Top Science Websites in South Africa

Name: Top websites in South Africa (Science)
Creator: Semrush
License: https://semi.toolspur.com/company/legal/terms-of-service/

Based on data from the Semrush Traffic Analytics tool, this page reveals the most visited websites. We will be updating this list on a monthly basis, so you can keep track of all the market shifts and spot changes in user interest.

Most Visited Science Websites in South Africa, Updated May 2026

May 2026

Domain

Visits

Desktop share

Mobile share

MoM

YoY

Main Traffic Source

sciencedirect.com

372.45K

76.63%285.4K

23.37%87.05K

↓24.28%

↓30.97%

Search

phys.org

203.81K

12.4%25.27K

87.6%178.54K

↑1.73%

↓8.85%

Direct

scitechdaily.com

199.17K

1%1.99K

99%197.19K

↑107.16%

↑31.44%

Direct

wiley.com

191.83K

75.9%145.61K

24.1%46.23K

↓3.27%

↓23.7%

Search

mdpi.com

175.49K

83.82%147.1K

16.18%28.39K

↓15.8%

↑0.5%

Search

elsevier.com

169.83K

87.28%148.23K

12.72%21.6K

↑4.69%

↓15.39%

Direct

nrf.ac.za

135.63K

65.5%88.84K

34.5%46.79K

↑39.95%

↑16.86%

Direct

orcid.org

113.7K

69.24%78.72K

30.76%34.97K

↑40.24%

↑25.79%

Referral

overleaf.com

110K

96.3%105.94K

3.7%4.07K

↑14.87%

↓8.64%

Direct

doi.org

101.18K

26.85%27.17K

73.15%74.01K

↑4.93%

↑42.97%

Referral

oyunlarim.com.tr

89.18K

0.13%112

99.87%89.07K

↑272.29%

↑453,950.5%

Referral

arxiv.org

73.96K

94.14%69.62K

5.86%4.33K

↓11.35%

↑83.52%

Direct

dailygalaxy.com

63.76K

0.81%516

99.19%63.24K

↓5.7%

↑21.1%

Direct

space.com

54.38K

50.21%27.3K

49.79%27.08K

↓35.94%

↓61.42%

Direct

ssrn.com

46.44K

38.88%18.06K

61.12%28.39K

↑18.02%

↓0.28%

Search

semanticscholar.org

41K

95.16%39.02K

4.84%1.98K

↓7.37%

↓39.32%

Search

cloudresearch.com

36.55K

48.3%17.65K

51.7%18.9K

↓5.81%

↑98.02%

Referral

quantamagazine.org

30.91K

71.85%22.21K

28.15%8.7K

↑86.78%

↑319.44%

Direct

acm.org

25.05K

81.73%20.48K

18.27%4.58K

↑30.04%

↑14.64%

Search

scirp.org

24.67K

92.88%22.91K

7.12%1.76K

↑7.29%

↓16.48%

Search

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Key Insights on Top Science Websites in South Africa on May 2026

As of May 2026, sciencedirect.com leads Science in South Africa with 372.45K monthly visits. Its audience skews desktop-first (76.63% desktop / 76.63% mobile), and traffic is down month over month -24.28% and down year over year -30.97%. phys.org holds second with 203.81K visits and a mobile-leaning mix (12.4% desktop / 87.6% mobile), while scitechdaily.com ranks third with 199.17K visits.

Across the leaders, ctti-clinicaltrials.org is the most mobile-first (100% of visits), whereas universetoday.com is the most desktop-reliant (100%). Momentum favors ctti-clinicaltrials.org in the latest month (22,011.77%), while witshealth.co.za shows the steepest pullback.

Acquisition patterns also differ: sciencedirect.com is driven primarily by search, sciencedirect.com by direct, and sciencedirect.com by referral; overall, 45 of the top 100 sites are direct-led, 43 are search-led, and 10 lean on social.

These insights come from the Traffic & Market Toolkit, enriched with extensive clickstream data.

Our AI algorithms analyze petabytes of information from a blend of proprietary and external data pools, reflecting the online activities of over 200 million anonymized users.

For more detailed information on our data-gathering and analysis process, please visit our information page here.

Top Science Websites in South Africa