DIY builders, freelancers, agencies, and subscription models — real numbers, so you know what you're actually comparing.
| Option | Cost | What's included |
|---|---|---|
| DIY builder | $15–$45/mo | Plus 15–30 hours of your own time |
| Freelancer | $800–$3,000 | Upfront, rarely includes ongoing support |
| Agency | $3,000–$8,000+ | Upfront, sometimes plus a retainer |
| Subscription | $0 build | Then $99–$250/mo, nothing owed until live |
A basic DIY build on Wix or Squarespace runs $15–$45 a month plus your own time. A freelancer typically charges $800–$3,000 upfront with no ongoing support built in. A traditional agency runs $3,000–$8,000+ upfront, sometimes with a maintenance retainer on top. Subscription models — where the build is free and you pay monthly for hosting, updates, and upkeep — usually land between $99 and $250 a month, with nothing owed until the site is live. That last model is how we build every website for tradies we take on.
Wix and Squarespace advertise plans from roughly $15 to $45 a month, and that's a fair price for the software. What doesn't show up on the pricing page is the time. Building a site that reads well, loads fast, and actually converts calls takes most people 15–30 hours if they've never done it before — copywriting, layout, mobile testing, connecting a domain, setting up basic SEO. For a tradie running a business full-time, that's a weekend or three you're not getting back, and the result still needs someone with design sense behind it to look right.
Freelance web designers in Australia commonly quote somewhere between $800 and $3,000 for a small business site, depending on experience and scope. The upfront number can look attractive next to an agency quote, but check what happens after handover. Most freelance arrangements don't include ongoing hosting, security patching, or ongoing content updates — that's usually a separate conversation, and a separate invoice, six months down the track when you need to change your phone number or add a new service.
Traditional agencies building a custom small business site usually start around $3,000 and can run past $8,000 once you add copywriting, photography, and a content management system. Some bundle in a monthly maintenance retainer on top of the build fee — worth asking about upfront, because it changes the real first-year cost significantly. Agency pricing generally reflects a bigger team and a bigger process, which is genuinely useful for a business with complex needs, but it's often more than a five-page trade business site requires.
A website quote rarely covers everything you'll actually need in the first year. Here's what tends to show up as a separate cost later, whichever route you go:
None of this makes the upfront quote dishonest — it's just rarely itemised. Worth asking for the full first-year number, not just the build price, before you compare options.
The model we run — and the one a growing number of local web design businesses use — flips the order: the build itself is free, and you pay a monthly fee once the site is live and you've approved it. On our Free Range Care Plan, that's $199 a month, covering hosting, unlimited content updates, security, and ongoing upkeep, with no setup fee and nothing charged until you sign off on the finished site. Over a year that's $2,388 — less than most agency quotes, spread out, with updates included rather than billed separately every time something changes. If you ever want to take the code and host it elsewhere, that's a flat $1,800 buyout, any time. That $199 already covers everything in the list above — hosting, security, and ongoing edits included, not billed separately as they come up.
The cost conversation plays out slightly differently depending on the trade. An electrician competing on emergency call-outs needs a site that loads fast and gets a phone number in front of someone within seconds — that's a different priority to a business selling a considered, high-ticket renovation. If you're in a regional market, our Ballarat web design page covers what local competition looks like specifically. Worth reading the trade-specific page for your industry before comparing quotes, since "a website" means different things depending on what you're trying to get out of it.
Sticker price tells you almost nothing on its own. Ask what happens in month three when you need to add a new service area, or month eight when the site needs a security update. Ask who owns the domain. Ask what "unlimited updates" actually means in practice. Those answers matter more than the number on the invoice.
Free to build, no lock-in, and you see the whole thing before you pay a cent.