Ask three people what a website costs and you’ll hear three very different numbers. Nobody is hiding anything: “a website” can mean a one-page builder site or an online store with hundreds of products. We’ve built more than 100 websites since 2023, many of them for Queensland businesses, and this guide shows how the website cost in Australia is really made up: what you pay every year whoever builds it, what moves the price of the build, and how to get a quote you can trust.
The short answer
The website cost in Australia comes in two parts. The first is the running cost you pay every year, whoever builds the site: a .com.au domain (around $20 to $25 a year at renewal with the big Australian registrars), hosting or a platform plan, and business email. Hosting is where teaser prices hide, because a plan advertised at a few dollars a month can renew at three or four times that. Shopify’s Australian plans start at $42 a month, billed yearly. The second part is the build itself, which depends on how many pages need their own design, who writes the words, whether you sell online and what the site has to connect to. That’s why we don’t publish a price list. After more than 100 websites, our advice is simple: get a fixed, written quote for your exact scope, and make sure the domain and every account are in your name.
What you pay every year, whoever builds it
This part of your website cost in Australia is the same whether you build the site yourself, hire a freelancer or work with a studio like ours. It’s also the easiest part to price, because the providers publish it.
| Cost | What it is | What to expect |
|---|---|---|
| .com.au domain | Your web address, and the address your email runs on | Around $20 to $25 a year at renewal |
| Hosting | Where a WordPress site lives | A few dollars a month on a long upfront term, then a higher renewal price |
| Builder plan | Wix or Squarespace: hosting and the editor in one subscription | A monthly or yearly plan; business features sit above the entry plan |
| Shopify | An online store platform, hosting included | $56 a month, or $42 a month billed yearly, on the Basic plan |
| Business email | you@yourbusiness.com.au through Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 | Charged per person, per month |
| Plugins and apps | Extra features such as bookings, forms or reviews | Often a yearly licence or a monthly app fee |
Domain: cheap, but it must be yours
A .com.au domain is one of the cheapest parts of a website and the most important to get right. To hold one, auDA’s rules say you need an Australian presence, usually an ABN, an ACN or an Australian trade mark. Whoever holds the domain controls your website and your email, so it should be registered to your business, with your details, even when someone else sets it up. When we set up a domain, hosting or email for a client, the accounts are in the client’s name.
Hosting: look at the renewal price, not the headline
Hosting is where the fine print matters most. At one large host, WordPress plans are advertised from A$4.39 a month, but that price needs four years paid upfront, and the plan renews at A$15.89 a month. Their bigger cloud plan goes from A$11.59 to A$37.59 a month at renewal. Neither is a bad deal. Just budget for the renewal price, because that’s what you’ll pay for most of the site’s life.
Builders and Shopify: the plan is your hosting
Wix, Squarespace and Shopify bundle hosting into a subscription, so there’s no separate hosting bill. Shopify lists Australian pricing of $56 a month for the Basic plan, or $42 a month billed yearly, plus 1.7% and 30 cents on each online card sale. Paid apps from the Shopify App Store add their own monthly fees on top, and they add up quickly on a busy store. If you’re weighing a builder against WordPress, our comparison of WordPress, Wix and Squarespace covers ownership, upkeep and moving later.
The build: what decides your website cost in Australia
The build is the one-off part of your website cost in Australia, and it’s where quotes differ most. These are the things that move it, roughly in order of how much they matter.
How many pages need their own design
Ten pages that share two layouts cost far less to design and build than ten pages that each need their own. A service business can often use one strong template for every service page. A home page, a pricing page and a booking flow usually need their own thinking.
Who writes the words
Copy is the part of the website cost in Australia most people forget to budget for, and the part that most often delays a launch. Our website quotes include the copywriting, because a site can’t be designed properly around words that don’t exist yet. If you’re writing it yourself, allow real time for it.
Whether you sell online
A store adds products, payments, shipping and tax settings, and every product needs photos and a description. For ecommerce websites we set up payments (cards, PayPal, Afterpay or Zip), shipping through Australia Post or Sendle, and GST. When we built the UR Perfumes store, the custom WooCommerce theme also needed gift sets, a wishlist and category filters, and each of those is scope.
What the site has to connect to
Online bookings, payments and outside systems take more work than pages of information. The Brisbane Car Inspection website connects to an online booking system. VerifyCar takes card payments from an order form in the hero of its home page, and CarAssure books inspections with a small deposit. Each connection needs building and testing, so list every system your site has to talk to before you ask for a quote.
The platform
We build on custom-coded WordPress, WordPress with Elementor, Shopify and WooCommerce. The right choice depends on who will edit the site. QLD Car Inspection is built in Elementor because their team publishes and edits pages themselves. CarAssure is a hand-coded theme with no page builder, which keeps every page lean and consistent. Neither is better in general; each fits how the business works.
Brand and photography
If you don’t have a logo, colours and fonts yet, the brand has to come before the website. For every business in our portfolio, we did the logo and branding first and the website second. Our guide to what a logo costs covers that step, including who owns the design. Professional photos are a separate line in your website cost in Australia, but real photos of your work almost always beat stock images.
SEO setup and moving an old site
Page titles, descriptions, a sitemap and connecting Google Search Console should be part of any launch, and they’re included in our website projects. Replacing an old site adds work: every old address needs redirecting to its new page, or you lose the Google rankings you already have.
DIY builder, freelancer or studio?
We’re a studio, so weigh our view with that in mind. All three are the right choice for someone, and each spreads the website cost in Australia differently.
| Option | How you pay | Who does the work | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| DIY builder | A monthly or yearly plan, plus your own time | You | Testing an idea, or a simple site you’ll update yourself |
| Freelancer | A one-off fee | One person, often strongest at either design or code | A small, clearly defined site |
| Studio or agency | A one-off fee, usually in milestones | A team: design, development, copy and SEO | A site that has to bring in enquiries or sales |
The honest trade-off is time against control. A builder is cheapest in cash and dearest in your hours. A studio costs more upfront, but the words, design, build and SEO come from one team working to one plan.
Costs that show up after launch
A website isn’t finished when it goes live, and the ongoing part of your website cost in Australia is easy to underestimate. Budget for these from day one:
- Renewals: the domain, hosting or platform plan, and business email, every year.
- Licences: premium plugins and store apps renew too.
- Updates and security: WordPress, its theme and plugins need regular updates and backups. Decide who is responsible before launch.
- Changes: new pages, new services and new prices. We include 30 days of free support after launch for fixes; after that, changes are quoted per job.
- Getting found: a new site doesn’t bring visitors on its own. That’s ongoing SEO, ads or social media, with any ad spend paid to Google or Meta directly.
How to get a website quote you can trust
The only accurate website cost in Australia is a fixed quote for your scope, and the better your brief, the more accurate that quote. Before you ask anyone for a price, write down:
- What the site must do: bring in calls, take bookings, sell products or answer questions.
- The pages you think you need, even as a rough list.
- Two or three websites you like, and what you like about them.
- Who will write the words and supply the photos.
- Every system it must connect to: bookings, payments, a CRM, a newsletter.
- Your deadline, and the budget you have in mind if you have one.
A good quote then gives you a fixed price for a written scope, a timeline, and a payment schedule. Ours is a deposit plus milestone payments, agreed before any work starts. It should also say who owns the finished work: with us, you own the design, code, content and every account once the final invoice is paid.
Watch for these red flags:
- A price with no written scope of what’s included.
- A domain or hosting account registered in the designer’s name.
- Hourly billing with no cap or estimate.
- Monthly fees that only appear after you’ve signed.
- No mention of who owns the design, code and content.
And check whether the price includes GST. A business must register for GST once its GST turnover reaches $75,000, and a registered business has to include GST in most of its prices, so ask whether a quote is GST-inclusive before you compare two of them.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need an ABN to get a .com.au domain?
Usually, yes. A .com.au domain needs an Australian commercial presence, and the most common ways to show it are an ABN or an ACN. An Australian registered trade mark also counts. You don’t need a physical address in Australia.
Is a Wix or Squarespace website cheaper than a custom one?
Upfront, yes, if you build it yourself. Over a few years the gap narrows, because you pay the plan fee every month and the time you spend is real. Builders suit simple sites well, but moving to another platform later usually means rebuilding the site from scratch.
What is the ongoing website cost in Australia each year?
Expect a domain renewal, hosting or a platform plan, business email, and any plugin or app licences every year. On top of that, budget for updates and changes, and for marketing if you want the site to bring in new customers.
Why won’t web designers give me a price straight away?
Because two sites with the same page count can take very different amounts of work. The number of unique designs, the copy, online payments and connections to other systems all change the build. A quote given before anyone understands those is a guess, not a real website cost in Australia, and guesses turn into surprise invoices.
Who should own my domain and hosting?
You should. Register the domain to your own business and keep the hosting, email and platform accounts in your name, even if a designer manages them for you. Ask in writing who owns the design and code once the project is paid for.
How long does it take to build a website?
It depends on the scope, how quickly the copy and photos are ready, and how fast feedback comes back. Brand work, an online store or connections to other systems add time. A written timeline in the quote is the only estimate worth relying on.
Final thoughts
The honest answer on website cost in Australia is that the running costs are small and easy to check, and the build depends on your scope. Price the yearly costs from the providers’ own pages, write a clear brief, and ask for a fixed, written quote that names who owns what. If you’d like one for your business, see how we approach web design or send us your brief. We reply the same business day, Brisbane time, with a fixed quote.
This guide is general information, not financial advice. Prices for domains, hosting and platforms were checked on 30 September 2026 and change often, so check the provider’s own page before you buy. Always get a written quote and read the contract before a project starts.
