How Much Does a Small Business Website Cost in Australia?

A small business website in Australia costs about A$330 a year if you build it yourself on a platform like Squarespace or Wix, A$1,500–5,000 upfront from a freelancer, or A$5,000–20,000 and beyond from an agency, and every option then adds roughly A$20–25 a year for a .com.au domain plus hosting, email and upkeep (as at September 2026). The spread is wide because "a website" can mean a five-page brochure or a custom online store. Here's what each price band buys, what the ongoing bills look like, and how to spot a quote that's padding the number.

The three price bands

Route	Upfront	Ongoing per year	Best for	What you give up
DIY builder (Squarespace, Wix, Shopify)	$0 beyond your time	$200–700 subscription, plus domain and email	Sole traders and service businesses that need five pages and a contact form	A few weekends, and a site that looks like the template
Freelancer	$1,500–5,000	$300–2,000 for hosting, domain, email and an optional care plan	Trades, clinics and consultants who want a professional look and someone to call	You depend on one person staying in business
Agency	$5,000–20,000+	$1,500–6,000+ for hosting, a care plan and retainers	Businesses where the site is the sales engine, online stores, anything with custom features	Budget: you're paying for process, meetings and margin

These are the ranges reported across Australian web design pricing guides in 2026, not list prices. The useful benchmark is the hourly rate: Australian freelance developers charge about A$80–180 an hour, so a A$4,000 quote should buy 25 to 50 hours of work. If a proposal doesn't roughly reconcile, ask what the rest is for.

What you're actually paying for

Whoever builds it, a website is the same handful of line items, and knowing them stops you paying an agency margin on a A$23 domain.

Domain name

A .com.au renews at roughly A$20–25 a year at the major Australian registrars: VentraIP lists A$22.95, and GoDaddy and Crazy Domains sit in the same band (as at September 2026 — check each registrar's current renewal price, not its first-year offer). First-year offers of A$9.95 or less are everywhere; budget on the renewal price. auDA, which runs the .au space, has announced a further wholesale price rise from 1 October 2026, so expect retail prices to nudge up.

To hold a .com.au you need an ABN, ACN, ARBN or an Australian trade mark, and the domain has to match or abbreviate your business name or describe what you sell. Register it in your own name with an email you control, never your designer's; the registrant owns the domain.

Hosting or a builder subscription

Builders bundle hosting into the subscription. Squarespace's entry plan is about A$17 a month on annual billing (A$24 month to month), with commerce tiers at A$28–49. Wix's cheapest paid plan is around A$16–21 a month depending on billing term, rising to roughly A$40 for its Business e-commerce tier on annual billing, and more month to month. Shopify Basic is A$42 a month on an annual plan or A$56 month to month, plus 1.75% + 30c on every online card payment (all as at September 2026).

Self-hosted WordPress separates the free software from the hosting. Australian shared hosting starts around A$5.50–9.25 a month on introductory terms and renews at A$11–18.50; managed WordPress hosting with staging, backups and real support is more like A$30–50 a month. Offshore hosting is cheaper, but Sydney or Melbourne servers load faster for Australian visitors, which Google notices.

Business email

An address like hello@yourbusiness.com.au is a separate bill. Google Workspace Business Starter is A$9.90 per user a month on an annual plan; Microsoft 365 Business Basic is A$10.50 per user a month ex GST following its 1 July 2026 price rise (as at September 2026). Free host mailboxes work, but spam filtering and reliability are a step down, and email is where enquiries land.

Design and build

This is the variable that swings the total. A freelancer customising a good template into a six-page service site is A$1,500–5,000; a small agency adding a discovery workshop, custom design and project management is A$5,000–15,000. E-commerce builds start around A$8,000 and climb with product count, integrations and anything custom.

Words and pictures

Quotes often exclude copy and photography, and then the project stalls because nobody has written anything. Australian website copywriters charge about A$90–160 an hour, or A$1,000–4,000 for the core pages of a small business site. Price a morning with a local photographer too; stock photos of models in hard hats make you look like every competitor.

Maintenance

Builders handle updates for you. Self-hosted WordPress needs core and plugin updates, backups and security monitoring, by you (an hour a month) or via a care plan at roughly A$100–500 a month depending on what's bundled; A$1,000–3,000 a year is realistic for a simple site.

Three real budgets

Rounded figures using the prices above; some are ex GST.

Business and setup	Year one	Year two onwards
Consultant, DIY on Squarespace. Entry plan A$204, .com.au A$9.95 first year (A$22.95 after), Google Workspace for one user A$119	About A$330	About A$350
Electrician, freelancer WordPress build. Build A$3,500, WordPress hosting A$111 first year (A$222 renewing), .com.au, Microsoft 365 for two users A$252, care plan at A$100 a month from year two	About A$3,870	About A$1,700 (A$500 if you do updates yourself)
Homewares retailer, Shopify plus freelancer. Shopify Basic A$504 on annual billing, theme setup and product upload A$3,500, .com.au, email A$119, card fees on A$50,000 of online sales at a A$100 average order A$1,025	About A$5,160	About A$1,670 including card fees

The pattern: the build is a one-off, running costs are modest, and a store's biggest ongoing line is card processing, which scales with sales. The consultant's real cost is the weekends spent building, a fine trade until enquiries are worth more than A$3,000 to you.

What pushes the price up

Page count and unique layouts. Ten pages on three layouts costs far less than ten bespoke pages.
Custom design roughly doubles a build. Most five-page service sites don't need it.
Selling online. Products, variants, payment gateways, shipping rules and stock sync all add hours.
Integrations such as bookings, CRMs, Xero or MYOB: an afternoon each at best, a week at worst.
Copy and photography you haven't got yet.
Project management. If the agency chases you for content and manages revisions, you pay for that time.

What you actually need at each stage

Just starting out. Five pages (home, services, about, reviews, contact), a tappable phone number, a short form you've tested from your own phone, and a link from your Google Business Profile. A builder plan or a A$1,500–2,500 freelancer job covers it. Our DIY guide to building a small business website covers the pages, platforms and launch checklist, and our guide to Privacy Act rules for small business explains when a form collecting names and numbers needs a privacy policy.

Established and getting enquiries. Now the site is worth investing in: one page per service, suburb pages if you travel to customers, embedded reviews, faster load times and tracking that shows which pages produce calls. Budget A$3,000–6,000 with a freelancer, plus A$1,500–4,000 if you want the copy written.

Growing or selling online. E-commerce, bookings, accounting and inventory integrations, and content you publish regularly. This is where a specialist freelancer or agency at A$8,000 and up earns its keep, provided the brief is written in sales rather than "a fresh look".

Whatever the stage, run the free Marketing Health Check before you spend, and read our small business marketing guide for where a website sits against Google Business Profile, reviews and referrals. A A$10,000 site attached to an empty Google listing produces nothing.

Red flags in web quotes

The domain or hosting isn't in your name. If the designer registers the domain, they own it.
A proprietary platform you can't leave. You "rent" the site; leave and you start from zero.
Monthly packages with long lock-ins. A$199 a month for 36 months is A$7,164, often for a template site.
"SEO included" with no detail. Ask what specifically: page titles, schema, speed, Search Console setup?
A lump sum with no line items, or one that quietly excludes copy, photos, forms, analytics and training.
100% payment upfront. A deposit is normal; the balance follows a launch you've approved.
No mention of mobile or speed. Most visitors arrive on a phone.
Prices that don't say whether GST is included. Clarify before comparing quotes. On your own site, if you sell to consumers, the ACCC requires the displayed price to be a single total including GST and unavoidable fees.

Questions to ask before you sign

Who owns the domain, hosting account, site files and any images or copy you create? (Answer you want: you.)
Exactly what's included, and what's an extra? Copy, photos, forms, analytics, Google Business Profile link, training.
What platform will it be built on, and can I export it or move it to another host?
What will it cost in year two, itemised, and what's your hourly rate for changes after launch?
Who handles updates, backups and security, and what happens if the site goes down on a Saturday?
Can I see three live sites you built more than a year ago, and speak to those owners?
What's the payment schedule, the timeline, and what usually causes delays?

The last answer is the tell: honest builders say "clients not sending content". Write the words first.

Can you claim it on tax?

Yes, though not always in one hit. The ATO's ruling on website costs (TR 2016/3) treats running costs as ordinary deductions: hosting, domain renewals, builder subscriptions, email, maintenance and routine content updates are claimable in the year you pay them. The initial build, or a redesign that substantially changes the site, is capital expenditure treated as in-house software.

If you're a small business using the simplified depreciation rules, a build costing under $20,000 can be deducted in full in the year the site is ready to use under the instant asset write-off, which became permanent from 1 July 2026. The threshold is tested ex GST if you're registered. Our instant asset write-off guide covers the rules; check your specific costs with your accountant, especially where a quote bundles build, copy and ongoing services into one figure.

Key takeaways

DIY builder sites cost about A$330 a year; freelancer builds A$1,500–5,000; agency builds A$5,000–20,000+ (as at September 2026).
Budget separately for the .com.au domain (A$20–25 a year), hosting or a builder plan, business email (A$10–11 per user a month) and maintenance.
Benchmark any quote against A$80–180 an hour and ask what hours the difference buys.
Copy and photos are usually excluded and are the most common reason projects stall. Write the words first.
Own your domain, hosting and files outright, and avoid platforms and lock-in contracts you can't leave.
Running costs are deductible as you pay them; a build under $20,000 can usually be written off in full under the small business rules.

Where to get help

business.gov.au – Set up a business website — government guidance on domains, hosting and content management systems.
auDA — the .au licensing rules, eligibility for .com.au, and the list of accredited registrars.
ACCC – Price displays — the single total price rule for prices you show consumers on your site.
ATO – In-house software — how website development costs are depreciated.
OAIC — Privacy Act obligations if your site collects customer information.
Your accountant for how build and running costs are treated, and a lawyer if an agency contract has ownership or lock-in clauses you don't understand.