Website Development Cost [2025]

In Australia, the cost of building a professional website typically ranges from around $2,000 to over $25,000. The final price depends on factors such as the type of website, the features included, and the expertise of the developer or agency you choose.

In 2025, a website is no longer just a digital business card, it’s one of the most important marketing assets your business can have. Whether you’re launching a new brand or updating an outdated site, it’s essential to understand the true costs involved in getting it right. DIY website options can start from as little as $500 per year, while a fully custom WordPress site or eCommerce platform can exceed $100,000.

This guide outlines the real costs, compares DIY versus professional builds, and highlights hidden expenses you may not expect.

General Guide

In 2025, the price of a website can be almost free if you build it yourself with simple tools, or it can cost tens of thousands of dollars if you want a custom site made by experts. Whether you just want to freshen up your website’s look or have a professional team build one from scratch, it’s important to know what things can affect the cost.

DIY Website Builders

If you make your own website on WordPress, Webflow, Shopify, Wix, or another platform, you’ll need to pay a small fee each year for the platform or for hosting your site. You’ll probably also need to buy a professional template (design) and sometimes extra paid plugins to add special features.

Cost Range: About AUD $200 – $1,500 per year
Pros: Cheaper and easy to get started.
Cons: Limited design choices and harder to grow as your business gets bigger.

Freelancers or Offshore Providers Australian

Freelancers are people who work for themselves and usually give the cheapest option for building a website. They’re a good choice for new or small businesses that just need a simple site. But the quality can be different from person to person. Since freelancers don’t always follow a set process, projects can sometimes be delayed, communication might not be consistent, and help after the website is finished can be limited. They might also not know everything needed to make the site look really professional.

Best for: Simple, low-cost projects where being flexible matters more than long-term growth.
Cost Range: About AUD $500 – $2,000
Pros: Affordable
Cons: May not include good planning, professional content, or long-term support

Small Agencies (2 – 5 People)

Small agencies are teams of a few designers and developers who work together to build websites. They usually give you a good mix of fair pricing and solid quality. They’re more reliable than freelancers and communication is often smoother. But because they don’t have as many people or resources, they can struggle with very big or complicated projects. They also might not have experts for everything, like SEO or advanced design.

Best For: Businesses that want a professional website without spending too much.
Cost Range: About AUD $2,000 – $10,000
Pros: Good balance of price and quality, better communication
Cons: May find large projects harder to handle, might not have specialists for everything

Medium Agencies (5 – 25 People)

Medium-sized agencies have bigger teams with specialists like designers, developers, SEO experts, and project managers. They follow clear processes, which makes projects more reliable and easier to manage. These agencies can handle more complex websites and usually offer ongoing support after the site is finished. The downside is that they cost more because of their extra skills and management.

Best For: Businesses that want a strong team to build a website that’s strategic and can grow over time.
Cost Range: About AUD $10,000 – $25,000
Pros: Skilled specialists, reliable processes
Cons: More expensive

Large Agencies (25+ People)

Large agencies work with big, well-known businesses that need advanced website solutions. They have separate teams for everything, design, branding, security, and making sure the website can grow. They follow strict quality checks to keep things professional and safe. But because they have so many people and processes, they are also one of the most expensive choices.

Best For: Large companies that need a powerful website with custom features, strong security, and long-term digital support.
Cost Range: About AUD $10,000 – $25,000
Pros: Teams of experts for every part of web design and development
Cons: Very expensive because of high costs to run the agency

Boutique / Award-Winning Agencies

Boutique and award-winning agencies create high-end, custom websites that focus heavily on design and creativity. They’re known for making unique, cutting-edge websites that look amazing and work in special ways. These agencies are experts in branding, user experience, and custom features made just for each client. Because of their reputation and attention to detail, they often work with big-name brands and charge much higher prices.

Best For: Businesses that want a standout, highly customised website that looks stunning and feels premium.
Cost Range: AUD $25,000+
Pros: Known for creative, design-focused work that pushes boundaries
Cons: Very expensive and usually cater to big brands

How Much Does a Website Cost in 2025 for Different Business Needs?

Websites made by professional agencies usually start at about $2,000 for a small business site, but can cost over $100,000 if it’s a big online store or a custom-built site.

The higher price is because agencies handle everything in a complete and detailed way when building websites.

Small Business Site: $500-$5,000

Small businesses usually need simple websites with about 8 to 16 pages, only a few custom features, and basic functions. On average, these websites cost under $5,000 to make. They mainly work as an online presence for the business, not as a highly interactive site.

Mid-Sized Businesses: $5,000 – $25,000

Mid-sized businesses usually need bigger websites with 25 to 75 pages and extra tools like customer portals, CRMs, and custom features. These websites cost between $5,000 and $25,000 to build. They are more complex because they often include custom designs, stronger security, and better SEO to help the site rank higher online.

Enterprises: $25,000+

Big enterprise businesses need very large websites or platforms that can handle lots of visitors and many different functions. These sites often have strong security, AI-powered tools, and custom automation to make things run smoothly. Depending on what’s needed, the cost usually starts at $25,000 and can go over $150,000.

Breakdown Of Cost

The size and type of your website project makes a big difference in cost. A simple business site with a basic design will be much cheaper than a SaaS website, which needs more complicated coding to work for customers.

The harder and more detailed the website is, the more it will cost. Agencies usually figure this out by estimating the number of “development hours” it will take to build your site, then giving you a price based on that.

Planning & Strategy ($500–$2,000+)

Every website project starts with planning. The agency learns your goals, audience, and must-have features, then creates a blueprint for the site’s structure, pages, and budget. This avoids surprises and keeps everyone aligned.

Pro tip: Share your budget and priorities early. A good agency will suggest solutions that fit your needs and help you plan for growth without unnecessary costs.

UX/UI Design ($1,000–$5,000+)

The design phase is where your ideas come to life. The agency turns plans into mockups, focusing on making the site easy to use, on-brand, and built to guide visitors.

Options:

• Template/Modular Design: Cheaper and faster, using ready-made layouts, but less unique.
• Custom Design: Built from scratch, more costly, but one-of-a-kind with custom features and visuals.

You’ll review drafts and give feedback until the design feels right. Remember, complex designs cost more. Often, simple and clean works best for both budget and users.

Development ($3,000–$10,000+)

Once the design is approved, the agency moves into the hardest and longest part; development. This is where developers take the designs and bring them to life with code, turning them into a working website. All the behind-the-scenes work happens here to make sure the site does what it’s supposed to do and works reliably.

Development usually takes the most time in a project because it’s the engineering work that makes the site real. Skilled developers write clean, efficient code, which means faster websites with fewer issues and easier updates in the future.

It’s important to know that making changes late in this phase can be expensive. Adding big new features that weren’t in the original plan may mean redoing a lot of work. That’s why the early planning stage is so important. Still, good development teams are flexible, they’ll explain how new requests could affect cost and timeline, so you can make the best decision for your business.

Content Creation ($500–$3,000+)

A website isn’t just about design and code. The words, images, and videos matter just as much. Good content grabs attention and tells your brand’s story.

• Copywriting: You can write it yourself, but a professional copywriter makes it clearer, persuasive, and SEO-friendly (at an extra cost).
• Images & Videos: Using your own photos is cheapest, stock is affordable but less unique, and professional shoots look best but cost more.
• Content Migration: Moving text, blogs, or product info from an old site can take time and may be quoted separately.

These choices affect cost. You can create content yourself to save money, or let the agency handle it for a separate fee.

UAT (User Acceptance Testing) and project management ($500–$2,000+)

Building a website isn’t just about design and code, project management and testing are just as important. A project manager keeps everything on track, manages deadlines, and makes sure the team communicates clearly so there are no delays or mistakes.

User Acceptance Testing (UAT) happens before launch. The site is checked on different browsers and devices to make sure every button, form, image, and layout works correctly. Clients also test the site through a staging link to confirm it meets expectations.

While these steps don’t create new features, they ensure the website launches smoothly, without bugs or surprises, saving time and money in the long run.

Other Factors that Influence Website Development Cost

Besides the five main steps as listed above, there are extra things that can also affect how much your website costs. These aren’t part of the main building process, but they’re still important to think about and plan for.

Scope & Complexity

The size and type of your website makes a big difference in cost. A simple business site with a basic design will be much cheaper than a SaaS site, which needs more advanced coding to work for customers.

The harder the website is to build, the more it costs. Agencies usually estimate this by the number of “development hours” it will take, then give you a price based on that.

Features & Additional Functionalities

Modern websites often need to connect with other tools and have features beyond simple pages. These extras can make your site more powerful, but they also add to the cost and time. In early meetings, it’s good to talk about what features you need, but it’s also normal for new ideas to come up as the project goes on.

A good agency will help you decide which features are most important for launch and which can wait until later, balancing the benefits with the extra cost and time.

Some common add-ons that affect cost include:

• E-commerce: Selling products online with carts, checkout, and payments takes more work and costs more.
• Booking Systems: Helpful for businesses with appointments, but needs setup and testing.
• CRM & Email Integration: Forms that send leads to tools like Salesforce or Mailchimp are valuable but add cost.
• Social Media & Maps: Easy features like feeds or Google Maps are cheap, but custom logins or extras cost more.
• Advanced Apps: Special tools like calculators, data visualisations, or AI chatbots require lots of extra coding.

Hosting/Domain Cost

Hosting and domain names can add extra costs to your website, depending on the type you choose. A VPS (Virtual Private Server) or a dedicated server costs more, but it gives you faster performance, stronger security, and more reliability.

On the other hand, shared hosting is cheaper but not a good choice for big business or eCommerce websites. That’s because it’s harder to scale, can be slower, and may have more downtime, which means your site might not always be available.

Maintenance Updates & Upgrades

WordPress and WooCommerce updates are free, but keeping your website running can still cost money. This is because many plugins (the tools that add features) have fees, especially the paid ones.

Also, if you don’t want to manage the site yourself, you’ll need to pay someone to handle updates and maintenance for you. These support costs should be included in your long-term budget.

Why Do Website Design Costs Vary?

Not all websites are the same. The cost depends on things like creating content, custom design, special features, support after launch, and how experienced the provider is. Some designers may charge less at the start but skip important things like SEO, professional writing, or ongoing help. This can leave you with a site that looks nice but doesn’t really help your business goals.

A Website Shouldn’t Just Look Good. It Should Work.

A good website should:

• Build trust and make your business look reliable
• Turn visitors into customers or leads
• Show your brand clearly and consistently
• Be set up to rank well on Google from the start
• Be easy for people to use and simple for you to update

The agency you hire should take care of all this so you can focus on running your business.

How Much Should You Budget for a Website?

If you want to grow your business online, plan a budget of:

• Around $2,000 for a small business website
• Extra costs if you need more pages or advanced features, depending on how complex they are

A good agency will be clear about costs and focus on building a website that delivers real results, not just one that looks nice.

How a Custom Website Drives More Traffic

Wondering if a custom design is worth it?

If you want more visitors, higher Google rankings, and real business growth, then absolutely, yes!

Here’s why:

Google Loves Custom Websites

If you want people to find your business online, your site needs to show up on Google. Google gives better rankings to websites that are fast, easy to use, and full of good content, which is what custom websites usually provide.

DIY website builders might look good at first, but they often load slowly, have messy code, and don’t rank well on Google. This means competitors with custom websites are more likely to show up before you in search results.

Keeps Visitors On Your Site (And Off Your Competitor’s)

The truth is, people don’t have much patience online. If your website is slow, messy, or hard to use, they’ll probably leave right away and that could mean a lost sale.

A custom website is built to keep visitors interested. It’s easy to use, works smoothly on any device, and guides people toward the next step like booking a service, asking for a quote, or making a purchase in a simple, seamless way.

More Features = More Conversions

With a DIY website, you only get the features the platform offers. But with a custom website, the possibilities are almost endless.

Want a live chat so customers can reach you instantly? Done.
Need an online booking system that links to your calendar? Easy.
Looking for a pricing calculator that gives instant quotes? No problem.

A Stronger Brand Builds Trust

For most customers, your website is the first thing they see about your business. You won’t always see your services the same way they do.

A custom website lets you show your brand exactly how you want professional, trustworthy, and memorable. In fact, studies show that 75% of people judge a company’s credibility by its website design. If you want to build trust and stand out, a custom site isn’t just nice to have, it’s an absolute need.

Why Cheap Websites Cost You More

It might seem like a smart to save money at first, but cheap websites usually come with big problems:

• Bad SEO (people can’t find you)
• Broken features (people don’t trust you)
• Weak design (people don’t reach out)
• No data or tracking (you can’t improve)

Even worse, you’ll probably have to rebuild the whole site in a year or so, costing you more money and slowing your progress.

Pricing Models

The way you choose to pay for website development can change the total cost. The two most common ways are paying by the hour or paying a fixed price.

Here are the main pricing models for building a website:

Hourly Rates

In the hourly rates model, developers charge you for the number of hours they work on your website. The price per hour changes depending on where they are and how skilled they are. For example, in the U.S. and Canada it’s about $100 to $145 per hour, in India and Southeast Asia it can be under $25, and in parts of Europe like Poland it’s usually $50 to $99.

A normal business website can take 200 to 400 hours to build. That means the total cost can range from $10,000 to $60,000, depending on the developer’s location and experience.

Fixed Prices

In a fixed-price model, you pay one set cost for the whole project. This works best when the project is clearly planned out and won’t need many changes.

The price depends on the type of website:

• Basic websites: $3,000 to $10,000
• Corporate websites: $10,000 to $50,000
• Complex web apps: $50,000 to $300,000+

Questions To Ask Your Web Developer/Agency:

Can you provide three recent examples of websites similar to our requirements?:

This question helps check if they have the right experience and lets you see the design, features, and performance of projects like yours.

What results have your clients achieved from their websites?:

Professional providers should show how their work helps a business, using results like more leads, better Google rankings, or higher conversion rates.

Can you provide references from recent clients?:

Talking with recent clients gives you a clear idea of how well the provider communicates, manages projects, and supports the website after launch.

How do you approach mobile optimisation and responsive design?:

This question shows how skilled they are and whether they understand today’s web development needs.

What SEO strategies do you implement during development?:

Professional providers should show strong SEO knowledge, including technical setup, content planning, and tracking performance.

When building a site, technical SEO should include things like meta tags, good URLs, image optimisation, internal links, schema markup, and meeting Core Web Vitals standards.

If you’re moving from an old website, make sure to ask how they’ll protect your current Google rankings, usually by using proper redirects and keeping important content.

How do you ensure website security and ongoing maintenance?:

This question shows if they understand the ongoing needs of a website and if they’re committed to helping clients succeed in the long run.

What is your typical project timeline and what factors might affect it?:

Professional providers should give clear timelines, explain key milestones, and have backup plans in case of delays.

How do you handle project changes and additional requests?:

Knowing how they handle changes helps prevent the project from growing beyond the plan and going over budget.

What ongoing support do you provide after launch?:

Post-launch support is key to a website’s success. Providers should explain what support is included and what options are available for ongoing maintenance and updates.

What is a staging environment, and will we have access to it before launch?

A staging environment is a private test version of your website that you use before it goes live. It lets you check features, review content, and find problems like broken links, layout issues, or form errors in a safe place without affecting real visitors. This step is important to make sure everything works well before launching the site to the public.

Who owns the website and source code after completion?:

It’s important to clearly state who owns the website’s content and design. This prevents arguments later and makes sure you can update or change the site whenever you need.

What happens if you’re unavailable for ongoing support?:

Business continuity planning makes sure you can still run and update your website even if your original provider isn’t around anymore.

Conclusion

In Australia in 2025, the cost of building a website depends on three main things: your unique needs, your business goals, and your budget.

Whether you’re running a small business or creating a large eCommerce store, knowing what affects website costs will help you plan better and spend wisely.

FAQ

Why do I need a website?

A website makes your business look trustworthy, helps people find you on Google, and works like a digital shopfront. It can bring in enquiries, leads, or sales any time of day even while you sleep. Without one, you could be losing a lot of business.

Can I build a website for free?

Yes, you can use free website builders like Wix or WordPress.com, but they have limits like showing ads, not letting you use your own domain name, and only offering simple designs. If you want a professional look and to grow your business, you’ll need to invest in a paid option eventually.

Is it worth having a website for a small business?

Absolutely. A small business website makes you look more professional, helps you compete with bigger companies, and brings in more local customers. It’s a key part of your online marketing and helps build long-term trust in your brand.

Do I need a website if I have a landing page?

A landing page is good for one campaign or special offer, but it won’t work long term. A full website helps you show up on Google, highlight your services, and grow your business over time.

How much does it cost to design a website?

The cost of a website depends on its size, features, and who builds it. A simple site might start at $2,000, while a custom WordPress or eCommerce site with more features can range from $10,000 to $25,000 or more. Don’t forget to include design, development, and content creation in your budget.

How long does it take to build a website?

Most websites take about 4 to 8 weeks to build. A small site with just a few pages can be finished faster, while a custom site with lots of features may take longer, especially if content or feedback is slow to come in.

Do website design costs include SEO?

Most web design packages come with basic SEO features like mobile-friendly design, fast loading, and clean code. But full SEO services like keyword research, on-page optimisation, and content planning are usually offered separately.

What are the ongoing costs of a website?

Besides design and development, you’ll also need to budget for hosting, domain renewals, plugin updates, security, and ongoing maintenance. These costs can range from about $50 a month for basic support to $2,000 a month for full-service agency support.

Is it cheaper to build a website by myself?

It can work if you have the technical skills. But DIY websites usually don’t look or perform as well as professional ones, and fixing mistakes later can end up costing more than hiring a pro from the start.