Whale TechNairobiWhat we found in your trade
Of 40 interior designers we tested in Nairobi, 26 had no working website. 19 of them had let a domain expire — meaning a portfolio that existed, was paid for, and is now simply gone.
These numbers come from the Nairobi Web Audit — 566 businesses tested in August 2026, method and limitations published in full. We don’t name the businesses.
Why it matters for interior designers
A feed is not a portfolio
A grid shows your latest work. It does not let a client walk through a completed project room by room, or see the brief and the budget it answered. Clients choosing a designer want the whole story, not the last twelve squares.
You do not own the platform
Accounts get restricted, reach changes, and rules move. Nineteen of the designers we audited lost their site to a lapsed domain; anyone relying only on a social account is one policy change from the same outcome.
Big projects are researched quietly
The client deciding on a full house fit-out looks at your work repeatedly, over weeks, often without ever messaging you. They need somewhere to do that which is not a DM.
What your site actually needs
Not a brochure. The specific things a customer in this trade looks for before they get in touch.
- Projects as full case studies, not thumbnails
- Large images that still load fast on mobile
- The brief, the constraint and what you did
- Residential and commercial kept separate
- An enquiry route that is not only Instagram
Prices are the same as everywhere else on this site — KES 25,000, 45,000 or 75,000 to build, then a small monthly amount that keeps it online. The domain is registered in your name, not ours.
Things people ask before they hire us
I already post everything on Instagram. Why pay for a site?
Keep Instagram — it is good at discovery. The problem is that it is rented, chronological and shallow. A site is where a serious client goes deep, and it is the only version of your portfolio nobody else can switch off.
Will big project photos make the site slow?
Not if they are handled properly. Images get resized and served in modern formats so a gallery loads quickly on mobile data. Our audit found the median Nairobi business site takes 1.8 seconds; slow galleries are a choice, not a given.
Can I add new projects myself?
Yes, or send them to us and we add them under the monthly plan. Most designers prefer sending photos and a paragraph and having it laid out for them.
What does a portfolio site cost?
KES 45,000 is the usual fit, giving 6 to 8 pages with a proper project gallery. KES 75,000 adds written case studies. Then from KES 5,000 a month.
Want to know where your business stands?
Send us your business name. We’ll check whether you have a working site, what it looks like on a phone, and whether your domain is about to expire — free, and with no pitch attached.
Check my business