The verdict in three sentences
A Manama wealth manager or family office should redesign when the site undersells the firm, mixes up regulatory pages, or still runs on a stack nobody wants to touch. Plan on a 2026 ballpark of USD 9,000 to 28,000 with an established Manama agency, against a fixed USD 4,900 (Growth) or USD 8,900 (Premium) with Kolonell, live in 3 to 4 weeks once content is ready. The risk most firms underestimate is the switch itself: a careless DNS cutover can take the site offline and send client emails to spam for days, so it deserves its own written plan.
Is it time? A quick self-check
Clients in the Bahrain Financial Harbour, Seef and Bahrain Bay districts, Gulf families and expatriate professionals alike, judge a firm on how calm and precise its site feels. Visitors from Saudi Arabia who cross for the weekend often browse on their phones first.
| Signal | What it costs you | What the redesign fixes |
|---|---|---|
| Arabic pages missing or machine translated | Gulf families leave for a competitor | Reviewed Arabic in the multilingual tier |
| Disclosures scattered in old PDFs | Compliance questions, weak trust | One clear legal and regulatory hub |
| Form asks for portfolio or account details | Data you should never hold | Minimal form: name, email, phone, topic |
| Pages slow on mobile data | Weekend visitors drop off | Light pages, compressed images |
| Bios out of date | Clients ask who they will meet | Current team, roles, languages spoken |
| Nobody knows who controls the DNS | Every change becomes a risk | Documented records, client-owned access |
Three or more rows that apply to you usually justify the project.
What budget should you plan in Manama?
A line-item view is more useful than a single total, because it shows where the money goes. Figures are a 2026 ballpark from typical agency quotes.
| Line item | Manama agency (USD) | Freelancer (USD) | Kolonell (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Audit, URL inventory, redirect map | 800 to 2,500 | Often skipped | Included |
| Design and build, English | 5,000 to 15,000 | 2,000 to 5,000 | 2,900 (Starter) or 4,900 (Growth) |
| Arabic version with right-to-left layout | 2,500 to 8,000 extra | Rarely offered | 8,900 (Premium, the multilingual tier, languages and RTL scope set in the quote) |
| DNS cutover and email checks | Usually included | Variable | Included |
| Post-launch support | Varies by contract | Ad hoc | 3 months included |
| Client portal or pension platform integration | On quote | Not offered | On quote |
Every Kolonell tier comes with a project manager in your time zone, native English or French copywriting and delivery in 3 to 4 weeks. See the international offer for the full scope.
How do you switch without downtime or lost emails?
Most Manama firms run email on Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, while the website sits on a separate host. The redesign only needs to move the website records. The trouble starts when someone moves the nameservers or the registrar at the same time and forgets a record.
| When | Action | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| 14 days before | Export every DNS record: A, CNAME, MX, SPF and DMARC TXT, DKIM selectors, verification records, portal subdomain | One forgotten record can stop email or the portal |
| 7 days before | Lower the TTL of the web records to 5 minutes | A rollback then takes minutes, not a day |
| 3 days before | Content freeze, written compliance sign-off, final test of forms on staging | No surprises on launch day |
| Launch day | Change only the website A or CNAME records, leave MX untouched, test every form | Email keeps flowing during the switch |
| Day 1 | Check that form notifications pass SPF and DKIM and do not land in spam | A strict DMARC policy can silently block them |
| Day 7 | Raise TTL again, keep the old host for 7 to 14 more days | Safety net for late caches |
Pick a quiet slot: a weekday evening rather than Thursday night or the Friday and Saturday weekend, when Saudi visitors are most active. If the form sends notifications through a new mail service, its sending domain has to be added to SPF and signed with DKIM before launch.
What else can go wrong?
- Search visibility. Inventory all indexed URLs, write a 301 for each, submit the new sitemap in Google Search Console and watch coverage for two weeks.
- The insights archive. Market commentary from previous years often brings the steady traffic. Keep what ranks, merge what is thin, redirect the rest.
- Portal and custodian links. They must point to the same secure destinations after launch. The portal itself is not rebuilt inside a fixed-grid site; any change is on quote.
- Marketing rules. The Central Bank of Bahrain sets the rules for licensed firms. Keep descriptions factual, make no promise of returns, publish no performance figures, and use testimonials only where the rules allow.
- Personal data. Bahrain's Personal Data Protection Law (Law No. 30 of 2018) frames how you collect and keep enquiry data: collect the minimum, state why, set a retention period. This is not legal advice; your compliance officer signs off every page before go-live.
What stays on quote, and what should you ask?
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On quote: pension or retirement planning calculators, client portal work, CRM integration and ongoing search work. Ask any provider: Who holds the DNS and registrar access after launch? Will you give us the record export before touching anything? How do you test form email deliverability? Who reviews the Arabic? What is in the support period and what is billed after it?
When is a Manama agency the better fit?
A local agency is the stronger choice if you want frequent face-to-face workshops at your office, Arabic copy written from scratch in the same contract, or a redesign bundled with a new brand identity and a portal rebuild. Those projects need a bigger team on site and justify the higher budget. A remote studio suits a firm that knows its content, wants a fixed price and values a written cutover plan over meetings.
Mini case study
Illustrative example. Huda runs a hypothetical private client firm in Seef focused on pension and retirement planning for expatriate professionals. Her site has 41 pages in English, 14 mailboxes on Microsoft 365 and a contact form that asks for pension pot size, which she wants removed.
- Choice: Kolonell Growth at USD 4,900, English first, Arabic scoped later.
- Third-party cost: an external compliance consultant reviewing 6 hours at an illustrative USD 150 per hour, so USD 900.
- Total: USD 5,800.
- Downtime math: the firm receives roughly 20 enquiries a month in this example. A botched two-day cutover would put about 1 to 2 enquiries at risk; the runbook above keeps the switch to minutes.
- Schedule: content ready in 10 days, go-live 4 weeks later.
FAQ
How long will our site be offline during the switch?
With TTL lowered 7 days ahead, the change propagates in minutes for most visitors. The old host stays online 7 to 14 days as a fallback.
Will our Microsoft 365 email be affected?
It should not be, as long as MX, SPF, DKIM and DMARC records are copied exactly and only website records change. We test form delivery on day 1.
What does an Arabic and English redesign cost?
With Kolonell it falls under Premium, USD 8,900, the multilingual tier with languages and RTL scope set in the quote. Manama agencies typically add USD 2,500 to 8,000 for Arabic on top of the English build.
Can we keep our current hosting?
Yes, if it meets current security standards. Otherwise we propose a move and document every record, with hosting after the 3 months of support on quote.
Let's scope your project. Share your page count, languages and who controls your DNS today, and we will return a tier, a fixed budget and a cutover date within 3 to 4 weeks of content. See the international offer or request a free quote: detailed reply within 48 hours.
Mohamed Bah
Fondateur, Kolonell
Passionate about digital and entrepreneurship in Africa, Mohamed has been helping Sénégalese businesses with their digital transformation since 2020. Founder of Kolonell, he believes every SME deserves a professional and accessible online présence.
