You do not need an agency or a monthly website fee to get a professional website. With Claude Code and a NetPoa hosting account you can describe your business in plain language, have a complete WordPress site built for you, and upload it to your own cPanel yourself. This guide takes you through every step.
Time needed: 2–4 hours · Coding required: none · Cost: from TSH 99,000 for the first year, plus one month of Claude Pro.
What it actually costs
Two separate bills, from two different companies. NetPoa is paid in Tanzanian shillings by mobile money. Claude Pro is paid in US dollars and needs a card that works internationally — sort that out first, because it catches people out.
| What | Who you pay | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Standard hosting 10 GB, one website, free .co.tz for a year, free SSL, weekly backups |
NetPoa | TSH 99,000 / yr |
| Claude Pro Includes Claude Code. $17/month if you pay a year up front |
Anthropic | $20 / month |
| A .com instead of the free .co.tz Optional. .or.tz and .ac.tz are also TSH 20,000 |
NetPoa | TSH 40,000 / yr |
Before you start: gather your material
This is the step that decides whether your site is good or generic. Claude Code can read documents and images from a folder on your computer. Give it your real material and you get your real business back. Give it nothing and you get a template with your name on it.
- Your company profile — the PDF or Word document you already send to clients and funders: history, vision, mission, services, directors, registration number. This single file does most of the work. No profile? Two honest pages in Word is enough.
- Your logo — the highest-resolution version you own. PNG or SVG is ideal. If all you have is the logo inside a PDF or a photo of your signboard, hand that over; Claude can pull it out and clean it up.
- Photographs — real photos of your work, your team, your premises, your events. A shared Google Photos album link works; paste the link straight into the prompt. Twenty good photos beat two hundred blurry ones, and beat stock photography completely.
- Your details — physical address, phone numbers, the email enquiries should reach, office hours, registration or TIN number, social media links.
- How you take payment — for a shop or donation page: bank name and account number, and your M-Pesa, Mixx by Yas or Airtel Money number.
Put all of it in one folder on your computer. Call it something plain, like my-website. That folder is where you will run Claude Code.
Stage 1 — Buy your domain and hosting
On netpoa.com · about 15 minutes · instant activation
- Go to netpoa.com/hosting and pick the Standard Plan at TSH 99,000 a year. It runs one WordPress site comfortably, and you can move up later without rebuilding anything.
- When it asks for a domain, type the name you want and check it is free. Your first .co.tz is included with the plan — you pay nothing extra for it in year one.
- Create your NetPoa account with an email address you actually check. Everything you need arrives there.
- Pay at checkout by M-Pesa, Mixx by Yas, Airtel Money, HaloPesa, bank transfer or card.
A .co.tz is registered through the Tanzanian registry, so you will be asked for business details. Have your registration or TIN number to hand.
Stage 2 — Install WordPress with Softaculous
In cPanel · about 5 minutes
Every NetPoa plan includes cPanel, and cPanel includes Softaculous, a one-click installer. You do not download WordPress or create a database by hand.
- Go to
yourdomain.com/cpaneland sign in with the username and password from that email. - Scroll to the Software section and open Softaculous Apps Installer.
- Find WordPress and click Install Now.
- Set Choose Protocol to
https://. Your SSL certificate is free and automatic, so always choose the secure option. - Leave In Directory completely empty. This is the field people get wrong: anything typed here puts your site at yourdomain.com/blog instead of yourdomain.com.
- Set your Admin Username to something that is not "admin", and let Softaculous generate a strong password. Copy both somewhere safe.
- Enter your Admin Email — password resets go there — then click Install.
Stage 3 — Get Claude on your computer
About 15 minutes · needs a card that works internationally
Subscribe to Claude Pro at claude.com/pricing — $20 a month, or $17 a month if you pay for the year. Claude Code is included in Pro. The free plan does not include it.
Then download the app — no commands to type
Claude Code is built into the Claude desktop app. You install it the same way you install any other program, so you never have to open a terminal or type a command.
Download Claude → claude.com/download
That one page offers every version. Click the button that matches your computer:
| Your computer | Which button, and what you get |
|---|---|
| Mac | Click Download for macOS. You get a .dmg file. Open it and drag the Claude icon into your Applications folder. One build works on both Intel and Apple Silicon Macs, so there is nothing to choose. |
| Windows | Click Download for Windows. You get an .exe file. Double-click it and follow the installer. |
| Windows on ARM | Newer lightweight laptops use an ARM processor and have their own Windows (arm64) button on that page. If the normal Windows version refuses to install, use this one instead. |
Once it is installed:
- Open Claude and sign in with the Claude Pro account you just paid for.
- Click the Code tab along the top. The app has three tabs — Chat, Cowork and Code — and Code is the one that builds software.
- Start a new session and, when it asks which folder to work in, choose the
my-websitefolder holding your company profile, logo and photos.
If you would rather use the terminal
Everything above can also be done from a command line, which some people prefer. Skip this box entirely if the app is working — it does the same job.
macOS, Linux or Windows WSL:
curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash
Windows PowerShell:
irm https://claude.ai/install.ps1 | iex
Then check it, open your folder, and start:
claude --version cd my-website claude
On Windows, also install Git for Windows. Claude Code runs without it, but runs better with it.
Stage 4 — Give it the prompt
The part that matters · 20–40 minutes of waiting
Copy the block below, replace everything in [SQUARE BRACKETS] with your own details, and paste the whole thing in as one message. Claude reads your company profile, logo and photos straight out of the folder you opened, so there is nothing to attach.
Build a complete WordPress website for my organisation. ABOUT US - Name: [YOUR COMPANY NAME] - What we do: [ONE SENTENCE - what you provide, to whom] - Where: [CITY], Tanzania - Domain: [yourdomain.co.tz] - Enquiries email: [info@yourdomain.co.tz] - Phone: [+255 ...] - Office: [STREET, AREA, CITY] - Registration / TIN: [NUMBER] MATERIAL I AM GIVING YOU - My company profile is the PDF in this folder. Read it and use our real wording for the history, vision, mission and services. - My logo is in this folder. Take the brand colours from it and build the whole design around them. - Photos: [PASTE YOUR GOOGLE PHOTOS ALBUM LINK] Use our real photos. Never use stock images. PAGES I WANT Home, About us, [SERVICES / PRODUCTS / PROGRAMMES], Gallery, Contact, and a news section. HOW TO BUILD IT - A custom WordPress theme. No page builder, no paid plugins. - A contact form built into the theme that emails [info@yourdomain.co.tz], so I do not have to maintain a form plugin. - Mobile first. Most of our visitors are on phones on mobile data, so keep it fast and light. - Put everything I may want to change later - phone, address, social links, payment details - in the WordPress Customiser, so I can edit it without code. WHAT TO HAND ME AT THE END 1. The theme as an installable .zip file. 2. A setup plugin, also a .zip, that imports the photos and creates all the pages and menus when I activate it, so I do not build the site by hand in wp-admin. 3. A short README saying what to upload, in what order. BEFORE YOU TELL ME IT IS DONE Install WordPress locally, activate the theme and the plugin, open every page with WP_DEBUG on, and fix anything that errors. Test that the contact form really sends. Then tell me exactly what you verified.
- It hands over real material. The profile and the logo are worth more than any description you could type.
- It names the deliverable. Asking for .zip files is what turns a folder of code into something you can upload to cPanel.
- It asks for a setup plugin. Without this you spend an evening copying text into WordPress by hand.
- It says no paid plugins. Otherwise you end up with a site that needs annual licences.
- It demands verification. The last paragraph makes Claude test its own work before claiming it is finished.
Then keep talking to it
Claude Code is a conversation, not a vending machine. When it finishes, look at what it built and ask for changes in plain language:
Show me the home page so I can see it. The blue is too dark. Use the orange from our logo. Add a page for our Mwanza branch with its own contact details. Write the About page in Kiswahili too, with a language switcher. Make the photos load faster on mobile data.
Stage 5 — Upload it to your website
In wp-admin · about 10 minutes
- Sign in at
yourdomain.com/wp-admin. - Go to Appearance → Themes → Add New → Upload Theme, choose your theme .zip, install it, then click Activate.
- Go to Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin, choose your setup .zip, install it, then click Activate.
- Run the setup step your README describes — usually a single button under Tools. This is what creates your pages, menus and photo galleries.
- Open your domain in a new tab. Your site is live.
A message like "the uploaded file exceeds the upload_max_filesize directive" means the .zip is bigger than your PHP upload limit. That is normal when the plugin carries your photos. Two ways past it:
Raise the limit: in cPanel open Select PHP Version → Options and increase upload_max_filesize and post_max_size to 64M.
Or skip WordPress entirely: in cPanel open File Manager, go to public_html/wp-content/plugins, upload the .zip there, right-click it and choose Extract. The plugin then appears in wp-admin ready to activate.
Stage 6 — Finish it properly
Do not skip this · about 20 minutes
- Force https. In cPanel, confirm SSL/TLS Status shows your domain certified by AutoSSL. Then in WordPress under Settings → General, make sure both addresses start with https://.
- Create your email address. In cPanel open Email Accounts and create info@yourdomain.co.tz. Every NetPoa plan includes unlimited mailboxes — use a real address, not a Gmail one, on your own website.
- Test the contact form. Send yourself a message through your own website and confirm it arrives. If it does not, install the free WP Mail SMTP plugin and point it at the mailbox you just made. Do this before you tell anyone the site is up.
- Set your permalinks. Under Settings → Permalinks, choose Post name and click Save Changes. This gives you yourdomain.com/about instead of yourdomain.com/?p=12, and search engines prefer it.
- Check it on a phone. Not your laptop browser made narrow — an actual phone, on mobile data, not office WiFi. That is how most of your visitors will arrive.
- Confirm backups. NetPoa takes weekly off-server backups on every plan. Before any big change, take your own too: cPanel Backup → Download a Full Account Backup.
When something goes wrong
| What you see | What to do |
|---|---|
| Pages other than the home page show 404 Not Found | Go to Settings → Permalinks and click Save Changes without changing anything. This rebuilds the URL rules and fixes it almost every time. |
| The site loads but has no styling | Usually a mixed http/https mismatch. Check both URLs under Settings → General start with https://. |
| Contact form sends but nothing arrives | Shared hosting often blocks the default PHP mailer. Install WP Mail SMTP and authenticate with the cPanel mailbox you created. |
| Site is at yourdomain.com/wordpress | The In Directory field was filled in during Stage 2. Easiest fix is to remove that install in Softaculous and reinstall with the field empty — do it before you add content. |
| Claude Code says you have hit your usage limit | Pro usage resets on a rolling window. Wait it out, or upgrade to Max for a bigger allowance. Your work is saved — reopen the session and carry on where you stopped. |
| Anything to do with the server | Message us on WhatsApp at +255 755 212 222, in Kiswahili or English. Our support is local, so there is no overnight gap. |
Your checklist
- ☐ Company profile, logo and photos in one folder
- ☐ Domain and hosting paid for at NetPoa
- ☐ cPanel email received and saved
- ☐ WordPress installed through Softaculous
- ☐ Claude Pro subscribed and the Claude app installed
- ☐ Prompt sent, site built, zip files received
- ☐ Theme and plugin uploaded and activated
- ☐ https working with a padlock
- ☐ Contact form tested and arriving
- ☐ Checked on a real phone on mobile data
NetPoa has been registering domains and hosting websites in Tanzania since 2016, for more than 2,000 businesses. If you get stuck on any step above — including the Claude Code ones — ask us on WhatsApp at +255 755 212 222 or email info@netpoa.com.
Hosting and domain prices are NetPoa's published rates, billed annually in Tanzanian shillings. Claude Pro is an Anthropic subscription billed separately in US dollars; its price, usage limits and features are set by Anthropic and may change. Claude Code writes the website — always review what it produces before you publish it.
