Building South African websites since 2001
Fyre Interactive is a Johannesburg studio. We design and build WordPress websites, host and look after them, and build the custom systems that run behind them — including the complicated stuff.
2001 to now
We were founded in Johannesburg in 2001, and we are still the same business. Our own website in 2005 offered custom web applications, content management systems, database-driven sites, shopping carts and hosting. Today the same list reads: custom WordPress plugins and business systems, WordPress websites, WooCommerce stores that take payments through PayFast, and managed hosting with care plans. We have changed technology three times without changing what we do.
Most of what we build now includes some custom plugin development, from simple animations to an entire website built as a custom plugin. In 2025 we rebuilt the site of Financial Crime Risk Management Consultants, a client since 2009, adding a learning platform and a custom plugin that matches their clients and suppliers using AI. The same year, we built the online store for Thrive Raw Food For Dogs, and we still look after its hosting, SEO and Google Ads.
One of the systems we run is our own: smscodes.co.za, a short-code and USSD lookup service we built in 2010. We still run it and keep its data current, and Vodacom pays for its upkeep.
Who you actually deal with
You deal with us, the studio that builds your site. We design it, build it and write any custom plugins it needs, and if you want us to, we host it and look after it once it is live. Then nothing is handed on to a separate hosting company or support desk: when something needs changing, you ask us, and we already know how it was built.
The arrangement can last a long time: the systems we first built for GiftBucks and Network Dynamics in the 2000s are still ours to look after.
We reply to new enquiries the same business day. On a care plan, support requests get a response within one business day on the basic plan and within four business hours on the full plan, and a site that goes down gets one within four business hours.
How we work
Our prices are published, custom work is scoped before it is quoted, and support carries on after launch.
- Our two website packages have published prices. Business, for a site of up to 8 pages, is R15,000 incl. VAT and typically takes two weeks. Professional, which adds one of an online store, bookings, a membership site or a learning platform, is from R25,000 incl. VAT and typically takes four. Payment is a 50% deposit, and the balance on go-live. Work outside a package is quoted per task before we start.
- Custom systems start with a free discovery. The business systems we build, such as loyalty, rewards and gift-card platforms, are priced from R65,000 incl. VAT. The first discovery and quote are free. If you go ahead, the build starts with a detailed scoping phase, included in the price.
- Support after launch. Business includes 30 days of support and Professional 60. After that, a care plan from R975 a month incl. VAT includes the hosting, tests every update on staging before it goes live, and keeps daily backups.
- We take over other people’s projects, too. Xscape4u came to us after its site was compromised, and we rebuilt the platform clean. Big City Life, a photographer’s site, was running very slowly; we reduced it from roughly 85GB to about 4.5GB and moved it to our hosting.
Every price, and what it includes, is on our price list.
Why clients stay
We think it comes down to two things: the work keeps running, and when the technology under it ages, we rebuild it rather than leave it behind.
| Client since | Client | The work |
|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Bonethrower | Most recently rebuilt in 2016 |
| 2003 | GiftBucks, which began as Creative Incentives | A gift-card platform, rebuilt as a custom WordPress plugin, and white-label reward platforms that GiftBucks’ clients run under their own names |
| Before 2005 | International Marimba Festival, part of Education Africa | The festival site, built in 2011 and most recently rebuilt in 2025 |
| Before 2005 | Network Dynamics, formerly Flower Dynamics | A logistics system, rebuilt as a custom WordPress plugin, that still runs the business. A private system, with no public access |
| 2005 | Something Fab, formerly ABFAB Online | Most recently rebuilt in 2025 |
| 2005 | Tin Soldier | Most recently rebuilt in April 2025 |
| 2006 | One Loyalty | The current site, which we built and host, and more than 50 white-label rewards platforms that served its insurance clients, since retired |
Three of those sites were rebuilt in 2025, so these relationships are current, not historical. What building sites since 2001 has taught us is in sites that last. Rebuilding a site or a system as its technology ages is a service of its own: website rebuilds and migrations. More clients, with links to their live sites, are on our work page.
Where we are
We’re in Midrand, Johannesburg. Since 2001, Fyre has built and run sites and systems for South African businesses, and for clients internationally in the UK, Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe.
In Zimbabwe, that includes the website of the Zimbabwe Osteoporosis & Bone Health Society and 365ZIM, a white-label instance of the Network Dynamics platform that runs the same owner’s business there. 365ZIM is a public site with client log-ins; the system behind it is private. We work with those clients remotely from Johannesburg, and we quote every client in South African rand. Web design for Zimbabwe has a page of its own.
Moving away needn’t mean changing supplier, either: Bonethrower stayed with us after its owner moved to Spain.
The best way to reach us is the enquiry form on our contact page.
Tell us what you need built
A few lines about your project are enough to start. We’ll reply with questions, a sensible next step and, where the job allows, a fixed price.
Great service deliverables – Supportive, patient, reachable at all times and responsive
Samantha M. · Xscape4u · Google review