Best Website Builder Australia 2026: Prices & Fees Compared

The best website builder for an Australian small business depends on the job. Wix suits a fast, simple service site, Squarespace suits design-led consultants, Shopify suits product sellers, and Square Online suits cafes and booking-based businesses already using Square. On October 2026 prices, a five-page site with a .com.au domain and one mailbox costs about A$129 to A$633 in year one.

This page compares ten builders on what matters in Australia: prices in Australian dollars, store and card fees, .com.au rules, where your data sits, page speed, bookings, GST settings, email and how hard it is to leave. If you haven't planned the pages yet, start with our DIY guide to building a small business website. For freelancer and agency price bands, see what a small business website costs.

Quick picks by business type

Our picks use stated criteria: published price, the features each business type needs, Australian payment and GST support, mobile Core Web Vitals data and how easily you can leave. We didn't build test sites, and no provider paid for inclusion. Costs are year one, as at October 2026, and include a .com.au and one mailbox.

What changed in 2026

• Wix now shows Australians US dollar prices "for reference only", with the final price shown on the purchase page. Wix Payments still isn't offered in Australia, so Wix stores connect another provider.
• GoDaddy sells its builder as Airo AI Builder with Starter, Professional and Ultimate plans. Online payments and appointment bookings need Professional, and "Remove Airo branding" was marked "coming soon".
• Webflow's site plans are now Basic and a new Premium plan that carries the CMS.
• Card surcharges ended on 1 October 2026 for Visa, Mastercard, American Express and eftpos cards, according to the ACCC. Check that no surcharge setting is switched on in your store or booking tool.
• auDA's wholesale .au price is A$9.50 a year ex GST from 1 October 2026.
• Card rates fell slightly. Shopify Payments' domestic online rate on Basic is 1.7% + 30c, down from the 1.75% we recorded in September in our online store guide. Stripe's is 1.65% + A$0.30.
• Square calls its Square Online paid plans "legacy" in the US and is moving American sellers to new Square plans. The Australian plans page still sold Plus and Premium when we checked.

Website builder prices in Australia

Monthly prices as listed on 18 October 2026. "Annual" is the per-month price when you pay a year upfront. Approximate AUD conversions use the RBA rate of US$0.6947 on 16 October 2026.

Duda is built for agencies selling sites to clients, so most owners meet it through a web designer. Self-hosted WordPress and Rocketspark (A$39 to A$130 a month, excluding GST) are other options; our cost guide covers WordPress hosting.

GST on the subscription itself

Squarespace, WordPress.com, Webflow and Duda quote prices before tax. Squarespace says Australians who don't certify GST registration pay 10% GST on top, while registered businesses that enter their ABN aren't charged it. Our guide to GST on overseas software subscriptions explains how to read these invoices at BAS time.

Online store fees: platform and card costs

What you pay per sale is usually a bigger number than the plan. Rates are for domestic cards taken online, as at 18 October 2026.

Two illustrative break-even points:

• Squarespace Basic or Core? Core costs A$132 a year more on annual billing but removes the 2% store fee. It pays for itself once online sales pass A$6,600 a year (A$132 ÷ 2%). In the store example below, Basic would cost A$2,382.75 in year one against Core's A$1,395.95.
• Shopify Basic or Squarespace Core? Shopify Basic costs A$168 a year more but charges 0.1 percentage point less per sale. On fees alone, Shopify only becomes cheaper above about A$168,000 a year in sales. Paid apps change that maths, so price the apps you need.

Since 1 October 2026 you can't pass card costs on as a surcharge for Visa, Mastercard, Amex or eftpos cards, so build them into your prices. Our card surcharge checklist walks through every payment channel.

What each builder costs in year one

Two illustrative budgets. The service site is five pages with a contact form. The online store takes A$50,000 a year in online card sales from 500 orders of A$100, all on domestic cards. Both include a .com.au from VentraIP at A$9.95 for the first year and one Google Workspace Business Starter mailbox at A$118.80 a year (excluding tax), unless the plan includes email for year one. Plans are billed annually at standard prices.

The store column shows why plan price is the wrong thing to compare: Shopify Basic's A$504 subscription is smaller than its A$1,000 in card fees. In year two, add the domain at its standard price (A$22.95 at VentraIP) and check your plan's renewal price. Hostinger's 48-month prepayment means your next big bill arrives in year five.

.com.au domains: eligibility, cost and where to buy

auDA sets the rules for .au names. Its com.au eligibility page says .com.au names are for "commercial entities registered to trade in Australia or that hold an Australian trade mark". In practice you need one of:

• an active ABN or ACN (the most common route; our guide shows how to register an ABN for free);
• an ARBN, for foreign companies registered to trade in Australia; or
• an Australian trade mark or trade mark application.

The name must connect to you: your business or personal name, an acronym of your business name, a match with your Australian trade mark, a match to a related Australian company, partnership or trust, or a match or synonym of what you do (a service, goods you sell, an activity you teach or a venue you run). You must stay eligible the whole time you hold it, and auDA says eligibility is verified at registration and renewal. Terms run from one to five years.

The shorter .au direct names (yourbusiness.au) only need a validated Australian connection, such as being a citizen, permanent resident, Australian-registered organisation or Australian trade mark holder. Register both if they're free.

Prices checked 18 October 2026. Most builders include a domain voucher for the first year on annual plans, but read the terms: Wix says its voucher only covers a new domain bought from Wix and can't renew one you already own.

Three habits save grief. Register the domain in your business's name with an email you control. Keep it at an Australian registrar rather than inside the builder, so you can switch platforms by changing DNS records. And know about transfer locks: Squarespace, Wix, Shopify and WordPress.com all say a domain registered through them can't be transferred out for 60 days after registration, and GoDaddy says domains bought in a bundle can't move for 120 days. Before registering, check the name with our guides to choosing a business name and trade marks.

Where your site is hosted, and how fast it loads

None of the major builders publishes an Australian data centre or a data residency option. They serve pages through content delivery networks, which cache copies nearer your visitors, so hosting location matters less for speed than it once did. It still matters if a client contract, industry rule or your own preference requires data to stay onshore.

Page speed: how many real sites pass Core Web Vitals

No builder publishes independent speed figures for its customers' sites, so we used the HTTP Archive Technology Report. It shows the share of sites on each platform that pass all three of Google's Core Web Vitals (loading, responsiveness and layout stability) for real Chrome users. Figures are for September 2026, on mobile.

Read this as a platform tendency, not a promise about your site. Squarespace's Australian figure sat between 68% and 70% from April to July 2026 before dropping in August and September, so watch whether it recovers. We left out Square Online because its data reads 0% every month, which looks like a measurement problem. Your own photos, embeds and apps decide most of your score: test your live site with Google's PageSpeed Insights, and see our SEO basics guide for what slows sites down.

Australian-hosted options

• VentraIP VIPsites: a free builder with free hosting and SSL. You pay for the domain (A$9.95 for the first year for a .com.au, as at 18 October 2026). VentraIP's page doesn't list store, booking or page-limit details, so check them before you commit.
• Shared hosting with a drag-and-drop builder: Dreamit Host lets you choose Melbourne, Sydney or Perth servers (or Auckland), with plans from A$6.95 a month including GST and over 190 templates. You manage more yourself than on Wix or Squarespace.
• Self-hosted WordPress on Australian hosting: the most flexible route and the easiest to move later, at the cost of updates and backups. Our website cost guide covers Australian hosting prices.

Booking and appointment features

On annual billing, one practitioner's year-one cost for the booking tool plus a site comes to about A$501 on Wix Core, A$444 on Squarespace Basic with Acuity Starter, A$479.40 on GoDaddy Professional, and A$0 on Square Appointments Free with its booking site (A$480 if you need Plus for no-show fees). Domain and email are extra.

GST settings for online stores

You must register for GST once your GST turnover reaches $75,000, according to the ATO. Our guide to registering for GST covers the decision if you're under that. Once registered, set up your store so prices include GST and receipts show it.

• Shopify: Australian stores use Shopify's Basic Tax service, which asks you to add your tax registration under Settings, then Taxes and duties. Turn on "Include taxes in product prices" so the price customers see already includes GST.
• Squarespace: add a tax rate, then under "How tax is added" choose "Include in price"; the GST portion shows as a line at checkout and in order emails. Squarespace can't set different tax rules for different products. Its automated tax option covers GST, but its help page doesn't name Australia, so confirm before paying the per-transaction fee.
• WooCommerce (WordPress.com Business or Commerce): set "Prices entered with tax" to include tax, choose "Including tax" for "Display prices in the shop", and add a 10% standard rate for Australia.
• Wix, Square, GoDaddy, Hostinger and Webflow: all have tax settings; before launch, check you can enter GST-inclusive prices and that receipts show the GST amount. GoDaddy describes its feature as "Calculate sales tax automatically", which is US terminology, so test it with an Australian address.

Whatever the platform, place a test order and compare the receipt with the price shown. The ACCC says consumers must see a single total price including GST; only prices shown solely to other businesses can exclude it. If you sell from stock imported from overseas, our online store guide covers the import GST rules.

SEO controls

Every builder here says it includes SEO tools: Squarespace and GoDaddy on all plans, Square Online on its free plan, Hostinger with an automatic sitemap, and Wix as a "built-in marketing and SEO" suite. WordPress.com opens the 60,000-plus plugin library from its Personal plan, which includes the well-known SEO plugins. The differences are in the edges:

• Shopify lets you edit page titles, meta descriptions and image alt text, but you can't redirect URLs on its fixed paths (/products, /collections, /collections/all), so your URL structure is set for you.
• Closed builders (Wix, Squarespace, Square Online, GoDaddy) control the code. That's fine for a small site but limits advanced fixes later.
• WordPress and Webflow give the most control, if you or your designer will use it.

Before you commit, check in the free trial that you can edit each page's title and meta description, set clean URL slugs, add 301 redirects, edit alt text and get an automatic sitemap. Then follow our guides to SEO basics and local SEO, and connect your Google Business Profile.

Email hosting costs

A builder plan rarely includes ongoing email. Prices as at 18 October 2026:

Our comparison of Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 helps you choose. Email bought separately from the builder stays put when you change platforms.

Lock-in: what you can take with you

If you might outgrow a builder, WordPress.com Business, Webflow or self-hosted WordPress keep the most options open. Moving off Wix or Squarespace means rebuilding the site.

Picks by business type

Tradie or service business

Pick: Wix Light. Runner-up: Squarespace Basic. A service site needs five pages, a quote form, click-to-call and Google reviews, and it gets judged on a phone. Wix had the highest share of Australian sites passing Core Web Vitals on mobile in September 2026 (86.2%), and Light costs about A$423 in year one with domain and email. Squarespace Basic is cheaper (A$332.75 excluding GST) with cleaner templates, but its Australian mobile pass rate fell that month. If you'd rather your data stayed in Australia and only need a simple site, VentraIP VIPsites costs only the domain. If you later want online quote payments or bookings, Wix Core adds both. Job management and quoting tools are covered in our guide to job management software for tradies.

Cafe or restaurant

Pick: Square Online with Square POS. Runner-up: Wix Core. If you already run Square at the counter, Square Online's free plan syncs your items, takes pickup and delivery orders and supports weekend and public holiday surcharging. Plus (A$36 a month, billed annually) removes Square branding and adds QR code ordering. Online orders cost 2.2% each, so compare that with your in-person rate. Watch Square's plan changes: in the US its Square Online paid plans are now "legacy". Our Square vs Tyro comparison covers the counter side, and the ACCC's menu wording rule for weekend surcharges is in the legal checklist below.

Online store

Pick: Shopify Basic. Runner-up: Squarespace Core. Shopify has the deepest store features, handles Australian tax through its Basic Tax service and charges 1.7% + 30c on domestic cards with Shopify Payments. Squarespace Core costs less at A$50,000 a year in sales (A$1,395.95 against A$1,632.75 in our example) and includes a year of email, but has fewer store tools. If you want control and an easy exit, WordPress.com Business with WooCommerce came in at A$1,440.95. Avoid Squarespace Basic for a store: its 2% fee made it the second most expensive option in our example after Webflow Standard. Our online store guide covers shipping and returns.

Consultant, freelancer or portfolio

Pick: Squarespace Core. Runner-up: Webflow Basic. A consultant's site sells trust through design and writing. Squarespace Core (A$28 a month billed annually, excluding GST) includes a year of Google Workspace, so year one comes to A$345.95 with a .com.au. Webflow Basic (US$15 a month, about A$22) gives a designer more control. If you'll publish a lot of articles, WordPress.com keeps your content portable.

Booking-based business (salon, PT, clinic)

Pick: Square Appointments with its free booking site. Runner-up: Wix Core. Square Appointments' free plan covers one location with unlimited calendars, online booking, prepayments and a booking website, with no monthly fee. You pay 2.2% on online payments, and A$40 a month per location if you want no-show fees. Wix Core includes scheduling with a fuller website for about A$42 a month on annual billing. Squarespace with Acuity Starter is the design-led choice at A$444 a year combined. Personal trainers also need cover; see our public liability guide for personal trainers.

DIY or hire a web designer?

A useful middle path: pay a designer to set up a Squarespace, Wix or WordPress site in your own account, then edit it yourself. Make sure the domain, builder account and email are in your name. Our guide to small business website costs sets out freelancer and agency price bands, the questions to ask and the red flags in quotes.

Australian legal checklist for your website

General information only; get advice for your situation.

• Privacy policy. The Privacy Act covers businesses with annual turnover over $3 million, and some smaller ones regardless, including health service providers, businesses that trade in personal information and AML/CTF reporting entities, according to the OAIC. Forms, bookings and analytics all collect personal information, so a clear policy is worth having anyway. Read do you need a privacy policy?.
• Website terms and conditions. An online store needs terms on payment, delivery and refunds that match the consumer guarantees. See website terms and conditions and the unfair contract terms rules.
• Single total price. The ACCC requires the displayed price to be one figure including GST and unavoidable or pre-selected fees. Prices shown only to other businesses can exclude GST.
• No drip pricing. Tell customers at the start of checkout what fees will apply and when.
• Honest "was" prices. A sale price can only compare with a price you actually charged for a reasonable period beforehand.
• No card surcharges on Visa, Mastercard, Amex or eftpos from 1 October 2026. Turn off surcharge settings in your store, booking and invoicing tools.
• Weekend surcharges (cafes and restaurants). The menu must say "A surcharge of [percentage] applies on [day or days]", at least as prominently as the most prominent price.
• Refunds. Don't promise "no refunds"; the consumer guarantees still apply. See refunds and consumer guarantees.
• Claims. "Best in Brisbane" or "award-winning" must be true and provable. See false advertising penalties.
• Email marketing. Spam Act rules apply to newsletters sent from your builder; our email marketing guide covers consent and unsubscribes.
• Domain eligibility. Stay eligible for your .com.au (an active ABN or ACN) for as long as you hold it.

Launch checklist for a builder site

This list covers the platform settings. For page content, use the launch checklist in our DIY website guide.

1. Domain registered in your business's name, auto-renew on, and connected to the builder; both www and non-www addresses load over HTTPS.
2. Paid plan active and builder branding removed (on GoDaddy Airo this was still "coming soon").
3. Email records (MX, SPF, DKIM and DMARC) set up as your email provider's setup guide describes, then a test email sent and received.
4. Replacing an old site? Add 301 redirects from old page addresses to the new ones.
5. Store: GST setting matches your registration, prices entered GST-inclusive, a real test order placed and refunded, and the receipt checked.
6. No card surcharge switched on anywhere at checkout.
7. Bookings: time zone set to your state (Queensland and WA don't use daylight saving), and a test booking, reminder and cancellation sent.
8. Privacy policy, terms and refund policy linked in the footer and at checkout.
9. Google Search Console verified and sitemap submitted; analytics on.
10. Google Business Profile website link updated.
11. First export saved (products, contacts and content), so you have a copy outside the builder.
12. Renewal dates in your calendar for the plan, domain and email, with a reminder before any intro price ends.

Once you're live, run your site through PageSpeed Insights on mobile and fix the biggest images first. Our cybersecurity basics guide covers turning on two-factor sign-in for your builder and domain accounts.

How we compared

• Sources: each provider's own pricing, plan and help pages, viewed from Australia on 18 October 2026, plus auDA, the ACCC, the OAIC, the ATO and the RBA. Speed data comes from the HTTP Archive Technology Report (September 2026).
• Prices: standard published prices without promotions. USD prices were converted at the RBA rate on 16 October 2026 and are approximate; your AUD price at checkout may differ. GST treatment is noted where the provider states it.
• Costs: calculated from published rates with the assumptions stated above each table. They are illustrative, and your card mix, apps and renewals will change them.
• What we didn't do: we didn't sign up, build test sites or ask providers for quotes. There are no affiliate links, and no provider paid for inclusion. Picks follow the stated criteria; there are no scores.
• Benchmarks reviewed: arielle.com.au's best website builders page (updated 8 September 2026), Expert Market's Australian page, Paramark's comparison (14 November 2025) and PCMag Australia's list (28 August 2026). Forbes Advisor Australia's page returned an error, and Finder and Canstar had no matching page.

Key takeaways

• A five-page site with a .com.au and one mailbox costs about A$129 to A$633 in year one on October 2026 prices; most builders land between A$200 and A$430.
• For a store taking A$50,000 a year online, card and platform fees outweigh the subscription: year-one totals for the plans we compared run from about A$1,263 (Hostinger Unlimited) to A$2,605 (Webflow Standard).
• No major builder publishes an Australian data centre. VentraIP says data on its free VIPsites builder stays in Australia.
• A .com.au needs an active ABN, ACN, ARBN or Australian trade mark and a name that matches your business or what you sell. Register it yourself at an Australian registrar.
• Read the fine print: Wix Payments is not offered in Australia, Squarespace Basic adds a 2% store fee and GoDaddy's annual price is a first-year discount.
• Lock-in varies: Wix sites cannot be exported and Squarespace exports only part of a site, while WordPress.com Business and Commerce include a full backup you can move.

Where to get help

• auDA for .au eligibility rules, the list of accredited providers and domain disputes.
• ACCC: price displays for total-price, drip pricing and surcharge rules on your site.
• OAIC: small business for whether the Privacy Act covers you.
• ATO: registering for GST for the GST threshold and how to register.
• IP Australia: trade marks to check a name before you register the domain.
• business.gov.au for general guidance on getting your business online.
• Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman if a dispute with a larger provider stalls.
• Your accountant for GST settings and how website costs are claimed, and a lawyer for store terms.

Related tasks

Browse the marketing guides for your Google Business Profile, local SEO, reviews and email marketing.