Web Design in Free State

Use a builder if your budget is minimal and your needs are a brochure plus contact form. Hire a freelancer for a custom site with some business logic. Pay agency rates when you need strategy, copywriting, SEO and design under one contract with accountability. Many small businesses outgrow a builder in year one — budget for that path.

A proper quote itemizes: number of pages, responsive/mobile behavior, number of revision rounds (2-3 is standard), CMS setup, basic on-page SEO (titles, metas, sitemap), browser testing, and what happens to hosting and domain after handover. If a quote is one line with one number, ask for the breakdown.

A 5-page small-business site takes 2-6 weeks with a responsive client; e-commerce adds 2-4 weeks. The most common delay is not the designer — it's the client's content. Have your text, photos and logo ready before kickoff and you'll cut the timeline roughly in half.

You should. Insist that the domain is registered in YOUR name (not the designer's), you hold the hosting account credentials, and the contract transfers full rights to the design and code on final payment. Designer-owned domains are the single most common lock-in trap in this industry.

Domain renewal (a small annual fee), hosting (from a few dollars monthly for a brochure site), and optional maintenance. Maintenance retainers typically run 5-10% of the build cost per year and cover updates, backups and small edits. A static brochure site can genuinely run for years with near-zero maintenance.

Freelancers typically charge R350-R900/hr, with 5-page small-business sites at R8,000-R30,000 and e-commerce from R20,000. Cape Town and Joburg agencies sit at the top; skilled independents in smaller cities undercut them significantly.

ECTA Section 43 requires your legal name and registration number, physical address, contact details, full price disclosure, terms of sale and refund policy — plus POPIA-compliant data handling. Ask your designer to include a compliant footer and legal pages in the build.