How Much Does a Website Cost in Australia? (2026 Price Guide)

Ask three web designers what a website costs and you'll get three wildly different numbers. That's not (always) because someone is ripping you off. "A website" can mean a one-page brochure, a 30-page service site with a booking system, or a custom web app with logins and payments. Those are very different jobs.

This guide breaks down where the money actually goes, what you pay every year after launch, and how to tell whether a quote is fair. We'll use our own published prices as worked examples, because they're the only numbers we can vouch for.

The short answer

For a typical Australian small business, the realistic options look like this:

The rest of this post explains what sits behind each of those rows.

What you're actually paying for

Whatever the price tag, a website quote is made of the same handful of pieces. Cheap and expensive quotes differ mostly in how much of each one is included.

1. Discovery and planning. Working out who the site is for, what pages it needs and what a visitor should do next (call, book, request a quote). Skipping this is the most common reason a site looks fine but doesn't produce enquiries.
2. Design. A template reskin is quick. A custom design built around your content and brand takes longer, but it's built around what your customers need to see rather than what a theme happens to offer.
3. Copy and content. Someone has to write the words and source the photos. If that's you, budget your own time for it. It's the step that most often delays launches.
4. Build. Turning the design into a fast, mobile-friendly site, with forms, booking or email integrations wired up and tested.
5. SEO foundations. Page titles, descriptions, headings, a sitemap, fast load times and a Google Business Profile. None of this guarantees rankings, but without it you're invisible.
6. Launch and handover. Domain and DNS setup, analytics, and showing you how to edit the site yourself.

When you compare two quotes, line them up against this list. A $900 quote and a $6,500 quote are often not quoting for the same job.

Option 1: DIY website builders

Platforms like Squarespace and Wix let you build a site yourself for a monthly fee, with hosting included. Check their current plans in AUD before you commit; prices change, and introductory discounts often renew at a higher rate.

Good for: testing a business idea, a personal portfolio, or a very simple "here's our phone number" site.

Watch out for:

• Your time is the real cost. A decent DIY site usually takes far longer than people expect, mostly on writing and layout.
• You rent the platform. Moving away later usually means rebuilding.
• Templates look like templates. That's fine until you're up against competitors with a sharper site.

Option 2: A template site from a freelancer

A freelancer installs a theme (often on WordPress), drops in your logo and content, and hands it over. It's usually the cheapest way to get a site someone else built.

Watch out for:

• Plugin licences and renewals. Premium themes, form plugins and page builders often need yearly licences.
• Updates. WordPress core, themes and plugins need regular updating. Out-of-date plugins are a common way small-business sites get compromised. Ask who is responsible for updates after launch.
• Ownership. Make sure the domain, hosting and admin logins are in your name, not the freelancer's.

Option 3: A custom site from a studio

This is where we sit. A custom site is designed for your business, built to load fast, and structured around getting enquiries rather than just looking nice.

Our fixed-price packages, as listed on our pricing page:

• Launch Page, from $2,500 (typically 1–2 weeks). One custom landing page with conversion-focused structure, a contact or booking integration, analytics and SEO basics, hosted and deployed.
• Business Website, from $6,500 (typically 3–5 weeks). Up to 8 mobile-first pages, an editable CMS so your team can make changes, SEO foundations and Google Business setup, forms, bookings and email flows, plus training and 30 days of support.
• MVP / Web App, from $18,000 (typically 6–10 weeks). For when the "website" is really a product: user accounts, payments, an admin dashboard and integrations with other systems.

We're not registered for GST, so those prices have no GST added. Fixed-price projects are paid 50% upfront and 50% on delivery.

The ongoing costs nobody mentions

The build is a one-off. These come back every year, and they're where budgets get surprised.

A few Australian specifics worth knowing:

• .com.au domains have eligibility rules. You need an Australian presence (an ABN or ACN, for example), and the name has to match or be closely connected to your business. auDA sets these rules in its licensing rules. A .au direct name (like yourbusiness.au) needs an Australian presence too, but not the name connection.
• Keep the domain in your own name, registered with an account you control. Losing access to your domain is the single most painful website problem to fix.
• Email isn't the website. Many people assume their web designer handles email. Often they don't, and it's a separate monthly cost per mailbox.

For maintenance, our Website Care plan is $190/month and covers hosting management, uptime monitoring, updates, backups, security patches and one hour of changes each month. If you'd rather not pay monthly, that's fine too; just make sure someone is responsible for updates.

Why fast sites are worth paying for

Speed isn't a nice-to-have. Google measures real visitors' experience using Core Web Vitals: how quickly the main content appears (Largest Contentful Paint, good at 2.5 seconds or less), how quickly the page responds when someone taps (Interaction to Next Paint, good at 200 milliseconds or less), and how much the layout jumps around while loading (Cumulative Layout Shift, good at 0.1 or less).

Heavy themes stacked with plugins, sliders and unoptimised photos often fail these, especially on phones over mobile data. That's a big part of why a cheap site can end up costing more: if visitors bounce before the page loads, the site isn't doing its job. You can check any site for free with Google's PageSpeed Insights.

How to compare website quotes

Before you sign, ask every provider the same questions:

1. What's included, exactly? Number of pages, copywriting, photos, forms, booking, SEO setup.
2. Who owns what? Domain, hosting account, design files, code and logins should all end up yours.
3. What does it cost per year after launch? Hosting, licences, maintenance, email.
4. Who does updates and backups? And what happens if the site gets hacked?
5. How many revision rounds are included, and what does extra work cost?
6. Can I edit it myself? Text, images and blog posts at minimum.
7. What's the timeline, and what do you need from me to hit it?

A good provider answers all seven in writing without hesitation. If the answers are vague, the final bill usually isn't.

So what should you budget?

• Just need to exist online? A DIY builder is fine. Spend your effort on clear copy and a Google Business Profile.
• Selling one service or running ads? A focused landing page usually outperforms a sprawling site.
• A service business that wins work from its website? Budget for a proper business site plus ongoing care. It should pay for itself in enquiries.
• Need logins, payments or a customer portal? That's a web app; scope it tightly and build the smallest useful version first.

Your website is only one part of your tech setup. If you have staff, our small-business offboarding checklist covers another part that often gets missed.

If you'd like a fixed quote for your site, tell us what you need and we'll come back with a straight answer within 48 hours.