How much does a small business website cost in Australia?
What a small business website costs in Australia in 2026: published price ranges, what a quote should include, running costs and a first-year cost calculator.
One Australian cost guide puts a professionally built small business website of 5–10 pages at $2,000–$6,000, a custom-designed site at $6,000–$15,000, and running costs at roughly $75–$400 a month. Those ranges are fair starting points, but a quote is a price for a scope. Compare quotes on what they include and on what they cost over the first year, not on the build price.
Published price ranges for 2026
Independent pricing data for websites is thin, because most designers quote privately. The most detailed public Australian source we found is the What’s The Damage? cost guide, which says its prices were verified in October 2026. It lists the same small business range for every capital city, Sydney included.
| Type of website | Typical range | What it usually means |
|---|---|---|
| Landing page | $800–$3,000 | A single focused page for a campaign or one service |
| Small business website (5–10 pages) | $2,000–$6,000 | Professionally built, usually from a customised theme |
| Custom-designed website | $6,000–$15,000 | Original design and structure for your business |
| Larger or integrated site | $15,000–$40,000 | Bookings, memberships or CRM connections |
| Online store | $5,000–$60,000+ | Depends on product range, platform and integrations |
The same guide puts freelancer rates at $80–$150 an hour and agency rates at $100–$250 an hour, and says a 30–50% deposit is typical on fixed quotes. Plenty of fair quotes land outside these ranges in both directions. A range tells you whether a quote is in the normal territory; it can’t tell you whether it’s good value.
What you are actually paying for
Most website quotes are a bundle of the same nine jobs. The difference between a $3,000 quote and a $9,000 quote is usually how many of these are included, and how much care goes into each.
| Component | What it covers | Why quotes differ |
|---|---|---|
| Discovery and page plan | Your services, customers, service area, competitors and which pages the site needs | Skipped in cheap builds. This is where the site’s structure is decided. |
| Copywriting | The words on each page, including headings and calls to action | Often “supplied by client”. Writing your own copy takes longer than most people expect. |
| Design | Layout, typography, colour and how key pages look on phone and desktop | A customised template versus original design for your business. |
| Build | Turning the design into a working site on a platform | Platform, number of unique page layouts and custom features. |
| Content and images | Adding pages, optimising photos, sourcing or briefing photography | Real photos take effort. Stock is cheaper and usually less convincing. |
| Forms and integrations | Enquiry forms, booking tools, CRM connections, payments | A simple form is quick. A booking flow linked to a calendar is a project. |
| SEO foundations | Titles, headings, sitemap, Search Console, redirects from old URLs | Sometimes sold as an extra “SEO package”. The basics belong in the build. |
| Testing | Phones, browsers, form delivery, accessibility and page speed | The line most often missing from cheap quotes. |
| Launch and handover | Going live, analytics, training you to edit the site | Who owns the domain, hosting and logins afterwards. |
The costs that keep going after launch
A website has running costs whether or not anyone touches it. These are the published Australian ranges for each.
| Item | Published range | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting | $15–$150 a month | Depends on platform and traffic. Managed hosting costs more and does more. |
| Domain (.com.au) | $15–$30 a year | Register it in your business’s name, never the developer’s. |
| Care plan or maintenance | $50–$300 a month | Updates, backups, security and small edits. Ask what counts as a “small edit”. |
| Licences and plugins | $0–$100 a month | Premium themes, form tools, booking plugins and similar. |
| DIY website builder | $30–$60 a month | If you build it yourself on a hosted platform. |
There is also your own time. Updating opening hours, adding a project photo or changing a price should take minutes, not an email to a developer and a week’s wait. If a quote doesn’t explain how you will edit the site, ask.
Compare quotes on first-year cost
The fairest way to compare quotes is to add up what each one costs you over the first year, then over two: build price + (12 × monthly costs) + yearly costs. Try it with your own quotes. The starting numbers are hypothetical examples.
With the example figures, the “$0 upfront” subscription (Quote C) looks cheapest in year one and still looks reasonable in year two. The problem arrives later: stop paying and the site usually goes with it, because you have been renting rather than buying. Subscription sites can suit some businesses, but the contract terms matter more than the monthly figure.
The most expensive quote (B) only makes sense if the extra money buys something you need: clearer messaging, better enquiry paths, real photography, a faster site. If it doesn’t, the cheaper quote is the better deal.
What pushes the price up
- Unique page layouts. Ten pages sharing two layouts cost far less than ten different designs.
- Who writes the words. If you are writing them, budget your own time honestly. Many projects stall here.
- Custom design versus a customised theme.
- Integrations: booking systems, CRMs, payments, quote calculators, client portals.
- Migrating an old site, especially when URLs change and every one needs a redirect.
- Photography and video. Real images of your work, team and vehicles do more than any stock library.
- Accessibility and performance done properly rather than claimed in a bullet point.
Warning signs in a website quote
- Gives one total with no breakdown of what is included.
- Registers your domain in the designer’s name, or doesn’t say whose name.
- Promises first place on Google. Google’s own advice is that no one can guarantee a #1 ranking.
- Doesn’t mention redirects when you already have a site with search traffic.
- Has no testing line: phones, forms, speed or accessibility.
- Locks you into a long subscription with no way to take the site with you.
- Can’t show you recent sites, live, that you can open on your phone.
Questions to ask before you sign
- What exactly is included, page by page, and what would cost extra?
- Who writes the content and who supplies the photos?
- Whose name will the domain, hosting and site be in?
- How will I edit the site myself, and will you show me?
- What happens to my current pages and their search traffic?
- How will you test forms, phones, speed and accessibility before launch?
- What does it cost per month and per year after launch, and what does that cover?
- What happens if I want to move to another provider later?
Our guide to choosing a web designer goes deeper on what good answers sound like.
So what should you budget?
If you need a straightforward site for a service business and have your own photos and words, the published small business range is a reasonable place to start. If your business depends on enquiries from people who don’t know you yet, budget for the parts that make a site persuade: a page plan, proper service pages, real photography and testing. If you are replacing a site that already ranks, add the time to protect those rankings; our website redesign checklist explains what that involves.
Whatever you spend, ask for a breakdown, compare first-year costs, and make sure you own what you are paying for.
Sources
- Web design cost in AustraliaWhat’s The Damage? (Focus Search Pty Ltd), prices verified October 2026, accessed 25 October 2026. Third-party estimate. The publisher also sells listings to web design agencies
- Do you need an SEO?Google Search Central, accessed 25 October 2026
- Site moves with URL changesGoogle Search Central, accessed 25 October 2026