There is no set price for a website in Australia. A quote follows the work: how many kinds of page the site needs, who writes the words, what it connects to and whether enquiries are tracked. The one fixed number is the domain: auDA's wholesale price for a .au name is $9.50 a year before GST, from 1 October 2026.
This guide covers what drives the price, what a monthly care plan pays for, the tracking a quote can leave out, how the ATO treats the spend and how to compare two quotes fairly. For how we charge for everything else, from Google Ads management to fractional CMO work, see our pricing page.
How much should it cost to design a website?
As much as the work it has to do. A site with a few service pages and a contact form is a different job from one that takes bookings, connects to job or practice software, sells online, or has to move from an old site without losing its rankings. Published Australian price guides give very different ranges for the same reason: they are pricing different jobs. Two quotes can only be compared when they cover the same parts, so start by listing the parts.
What are the parts of a website bill?
There are five, and only the first has a price set by someone other than the people quoting you.
| Part | When you pay | What sets the price |
|---|---|---|
| Domain name | Every one to five years | auDA's wholesale price, $9.50 a year before GST from 1 October 2026, plus your provider's margin |
| The build | Once | The kinds of page, the content, integrations, moving an old site, accessibility and your industry's rules |
| Hosting, updates and small changes | Monthly, often as a care plan | How big the site is and how often it changes |
| Tracking setup | Once, if you advertise | How many phone numbers, forms and systems have to be connected |
| Software the site uses | Monthly or yearly, to each vendor | Booking, call tracking or CRM subscriptions, if you use them |
Source: auDA wholesale .au domain pricing and com.au licensing rules, checked 1 October 2026. The other rows describe how Profit Geeks scopes website quotes.
On the domain itself: a com.au name can only be held by an Australian business, usually with an ABN or ACN, and it has to connect to that business, such as its name, an acronym of it, a trade mark it holds or a service it offers. Licences run for one to five years at a time. Whoever builds your site, ask whose name the licence will be in. The auDA com.au rules set out the detail.
What drives the cost of a website build?
Six things move a build quote more than anything else.
- The kinds of page, not the number of them. A home page, a service page, a location page and a team page are each designed once and then reused, so twenty service pages on one template are a different job from twenty pages that are all different.
- Content. Writing the copy, sourcing photos and getting sign-off are real work, and somebody has to do them. Ask who writes the words in every quote you get.
- Integrations. Online booking, quote forms that land in job management software, practice systems, CRMs and payments all add work, and some systems are easier to connect than others.
- Moving an old site. If the current site ranks for anything, its pages need redirects to their new addresses so search engines can carry those rankings across.
- Accessibility. The Australian Human Rights Commission's 2025 guidelines say organisations should meet WCAG 2.2 at Level AA at a minimum. Building that in from the start is simpler than fixing it later.
- Your industry's rules. Tax agents have TPB registration details to show, dental practices write to Ahpra's advertising guidelines, solicitors to rule 36 of the Australian Solicitors' Conduct Rules, NDIS providers to the NDIA's logo guidelines, and Queensland builders and trades to the QBCC's licence-number requirement. Each adds content and review time.
Design matters too. It just is not the part that tells you whether a site is working.
How much does a website design package cost?
A package is a fixed price for a fixed list: a set number of pages, a template and a few features. That makes packages easy to compare on price and hard to compare on value. Before you buy one, check what it leaves out:
- who writes the copy and supplies the photos
- whether forms and calls connect to anything, or only send an email
- whether enquiries are tracked to the page and search they came from
- what hosting, updates and changes cost after launch, and after the first year
- whose name the domain licence is in
We do not sell packages. Each site is quoted after a free call, because the six drivers above rarely fit a fixed list.
What does a monthly care plan cover?
Ours covers hosting, updates and small changes after launch, billed monthly. Small changes are the jobs you would otherwise chase a developer for: new contact details, changed opening hours, a new team member, a fresh photo or an updated service area. Anything bigger, such as a new section or a new integration, is scoped and quoted before it starts.
The alternative is paying for each change as it comes up, which works until the site quietly falls behind the business. Websites run on software that needs regular updates, and a site nobody looks after drifts out of date in what it says as well as in what it runs on.
What is the tracking setup, and does every website need it?
A website can tell you how many forms were sent. On its own, it cannot tell you which of them became paying work. Every site we build records calls and forms with the page and search they came from, from launch day. The optional tracking setup goes further, for businesses that advertise:
- call tracking on every number you advertise, so each call is tied to the campaign or search behind it
- enquiries matched to the jobs, clients, matters or appointments in your own software
- those outcomes sent back to Google Ads as offline conversions, which Google accepts up to 90 days after the click, so the bidding learns from paid work rather than form fills
If you do not advertise, you may not need it yet. If you do, it is the difference between knowing what the site and the ads earn and guessing. Our call tracking guide and Google Ads conversion tracking guide cover the detail, and the two-week tracking audit checks an existing setup without changing anything.
How do you know if a website is worth the money?
Work out what one more enquiry is worth, then ask how many more the new site has to bring in to pay for itself.
| Step | Example |
|---|---|
| Gross profit from a new client in their first year | $2,000 |
| Enquiries that become clients | 4 in 10 |
| Value of one extra enquiry | $800 |
| Extra enquiries a month from the new site | 5 |
| First-year gross profit added each month | $4,000 |
Source: illustrative figures to show the arithmetic, not benchmarks, October 2026. Use your own numbers.
Set the build and twelve months of care plan against that monthly figure and you have a payback period to test any quote against. If the site would need an implausible jump in enquiries to pay its way, the quote is too high for your business, whoever it comes from. Our CAC calculator runs the same sum from the advertising side.
Is web design still worth it in 2026?
Yes, when the site has a clear job and you can see whether it is doing it. Building a passable-looking site has never been cheaper, so the look is not where the value is. The value is in pages for the work you want, accurate details, connections to how you operate and tracking that shows what each page brings in.
Search has changed around websites rather than replacing them. Google showed an AI Overview on all four website-cost searches we checked in October 2026, and those answers cite web pages. By DataForSEO's modelled estimate, about 1,571 searches a month for 'how much does a website cost' now happen in AI assistants, against 210 on Google in our Keyword Planner pull. A site that states what you do, where and on what terms gives those tools something accurate to quote.
Can I build a website myself for free?
Not entirely. Free builder plans exist, but a business site on its own domain always has some running cost, starting with the domain: auDA's wholesale price alone is $9.50 a year before GST, and providers set their own retail price on top. If you are not eligible for a com.au, a .au direct name is open to anyone with an Australian presence.
Doing it yourself makes sense when the business is new, the offer is simple and you have more time than budget. It stops making sense when the site has to bring in a particular kind of customer and show you where they came from.
Can ChatGPT build a website?
It can draft pages and code, and that saves time. It cannot decide which services and areas deserve pages, know what your licence or registration requires you to show, or host, track and update the site for you. Treat what it writes as a first draft and check every claim it makes about your business.
Is a website tax deductible in Australia?
Mostly, but not all in the year you pay. Under the ATO's public ruling TR 2016/3, the cost of acquiring or developing a commercial website is capital expenditure, generally treated as in-house software and claimed under the capital allowance rules. Periodic hosting, registration and licensing fees are deductible over the period they cover, and maintaining a website is a revenue expense. Adding significant new functionality later is capital again; routine changes and minor enhancements are not.
That is general information, not tax advice. Your accountant will know how it applies to your business.
How long does a website take to build?
Ours typically take two to three weeks from kickoff to launch. What stretches a build is usually the inputs rather than the build: copy, photos, sign-off, or the details a regulated business has to show, such as registration or licence numbers. Have those ready at kickoff and the timeline holds.
What does a website cost in your industry?
The drivers are the same everywhere. The weight of each one changes by industry.
- Tradie websites: service and suburb pages, licence details where your state requires them, and calls tied to booked jobs.
- Accountant websites: a page for each client type, plus the TPB register link and complaints information that section 45 of the Code Determination asks you to give clients.
- NDIS website design: WCAG 2.2 AA accessibility, plain English and registration status stated exactly.
- Law firm web design: practice-area pages, intake that suits a conflict check and copy written to rule 36.
- Dental website design: online booking and content inside Ahpra's advertising rules.
- Web design in Brisbane: the same approach, built from our Hamilton office.
How we quote a website
We do not publish a price list. A free 30-minute call comes first: we look at your current site, the work you want more of and what the site has to connect to. The written quote that follows lists the build, the monthly care plan and, if you advertise, the tracking setup as separate lines, so you can see what each part costs. The platform is chosen to suit your business, and a typical build takes two to three weeks from kickoff to launch.
If you also want the site found, SEO is priced separately, and our guide to SEO cost in Australia explains how. For what agencies charge for the rest, see marketing agency fees in Australia and our pricing page, or book the free call and bring your current site.
Next step
Want this kind of work in your business?
Engagement intake is capped, senior operators run every account. If your attribution is leaking and your reports have stopped making sense, the next step is a 30-minute call.
