Free Website Tools for South African Businesses
Work out what a website will cost, check your site for POPIA and security basics, find a .co.za name and plan your launch. Every tool is free, needs no sign-up and shows the result straight away.
Pick a tool
Each one answers a question small business owners often ask us.
Website Cost Calculator
Estimate what your website will cost in rand: design, extra pages, logo, maintenance, SEO and hosting after year one.
Use the tool →POPIA Website Checker
Scan a web page for the POPIA basics you can see from outside: HTTPS, a privacy policy link, consent wording and trackers.
Use the tool →.co.za Domain Checker
See whether a .co.za name (and the .com, .net and .org versions) looks taken or likely available, with name ideas.
Use the tool →Website Health Check
One check for HTTPS, security headers, titles and meta tags, robots.txt, sitemap, and SPF and DMARC email records.
Use the tool →Google Snippet Preview
Preview how your page title and meta description may look in Google, with pixel and character limits.
Use the tool →Local Business Schema Generator
Create LocalBusiness JSON-LD for a South African business: address, hours, phone, map position and social profiles.
Use the tool →Website Launch Checklist
An interactive, printable checklist for going live: domain, email, forms, POPIA, SEO basics, speed and backups.
Use the tool →Which Hosting Plan? Quiz
Answer six quick questions and get a hosting plan recommendation from our current price list.
Use the tool →Guides and reference pages
Plain-English references to keep open while you plan, build or check a website.
Web Design and Hosting Glossary
Plain-English definitions of web design, hosting, domain, SEO and South African terms.
Read it →Website Design Dos and Don'ts
What works on a small business website, what to avoid, and red flags when choosing a designer.
Read it →Website Checklists
Every checklist we publish in one place: launch, POPIA, maintenance and preparing for a build.
Read it →South Africa Website and Internet Statistics
Internet, mobile, browser and domain figures for South Africa, each linked to its source.
Read it →Why the tools are free, and what happens to your data
We have built and hosted websites for South African businesses since 2009, and the same questions come up again and again: what will it cost, is my site POPIA-ready, is my domain name taken, why is my site not showing properly in Google. These tools answer them without you having to phone anyone.
- No sign-up and no email address. You do not create an account, and we do not ask for your details before showing a result.
- Results stay on your screen. We do not publish a page about any site you check, and we do not keep a copy of the result.
- Most tools never leave your browser. The cost calculator, hosting quiz, launch checklist, snippet preview and schema generator do all their work on your device.
- The checkers look only at what you enter. The health check and POPIA checker fetch the page you type in, plus public files and records any visitor can see, such as robots.txt, the sitemap, DNS email records and, for the POPIA checker, the privacy policy page the site links to. The domain checker uses public DNS lookups. They never log in or change anything, and nothing about the site is stored.
- No tracking or advertising. The tools set no tracking or advertising cookies. The health check and POPIA checker use Cloudflare Turnstile, a bot check, and every checker has an hourly limit per visitor, so automated scripts cannot abuse them.
Prices in the cost calculator and hosting quiz come from the same price list as the rest of this site, so an estimate matches what we actually charge. Web Design Hosting SA is not VAT-registered, so no VAT is added.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are these tools really free?
Yes. There is no sign-up, no trial and no email address needed. You use the tool, read the result on screen and leave. If you want help acting on a result, you can ask us for a quote, but you never have to.
Do you store the websites or details I enter?
No. The calculator, quiz, checklist, snippet preview and schema generator run entirely in your browser. The website and domain checkers send the address you type to our server so it can do the lookup, and nothing about the site you checked is saved. To stop abuse we keep a one-way hash of your IP address and the time of the check, never the IP itself.
How accurate are the website checkers?
They check what anyone can see from outside: the page you enter, its security headers, robots.txt, sitemap and public DNS records. They cannot see inside your hosting account, your forms or your database, so treat a result as a starting point rather than an audit. The POPIA checker is not legal advice.
Can you fix the problems a tool finds?
Usually, yes. Most issues the health check and POPIA checker flag, such as missing security headers, a missing privacy policy link or an old plugin, are part of our website maintenance work. Send us the result on WhatsApp or through the quote form and we will tell you what it takes.
Rather have us look at it?
Send us your website address or tell us what you need, and we will reply with a clear recommendation and a fixed price.