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What is my website worth?

20 October 2026

In how much traffic it takes to replace a salary we looked at a site as an income. This post looks at it as an asset: if you sold it tomorrow, what would someone pay?

How websites are valued

Small content websites are not valued like companies with accountants and audits. Buyers and marketplaces use one rule of thumb: average monthly net profit times a multiple.

• Net profit is earnings less running costs - hosting, tools and paid writers - usually averaged over the last 12 months so one good month does not count.
• The multiple is the months of profit a buyer will pay for; marketplaces such as Empire Flippers and Flippa commonly quote 30 to 50 for content sites.
• Older sites with steady traffic from many pages get the top of the range.
• Young sites, sites that lean on a few pages or one traffic source, or that need the owner every day, get the bottom.

Work out what your website is worth

Type your average earnings a month, your running costs, a multiple, your visits and your earnings growth. The calculator shows the value now, a likely range, the value per monthly visitor, what the site could be worth in three years and what keeping it earns you instead - with a chart.

Prefer a full page? Open the website value calculator on CalcSA. To see what the site would have to earn to pay you a salary, try the traffic to replace a salary calculator.

Worked example: the calculator's defaults

A site earning R4,000 a month with R500 of running costs, valued at 36 times monthly profit, with 20,000 visits a month and earnings growing 1% a month.

• Profit is R3,500 a month - R4,000 less R500.
• The site is worth about R126,000 - 36 times R3,500.
• The likely range is R84,000 to R168,000, at 24 to 48 times.
• That is about R6.30 per monthly visitor on 20,000 visits.
• Profit pays back R126,000 in month 31 - the wait a buyer signs up for.

Three more cases, same defaults except the one shown:

• Hold it three years at 1% growth, then sell: about R154,000 banked plus a site worth about R188,000 - R342,000 in all.
• A young site at 24 times: R84,000 - a third less for the same profit.
• Costs of R1,500 instead of R500: R2,500 profit and R90,000 - every rand of monthly cost takes R36 off the price.

Estimates. The 36 times multiple, the R4,000 earnings, R500 costs and 1% growth are assumptions, as in the calculator. This is not a valuation - a buyer will check your earnings and traffic themselves.

Two years of site value, by multiple

Same site, value at 24, 36 and 48 times monthly profit as earnings grow 1% a month and costs stay at R500:

• The multiple moves the price more than two years of growth do - 24 against 48 times doubles it.
• What earns a higher multiple is steadiness: traffic from many pages and sources, and a site that runs without you.
• Growth raises the value only once it shows in the 12-month average - sell after a good year, not after a good month.

Reading your counter for this

Your WebCounter counter gives you the visits; your ad, affiliate and bank statements give you earnings and costs. No counter yet? Get your free WebCounter counter - it takes a minute and costs nothing.

• Buyers ask for 12 months of traffic - a counter that has run for a year is evidence in itself.
• Check how much traffic your top 5 pages carry on the pages report - the more spread out, the higher the multiple.
• Count bots out - a buyer who finds inflated numbers will walk away or cut the offer.
• Value per monthly visitor is your value divided by your visits - a quick check against similar sites for sale.

Sources

• The 30 to 50 times range is the multiple commonly quoted by website marketplaces such as Empire Flippers and Flippa for content sites; we did not re-check a current figure at the original.
• The R4,000 earnings, R500 costs, 20,000 visits and 1% growth are illustrative assumptions.
• Calculator: CalcSA, Website value.

Estimates only, not a valuation. What a buyer pays depends on the niche, the age and steadiness of your traffic and earnings, and how much work the site needs; get several offers before you sell.