Comparison

The best website builders in South Africa

There is no single best website builder. A plumber who needs a phone number and a list of suburbs, a shop that sells online and a guest house that takes bookings all need different things. This page compares seven builders a South African small business is likely to consider, and says what each one is best at and what to watch out for.

The quick answer

Builder	Best for	Starting price
webbefy	Best for a finished site without designing it yourself	R499 a month per site, once published
Wix	Best for full design control and the most features	US$17 a month, billed yearly (free plan with Wix ads)
Google Sites	Best free option for a very simple information site	No paid plan
Hostinger Website Builder	Best for the lowest monthly rate, if you pay four years upfront	US$2.99 a month, on a 48-month plan paid upfront
GoDaddy Airo	Best for building by chatting with an AI	R119 a month billed annually, or R249 billed monthly
Afrihost Website Builder	Best for Afrihost customers who want a simple site with their hosting	Included with Linux hosting from R84 a month
Domains.co.za Site Builder	Best for a do-it-yourself online shop that takes PayFast	R49 a month, on top of hosting from R109 a month

Details checked on 7 October 2026. Prices are quoted as each company publishes them, in the currency it uses, and can change. Confirm them on each builder's own site before you decide.

How we compared them

How the site gets built, and how much of the design work is left to you
What it costs to start and what it costs later, in the currency each company publishes
Whether you can use your own web address
Whether it can sell online or take bookings, for businesses that need to
What is set up for South Africa: rand pricing and local payment providers

webbefy: best for a finished site without designing it yourself

webbefy turns facts about your business into a complete website: you type in what you do, where you work, your hours and how to reach you, and it writes and designs every page. You preview the whole site before you pay anything.

How the site gets built: AI writes and designs the site from your facts. There is no layout editor: you change your details, or generate another design.
Free plan: No. Your first design is free. Extra designs are R20 each. The monthly fee starts only when you publish.
Price: R499 a month per site, billed monthly in rand, with no minimum term.
Your web address: A free webbefy.site address, or connect a domain you already own at no extra cost.
Selling online and bookings: Not offered. Customers reach you by contact form, WhatsApp, phone or email.
South Africa: Priced and billed in rand.

Worth knowing: There is no online store, bookings or blog, and no way to move elements around the page yourself. If you need either, choose one of the builders below.

Wix: best for full design control and the most features

Wix is a hosted website builder with more than 2,000 templates and an AI builder that drafts a site from a description. You then arrange and edit every element in a drag-and-drop editor.

How the site gets built: Start from a template or the Wix AI builder, then edit every element yourself in a drag-and-drop editor.
Free plan: Yes, on a wixsite.com address with a Wix banner ad, 500MB of storage and no custom domain.
Price: Light from US$17 a month, billed yearly and paid upfront, excluding tax. Wix says prices and currency vary by location.
Your web address: Most yearly plans include a voucher for a new domain for the first year, and the listed endings do not include .co.za. You can also connect a domain you own on a paid plan.
Selling online and bookings: Both, from the Core plan at US$29 a month, billed yearly.
South Africa: Accepts payments through Yoco, Paystack, Peach Payments, iKhokha, Payflex, DPO Group and PayPal. PayFast is not supported.

Worth knowing: Prices are shown in US dollars, selling online needs the Core plan or higher, and the editor gives you a lot to learn if you just want a simple site.

webbefy vs Wix, in detail

Google Sites: best free option for a very simple information site

Google Sites is Google's simple builder. You pick a template, then drag text, images and Google content like Docs, Forms, Maps and YouTube videos onto a grid, and publish.

How the site gets built: A template and a drag-and-drop grid. No AI site generation.
Free plan: Google sells no Sites plan: anyone with a Google Account can build and publish one.
Price: Nothing for the site itself.
Your web address: A sites.google.com address, or connect a domain you own through its DNS settings. Buying a domain through Google needs a Google Workspace plan.
Selling online and bookings: Neither. There is no store, payments or booking system, and contact forms are Google Forms you insert.
South Africa: Nothing specific to South Africa.

Worth knowing: Design options are basic, there is no built-in contact form, and connecting your own domain means editing DNS records at your registrar.

webbefy vs Google Sites, in detail

Hostinger Website Builder: best for the lowest monthly rate, if you pay four years upfront

Hostinger's builder comes with Hostinger hosting. Its AI drafts a site from a short description, or you start from a template, and then you fine-tune it in a drag-and-drop editor.

How the site gets built: AI from a short description, or a template, then a drag-and-drop editor.
Free plan: No. There is a 14-day free trial.
Price: Premium at US$2.99 a month means US$143.52 paid upfront for 48 months, excluding VAT. It renews at US$10.99 a month.
Your web address: A free domain for the first year on a yearly or longer plan.
Selling online and bookings: An online store is listed on the Unlimited and Cloud Startup plans. Taking appointments needs a Hostinger Ecommerce plan.
South Africa: Built-in payments are Stripe, PayPal, Razorpay, Paysera and dLocal Go. PayFast, Yoco and Paystack are not built in.

Worth knowing: The headline price needs four years paid upfront in US dollars, and it renews at several times that rate.

webbefy vs Hostinger Website Builder, in detail

GoDaddy Airo: best for building by chatting with an AI

GoDaddy's builder, Airo, works from prompts: you describe the site in plain language and it generates pages, copy and images, which you refine yourself or by prompting again. AI generation uses monthly credits.

How the site gets built: You describe it to an AI and keep prompting to change it. Editing text and images yourself uses no credits.
Free plan: Yes, with 50 AI credits a month for building preview sites. Publishing is listed on the paid plans.
Price: Starter at R119 a month billed annually, or R249 billed monthly, on GoDaddy's South African store. The first year of an annual plan is discounted, and the renewal price is not shown.
Your web address: A free domain for the first year on annual plans, renewing at the standard rate. The free endings listed do not include .co.za. You can connect a domain you own.
Selling online and bookings: Bookings, a product catalogue and online payments are listed from the Professional plan, R279 a month billed annually. Starter lists payment links and QR codes.
South Africa: Rand prices on its South African store, and South African support phone numbers.

Worth knowing: Building runs on AI credits that expire each month, and the price after the discounted first year is not shown on its plans page, so the ongoing cost is hard to predict.

webbefy vs GoDaddy Airo, in detail

Afrihost Website Builder: best for Afrihost customers who want a simple site with their hosting

Afrihost includes a template-based, drag-and-drop builder with its Linux shared hosting. You pick a theme, add your text, images and video, and publish from the hosting control panel.

How the site gets built: A theme, then drag-and-drop editing from the hosting control panel. No AI site generation is advertised.
Free plan: No. The builder comes free with a paid Linux shared hosting package.
Price: Linux shared hosting from R84 a month, month to month, with no setup fee.
Your web address: A free domain for the first year with hosting, for .co.za, .site, .online, .store or .tech.
Selling online and bookings: Not advertised on Afrihost's builder page.
South Africa: A South African host with rand pricing, locally hosted packages and WhatsApp support.

Worth knowing: It is a hosting add-on you reach through a control panel, so you set up the hosting first, and it advertises no online store or bookings.

webbefy vs Afrihost Website Builder, in detail

Domains.co.za Site Builder: best for a do-it-yourself online shop that takes PayFast

Domains.co.za sells a drag-and-drop builder as an add-on to its cPanel web hosting. You choose from more than 200 templates, edit the layout, colours and fonts, and drag in plugins such as a shop and forms.

How the site gets built: A template, then drag-and-drop editing with plugins. No AI site generation is advertised.
Free plan: No, but there is a free online demo to try it before buying.
Price: The Site Builder add-on is R49 a month and needs a cPanel hosting plan, the cheapest at R109 a month. Prices include VAT.
Your web address: A free domain with hosting, including .co.za, if you take it when you first buy.
Selling online and bookings: An online shop is included, with PayFast, PayU, PayPal, M-Pesa, bank transfer and cash on delivery. No bookings are advertised.
South Africa: Rand pricing including VAT, South African phone support and local payment gateways.

Worth knowing: Its terms say sites cannot be moved off its platform, and that a site whose Site Builder add-on is cancelled is no longer displayed.

Common questions

What is the best website builder for a small business in South Africa?

It depends on what the site has to do. If it mainly needs to get people to call, WhatsApp or email you, a builder that does the design for you saves the most time. If you sell online, choose one with a store and South African payment providers. If you want the lowest cost and can do the work, Google Sites is free.

Is there a free website builder in South Africa?

Google Sites is free, and Wix has a free plan that shows Wix ads on a wixsite.com address. GoDaddy Airo has a free plan for building previews, with publishing on its paid plans. Free options either leave the design work to you or stop short of publishing, and they limit what the site can do. webbefy is not free to publish: Your first design is free. Extra designs are R20 each. Publishing costs R499 a month per site.

Why are some prices in US dollars?

Because that is how those companies publish them. Wix and Hostinger showed US dollar prices from South Africa when we checked, and Wix says its prices vary by location. We quote what each company publishes rather than converting, because a converted figure is not a price anyone is charged. Check the final price at checkout.

Which website builders accept PayFast or Yoco?

Domains.co.za's Site Builder lists PayFast and PayU for its online shop. Wix supports Yoco and several other South African payment providers, but not PayFast. Hostinger's built-in payment options do not include PayFast, Yoco or Paystack. Google Sites and webbefy do not take payments on your site at all.

See your webbefy site before you decide

Your first design is free. Extra designs are R20 each. You pay R499 a month per site only once you publish. What other ways of getting a website cost.

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Sources

Wix is a trademark of Wix.com Ltd. Google Sites is a trademark of Google LLC. GoDaddy is a trademark of GoDaddy Operating Company, LLC. Hostinger, Afrihost and Domains.co.za are trademarks of their respective owners.

webbefy is not affiliated with or endorsed by any of the companies on this page.