Therapist / group-practice website pricing — market & competition research

Internal research for danielslater.dev. Compiled 2026-07-23. All figures ZAR unless noted. USD→ZAR converted at a working R18/USD (actual mid-2026 spot ~R17.5–18; treat converted figures as ±3% estimates). Everything is sourced inline; a "couldn't verify" list is at the end. This is an internal decision document, not client-facing copy.

Purpose: set the group/medical tier and pressure-test the current working assumptions — solo R2,500 once-off + R550/mo; group flat R6,500 once-off + R950/mo. Cross-referenced with the existing biz/PRICING.md (which at the time defined solo Essential R550 / Managed R1,250 and a R2,500 "Refresh" build) and prior biz/research/ sweeps.

⚠️ 2026-07-29 — the recommendations in this doc are SUPERSEDED; the research is not

Daniel locked the pricing model on 2026-07-29 (PRICING.md top box + §5/§5b/§7, logged in DECISIONS.md). This document was written on 2026-07-23 against the old two-tier care plan (Essential R550 / Managed R1,250), which no longer exists — so everything it recommends about our own prices is out of date:

• Care plan is now 3 tiers: Host R450/mo · Maintain R850/mo · Grow R2,500/mo (founding clients 50% off for 12 months → R225 / R425 / R1,250). The "solo monthly R550" verdict in §1, §6.2 and §7, and the whole Essential/Managed framing, are retired — Maintain R850 is the solo number now.
• Work is billed at R1 000/hr, min 1 hour (client-facing, on invoices).
• Group monthly: this doc's R950-is-underpriced finding was accepted and then re-derived onto the locked tiers — the live bands are Small 2–3 R6,500 + R1,250/mo · Standard 4–6 R7,500 + R1,750/mo · Large 7+ R8,500+ + R2,250+/mo (PRICING.md §5b), not the R950 / R1,250 / R1,500–1,750 ladder in §7 below.
• Build prices (R2,500 refresh / R3,500 new / R6,500–8,500 group) are unchanged as advertised numbers, but builds are now billed hourly — see PRICING.md §8.1, the one genuinely open question.

What is still valid and still citable: every sourced market anchor and competitor number in §2, §3, §4, §5, §8, §9 and §10 — Psychology Today ZA R199/mo, Storyteller R499+VAT, Web Partner R299/499/699, VegaTech R395/650, iNet Xis R6,500→R25,000, Bunnypants R8,980→R27,980, the session-rate and code-86205 economics, and the structural arguments (flat-vs-per-seat, what to bundle, how to anchor a group price). All of it was re-validated by the 2026-07-24 Firecrawl live scan. Read this doc for the market, read PRICING.md for our prices.

1. Executive summary

The verdict in one line: three of the four numbers are well-judged; the group monthly (R950) is the outlier and is underpriced — it sits below your own solo "Managed" plan (R1,250) and is only 1.7× the solo Essential despite a group carrying 2–5× the practitioners, content and support surface.

Recommended price bands (reasoning in §6–7):

Why the group monthly is the one to fix: on affordability it's a non-issue (R950 is ~0.3–0.6% of a 4-person group's gross — a rounding error). The problem is internal consistency and value capture: a multi-practitioner practice paying R950 would pay less than a single solo client on your Managed plan (R1,250), and only 1.7× the solo Essential. The 2–3× "group vs solo" heuristic, the extra support surface, and every natural anchor (4× solo, an amortised agency build, stacked directory listings) all support R1,200–1,500. Affordability gives you enormous headroom; the constraint is perceived value, which you fix with positioning, not a low price.

Strategic frame (consistent with PRICING.md): cheap door, recurring engine. Keep builds low as the acquisition hook (you're the cheapest "yes" vs Wix-hassle or an agency's R6.5k+); make the money on the subscription, which is the actual business asset. That logic says: hold the build numbers low, but don't under-price the recurring — especially for groups.

2. What ZA therapists & practices pay for a website today

Four routes, cheapest to most expensive. The therapist's real alternatives.

2a. DIY builders & self-hosted (the floor)

Key nuance: Wix and Squarespace do not bill South Africans in ZAR — they charge in USD, so add ~2–3% card forex + likely 15% SA VAT on top. Local hosts bill in real rand. The DIY floor a therapist actually experiences is ~R100–300/mo of recurring cost + their own time to build and maintain it.

2b. Freelancers

• Once-off, small 3–8-page site: realistic core R5,000–R15,000; budget/template floor R3,000–R5,000 (as low as ~R999 at the very bottom); experienced/custom top R15,000–R25,000.
• Hourly: R300–R1,000+/hr (experienced ~R800/hr).
• Maintenance: R500–R1,000/mo if offered at all.
• Sources: designtalks, growthpulsemedia, procompare.

2c. Agencies

• Once-off small-business site (published packages): cluster R6,500–R17,000; full shelf spread R3,500–R23,690. SME Rocket's 2026 survey of 56 ZA agencies: 1-page avg R3,765 · 5-page R6,633 · eCommerce R8,445; overall observed range R399–R56,350.
• Boutique/mid custom quotes: R20,000–R60,000 (guide-stated). Premium outliers (Gridweb) R55,000+ — ignore for small-site benchmarking.
• Maintenance/care plans: R500–R2,000/mo mainstream; premium/SLA R1,500–R5,000/mo; hosting-only R50–R300/mo (survey avg ~R107).
• Sources: SME Rocket 2026 survey, Bunnypants, New Perspective.

2d. Subscription / "website-as-a-service" (the model closest to yours)

This is your direct comparison set — low/no upfront, one flat monthly bundling build + hosting + support.

Web Partner's own market read: a complete website package incl. hosting runs R299–R699/month in ZA (webpartner blog). Your R550/mo sits squarely inside this band.

3. Competitor & substitute landscape (health/therapy-specific)

Ranked by how directly it competes for the same rand. Full sourced comparables table is in §9.

The three that matter most:

1. Psychology Today ZA — R199/mo, no contract (join.psychologytoday.com/za/signup). The dominant substitute: a real, localised ZA directory (province/city pages populated with ZA therapists) that many use instead of a website. Includes a Google-ranking profile, client filters, call/email tracking, a free teletherapy platform, and a protected phone number. This R199/mo is the number a solo therapist mentally compares your R550 against — the affordability is fine, but the value gap ("why pay 2.75× for a site when PT gets me found?") is the real objection to answer.

2. Storyteller — R499/mo +VAT (≈ R574 incl.) + R8,000 once-off corporate ID (storyteller.co.za/doctors-websites). The closest existing ZA productised recurring competitor found: 1–5-page WordPress doctor site, hosting, security, on-page SEO, 1 hr/mo maintenance, analytics, backups. Your R550/mo (VAT-inclusive, assuming you're not yet VAT-registered) is effectively cheaper than Storyteller's R499+VAT — a genuine positioning win, not a problem.

3. ZA medical/health web agencies (once-off) — the "big upfront" alternative:

   • iNet Xis: R6,500 / R10,500 / R15,000 / R25,000 tiered medical builds (inetaxis.co.za). Their entry tier is R6,500 — exactly your proposed group build number.
   • Bunnypants (healthcare): R8,980 (3pg) → R14,780 (6pg) → R17,420 (9pg) → R27,980+ (bunnypants).
   • Avily / SA Medical Specialists (455+ sites built): quote-only (avily, samedicalwebsitedesign). Avily built Bergvliet Family Practice — see §8.
   • Page 52 (Cape Town WordPress studio): quote-only; builds psychologist sites (it built Lezani Myburgh's — §8). A direct local competitor for exactly this niche (page52.co.za).

Other substitutes / adjacencies:

• ZA therapist directories (cheaper substitutes for having a site): Professional Minds R50–70/mo or R400/yr (directory.professionalminds.co.za); Therapist Directory R750 base listing (therapist-directory.co.za, cadence unverified); TherapyRoute free basic, Pro undisclosed (therapyroute.com).
• Global therapist website builders (therapists elsewhere use these, poor ZA fit — USD billing, US/HIPAA framing): Brighter Vision $99–299/mo (R1,782–5,382), TherapySites $69/mo (R1,242, owned by Psychology Today), Zencare (US-only), SimplePractice / Jane App (EHR-with-site, no ZAR/local payments).
• ZA practice-management tools (GoodX, Healthbridge, Elixir, RecoMed): provide booking widgets / patient portals but none bundle a marketing website — the "website" and "booking/PM" layers are separate purchases here. A productised site that cleanly embeds GoodX/RecoMed/Cliniko booking fills a real gap (goodx.co.za, recomed.co.za).

4. Willingness-to-pay & practice economics

4a. Session rates (2025) — TherapyRoute national breakdown

Metro rates run at the top of each band (Sandton/Cape Town R900–1,380 for psychologists); rural/telehealth lower.

4b. Medical-aid tariff — the amount actually collected

Code 86205 ("assessment/consultation/therapy, 51–60 min") 2025 scheme rates: R1,244.90–R1,383.20, midpoint ≈ R1,290 (psydev.co.za). Practical anchor: a psychologist collects ≈ R1,250/session; a counsellor/social worker ≈ R700–1,000.

4c. Practice revenue (estimates — assumptions flagged)

Using an international caseload benchmark (15–25 client-hours/week; no ZA-specific data found) at a conservative 18 sessions/week × 46 weeks ≈ 68 sessions/month:

Gross billings, before rooms/admin/HPCSA fees/tax/bad debt — none quantifiable from ZA sources.

4d. The fee as a share of revenue (the sanity check)

Marketing-budget benchmark: professional-services firms spend ~5–14% of revenue on marketing (smaller firms the higher end) (Hinge). A website is core marketing infrastructure and sits comfortably inside even a bare 5% line at every price point tested.

The clean pitch: one extra retained client per year pays the whole annual fee. A 7-session course (R7,000) covers a year of R550; a 12-session course (R12,000) covers a year of R950; ~13 sessions covers a year of R1,250. Affordability is never the constraint — perceived value and switching friction are.

4e. Group practices

The "& Associates" model is common and easy to find (Psychologists Centurion & Associates; Dr Mark Tunbridge & Associates, CT; and the two group examples in §8). Typical size ~3–8 practitioners sharing rooms, reception and a shared web/brand presence (exact ZA distribution not published — estimate). A shared website is exactly this kind of pooled overhead, so the relevant unit is the per-practitioner share of a flat fee — which is tiny (R238–313/practitioner at R950–1,250 for a group of 4). Groups have both budget and a natural reason to pool for a single professional site.

5. Pricing-model norms (structure, not numbers)

5a. Once-off vs monthly vs WaaS

WaaS has grown because upfront budget is the #1 small-business friction and it removes technical responsibility. Honesty flag: over 2+ years WaaS is usually a value/convenience play, not a cheaper play — at ~R500–800/mo you pass a once-off build's cost in ~4–6 months. Justify it on "always current + handled + one bill," not on raw price (Kinsta, SuperDupr, Gridweb).

5b. Flat group tier vs per-practitioner — flat wins here

Per-seat is the right model only when each seat independently extracts value (each clinician logs into software; each directory listing generates its own leads — which is exactly why Psychology Today charges strictly per profile with no group discount). A shared website is shared infrastructure that does not scale with headcount — your marginal cost of a 4th therapist's bio page is ~zero, so per-seat pricing would be transparently cost-disconnected and invite pushback (Paddle).

Recommendation: sell the group a flat tier, banded by practice size (Small 2–3 / Standard 4–6 / Large 7+), with a small per-practitioner add-on for the parts that genuinely scale with headcount — individual profile pages, per-practitioner booking calendars, individual bio SEO. This is the standard hybrid mature SaaS converges on: flat base + per-seat expansion lever. Comparable practice-mgmt SaaS does per-provider ($50–79 first + $19–50 each additional; SimplePractice tiers by features + per clinician) — but that's software each provider uses, not one shared asset.

5c. What to bundle into the monthly so it reads as service, not rent

Hosting + domain + SSL + email · security/backups/uptime monitoring · a defined monthly allowance of content edits/small changes (the friction-remover clients value most) · software updates · a monthly or quarterly touchpoint (visible proof-of-work — proactive engagement retains at 60–80% vs 15–20% reactive) · support SLA. Rule: anything that's ongoing work or ongoing risk you carry belongs in the monthly and reads as value; anything one-and-done (the build, a redesign) is a project fee or tier bump, so the monthly never feels like paying twice.

5d. Anchoring the group price (three anchors already in their head)

1. N × solo — 4 therapists each wanting a presence "should" be 4 × R550 = R2,200/mo. A flat group price below that is a self-evident saving (arithmetic they do automatically). This is why per-seat backfires — you'd be charging the anchor instead of beating it.
2. An amortised agency build — a R40k+ bespoke build is ~R1,700/mo over 2 years before hosting/maintenance.
3. Stacked directory listings — 4 therapists on Psychology Today = 4 × R199 = R796/mo for rented listings they don't own. A flat group tier gives them their own branded site.

A group tier of R1,250/mo sits above the directory-stack (R796), well below N×solo (R2,200) and below an amortised agency build (R1,700) — defensible from every angle while still an obvious saving.

6. Pressure-testing the four assumptions

⚠️ Superseded 2026-07-29 — the verdicts below are judged against Essential R550 / Managed R1,250, which no longer exist. Live prices: PRICING.md §5/§5b (Host R450 / Maintain R850 / Grow R2,500; group R1,250 / R1,750 / R2,250+). The reasoning still holds; the numbers don't.

6.1 Solo build R2,500 — ✅ keep as the door, nudge new builds to R3,500

Well below every market floor (freelancer R5,000–15,000; agency R6,500–17,000; even the cheapest agency shelf package ~R999–2,500). As a rebuild/refresh of an existing site this is a deliberate, strategically sound "cheap yes" (matches the PRICING.md "Refresh R2,500"). Recommendation: hold R2,500 for a refresh; charge R3,500 for a genuinely new multi-page build (more work, and still cheap vs market — matches the PRICING.md "Starter R3,500"). Don't go lower; R2,500 is already an outlier-cheap anchor.

6.2 Solo monthly R550 — ✅ well-judged, hold

Sits mid-band of ZA WaaS/care-plans (Web Partner R299–699; VegaTech R395–650) and is effectively cheaper than the one direct ZA health competitor found (Storyteller R499+VAT ≈ R574). Covers your cost-to-serve (PRICING.md: below ~R400/mo doesn't cover your time). At 0.5–1.3% of a solo therapist's gross it's trivially affordable. The only real friction is the R199 Psychology Today anchor — a therapist already "found" via PT needs the value story (an owned, branded, conversion-focused site + it's handled) to justify 2.75×. That's a positioning job, not a price problem. R550 is right; R495–650 all fine.

6.3 Group build R6,500 — 🟡 defensible, mild headroom → default R7,500

R6,500 is 2.6× the solo build (consistent with a 2–3× group ratio) and exactly iNet Xis's cheapest medical tier — i.e. it's at the floor of the ZA medical-agency market (Bunnypants healthcare starts at R8,980; iNet Xis's real "practice" tier is R10,500). A group site is more work than a solo one (multiple practitioner bios, more pages, more stakeholder coordination). Groups also have budget — Bergvliet (5 GPs) commissioned a custom Avily build (§8). Recommendation: make R7,500 the default group build, keep R6,500 as a floor for small 2–3-person groups, and add +R750–1,000 per practitioner beyond ~4. Still a cheap door vs the R10k–28k medical-agency alternatives — just not leaving as much on the table.

6.4 Group monthly R950 — 🔴 underpriced, raise to ~R1,250

This is the number to change. Three independent reasons:

1. Internal inconsistency. Your existing solo Managed plan is R1,250/mo (PRICING.md). A multi-practitioner practice paying R950 would pay less than a single solo client on your premium plan — and a group inevitably needs Managed-level service (more edits, more people, more support). The group flat should be ≥ solo Managed, not below it.
2. Ratio is too thin. R950 is only 1.7× the solo Essential (R550) for a client carrying 2–5× the practitioners, content and support surface. The 2–3× group heuristic and the extra real workload both point higher. R1,250 = 2.3× Essential = your existing Managed — clean and consistent.
3. Every anchor supports more. R1,250 still sits below N×solo (R2,200 for four), below an amortised agency build (R1,700), and is an easy sell above the directory-stack (R796). And it's ~0.4% of a 4-person group's gross (R313/practitioner) — affordability gives you all the headroom you want.

Recommendation: Group monthly R1,250 flat (up to ~4 practitioners), + ~R150–200/mo per extra practitioner beyond that, with an optional "Small group (2–3)" entry at R950 if you want a cheaper on-ramp. If you'd rather keep it dead simple: a single flat R1,250 group tier is the cleanest fix and resolves the inversion outright.

7. Recommended price ladder (consolidated)

⚠️ Superseded 2026-07-29 — historical. This ladder was the 2026-07-23 recommendation. The live, locked ladder is PRICING.md §5 (Host R450 / Maintain R850 / Grow R2,500, founding 50% for 12 months) and §5b (group R6,500+R1,250 / R7,500+R1,750 / R8,500++R2,250+). The positioning notes underneath the table are still good.

Add-on lever (per-practitioner): full profile page + individual booking calendar + bio SEO — +R750–1,000 build / +R150–200/mo each. This lets revenue grow with the practice without per-seating the base.

Positioning notes:

• Anchor the group tier out loud against 4 × solo (R2,200), an amortised agency build (~R1,700/mo) and 4 stacked Psychology Today listings (R796 for rented, un-owned listings).
• Lead solo sales with the value gap vs the R199 Psychology Today default: an owned, branded, conversion-focused site that's handled — not a rented directory row.
• If/when you register for VAT, revisit: competitors like Storyteller quote +VAT, so your flat VAT-inclusive numbers currently read cheaper than headline-similar rivals.

8. Ground-truth from the eight sample practices

Recon of the practices Daniel flagged — confirms the model (solo psychologists rarely publish fees; medical/dermatology cash consults are high; DIY/absent sites are common; booking tooling is fragmented).

Reads for pricing & prospecting:

• Only the dermatologist publishes a number — R1,500 cash/consult, medical aid not accepted — a strong high-WTP signal for the medical (vs psychology) end of the group tier.
• Psychologists systematically decline to publish fees (all three anchor to "medical-aid rates" or "cash practice"). WTP for them has to be inferred from the tariff (~R1,250/session) — consistent with §4.
• Repaint prospects among the sample: Joshua Rubenstein (free WordPress.com — weakest), Dr Pearce (Wix), Dr Misra (no site at all). Weaker prospects (already decent): Bergvliet, Lezani Myburgh.
• Booking is fragmented (Cliniko / BookEm / Fresha-scrape / none) and separate from the website — reinforces §3: a productised site that cleanly embeds an existing booking tool (Cliniko/GoodX/RecoMed) is a real, unfilled gap. Dr Gantsho is the archetype: comfortable paying for SaaS tooling, but has no owned brand site — a clean "build the site, keep your Cliniko" pitch.
• Page 52 is a direct competitor, not a prospect — a Cape Town WordPress agency already serving this exact psychologist niche (pricing quote-only).

9. Comparables table (master — with sources)

Session-rate / medical-aid / practice-economics sources are cited in §4.

10. What couldn't be verified / caveats

• Exchange rate: USD figures converted at a flat R18/USD; actual mid-2026 spot is ~R17.5–18, and US-vendor charges also carry card forex + often 15% SA VAT. Treat all converted USD figures as ±3–5%.
• Wix/Squarespace ZAR: neither bills ZA in rand (USD only); ZA-facing figures are USD conversions from secondary sources, not official ZAR prices. ~15% SA VAT on both assumed but not line-item-confirmed.
• Elementor Pro exact price ($59/yr) from secondary sources — vendor page didn't expose it.
• ZA DIY-builder adoption % — no reliable ZA-specific market-share data found (only global stats + the ">70% of ZA traffic is mobile" datapoint).
• Session volume & practice revenue — sessions/week (15–25) is an international caseload benchmark applied to ZA (no ZA caseload data found); revenue scenarios are estimates (verified per-session rate × assumed volume), and are gross (rooms/admin/tax/bad-debt/scheme short-payments not deducted).
• Code 86200 rate (R110.90) from a search snippet, not a primary page (code 86205 is solidly sourced).
• Group-practice typical size (3–8) & cost-split mechanics — from example practices + general knowledge; no published ZA distribution found.
• Marketing-spend % (5–14%) — international professional-services benchmark; no ZA small-practice figure.
• ZA directory pricing gaps: TherapyRoute Pro price, Findhelp listing fee, and Therapist Directory's billing cadence (R750 once-off vs recurring) all unconfirmed; RecoMed per-booking fee not published.
• Quote-only competitors (Avily, SA Medical Specialists, Page 52, GoodX/Healthbridge/Elixir pricing) publish no numbers — their price points are unknown, only that they exist in-market.
• "Group tier = 2–3× solo" is an internal heuristic (directionally consistent with good-better-best ratios), not a single-source hard rule; it's cross-checked here two ways (below N×solo; below amortised agency build).
• The R199 Psychology Today ZA price and Storyteller R499+VAT are the two most decision-relevant competitor numbers and are both directly confirmed on-page — highest confidence in the report.
• ZA once-off ranges derive partly from ZA agencies' own published surveys (SME Rocket, Gridweb) — provider self-reporting, internally consistent across several sources but not independent audits.

Method: six parallel research agents (DIY costs · freelancer/agency pricing · competitor landscape · therapist economics · pricing-model norms · sample-practice recon), cross-referenced with existing biz/PRICING.md and biz/research/ sweeps. ~40+ sources; all pricing figures carry an inline link.