How Much Does a Website Cost in Australia?

Finding out what Websites actually cost can seem complicated – but it doesn’t have to be.

Before investing time into getting one of more quotes for a new website, please use this article/ guide to explore different website types, and to gain a better idea of what each costs, in order to find the best fit based on your needs and goals. Also use this guide to avoid pit-falls, traps and money-wastage.

The first thing to understand is that the website development Industry in Australia is COMPLETELY unregulated

First thing I need to share with you: When you get website quotes from freelancers, agencies and website provider businesses in Australia, please be aware: this is a TOTALLY unregulated industry in Australia at this time. Because of this, the quotes you receive from various website providers will be wildly different in price. Why am I telling you this? Because I don’t want you getting caught out or ripped off.

Here are some of the wild and non–wonderful ways some will try and trick you with their website prices:

Some will quote a small-ish sounding monthly fee. Essentially they are asking you to ‘rent’ the website from them. You may never be able to move the website elsewhere. They may also change you hidden fees. Plus if you ‘break contract’ or want to cancel the website, there will be large exit fees. It might ‘seem cheap’ but like anything: “If it’s too good to be true, it probably is” and “You get what you pay for.”
Others will charge a small upfront fee, then hit you up with hidden fees during and after the website is complete.
Some will just quote a ‘cheap price’. Usually they are inexperienced, or it’s their hobby business, or they just want ‘quick money’ and don’t have expertise to provide after-sale service, website security, assistant with helping your business grow, etc. You may also find they don’t have very good website design skills, and the website they eventually create for you looks ‘average at best’. I say ‘eventually’ because an inexperienced website developer will take WAY longer to create your website than they estimated. This can hold you up significantly, especially if you have a deadline.

On the other hand, there are those like us who quote fairly and have the expertise to create a website for you that WILL actually help you achieve your goals, match your expectations, be here to help once the website is launched and know what we are doing vs ‘fly by nighters’ who are ‘in it for some quick money’ and who probably won’t be in business in one or two years’ time << we’ve seen this occur time and time again. These type of people will usually leave you in the lurch.

What do I mean by ‘leave you in the lurch’:

Imagine having a website created for you but the person (freelancer/ ‘one-person band’) who created it, decides to go on an extended overseas holiday (or trip around Australia). You try and contact them but no response. They never gave you Admin logins to your website; now you can’t login to make complex changes, you’re locked out of the website hosting and you now have a website you cannot correctly manage, update or change.
Another scenario: The person who created the website turned out to be immature, hard to work with, etc. They now ‘hold you to ransom’. They don’t provide any assistance, won’t work on your website, won’t give you access to their website, etc until you pay a hefty fee.
Or they just decide to close down their business because they were never charging enough to be a sustainable business and also developed a very bad reputation. Some won’t fully handover the website to you (like they should) and instead they will just ‘disappear’ and ghost you.
The person who built the website, built it on some obscure platform. If this is the case, there is usually NO way to move the website elsewhere. The website is locked to it’s hosted location. In order to host it elsewhere you’re then having to pay for an entirely new website to be built from scratch. (you might be surprised how often this occurs).

Over 40% of our clients in the last 10 years have turned to us after having had a bad experience working with someone else (some other website provider business, freelancer or agency).

The above scenarios I’ve written are just SOME of the horror stories we have heard over the years!

It is also wise to find out who will actually be building the website, and if it’s going to be built by Australians in Australia, or by people off-shore (which can create security issues. Info about this topic is here).

We have been in this industry for over 20 years. We have seen a lot!

My initial advice: Please VET a business before asking them to create your website. This will help you avoid a LOT of issues moving forward. Two easy ways to vet ANY website provider business:

Find out how many years they have been in business
Contact some of their other clients and ask what their experiences working with the business was/ is like.
Ask the business or freelancer to their face who will actually be building the website. Ask then, “If we give you this project, will Australians in Australia be building the website, or will you be getting people off-shore to build it?”

What else do I need to know?

If you’re in the market for a website, keep reading this article. It will explain all you need to know.

This short article/guide will help you:

Better understand how much a website really costs
A rough indicator as to how much you should budget for your next website project

You’ll also learn about the different website types and pricing options so you can get an accurate estimate, so it is an investment, not a liability (and waste of time and money).

First of all, it’s important to remember that a professional website is designed to be a powerful marketing and sales tool that helps your business grow.

NOTE: a poorly built website can harm your reputation and slow down your marketing efforts and damage your growth

While it might be tempting to start with a cheap website, cutting corners does more harm than good.

Cheap websites are typically poorly built. Corners are cut at the expense of proper security and maintenance, quality and results. Plus they lack effective ‘conversion focused website design’. They’re also poorly coding which makes achieving results using Google either impossible, or very difficult.

If you pay for a cheap website all you will get is:

A buggy template website
A website that is not well optimised for mobile phones
A website that has security issues
A website that won’t benefit your business.

Cheap websites are costly to fix and can also damage your reputation, especially if a virus gets installed on your website, ‘nasty’ images get hacked into it, words get changed, and other nasty things get added. Same too if the website looks ‘average’ and/or reads poorly. First impressions matter!

More often than not, a cheap website needs to be redesigned and rebuilt from scratch by professionals.

Please note: Professional quality websites require the following skills and work:

Strategic planning
Website IT
Project Management
Prototyping
Website Design (UX Design/ User-experience Design)
Website Development
Quality writing
Social-proof
Excellent imagery
Correct testing and Quality Assurance
Launch work
Post-launch work

If any of the above skills are not included within a website project, the website will be:

Poor quality
Not created on time
Will not help your business (or other entity type)

If however, you really only have a small limited budget initially, don’t despair, contact us and we’ll share with you our ‘starter packages’.

A professional website design is an asset that supports your business’ growth goals

If your goals are growth and sales, then a professionally designed, authority-building website is the most reliable and scalable way to go. When you invest wisely in professional website design, your website will be an asset that will serve your business (or other entity type) for years to come.

How much does a website cost?

Remember, when done correctly, a website should provide your business with a return on your investment. So, while choosing quality may require more up-front, a professional website will offer greater benefits and MUCH larger returns once launched and into the future.

Professional website designers and developers also need to earn a livable wage. Professional website businesses have to ensure this is factored into their quotes.

Personally the way we quote ensures our prices are very fair, we provide excellent work & value-for-money (and great ROI for those we work for), and it ensures our business can:

Cover our business-expenses
Pay our taxes
Allows each of us to be paid a livable wage.

Below is a guide to the different types of websites and general indicators of prices.

Website IT Jobs & Fees

The first part of a website quote covers the all-important ‘website IT jobs’.

All websites require a Domain Name (website address). Setting this up (aka: registering one or more Domain Names), configuring the DNS, setting up the website hosting, a SSL Certificate and creating any email addresses needed, are the first jobs that always need to be done early in any website project. We quote these separately as a ‘package price’ within any website project quote we provide. The quote cost is very minimal as it only takes a short amount of time to do these initial IT jobs.

If you already have your Domain Name registered, that is no worries. We can easily work with it. We do though recommend having us register any Domain Names you need. There are MANY benefits to this. Ask us about them.

If you already have domain-based email addresses set up, that too is fine. We can easily work with your current IT provider (who probably looks after your email), OR you can move your email to us, if you don’t currently have an IT provider handling this. Or we can set up one or more new email addresses for you.

DNS: This is a fancy boffin acronym used in this industry. It stands for ‘Domain Name System’. You may have heard the term, but don’t worry if you haven’t. You don’t need to know all the ins and outs about it; just know that we do and it is also an important part of setting up a website.

A ‘SSL Certificate’ is also very important. This too is a boffin word. It’s a security certificate. If you want to know more about it just Google “what is a SSL Certificate”. There is plenty of information on the web about this topic.

Types of websites and their costs

There are many types of websites that can be built. Some are:

One-page websites
Brochure style websites (images and pics)
Authority building websites (for those who want business growth)
eCommerce online shop websites
Membership website
Club websites
eLearning LMS websites. LMS stands for “Learning Management Systems”
Even more complex websites

One-page Websites

One-page websites are typically only for those who have a small budget, can only afford a ‘starting point’ website, or for an event or some kind of ‘pop-up’ business activity.

They certainly have their time and place and we do create them often for some clients. Expect to usually pay under $3,300 (+GST) for a quality one-page website. Some can be quite a bit less than this. We’ve even done some really simple ones for around $1,000.

More information about one-page websites is here.

Multi-page Brochure-style Websites

Multi-paged ‘brochure style’ websites will cost more than a one-page website because they require more work. They’re usually priced between $3,500 (+GST) – $6,500 (+GST) (sometimes a little more), plus usual fees for optional extras like:

Website writing services
SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
Other digital marketing services

In Australia, REAL professionals who create multi-paged brochure-style websites will quote fees above $3,500 (+GST). Confusingly some will quote less, especially if they are either:

Running a limited time special offer
Are trying to under-cut the market for some ‘internal business strategy’ reason (usually it indicates they are desperate for work. As you know, “look out for desperate people, they usually have a bad reputation, and can often only win work based on ‘price’ not ROI or ‘value to you in helping you achieve your goals’.”

An exception to the rule: ‘template-based websites’:

Sometimes ‘brochure-style’ websites can be less than $3,500, especially if you and your website creator agree to use an ‘off-the shelf’ template. This can save time and money BUT only if the correct template is selected. The trade-off though is these websites are NOT custom designed, they often don’t represent your business (or other entity) anywhere near as well as a ‘custom designed’ website and sometimes they are poorly coded.

HOWEVER, they do have their time and place if you only have a ‘somewhat’ limited budget.

[There have been times over the years where we have created ‘template websites’ to help people with limited budgets. We don’t showcase these websites here on our website.]

Authority Building Websites

Authority building websites are quite a bit of work. These types of website utilise the E-E-A-T rule, have a solid content plan and growth strategy.

When these types of websites are professionally crafted, they can yield a LARGE return on investment during the next 3+ years (once the website is launched and marketed correctly). They are crafted by digital marketing experts. We have been creating these types of websites for over 10 years.

If you want or need an ‘authority building website’ then expect to be quoted upward of $8,000, plus the fees for digital marketing, SEO, online advertising, etc.

Remember: No one will know about your website unless it is marketed correctly, sales offers within it are advertised correctly (online) and the website is SEO-ed correctly.

Membership Websites

Membership systems can be added to any type of website we create: a one-page website, brochure site, authority building website, etc.

The fees to set up a membership system within a website varies, depending on the functionality you require.

Simply ask us for a quote if you want a membership system. Contact us.

Club Websites

Websites for Local sporting clubs, social clubs, hobby clubs, etc can be relatively easy to create, or complex if the club wants a ‘full club management’ system built into the website.

The cheap way of getting a club website created is:

Ask us to create a one-page website, mini-website, or 5 – 8 page multi-paged website.
Then use a ‘club website SaaS platform’ to run the members area and other functionality. Contact us to find out more about options.
Then link the two together.

eCommerce Online Shop Websites

eCommerce online shop websites can be set up for retail sales or wholesale sales.

Either way, they require a lot of work and expertise to set up correctly. Amongst things, a lot of testing also has to be done to ensure the checkout, payment gateway, etc is working correctly. If not, no one will be able to buy from your website.

Making sure shipping calculators are set up correctly is also very important, else you’ll be finding you are ‘out of pocket’ paying excess shipping costs.

There are MANY other variables and functionalities that need to also be considered.

Remember: An online shop website that is not well designed, not functioning correctly, not well coded, not well marketed online, not correctly SEO-ed, etc, will NOT yield money making results.

It PAYS to work with website professionals when setting up an online shop website.

You can try and set up an online shop yourself using platforms like Shopify, but bear in mind:

Many people fail
If you want your online shop to be custom designed, you’ll need to pay an expert to help, unless you already have great ‘website developer’ skills, or want to do a crash-course (that could take you months, if not a LOT longer).
If it is not set up correctly, SEO-ed correctly, marketed online correctly, advertised online correctly, it’ll never provide any decent ROI.
Many people have tried to set up their own online shop themselves and MANY people have failed. It is FAR more involved and complex than what some think it is. It also requires excellent design skills, ‘end-usability’ and conversion rate optimisation, data-analysis skills, and a LOT more. PLUS extensive experience in ‘how to make online shops convert and make money.’

The best thing to do if you want an online shop:

Ask people like us at Green Valley Digital to create your online shop website for you, and work with you to get it marketed, advertised, SEO-d, etc, correctly.

We would look at using either WooCommerce, Shopify, WP Easy Cart, Square, etc to set up your online shop depending on which method/platform will be best for the growth of your business. We ONLY recommend options to you that WILL actually help your business grow.

The quote costs for a professionally created online shop in Australia can be anywhere from $6,000(+GST) for something relatively basic to upward of $10,000(+GST).

In some instances a very basic online shop can be set up for less. Also, if you only want to sell a few products online there are even cheaper options using Square or PayPal.

eLearning LMS Websites

Similar to eCommerce websites, eLearning websites are a fair bit of work. They require planning, technical expertise and correctly set up payment gateways.

If you want a LMS (Learning Management System) eLearning platform built into your website, expect to pay reasonable costs, plus online security maintenance fees.

However, there are also very good 3rd party platforms out there, in which case we recommend:

Having us create the ‘public facing website’, do the SEO work and other digital marketing
Use a 3rd party SaaS based LMS for the actual eLearning course platform. We can recommend some good SaaS options to choose from.
Then link the two together.

Other types of Complex Websites

A complex website is typically a website application like a personal social media platform, advanced forum website, online directory website, an app/ widget website like the old ‘Shoes of Prey’ shoe designer website app (that no longer exists) or some other highly inventive innovative web-app idea.

These websites often require Software Engineers, Advanced Website Application Developers and other key team members. The costs are relative to how much expertise will be required, the time it will take to build, test, launch, etc and other variables. Expect to be quoted fees reflective of this.

Please note: Some ‘complex websites’ are not as complex to build as you might think. Some can be built using ‘pre-existing plugins’. For example, we’re building a real estate website atm using specially built Plugins that only require a small yearly fee. On the other hand, the cost to build a website like this 10 years ago was not cheap.

Let us know about your complex website project idea and we’ll let you know what options are available.

Website Testing

All professionally crafted websites have to be correctly (professionally) tested. This is done in the background and can take a LOT of effort. If a website is NOT tested fully and correctly, you will not get a functioning website.

Website testing involves things like:

Web Browser testing and fixing up rendering issues. All Web Browsers are coded differently. They therefore display websites differently. These days, it’s not as big an issue as it was 10+ years ago, but testing on different Web Browsers and fixing any issues (usually minor) is still very important. After all, I am sure you want your website to look and function correctly by ALL people who visit your website vs only 50% (or less).
Device testing: These days with MANY devices, tablets, smart-phones, etc on the market, if your website is not correctly tested on them, your website won’t be of much benefit.
[Guess what: MANY Web Browsers can also be installed on the one device. This too has to be tested.]
PC vs Mac computers: because people will access your website on PC AND Mac computers, testing also needs to be done on these platforms too!
ALSO, until no one is using Windows 10 anymore, websites ALSO need to be tested on it, and not just on Windows 11.

If you’re starting to think, “Geez this sounds like a lot of work!” you would be right!

Website testing is factored into the quotes we provide.

If your website is not correctly tested, it won’t display or work correctly on the various Web Browsers, Devices, Operating Systems and Computers, that are out there. This then again will mean:

You are wasting your money
Your website will not serve you well, nor help you achieve your goals.
You’ve been gypped/ ripped off.

This happens FAR more than you might think by 3rd party website providers who don’t care and are just out to make quick money!

Please note: A professional website project requires a Client Liasson Person, Project Manager, at least one Website Designer, one or more Website Developers, an IT Systems Admin person, Testers… and often a Website Writer & Proofreaders.
Websites that are crafted to directly provide EXCELLENT ROI results also require one or more SEO experts, one or more Digital Marketers, one or more SEO Blog Writers and innovative & creative digital asset/content creators.

Sometimes one to three people will perform these roles within a website project. Other times a team is assembled. There is more than meets the eye when it comes to creating professional websites.

Thinking about getting someone off-shore to create your website?

Good luck if you try this. Over the years, we have had to help many businesses and people who gave this a try, thinking they could save some money. They lost money, their project never got finished, and/or the website was poorly created, there were major communication issues, etc.

Again, “You get what you pay for” and the old saying, “Poor man pays twice.” << if you’re not familiar with this saying, please Google it.

Also there are big security issues if you get someone off-shore to create your website. Read this article for more info.

Conclusion

All websites require time and effort for strategy & planning, design, building, testing and launch, and optional extras like digital marketing, SEO, advertising, etc. Just like any trade-profession, professional website creators have spent YEARS developing their skills. They need to be paid accordingly.

It’s about your goals though, not about us. We will go above and beyond to create the right website for you at a fair quote fee. Our prices are also FAR cheaper than what some website providers and agencies charge. Our work is high-quality and our focus is helping you achieve the results you want!

“Jay took the time to listen and then formulate a plan of action. Website options were then explained and were very easy to understand. Every milestone of the project was met and some even exceeded forecast timeline expectations, and all on budget. Playing With Fire Band is delighted with the work and support! A huge thanks to all of the team at GVD!”

— Lloyd, Rob, Chris and Colleen – Playing With Fire-Band – Bundaberg Qld

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