How Much Does a Small Business Website Cost in Australia?

A simple small-business website in Australia costs anything from about $17 to $55 a month on a DIY builder you set up yourself, to roughly $500 to $1,775 for a basic brochure site from a freelancer, to $3,000 to $15,000 for a custom-designed site, with agencies usually starting around $10,000. On top of that you pay for a domain, hosting, email and upkeep. Ours is $500 for a simple site of up to five pages, then $29 a month hosting.

The four routes, and who each one suits

The freelancer and agency figures below come from Bark's 2026 Australian cost guide, which is based on more than 447,500 website requests posted on Bark since 2021. They exclude GST, while our prices and the builders' prices below include it, so add 10 per cent to Bark's figures to compare like for like. The builder prices are from each platform's own Australian pricing page, checked in November 2026.

DIY builder

Wix lists its Light plan at $21 a month and Business at $55 a month, billed yearly, with GST included. Squarespace lists Basic at A$17 a month and Core at A$28 a month on annual billing, including estimated GST. Hosting is included, and Wix adds a free domain for the first year on paid plans.

A builder really is the right answer for some businesses. If you're testing an idea, your budget is a few hundred dollars, you need to change things yourself every week, or you enjoy this kind of work, start here. The catch is time: choosing a template is quick, but writing the words, taking the photos, setting up forms and getting the search settings right is where the evenings go.

If you mainly sell products online, Shopify is the obvious builder to compare: its Basic plan is $56 a month, or $50 a month paid yearly, with online card rates from 1.7% plus 30c.

Freelancer

A good freelancer gives you a real designer's eye for much less than an agency. Bark suggests a freelancer if your budget is under $5,000 and you need a straightforward build with limited ongoing support. The risks are availability and continuity: if your freelancer gets busy, moves on or gets sick, you need to know who can change your site and whether you hold the logins.

Small studio

This is where we sit. A small studio builds simple sites to a fixed package and quotes larger work, so you know the price up front, and you deal with the people doing the work. The trade-off is that a package has edges: 30 pages, a booking system tied to your job software or a full store becomes a quoted project.

Agency

Agencies make sense when the website is part of a bigger job: custom features, a large store, integrations, or ongoing advertising and content work. Bark puts agency rates at $150 to $250 or more an hour, and suggests an agency once you're spending $10,000 or more on ecommerce or custom features. For a five-page local business site, you're mostly paying for overheads you don't need.

What you're actually paying for

Whoever builds it, the price is made up of the same parts:

• Design: how the site looks and how a visitor gets from the first screen to calling you. A template is cheaper than custom design.
• Build: pages that work on a phone first, then everything else.
• Copy: the words. Many quotes assume you'll supply them, and this is where projects stall.
• Photos: stock is cheap; photos of your own work, team and premises are better.
• Search setup: page titles, descriptions, headings, a sitemap and structured data.
• Speed: a lean site takes more care to build and keeps visitors on the page.
• Forms: a contact or quote form that reaches your inbox, with an automatic reply to the customer.
• Integrations: online booking, payments, a link to your job or accounting software. These usually turn a $500 job into a $5,000 one.

When two quotes differ by thousands of dollars, one usually includes copy, photos, search setup or integrations and the other doesn't. Ask each builder to list what's in and what's out.

The ongoing costs people forget

The build is a one-off. These come back every month or year.

Getting a .com.au

Most Australian businesses want a .com.au. Under auDA's Licensing Rules, you need an Australian presence (an ABN, an Australian company registration, or Australian citizenship or permanent residency, among other options) and you must be a commercial entity, which includes a sole trader with an ABN. The name itself must be one of these:

• a match of your company, business or personal name, or an acronym of it;
• a match of your Australian trade mark;
• a match of, or a synonym for, a service or product you provide.

The older "close and substantial connection" test for .com.au was replaced when the current rules started in April 2021, so ignore any guide that still quotes it. The rules may tighten again: auDA's board has approved in principle a recommendation to drop the service-or-product option, with draft rules still to go out for public consultation. Check auDA's current rules before you register.

One more thing: register the domain in your own business's name, with your own login. If a designer registers it for you, make sure it's in your name, not theirs.

What a tradie or local business site needs to bring in work

For a plumber, electrician, cleaner or clinic, the website has one job: turn someone with a problem into a call or a booking.

• Click-to-call at the top of every page on a phone. Your visitor is standing in a kitchen with a leaking tap, not sitting at a desk.
• Service areas spelt out: the suburbs and towns you actually cover.
• A page per service. "Hot water systems" and "blocked drains" each deserve a page saying what you do and how to book.
• Photos of real jobs. Your van, your team and your finished work beat any stock photo.
• Reviews, ideally from your Google Business Profile so they stay current.
• A short quote form: name, number, suburb, what's wrong, and a photo upload. Ask only what you'd ask on the phone.

For most local businesses that's five pages: home, two or three services, about and contact. If you also miss calls while you're on the tools, the website is only half the fix; see AI receptionists for trades and our trades page.

For an example of our build quality, try Wrenfold, a demo store we built for an invented Australian skincare brand. It's a full online store, so it's a quoted project rather than a $500 site, but the speed, the phone layout and the attention to detail are the same.

Getting found

Four things matter most for a local business, and none of them is a trick.

Your Google Business Profile. For "plumber near me" searches, the map results often matter more than your website. Google says local results are based mainly on relevance, distance and prominence, that complete and accurate profiles are more likely to show up, and that there's no way to request or pay for a better local ranking. Fill in every field, add photos, keep your hours right and reply to reviews. Link the profile to your site.

Speed. Google publishes its Core Web Vitals: the main content should load within 2.5 seconds, the page should respond to a tap in under 200 milliseconds, and the layout shouldn't jump around. Google recommends meeting them; slow sites also lose impatient visitors before they ever call.

Clear service pages. One page per service, written the way your customers describe the problem, with your service areas on it. This does more for search than any amount of keyword stuffing.

AI visibility. More people now ask ChatGPT, Google's AI answers and other assistants to recommend a local business. There's no secret method here: Google says there are no extra requirements or special optimisations to appear in its AI features beyond normal good practice. What helps is structured data that tells search engines exactly who you are, where you work and what you do (matching what's on the page), and plain, factual pages that an assistant can quote: your services, areas, hours and prices stated clearly. We build both into every site.

A well-built site gives you the foundations. Climbing the results takes ongoing work on top: new pages and content, regular updates, reviews and links, built up over months. That's why most providers, us included, offer it as a separate ongoing service rather than part of the build.

What no honest builder can promise is a ranking. Anyone who guarantees you the top spot on Google is guessing or selling something else.

Questions to ask any web designer

Whoever you're talking to, including us, get clear answers to these before you pay a deposit.

1. 1Who owns the site and the domain? You should own the domain, the content and the design, and have the logins.
2. 2What are the monthly costs, all of them? Hosting, email, plugins, licences and maintenance.
3. 3Who makes changes, and what do they cost? Can you edit text and photos yourself? What does a new page cost?
4. 4What's included in the price? Copy, photos, search setup, forms, and how many rounds of changes.
5. 5What happens if I leave? Can you move the site to another host, or only the content?
6. 6Is any of the work done offshore? It's a fair question, and the answer should be straight. All of ours is done in-house in Australia.

When a Facebook page is enough, and when it isn't

A Facebook page is enough if all your work comes from word of mouth and repeat customers, you're already booked out, or you're testing a side business. It's free, and plenty of good businesses run on one.

It stops being enough once people search for what you do. A Facebook page can't give you proper service pages or structured data, not every customer wants to message you there, and the platform sets the rules on reach and access. A small website you own, linked to your Google Business Profile and Facebook page, means you aren't relying on one company to keep the phone ringing.

Where we fit

Our simple website package is $500 for up to five pages, then $29 a month, which covers your domain and hosting. Email is separate, so you can use whichever provider you like. We register the domain in your business's name, so it's yours from day one, and a simple site is usually live in less than a week. It's built mobile-first, with a contact or booking form, on-page SEO and AI visibility built in, and our prices include GST. Ongoing SEO and AI search work, the kind that builds your visibility over months with new content and regular updates, is a separate package, quoted to what you need. Larger sites and online stores are quoted to scope. If you're weighing up a website alongside other changes in your business, the readiness assessment is a good place to start, or book a free 30-minute discovery call and we'll tell you honestly whether you need us or a $21-a-month builder.

Frequently asked questions

How much should a small business pay for a website in Australia?

For a simple site of five or so pages, expect anywhere from about $17 to $55 a month on a DIY builder, $500 to a few thousand dollars from a freelancer or small studio, and $10,000 or more from an agency. Bark's 2026 guide puts most small to medium business sites between $1,000 and $15,000. Add a domain, hosting and email on top.

Is $500 enough for a good website?

For a simple local-business site, yes, if the builder is working to a tight package: up to five pages, mobile-first, a form and the search basics done properly. It isn't enough for an online store, a booking system linked to your software, or a large site; those are quoted separately. Check what's included before comparing prices.

Do I need a website if I have a Facebook page?

Not always. If all your work comes from referrals, a Facebook page can be enough. Once people search for your services, a website you own does things Facebook can't: proper service pages, structured data for search engines and AI assistants, and a presence nobody else controls.

What ongoing costs are there for a website?

Expect a domain ($20 to $50 a year for a .com.au), hosting ($10 to $30 a month for basic shared hosting, or included in a builder plan), email (about $10 per person a month for Google Workspace), and maintenance or your own time for updates. Online stores also pay card and transaction fees on every sale.

How long does it take to build a small business website?

A simple site can be live in less than a week once the words and photos are in; getting those together is usually the bottleneck, not the build. Larger sites and stores take longer, and we give a firm timeline for those after the discovery call.

Will my website show up on Google?

A well-built site will be indexed, but nobody can honestly promise a ranking. Google says there's no way to pay for a better local ranking. What helps is a complete Google Business Profile, a fast site, a clear page for each service and accurate structured data.