WordPress website design you can actually edit yourself.
Every site we build runs on WordPress, because in two years you should still be able to change a price, add a page or swap a photo without booking anyone. Try it — the editor further down this page is live.
This is the editor you will be using.
Not a screenshot — type in it. Change the heading, rewrite the paragraph, pick a different brand colour. That is what editing your own WordPress site actually feels like, and it is the reason we build on it.
Type anything — the page updates as you go.
Exactly what is in the box.
Most quotes you will get for WordPress website design are a single line and a number. Here is the whole list, including the parts that are not included, so there is nothing to argue about later.
Included in every Starter build
- ✓Five pages, designed for your business rather than dropped into a theme
- ✓WordPress and Elementor set up, with the editable sections left editable
- ✓Mobile layouts designed separately, not just squeezed down
- ✓A contact form that reaches your inbox, with spam filtering
- ✓On-page SEO — titles, descriptions, headings and image alt text
- ✓Schema markup so search engines can read what your business is
- ✓Google Analytics and Search Console connected from day one
- ✓SSL, backups and security updates configured
- ✓Two rounds of revisions after you see the first design
- ✓A handover walkthrough and your logins, in writing
Not included — so you can budget
- ×
Domain — about R150 a year, always registered in your name - ×
Hosting — your choice: host it yourself, or on ours from R99 a month - ×
Copywriting — we shape your notes for free, full writing is quoted - ×
Photography — we can brief a photographer or use licensed stock - ×
Logo design — we work with the brand you have - ×
Ongoing maintenance — optional, separate, cancel any time - ×
Paid plugins — rare, and never without asking you first
A site built for South African conditions.
Most WordPress website design advice you will read online was written for somewhere else. These are the four things that actually matter locally, and they are set up on every build.
Cookie consent that genuinely blocks tracking until it is accepted, a privacy policy that matches what the site actually collects, and contact form submissions stored where you can delete them on request. Most sites we audit fail on all three.
PayFast, Yoco, Ozow or Peach on WooCommerce builds, plus EFT as a first-class option. Stripe-only checkouts quietly lose a large share of South African customers who never see a card option they recognise.
Set it up in your own name at cost — roughly R1,000 a year — or put it on our infrastructure from R99 a month, which is well under what most agencies charge and covers updates, backups and uptime monitoring. Either way the site stays exportable and you can move it out whenever you like, so hosting never becomes the reason you are stuck.
Priced and invoiced in rands with no exchange-rate surprises, .co.za registration handled properly, South African phone and address formats, and business hours that read correctly to Google.
What people warn you about WordPress.
All three have some truth behind them. Here is the honest version of each.
“It's slow”
WordPress is not slow. Bloated themes, twenty plugins and unoptimised images are slow, and they are common on WordPress because it lets you do that. Built carefully it loads in under two seconds on a phone — which we test on a throttled connection before handover.
“It gets hacked”
Almost every compromised WordPress site was running an outdated plugin or a pirated theme. Few plugins, kept current, automatic security updates and real backups covers the overwhelming majority of actual risk. The platform itself is not the weak point.
“It's complicated”
Editing text and images is genuinely easy — you saw the editor at the top of this page. Rebuilding a whole page layout is harder, which is exactly why we set the layouts up properly and leave you the parts you will actually want to change.
WordPress website design pricing
Published up front, because you should not have to book a call to find out what a site costs.
One scrolling page on WordPress, every section you need, mobile responsive, contact form and on-page SEO. Live in five working days, editor walkthrough included. Hosting from R99 a month if you want us to carry it.
Book a one-pagerFive pages on WordPress, mobile responsive, contact form, on-page SEO and two rounds of revisions. Live in ten working days, with a walkthrough of the editor at handover. Hosting from R99 a month if you want us to carry it.
Book a Starter buildScoped per project. Custom design, unlimited pages, WooCommerce, integrations and full SEO architecture, with the timeline agreed before anything starts.
Talk through a custom buildWordPress questions, answered.
Between about R5,000 for a theme dropped in unchanged and R150,000 or more for a large custom build. Ours are R4,500 for a one-page site, R10,000 for a five-page Starter site and from R25,000 for custom work. Hosting and a domain then run you roughly R1,200 a year, and that is the whole ongoing cost unless you add something.
The editor above is roughly what you get, and most people are comfortable inside ten minutes. Editing text and swapping images is easy. Restructuring a whole page layout is harder, which is why we set the layouts up properly at the start and leave you the parts you will actually want to change.
It is as secure as it is kept. Almost every WordPress site that gets compromised was running an outdated plugin or a pirated theme. We install few plugins, keep them current, enable automatic security updates and set up backups. That covers the overwhelming majority of real-world risk.
WordPress is not slow. Bloated themes, twenty plugins and unoptimised images are slow, and they happen to be common on WordPress sites. Built carefully it loads in under two seconds on a phone, and we test that on a throttled connection before handover rather than assuming it.
Yes, and it is effectively a rebuild rather than a transfer — those platforms do not let the design out. The content, images and page structure carry across, and we map redirects from the old URLs so the rankings you have already earned follow you over.
Only if you choose to. You pay for the build, and after that hosting is your call — run it yourself in your own name, or let us host it from R99 a month, which is cheaper than most agencies and includes updates and backups. The domain is always registered to you. Maintenance is separate again, and you can start or stop it whenever.
Elementor, used deliberately rather than for everything. The sections you will want to edit are built in it so they stay editable; the heavy structural parts are written by hand so the page stays fast. That combination is why our builds hold their speed scores.
You take the site with you. If it is on your own hosting you simply change the password and carry on with someone else. If we are hosting it, we export the whole site and hand it over — no fee, no notice period, no holding the files hostage. We would rather you stayed because the work is good than because leaving is painful.
Let's get you a site you own.
Tell us what you have now — a Wix site, an old WordPress build, or nothing yet. We will tell you honestly what it needs and what it would cost. A reply inside two working days.
No newsletter, no follow-up sequence. One reply from a person, inside two working days.