Learn about web hosting charges in Kenya. Read on to learn what 8 hosting companies charge their clients monthly or yearly.

Bitsimba

Bitsimba is a domain registrar and web hosting company located in Kenya. Apart from providing hosting and domain registration services, it also offers web design, app development and SEO services.

Bitsimba domain registration charges

You can register a domain for your blog or website on Bitsimba.com.

Get a domain name with a .co.ke extension for 800 Shillings a year. .com domains go for KSh 1100 a year.

Bitsimba web hosting plans

The company offers three plans: Startup package, Standard package and Corporate package.

• Startup package: Costs 1500 per year. It comes with a 15 GB SSD space, bandwidth capacity of 1 TB and 1 free .co.ke domain.
• Standard package: Costs Kenya Shillings 5000 a year. It has 50 GB SSD space, 2 TB bandwidth and 1 free lifetime domain.
• Corporate package: Costs 10000 Shillings per year. It has 100 GB space, 5 TB bandwidth and 1 free lifetime domain.

All the 3 plans allow hosting of multiple websites on one account. On a Startup plan you can host 2 websites, on Standard 5 sites and up to 10 sites on the Corporate package.

The three plans also have the following features: free SSL certificates, cPanel, Softaculous script installer, 99.99% uptime guarantee, unlimited databases and subdomains, automatic backups, 24/7/365 support and more.

Learn more about Bitsimba.

Bluehost

Bluehost is a popular company, recommended by many online marketers. Some Kenyans, instead of using local web hosting companies, go with HostGator, SiteGround or Bluehost.

If you are a blogger, freelancer, online marketer or small business, find below some of the Bluehost plans you can purchase for your site.

Bluehost domain registration charges

A .com domain on Bluehost costs $11.99 per year. That is around 1210 Shillings. You can forego the extras such as the domain privacy protection and Codeguard by registering your .com on Namesilo and then adding your Bluehost nameservers to it. Namesilo provides free domain privacy protection.

Bluehost web hosting plans

Basic plan goes for $3.95 per month (around 400 Kenya Shillings). You can host only 1 site on it. The plan comes with 50 GB space, unlimited bandwidth and 100 MB email storage. You can only create 5 email addresses with your domain in them.

Then there are two other shared hosting plans, Plus and Prime. Each costs $5.95 per month (around KSh 600 per month). You can host unlimited number of sites on each one.

The disk space is unmetered and so is the bandwidth allocation. You can create unlimited email accounts on each plan. Prime and Plus don’t have the 100 MB email storage limit like the Basic plan.

Learn more about Bluehost.

Kenya Web Experts

Kenya Website Experts is one of the leading hosting companies in Kenya used by prominent politicians, businesses and institutions such as University of Nairobi. Learn more about how much they charge for domain registration and hosting below.

Kenya Web Experts domain registration charges

You can register .co.ke and .com domain names at only Kenya Shillings 1000. The company runs promotional offers from time to time, so depending on when you decide to register a domain name, you can get a .co.ke for KSh 580 (or KSh 499 as at the time this post is published).

Go directly to their homepage to see their current coupon codes. It is a good domain registrar. You can pay for domains via Lipa na M-PESA and immediately start working on your site.

Kenya Web Experts hosting plans

The company offers reliable Linux and Windows web hosting services starting at only KSh 2,100 per year for the Starter plan. I’ve purchased and used their hosting plans before and the service is good.

• Starter: For 2100 Shillings you get 30 GB disk space and 300 GB bandwidth.
• Standard: For 4100 Shillings you get 40 GB disk space and 400 GB bandwidth.
• Bronze: For 7100 Shillings you get 50 GB disk space and 500 GB bandwidth.
• Gold: Comes with unlimited disk space and bandwidth at a cost of 14100 a year.

You can create unlimited email accounts and subdomains. Bronze and Gold plans also come with free SSL certificates.

Each plan also comes with cPanel, Softaculous and a 99.9% uptime guarantee.

Learn more about Kenya Web Experts.

Bana Hosting

Bana Hosting is another reliable shared hosting company you can use for your domain registration and web hosting needs. It is cheap and your site is always online. Like Bluehost or HostGator you can pay monthly or yearly.

Bana hosting domain registration charges

You can register a .com domain for $10.95 on Bana. That is around 1105 Shillings per year.

Bana hosting plans

• Bana-Starter Deluxe: You can host only 1 site on it, though the plan comes with unlimited bandwidth and disk space. You also get free SSL for your domain name. It costs $4.95 per month (KSh 500).
• Bana-Professional Deluxe: For $6.95 (KSh 702) per month host multiple sites on one account. You also get unlimited bandwidth and unlimited SSD disk space. I use this plan to run some of my sites. The service is reliable and I opted to pay for the plan month-to-month.
• Bana-Corporate Deluxe: This plan is similar to Bana-Professional Deluxe plan, but you get more memory and a faster CPU. It goes for $9.95 per month (KSh 1005).

All Bana hosting plans come with the following: Free Let’s Encrypt SSL, 99.9% uptime guarantee, 30 day money back guarantee, cPanel, Softaculous installer and data backups.

Learn more about Bana Hosting.

HostGator

HostGator is another hosting company popular among Kenyans: bloggers, freelancers and businesses. Learn more about it below.

HostGator domain registration charges

You can register a .com domain for just $12.92/year on HostGator. That is around 1304 Shillings a year.

Or get one from Namesilo.

HostGator web hosting plans

• Hatchling: You can use this plan for one site only. It has cPanel and you can install scripts using QuickInstall. The bandwidth is unmetered. This plan costs $10.95 if you choose to pay monthly or $71.4 per year. That is KSh 7205 per year.
• Baby: The most popular shared hosting plan amongst those planning on running more than one site, this plan goes for $11.95 per month or $107.4 per year (KSh 10838 per year). It has the same features as the Hatchling plan but it allows unlimited add-on domains.
• Business: costs $16.95 per month or $107.4 a year. You get similar features offered to Baby plan buyers. On top of that you get the following free: positive SSL and a dedicated IP.

All plans have cPanel, a script installer and 45 day money back guarantee.

Learn more about HostGator.

Sasahost

Sasahost is another Kenyan hosting company you can use to start your website or blog.

Sasahost domain registration charges

You can register a .com domain for 1000 Shillings a year.

.co.ke domains also cost 1000 Shillings per year.

Sasahost hosting plans

• Premium CMS Hosting I: With this plan you get 40 GB disk space and 200 GB monthly bandwidth and 30GB managed remote backup. This plan costs KSh 6000 a year.
• Premium CMS Hosting II: With this plan you get 50 GB disk space and 300 GB monthly bandwidth and 40GB managed remote backup. This plan costs KSh 9000 a year.
• Premium CMS Hosting III: With this plan you get 80 GB disk space and 400 GB monthly bandwidth and 60GB managed remote backup. This plan costs KSh 12000 a year.
• Premium CMS Hosting V: With this plan you get 100 GB disk space and 600 GB monthly bandwidth and 120GB managed remote backup. This plan costs KSh 18000 a year.

Note that Sasahost charges extra (16% VAT) on all their plans.

All the plans allow the creation of unlimited email accounts. Sasahost offers DDoS protection and cPanel on all the accounts. All accounts have premium SMTP relay for spam email filtering.

Learn more about Sasahost.

Safaricom

Safaricom also offers web hosting and domain registration services in Kenya. You can use them to start your website or blog.

Their two cheapest plans, Lite and Bronze, only have 50 MB and 500 MB disk space respectively – which is good for a static site you upload yourself. To run one of the popular scripts like WordPress or Joomla, go for the following plans: Silver, Gold and Premium.

• Silver: Gets you 2 GB disk space at a cost of KSh 3800 (if you are using a .co.ke domain) or KSh 3499 (if you are using a .com domain). The plan allows the creation of 5 subdomains and 50 email accounts.
• Gold: Gets you 10 GB disk space at a cost of KSh 5300 (if you are using a .co.ke domain) or KSh 4999 (if you are using a .com domain). The plan allows the creation of 100 subdomains and 100 email accounts.
• Premium: Gets you 20 GB disk space at a cost of KSh 6300 (if you are using a .co.ke domain) or KSh 5999 (if you are using a .com domain). The plan allows the creation of 200 subdomains and 200 email accounts.

Learn more about Safaricom.

Niabusiness Hosting

If you’d like to host your blog or website with Niabusiness instead, the Starter plan goes for KSh 6000. The price is inclusive of domain registration costs. With that amount I can build you a blog or website on WordPress.

Here is a breakdown of the costs for each plan.

Learn more about Niabusiness Hosting.

Why is the cost of web hosting in Kenya different from host to host

• Company pricing. Different companies charge different amounts of money depending on the quality of service they provide or how much profit they want to make from each hosting plan their clients buy.
• Server type and space allocation. Shared hosting plans often cost way less compared to VPS and dedicated servers. Hosting companies charge less for shared hosting since more client sites are added to one server. Someone who pays for a dedicated server pays more because the whole server is often allocated to them. Clients who own high traffic sites often go for VPS, dedicated server or other type of enterprise-grade hosting solutions like the ones offered by Amazon or InMotion Hosting. Most shared hosting plans (from Bluehost or HostGator) can handle sites receiving between 40,000 to 100,000 unique visitors per month.
• Speed and reliability. The more reliable / faster a hosting plan is the higher the costs a company is likely to charge. This is the case with managed hosting and dedicated hosting plans. That is why managed hosting providers like WPEngine, Kinsta Hosting and WebSynthesis charge more to host a WordPress site compared to what a shared hosting user would typically be charged monthly by HostGator or Bluehost. So pricing will differ depending on how fast the servers a hosting company offers are.
• Additional services bundled with hosting plans. Companies with more features added to their plans charge more for their services. The features include dedicated IP, RAM capacity, backup services, premium SSL certificates, staging area to test new themes/plugins/site features, dedicated support and more.

Summary of web hosting prices in Kenya

If your site doesn’t receive much traffic (less than 100,000 unique visitors per month), you can pay for a shared hosting plan. It will work well for you. When you start receiving a lot of traffic, you can upgrade then.

• HostGator. KSh 7205 per year (for Hatchling plan) to KSh 10838/year (for Baby plan). Or pay monthly.
• Kenya Web Experts. KSh 2100/year (Starter) to KSh 7100 per year (Bronze).
• Sasahost. KSh 6000/year (Premium CMS Hosting I) to KSh 12000/year (Premium CMS Hosting III).
• Bitsimba. KSh 1500/year (Startup) to KSh 10000/year (Corporate).
• Bana. KSh 6000/year (Starter) to KSh 12060/year (Corporate).
• Bluehost. KSh 4800/year (Basic) to KSh 7200/year (Plus).
• Safaricom. KSh 3800/year (Silver) to KSh 6300/year (Premium).
• Niabusiness Hosting. KSh 6000/year (Starter) to KSh 11000 (Mediate).

Cheapest domain registration in Kenya

For .co.ke domains, go with Kenya Web Experts. Costs 1000 per year or KSh 580 when they have special offers. Currently goes for KSh 499/year.

For .com domains, go with Namesilo. Costs around 900 a year. Costs KSh 650 to KSh 750 when they run promotional offers – or when you register your first domain name with them.

Conclusion

To start your website/blog (register a domain name/buy hosting), these are some of the companies you can use. Review what they offer then pay for a plan and start building your site.

The Kenyan companies listed in this post accept payments via M-PESA and PayPal.

For the rest, use a debit/card to pay for their services. Get the free KCB Pepea card, load it with M-PESA and use it to purchase hosting from any of the non-Kenyan companies.