Web Design Cost Estimator
Understand what you’re likely to pay with our definitive guide to the costs of developing a website in Australia.
Summary
Our guide covers:
Warning: Australia has many self-proclaimed 'experts' regarding website design, SEO, running online adverts and other marketing efforts. We strongly do your due diligence before hiring anyone locally or overseas.
It's a frustrating reality that given web design and associated services are custom, the pricing around what's delivered can feel like smoke and mirrors. Furthermore, business owners all over Australia are routinely taken advantage of because the industry can lack transparency. There are also horror stories for aggressive payment chasing - this example is one of many.
We strongly suggest you always check any provider's references and reviews in detail before agreeing to any service and getting the maximum cost per month in writing, so there is no misunderstanding. Furthermore, contacting websites in a designer's portfolio and asking about the service they delivered is not intrusive and you're entitled to make such enquiries.
- How much a website will cost depends on many factors – not just how it looks, but also how it behaves, what it does and how big it is by the number of tools or pages.
- This guide outlines cost estimators of what web development agencies consider when arranging website quotes. This will give you a good idea of what you need (and don’t need) before approaching any developer. The more you want, and the more custom it is, the higher the cost.
- If you’re in the planning stage and don’t know what you need, our guide walks you through evening that's important to help in your decision-making process.
Our guide covers:
- The Different Types of Web Design
- Web Designer Options
- Ongoing Monthly and Annual Website Costs
- Hosting Costs
- Associated Design Costs
- Promoting a New Website Costs
Warning: Australia has many self-proclaimed 'experts' regarding website design, SEO, running online adverts and other marketing efforts. We strongly do your due diligence before hiring anyone locally or overseas.
It's a frustrating reality that given web design and associated services are custom, the pricing around what's delivered can feel like smoke and mirrors. Furthermore, business owners all over Australia are routinely taken advantage of because the industry can lack transparency. There are also horror stories for aggressive payment chasing - this example is one of many.
We strongly suggest you always check any provider's references and reviews in detail before agreeing to any service and getting the maximum cost per month in writing, so there is no misunderstanding. Furthermore, contacting websites in a designer's portfolio and asking about the service they delivered is not intrusive and you're entitled to make such enquiries.
The Different Types of Web Design
Generally, there are five types of website design:
1. Simple website for a small business
In a nutshell: A simple website is a brochure-type website that sums up a small business. Examples include websites for trades and professional services such as accountants, lawyers and the health sector.
A simple small business website usually contains:
Costs: $1,500 to $4,000
Timeline: Usually 2-4 weeks to complete once all information is received
A simple small business website usually contains:
- 1-5 pages, explaining the services offered, contact details, team and an overview (homepage).
- All phone, email and other contact information make it easy to generate leads.
- Design based on a pre-existing theme (meaning there isn’t custom design)
- Features such as Google Maps, a blog, newsletter integration
Costs: $1,500 to $4,000
Timeline: Usually 2-4 weeks to complete once all information is received
2. Custom designed website for a small business
In a nutshell: This category involves a custom design to integrate with the company’s branding. Examples include websites for new businesses launching in a competitive space, websites for high-value products and services (sold offline) and other creative needs.
A custom-designed website for a small business usually contains:
Costs: $5,000 to $10,000
Timeline: Usually 2-4 weeks to complete once all information is received
A custom-designed website for a small business usually contains:
- 5-15 pages. Including specialist resources, terms and conditions, privacy policy and other legal specs.
- All phone, email and other contact information make it easy to generate leads.
- Custom design using scalable content management systems (CMS).
- Newsletter integration and other essential features.
Costs: $5,000 to $10,000
Timeline: Usually 2-4 weeks to complete once all information is received
3. Interactive website
In a nutshell: An interactive website is like a highly polished and high-specification for a small business wanting a luxury brand or best-in-field presence.
An interactive website for a small business usually contains:
Costs: $10,000 to $50,000+
Timeline: Usually 4-12 weeks to complete once all information is received and the elements are agreed upon.
An interactive website for a small business usually contains:
- All the features of a standard small business website.
- Interactive effects, a bespoke customer/visitor journey, videos, animation and other custom features.
- A general "wow, look at that" factor.
Costs: $10,000 to $50,000+
Timeline: Usually 4-12 weeks to complete once all information is received and the elements are agreed upon.
4. eCommerce website
In a nutshell: An eCom website sells products online and is open 24/7 for purchases.
An eCommerce website for a small business usually contains:
Costs: $15,000+
Timeline: Usually 6-12 weeks to complete once all information is received, which can be extensive given the photos and product descriptions.
An eCommerce website for a small business usually contains:
- Dozens or hundreds of products, their photos, specifications and all other relevant details
- Shopping information and options customised to a shopper's preferences.
- Functionality to accept credit cards, debit cards, BNPL and PayPal payments.
- Multiple currency functionality (if selling outside of Australia)
Costs: $15,000+
Timeline: Usually 6-12 weeks to complete once all information is received, which can be extensive given the photos and product descriptions.
5. Australian corporate-level website
In a nutshell: The highest-grade of websites, these websites meet the needs of thousands of Australians every day. The website is critical to the company's marketing strategy.
A custom-designed website for a small business usually contains:
Costs: $50,000 to $100,000+
Timeline: Usually 2-6 months to complete. The planning stage is significant and included in this time estimate.
A custom-designed website for a small business usually contains:
- Dozens of pages of content, crafted by communications experts and internal resources.
- Multi-region functionality, and possibly multi-language too
- Interactive features and integration with social accounts.
Costs: $50,000 to $100,000+
Timeline: Usually 2-6 months to complete. The planning stage is significant and included in this time estimate.
Web Designer Options
Australian businesses have a choice of four options to design their website – website builder, agency, freelancer and offshore developers. What is right for you will depend on your budget and requirements.
On the lower end of the scale, small business websites are usually built using a website builder such as Squarespace, Weebly or Wix, either by someone from the business or a local Australian web design agency. This is usually an affordable option even if an agency is used. The work involves using a pre-made theme, putting together the client’s information and presenting it professionally. On a higher end of the scale, there are freelancers, specialist agencies and offshore options.
f you’re looking for custom development and unique features, agencies all over Australia will quote for the work, but it may cost more than you expect (depending on the requirements). It may be tempting to find a provider offshore as the costs are lower than Australian and Sydney web design providers (in most cases). However, there is added risk unless you’re experienced with outsourcing such projects.
To understand the pros, cons and costs involved, we expand each option below:
On the lower end of the scale, small business websites are usually built using a website builder such as Squarespace, Weebly or Wix, either by someone from the business or a local Australian web design agency. This is usually an affordable option even if an agency is used. The work involves using a pre-made theme, putting together the client’s information and presenting it professionally. On a higher end of the scale, there are freelancers, specialist agencies and offshore options.
f you’re looking for custom development and unique features, agencies all over Australia will quote for the work, but it may cost more than you expect (depending on the requirements). It may be tempting to find a provider offshore as the costs are lower than Australian and Sydney web design providers (in most cases). However, there is added risk unless you’re experienced with outsourcing such projects.
To understand the pros, cons and costs involved, we expand each option below:
1. Website builders
Pros:
Cons:
- It’s a cheap, no risk service - You design the website and publish it, with support provided by the platform provider. A choice of templates is provided, so you don’t need to code or design anything.
- There are no delays – You can edit and publish 24/7, and there is no cost of doing so. All your changes go live when you press publish.
- Choice and quality – There are many website builders available for Australian businesses, and more features and better template designs are added all the time.
- Ease of use – Most website builders use click, drag and drop functionality, which means you don’t need to be technical or know code. Anyone can use a website builder.
Cons:
- Time-consuming – It takes time to put together a website, which can be a distraction if you’re running your business simultaneously.
- Hidden costs and limitations – Website builders tend to have different plans, increasing costs as more features are added. It may not be clear about what plan you need, although the needs of most small businesses should be simple. However, navigating the features can be overwhelming and a distraction to your day-to-day business operations.
- SEO limitations – If you’re responsible for designing your website, you’re also, by default, in charge of its SEO. There are simple techniques most web designers know that help websites perform well in Google, but such information is not accessible by website platforms. This means the website may lack some basic features that hold it from generating leads.
2. Web design agency
Pros:
Cons:
- Experience - Australian web design agencies usually bring a lot of experience and skills to every job. We estimate the average size of an agency is around 4-6 designers, which offer flexibility to every project and mean it can always move ahead.
- Reviews and trust - Australian web designers have online reviews and a portfolio of clients, so you can get an idea of their work before you ask for a quote. The bigger the portfolio, generally, the happier the client base as customers who are not happy tend to leave web agencies fairly quickly.
- Customisation - Web design agencies deliver what you ask for (within scope and reason), which means you can get a lot of functionality and custom development.
- Time-saving - Compared to building your website with a drag-and-drop builder, or chancing it with a freelancer, a local agency delivers a website from start to finish.
- Ongoing support - Email support is provided by all agencies, which means your business is supported by a local team of experts who want to make sure everything is running as it should be.
Cons:
- Costs - No web design agency is like another, so it's essential to shop around get quotes. We know that one agency may charge $2,000 while others may quote for $5,000 or even $10,000+ from other agencies. In many cases, the differences in the finished product are not distinguishable to most users.
3. Freelancer
Pros:
Cons:
Overall, freelancers meet the needs of any business that wants to avoid offshore developers but potentially save on working with a local Australian web design agency.
- Costs - lower cost than hiring an agency in many cases, especially if the project is beyond a simple web design
- Wider availability - you can arrange to start working quicker than with an agency that may be booked up for several weeks.
- A one-to-one relationship - you work directly with the freelancer, which means communication is streamlined.
- Flexibility and responsiveness - Freelancers are focused on time and budget and will raise any issues directly as the project progresses.
Cons:
- Limited scope - Freelancers can't do everything, so this may limit what you have planned or add extra cost if an expert needs to be hired on top of the freelancer.
- Costs - Not all freelancers are affordable, and additional costs may be added to that surprise. For this reason, it's essential to get a fully-inclusive quote upfront.
- Risk - your entire project depends on one person. If something happens to them or their commitment to your website, the entire project can be delayed and compromised.
Overall, freelancers meet the needs of any business that wants to avoid offshore developers but potentially save on working with a local Australian web design agency.
4. Offshore developer
Pros:
Cons:
- Cost-effective – Going outside of Australia can mean good prices given the high cost of living in Australia compared to India and parts of Europe. Many professionals serve clients worldwide from remote locations and deliver a high-quality website at a much lower cost.
- Project is outsourced – You pay for certainty and project management, meaning when you contract someone offshore, you are giving them the responsibility to design and deliver your website.
Cons:
- Communication issues and language barriers: Designing a website (or putting together the plans) is not something you do every day.
- Quality control: You're unlikely to have the expertise to detect any technical faults, which means things may be overlooked or missed.
Ongoing Monthly and Annual Website Costs
Beyond the upfront cost of building a website, there are ongoing costs which you need to be aware of and budget for accordingly:
Monthly costs:
Annual costs:
For more information, our guide to ongoing website costs explains everything in detail.
Monthly costs:
- Monthly Hosting: For your website to be accessible online, it must be ‘hosted’ on a server. Hosting companies provide this service and charge anywhere between $10 and $100+ a month for most Australian small businesses websites. If you’re using a website builder such as Squarespace or Weebly, your hosting will be included in the monthly subscription fee.
- SEO: A good website will rank well on merit, but many Australian businesses consider SEO a must-have expense. Costs start from around $1,000 + GST per month, and many specialists require an upfront commitment of 3-6 months.
- Newsletter: Email newsletter apps like Mailchimp charge a monthly fee which grows as your email list size grows.
- Social Media Marketing: Unless you plan to rely on free traffic from Google and Facebook posts, you’ll need to budget for per-click or per-impression costs. If you need an external agency to run it for you, there’s an additional cost involved.
- Adwords and Facebook Adverts: If you plan to advertise to bring people to your website, these costs need to be budgeted.
- Apps: Many businesses use apps on their website, such as booking/calendar services. These are usually charged as a monthly subscription and need to be paid upfront to keep the app functional on your website.
- Payment processing fees: Australian businesses primarily use Stripe or PayPal for online payments. The fees are around 3% of your transaction, which means if you sell something for $100, you’ll receive $97 in your bank account. Unfortunately, there’s no way to avoid this cost (unless you limit payments to bank account only), and it needs to be budgeted for in your pricing. Helpfully, these payment apps deduct their fee upfront during each sale, so you don’t need to provision to pay a bill at the end of the month.
Annual costs:
- Domain: A .com.au domain can cost between $20 and $75 per year per domain. We always suggest an Australian domain for an Australian-focused business, even if it’s more expensive than a .com or .net address. You can register a domain for between 1-5 years, although the pricing is rarely discounted if you buy multiple years. Our guide to domains explains everything you need to know about choosing a domain, optional add-ons and what to do when it comes to renewal.
- SSL: Google prefers websites that display as HTTPS rather than HTTP, and to have that, your website needs an SSL certificate. These are usually sold by your domain registrar or hosting provider and cost between $45 and $200 per year.
For more information, our guide to ongoing website costs explains everything in detail.
Hosting: What’s the Difference Between Shared, VPS, Dedicated, CDN and Business Email Hosting?
We explain the options below, outlining the pros and cons and expected costs. For more details and the latest prices from trusted Australian hosting services, please read our website hosting provider review.
Shared hosting
This is the cheapest form of hosting. Your website is shared on a hosting space with many other websites. This is what most small and medium-sized Australian businesses use, given the demands of their website are limited.
- Pros – it’s the cheapest way to host a website.
- Cons – It’s less secure than private hosting; it can be slower (but this isn’t noticeable for websites that receive less than 100,000 visits a month
- Costs – From $5 to $100 per month
VPS hosting
VPS means ‘Virtual Private Server’, which means your website is hosted on its own space in a larger server.
- Pros – Extra storage, security and resources, as well as faster loading time (for websites that need require a lot of resources)
- Cons – Additional cost (well above shared hosting ranges)
- Costs – From $100+ per month
Dedicated hosting
A dedicated server gives your website its data centre.
- Pros – Full control and management over your server and the ability to scale up resources as more users visit the website
- Cons – Expensive and requires a lot of maintenance
- Costs – From $5 to $100 per month
CDN hosting
A Content Delivery Network (CDN) helps boost a website’s loading time by using multiple servers and locations and programming to make images load faster.
- Pros – Fast loading times
- Cons – Can require ongoing technical tweaking to function
- Costs – Basic CDN services start from around $20/month but can be as expensive as $250+.
Business Email hosting
Business email hosting is a service separate from website hosting. Our guide to business email hosting providers outlines the options available. Our experience is Google Workspace is the best provider given its flexibility, support service and pricing.
- Costs – From $5 to $20 per email account
Associated Design Costs
Your website needs to be consistent with your business branding and logo to maximise the potential advertising reach and avoid confusing new customers. Many Australian businesses thrive when their website embodies their branding and connects the message to viewers.
To help enhance the website’s look, there are two optional associated design costs:
Logo design
Your logo will set the colour scheme and general style for the website. If you don’t have a logo, there are three options:
Business cards
To help enhance the website’s look, there are two optional associated design costs:
Logo design
Your logo will set the colour scheme and general style for the website. If you don’t have a logo, there are three options:
- Free tools - many tools let you design one for free; our link of free logo apps lists popular options.
- Hire a freelancer – Websites like Fiverr.com, and 99Designs help you engage logo specialists, or you can hire an Australian-based designer for around $300 to $1,000.
- Use your web developer – Many web agencies offer logo design as an additional service, and the cost can be anywhere from around $300 to $1,500, or even more, depending on the brief. The benefit of using your website developer is that they’ll design the website around your logo upfront, so there’s no confusion around styles.
Business cards
- If you’re relaunching your website and your business cards already have your website, there’s probably no need to change them. However, if you’ve ordered a new logo and/or have a website for the first time, new business cards are likely to be a good idea. Like logo design, you have the options of a DIY-builder (like VistaPrint), a freelancer (think Fiverr etc.), or using your web developer, who may offer it as an add-on service.
- The cost should be reasonable – around $150 to $500 for the design should be more than sufficient, in addition to printing costs. You’ll be given the design so you can re-print when you need to restock.
Promoting a New Website Costs
Many websites launch and, frustratingly, don’t deliver the results the business owner hopes for when it comes to visibility online. This is usually down to a combination of different expectations between the web designer and a client; a good web agency will explain what’s provided upfront.
SEO
If you’re planning to use your website to meet the needs of people already searching for you online, SEO probably won’t be a priority. However, if you’re planning to use your website to bring in new business, SEO is critical to bringing in traffic that converts to leads and sales.
SEO is usually provided externally by a specialist agency and starts after your website is completed, which can be frustrating if you’re looking for fast results.
Having worked with thousands of clients, we know that good design (fast loading pages, property keyword use, logical user experience and layout) is critical to performing well in Google. However, many web design agencies and freelancers don’t always appreciate the nuances of building a strong site that performs in Google before any SEO work is carried out.
The best starting point for SEO is picking up the phone with a freelancer or local expert. While it’s arguable that no one will care as much about SEO as the business owner, local providers can get a website established in Google and take care of the basic needs. However, it’s not without a cost, and it’s not unreasonable to be quoted over $1,000+GST per month for a starting package.
Paid Advertising
The most popular form of paid online advertising for Australian businesses is Google Adwords and Facebook Ads. However, setting up advertising campaigns can be expensive and provide a poor ROI if done incorrectly. You’ll need to identify your keywords (Google Adwords) and audience demographic and interests (Facebook), which may not be as logical as it appears. You’ll also need to set spending limits to protect your cash flow as you’ll be paying ‘per click’, meaning every time someone clicks on the advert. Many businesses bring in experts to help them, but these agencies and freelancers can charge more than the total monthly advertising budget.
SEO
If you’re planning to use your website to meet the needs of people already searching for you online, SEO probably won’t be a priority. However, if you’re planning to use your website to bring in new business, SEO is critical to bringing in traffic that converts to leads and sales.
SEO is usually provided externally by a specialist agency and starts after your website is completed, which can be frustrating if you’re looking for fast results.
Having worked with thousands of clients, we know that good design (fast loading pages, property keyword use, logical user experience and layout) is critical to performing well in Google. However, many web design agencies and freelancers don’t always appreciate the nuances of building a strong site that performs in Google before any SEO work is carried out.
The best starting point for SEO is picking up the phone with a freelancer or local expert. While it’s arguable that no one will care as much about SEO as the business owner, local providers can get a website established in Google and take care of the basic needs. However, it’s not without a cost, and it’s not unreasonable to be quoted over $1,000+GST per month for a starting package.
Paid Advertising
The most popular form of paid online advertising for Australian businesses is Google Adwords and Facebook Ads. However, setting up advertising campaigns can be expensive and provide a poor ROI if done incorrectly. You’ll need to identify your keywords (Google Adwords) and audience demographic and interests (Facebook), which may not be as logical as it appears. You’ll also need to set spending limits to protect your cash flow as you’ll be paying ‘per click’, meaning every time someone clicks on the advert. Many businesses bring in experts to help them, but these agencies and freelancers can charge more than the total monthly advertising budget.
