insist on a line-item quote and a draft service level agreement before entering acceptance, and compare the quoted costs with at least one other vendor.
Ask questions and request clarification about any concerning items.
Most importantly, think long-term and consider how much it will cost to get your website updated, fixed, and secured in the future.
Depending on your requirements, it can be acceptable to do a once-off investment in a website. However, it’s important to quantify the inevitable cost of future updates, as many vendors trap their customers with exorbitant hourly rates for post-development services.
Quality
To understand what quality you require, you first need to understand your digital goals. A good website vendor will consult and help with this process by asking questions about you and your business.
Take the time to review the websites of a few friends and competitors, identifying things that you like and don’t like. This will help you form your goals and influence the vendor to create something that really works for you, and not simply a template that’s being used for someone else.
Additionally, look at real referrals and examples of your shortlisted website vendor’s work. A big red flag is when a vendor doesn’t openly illustrate the quality of their work.
Future-Proofing
There are no more cases in today’s fast-changing world where it’s ok to create a website and let it be.
Just like a business that constantly grows and evolves, your website will eventually become outdated and broken if left unattended, putting you back at square one and facing the daunting costs and prospect of redoing it completely.
Product and price listings, content, security updates, and search optimization are just a few examples of website components that require frequent attention.
This is why it’s imperative to source a reliable partner for your website from the outset, or at least make concrete plans to keep your website updated into the future.
Location
International companies are cashing in on the significant remote opportunities in South Africa’s tech industry with its equally skilled people combined with huge exchange rate savings.
Video calls, WhatsApp, email, and other communication channels make it easy to collaborate remotely and create new things faster and at a lower cost. A good website vendor should accommodate you in this way and provide a seamless service remotely.
Don’t limit yourself to vendors in your nearby area, and instead focus on finding the right fit for your goals and budget.
Some people prefer to work in person and to build trust face-to-face, which is ok as a concept if the additional time and costs are deemed to be worthwhile. For example, while many website vendors do basic remote consultations for free, they charge around R2,500 per onsite meeting to cover their travel costs.