The five costs every website has
Almost every quote you will receive is some combination of the same five items. Separating them is the fastest way to tell a fair price from an inflated one, because only two of them recur every year.
- Domain name — the address, renewed annually. A .com is roughly 9,000–11,000 FCFA a year, a .cm costs more, and .africa sits in between.
- Hosting — the server your files live on, billed monthly or annually. Shared cPanel hosting starts around 1,995 FCFA a month on an annual term.
- Design and build — the one-off cost of actually making the site. This is where quotes vary by a factor of twenty.
- Content — text, photography and translation. Frequently forgotten, frequently the reason a project stalls for two months.
- Maintenance — updates, backups, security and small changes after launch, either a retainer or pay-as-you-go.
Realistic budgets by type of site
A brochure site of five to seven pages — home, services, about, contact and a couple of landing pages — is the most common request from Cameroonian SMEs. Built professionally on WordPress with your own domain and hosting, it typically lands between 250,000 and 600,000 FCFA one-off, plus about 60,000 FCFA a year to keep online.
A catalogue or booking site with dozens of products, filters and enquiry forms but no online payment usually runs 600,000 to 1,000,000 FCFA. Add Mobile Money or card checkout, stock management and delivery rules and you are into full e-commerce: 1,000,000 to 1,800,000 FCFA depending on how much of the logic is custom.
A web app or mobile app — accounts, dashboards, workflows, an admin panel — is priced by scope rather than page count. Our own fixed-price development packages start at $299.99 precisely so the first tier is knowable before a discovery call.
Building it yourself with WordPress and a paid theme is genuinely viable: budget about 45,000–90,000 FCFA a year for domain, hosting and a theme licence, plus your own weekends.
What makes one quote three times another
- Custom design versus a configured theme — bespoke visual work is the single biggest multiplier.
- Number of unique page templates, not number of pages; twenty products using one template is cheap, six bespoke layouts is not.
- Payment integration — Mobile Money, card and delivery logic each add testing time.
- Bilingual English/French content, which effectively doubles copywriting and QA.
- Data migration from an old site, and whether its content is exportable or has to be retyped.
- Who writes the content: agency copywriting is real work and is either in the quote or coming out of your own time.
The recurring costs people underestimate
One-off build cost gets all the attention, but the annual bill is what quietly kills sites. Domain renewal, hosting renewal, an SSL certificate if your host charges for one, plugin or theme licences, and someone to apply updates — that is the true cost of ownership.
We keep this lean on purpose: SSL is free and automatic, daily off-server backups are included, Cloudflare is configured for you, and annual plans include a free domain for the first year. That removes three of the usual recurring line items entirely, so a small business site can stay live for well under 100,000 FCFA a year.
Watch renewal pricing at every host, including ours: promotional first-term rates are normal in this industry, but the second-year figure is the one to budget with. Our plan table shows both side by side.
How to keep the cost down without regretting it
- Buy your own domain in your own name — never let an agency register it on their account.
- Start with a strong five-page site and add sections once you know what customers actually ask for.
- Write the content yourself in a document before design starts; it is the cheapest way to shorten a project.
- Pay annually rather than monthly for hosting — the effective rate is significantly lower and you get a free domain.
- Choose a host that can also handle email properly, so you are not paying separately for mailboxes that end up in spam.
- Insist on being given cPanel access and backups, so moving later costs nothing but a migration request.
Paying for it in Cameroon
The practical constraint for most local businesses is not price but payment method. Many international providers only take international cards, which is why a fair share of Cameroonian sites end up on a friend's account. Every plan and development package here can be paid in FCFA with MTN Mobile Money or Orange Money, or in USD by card or cryptocurrency, and the service is provisioned automatically once payment confirms.
Compare hosting plans
First-term and renewal prices are listed separately so you can budget beyond year one.
| Plan | First-term price (USD/month) | Approx. FCFA / month | Renewal price (USD/month) | Billing period | Availability | Choose |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| StarterGood | $3.83 | 2 500 FCFA | $9.67 | Billed every 12 months, upfront | In stock — activates within minutes | Choose Starter |
| GrowthBetter | $8.67 | 5 650 FCFA | $20.96 | Billed every 12 months, upfront | In stock — activates within minutes | Choose Growth |
| BusinessBest | $19.96 | 12 950 FCFA | $40.31 | Billed every 12 months, upfront | In stock — activates within minutes | Choose Business |
| EnterpriseEnterprise | $47.38 | 30 800 FCFA | $80.64 | Billed every 12 months, upfront | In stock — activates within minutes | Choose Enterprise |
| Bulletproof ServicePrivacy-first offshore hosting | $96.50 | 62 750 FCFA | $96.50 | Billed every 12 months, upfront | In stock — activates within minutes | Choose Bulletproof Service |
Frequently asked questions
How much does a website cost in Cameroon?
- For a professionally built five to seven page business site, budget roughly 250,000 to 600,000 FCFA one-off plus about 60,000 FCFA a year for domain and hosting. A full e-commerce store typically runs 1,000,000 to 1,800,000 FCFA. Doing it yourself on WordPress costs about 45,000 to 90,000 FCFA a year in total.
How much does it cost to host a website per month?
- Shared cPanel hosting starts at about 1,995 FCFA per month on an annual term, including free SSL, daily backups and a free domain for the first year. Larger sites and WooCommerce stores usually sit on the Growth or Business plan.
How much does a domain name cost?
- Around 9,000–11,000 FCFA a year for a .com, more for a .cm, with .africa in between. Exact prices are shown live in the domain search, and WHOIS privacy is included free rather than sold as an add-on.
Is it cheaper to build the website myself?
- In cash, yes — you pay only for domain, hosting and possibly a theme. In time, no. Self-building suits a simple brochure site; anything involving payments, multilingual content or migrations is usually cheaper to hand over.
Do you charge extra for SSL, backups or email?
- No. SSL, daily off-server backups, Cloudflare DNS and email accounts with SPF and DKIM are included in every hosting plan.
Can I pay for a website with Mobile Money?
- Yes. Hosting, domains and development packages can all be paid in FCFA with MTN Mobile Money or Orange Money, or in USD by card or crypto.
Ready when you are
Pick a plan, pay with Mobile Money, card or crypto, and your service activates automatically.
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