Brandon WatkinsFounder, Flowlabz
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Search for a web designer in Cape Town and you'll find hundreds: freelancers, small studios, big digital agencies and marketplaces full of profiles. Most of them can make something that looks good in a presentation. Far fewer will build a site that does its job for your business, and still does it two years later.
Here's how to tell the difference before you sign.
Start with what the site has to do
Before you compare agencies, be clear on what you're hiring one for. More enquiries? Online bookings? Credibility with bigger clients? A site you can finally update yourself? The goal decides everything else: the pages, the platform, the budget, and which agency is the right fit.
Write it down in a few lines. Our brief template is a good place to start, and it gets you better quotes too.
Look at live work, not screenshots
A portfolio of mockups tells you someone can design. A list of live sites tells you they can ship. Ask for links to sites like the one you need, then open them on your phone:
- Do they load quickly? A slow site loses people before they've read a word.
- Do they work properly on mobile? Most of your visitors will arrive on a phone.
- Does each one feel like its own brand? If every site in the portfolio looks the same, yours will too.
Find out who does the work
The people who pitch aren't always the people who build. Ask who will design your site, who will build it, and who you'll speak to week to week. A solo freelancer, a small studio and a large agency all work differently, with different overheads and different depths of design, development and project management. None is right for everyone, but you should know which one you're hiring.
Ask which platform, and why
A good agency recommends a platform for your project, not the one it always uses. Webflow suits marketing sites your team updates often. WordPress suits sites that lean on its plugin ecosystem. Custom code suits sites that need speed, flexibility or functionality the others can't offer. We compare the three in Webflow vs WordPress vs custom code.
If the answer to "why this platform?" is "it's what we use", keep asking.
Make sure you'll own it
When the project ends, you should own the domain, the design, the content and the site itself, with the logins in your name. Watch for hosting you can't move, licences that belong to the agency, or a site built on a system only they can edit. Ask about ownership before you see a quote, not after.
Read the quote properly
Two quotes for "a website" can describe very different projects. A good quote tells you:
- which pages and page types are included
- how many design rounds you get, and what happens after them
- who writes the copy and sources the images
- what's included for launch: search setup, analytics, redirects from your old site
- how you'll edit the site afterwards, and whether training is included
- the timeline, with a launch date
Red flags: a price given before anyone has asked what the site needs to do, no timeline, "unlimited revisions" (which usually means the scope was never defined), and no mention of mobile or page speed. Our guide to what a website costs in South Africa covers what moves the price.
Meet them, if you can
One advantage of hiring in Cape Town is that you can sit across the table from the people building your site. A face-to-face scoping session often saves a round of emails, and it tells you a lot about how the working relationship will feel. It isn't essential, though: plenty of good projects run entirely over video calls and shared documents.
Questions to ask on the first call
- Can you show me live sites similar to what I need?
- Who will design and build my site, and who will I speak to during the project?
- Which platform would you recommend for us, and why?
- What does your quote include, and what would cost extra?
- How long will it take, and what do you need from us to hit that date?
- Will we own the site, the content and the domain when it's done?
- How will we update the site ourselves after launch?
- What happens if something breaks after launch?
How we work
We're a web design and development agency based in Cape Town, and we meet clients in person here. The same senior people scope, design and build your site, from start to finish. Websites start from R 30,000, most ship in 3 to 6 weeks, and you own everything when the project ends. Send us a brief and you'll hear back within 24 hours, with a scope and price within 48.
See what's included on our website design and development page, or tell us about your project.
Questions we get asked
How much does a website cost in Cape Town?
With us, websites start from R 30,000, and most land between R 35,000 and R 95,000, depending on how many pages and page types you need, how custom the design is, and how much content you'll manage yourself. Here's the full breakdown.
How long does it take to build a website?
Most of our website projects ship in 3 to 6 weeks from kick-off. The timeline is set at the start, so you know your launch date before work begins.
Should I hire a freelancer or an agency?
A freelancer can be a good fit for a small, simple site. If the site is central to how you win business, needs a content system your team can run, or you want the same people available after launch, a small studio or agency is usually the safer choice. Either way, ask who does the work.
Do we need to meet in person?
No, but it helps at the start. We're based in Cape Town and meet clients in person here; clients elsewhere work with us over video calls and in writing.
What should I have ready before I contact an agency?
A few lines on what the site needs to achieve, roughly what it needs to do, a few sites you like with a line on why, and a budget range. Our brief template covers the rest.
