NaiForge vs Truehost
Kenya's cheapest way to get a shop online — if you're the one building it.
What you actually pay
KES 30,000-95,000 one-time
Zero. You own the code, and hosting is included for the life of the project.
M-Pesa via Pay-to-Till by default — no gateway, no gateway fee (just Safaricom's own ~0.55%). Automated M-Pesa (gateway STK push): KES 20,000 add-on, included in Premium, a gateway rate that depends on the provider (published: Paystack 1.5%, Flutterwave 2.9%, IntaSend 3%, Pesapal 3-3.5%).
50% deposit (KES 15,000-47,500+), balance on delivery. No renewal, ever.
From ~KES 2,500-6,600/year
Online-shop plans advertised around KES 547/month billed annually (~KES 6,600/year), with cheaper builder tiers referenced from ~KES 2,499/year. Renews every year, forever. Prices checked August 2026 — Truehost changes them, so verify on their site before deciding.
No platform commission. M-Pesa still needs a Till or a gateway, same as anywhere — that cost is yours either way, not Truehost's.
First year's fee, often with a free .co.ke domain bundled. Realistically KES 2,500-7,000 to be live — plus however many evenings you spend building it.
Let's be straight: on cash alone, Truehost wins for years. At ~KES 6,600/year you would run roughly four and a half years before reaching NaiForge Starter's KES 30,000 — and if you pick a cheaper tier, longer still. Anyone who tells you a one-time KES 30,000 build 'pays for itself in months' against Truehost is doing arithmetic that does not survive checking. The real question is not when the money crosses over. It is who builds the shop, what it looks like when they're done, and what happens the year you don't renew.
Feature by feature
| Feature | NaiForge | Truehost |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | KES 30,000-95,000 one-time | ~KES 2,500-6,600/year, forever |
| Who builds it | We do — 5-28 days | You do, in the builder |
| Design | Custom per brand | Template library |
| Code ownership | Yours, exportable | Locked to the builder |
| If you stop paying | Nothing happens — it's yours | Shop goes offline at renewal |
| M-Pesa | Pay-to-Till by default; automation a KES 20,000 add-on | Till or gateway, configured by you |
| Hosting + domain | Hosting included; you bring the domain (~KES 1,500/yr) | Bundled, incl. free .co.ke on some plans |
| Technical SEO | Schema, CWV and structure built in | Whatever the builder outputs |
| Best for | Brands where the storefront has to look the part | Tight budgets and simple catalogs |
- Someone else builds it — you send products and photos, not evenings
- Custom design, not a builder template every other Kenyan shop can also pick
- You own the code and can host it anywhere; nothing stops working if a bill goes unpaid
- Built-in schema, Core Web Vitals work, and SEO structure rather than whatever the builder emits
- One price, quoted before you commit, that never renews
- Far cheaper in raw cash, and honestly so — this is the real trade-off
- Live today if you're willing to do the building yourself
- Kenyan company, KES billing, local support, no FX exposure
- Domain, hosting and email bundled into one bill
- Genuinely fine for a simple catalog where design is not the differentiator
Who should choose what
Choose NaiForge if…
You want the shop built for you, designed around your brand rather than picked off a list, and owned outright with no annual renewal hanging over it. You are buying back time and design, and you know that is what you are paying for.
Choose Truehost if…
Your budget is under KES 10,000, you have time and patience to build it yourself, and a clean template shop is enough to start selling. That is a completely reasonable position, and plenty of good Kenyan businesses start exactly there. Start on Truehost; come to us when the template becomes the ceiling.
Truehost is cheaper and we will not pretend otherwise. It wins on price and on speed-to-live if you do the work yourself. NaiForge wins when the shop is a brand asset rather than a catalog — custom design, owned code, no renewal. Different products for different moments in a business, and the honest answer for a first-time seller on a tight budget is often Truehost.
NaiForge vs Truehost — FAQ
NaiForge vs everything else
vs Shopify
Global SaaS with polished templates — but USD-billed monthly forever.
vs Jumia Seller Center
Free to list, but Jumia takes 6-20% per sale and owns the customer.
vs Sky.Garden
Shut down in March 2025. Kept here as the clearest lesson in platform risk Kenyan ecommerce has produced.
vs WhatsApp Business
Free, familiar, and where your customers already are — but manual, unscalable, and invisible to Google.
Ready to decide?
WhatsApp us — we'll tell you honestly if Truehost is actually a better fit for you. We lose some leads that way; we keep the right ones.