In short: in Melbourne in 2026, a simple one-page website typically runs $1,000 to $2,500, a small business brochure site of four to six pages runs $1,800 to $5,000, and an online store starts around $2,500 and climbs from there. The number is driven by three things: how many pages, whether you are selling online, and how custom the design is. On top of the build you pay roughly $20 to $60 a year for a domain and, for most small sites, $0 to $40 a month for hosting. Agencies charging $8,000 and up are usually pricing a team and an office, not better work. This piece breaks down where the money actually goes so you can tell a fair quote from a padded one.
It is the most common question I get, and the most badly answered one online, because the honest answer is "it depends" and nobody likes hearing that. So let me make "it depends" useful by showing you exactly what it depends on.
What does a basic website cost in Melbourne?
For a single, well-built landing page that shows your work and captures an enquiry, expect somewhere between $1,000 and $2,500 in Melbourne. At The Quiet Engine, a website or portfolio site starts at $1,800 AUD, one-time, whether the content works best as one focused page or a small brochure site.
If you have been searching "website design Melbourne price" or "website design Melbourne cost" and getting either silence or a vague "contact us for a quote", that range is the honest starting answer for a simple site, before anyone has even looked at your project.
That range assumes a real, custom page: your branding, your photos, fast load, proper titles so Google can find it. It does not mean a free template with someone else's logo in the footer. You can absolutely build that yourself on a DIY platform for the cost of a subscription, and for some people that is the right call. The gap between DIY and a professional build is the difference between doing it yourself and having one person handle the structure, design, performance and search setup so the site can actually bring in work.
What about a small business website with several pages?
A brochure site of four to six pages (home, about, services, work, contact) is the most common small business build. In Melbourne it typically lands between $1,800 and $5,000 depending on who you hire.
A solo studio like mine starts a build like this at $1,800. A mid-size agency will often quote $4,000 to $7,000 for the same scope. The work is not three times better. You are paying for account managers, designers, developers and an office, all of whom need to be fed by your invoice. For most makers, shops and small businesses, a one-person build covers the same ground for a fraction of the cost. The trade-off is that a solo builder takes fewer clients at once, so timing matters.
How much does an e-commerce or Shopify website cost?
The moment you sell products online, the price steps up, because there is simply more to build: a catalogue, a checkout, shipping rules, tax settings, product pages that have to both rank and convert.
A Shopify store starts around $2,500 for a clean build and rises with the number of products, custom sections, and anything B2B like wholesale or dealer pricing. A large or heavily customised store can run well past $10,000 at an agency. Remember that Shopify also charges you their own monthly plan, which is yours and starts around $40 AUD a month, separate from whatever you pay the person building it.
What actually moves the price?
Strip away the jargon and a website quote comes down to four levers:
- Number of pages. One page is cheap. Twenty pages is not. Each page is content, layout and testing.
- Selling online or not. A store is a different animal from a brochure site. Checkout, inventory and tax all add real work.
- How custom the design is. A site built on your brand from scratch costs more than one dropped into a template. Whether that is worth it depends on how much your look sets you apart.
- Who you hire. A solo builder, a small studio and a large agency can quote the same project at wildly different numbers for similar output. More expensive does not reliably mean better.
If a quote is high, ask which of these four it is paying for. If the answer is "a bigger team," decide whether you actually need one.
The ongoing costs nobody mentions
The build is a one-time number. Running a website has a few small recurring costs, and an honest builder tells you about them up front:
- Domain name: roughly $20 to $60 a year for a .com.au or .au.
- Hosting: $0 to $40 a month for most small sites. A simple site on modern hosting can genuinely cost nothing to host. A Shopify store pays Shopify's monthly plan instead.
- Email at your domain: around $10 a month if you want a professional address, or free with some setups.
- Maintenance: optional. A well-built site does not need a forced monthly retainer. Be wary of anyone who insists on one from day one.
The big trap here is the "monthly website fee" that bundles hosting, vague maintenance and a slice of pure profit into one recurring charge that quietly never ends. Over three years that can cost more than the build did. You can almost always own everything outright instead.
Why are some quotes $8,000 and others under $2,000?
Same three-page site, two very different numbers. Usually it comes down to overheads, not quality. A larger agency carries staff, an office and sales costs, and that gets distributed across every quote. A solo builder carries none of that, so the same work costs less.
That does not make agencies a rip-off. For a large company that needs a big team and lots of hand-holding, an agency makes sense. But a Melbourne maker or small shop is paying for capacity they will never use. The question to ask is not "who is cheapest" but "who is the right size for what I actually need."
How to not overpay
A few honest filters:
- Ask what you own at the end. The answer should be everything: the code, the domain, the hosting account, the analytics. If the builder keeps the keys, walk away.
- Get the quote fixed and in writing before work starts. Scope creep is where vague quotes balloon. A fixed number after a short scoping call protects you.
- Match the build to your stage. Do not buy a twelve-page custom build when a sharp landing page would carry you for two years. Skipping ahead rarely pays off.
- Watch for forced retainers. One-time work that you own beats a subscription you cannot easily leave.
- Remember findability is part of the cost. A cheap site nobody can find is not cheap, it is wasted. Local SEO and a Google Business Profile are part of what makes a site earn its price.
So what should you budget?
If you are a maker, artist, studio or small shop in Melbourne, a realistic 2026 starting point at The Quiet Engine is $1,800 AUD for a website or portfolio site and $2,500 AUD for an online store, plus the relevant running costs. Anything dramatically above that should come with a clear reason you can point to.
If you want a straight read on your specific project, see how we can work together or tell me what you are building. I will come back with a fixed quote in writing, in plain language, within a day. No sales call, no padded number.