How much does a website cost in Tanzania?

The price of a website in Tanzania comes down to five things: how many pages it has, whether you can edit it yourself, what it has to do, how ready your words and photos are, and what it costs to keep running after launch.

I'm Jay Shivram, and I run JS Solutions, a web design and development business in Dar es Salaam. My own prices are published in shillings on the pricing page, so I won't repeat the figures here. This guide explains what moves a quote up or down, so you can read any quote properly, mine or anyone else's.

What moves the price

The number of pages. A single page that says what you do and how to reach you is the least work. A site with separate pages for home, about, services and contact is more design and more building, so it costs more. Count the pages you really need before you ask for a quote.

Whether you can edit it yourself. A site where I make the changes is simpler to build. A site with an admin dashboard, where you log in and update your own services, blog posts or products, is a bigger job. You pay more at the start and less later, because you stop needing a developer for every small change.

What the site has to do. A gallery, testimonials, an FAQ section, a Google Maps embed, business email on your own domain, a blog or a product section: each one is extra work. An online shop with a full checkout is a bigger build again, and it isn't one of my packages yet.

Custom design or a template. A template is quicker and cheaper, and it looks like every other site built on it. A custom design starts from a blank page and is drawn around your business. Everything I build is custom, so ask any developer which one they are quoting for.

How ready your content is. If you have your text, your logo and good photos, the work moves fast. If the developer has to wait for them, or write and source them, the timeline stretches and the quote can too.

What you keep paying after launch

The build is a one-time cost. A website also has running costs, and a low quote sometimes hides them.

• Domain and hosting. These renew, every year or every month. Ask whether the first year is in the price. With my packages it is: every one includes your domain and hosting for the first year, and after that they renew for an annual or monthly charge.
• Business email. A mailbox like you@yourbusiness.co.tz is a subscription, billed separately from the website.
• Changes. Small fixes just after launch are usually free for a set number of days. Bigger changes later are quoted as their own piece of work.
• Maintenance. Backups, security updates and monitoring. Some people handle this themselves. Others pay for a monthly plan like my Website Care plan, which is optional and can be cancelled at any time.

A fixed price or a range?

Both are honest, as long as you know which one you are looking at.

A small, well-defined job, like a one-page site or a digital resume, can carry one fixed number that is agreed before any work starts. A larger site is usually quoted inside a range, because the final figure depends on the page count and on how many sections you want to edit yourself. Either way, you should know the exact number before work begins, not at the end.

Questions to ask before you accept a quote

1. Who owns the domain and the hosting account? They should be yours once the project is paid for and live. If they sit in the developer's name, moving away later is hard.
2. What is included for the first year, and what renews after it? Get the renewal costs in writing.
3. How long will it take? As a guide, my one-page sites take 3 to 7 days, a multi-page site 5 to 10 days, and a site with an admin dashboard 1 to 2 weeks, depending on how ready the content is.
4. How many changes are included after launch, and for how long?
5. Will it be checked on a phone, a tablet and a desktop before it goes live?
6. Can I open sites you have already built? A developer's live work tells you more than a proposal does. Mine is all on the work page.
7. Is it a custom design or a template?

If a developer can't answer these plainly, the price doesn't matter much.

Which kind of site do you need?

• You want to be found and contacted. One page is enough: what you do, where you are, and a WhatsApp button.
• You have several services or locations to explain. A multi-page site, with room for a gallery, testimonials and an FAQ.
• You want to update it yourself. A managed site with an admin dashboard, a training call and a handover guide.
• Your current site looks dated or loads slowly. A redesign can cost less than starting again.

What each of my packages includes is laid out on the custom website development page.

If you are paying from outside Tanzania

My prices are set once in Tanzanian shillings and converted to US dollars, pounds or rupees at the day's rate. Nothing is marked up for being abroad.

See the actual numbers

Every package, with its price in shillings, is on the pricing page. If you aren't sure which one fits, send me a message, in English or Swahili, with a line about your business and what the site needs to do. I'll tell you which package fits, and say so plainly if the cheaper one is enough.