How much does it cost for a small business to go online in Egypt?
The honest answer is a range, because "online" can mean anything from a one-page site to a full store. But for a normal small business — a cafe, clinic, salon, shop — the real costs are few and knowable. Here is what you actually pay for, split into one-time and ongoing, with rough figures.
The domain name
Your own address — yourbusiness.com. A .com is usually in the range of a few hundred pounds a year; a .net or a country domain similar. This is small and non-negotiable: a business on a free subdomain or only a social handle does not look established, and you do not own it.
The website build — the main one-time cost
This is where the range is widest. A freelance developer building a custom small-business site typically runs from the mid-thousands of pounds upward, plus weeks of your time in revisions. A DIY builder like Wix or Squarespace has a low software cost but a real time cost — most owners spend one to two weekends getting a first version they are happy with, then keep spending time maintaining it. A done-for-you service sits in between: a fixed build fee with the work handled for you. BYB, for reference, is 4,000 EGP for a starter site.
What drives the number up: many pages, a live catalogue or inventory, custom design from scratch, more than two languages, e-commerce checkout. What keeps it down: a focused site with your services, prices, hours, photos and contact — which is all most businesses need to start.
Hosting and maintenance — the ongoing cost
A website has to be hosted somewhere and kept working. On a DIY builder this is bundled into a monthly subscription (often billed in dollars). With a developer you may pay separately for hosting plus a retainer or per-change fee for updates. With a done-for-you service it is usually one monthly fee covering hosting, the domain renewal, and edits. Budget for a monthly figure either way — a site that is never updated goes stale and stale looks worse than simple.
Photography
The biggest quality difference for the money. A short professional shoot of your space, products or work is often a few thousand pounds and pays for itself across your website, Google profile and social accounts for a long time. If that is out of budget at the start, a mid-range phone in good daylight, held steady, is a fine substitute — what to avoid is dark flash photos and obvious stock imagery.
What you can skip at the start
A logo from an expensive agency — a simple wordmark is enough until the site exists. A large multi-page site — start focused, add pages when you have a reason. Paid ads — fix your basic findability first. Premium marketing tools — not until they are actually your bottleneck. Video — after you have good photos, not before.
A realistic first-year picture
For a typical small business: one modest build fee (a few thousand pounds if done-for-you, more for custom development, mostly time if DIY), a domain, and a monthly hosting-and-maintenance figure. Photography is the main optional add-on and the one most worth doing. Everything else can wait. The total is far less than most owners assume, and far less than the cost of staying invisible to the customers already searching for you.
Common questions
What is the cheapest way to get online?
A DIY builder has the lowest cash cost, but the real price is your time — building and then maintaining it yourself. If your time is scarce, a fixed-fee done-for-you build often works out cheaper overall.
Are there hidden ongoing costs?
The recurring ones are hosting, the domain renewal, and either a maintenance fee or your own time for updates. On some platforms, add-on apps and premium features also stack up. A single all-in monthly fee avoids that.
Do I need to pay for photos?
You need good photos; you do not necessarily need to pay for them. A professional shoot is the best value if it fits the budget. Otherwise a steady hand and daylight beat stock images and flash.
Is it cheaper to just use Instagram?
Instagram has no direct cost, but it does not get you found in search or hold your information, so you lose the customers who are actively looking. The cost of a basic site is usually recovered quickly from those otherwise-missed customers.