Featured image: Photo by Christopher Gower on Unsplash.
A website in Melbourne in 2026 costs what you actually buy. We publish floors so you can stop comparing a $500 template to a $15,000 CBD brochure: landing pages from $1,100, business sites from $3,300, ecommerce from $7,000. Those are the figures on our web design page.
GST in Australia is 10%. The web design floors are not labelled inclusive or exclusive; every quote we issue will say which. If the published floor is exclusive, the GST-inclusive equivalents are $1,210, $3,630 and $7,700.
We only build custom WordPress and Shopify. We do not use Wix or Squarespace. The site is built so SEO and Google Ads can run on it in-house — not as a brochure another agency has to unpick.
TL;DR
- Our 2026 floors: landing from $1,100, business WordPress from $3,300, Shopify or WooCommerce from $7,000. GST is 10%; confirm exclusive vs inclusive on the quote.
- Typical Melbourne market (not our packages): DIY under ~$2,000; professional small-business ~$2,500–$8,000; custom/ecommerce $8,000–$30,000+. Hosting/maintenance often $50–$300/month.
- Landing = campaign page, forms, analytics, domain and hosting setup. Business = customised WordPress theme, Search Console, initial SEO, images, CDN. Ecommerce adds Shopify or Woo, Merchant Center, payments, inventory, sales channels.
- B2B wholesale (GST-exclusive pricing, pallet shipping, trade logins) is scoped from the ecommerce floor — not a shop with a password.
- Year-1 cost is the build plus domain, AU hosting, maintenance, and (if you sell or advertise) Merchant Center, Ads landers and SEO.
- In-house Australian team, Docklands. You own the site. No builder lock-in.
What a website costs in Melbourne in 2026
Typical 2026 Melbourne market bands, then our published floors.
| Type | Typical market (AUD) | Design Box floor | Inc GST if exclusive | Who it’s for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DIY (Wix, Squarespace) | Under ~$2,000 | We don’t build these | — | Testing an idea. You do the work. |
| Landing page | Often sold as a “cheap website” | From $1,100 | $1,210 | One offer, one action: campaign, service, waitlist. |
| Business WordPress | Professional small-business ~$2,500–$8,000 | From $3,300 | $3,630 | Melbourne SMEs that need pages Google can rank. |
| Shopify or Woo ecommerce | Custom/ecommerce $8,000–$30,000+ | From $7,000 | $7,700 | Catalogue, payments, inventory, Merchant Center, channels. |
| B2B / wholesale portal | Rarely published | Quoted from $7,000 | GST on the quote | Wholesalers: GST-exclusive, pallet vs satchel, tiered pricing. |
“From” is a floor, not a ceiling. A five-page plumber’s site and a wholesale portal are not the same job. If a quote sits under the floor, something below is missing.
What’s inside each Design Box package (and what is not)
These are the inclusions we publish. If a line is not on the list, do not assume it is free.
Landing pages — from $1,100
One job: collect the lead, take the booking, or send the click to one offer.
- Fast and responsive
- Custom contact forms
- Domain and hosting setup
- Google Analytics integration
Not in the floor: a multi-page sitemap, a customised WordPress theme, Search Console, Shopify/Woo, Merchant Center, or an SEO retainer. Ads-specific variants (one page per campaign) are extra pages.
Business sites — from $3,300
The floor for a real WordPress business site. Everything in the landing package, plus:
- Customised WordPress theme
- Google Search Console set up
- Initial SEO
- Optimised images
- CDN integration
Not in the floor: an ongoing SEO retainer (typically $1,500–$5,000+/month — see our SEO pricing write-up), Google Ads management, photography, or a copywriting programme unless we quote it. Supply service copy and images, or pay to have them written. Hosting setup is included; the monthly server bill is not.
Initial SEO is the foundation: titles, structure, Search Console, images, a stack that can rank. It is not twelve months of content and links.
Ecommerce — from $7,000 (Shopify or WooCommerce)
Everything in the business package, plus:
- Shopify or WooCommerce
- Customer automations
- Google Merchant Center set up
- Sales channels set up
- Payment gateway integration
- Inventory management
Not in the floor: Shopify’s monthly subscription and transaction fees; payment-gateway merchant fees; product photography; B2B price-list logic. Merchant Center is a free Google product — we configure it. Shopping ads that use it are a media budget, which we can manage in-house.
Shopify if you want a hosted store and channels without babysitting servers. WooCommerce if you already live in WordPress, need unusual logic, or want to own the stack. Both are in-house. We do not talk WordPress down to sell another platform.
B2B wholesale — quoted from the ecommerce floor
A shop with a password is not a wholesale portal. Melbourne distributors need GST-exclusive pricing for logged-in trade, GST-inclusive for retail, pallet rates versus satchels, tiered and contract pricing, quick-order grids, CSV uploads, pay-on-account, and often Xero, MYOB or inventory sync.
That work is B2B WooCommerce web design. The $7,000 ecommerce floor is the starting line; wholesale logic is scoped. A $7,000 theme does not do pallet shipping and gold-partner pricing on its own.
Melbourne vs a $500 website vs a $15k CBD agency
Three common quotes. They are not the same product.
The $500–$1,500 “website”. A builder template, or a theme with a logo swap. Fine for a URL on a van. A poor place to run Ads, a poor place to rank (Core Web Vitals and INP are an afterthought), and a poor handoff to an SEO agency later. We refuse Wix and Squarespace for that reason — leaving them is a rebuild.
Our floors. A landing page you can advertise. WordPress with Search Console, initial SEO, a CDN and images that load on a phone. Ecommerce with payments, inventory and Merchant Center connected. Built in Melbourne by the same team that can run SEO and Ads on it. Twenty years, in-house, never offshore.
The $15,000–$30,000 CBD build. Justified when you need unique templates, a client portal, heavy integrations or a national catalogue. Wasteful when it is process overhead on a ten-page site. If the job is “get found and take enquiries,” paying CBD rates for a brochure we then have to make indexable is how you pay twice. Complex B2B or catalogue work we will quote as work — not a discount-theatre number.
The useful test is whether the site can be marketed without being rebuilt. NC Fitness Gear came to us with a slow WooCommerce store, high bounce and expensive ads. After technical SEO and Ads work, bounce moved from over 50% to under 3%, and they rank in the top positions in Australia for gym-equipment phrases. Kollab started with one ranking page; that is now 450+ first-page results, with organic traffic up over 100% year on year. Those results sat on sites that could take the work. A $500 template does not.
Hidden year-1 costs (the build is not the bill)
Plan for twelve months, not the design invoice.
| Cost | What it is | Ballpark (AUD) |
|---|---|---|
| Domain (.com.au / .com) | In your name. We can set it up; we should not own it. | Typical market ~$15–$40/year |
| Australian hosting | WordPress/Woo need a server. Our cPanel plans: $20 / $44 / $60 / $184 per month. Shopify hosting sits in Shopify’s subscription. | Our hosting $20–$184/mo; Melbourne hosting/maintenance often $50–$300/mo all-in |
| SSL | HTTPS. Usually included with hosting or Shopify. | Often $0 |
| Maintenance | WordPress core, plugins, backups, security. Shopify patches the platform; apps still break. | Typical market $50–$300/mo |
| Google Merchant Center | Needed for Shopping ads. Setup is in our ecommerce package; the Google account is free. | Setup included from $7,000; ads budget separate |
| Extra Ads landing pages | Campaign pages beyond the main sitemap. | Quoted per page (landing floor from $1,100) |
| SEO | Initial SEO is in the business/ecommerce floors. Rankings are a campaign. | Retainers typically $1,500–$5,000+/month |
| Platform fees | Shopify subscription and transaction fees; gateways; premium plugins/apps. | Vendor’s price list, not ours |
Illustrative year-1 (not a quote). A business WordPress site at the $3,300 floor, Economy-to-Premium hosting ($240–$528), a $30 domain, and a modest care plan in the $50–$150/month market band is roughly $4,200–$5,700 before GST and before SEO or Ads. A $1,500/month SEO retainer is a growth budget, not a website tax.
Ecommerce year-1 adds Shopify or Woo plugin costs, merchant fees, and a Shopping budget if you advertise products. B2B adds ERP/inventory work if orders should hit Xero instead of a shared inbox.
Domain setup and Australian hosting setup are in the package; renewals are yours. That is the opposite of “hosting included” with the files locked on our server.
How to compare quotes
Ask every provider the same list. If the answer is vague, the cheap quote is incomplete.
- 301 redirects. Replacing a live site means every URL is mapped. No redirects = rankings and Ads land on 404s.
- Google Search Console. Who verifies it, in whose account? Business and ecommerce packages include set-up. You should own the property.
- GA4. Analytics from day one, in an account you control — not a shared agency login you lose when you leave.
- Ownership. CMS admin, theme/code, domain registrar, hosting, Search Console, GA4, Merchant Center, Shopify owner access. If any of those stay in the agency’s name, you are renting.
- No lock-in. Move host, change SEO, take the site elsewhere. We do not hold WordPress files hostage. Shopify is yours once you are the store owner.
- Core Web Vitals and INP. Interaction to Next Paint is the responsiveness metric Google uses. A site that looks done but janks on “Add to cart” is a bounce machine. Theme-bloated WordPress and app-heavy Shopify fail this quietly.
- What’s excluded. Copy, photography, product upload, redirects, staging, training, post-launch bug window. If it is not a line item, it is a change request.
Also ask who will market it. A design studio that does not run SEO or Ads will hand you a site that looks finished and is not. We would rather build tracking, Search Console, Merchant Center and landing structure while the theme is open.
WordPress vs Shopify vs Wix / Squarespace
We refuse website builders. Wix and Squarespace are fine for a hobby. They are a poor CMS for technical SEO, a poor place to hang a wholesale price list, and a migration project when you outgrow them. Paying a Melbourne agency to “customise” a builder is how you fund a rebuild.
WordPress is the business-site default; WooCommerce if the catalogue or B2B logic belongs next to the content. You own the files. Hosting is yours (our Australian cPanel from $20/month). You handle updates — or you pay someone. Flexibility is the point: bookings, lead funnels, blogs, GST-exclusive wholesale, ERP sync.
Shopify is the store default when you want Shopify’s checkout, apps and sales channels without running the server. We use Shopify 2.0 themes and only light apps that do not wreck INP. You pay Shopify every month; that is the trade for not patching PHP.
We will tell you which one. We will not install both “to be safe,” and we will not put a serious lead-gen business on a builder because the monthly fee looked small.
FAQ
How much does a website cost in Melbourne in 2026?
Typical market: DIY under ~$2,000; professional small-business ~$2,500–$8,000; custom and ecommerce $8,000–$30,000+. Our published floors are $1,100 / $3,300 / $7,000 for landing, business WordPress, and Shopify or WooCommerce ecommerce. B2B is quoted from the ecommerce floor. GST is 10%.
Do those prices include GST?
GST is 10%. The floors on the web design page are not marked inc or ex. Treat the GST-inclusive figures as $1,210 / $3,630 / $7,700 if the floor is exclusive, and get the treatment in writing on your quote. For comparison, our SEO audit is normally $3,300 inc GST — that one is labelled.
Can I start with a $1,100 landing page?
Yes, if you have one offer and a way to send people there (Ads, email, a QR code). It is not a substitute for a business site you want ranking for ten services. We can grow a WordPress install later; we cannot pretend a one-pager is a sitemap.
Who owns the website?
You do. Domain in your registrar account, portable hosting, WordPress admin or Shopify store-owner access, GA4 and Search Console under your Google login. If a quote will not say that, walk.
Do you build on Wix or Squarespace?
No. Custom WordPress and Shopify only.
What does hosting cost with you?
Published cPanel: $20, $44, $60 and $184 per month, Australian-hosted. Shopify stores pay Shopify for the platform. WordPress maintenance is separate — typical Melbourne market $50–$300/month if you want updates and backups done for you.
Should I pay for SEO when the site launches?
Initial SEO is in the business and ecommerce floors. If you need to rank, budget a retainer in the $1,500–$5,000+ range we publish. Putting Ads on a slow, unmeasured site is how you buy bounce. We would rather fix INP and tracking first.
Can you also run Google Ads?
Yes. Same team, Docklands. The site is built with campaign landers, GA4 and (for product businesses) Merchant Center in mind, so Ads is not a second agency’s problem.
Get a quote
If you want a number that matches a sitemap — not a market band — talk to us.
Call 03 9067 5679 (or 1300 322 971), or use the form on our web design page. Tell us landing, business, ecommerce or B2B. We will tell you which floor you are on, what GST looks like on the quote, and what year-1 hosting and marketing actually add.
Design Box Digital, Level 10, 611 Flinders Street, Docklands. WordPress and Shopify. In-house. No $500 surprises.
