How Much Does a Website Cost in Melbourne?

Website Pricing Ranges by Type

The honest 2026 ranges for Melbourne web design:

• Brochure / small business website (5–15 pages): $4,000–$15,000. Standard service pages, contact, about, basic SEO. Most Melbourne SMB sites land here.
• Mid-market service business site (15–40 pages): $10,000–$30,000. Custom design, multiple service tiers, location pages, blog, basic integrations (booking, CRM).
• Larger content programmes (50+ pages): $20,000–$60,000. Complex information architecture, multiple templates, content production included, integrations.
• Ecommerce (Shopify, customised): $8,000–$30,000 for theme-based builds. $25,000–$100,000+ for custom storefronts or headless setups.
• Web applications / SaaS marketing sites: $20,000–$100,000+. Custom design, brand systems, complex integrations.
• Enterprise corporate sites: $50,000–$300,000+. Multiple stakeholders, content strategy, accessibility audit, multi-language, complex governance.

Template vs Custom Design — What's the Difference?

Template-based sites use a pre-built theme (WordPress theme, Squarespace template, Shopify theme) and customise it with the client's content and branding. Cheap, fast, limited differentiation. Most "$3,000 websites" are template-based.

Custom design starts from a blank canvas, designed around the client's brand and conversion goals. More expensive, more time-intensive, materially better outcomes when the brand is the differentiator.

The right answer depends on context. A solo plumber probably doesn't need custom design; a $5M B2B services firm probably does. The mistake most businesses make is paying custom prices for template work, or template prices for what turns out to need custom design.

What Should Be Included in a Website Quote

A proper website quote should explicitly cover:

• Discovery and strategy phase. Including stakeholder interviews, audience definition, content audit, sitemap.
• Information architecture and wireframes. The structural step before design.
• Design rounds. Usually 2 rounds of revision; additional rounds extra.
• Development. Build on the agreed tech stack (WordPress, Astro, Webflow, Shopify).
• Content migration. If replacing an existing site, who's writing the new content, who's migrating the old, what happens to URLs.
• SEO setup. Title tags, meta descriptions, schema markup, sitemap, robots.txt, Google Search Console submission.
• Analytics. Google Analytics, Tag Manager, conversion tracking.
• Hosting and SSL. Often bundled; sometimes separate.
• Training. For your team to maintain content.
• Post-launch support window. 30, 60, or 90 days of free fixes after launch.

Quotes missing any of these usually have hidden costs that surface as change orders during the project.

Ongoing Costs (Hosting, Maintenance, Updates, Security)

The real cost of website ownership over 3–5 years:

• Hosting: $20–$500/month depending on platform and traffic.
• SSL certificate: Usually free (Let's Encrypt) or included.
• Domain renewal: $20–$50/year.
• WordPress maintenance: $200–$1,500/month for managed WordPress support. Plugin updates, core updates, security patches, backups, uptime monitoring.
• Astro / Netlify maintenance: Substantially lower than WordPress. Often included in retainer at $0–$500/month for typical sites.
• Content updates: $50–$200/hour for content edits, new sections, ongoing tweaks. Often included in retainers.

Over 3 years, WordPress total cost of ownership often equals or exceeds the original build cost. For comparison see our WordPress alternatives guide.

Red Flags in Web Design Pricing

• Suspiciously cheap quotes ($1,000–$2,000 for a "full site"). Templates, offshore, or both.
• No discovery phase. If they can quote a price without understanding your business, they're selling a template.
• Vague deliverables. "A website" isn't a deliverable. Specific page counts, specific revision rounds, specific support windows.
• No mention of SEO or analytics. Means it's not in scope. You'll pay extra later.
• Vague hosting terms. "Hosting included" should specify for how long and what tier.
• 12-month lock-in for maintenance. Confident agencies don't need lock-ins.
• You don't own the site. Some agencies host on systems where you can't take the site elsewhere. Confirm portability before signing.

What Digital Deluxe Charges and Why

We size projects to scope, not to extract retainer maximums. Most Melbourne SMB Astro sites we build run $8,000–$20,000 fully-loaded (design, build, content migration, SEO setup, launch). Larger projects scale up from there. Ongoing maintenance for Astro sites is typically lower than WordPress because the stack needs less continuous attention. For the full service description see our web design Melbourne service page.