If you want to start a website or blog in Kenya, and are reading this article, you are now at the point where you are looking to go one step further with your plans to setup your site.

Probably you’ve looked at domain registration costs and web hosting plans offered by various hosting companies in Kenya.

You are also wondering which CMS – Content Management System – you should use to power your site – or if using WordPress as a CMS is a better option for your soon to be launched website – or an existing site you want to make changes to.

Meaning you have a lot of questions – considering there are many hosting companies that make it easy for their clients to install WordPress on their domains, subdomains or subfolders – usually with auto script installers like Softaculous, Quick Install or Fantastico Deluxe.

Should you use WordPress to start your website / blog in Kenya

Yes. WordPress is simple, powerful and extendable – and widely used by persons running small, medium and big websites – some getting a couple dozen visitors a day while others getting hundreds of thousands to millions of visitors per day.

WordPress – the self-hosted version – offers a lot of functionality for individuals, businesses, schools, churches, writers, bloggers, authors and churches that want to start their own websites – with static home pages or blogs – where recent articles posted on the site can be shown organized in a chronological order mostly in the home page but sometimes also in  a dedicated page in a website with a title like ‘Blog’ that is displayed in the main navigation of the website for easy access by visitors.

WordPress, which is free by the way and only requires you to register a domain name and pay for hosting package – where your site’s files are stored, works well with hosting companies that have Linux servers, support PHP and MySQL databases – which most do.

Meaning getting started with it is easy.

More and more people are using it.

Compared to other content management systems like Joomla and Drupal it’s getting widely adopted. And if you are unhappy with a hosting company you are using, you can easily move your WordPress powered site to another hosting company.

WordPress is easy to install and setup.

You can also add more functionality to your site using any number of free and premium plugins and themes that are available for quick install.

It is easy to create pages and posts on WordPress. You can customize your site’s design, add images, add audio files, embed videos and do a lot more.

Also if you are busy with other things and don’t want to spend a lot of time working on your site, you can just create content, upload it to your site and schedule it to publish on a date and time you specify.

As a business owner, you can also add online shopping functionality to your site for example using WooCommerce, enable the use of testimonials, sell digital and physical products on your site, add tables of content, get feedback from your readers / customers and even make your site as good looking as you want.

What do the best WordPress web hosting companies in Kenya offer

Most hosting companies offer different hosting packages suited to the needs of various site owners depending on the number of visitors their sites get every day / month.

Apart from this they provide a secure environment for storing your site’s files – in servers that enable good functioning of the WordPress script that powers your website / blog.

They also offer support and guidance from the initial stage when you set out to build your site – and all along as your site grows.

They will help sort site errors, send you email updates with recent tips to ensure your site is secure from hackers, help you manage various aspects of your site via your cPanel admin area and also offer tips to grow your site and draw more of the right people to it from social networks, offline and search engines.

Most hosts in Kenya are also reachable via their website (through support tickets and contact us pages), phone numbers, live chat and email addresses.

Meaning they are fine with a little hand holding whenever there is something you need to change or add to your site.

They also are able to advice on various things concerning WordPress: like plugins, themes and a few coding tweaks you may need.

What to look for when choosing a WordPress host in Kenya

Choose a hosting company or business that understands what it is you want to achieve with your site.

Choose a host that will offer the support you need to ensure your site is available on the internet, functioning as you intended.

Of course a hosting company, even the best ones, won’t do everything for you. You also have to play your part.

There are some mundane tasks – like ensuring your plugins and themes are up to date – that most companies won’t and don’t do – given the huge number of clients they have.

Of course these are tasks that require a click here a click there and they are done.

Same applies to the content published on your site. If you want more quality pages and article published to your new blog or website to increase your search engine rankings, organic traffic and leads, you have to create it yourself or with your staff or business partner or simply hire a freelance writer to create the content for you.

Read this article: 7 things to consider before paying your money to any of the best web hosting companies in Kenya.

The cost of WordPress web hosting in Kenya

The cost depends on the domain name extension you choose (learn more here), the hosting package you pay for and whether you factor in other costs like premium themes and plugins you buy, a content writer you hire, advertising you pay to promote your website (using Google Adwords or Facebook ads, for example) or a website designer you commission to design your website or blog.

Most people are good to go with just registering a domain name, paying for web hosting, installing WordPress (WP), publishing content on the site and promoting their site.

The cost to register a .com or .co.ke domain is 1,000 Kenyan Shillings or less. The cost for most starter hosting ranges from 1,000 Kenyan Shillings to even 15,000 Kenyan Shillings a year depending on whom you are hosting with.

Some cheapest web hosting plans in Kenya go for as little as Kenya Shillings 600 a year.

These cheaper plans (suited for beginner sites with little traffic) often have fewer resources allocated to them; which means that the more your site traffic grows the more you’ll have no option but to upgrade to bigger hosting plan that offer more disk quota and bandwidth. Which cost more.

It should be noted though that there is more that goes into building a site. The cost is not only in terms of money.

Websites and blogs need time to grow. So, you should look at that as well. Check these hosting questions and answers to learn more. They’ll help you weigh if you are ready to commit to starting and growing your website or blog.

Why host your WordPress blog / website with Niabusiness.com Hosting Kenya

As explained in this article, Niabusiness.com helps individuals and small businesses start WordPress sites.

Niabusiness.com helps with domain registration, web hosting, WordPress installation, theme and plugin installation and setup among other things (listed here, here and here) to help you quickly get started and have your site available on the internet ready for readers, leads and customers.

The WordPress questions and problems you may have, Niabusiness Hosting helps you solve. This ensures that you have more time on your hands to focus on your business or other activities. You get support managing your site since Niabusiness.com is well versed in WordPress sites.

With your free time you can create more quality content to be published on your site. You won’t have to learn everything WordPress when you are stuck – because Niabusiness.com will be there. Meaning fewer distractions from your work and other pursuits outside work.

Niabusiness.com installs WordPress and sets up everything for you. Niabusiness.com, when launching your blog or website, even adds the content you have – text and images and creates social media profiles, verifies your site with search engines and creates emails with your domain name in them e.g. yourname@yourdomain.com. Learn more here.

Your next step in building your website

If you’ve checked some of the articles linked to above, especially this one, this and this last one, get in touch with Niabusiness.com via the contact form here to get your WordPress website / blog started.

For any questions, use the comments section below to ask.