2026 buyer's checklist · South Africa
How to choose a web design company in South Africa
Twelve checks that separate a website that brings in customers from one that just costs money: pricing, ownership, speed, SEO, contracts and the red flags to walk away from.
The short answer
The best web design company for a South African small business is one that fixes its price in writing, shows you a design before you pay, puts the domain and code in your name, and builds sites that load fast on a phone. Check their live sites with Google PageSpeed Insights, read the contract for a launch date and monthly costs, and compare what's included, not just the total.
Freelancer, website builder or agency?
Who you hire matters more than which platform they use. Each option suits a different business:
| Option | Best for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| DIY builder (Wix, Squarespace) | Very small budgets and owners with time to design and write it themselves | Monthly fees forever, generic templates, slower mobile pages |
| Freelancer | Simple sites where you know and trust the person | No backup if they disappear; ownership often unclear |
| Small studio | Businesses that want custom work and one accountable person | Limited capacity; ask about start dates |
| Large agency | Complex projects with big budgets and in-house teams | Higher prices, account managers, work handed to juniors |
For the price ranges each option charges in South Africa, see our 2026 website cost guide.
The 12-point checklist
- A fixed price, in writing. Not an estimate with hourly extras. You should know the total before you start.
- A design before a big deposit. The safest studios show you a concept first, so you're not paying for something you haven't seen.
- You own everything. The domain registered in your name, the code, the content and the hosting account. Ask what happens if you leave.
- Live work you can visit. Screenshots and mock-ups are easy to fake. Ask for links to real sites they built and click around on your phone.
- Speed on mobile. Most of your visitors are on phones. Google treats a page as having good loading speed when its main content appears within 2.5 seconds (Largest Contentful Paint). Ask for a PageSpeed score and test it yourself.
- Who writes the words. Many quotes assume you'll supply all the text. Good copy is often what turns visitors into enquiries.
- What "SEO included" actually means. At minimum: unique page titles and descriptions, fast pages, structured data, a sitemap, Google Search Console and Google Business Profile setup where you qualify.
- A launch date with consequences. A date in the contract, and what you get back if they miss it through their own fault.
- The real monthly cost. Hosting, maintenance, email, licences and what small changes cost after launch. Ask for the three-year total.
- Can you edit it yourself? You shouldn't need to pay someone to change opening hours or a price.
- Who actually builds it. The person who pitched you, or someone you'll never speak to? How fast do they reply?
- Accessibility. A good site works with a keyboard and a screen reader and has readable contrast. It's the right thing to do and widens your audience.
Test their work yourself (5 minutes)
- Open PageSpeed Insights and paste in the address of a site they built.
- Look at the Mobile tab. A performance score of 90 or more is good; under 50 is slow.
- Open the same site on your phone using mobile data, not Wi-Fi. Does it load quickly? Can you tap the buttons easily?
- Search Google for the business by name and by what it does in its town. Does the site show up?
- Try the contact form or the WhatsApp button. Does it actually work?
Google's own thresholds for a good experience are Largest Contentful Paint within 2.5 seconds, Interaction to Next Paint within 200 milliseconds and Cumulative Layout Shift under 0.1. Source: web.dev, Web Vitals.
Red flags: walk away if you see these
- The domain will be registered in their name, or they won't say whose.
- Full payment up front, before you've seen any design.
- No live sites to show, only screenshots or "confidential clients".
- "Guaranteed first place on Google." Nobody can promise that; Google says so itself.
- A low build price paired with a long, expensive monthly contract.
- No written launch date, or vague answers about what's included.
- They won't tell you what changes cost after launch.
Questions to ask before you sign
- What exactly is included in this price, and what would cost extra?
- Can I see a design before I pay a deposit?
- Whose name will the domain, hosting and code be in?
- Can you send me three live sites you've built in the last year?
- What's the launch date, and what happens if it's late?
- Who writes the content and supplies the photos?
- What will this cost me every month, and over three years?
- How do I make changes myself, and what do you charge when I can't?
- How quickly do you reply to messages?
Where McArthur Studio fits (and where we don't)
McArthur Studio is a South African web design and development agency that hand-codes static, scroll-driven and ecommerce websites for businesses of every size, from local specialists to national brands. We built our offer around the checklist above: fixed Rand prices published on the site, a free homepage concept before you pay anything, the launch date in the contract, and everything in your name from day one.
We're probably not the right fit if you need a large web application, an in-house team on call every day, or the cheapest possible template site. For those, a large agency or a DIY builder will suit you better.