Most web designers don’t publish prices. I understand why: every project is different, and a number on a page invites comparison with someone cheaper. I publish mine anyway, because the first question every small business owner has is “roughly how much?”, and making them book a call to find out wastes their time and mine.
So here is the honest answer, including what we charge.
The short version
For a small business in Australia, a website usually costs somewhere between nothing and the price of a small car. The useful ranges look like this:
| Option | Typical upfront cost | Ongoing | Good for |
|---|---|---|---|
| DIY builder (Squarespace, Wix, Shopify) | Your time | Monthly subscription | Getting online fast with a simple offer |
| Freelancer on a template | A few thousand dollars | Hosting, plus edits as needed | A clean, standard site |
| Small studio, custom design | Several thousand to low tens of thousands | Usually a care plan | A site that has to win work against competitors |
| Agency | Tens of thousands and up | Retainer | Larger businesses with many stakeholders |
Those bands are wide on purpose. The price moves with a handful of things, and once you know them you can predict a quote fairly well.
What actually changes the price
1. Whether you have a brand. If you already have a logo, colours and photos you’re happy with, the website can use them. If you don’t, someone has to make those decisions first, and that’s real design work.
2. The number of distinct page types. Ten service pages that share one layout are much cheaper than ten pages that each need their own design. Count templates, not pages.
3. Words and photos. Copywriting and photography are often the hidden cost. A site built around placeholder text that the owner “will write later” is usually launched months late.
4. Anything that does something. Bookings, payments, client logins, quote calculators and integrations with other software are where budgets grow. A form that sends an email is cheap. A portal that knows who your clients are is a small software project.
5. Who looks after it afterwards. A website is not a one-off purchase. Hosting, updates, backups and small changes cost money every month whether you plan for them or not.
What we charge
Our packages start at these prices, in AUD plus GST:
- Get Online, from $2,500. A five-page responsive site for a business that already has a brand. Local search setup and a contact or quote form included.
- Launch, from $6,500. Brand essentials (wordmark, colour, type and a short guide) and a five to eight page site built on them, with suburb and service pages for local search.
- Signature, from $12,000. A custom logo mark with a specialist designer, full guidelines, the website and one workflow automation, such as review requests.
Booking and payments setup on its own starts at $1,800. Custom portals and tools begin with a paid discovery session, credited to the build if you go ahead.
For a range for your own project, try the website cost calculator.
Every package comes with a care plan: Essential at $129 a month, Growth at $249, or Partner from $499 for apps and portals. There’s a 12-month minimum, then it’s month to month.
Why every package includes a care plan
This is the part people push back on, so it deserves a straight answer.
A website that nobody is responsible for degrades. Forms break after a provider changes something. Prices go out of date. An SSL certificate lapses on a long weekend. Without a plan, each of those becomes a separate job, quoted when it’s already urgent.
The care plan turns that into a known monthly cost, and it lets me price the build lower because I’m not trying to recover every hour of future support upfront. It’s also, candidly, how a small studio stays in business: recurring revenue means I can say no to work that isn’t a good fit.
You still own everything. The domain, content, code and accounts are yours. If you leave after the minimum, you take it all with you.
Where you can save money
- Write your own first draft. Even rough notes in your own words save hours and make the copy sound like you.
- Start with fewer pages. Five good pages beat fifteen thin ones. Add more once you know what people read.
- Use the tools you already pay for. If you already have a booking platform or invoicing tool, we connect to it rather than replacing it.
- Skip the custom backend until you need it. I’ve written a separate guide on free and almost-free backends for exactly this reason.
Where you shouldn’t
- Don’t skip the brand decisions. A website built on an unclear brand just makes the confusion look expensive.
- Don’t buy a site you can’t edit or leave. Ask who owns the domain, the hosting account and the code before you pay anything.
- Don’t judge on the homepage alone. Ask what happens after someone fills in the form. That’s where the money is.
A fair way to compare quotes
When you have two or three quotes, line them up on the same questions:
- How many page templates, and how many pages, are included?
- Who writes the words, and who supplies the photos?
- What does the site do beyond showing information?
- What does it cost per month after launch, and what does that include?
- Who owns the domain, accounts and code?
- How do payments work, and what happens if the project stalls?
If a quote can’t answer all six, it isn’t really a quote yet.