What a law firm website should cost in South Africa

A small firm website costs between R5,000 and R25,000 to build in South Africa. A 2026 survey of 56 local agencies put the average five-page site at R6,254. But the build price is the smaller number — over five years, what you pay to keep the site running is usually three to five times what you paid to make it.

Two quotes for "a law firm website" can differ by R30,000 and both be honest.

Here's what the difference actually is.

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What the market charges

Published South African prices, 2026:

Source	Range
Survey of 56 SA agencies, 5-page site	Average R6,254
New Perspective Design	Landing page from R1,990; most small businesses R5,590 – R16,900
Bunnypants	R1,580 one-page; most small business R8,980 – R14,780
Growth Pulse Media	R5,000 template to R150,000+ custom; most businesses R15,000 – R50,000
Gridweb	R5,000 to R120,000+

The typical three-tier structure across the market: entry-level R5,000 – R15,000, mid-level R15,000 – R40,000, fully custom from R40,000.

For law firms specifically, published South African prices sit lower than you might expect. Several agencies advertise attorney websites from R4,500 to R5,500. Studios positioning at the professional-services end quote R8,000 to R18,000, and R25,000 upward when brand identity is included.

So: if you're quoted R4,500, that's a real market price. If you're quoted R45,000, that's also a real market price. The number alone tells you nothing.

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Page count is the wrong question

Almost every SA agency quotes by pages. Three pages, five pages, ten pages.

It's a bad measure, and one of the agencies publishing pricing says so plainly: the type of business predicts cost better than page count. A plumber and a law firm might both want eight pages and need entirely different things.

Two reasons it's a poor proxy:

A page can be 80 words or 1,500. A conveyancing process page explaining transfer timelines takes ten times the work of an "Our Team" page with four photographs.

Adding a page costs almost nothing. The design, the structure, and the decisions are the work. The eleventh page is the same template with different words in it.

If you have six practice areas and the quote covers five pages, you're being asked to leave one out — or pay extra for something that costs the builder an hour.

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What a law firm needs that a plumber doesn't

This is where legal work genuinely costs more, and it's worth knowing so you can check it's included:

A practice area page for each area, separately indexable. Not tabs on one page. Someone searching "eviction attorney Pretoria" needs a page about evictions to exist. Firms whose practice areas live behind tabs on a single page are invisible for every search except their own name.

A POPIA-compliant privacy policy that describes your actual firm. Not a template mentioning a business you aren't. If your site collects names and email addresses, POPIA applies.

A disclaimer that site content is not legal advice. Standard, and frequently missing.

Your LPC details and Fidelity Fund status.

A contact form that handles confidentiality sensibly. Someone about to describe a divorce in a text box needs to know where that message goes.

Attorney profiles with admission dates and qualifications. For legal clients this is a primary trust signal, not decoration.

None of that is exotic. All of it is missing from a meaningful share of the law firm sites we review.

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The number nobody quotes

The build is once. Everything else is monthly, and it runs for as long as the site does.

A working example over five years:

Build	R10,000 once
Hosting, security, backups, maintenance at R950/month	R57,000
Five-year total	R67,000

The build is 15% of what the website costs you.

Which means the question "what does a website cost" is mostly the wrong question. The real question is what happens in the fifty-nine months after launch.

Three answers are common:

Nothing happens. The most common outcome. The site is built, paid for, and never touched again. Firms find this out eighteen months later when the contact form has been silently failing since March.

You pay for hosting and nothing else. R100 to R300 a month keeps the files on a server. It doesn't mean anyone is looking at them.

Someone maintains it. Checks, updates, changes, and a report. This is what costs R950 to R3,000 a month in the South African market, and it's the part quotes tend to leave out because it's harder to sell than a fixed number.

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What we charge

Published, because a quote you have to ask for is a quote that varies by who's asking.

Once-off
Rebuild your existing site	R8,500
New site — solo practitioner	R12,500
New site — 2 to 5 attorneys	R18,000
New site — 6 to 12 attorneys	R28,000
New site — 13 or more	Quoted

Monthly
Care — solo practitioner	R1,950
Care — 2 to 5 attorneys	R2,950
Care — 6 to 12 attorneys	R3,950
Care — 13 or more	Quoted

More than twelve attorneys? Tell us what you need and we'll quote. If we're not the right fit, we'll say so and point you at someone who is.

All your practice areas. All your attorneys. However many that is — we don't charge by the page.

We price on firm size because it's the one thing you know without having to work anything out, and because a six-attorney firm genuinely generates more work than a solo practice.

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Questions worth asking whoever quotes you

Regardless of who you use:

1. What happens after launch, and what does it cost? Get the monthly figure before you sign the once-off one.
2. Who owns the domain? It should be registered in your firm's name. If it isn't, leaving becomes expensive.
3. Who owns the content? Copy you paid for should be yours.
4. Is each practice area a separate page? If they're tabs, you're invisible for every search but your own name.
5. Does it include a privacy policy written for a law firm? Or a template mentioning "our products"?
6. What happens if the contact form stops working? Who notices, and how?
7. How long is the contract, and what's the notice period?

Question 1 is the one that catches people. A R4,500 build with no maintenance costs more over five years than a R15,000 build with someone watching it — because the cheap site's contact form breaks in year two and nobody finds out.

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Not sure what you've got or what you're paying for it? Send us your firm's URL. We'll review the site properly and email you what we find, free, whether you hire us or not.