Where to List Your Business in Kenya (2026): What Actually Brings Customers

If you run a business in Kenya and you only do one thing, claim your Google Business Profile. It is free, it is what people actually search, and it beats every directory in the country for bringing customers through the door. After that, the right second platform depends entirely on what you sell: a restaurant, a villa, a safari company and a hardware shop need completely different places to be found. Listing everywhere is a waste of an afternoon. Listing in two right places is not.

This guide is written by a marketplace, so read it with that in mind. We have put ourselves where we honestly belong rather than at the top, and we have named the platforms that beat us.

In a hurry? Adding your business to Klickenya is free, takes about five minutes and carries no commission. Add your listing here, and read the rest of this when you have a coffee.

A Google Business Profile is the free listing that puts you in Google Maps and in the box that appears when someone searches your name or your category near them. It is not a directory you submit to and forget. It is the single highest intent surface in Kenyan search, and it costs nothing.

• Claim the profile and verify it. Verification is the step most people abandon, and an unverified profile barely shows.
• Fill in opening hours, phone, and a WhatsApp number if that is how you actually take enquiries.
• Add at least fifteen real photos. Not stock, not one blurry shot of a signboard.
• Ask every happy customer for a review, every week, forever. This is the whole game.
• Reply to every review, including the bad ones, calmly.

Beyond Google, platforms fall into four groups. They are not interchangeable and most businesses only need one of them.

Classifieds: volume without filter

Jiji and PigiaMe are the giants of Kenyan classifieds and they do bring enquiries. The trade is quality. You are listed next to unrelated categories, buyers arrive expecting to negotiate hard, and a lot of the contact you get will not convert. For a car hire firm or a hardware supplier that volume is worth having. For a boutique villa it mostly wastes your time.

Directories: useful, but not what you think

Sites like BusinessList Kenya are worth twenty minutes because consistent name, address and phone details across the web genuinely support how Google understands your business. What they are not is a source of customers in their own right. Do them once, keep the details identical everywhere, and move on. Anyone selling you a package of forty directory submissions is selling you very little.

This is the part that actually matters. After Google, pick one and do it properly.

For restaurants in Nairobi, EatOut is the established discovery platform and worth being on. For accommodation, Airbnb and Booking bring real volume, and they charge for it: commission generally lands somewhere between fifteen and eighteen percent depending on your plan. That is not a reason to avoid them. It is a reason to also have somewhere you keep the full amount. For safaris, diving and tours, TripAdvisor remains the review platform international visitors check before they book anything.

We are a Kenyan marketplace focused on the coast: Watamu, Kilifi, Malindi and Diani, with growing coverage inland. We are not going to pretend we send more raw traffic than Jiji, because we do not. What we do differently is worth knowing if your business is on the coast.

• Listing is free and there is no commission. You keep one hundred percent of what a guest pays you.
• Enquiries come to you directly, with the guest’s phone number, rather than through a masked messaging system.
• Every submission is reviewed by a person within about twenty four hours, so the marketplace stays worth browsing.
• You get a real page that ranks, not a row in a database. Our listing pages are built for search.
• We are coast first. If you run a business in Kisumu or Eldoret, we are honestly not your best option yet.

Why it pays to be early

We are a newer platform than the classifieds giants, and for someone listing a business that is an advantage rather than a drawback. On a site with tens of thousands of listings, yours is one row deep in a results page nobody scrolls to. Here you are one of a few hundred, on a site that already ranks for the towns these businesses are in. Early listings also build up reviews, enquiries and search history that later arrivals have to spend a year catching up with.

There is no cost to finding out whether it works for you, which is the whole point of it being free.

You can list your business here in about five minutes, or read how hosting works first if you would rather see the detail. There is nothing to pay at any stage.

Having read a lot of these listings, the businesses that do well are not the ones on the most platforms. They are the ones that did these six things.

One more practical thing: make sure you can actually take payment easily. If you are not set up for M-Pesa paybill or till payments yet, our guide to money in Kenya covers the basics from the customer’s side and explains what visitors expect to be able to do.

What is the best website to list my business in Kenya?

Google Business Profile, without qualification. It is free, it feeds Google Maps and local search, and it reaches more genuine buyers than any Kenyan directory. Everything else is a second choice made according to what you sell, and most businesses only need one more platform beyond Google.

Is it free to list a business online in Kenya?

Mostly yes. Google Business Profile, business directories, Jiji, PigiaMe and Klickenya are all free to list on. What is not free is commission: booking platforms such as Airbnb and Booking typically take between fifteen and eighteen percent of each reservation, which only applies when you actually get paid.

How many directories should I list my business on?

Two or three, done consistently, is enough. The returns fall away sharply after that and anyone selling a package of forty submissions is selling volume rather than value. What matters far more is that your business name, address and phone number are written identically everywhere they appear.

Does Klickenya charge commission?

No. Listing is free and there is no commission on bookings or enquiries, so you keep the full amount a guest pays you. Every submission is reviewed by a person within about twenty four hours before it goes live, which is how the marketplace stays worth browsing.

How do I get more customers for my restaurant in Kenya?

Reviews and photographs, ahead of anything else. A verified Google Business Profile with current photos and a steady flow of recent reviews will bring more people through the door than being listed on ten directories. In Nairobi, add EatOut. On the coast, add a marketplace listing and make sure your menu and prices are published.

What should I do first if I have limited time?

Claim and verify your Google Business Profile, upload fifteen good photos, and ask ten recent customers for a review this week. That is one afternoon and it will do more than every other item on this page combined.

Being listed in more places is not a strategy. Being findable where your customers actually look, with photos that show what you really offer and reviews that prove other people liked it, is. Do Google properly, add one platform that fits what you sell, and put the rest of your effort into replying quickly.

Add your business to Klickenya

Free to list. No commission. Reviewed within 24 hours. If your business is on the Kenyan coast, or anywhere travellers go in Kenya, put it in front of them. It takes about five minutes and you keep one hundred percent of every booking.

→ Add your listing · See how hosting works · Selling property instead?

Not sure how we work? Read how it works. And if you want a sense of what we publish about the places our hosts operate in, start with our guides to Watamu, Kilifi and Diani, or the restaurant guides for Watamu and Kilifi.