What Is the Best Website Builder for a Small Business in Australia?

Where these numbers come from

Each builder sets its price by your billing country, so we only quote Australian dollar figures we've read on an Australian pricing page. Shopify's prices and card rates were re-read on 21 October 2026. Squarespace, Wix and WordPress.com showed us a different currency when we checked from outside Australia on 21 October, so their A$ prices are the ones we read on 21 August 2026 for our builder cost guide. The plan features quoted here were all checked on 21 October. Webflow prices in US dollars for every country. All five run promotions often, so the price on the pricing page the day you sign up is the real one.

The five builders side by side

Our pick for each type of business

One builder for each of the common small business types, and the reason:

• Tradies and local service businesses: Squarespace Core. You need five or so pages, a phone number, a contact form and photos of your work. Core is the plan Squarespace marks as recommended, it allows custom CSS and JavaScript, and its store fee is 0%. Basic (A$17) works for a brochure site but charges a 2% fee on store sales.
• Salons, physios, trainers and anyone who books appointments: Wix Core. Core is the first Wix plan that lists "Accept payments" and "Scheduling and services", so a client can book and pay on your site. Wix Light (A$21) has neither.
• Shops selling physical products: Shopify Basic. At A$42 a month it's built around products, stock, shipping and checkout. Card payments cost 1.7% + A$0.30 on Shopify Payments, with an extra 2% if you use a different payment provider.
• Writers, publishers and content-heavy sites: WordPress.com. On 21 October its pricing page listed plugin installs on every paid plan. WordPress also runs on any host, so it's the easiest of the five to move away from later.
• Design studios and teams with a designer: Webflow. It gives the most control over layout, and it expects you to learn it. Basic (US$15) has no CMS; Premium (US$25) adds one for blogs and listings.

What each one charges when you sell online

Why "it depends" is the wrong answer

The five builders are close enough on looks that the template isn't what decides it. What decides it is the one job your site does most. If it's getting a call, pick the builder that makes the nicest pages for the least effort. That's Squarespace. If it's taking a booking, pick the one with booking built into the plan, which is Wix. If it's selling a product, pick the one built for checkouts, which is Shopify. Choosing on the thing you'll do every day saves you paying for apps to fix the gap later.

Costs that are the same on every builder

Add these before comparing any plan to a quote from a designer:

• Monthly billing costs more. Shopify Basic is A$42 a month billed yearly and A$56 billed monthly. Wix's listed prices are for yearly plans paid in full upfront.
• The free domain is free for one year. Squarespace, Wix and WordPress.com all include a domain for year one, then it renews at the normal price.
• Apps add up. Reviews, bookings and marketing add-ons often bill monthly on top of the plan.
• Your time. Every plan above gives you the software. You still write the words, take the photos and make the changes.

When a builder isn't the answer

A builder is a good deal for a simple site you're happy to run yourself. It stops being one in three cases: you need a feature the builder doesn't sell (a quote calculator, a link to your job software, customer logins), you're competing for local searches against businesses with dozens of service and suburb pages, or you don't have the hours to keep it current. That's the work we do. Our Starter package is from A$1,000 + GST for up to five custom-coded pages, and Growth is from A$3,000 + GST with a dashboard to edit it yourself. If your business fits one of the picks above, start there; you can always move later.

Sources

1. Shopify Australia: pricinghttps://www.shopify.com/au/pricing

   Plan prices in A$ and card rates, read 21 October 2026.

2. Squarespace: pricinghttps://www.squarespace.com/pricing

   Plan features and store fees read 21 October 2026; A$ prices read 21 August 2026.

3. Wix: planshttps://www.wix.com/plans

   Plan features read 21 October 2026; A$ prices read 21 August 2026.

4. WordPress.com: pricinghttps://wordpress.com/pricing/

   Plugin access read 21 October 2026; A$ prices read 21 August 2026.

5. Webflow: pricinghttps://webflow.com/pricing

   US$ site plan prices, read 21 October 2026.

Where to next

• What a custom-coded online store costs instead →

  Headless Shopify or WooCommerce, Stripe payments and an order dashboard.

• Does Shopify take a percentage of every sale? →

  When the extra 2% applies, read from Shopify's own help pages.

See what a custom build covers