Services & Pricing
A project builds or improves your system. Monthly care keeps the agreed site or application maintained. Setup, builds and project work are quoted separately from monthly management. ZAR is our base currency.
Managed Digital
Choose the care that fits your website or application. Monthly fees cover the agreed system and normal resources.
All plans include hosting, SSL, monitoring, security updates, backups and technical maintenance. Package details and support targets are below.
USD and EUR amounts are indicative estimates for comparison only. ZAR is our base pricing. Final scope, price and billing currency are confirmed in your quotation.
Exchange-rate estimates reviewed:
R750/month
Approx. US$45/month · €40/month
Essential technical care for a straightforward website.
R1,250/month
Approx. US$75/month · €65/month
Essential care plus more active website and enquiry support.
from R2,500/month
Approx. from US$150/month · from €135/month
Management of operational software and its supporting services.
Starting price assumes one modest application stack within an agreed operating scope. Application complexity, infrastructure requirements, transaction volume, integrations and support requirements may increase the monthly management fee.
Minor content and configuration changes included within reasonable use. Examples include replacing supplied text/images, correcting links, changing an existing form recipient or adjusting an existing setting. Application care can include existing roles and workflow settings. Larger design, development, integration or feature work is quoted separately.
Frequent or substantial requests need an agreed scope and schedule. We discuss any extra quotation before proceeding. Routine managed faults remain part of our care.
Recovery material is matched to the managed system. Customer data and uploads need backups even when the website code can be rebuilt.
Databases and uploaded media, if present: daily backups retained for 7 days at the hosting provider. Weekly encrypted off-provider copies, retaining 4 weekly copies.
Backup restore verification into an isolated environment at onboarding and annually.
Databases and uploaded media, if present: daily backups retained for 14 days at the hosting provider and in encrypted off-provider storage.
Backup restore verification into an isolated environment at onboarding and annually, including managed form data.
Managed databases and uploaded media: daily backups retained for 30 days at the hosting provider and in encrypted off-provider storage.
Backup restore verification into an isolated environment at onboarding and quarterly, including application/data health checks.
All plans retain protected versioned source, current/previous release references and an encrypted off-provider recovery bundle refreshed after releases, retained for 90 days. Infrastructure and configuration recovery material is refreshed after managed changes, with current/previous configuration retained for 90 days. Secrets are protected separately from Git.
Off-provider copies sit outside the hosting provider/account failure domain, with separately protected access and recoverable keys. Automated job/failure and integrity checks help identify backup problems; failed jobs are investigated during support hours.
Routine restore or redeployment of the agreed managed system from available verified material is included during support hours. Isolated backup restore verification proves that backups can be restored; it is not a full business-continuity or failover exercise.
Changes since the last successful daily backup may be lost, normally up to a day. If Essential's hosting provider becomes unavailable, its weekly independent copy may be up to seven days old. There is no guaranteed recovery time or zero-data-loss promise.
Large or rapidly changing datasets, transaction-critical recovery, hourly backups, longer archives, standby infrastructure and repeated historical recovery requests require a scoped quotation. If losing a day's changes is unacceptable, we agree stronger recovery protection before service begins.
Support during South African business hours: Monday–Friday, 09:00–17:00 SAST, excluding South African public holidays.
Response targets are measured during stated support hours. A business day means eight support hours; time outside those hours does not count. Response means human assessment/acknowledgement and a next step, not a guaranteed resolution time.
Monitoring continues outside support hours, but after-hours intervention is best effort unless separately contracted. Alerts are queued and prioritised. There is no 24/7 staffed support or guaranteed uptime; extended-hours cover is separately agreed.
Systems & Automation
Indicative starting ranges, not fixed quotations. Scope, integrations, complexity and ongoing support affect final pricing. We agree the work and quotation before building.
R5,000–R10,000
Approx. US$300–US$600 · €250–€550
A small, focused tool that removes a repeated manual step.
R12,000–R25,000
Approx. US$700–US$1,500 · €650–€1,350
Connect a defined process such as requests, approvals and updates.
R25,000–R60,000
Approx. US$1,500–US$3,600 · €1,350–€3,200
A purpose-built working tool for a team, with structured records and useful views.
R60,000–R150,000+
Approx. US$3,600–US$8,950+ · €3,200–€8,000+
An initial working version or larger system spanning more of the business's operations.
We look after the agreed system and help with small changes. When your needs grow into a project, we agree the scope and price first.
Separate quotations cover setup/builds, new pages or templates, redesigns, new application features, integrations or workflow rules, migrations and major platform upgrades, bulk content entry, copywriting, marketing/paid advertising and substantial SEO campaigns.
Third-party licences/subscriptions, domain fees, unusual compute/storage/traffic, extended support/recovery requirements and emergency repair of unsupported third-party systems are outside standard monthly fees. We help identify external dependency problems but cannot control another supplier's service.
Existing managed-component faults are covered by technical care. Fixing our own maintenance or deployment mistakes is not extra project work.
Start a conversation
A few details about your website or process help us understand what belongs in a project and what needs ongoing care.
Ask about scope and costThink through your process with Ask RnD Labs · Or contact us directly