There is no single price for a website in The Gambia. Quotes range from a few thousand dalasi to well over a hundred thousand, they are almost never published, and most of the difference comes down to things a first time buyer does not know to ask about.
We cannot tell you what another agency will charge. What we can do is publish our own prices, so that at least one real figure exists to plan around, and then explain what moves a project from one package to the next so you can read anybody’s quote properly.
Our starting prices are below. The rest of this guide is about how to judge any quote you are given, including ours.
On this page
What Sublex Digital charges, so you have a real number
These are our prices, not a survey of the market. Five packages cover almost everything a Gambian business needs, each one a starting price, with the final figure confirmed in writing once the scope is agreed. We charge on what the site has to do and who it is for, so two businesses on the same package can pay differently.
| Package | Starts at | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Core Digital Presence | From D18,000 | Up to 5 pages. A shop, a clinic, a tradesperson, a small service business. Everything a customer needs to find you, trust you and call you. |
| Business Growth Platform | From D28,000 | Up to 10 pages, custom design, several services or locations, and search set up properly. |
| Institutional Platform | From D45,000 | 10 or more pages. Schools, NGOs and associations, where a news section and a proper structure are the point. |
| E-Commerce System | From D55,000 | A product catalogue, a cart and payment. Quoted per project, because fifteen products and two hundred are different jobs. |
| Custom Digital System | From D65,000 | Portals, dashboards, customer logins, automation. Scoped individually. |
Every package includes mobile-first design, a WordPress CMS you can actually use, on-page SEO setup, Google Analytics, SSL, a contact form and post-launch support.
International and diaspora clients are quoted in US dollars on the same packages, starting at $600.
Three things about these numbers.
They are ours. Another agency in Kanifing may charge half, and a freelancer may charge a fifth. That does not settle anything on its own, which is the point of the rest of this guide.
They are build costs, not the whole cost. A website has a yearly bill as well, for hosting, the domain, email and maintenance. That section is further down and it is the part most people forget to budget for.
A cheaper quote is not automatically a bad one, and plenty of good work in The Gambia is done below these figures. But a much lower number should make you ask what is missing, and it is usually the parts you cannot see on launch day: who owns the domain, what happens when something breaks, and whether anybody answers the phone in March.
What actually moves the price
Not all websites are the same, which is why the range is wide. A four page site for a local shop is a completely different project from a booking platform for a hotel or a product catalogue for a retailer.
The number of pages, and how different they are
Ten pages that share one layout cost far less than five pages that each need their own. The work is in the design decisions, not the typing.
Whether the content exists
If your logo, brand colours, photographs and text are ready, the project moves faster and costs less. If the agency has to create all of that from scratch, the price reflects the extra work. Professional photography and copywriting are separate services, and both are usually worth what they cost, because a good site full of weak photographs still looks like a weak business.
What the site has to do
A page that tells somebody your opening hours is one job. A page that takes a payment, sends a receipt, and updates your stock is several. Payments, bookings, customer logins and anything that talks to another system all add real work.
Who builds it
A student doing freelance work will charge less than an established agency. The build might even be fine. What differs is what happens afterwards: whether there is anyone to contact, whether the site gets its security updates, and whether your domain is registered in your name or theirs.
According to DataReportal, more than 45% of people in The Gambia are now online, a figure that has more than doubled since 2019. That is the reason the question is being asked more often than it used to be.
What should be in every professional quote
A properly scoped package covers more than building the pages. Expect all of this as standard, and treat anything missing as a question rather than an assumption.
- Domain name registration, your
.comor.gmaddress, registered in your name - Hosting set up and configured
- A design built around your brand rather than a template with your logo dropped in
- A layout that works properly on phones, which is where most of your visitors are
- Basic search engine setup, so the site can be found at all
- Home, About, Services and Contact as a minimum
- A business email address on your own domain
- An SSL certificate, so the browser shows your site as secure
- A handover session, so you know what you own and how to use it
Some agencies include a short period of post launch support, usually thirty days. Confirm it before you sign, and confirm what happens on day thirty one.
The difference between a cheap website and a professional one
There are people in The Gambia who will build you a website for very little. Some of that work is decent. A lot of it is not.
A cheap website usually means a generic template with no thought given to your business, slow loading, a layout that breaks on a phone, and nobody to contact when something goes wrong. A professional website is built to do a specific job: bring you leads, credibility, or sales.
When you compare quotes, compare what is included rather than the number at the bottom. Two quotes can look very different in price and be identical in value, or the reverse.
A professional website is an investment. A cheap website is often an expense you pay twice.
Managed and unmanaged, and why it changes the price
This is the single biggest reason two quotes for the same website differ, and most business owners do not know to ask about it.
Unmanaged means you own the hosting account, you are responsible for software updates, and you sort out problems yourself. It costs less upfront and puts the entire technical burden on you. If a plugin breaks, if the site is hacked, or if the domain lapses, that is yours to deal with.
Managed means the agency handles hosting, security updates, backups and maintenance for you. You pay more, because you are paying for ongoing accountability rather than a one time build.
For most owners who did not study web development, managed is the option that actually keeps the site working three years later. A cheaper unmanaged quote and a higher managed quote are not the same product at different prices. They are different products.
What it costs to run, every year
Building the site is one payment. Keeping it online is not. These are the costs people forget when they set a budget, and again these are our figures rather than the market’s. Ask any provider for theirs in writing.
| Running cost | Starts at | What happens without it |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting, domain and email together | From D15,000 a year | The one plan that covers all three, managed, with backups and monitoring included. |
| Hosting on its own | From D9,000 a year | Without hosting the site is simply not on the internet. There is no cheaper version of this. |
| Domain management | From D3,500 a year | Your address lapses, and somebody else can register it. |
| Business email | From D4,000 a year | You are back to a free address, which quietly costs you enquiries. |
| Maintenance and support | From D1,500 a month | Updates stop. The site gets slower, then vulnerable, then broken. |
The bundle is the sensible default: hosting, domain and email under one annual fee is easier to budget for and cheaper than buying the three separately. Paying twelve months upfront takes 10% off.
Budget for the running cost before you commit to the build. A site you cannot afford to keep online is worse than no site, because a dead page with your business name on it is what people find when they search for you.
Why the cheapest option often costs more later
Most owners only learn this afterwards. You pay very little for a website, and six months later the person who built it is unreachable. The site goes down, you have no login details, and you are starting again from nothing.
The real cost is not the first invoice. It is the time lost, the customers who found a broken site, and the money spent fixing something that was never built properly.
Affordable options exist, and affordable means good value rather than the lowest possible number. A mid range project done properly serves a business for three to five years with very little trouble. A cut price job often causes problems within months.
Think about ownership from the first conversation. The domain and hosting should be registered in your name, not your designer’s. If the relationship ends, you should be able to walk away with everything intact. This one question has saved more Gambian businesses more money than any other in this guide.
How to get a written quote before you commit
Any reputable agency should give you a written proposal before you pay a single dalasi. A verbal quote is not enough, and a figure sent in a WhatsApp message is not a proposal. Sublex Digital sends a written fixed quote within 24 business hours, and no work starts without a signed scope agreement.
A written proposal should state what is included, what is not included, the timeline, the payment terms, and what happens after the site goes live. If a provider will not put that in writing, that is information in itself.
Expect to pay in two parts. Half before the work starts and half before the site goes live is the normal arrangement, and it protects both sides.
Five things to do before you ask anyone for a price
- Write down what the site is actually for: inform customers, sell products, generate leads, or show a portfolio. One of those, not all four.
- List the five to eight pages you think you need.
- Gather your logo, brand colours and any photographs you want used.
- Set a realistic budget range, so the conversation can be honest in both directions.
- Collect two or three sites you like, so the designer can see your taste rather than guess at it.
Half an hour on this list will get you a more accurate quote than a week of asking around.
What it costs to answer the same questions all day
There is one cost that never appears in a web design quote, and for a lot of Gambian businesses it is the largest one: the time spent answering the same handful of questions.
Where are you. What time do you open. Do you deliver to Brikama. How much is the small one. Most businesses answer those same questions dozens of times a week, usually on WhatsApp, usually after hours, usually while doing something else.
A website answers them once, if the visitor finds the right page. An assistant on the site answers them in the visitor’s own words, at eleven at night, when the alternative is that they message a competitor instead.
That is what we built Sublex Chat for. It answers only from what your business gives it, which means it does not invent a price or an opening time, and when it does not know something it says so and takes the customer’s number so you can follow up. It comes as a setup service alongside a website build, or on its own for a site you already have.
Frequently asked questions about website cost in The Gambia
How much does a basic website cost in The Gambia?
Prices in The Gambia are rarely published, so the range you hear is wide. At Sublex Digital a five page site starts at D18,000 in 2026, and the final figure depends on the scope. That includes a mobile first design, a WordPress CMS, on-page SEO setup, SSL and post-launch support. Hosting, the domain and email are a separate annual plan starting at D15,000 a year for all three. Other providers will quote differently, which is why what is included matters more than the total.
What is the difference between a cheap and a professional website?
A cheap website is usually a template with no thought given to the business, no mobile testing, and nobody to contact when it breaks. A professional website is scoped around a specific job, tested on the devices your customers actually use, and supported after launch. The build looks similar on day one. The difference shows in month six.
Do I have to pay for a website every year?
You pay for the build once, and for running it every year. Hosting, the domain renewal, business email and maintenance are ongoing. Most agencies bundle these into a single managed plan, which is usually cheaper than buying each one separately and much easier to budget for.
Who should own my domain name?
You should, always. The domain should be registered in your business’s name with you as the contact, even when your agency manages it day to day. If it is registered to the designer, you cannot move the site without their cooperation. Ask this question before you pay any deposit.
What is managed hosting and is it worth it?
Managed hosting means the agency handles the server, the security updates, the backups and the uptime for you, rather than handing you a login and wishing you well. It costs more per year. For a business owner who does not want to learn WordPress administration, it is the difference between a site that still works in three years and one that quietly stopped working in March.
How long does a website take to build in The Gambia?
A five page site is 7 to 14 days once the content is ready. A ten page business site is 14 to 21 days, and an institutional or e-commerce build is 21 to 35. The single biggest cause of delay is not design. It is waiting for photographs and text from the client, which is why gathering them before you ask for a quote is on the list above.
Can I add an AI assistant to an existing website?
Yes. An assistant is added to a site that already exists without rebuilding it. On WordPress that is a plugin: install it, paste an eight character code, and it is on every page. It works on most other platforms too. It answers from your own material, so the setup work is mostly a conversation about what your business actually gets asked.
Final thoughts
Website cost in The Gambia varies for real reasons, and understanding those reasons puts you in a much stronger position when it is time to commit.
The best outcome is a site built properly from the start, owned by you, supported by people you can actually reach, and managed so it keeps working long after launch day. The price band matters less than which of those four things your quote includes.
Ready for a fixed price? Contact Sublex Digital for a written proposal within 24 business hours.
