The short answer
For most local businesses (a café, a clinic, a tradie, a salon) a good website costs A$600 to A$1,200 to build, plus about A$20–40 a year for the domain. A bigger custom site with lots of pages starts around A$3,500, and an online store more than that.
What changes the price is how much there is to build, not who you are. Here's where the money goes, what it costs to keep a site running, and the questions worth asking any web designer before you pay.
What you're paying for
- Design: a layout that suits your business and works on a phone first, because that's where most people will see it.
- Writing: the words on the page. Clear copy about what you do, where, and what it costs does more for enquiries than any design trick.
- Building and testing: making it fast, making the forms actually arrive, and checking it on real phones.
- Setting it up: the domain, Google Business Profile link, search basics (titles, descriptions, a sitemap) and analytics.
- Changes: a round or two of tweaks once you've seen it.
Our prices, as an example
Every price below is fixed, in AUD, with no GST to add (we're not registered for GST). You get the price and a date in writing before any work starts.
| What | Price | Ready in |
|---|---|---|
| Quick Fix to an existing site (speed, phones, forms) | A$350 | 48 hours |
| One-page site (up to 6 sections) | A$600 | 48 hours |
| Menu site with pickup ordering | A$1,000 | 48 hours |
| Small website (up to 5 pages) | A$1,200 | About a week |
| Full website | from A$3,500 | 3–6 weeks |
| Online store (Shopify) | from A$5,000 | Quoted with a date |
Add-ons are priced the same way: a booking calendar A$150, an extra page A$150, a photo gallery A$100, a Google Business Profile set-up A$200. Every price is on one page.
What it costs to keep it running
- Domain: usually A$20–40 a year for a .com.au, paid to the registrar. Make sure it's registered in your name.
- Hosting: this is where prices vary most. Many designers and builders charge every month for as long as the site is up. A small, well-built site costs very little to host, and we host the ones we build for free.
- Email: a [email protected] address is a monthly fee per person, paid to Google or Microsoft.
- Changes: new prices, new hours, a new photo. Some places include these, some charge per change, some sell a monthly plan. Ask before you sign.
What makes a website cost more
- More pages, and more writing from scratch.
- Systems behind the site: online ordering, bookings, quote forms that price the job, customer logins.
- Selling online: products, stock, shipping and payments.
- Branding: a new logo, colours and fonts before the site can be designed.
- Moving an old site: lots of existing pages and content to bring across.
What about Wix or Squarespace?
Website builders are cheap to start and fine if you enjoy doing it yourself. The catches: you pay a subscription for as long as the site exists, you can't take the site with you if you leave, and it takes more of your time than most owners expect. A designer costs more up front; whether that's worth it depends on what your time is worth and how much the site needs to do.
Costs that catch people out
- The domain in someone else's name. Whoever holds the domain controls the site. It should always be yours.
- A monthly fee you can't stop. If you stop paying, does the site go offline? Can you take it elsewhere?
- Paying for every small change with no price agreed in advance.
- A low price that grows. A cheap quote with vague scope often ends up costing more than a fixed price.
Five questions to ask any web designer
- Is the price fixed, and what exactly does it include?
- Whose name will the domain be in?
- What will I pay every month or year after launch, and what happens if I stop?
- How many rounds of changes are included, and what do changes cost after that?
- If I want to move the site somewhere else later, can I take everything with me?
Our answers, for the record: fixed, yours, nothing unless you choose a care plan, one round (two for a small website) then A$40 a change, and yes, free.