Build
Your website, built right.
- Custom site, not a Wix template
- Mobile-first — most of your traffic is on a phone
- Loads in under a second on 4G
- SEO and Google Business setup included
- Your domain. Your content. Yours forever.
We build the website, run the hosting, wire up the backend, and stay on tap when things break. One team, one number, one invoice. From R3 000.
01 What we do
Most small businesses get squeezed between a freelancer who disappears and an agency that overcharges. We sit in the middle, on tap.
Your website, built right.
Hosting, domain, email — all of it.
Backends when you outgrow brochure.
02 Recent work
A selection of what's shipped recently across the studio.
— LOCKSMITH · MELVILLE
4.7 on Google · 104 reviews
Live · June 2026
Family-run locksmith serving Johannesburg's western suburbs. Built a one-page site that turns Google searches into phone calls and pre-filled WhatsApp messages.
Visit live site— PLUMBER · FOURWAYS
Live · May 2026
Independent plumber with 12 years of word-of-mouth business and nowhere to send Google traffic. Now ranking for "plumber Fourways" within a fortnight of launch.
— TREE SERVICE · BRYANSTON
Live · May 2026
Two-truck operation servicing the northern suburbs. Built a site with quote form, before/after gallery, and direct WhatsApp routing to the foreman on site.
More client work shipping this month.
03 What clients say
They built the whole thing in a week and the calls started the day it went live. I was getting two or three Google leads a day within the first month — never had that before.
Honestly the easiest business decision I've made this year. They handled the domain, the email, the hosting — I just had to point them at my old Facebook page and they took it from there.
What I liked was the price up-front. No "we'll get back to you with a quote" runaround. They told me R3 000, and that's what I paid. The team replies on WhatsApp the same day every time.
04 Pricing
Most agencies hide their pricing. We don't. If you fit a tier, here's what it costs. If you need something custom, we'll quote in 24 hours.
/ STARTER
R3 000once-off
Get found. Get called.
/ PRO
R4 500+ R300/month
Get found. Stay polished.
/ CUSTOM
From R8 000quoted
When brochure isn't enough.
05 How it works
WhatsApp or call. You tell us what you do, who you serve, what's annoying you about your current setup (or lack of one). No deck, no slides, no "discovery call" for R5 000.
Within 3 days, we send you a live preview link. Real site, your name on it, on a temporary URL. You see it before you spend a cent.
Like it? Pay the invoice (PayFast, EFT, Yoco — your call). One round of revisions included. We don't disappear after payment.
We register your .co.za, set up hosting and email, and point everything at your new site. You get login details. You own everything.
Phone breaks. Address changes. New service added. New photo to put up. WhatsApp us. If you're on Pro, it's included. If you're on Starter, it's R200 a pop.
06 About the studio
Forgelab is a Johannesburg-based digital studio building the online infrastructure South African small businesses actually need — websites, hosting, backend systems, stock and order management, customer databases.
The team brings together developers, designers and support staff under one roof, which means clients get one invoice, one point of contact, and one team accountable for everything from the domain name to the database. No subcontractors, no handover gaps, no "that's not our department."
The studio was set up to fix a specific problem: South African tradespeople and small business owners getting squeezed between freelancers who disappear and agencies that quote R40 000 for what should cost a fraction of that. Forgelab sits in the middle — fast, transparent, and built to stay around.
07 Start a project
The more concrete, the better. What you sell, who buys it, what's broken about getting found online right now.