Website cost in Morocco in 2026: the real price over 3 years

“How much does a website cost in Morocco?” Whether you are opening a guesthouse, a consultancy or a shop, it is usually the first question, and the honest answer is: it depends on what you count. The figure on a quote almost never covers everything you will pay. The domain renews, hosting is billed every year, updates cost something, and a site that never changes slowly stops bringing in business.

This guide does the full count, in Moroccan dirhams, over three years. Line by line first, then by type of provider: freelancer, traditional agency, online site builder and all-inclusive subscription. It ends with worked examples, the red flags to spot in a quote and a checklist of what a serious quote must include. We are an agency, Bzaf Studio, and our plan is one of the four options. We price it with the same method as the others, and we say when it is the wrong fit.

The short answer: what does a website cost in Morocco in 2026?

For a showcase website, meaning a site that presents your business and triggers a call or a message, without a basket or online payment, these are the ranges we see on the Moroccan market.

Type of provider	Build	Every year after	Usual lead time
Freelancer	from ~5,000 DH	hosting, domain and changes on top	2 to 4 weeks
Traditional agency	15,000 – 45,000 DH	hosting and maintenance contract on top	1 to 3 months
Online site builder	0 DH, but your time	100 to 250 DH a month, with no end date	depends on your evenings
All-inclusive plan (Bzaf Studio)	no set-up fee	399 DH a month incl. VAT, or 4,550 DH a year	5 working days

These figures cannot be compared as they stand. A 5,000 DH build with no hosting or updates and a plan that includes everything do not cover the same thing. To compare, add up every line over the same period. Three years is the right horizon: it is roughly when a site needs a refresh, and long enough for the yearly costs to weigh as much as the build.

The cost lines of a website, one by one

A website is not a one-off purchase. It is a build, then a series of costs that come back. Here is what each line covers and what to check.

1. The build: structure, design, development

This is the line everyone looks at. It covers page structure, design, technical set-up, mobile layout, the contact form and the launch. Its price mostly depends on the number of pages and on how much is genuinely custom. A bought template filled with your text is cheap to produce; a design drawn for your business takes more work.

What to check: the number of pages included, in writing; who writes the copy; how many rounds of changes are planned; and whether the site works properly on a phone, where most of your visitors come from.

2. The domain name: .ma, .com, or both

The domain is your address: yourbusiness.ma. It is rented by the year and renewed. In Morocco, .ma is run by ANRT, the national telecoms regulator, which also runs the Arabic-script extension “المغرب.”. ANRT does not sell names directly: registration goes through providers declared with it, 50 of them at the end of March 2026 according to its observatory. At that date there were 135,993 .ma names.

Three official facts worth knowing before you pay:

• Can a foreigner register a .ma? Yes. According to ANRT’s annual observatory, .ma registration is open to residents of Morocco and to foreigners, provided they appoint an administrative contact based in Morocco.
• Most .ma names are registered for one year only: 93.5% of 2025 registrations were for a single year. A forgotten renewal is the first way a name gets lost. ANRT recommends registering and renewing over several years.
• The registrant must be you. ANRT reports that most complaints it handles involve names registered by intermediaries in their own name rather than their client’s.

The price of a .ma depends on the provider you use. The key point: compare the renewal price, not the first-year price. If you can, take both the .ma and the .com and point one at the other. Our domain name page checks live whether your name is free in both extensions.

3. Hosting

The site has to run on a server, day and night. Entry-level shared hosting is enough for a showcase site, as long as it is fast and backed up. It is a yearly line, often free or discounted in year one, then billed at full price. Ask for the year-two price, and who pays if the site is hacked or goes down.

4. The SSL certificate (the HTTPS padlock)

SSL encrypts the connection and shows the padlock in the browser. Without it, browsers flag the site as “not secure”, which loses a visitor before they read a word. For a showcase site, a free, automatically renewed certificate is enough: free certificate authorities exist, such as Let’s Encrypt, run for the public’s benefit. A quote that charges several hundred dirhams a year for SSL on a simple business site should explain why.

5. Technical maintenance and security

A site built on a content management system needs updates: core, theme, plugins. A site left without updates for a year becomes a target. Maintenance covers those updates, verified backups, uptime monitoring and fixing things when they break. Without a contract, each job is billed separately, whenever the provider is available.

6. Content updates

New opening hours, a new service, a photo, a price. These small edits keep a site accurate. They are rarely priced in a build quote. Ask: what does one change cost, and how quickly is it done?

7. Content: copy, photos, translation, articles

The most often forgotten line. If you have no text or photos, someone has to produce them. A second language needs a real translation, and Arabic also needs a right-to-left layout. A blog that publishes regularly helps the site grow on Google, but every article takes writing time. The cost of SEO itself is covered in our guide to SEO pricing in Morocco.

The hidden costs we see in quotes

These are the lines most often missing at the start, which show up a few months later.

• Full-price renewal of domain and hosting after a free or discounted first year.
• Paid licences: a premium theme or plugins (forms, translation, booking) with a yearly fee nobody mentioned.
• Professional email addresses (contact@yourbusiness.ma), billed per mailbox per month.
• The second language, priced as a second website, page by page.
• Extra pages beyond the agreed number, at a per-page price.
• Exit fees: getting your files, logins or domain back when you change provider.
• VAT, when the quote is pre-tax and you read the number as the final price.
• Your time, if you do everything yourself: it is on no invoice, but it adds up to dozens of hours.

Four ways to pay for a website, and what each includes

Freelancer: a build fee, then pay as you go

A freelancer usually bills the build in one or two instalments, from around 5,000 DH for a showcase site. Hosting and domain come on top, and changes after launch are billed one by one. With a good, available freelancer, this is often the best value. The risk is availability over time: a freelancer who moves on can leave a site with nobody to update it, sometimes with the domain still in their name.

Traditional agency: a custom quote, then a yearly contract

A traditional agency quotes each project individually, 15,000 to 45,000 DH for a showcase site depending on pages, design and copywriting. It then offers a hosting and maintenance contract. You pay for a team, a process and continuity. That makes sense for a complex project; less so for a 10-page business site, where a large share of the quote pays for meetings and back-and-forth.

Online site builder: no build fee, a never-ending subscription

You pick a template on a platform, swap in your text and photos, and publish. Expect 100 to 250 DH a month for an ad-free plan with your own domain, often cheaper in year one. The real cost is your time: 20 to 40 hours to start if you have never done it, then a few hours a month. And the site stays on the platform: the day you leave, you start again from scratch.

All-inclusive subscription: one monthly price that covers everything

A newer model: no set-up fee, one monthly amount that includes the site, domain, hosting, SSL and maintenance. That is how our all-inclusive plan works: 399 DH a month including VAT with a 12-month commitment, then month to month, or 4,550 DH paid yearly, which is 238 DH less than twelve monthly payments. The first month is paid when you order, by bank card (CMI) or Lana Cash. The upside: no large upfront payment, and everything on one line. The trade-off: you keep paying for as long as the service runs.

Worked examples over three years

Let’s take the same project for everyone: a business that wants a 10-page showcase site in two languages, with a contact form, a WhatsApp button and a linked Google Business Profile. The amounts below are calculation assumptions, chosen within market ranges, to show the method. Replace them with the figures from your own quotes.

Line (3 years)	Freelancer	Traditional agency (pre-tax quote)	Online builder	All-inclusive plan
Build	6,000 DH	18,000 DH	0 DH	0 DH
Second language	1,500 DH	3,000 DH	your time	included
.ma domain	600 DH (200 DH × 3)	with hosting	400 DH (free in year one)	included
Hosting and SSL	2,100 DH (700 DH × 3)	5,400 DH (1,800 DH × 3)	5,400 DH subscription (150 DH × 36)	included
Maintenance and changes	3,600 DH (4 jobs at 300 DH a year)	9,000 DH (3,000 DH × 3)	1,800 DH of paid add-ons	included
20% VAT	depends on the freelancer’s status	7,080 DH	depends on the platform	price incl. VAT
Blog articles	not planned	not planned	you write them	36 (one a month)
3-year total	13,800 DH	42,480 DH incl. VAT	7,600 DH + ~100 h	14,364 DH incl. VAT (or 13,650 DH paying yearly)

Example 1: freelancer, 13,800 DH

A 6,000 DH build, 1,500 DH for the second language, then each year the domain (200 DH), hosting (700 DH) and four small jobs at 300 DH. The cheapest of the “done for you” options, as long as the freelancer is still reachable three years on. At ten changes a year instead of four, the total rises above 19,000 DH.

Example 2: traditional agency, 42,480 DH incl. VAT

An 18,000 DH pre-tax build, 3,000 DH for the second language, hosting and domain at 1,800 DH a year, a maintenance contract at 3,000 DH a year. Subtotal: 35,400 DH before tax. 20% VAT adds 7,080 DH. The number you remembered from the quote, 18,000 DH, turns out to be 42% of what you actually spend.

Example 3: online builder, 7,600 DH and about 100 hours

A 150 DH monthly plan for 36 months, a domain free in year one then 200 DH a year, and 600 DH a year of paid add-ons for translation and a better form. The lowest cash outlay. But 30 hours of set-up and 2 hours a month of updates come to roughly 100 hours over three years. At 100 DH an hour, your time is worth more than the subscription.

And the all-inclusive plan: 14,364 DH incl. VAT

36 payments of 399 DH, or three years paid at 4,550 DH, which comes to 13,650 DH. Everything in the other columns is included: build, second language, domain, hosting, SSL, backups, maintenance and small changes. On top, one blog article is written for you each month, 36 articles over three years, which none of the other options includes.

An honest reading of the table: over three years, the plan and the freelancer cost about the same, but not for the same scope. The traditional agency costs three times as much. The builder costs least in cash and most in time. And over five years the maths shifts: a build paid once, with low running costs, ends up cheaper than a subscription that keeps going.

What makes a website more expensive?

Two showcase sites can differ in price by a factor of three. These six factors explain nearly all of it.

• Number of pages. Each page needs copy, layout and a title for Google. One page per service or per city costs more to produce, but that is also what brings customers through search engine optimisation.
• Number of languages. A second language nearly doubles the content. Arabic also needs a right-to-left layout. See our multilingual website page.
• Features. A form and a WhatsApp button cost almost nothing. Online booking, a client area, online payment or a product catalogue put the project in another category.
• Content. Copy to write, photos to take, translation: often half of the real work.
• Custom work. A retouched template costs less than a design drawn for you. The difference shows, and you pay for it.
• Deadline. A site for next week, from a provider without a repeatable process, costs more than a site with no date.

What should not push the price of a showcase site up: SSL, mobile layout, legal pages and basic SEO settings. In 2026 these are the baseline, not options.

Pre-tax or tax-inclusive: VAT on your quote

In Morocco, the standard VAT rate is 20%, under Article 99 of the General Tax Code. An 18,000 DH pre-tax quote therefore means 21,600 DH including VAT. For a company that recovers VAT, the gap matters little; for an individual, a small business on a simplified status or any activity that cannot reclaim it, that is 20% more to pay.

Article 145 of the same code requires invoices to show, among other things, the provider’s identity and tax identifier, the business client’s ICE (common company identifier), the nature of the services and, separately, the amount of VAT. A quote that says neither “pre-tax” nor “incl. VAT”, or an invoice missing those details, is a warning sign. Our prices are shown including VAT.

Red flags in a website quote

What you read	Why it is a problem	What to ask for
“Business website: 6,000 DH”, no detail	No way to know what is included, so what will be billed later	The page count and a written list of deliverables
A pre-tax price with no VAT mentioned	20% more to pay if you cannot reclaim it	The amount including VAT, written on the quote
Domain “provided by the agency”	If it is in their name, you cannot leave with it	The domain registered in your name, as registrant
“Free hosting for the first year”	The real price arrives at the first renewal	The year-two price, in writing
“Guaranteed #1 on Google”	Google itself says no one can guarantee it	What will actually be done, page by page
100% upfront to a freelancer	No leverage if the work stops	Two or three instalments, the balance at launch
Nothing about after launch	Every change becomes a negotiation	Response time and the price of one change
No handover of logins or files	Changing provider becomes impossible	A written clause on ownership and handover
No legal pages	The contact form collects personal data (Law 09-08)	Legal notice and privacy policy included

On ranking promises, Google’s own documentation for site owners is explicit: no one can guarantee a #1 ranking in its results. A provider who promises one is telling you something untrue in the very first document.

Checklist: what a quote must include

Keep this list on your phone and tick it off against every quote you receive. A quote that ticks every box can be compared with the others. A quote that skips half of them is not cheaper: it is incomplete.

• The number of pages included, and the price of an extra page.
• The languages included, with every page translated, not just the home page.
• Who writes the copy and who supplies the photos.
• The domain name, its extension, and registration in your name.
• Hosting, SSL and backups, with the year-two and year-three prices.
• Maintenance: what it covers, its price, the response time.
• The price of a content change after launch.
• Basic SEO: title and description for every page, structured data, sitemap, linked Google Business Profile.
• Legal pages: legal notice and privacy policy.
• The delivery time, and when it starts counting.
• Approval: you see the site before launch, with corrections included.
• Ownership: the site, its content and the domain are yours, and logins are handed over.
• Payment terms, any commitment period, and how to cancel.
• The amount including VAT, and the provider’s tax identity.

The 399 DH a month plan: what it covers, and when it is the wrong fit

Since we have priced the other options line by line, here is ours with the same precision. Bzaf Studio’s all-inclusive plan costs 399 DH a month including VAT, with a 12-month commitment, then month to month. Or 4,550 DH a year. There is no set-up fee: the first month is paid when you order.

It includes a showcase website of up to 30 pages, a custom mobile-first design, a blog, an FAQ, a contact form, a WhatsApp button, SEO on every page, a second language (French and English, or French and Arabic), your Google Business Profile, legal pages, a .ma or .com domain in your name, hosting and maintenance with SSL, backups and small changes, and one blog article written for you each month. The site goes live 5 working days after we receive your complete brief, and you approve every page before launch. Under our terms of sale, once paid in full, the site, its content and the domain belong to you. If you order as a private individual, Moroccan Law 31-08 gives you 7 days to withdraw.

It is the wrong fit in these cases, and we would rather say so up front:

• You want an online shop, with a basket, payment and stock management. The plan is a showcase website; a shop is a different project with a different budget.
• You want to pay once and manage it yourself for five years or more, with no recurring costs. A one-off build from a reliable freelancer will be cheaper over that period, if you handle the updates.
• You need the site for three months, for a one-off event. The commitment is 12 months.
• Your project goes well beyond 30 pages, or needs custom development: an app, a members’ area, a connection to your management software.
• You only need a minimal presence and your customers come purely by word of mouth: a complete Google Business Profile and a WhatsApp Business account may be enough to start.

How to decide in ten minutes

If you need to decide today, ask yourself these four questions, in order.

• Do I need to sell and take payment online? Yes: this is not a showcase site; ask for online-shop quotes. No: keep going.
• Do I have more time than budget? Yes: an online builder, on a paid plan with your own domain. No: keep going.
• Do I have a trusted, available freelancer who puts the domain in my name and writes the aftercare into the quote? Yes: a good option, especially if you prefer to pay once.
• Do I want a known price, everything included, no upfront outlay, and a site live next week? That is what an all-inclusive plan is for.

A detailed comparison of provider profiles, with the questions to ask each one, is in our article freelancer or agency: who should build your site? We work from Marrakech for businesses all over Morocco, from Casablanca to Agadir, and we reply within 24 hours on WhatsApp. To get started, the order page takes five minutes.