Websites for auto-entrepreneurs in Morocco: legal musts, budget and first clients

You are registered as an auto-entrepreneur in Morocco, the country’s simplified self-employed status. Maybe you are a photographer in Casablanca, a yoga teacher or tour guide in Marrakech, a web developer in Tangier, a painter-decorator in Agadir. Your work comes from word of mouth and WhatsApp. You are wondering whether a website is worth it, what Moroccan law expects you to publish on it, and where to start without spending your evenings on it.

This guide answers those three questions with the official texts open on the desk: Law 114-13 on the auto-entrepreneur status, the 2026 General Tax Code published by the Moroccan tax administration (DGI), Law 31-08 on consumer protection and Law 09-08 on personal data. It ends with a month-by-month budget in dirhams, a page checklist and the questions self-employed clients ask us most.

Why an auto-entrepreneur needs a website, not just Instagram

A prospect who does not know you yet looks for two things before messaging: proof that you are serious, and proof that you do exactly what they need, where they live. An Instagram account shows pictures. A website answers questions: which services, which neighbourhoods, what price range, how long, what guarantees.

A website is also what Google can read. When someone searches “photographer Casablanca wedding”, “painter Gueliz” or “English tutor Agdal”, Google shows business profiles and pages. A page named exactly like the search, in the city of the search, stands a chance. A social media account much less so.

There is also a precise tax reason to spread your work across many clients. Under article 42 bis of the General Tax Code, when a service provider’s turnover with a single client exceeds 80,000 DH in a year, the excess is subject to a 30% withholding tax deducted by that client. Many smaller clients rather than one big one is exactly what a well-ranked website delivers.

First: check that your activity is eligible

Before spending a dirham, make sure your trade can be carried out under this status. Law 114-13 defines an auto-entrepreneur as an individual carrying out an industrial, commercial, craft or service activity on their own account, with annual collected turnover of no more than 500,000 DH for trade, industry and crafts, and 200,000 DH for services.

Eligible activities are listed in Decree 2-15-303 of 30 December 2015. On the services side they include IT consulting, hosting and development; PR and communication consulting; specialised design; photography; beauty, hairdressing and body care; painting, plastering, joinery and installation work; vehicle maintenance and repair; tour guiding; tutoring and education support; cleaning; removals. On the trade and craft side: bread and pastry making, prepared foods, clothing, leather goods, furniture, retail of textiles, fruit and vegetables or computer equipment, among others.

Conversely, Decree 2-15-263 of 10 April 2015 excludes a list of professions from the auto-entrepreneur tax regime, including architects, lawyers, doctors, pharmacists, vets, accountants, surveyors, printers, publishers, booksellers, hoteliers, driving and private school operators, importers and exporters, consultancy firms (“bureau d’études”) and service providers organising parties and receptions. If that is you, the status is not open to you; a website is still useful, but the legal details shown on it will be those of another business form.

One more piece of context: Law 114-13 entrusts the national auto-entrepreneur register to Barid Al-Maghrib, the Moroccan postal operator, which handles registrations, turnover returns and payments. Your tax and social benefits start from the date of that registration. If you are a foreign resident, confirm your own eligibility with Barid Al-Maghrib before you build anything around the status.

What the law asks you to display on your website

This is the least understood part, and the one where we see the most mistakes: freelancer websites with no name at all, or, at the other extreme, a made-up trade register number copied from a template. Here is what the texts say, and what they do not.

What the status spares you

Article 2 of Law 114-13 exempts auto-entrepreneurs from registering with the trade register and from keeping accounts under Law 9-88. So there is no trade register (RC) number to display, and you must not invent one. On the tax side, article 145-XI of the General Tax Code states that the obligations of article 145 (bookkeeping, mandatory invoice details) do not apply to auto-entrepreneurs, with one exception: like every taxpayer, you must have an e-mail address.

What consumer protection still requires

Article 7 of Law 114-13 is explicit: auto-entrepreneurs remain subject to consumer protection rules. Law 31-08 has a full chapter on distance contracts, which applies to any person “offering, by electronic means, […] the provision of a service to the consumer” (article 26), and it calls anyone using the internet in a professional activity a “cyber-merchant” (article 25).

In practice, article 29 of Law 31-08 requires a distance offer to state:

• your name, a phone number on which you can actually be reached, your e-mail and physical address;
• your trade register number only if you are required to register, which an auto-entrepreneur is not;
• your tax identification number only if you are subject to VAT; check your own position with your tax office before deciding;
• licence details or regulated-profession references, if your activity requires them;
• the main features of the service, payment and performance terms, and how long the offer and price remain valid;
• the existence of the withdrawal right, where it applies.

Article 3 of the same law adds a general duty to inform consumers of service prices and specific conditions. A site without any price indication is not unlawful in itself when the price depends on a quote, but it should at least explain how the price is set. And if you ask visitors to accept terms online, article 30 requires those terms to be easily accessible from the home page.

Our practical recommendation, which goes beyond the strict minimum: also show the number on your national auto-entrepreneur register certificate. No text requires it; it simply signals that you are properly registered, and business clients will ask for it anyway.

Your address when you work from home

Law 114-13 (article 3) lets you register your activity at your home, or in premises shared by several businesses, if you have no professional premises. It also protects your main residence: it cannot be seized for debts linked to the activity (article 4). Law 31-08, however, asks for a physical address in a distance offer. Two honest options: show your registered address in the legal notice only, without putting it on the home page; or use shared business premises if you would rather not publish your home address.

On Google it works differently. If you do not receive clients at your address, Google Business Profile’s official help asks you to remove the address from the profile and declare a service area instead, defined by cities or postcodes, up to 20 areas, ideally within two hours’ travel. Your profile can stay discreet about your home while appearing across Marrakech or Greater Casablanca.

Contact forms and Law 09-08

As soon as your site collects a name, phone number or e-mail, you are processing personal data. Article 5 of Law 09-08 requires you to inform people, at the moment of collection, of who the controller is (you), the purposes (calling back, preparing a quote), the recipients and their rights of access and correction. That is the job of the privacy policy and the short line under the form.

The CNDP, Morocco’s data protection authority, states that all processing must be declared beforehand unless it is excluded, exempted or subject to authorisation. It provides a simplified declaration form (F214) and issues a receipt within 24 hours. The receipt references then belong in your privacy policy (article 5-d of the law). It takes about an hour; do it at launch, not after a complaint.

Item	Required for an auto-entrepreneur?	Source
Full name	Yes, in a distance offer	Law 31-08, art. 29
Reachable phone, e-mail, physical address	Yes	Law 31-08, art. 29
Trade register (RC) number	No: auto-entrepreneurs are exempt	Law 114-13, art. 2; Law 31-08, art. 29
Tax identification number	Only if subject to VAT	Law 31-08, art. 29
Prices or how prices are set	Yes, consumer information	Law 31-08, art. 3
Terms reachable from the home page	If visitors accept an offer online	Law 31-08, art. 30
Notice on data collected	Yes, whenever there is a form	Law 09-08, art. 5
CNDP declaration	Yes, unless excluded or exempted	Law 09-08, art. 12; CNDP
National AE register number	Not required by these texts, recommended	Good practice

What about invoices, receipts and quotes?

Law 31-08 (article 4) requires you to give consumers an invoice, receipt, till ticket or equivalent document “in accordance with tax provisions”. The tax provisions, in turn, exempt auto-entrepreneurs from the formal invoice rules of article 145. In practice, a simple, sequentially numbered receipt with your name, register number, date, service and amount collected works for private clients, and gives you a record for your turnover return.

Your website can help without any automation: a “Prices and quotes” page explaining what a quote contains, and a “Request a quote on WhatsApp” button. Clients know what to expect, and you save back-and-forth.

Your website and your tax: what changes and what does not

Almost every self-employed client asks: “Can I deduct the website?” For an auto-entrepreneur, the answer follows directly from article 42 bis of the General Tax Code: income tax is applied to annual turnover actually collected, at the rates of article 73-III:

• 0.5% of collected turnover for commercial, industrial and craft activities, up to 500,000 DH;
• 1% of collected turnover for service providers, up to 200,000 DH.

There is no profit calculation, so no expenses are deducted. The website, like your phone or equipment, does not reduce the tax. That actually makes the decision simpler: the site is judged only on the business it brings.

Returns are filed monthly or quarterly, depending on your choice, with the designated body, together with payment of the tax (article 82 bis of the Tax Code) and the social contribution (article 6 of Law 114-13). On a quarterly basis, filing and payment are due before the end of the month following the quarter. Example: a graphic designer who collects 30,000 DH between January and March files before the end of April and pays 300 DH of tax (1%), plus the social contribution.

Two rules to keep in mind once the website starts working:

• The ceiling. If collected turnover exceeds the ceiling two years in a row, you lose the regime from the following 1 January (article 43-4° of the Tax Code, article 8 of Law 114-13). For a service provider, 200,000 DH a year is roughly 16,700 DH collected per month on average.
• The single client. Above 80,000 DH of services billed to the same client in a year, the excess is withheld at source at 30% by that client. Example: 100,000 DH billed to one company means 20,000 DH of excess, so 6,000 DH withheld, against 200 DH of tax on the same amount at 1%. Diversifying your client base is not just about security: it is money.

Finally, you are struck off the national register if, among other cases, you file no turnover or zero turnover for a full calendar year (excluding the year of registration) or pay nothing for a year (article 8 of Law 114-13). A website that brings steady work protects you on that front too.

The pages you need, and what each should say

A self-employed website does not need fifty pages. It needs the right ones, each with a clear job. This is the structure we most often deliver for independent professionals, and it fits comfortably within the 30 pages of our showcase website.

• Home: one sentence saying what you do and where (“Interior and exterior painting in Marrakech, quote within 24 hours”), the WhatsApp button, three projects, three reviews, your area.
• One page per service: interior painting, façades, decorative plaster; or portraits, weddings, product shots; or showcase sites, maintenance, training. Each page says what is included, the lead time, an indicative price or how it is calculated.
• Service area: the cities and neighbourhoods you cover and any travel fee. If you work in two cities, one page per city.
• Portfolio: your own photos, before/after, with a line of context (area, size, time taken). Never stock photos passed off as your work.
• Prices and quotes: honest ranges, what makes the price vary, how a quote works, accepted payment methods.
• About: who you are, since when, your auto-entrepreneur status, how you work. A photo of you.
• Reviews: an excerpt of your Google reviews with a link to the profile.
• FAQ: the ten questions you get on WhatsApp, answered.
• Contact: WhatsApp, phone, e-mail, a short form, response hours.
• Legal notice: name, registered address, phone, e-mail, national register number, website host.
• Privacy policy: what you do with form data, access and correction rights, CNDP receipt references.
• Blog: one article a month on a real client question (“how much does it cost to paint an 80 m² flat in Marrakech”, “what to plan for a family photo shoot”).

A second language often pays off: English if you work with expats and visitors in Marrakech, Agadir or Tangier, Arabic for a local clientele. Our offer includes a bilingual version (French and English, or French and Arabic).

First clients: Google, then WhatsApp

A website without visitors is useless. For a self-employed professional, the first visitors almost always come from local search. Here is the order we work in.

1. Your Google Business Profile

It is free to create through Google Business Profile help. Choose the most precise category (“Painter”, “Photographer”, “Mobile hairdresser”), set your service area if you travel to clients, add photos of your work and the link to your site. The profile and the site must say exactly the same thing: same name, same phone number, same hours. Our guide to local SEO in Morocco details the method, and our offer includes setting up the profile.

2. One page per service and per city

People do not search for “auto-entrepreneur”; they search for a service in a place. Each service page carries a title that matches a real search: “Painter-decorator in Marrakech: interiors, façades, plaster”, “Wedding photographer in Casablanca”. If you cover two cities, build two pages, each with its own projects. That is what we mean by on-page SEO on every page, and it is included.

3. WhatsApp, in the right place

In Morocco, first contact happens on WhatsApp. Your site should make it instant: a button visible on every screen that opens a chat with a pre-written message such as “Hello, I would like a quote for … in …”. The client only fills in the blanks. Use the same link on your Google profile, your Instagram bio and your e-mail signature.

Reply fast. The freelancer who answers within the hour wins the job over the one who answers the next day. Prepare three or four standard replies (prices, availability, area, portfolio photos) so you are not retyping everything.

4. Reviews

After each successful job, send the direct link to your Google review form on WhatsApp with a thank-you note. Answer every review. Never buy reviews or publish invented ones: it misleads clients, and it is the kind of thing Google eventually spots.

5. One article a month

An article answering a real client question (“what budget for a kitchen refit in Rabat”, “how long does a product photo shoot take”) attracts visitors who are already looking for a provider. With our offer, we write one a month for you.

Budget: a month-by-month example in dirhams

Take a fictional but realistic example: Yassine, a self-employed painter-decorator in Marrakech, registered for “painting work” (a service activity, taxed at 1%). He works alone, travels to clients, and bills about 2,500 DH per small job on average. Here is his first year with a website on the monthly plan at Bzaf Studio.

Month	What happens	Website cost	Running total
Month 1	Order, 20-minute brief, project photos sent; site live 5 working days after the complete brief; Google profile set up with service area	399 DH	399 DH
Month 2	First blog article; review requests to the last 5 clients; WhatsApp link added everywhere	399 DH	798 DH
Month 3	Second article; dedicated page for decorative plaster; first quote requests from Google	399 DH	1,197 DH
Months 4 to 6	One article a month; new project photos; replies to reviews	3 × 399 DH	2,394 DH
Months 7 to 9	Page for a second area he really covers (a neighbouring town, for example), with its own projects	3 × 399 DH	3,591 DH
Months 10 to 12	Seasonal articles (before summer, before the holidays); review of enquiries that came through the site	3 × 399 DH	4,788 DH

Over the year, the website costs 4,788 DH on the monthly plan, or 4,550 DH paid in one go (238 DH saved). At 2,500 DH per job, two jobs a year from the website pay for it. Every extra job is turnover net of the website cost.

Now set that against his tax. If he collects 150,000 DH over the year, Yassine pays 1,500 DH of tax (1%), plus his social contribution. The website is about 3.2% of turnover. And he stays comfortably under the 200,000 DH ceiling: if he gets close to it, that is the moment to talk to an accountant about another regime, not to switch the website off.

For a trade or craft activity (pastry, tailoring, furniture making) the reasoning is the same with 0.5% tax and a 500,000 DH ceiling. Just do not promise online sales: a showcase website presents your products and takes orders via WhatsApp; it is not an online shop with card payment.

Your options as an auto-entrepreneur, and what they cost

There are four ways to get a website. None is wrong in itself; they cost different amounts and take different amounts of your time.

Option	Upfront cost	What to plan for	Best for
Online website builder, do it yourself	Platform subscription	Your time: copy, photos, SEO, updates, legal pages	People who enjoy it and have free evenings
Freelancer	From about 5,000 DH	Hosting, domain and changes often billed separately	A precise need and a trusted contact
Traditional agency	15,000 to 45,000 DH	Longer lead times, maintenance extra	Larger projects, company budgets
All-inclusive subscription (Bzaf Studio)	399 DH incl. VAT for the first month, no set-up fee	12-month commitment, then month to month	Self-employed people who want a professional site without tying up cash

What the Bzaf Studio subscription includes, at no extra cost: up to 30 pages, custom mobile-first design, blog, FAQ, contact form, WhatsApp button, SEO on every page, a bilingual version, Google Business Profile, legal pages, domain name, hosting, SSL certificate, backups and maintenance including small changes, and one blog article written for you every month. Payment is online by bank card (CMI) or Lana Cash. You approve every page before launch. Full details are on our offer page.

What it does not include, to be clear: no online shop with on-site payment. If your business needs a basket and card payments, that is a different project.

Mistakes we see on freelancer websites

Mistake	Consequence	Fix
No name, no address, just a number	Client distrust, breach of article 29 of Law 31-08	Name, phone, e-mail, registered address in the legal notice
Fake trade register number copied from a template	False information on a professional site	No RC number: show your national AE register number
One “Services” page listing everything	Invisible for specific searches	One page per service, with its own title
No price indication at all	Pointless quote requests, hesitant clients	Ranges and price factors on a Prices page
Form without a data notice	Breach of article 5 of Law 09-08	Notice under the form, privacy policy, CNDP declaration
Home address shown on Google although you travel	Clients ringing your doorbell, misconfigured profile	Service-area profile with no address shown
Photos taken from the internet	Instant loss of trust, rights issues	Your own photos, even phone shots in good light

Checklist before you launch

With us or with anyone else, check these points on your phone before announcing the site to clients.

• Your activity is on the list of eligible activities and not on the list of excluded professions.
• Your name, phone, e-mail and a physical address appear on the site.
• No invented trade register number; your national register number is shown.
• Each service has its own page, with a title matching a real search and the city.
• Prices, or at least how they are calculated, are explained.
• The WhatsApp button opens a chat with the right number and a pre-written message.
• The form actually delivers messages, tested with a real request.
• The privacy policy is in your name, and the CNDP declaration is filed.
• Your Google Business Profile exists, is linked to the site, and uses a service area if you travel.
• The photos are yours, compressed, and the home page loads fast on 4G.

Where to start this week

Gather three things: your list of services with a price range, twenty or so photos of your work, and your registration certificate. That is most of the brief. Create or claim your Google profile in parallel. The rest is our job: structure, copy, SEO, legal pages, launch.

A website will not fill your diary overnight. What it does from day one is convert better the people who were already looking for you: fewer repeated questions on WhatsApp, more complete quote requests, more trust. On Google, the first effects usually show after a few weeks to a few months, and they build with reviews, photos and articles. If you are in Marrakech, Casablanca or Tangier, our city pages show what we do locally; elsewhere, we work all over Morocco. To get started, the order page takes five minutes, and we reply within 24 hours on WhatsApp.