A website for an Australian small business can cost almost nothing or well over $10,000. The spread is real, and most of it comes down to three things: who builds it, what it needs to do, and whether you pay upfront or by the month.
This guide walks through each way of paying, the costs that keep coming after launch, and what to ask so two quotes can be compared fairly. We build websites for small businesses, so we also say where our own pricing sits.
The four ways to pay for a website
Build it yourself
Wix, Squarespace and Shopify let you build a site from a template for a monthly plan, usually tens of dollars a month. You do the design, the writing and the support yourself.
It suits a business that is just starting and needs something live this week. It gets harder when you want a feature the template does not have, or when the site needs to work hard for enquiries.
Hire a freelancer
Australian freelance developers commonly charge somewhere between $80 and $150 an hour. A simple site can come in at a few thousand dollars. The quality range is wide, so look at sites they have built and ask who looks after it once it is live.
Pay a studio or agency upfront
This is the traditional model. Published price guides from Australian studios mostly put a professionally built small business website at $3,000 to $10,000, with larger or more complex sites running from $10,000 to $50,000 and up. Hosting and maintenance are usually billed on top.
You get a designer and a developer working on your business, and a large invoice before or during the build.
Pay monthly
Some studios, us included, build the site and then charge a monthly fee that covers hosting, maintenance and support. There is little or nothing to pay upfront, so the cost is spread over the time the site is working for you.
The question to ask is what you own. On a monthly plan the studio often keeps the code, while your content stays yours. Get the domain, the content and what happens if you leave written into the agreement.
What moves the price
Two sites with the same number of pages can be priced very differently. These are the things that move a quote:
- Pages and content. A five-page service site is less work than forty pages. Writing the copy and sourcing photos takes time too, whoever does it.
- Custom design. A design made for your business costs more than a template with your logo on it.
- Features. Online bookings, a product catalogue, a quote calculator or a customer login each add real build time.
- Online store. Payments, stock and shipping rules make an e-commerce site a bigger job.
- Connections to other systems. Sending enquiries into your CRM, job management or accounting software adds work.
- A redesign. Rebuilding an existing site is not always cheaper. Moving content and keeping the page addresses Google already knows takes care.
The costs after launch
The build is one part of the cost. A website also has running costs every year:
- Domain name. A .com.au usually costs somewhere around $20 to $50 a year.
- Hosting. Anything from a few dollars a month on shared hosting to a few hundred dollars a year for a managed setup.
- Maintenance and security. Updates, backups, fixes and small changes. Some businesses do this themselves. Most pay someone.
- Search and marketing. Work on your Google rankings after launch is usually a separate, ongoing cost. Be wary of anyone who guarantees a ranking.
When you compare quotes, add these up over two or three years. A cheap build with expensive hosting and paid-by-the-hour changes can cost more than a higher quote that includes them.
What we charge
Our small business websites start from $199 per month, with no upfront costs. The final price depends on the pages, content and features you need. A site with bookings, a catalogue or a custom quote tool costs more than a straightforward service website.
Every site is priced from a written scope instead of a fixed package. The itemised quote shows the pages, features, timeline, hosting and ongoing support before work starts. Each quote includes:
- Custom design for your business
- The pages your scope lists, built and filled
- Contact and enquiry forms
- Testing on phone, tablet and desktop widths
- Technical SEO and launch
- Hosting, maintenance and support
A straightforward website usually takes one to two weeks once the scope is approved and the content is ready.
On ownership: the content is yours. The domain is usually registered so it can transfer to you, though that depends on what we agree. We build, host and maintain the site for an ongoing fee, and the code stays with us. Ask before you sign if you want it set up differently.
How to compare two website quotes
Before you choose, check each quote answers the same questions:
- Which pages are included, and who writes the words?
- Is the design custom or a template?
- What does hosting cost, and is it in the price?
- Who makes changes after launch, and what do they cost?
- What is the timeline, in writing?
- Who owns the domain, the content and the code?
- What happens if you want to leave?
If a quote cannot answer these, it is hard to know what you are paying for.
If you want a real number for your business, send us a short brief and we will come back with an itemised quote. Our small business website page shows what a build includes, and if you run a trade business, websites for tradies covers quote calculators and showing your jobs. In Melbourne, see our web design in Melbourne page.