How much does a website cost in Australia? (2026 guide)

The short answer

For a standard small business website (home, about, services, contact, a quote form), most Australian agencies quote somewhere between $3,000 and $8,000. Online stores and sites with bookings or custom features often cost more. Doing it yourself on a website builder is cheaper in dollars but costs you a lot of time.

On top of the build, every website has ongoing costs: the domain name, hosting, email and someone to keep it updated.

Website cost by option

Roughly, your options look like this:

• DIY website builder (Wix, Squarespace and similar): a monthly subscription plus your own time — often many evenings — to design, write and maintain it.
• Freelancer: varies enormously. Some are excellent; some quietly outsource the work overseas. Ask who actually builds the site.
• Web design agency: typically $3,000–$8,000 for a small business site, more for ecommerce or custom functionality, often plus a monthly retainer.
• MAD Develops: $990 to build a standard business website, plus $39/month for hosting, domain, email and small edits — and you pay nothing until you've seen it live.

Ongoing website costs per month and per year

The build is only part of it. Budget for these every year:

• Domain name (e.g. yourbusiness.com.au): usually a small yearly fee.
• Hosting: keeps your site online, fast and secure.
• Professional email (you@yourbusiness.com.au): usually charged per user, per month.
• SSL certificate and security updates.
• Edits and maintenance: new photos, prices, pages and fixes. Many agencies bill these by the hour.

What actually drives the price

The biggest cost factors are the number of pages, whether you need an online store or bookings, custom features, and who writes the content. Agency overheads — account managers, offices, sales teams — also add a lot to the quote without adding much to your website.

Ask any web designer: what's included, who owns the site and domain, what edits cost after launch, and what happens if you cancel. If the answers are vague, expect surprise bills later.

How we keep it to $990

We're a two-person Australian team — no outsourcing, no middlemen, no sales department. Modern tools let us build fast without cutting corners, so we pass the savings on. And because we build your site before you pay, you never have to guess whether it's worth it.