Mila Joshua Yona
How much is the cost of a website in South Sudan? I have been getting this common question from people who intend to own websites in South Sudan.
In this article, I will take you through a complete breakdown of the cost of designing, developing, and hosting a website in South Sudan.
The internet has a population of 4.2 billion users worldwide, and of these, South Sudan has 1.25 million internet users according to the DataReportal website.
It is important that you know the steps and costs involved before even thinking of building a website for your company. As you may know or not, any business that does not own a website in this dot com era does not sell.
What is a website?
A website (also known as a website) is a collection of web pages with related content just like the one you are viewing right now. Some notable websites include Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Wikipedia.
Why Do People Visit Websites?
Generally, people do visit websites and blogs for three primary reasons;
- They want information.
- They want to buy something.
- They want to be entertained and be part of a community.
Types of websites
Websites exist in various formats and types. A website can be a personal, portfolio website, a commercial, government website, non-profit organization website, or Business website.
Oftentimes, websites are dedicated to particular topics or purposes. This can range from entertainment, social networking, and education to providing breaking news. All public websites collectively make up the Word Wide Web (WWW) whereas private websites, such as the university e-learning system (for students) are just part of the intranet.
Below Is a List of the Most Common Types of Websites in South Sudan
- E-commerce website.
- Business website.
- Blog website.
- Portfolio website.
- Event website.
- Personal website.
- Membership website.
- Nonprofit website.
- Mobile Device Websites
- Online Business Brochure/Catalog
- Photo Sharing Websites
- Community Building Websites
- Directory Websites
How Much Does It Cost To Design And Develop A Website In South Sudan?
To be honest, this question has no black-and-white answer.
Anyone with web programming skills can design and build a website. The only difference will be in the cost to build an effective website that will work for you and help you grow your business online.
Oftentimes, I receive a lot of calls and messages from people asking me about the cost of designing and developing a website in South Sudan. A lot of them ask this question even before providing me with the requirements they need to have on their website.
However, I always tell them that there is no fixed price for designing a website. Web Design Costs differ depending on a number of factors. Any professional web developer will always inquire about your website requirements before telling you the cost of web design and development.
Developing an appealing website is not an easy task. In fact, it is one of the most difficult tasks for a web developer. It takes a lot of time and effort to write thousands of lines of code just to create a simple web page.
It is a multi-stage process with varied approaches, resources, and team compositions.
Therefore, the cost of designing and developing a website solely depends on the number of requirements you need in the website for example how complex the requirements are, the resources it will consume, and the time and effort it will take to get the work done without compromising its quality.
Major Website Development Stages
Building a website involves three major stages and these include;
- Buying a domain name for your website
- Designing and development
- Buying a Web Hosting Server
What Is A Domain Name?
When you think of owning a website, the very first thing that should come to your mind is the name of the website. What will be its name? Also what address should it have? The address of the website is what is referred to as a domain name.
For more details about what a Domain is, read my other article: What is a Domain Name?
The Cost of A Domain Name in South Sudan
The cost of a domain greatly depends on the domain extension you want to register. Common domain extensions like.net, .co, .biz, .com, org, etc. can range from $16 to $30. Information on South Sudan’s country-based domains such as .ss, .co.ss, .com.org.ss, .com.ss, etc. will be updated in the future.
Cost of Web Designing and Development in South Sudan
As I earlier mentioned, the cost of designing a website depends on the complexity and labor intensity of the project; the more features the website has, the more costly and harder it is to build.
For now, I will assume that you want a standard dynamic website with basic features. I presume that your website will have the following features:
- Contact forms and other forms
- Cross-device responsive website
- Six dynamic web pages i.e. Home, About, Products, Services, Blog, and Contact.
- Custom design
- Graphics design
- Social Media Integration
- Basic Search Engine Optimization
- Custom Logo
- Gallery
- Search Facility
- Content Management System
If you need a standard CMS dynamic with the above features, design, and development alone will cost you between $395 to $450 depending on the company you will have hired. The charge could include a domain and hosting fee or not depending on your initial agreement with the web developer.
In addition, if you are in need of a custom database-driven website, it will definitely cost you a lot more. For example, if you need a music-streaming website, you will need a very powerful Content Management System[CMS] where you can manage the artists, users, songs, playlists, videos, comments, etc.
If you were to contract any professional web development agency in South Sudan to develop for you such a very custom website, they will not charge you anything less than $2700. Yes, I mean $2700+
Cost of Hosting a Website in South Sudan
In simple terms, Web hosting is a service that makes your website available on the internet. When you get a hosting plan, you rent space on a physical server to store all the website files. The process of storing the website [website files] on a server is what is called Website Hosting.
For more details about what Webhosting is, read my other article: What is Webhosting? (A Beginner’s Guide)
The cost of hosting a website in South Sudan depends on how much content your website holds and the amount of traffic it receives in a specific period. Web hosting costs range between $50 to $300 for shared hosting, where your website will sit on the same server as other people’s websites.
So how much does it really cost to have a completely functioning website in South Sudan?
I recently worked with a client who wanted a dynamic website for his business company and here is how I charged him:
- Domain name fee: $30
- Design and Development fee: $400
- Hosting fee: $70
- Total Costs: $500
From the above, you can see that the cost of designing a standard dynamic website in South Sudan ranges from $500 to $700
Static websites range from $200 to $350. They do not have dynamic features such as Content Management systems (CMS) and forms. This means that if you are not a technical person, you will not be able to update your website.
Custom websites developed from scratch can cost as high as $8000 depending on the number and complexity of requirements.
Recurring Fees
Please take note that domain and Webhosting are renewable once every year. Renewal of both will be after every 365 days at the price you bought them. For example, if you purchased your hosting at $70, you will have to renew it at the same amount after a year.
Other costs that may be involved;
For a website to be fully functional and complete, you will have to incur other extra costs besides the domain, hosting, and web design costs. If you need a professional-looking website, then you might as well need to invest in the following:
1. Brand identity
What is the cost of branding in South Sudan?
Branding is about positioning your business in order to differentiate it from other competitors. In other words, it simply means standing out from the crowd.
Moreover, to do that, you will need a professional logo for your website. Branding even goes beyond the logo but for today, we shall just focus on the logo.
The cost of logo design in South Sudan is still low. Most professional graphic designers in South Sudan charge as low as $30 for a basic logo. A premium logo will cost you $300 in South Sudan.
If you already have a logo for your business, you will not have to incur any logo design charges.
2. Content Creation
What is the cost of creation in South Sudan?
Before you decide on the actual design of your website, you need to figure out why you want to build your website. This enables you to think about what you would like to share with the world. A web designer cannot tell your story for you since you know your business more than anyone else does.
In addition, however much you understand your business very well, you may not be in a position to do everything on your own. Just like any other website, you will require the content on your site whether in form of text, graphics, audio, or video.
If you have no expertise in creating such content, you will need to hire a professional to do that for you. If by chance your website might have some text content, you will need to hire a copywriter. Copywriters in South Sudan charge as low as $3 per write-up.
Personally, I offer freelancing writing as a service on this blog and I charge $3 for every 100 words, I pen down on paper. However, some copywriters may charge as high as $50 for a single blog post.
You might also need to set aside a special budget for your website promotion and market your website on web platforms such as social media or search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing.
Please note that most web designers in South Sudan incorporate the cost of content creation in a web design quote. You can inquire if the content creation cost has been included or not when your web designer sends you a quote.
3. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Once your website is complete, you will need to make it visible on search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing. This is done by optimizing your website for SEO, also referred to as Search Engine Optimization
A website, not optimized for search engines, is useless because no one can be able to access it via search engines unless they directly type your website address in the browser URL bar.
Cost of Search Engine Optimization in South Sudan
Search Engine Optimization in South Sudan costs from $50 – $100. SEO is a process, which can take up to six months for you to start seeing actual results.
Note: You may incur additional costs resulting from extra features and services that were previously not stated in the initial web design agreement. The costs are not meant to scare you in any way but they may be necessary for example, creating a promotional video for your site.
If you are a small business starter and have some of these skills, you can handle some tasks by yourself. You really do not have to ignore them entirely.
Beware of fake web designers/developers in South Sudan
Most fake and incompetent web developers in South Sudan will hide behind the concept of cheap web design pricing and in most cases; they end up misleading gullible clients who waste thousands of dollars in the name of saving. Many clients are scammed while others get substandard websites, which are usually incomplete.
You will meet some unprofessional developers who will promise to do you quality work for a very less amount, even as low as $100 for a full package. However, with the web design business, the cheaper the service, the poor the quality, and vice versa. A bad website can degrade your company’s reputation.
Frequently Asked Questions
This section covers common questions about web design costs and hosting in South Sudan, asked by different South Sudanese on the internet.
What kind of technology is involved in designing and developing a website?
The major technologies used in designing a website include HTML/CSS, JavaScript, and Ajax for frontend while PHP, Python, .ASP, .NET, C/C++, and Ruby are used for backend programming.
What platform are websites built on?
Most quality websites in South Sudan are built on open-source Content Management Systems (CMS) such as Joomla, Drupal, and WordPress. WordPress is the most popular CMS platform in the world hosting over 30% of the world’s websites.
I hope this write-up has answered common queries most of you have been searching such as;
- Cost of website design in South Sudan
- Website hosting in South Sudan
- Cost of an E-commerce website in South Sudan
- Cost of setting up a blog in South Sudan
- Cost of a website redesign in South Sudan
- Cost of Website maintenance in South Sudan
Conclusion
It is just impossible for a developer to tell you what the exact price of a web design and development should be without giving him complete information about the project scope. In short, there are no universally accepted pricing packages for web design in South Sudan.
If you have any questions about the cost of designing, developing, and hosting a website in South Sudan, please leave them in the comment box below.
Feel free to also reach out to me in case you need a personal website, business website, NGO website, company website, or any other kind of website.
Thank you for reading!
