How Much Does a Small Business Website Cost in Australia?
Most small business websites in Australia cost A$1,000 to A$4,000 to build, plus a small yearly amount to keep online. The biggest thing that moves the price is how much of the content and updates you handle yourself.
Where these numbers come from
Every range below was read on 21 October 2026 from six public Australian pages: three published cost guides and the pricing pages of three web studios, two of them in Melbourne. We've kept the numbers and left the names out, as we did in our maintenance guide. Some pages quote prices with GST and some without, so treat each range as accurate to about 10%. The bottom row of the chart is our own price. Prices change, and a "from" figure usually grows once the extras are added, so the written quote in front of you is always the real number for your site.
What each kind of website costs to build
Six answers to "how much does a website cost?", cheapest first, with our own price at the bottom. Every bar starts at zero: the light part reaches the bottom of the range and the solid part is the range itself. Two of them run past the edge of the chart:
- Website builder, you do the workA$0–1,200Wix, Squarespace and similar, first-year plan costCheapest in cash. The build, the words and every update are your time.
- Starter or template siteA$800–4,000Fixed-price starter packages and template WordPress sitesOne to five pages. Most of the fixed-price packages we read sit here.
- Small business site, 5–10 pagesA$2,800–8,000Studio packages and semi-custom WordPress buildsMore pages, local SEO, often a way to edit the site yourself.
- Agency-built siteA$5,000–15,000Small web agencies, quoted after a discovery callA fuller process: workshops, copywriting, more rounds of design.
- Online shopA$5,000–30,000+Shopify, WooCommerce and custom storesProducts, payments, shipping and stock. The product count moves it most.
- Fully custom or integratedA$8,000–50,000+Bookings, logins, integrations with other systemsPriced by the features, not the pages.
- Onrai Studio packagesfrom A$1,000Our own figure: Starter from A$1,000, Growth from A$3,000, + GSTCustom-coded, no templates. Shops and custom builds are quoted.
What each price usually gets you
| Build price | What sites at this level usually include | What is usually extra |
|---|---|---|
| Under A$1,200 | A builder plan and a template. You write, build and update it yourself | Your time, plus any paid apps or a higher plan |
| A$800–4,000 | One to five pages, mobile layout, a contact form, basic on-page SEO | Copywriting, extra pages, a way to edit it yourself |
| A$2,800–8,000 | Five to ten pages, local SEO, often a dashboard or editor for your own changes | A shop, bookings, logins, ongoing SEO |
| A$5,000–15,000 | An agency process: discovery workshops, copy, several design rounds | Integrations and anything quoted after launch |
| A$8,000 and up | Custom features: bookings, customer logins, links to your other systems | Usually quoted feature by feature |
What moves the price
Five things explain most of the gap between A$800 and A$8,000:
- The number of pages. Pricing pages step up at about five, ten and twenty pages. A service business with one page per service and per suburb climbs fast.
- Who writes the words. Copywriting is the line most often left out of a low quote. If you're sending the words in, say so up front.
- Whether you can edit it yourself. A site you change through a dashboard costs more to build than one you email changes for. It costs less to run if you update it often.
- Template or custom. A template sets the layout and you fill it in. A custom design starts from your business, which takes longer and costs more.
- Features beyond pages. A shop, online bookings, customer logins or a link to your job management software are each priced on their own. One of them can double a quote.
What it costs to keep running each year
| Running cost | Typical range | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Domain name | A$15–66 a year | Paid yearly, or several years at once |
| Hosting | A$5–150 a month | Shared hosting at the low end, managed hosting from about A$20 |
| Care or maintenance plan | A$50–550 a month | Optional on the studio pages we read. Updates, backups, small changes |
| Business email | A$3–25 a mailbox a month | Often sold apart from hosting |
Why the cheapest quote can cost more
A low build price paired with a compulsory monthly plan is the most common way a website gets expensive. A A$1,500 site with a A$150-a-month plan you can't cancel is a A$6,900 site over three years. Ask two things before comparing quotes: what the site costs over three years, and what happens to the domain, hosting and code if you stop paying. Everything should be registered in your name.
Where our prices sit
Our Starter package is from A$1,000 + GST for up to five custom-coded pages. Growth is from A$3,000 + GST and adds a dashboard where you edit your own text, photos and blog posts. Both can be paid in six weekly instalments. Growth's monthly plan runs from A$75 to A$2,000 a month + GST, depending on how much work you want from us each month. The low end keeps the site hosted and looked after. The top end is a team on call: marketing material, graphic design, constant changes and new code, deployed as soon as it's done. Online shops and fully custom builds are quoted in writing after we've seen what you need. We use AI tools across design and code, which is how a custom site comes in at a template price. If a builder plan already does what your business needs, our Squarespace and Wix cost guide will tell you so.
Where to next
- Sites we've built for Australian businesses
Real client sites, from a florist to a caravan maker.
- What our maintenance plan covers
For sites we built and sites we didn't.
Get a fixed written quote
Tell us what your business does and what the site needs to do. We'll send back a fixed price in writing, with every inclusion listed, and a free homepage design so you can see it before you pay anything.
