Cost of starting a blog in Kenya

To start a blog in Kenya in 2022, you need a capital of Ksh3, 000 to Ksh20, 000.The amount of money to spend relies on the company which hosts your site and the cost of domain registration. Another factor is whether you know how to design a website or not. If you know how to build a website via WordPress, you’ll spend approximately Ksh 3,000 to start a new blog. If you don’t know how to design one, you’ll have to look for an expert in web design to build a site for you—they charge Ksh5, 000 to Ksh 15,000 per site. So in total, you’ll spend up to Ksh 20,000 to build a new blog in Kenya when you possess zero skills in web design.

Here are steps to follow when developing a blog in Kenya:

Come up with a name of the blog—it should be unique and original
Register domain name
Pay for hosting services
Build a website with WordPress

After coming up with a name for your blog, search for a good web hosting company where to buy a domain name and hosting space. A good web hosting company should provide cheap hosting services, excellent customer service, a wide range of features, no hidden charges and also enough resources. In Kenya, the best web hosting companies include:

Hostpinnacle
Kenya Website Experts
Safaricom
Truehost
Sasahost
Bluehost—USA company
A2 Hosting—USA hosting company
Kinsta—USA hosting company

Every web hosting company has a search button for available domain names. Enter the domain name you wish to register and search for it.You will only register a domain name that’s available.

Here are domain registration prices for each web hosting company.

Hostpinnacle

.co.ke —Ksh 999 per year

.com—Ksh 999 per year

Bluehost

.com—Ksh 1,500 per year (free when you buy hosting plan)
Kenya Website Experts

TLD
Min. Years
Register
Transfer
Renew .co.ke 1 KES 999.00 FREE! KES 1,580.00 .ke 1 KES 2,999.00 FREE! KES 3,999.00 .com 1 KES 1,160.00 KES 1,160.00 KES 1,160.00 .africa 1 KES 1,999.00 KES 1,999.00 KES 1,999.00 .net 1 KES 1,680.00 KES 1,680.00 KES 1,680.00 .org 1 KES 1,260.00 KES 1,399.00 KES 1,399.00 .or.ke 1 KES 999.00 FREE! KES 1,580.00 .ac.ke 1 KES 999.00 FREE! KES 1,580.00 .ne.ke 1 KES 999.00 FREE! KES 1,580.00 .sc.ke 1 KES 999.00 FREE! KES 1,580.00 .go.ke 1 KES 999.00 FREE! KES 1,580.00 .mobi.ke 1 KES 999.00 FREE! KES 1,580.00 .info.ke 1 KES 999.00 FREE! KES 1,580.00 .me.ke 1 KES 999.00 FREE! KES 1,580.00 .info 1 KES 2,099.00 KES 2,099.00 KES 2,099.00 .biz 1 KES 1,899.00 KES 1,899.00 KES 1,899.00

Safaricom domain prices

.co.ke—Ksh 1,300 per year

.com —Ksh999 per year

Sasahost domain cost

.co.ke—Ksh 850 per year

.com—Ksh1, 000 per year

The most popular domain extensions are .co.ke and .com.As a Kenyan blogger, I would encourage you to stick to one of the two (domain extensions) in order to rank high in search engines.

Web hosting

When it comes to web hosting services, new blogs don’t require high resources—Shared hosting plans are ideal. Majority of the companies in Kenya charge customers per year, not monthly.

Always go for the starter/basic hosting plans if you don’t want to spend a lot of money on hosting. But at some point, when your sites grow, you’ll need VPS and Dedicated Server services.

The best hosting companies charge this amount for basic plans:

Kenya Website Experts—Ksh3, 100 per year

HostPinnacle—Ksh 1,999 per year
Sasahost—Ksh 3,000 per year
Safaricom—Ksh 1,300 per year

The cost of web hosting and domain registration is:

Kenya Website Experts—Ksh 4,100 per year

Hostpinnacle—Ksh 3000 per year

That’s the total amount you’ll spend to develop a website when you know how to create one for yourself.

Assuming you don’t know how to create and you get hosting and domain registration from Hostpinnacle, you’ll add Ksh 5,000 to Ksh 3000 and get the total minimum figure to be Ksh8, 000.This is the cheapest amount to spend in creating a blog in Kenya when you have zero skills in web design.

After creating a blog, you need to make money with it.Below are ways bloggers make money in Kenya: