How Much Does a Website Cost in Australia (2026)
Domains, hosting, builders, themes and email for an Australian website, each with its source and the date checked, plus what drives a build quote.
A business website in Australia has two kinds of cost: the services you pay other companies for every year, and the work to design and build the site. The first kind is easy to price. On 3 October 2026 a new .com.au domain cost $9.95 for its first year at VentraIP and $22.95 a year to renew, VentraIP's entry business hosting plan was listed at $11.00 a month, and Google Workspace business email started at A$9.90 per user a month on its annual plan (sources in the table below). The second kind is why quotes for "a website" differ so much, because it depends on how many page templates you need, who writes the content and what the site has to connect to. This guide lists the third-party costs with their sources and the dates we checked them, explains what drives a build quote, and shows how to read one.
Every third-party cost in one table
These are prices the vendors publish themselves, read on 3 October 2026. Design and build work is not in the table, because nobody can price it without a scope; the sections after the table cover what drives it. Where we could not read a vendor's Australian price, the row says so rather than converting a US price.
| Cost item | Vendor and plan | Price as the vendor states it | Currency and GST | Source and last checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Domain names | VentraIP | .com.au: $9.95 a year for the first year of a new standard registration, then $22.95 a year to renew. .com: $24.95 a year to register and to renew. | Shown in dollars on VentraIP's Australian site. Its terms say published prices include government taxes unless noted. | VentraIP .com.au, VentraIP .com, terms of service. Last checked 3 Oct 2026. |
| Domain names | Webcentral | .com.au: $14.95 for the first year of a new one-year registration, marked down from $29.95 a year. .com: $24.95 for the first year, marked down from $40.95 a year. The page does not list renewal prices. | Australian dollars (the page's price data). GST not stated. | Webcentral domains. Last checked 3 Oct 2026. |
| Web hosting | VentraIP Business Hosting, Entry plan | $11.00 a month, with 5 GB of storage and servers in Sydney. Current offer: 50% off the first invoice of a new purchase, for up to one year, shown as $5.50 a month. | Shown in dollars on VentraIP's Australian site. Its terms say published prices include government taxes unless noted. | VentraIP business hosting. Last checked 3 Oct 2026. |
| Web hosting | Hostinger Premium (Australian page) | A$4.39 a month on a 48-month plan, paid upfront as A$210.72 (regular price A$834.72), then renews at A$15.89 a month. Includes 3 websites, 20 GB of storage, SSL, and a domain free for the first year. | Australian dollars. The page says "Prices are listed without VAT". | Hostinger Australia web hosting. Last checked 3 Oct 2026. |
| Website builder | WordPress.com | Personal A$72 a year or A$14 a month. Premium A$144 a year or A$27 a month. Business A$456 a year or A$60 a month. | Australian dollars. The pricing page says plans are billed excluding taxes. | WordPress.com pricing, with the Australian-dollar figures from WordPress.com's own plans data. Last checked 3 Oct 2026. |
| Website builder | Squarespace | No figure in this guide. The pricing page we could read showed US prices for the United States; open it from Australia to see yours. | The Australian dollar is one of Squarespace's billing currencies, and your location at your first payment sets which currencies you can choose. | Squarespace pricing; Squarespace Help, accepted currencies. Last checked 3 Oct 2026. |
| Website builder | Wix | No figure in this guide. The plans page says "Prices and currency vary by location" and showed US dollars "for reference only" when we read it. | Prices exclude taxes, which Wix sets by your billing address. | Wix plans. Last checked 3 Oct 2026. |
| Online store | Shopify | Plans, card fees, themes and apps are in our Shopify cost guide. | See that guide. | Sources and dates are listed in that guide. |
| Premium WordPress theme | Avada, on ThemeForest | US$69 for a Regular License, with future updates and 6 months of support from the author. Support can be extended to 12 months for US$21.38. | US dollars. The page says the price "excludes tax and handling fees". | Avada on ThemeForest. Last checked 3 Oct 2026. |
| Business email | Google Workspace | Business Starter A$9.90 per user a month on the annual plan. Business Standard A$19.80. Business Plus A$30.90. | Australian dollars, billed monthly. GST not stated on the page. | Google Workspace pricing, Australia. Last checked 3 Oct 2026. |
| Business email | Microsoft 365 Business Basic | A$10.50 per user a month, paid yearly, on an annual subscription that renews automatically. | Australian dollars. The page says its prices do not include GST. | Microsoft 365 business plans, Australia. Last checked 3 Oct 2026. |
| SSL certificate | Let's Encrypt | Free: anyone who owns a domain name can get a trusted certificate "at zero cost". | No charge. | Let's Encrypt, about. Last checked 3 Oct 2026. |
| Content management software | WordPress, from WordPress.org | Free and open source, for anyone who arranges their own hosting and domain. | No charge. | WordPress.org download. Last checked 3 Oct 2026. |
| Analytics (optional) | Google Analytics | Google says it gives you the tools "free of charge". | No charge. | Google Analytics. Last checked 3 Oct 2026. |
Several of these are introductory offers, and offers change often, so check the page on the day you buy and look at the renewal price as well as the first one.
Domain names: .com.au or .com
A .com.au name is for a business with a connection to Australia, such as an ABN or ACN; a foreign company trading here can use an ARBN. You can hold the licence for one to five years at a time and renew it while you still meet the rules, and if your business closes and its ABN or ACN is cancelled, you can no longer hold the name (auDA, com.au domain names, last checked 3 October 2026).
Compare renewal prices, not only the first year. VentraIP's $9.95 .com.au price applies to the first year of a new standard registration, and the name then renews at $22.95 a year. Webcentral's $14.95 first-year price applies to new one-year .com.au and .net.au registrations only, not renewals or transfers, and its domains page does not list what the name costs after that (both pages last checked 3 October 2026).
Behind every .au price sits a wholesale one. From 1 October 2026, auDA's wholesale price for a licence in any .au namespace is A$9.50 a year, excluding GST, and each registrar or reseller sets its own retail price (auDA, wholesale .au pricing, last checked 3 October 2026).
Register the name to your business. auDA says a web developer can register a com.au name for you with your explicit written permission, but the details given at registration decide who holds the licence, so the registration should carry your own contact information (auDA, com.au domain names, last checked 3 October 2026).
Hosting: read the renewal price
Hosting is where your website's files live and where they are served from. If you build on WordPress.com, Squarespace, Wix or Shopify, hosting is part of the subscription; if you run your own WordPress site or a custom-built site, you pay for it separately.
VentraIP's Entry business hosting plan is listed at $11.00 a month, with 5 GB of storage and servers in Sydney. Its current offer takes 50% off the first invoice of a new purchase, for up to one year, which the page shows as $5.50 a month (VentraIP business hosting, last checked 3 October 2026). On our reading, paying monthly gets that discount on one month and paying yearly gets it on a full year.
Hostinger's Australian page shows its Premium plan at A$4.39 a month, but that rate comes from paying A$210.72 upfront for 48 months, and the plan then renews at A$15.89 a month. The page also says "Prices are listed without VAT" (Hostinger Australia, last checked 3 October 2026). The low monthly figure is real, but it is a four-year commitment, and the renewal rate is the one to budget for after that.
Website builders: WordPress.com, Squarespace, Wix and Shopify
A website builder bundles hosting, a design editor and the platform's software into one subscription. You build within what the platform allows, and you pay the subscription for as long as the site is live.
WordPress.com's Australian-dollar prices on 3 October 2026 were A$72 a year or A$14 a month for Personal, A$144 a year or A$27 a month for Premium, and A$456 a year or A$60 a month for Business, with taxes added on top according to its pricing page (WordPress.com pricing and its plans data, last checked 3 October 2026). WordPress.com is a hosted service. The WordPress software itself is free from WordPress.org for anyone who arranges their own hosting and domain (WordPress.org download page, last checked 3 October 2026).
This guide quotes no Squarespace or Wix price, because both set their prices by location and we could not read their Australian prices on the day we checked. Wix's plans page says "Prices and currency vary by location", showed US dollars "for reference only", and adds taxes according to your billing address (Wix plans page, last checked 3 October 2026). Squarespace lists the Australian dollar among its billing currencies and says your location at your first payment decides which currencies you can choose (Squarespace Help, accepted currencies for subscriptions, last checked 3 October 2026). Open each pricing page from Australia to see the price you will pay, and treat any article that quotes either platform's US prices for Australian buyers with caution.
If the site is mainly an online shop, our Shopify cost guide lists Shopify's Australian plan prices, card fees, themes, apps and domains, each with its source.
Themes and plugins
A premium theme gives a WordPress site a ready-made design to start from. Avada, sold on ThemeForest, costs US$69 for a Regular License, which covers use by you or one client in a single end product that end users are not charged for; the total includes the item price and a buyer fee, and the page says the price "excludes tax and handling fees". It comes with future updates and 6 months of support from its author, and support can be extended to 12 months for US$21.38 (Avada on ThemeForest, last checked 3 October 2026).
As with any bought theme, the licence is the small, fixed line. The work to fit the theme to your brand, content and integrations is what varies. Paid plugins, for forms, backups, search engine optimisation or bookings, each bring their own licence and renewal, so list them in the budget one by one.
Business email
Email at your own domain is usually billed per user per month. On Google's Australian pricing page, Google Workspace Business Starter was A$9.90 per user a month on the annual plan, Business Standard A$19.80 and Business Plus A$30.90, with all plans billed monthly; the page did not say whether GST is included (Google Workspace pricing, last checked 3 October 2026).
Microsoft 365 Business Basic, which includes business email with Outlook on the web and mobile, was A$10.50 per user a month, paid yearly. Microsoft's Australian page says its prices do not include GST, and that the amount payable including GST is shown before you buy (Microsoft 365 business plans, last checked 3 October 2026).
Some hosting plans include mailboxes. VentraIP's Entry plan lists unlimited email accounts, and Hostinger's Premium plan includes 2 mailboxes per website free for the first year (both pages last checked 3 October 2026). Hosting email is the cheaper start; Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 add shared calendars, file storage and office apps, which is what you pay the per-user price for.
SSL certificates and other running costs
You should not need to pay for a standard SSL certificate, which is what puts https in front of your address. Let's Encrypt, run by the not-for-profit Internet Security Research Group, gives anyone who owns a domain name a trusted certificate at zero cost, and software on the web server can renew it automatically (Let's Encrypt, last checked 3 October 2026). Some hosting plans include one: Hostinger's Australian page lists SSL as included.
Google Analytics, for measuring visits and enquiries, is also free: Google says it gives you the tools "free of charge" (Google Analytics, last checked 3 October 2026).
For illustration only, here is a year of running costs at the renewal prices above. VentraIP's Entry hosting at $11.00 a month is $132 a year, a .com.au renewal there is $22.95, and Google Workspace Business Starter for two people at A$9.90 each a month is A$237.60 a year. That is A$392.55 a year to keep a small site and its email running, plus GST if Google adds it, before any maintenance work (our arithmetic on prices last checked 3 October 2026). It shows how the lines add up; it is not a recommended setup.
Why website quotes vary so much
Two agencies can quote very different amounts for what sounds like the same website because they are pricing different amounts of work. These are the scope drivers that move a website quote most:
- Number of page templates and pages. A template is a page layout designed and built once, then reused, such as the home page, a service page, a blog post and the contact page. Each new template adds design, build and testing; extra pages built from an existing template add less, as long as someone has written their content.
- Custom design or a theme. A bought theme set up as it comes, a bought theme adjusted to your brand, or a design made for your business and coded from scratch. The theme licence is small; the hours are not.
- Content and copywriting. Who writes the words, who supplies the photos, and whether copywriting, photography or stock image licences are part of the quote. Content that arrives late moves the launch date with it.
- Integrations. Online booking, a CRM, payments, email marketing or accounting software, connected through an existing plugin or through custom API work. Each connection needs setting up and testing with real data.
- E-commerce. Selling online adds products, payments, shipping, tax settings and order emails to the build.
- Migration and redirects. Moving pages, posts and images from an old site, and mapping every old URL to its new one. Google recommends server-side permanent redirects, such as 301 or 308, when URLs change in a site move (Google Search Central, site moves with URL changes, last checked 3 October 2026).
- Accessibility and performance work. Building and testing to an agreed accessibility standard, such as level AA of WCAG 2.2, the W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (W3C, WCAG 2.2, last checked 3 October 2026), and tuning images, code and caching so pages load quickly on phones.
- CMS training and documentation. Whether your team is shown how to edit pages, add posts and update images, and whether you get written instructions to keep.
- Ongoing maintenance. Software, theme and plugin updates, backups, security monitoring and hosting management after launch, either in the quote or as a separate monthly agreement.
- Who does the work. A freelancer, a local studio and an agency with an offshore development team price their time differently. Ask who will build your site and where they work.
How to read a website quote
A good quote lets you compare like with like. Check that it:
- Lists the scope as deliverables: which page templates are designed, how many pages are built and who loads their content, and which integrations are set up, named one by one.
- Gives a timeline with milestones and says what you need to supply at each one, such as content, photos, logins and approvals.
- States what is excluded, so extra work is priced before it starts rather than argued about afterwards.
- Says how many rounds of design changes are included.
- Keeps the build fee separate from third-party costs, and names each one: the domain, hosting, theme and plugin licences, and email.
- Puts the domain, hosting and every licence in your business's name, with your developer given their own access rather than your passwords.
- Confirms who owns the code, design files and content once the work is paid for, and that they are handed over.
- Defines what support covers after launch: how long bugs are fixed, what counts as a bug and what counts as new work, how quickly you get a reply, and what ongoing support costs and whether it is optional.
- Says whether the prices include GST.
If two quotes are far apart, lay their scope lists side by side and look for the difference in the drivers above.
Common questions about website costs
How much does a .com.au domain cost?
On 3 October 2026 a new .com.au name cost $9.95 for the first year at VentraIP and then $22.95 a year to renew, and $14.95 for the first year at Webcentral, marked down from $29.95 a year; to hold one you need a connection to Australia such as an ABN or ACN (VentraIP, Webcentral and auDA, last checked 3 October 2026).
Do I need to pay for an SSL certificate?
Not for a standard certificate: Let's Encrypt issues trusted certificates at zero cost to anyone who owns a domain name, and some hosting plans include SSL, as Hostinger's Australian page shows (Let's Encrypt and Hostinger, last checked 3 October 2026).
Are website builder and email prices in Australian dollars?
It depends on the vendor: WordPress.com, Hostinger's Australian page, Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 all gave Australian-dollar prices, Squarespace lists the Australian dollar among its billing currencies, Wix says its prices and currency vary by location, and ThemeForest prices themes in US dollars (all last checked 3 October 2026).
Do these prices include GST?
Not always, so check each one: Microsoft says its Australian prices do not include GST, Hostinger's page says its prices are listed without VAT, WordPress.com bills excluding taxes, ThemeForest's price excludes tax and handling fees, and VentraIP's terms say its published prices include government taxes unless noted (all last checked 3 October 2026).
Why is the first year so much cheaper than the renewal?
Because many first-year prices are promotions: VentraIP's hosting offer takes 50% off only the first invoice of a new purchase, for up to one year, and Hostinger's A$4.39 a month needs 48 months paid upfront before the plan renews at A$15.89 a month (VentraIP and Hostinger, last checked 3 October 2026).
Who should own the domain and hosting accounts?
Your business should: auDA says the details given at registration decide who holds a .com.au licence, even when a developer registers it for you, so register the name with your own business details, and keep the hosting and email accounts in your name with your developer given their own access (auDA, com.au domain names, last checked 3 October 2026).
Getting a quote for your website
Digitalis Global quotes each website after a free scoping call, as a fixed proposal that lists the scope, price, timeline and exclusions, so ask us for a website quote when you are ready.
To see what the work covers first, read about our custom web development service.
Sources
Every source below was read on 3 October 2026. Vendors change prices and offers without notice, so check the linked page before you budget.
- VentraIP: .com.au domain names, .com domain names, business web hosting and terms of service (clause 9.7, prices and government taxes)
- Webcentral: domain names
- auDA: com.au domain names
- auDA: .au domain name wholesale pricing
- Hostinger Australia: web hosting
- WordPress.com: pricing (Australian-dollar figures from WordPress.com's own plans data)
- WordPress.org: download
- Squarespace: pricing and Squarespace Help: accepted currencies for your Squarespace subscriptions
- Wix: plans (pricing note on location, currency and taxes)
- ThemeForest: Avada
- Google Workspace: pricing (Australia)
- Microsoft 365: business plans and pricing (Australia)
- Let's Encrypt: about
- Google Analytics
- Google Search Central: site moves with URL changes
- W3C: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2
- Our Shopify cost guide for Shopify's own prices, each with its source and date
Drafted with AI assistance; researched and reviewed by Saad Ali.
Founder / CEO
