How much does a website cost in Australia?

Most people asking this already have one quote that looks high and another that looks too cheap to be real, and no way of telling which to trust. Both can be fair. Usually they are pricing two different jobs.

How much does a website cost in Australia?

It mostly depends on how many pages you need and whether the site has to do anything beyond telling people about you. My own prices are a fair example: a single landing page starts from $1,200, up to four pages from $1,950, up to eight from $3,900, and ten or more from $6,500.

Those are starting prices. You get the exact figure in writing before you agree to anything, and it only moves off the starting number when the job is bigger than the build. The rest of this is what sits behind numbers like these, so you can read anybody’s quote the same way.

What does each price actually get you?

Mostly pages, and pages are mostly writing. One page says who you are and how to reach you. Four give your services, your story and your contact details room of their own. Eight let every service have its own page, which is what helps each one turn up when somebody searches for that exact thing.

• The Landing Page, from $1,200. One fast page covering who you are, what you do and how to reach you.
• Starter, from $1,950. Up to four pages. A new website or a redesign of the one you’ve got.
• Standard, from $3,900. Up to eight pages, so every service gets a page of its own.
• Full, from $6,500. Ten pages or more, mapped out before anything gets built.

Every one of those includes the first month of the Plus plan, so the site is looked after from the day it goes live. A shop, online bookings or customer logins cost extra and start at Standard, because a one page site is built to stay small. A shop adds from $2,900, bookings from $900 and customer logins from $3,500. Extra pages beyond what a build covers are from $350 each.

Why does one website cost three times another?

Because they are rarely the same job. The gap usually comes from how many pages there are, who writes the words, whether the site takes payments or bookings, and whether it is built for you or poured into a template. Two quotes for “a website” can be pricing completely different things.

The words are the part people underestimate. A page only earns its place if it says the right thing to the person reading it, and working out what that is often takes longer than building the page around it. A quote that looks cheap sometimes assumes you will write every word yourself, so ask.

Features are the other big one. Anything that takes money, bookings or logins has moving parts, and those need checking after launch as well as building. That is why they cost more up front, and why on my sites they need a monthly plan of Plus or above.

Is $5,000 too much for a website?

Not if it buys the right job. Five thousand dollars is a lot for one page and reasonable for a site with a page for every service, the words written for you and every account in your name. Before deciding whether a number is too much, find out what it covers, because that is where two quotes really differ.

What does a website cost every month after it is built?

Three things keep costing after launch: the domain name, the hosting that keeps the site online, and somebody looking after it. You can pay the first two yourself and do the looking after on your own, or pay one monthly fee that covers all three. Either can make sense, depending on how much you want to deal with.

My monthly plans start at $99 a month for Essential, which covers the hosting and the domain, watches for the site going down, keeps every change saved so anything can be rolled back, and includes 30 minutes of small changes a month. Plus, at $229, adds more time for changes and a monthly report of your web traffic. Advanced, at $399, adds one improvement to the site every month. Paying a year up front gets you twelve months for the price of ten, so Plus comes to $2,290 a year.

You do not have to take a plan. The site is yours either way. Without one it stays live, but nobody is watching it, and any changes are billed at $135 an hour.

The domain is the one cost people forget until it lapses. A .com.au is licensed for between one and five years at a time, and under auDA’s rules you need an Australian business, an ABN is the usual proof, and a name that matches or is closely connected to it. Put the renewal date in your calendar either way.

How much does it cost to redesign a website you already have?

Usually about the same as a new site of the same size, because a redesign is mostly a rebuild. What you save is the hard part of the thinking: the words, the photos and the list of pages already exist to work from. If the site is sound and only one part is wrong, a smaller fix should be quoted as a smaller job.

On my builds a redesign sits on the same ladder as a new site, so a redesign of up to four pages starts from $1,950. The old page addresses get pointed at the new ones, so anyone following an old link, Google included, lands on the right page instead of an error.

Is it cheaper to build it yourself?

In money, usually, at least at the start. A website builder charges a monthly subscription, and you supply the time, the words and the photos. What it really costs you is hours, plus the question of whether the finished site does its job. Plenty of businesses start that way and it is a reasonable place to start.

The catch is that the subscription never stops, and the site only exists inside that builder. Wix’s own help centre says a Wix site has to run on Wix’s servers, and Squarespace’s says not everything on a site will export, so leaving usually means rebuilding. That is fine if you know it going in.

What does a very cheap website cost you later?

Usually one of three things: a template with your name dropped in, a site you cannot change without paying the person who built it, or a domain and hosting sitting in their name instead of yours. None of that shows on launch day. It shows the first time you need something changed, or want to leave.

A site you have to throw out and rebuild after a couple of years has cost you more than one that lasts, whatever the first quote said. The build price is the number everyone compares, and over a few years it is often not the biggest part of the bill.

The accounts are the part that catches people out, and they get a whole article of their own in who owns your website.

How do you compare two website quotes?

Put them side by side and check they are pricing the same job. Count the pages, find out who writes the words, ask whose name the domain and hosting go in, and ask what it costs every month once it is live. A quote that cannot answer those in writing is not ready to compare.

• How many pages, and which ones?
• Who writes the words, and is that in the price?
• Is it built for you, or put together from a template or a website builder?
• Whose name are the domain and hosting in, and whose card pays for them?
• What does it cost every month after launch, and what does that cover?
• How many rounds of changes are included before extra charges start?
• What happens, and what does it cost, if you want to leave?

Anybody quoting properly can answer all of that in writing. If a quote goes quiet on the monthly cost or on who owns the accounts, push on those two first, because that is where a cheap quote turns expensive.

Do website prices include GST?

Only if the business quoting you is registered for GST. According to business.gov.au, a business has to register once its GST turnover reaches $75,000 a year, and one under that which has not registered does not add GST to its prices. I am not registered, so my prices are the whole number.

When you compare quotes, check whether each one says “plus GST” or “including GST”. GST is ten per cent, so on a bigger build that one line can be enough to make the cheaper quote the dearer one.

Can you claim a website on tax?

Usually, in some form. The ATO has a ruling on exactly this, TR 2016/3. It treats building a website for your business as a capital cost, handled as in-house software, while keeping a site up to date and running is treated more like maintenance. How and when you can claim it is a question for your accountant.

What is included in my prices?

Every build includes the design, the build itself, two rounds of changes, setting the site up so Google can find it, and the first month of the Plus plan. From Starter up, I write every word for you. Everything goes in your name, and you get the exact figure in writing before you agree to anything.

If your quote from somebody else looks nothing like these numbers, that is not automatically a problem. Put it next to the questions above and see which parts are actually different. Most of the time the answer is sitting in one of them.