Who Builds Websites for Sole Traders in Australia, and What Does It Cost?

If you are a sole trader in Australia, three kinds of provider will get you a professional website: a do-it-yourself website builder such as Squarespace or Wix, a freelance web designer, or a small studio that builds the site and then hosts and maintains it for you. None of them is the right answer for everyone. The choice comes down to how much of your own time you can spare, how much you want to spend upfront, and who you want to call when something breaks.

You are not a niche customer. The Australian Bureau of Statistics counted 848,300 sole proprietors among 2,814,778 actively trading businesses at 30 June 2026. Plenty of people build websites for businesses of one. The harder part is telling which offer suits a business your size.

What a sole trader's website needs to do

A sole trader's website has a smaller job than most pricing pages assume. The government's own guide, business.gov.au's "Set up a business website", says a good website "makes you look more professional", "makes it easy for customers to find and contact you" and "promotes your products or services". For most one-person service businesses, that is the whole brief.

In practice, that means:

• What you do and where you do it, in the words a customer would type into Google.
• A phone number and a contact or quote form that are impossible to miss on a phone.
• Proof: photos of real work, a few reviews, your licence or registration number if your trade has one.
• Your ABN and business name, so people can see who they are dealing with.
• A page for each main service, once you have more than one or two.

That is one to five pages. You do not need a blog, an online shop or a booking system on day one unless your business runs on them. Each can be added later, and each adds cost now.

The three options

1. Build it yourself on a website builder

A website builder gives you templates, hosting and an editor for a monthly subscription. You choose a template, write the words, add the photos and press publish.

Squarespace's Australian pricing page lists four plans. Basic is A$17 or A$24 a month and Core, the one it labels "Recommended", is A$28 or A$39 a month, depending on whether you pay annually or monthly. Wix has a free plan, and its plans page showed its entry-level paid plan, Light, at $17.77 a month on a yearly subscription when we checked in November 2026, with a note that prices and currency vary by location. At A$24 a month, a builder costs A$288 a year.

The subscription is the cheap part. The real cost is your time: choosing a layout, writing every page, sizing photos, connecting the domain name and working out why the site is not showing up on Google. A builder suits you if you are comfortable with that, your needs are simple and your budget is tight. Our guide to the best website builders for small business in Australia compares the main platforms.

2. Hire a freelancer

A freelance designer or developer builds the site for a one-off fee, often on WordPress or on one of the builders above. You get a result shaped around your business without doing the work yourself.

Freelancers publish prices less often than builders do, and their quotes vary widely with experience and scope, so we will not put a number on it here. Get two or three written quotes for the same list of pages and compare what each one includes.

The thing to settle before you start is what happens after launch. A freelancer is one person. Ask who hosts the site, who applies security updates, how changes are charged, and what happens if they take a full-time job next year.

3. Use a studio that builds it and looks after it

The third option is a small agency or studio that designs and builds the site, then hosts, updates and changes it for a monthly fee. You pay more than a builder subscription. In return, the website stops being your job.

This is the model we use, so treat what follows as our own pricing rather than a market average. ComKey's custom websites start at $950 plus GST, and the price rises with the number of pages and extras such as a booking calendar or online shop. Our Essential care plan is $92 plus GST a month and covers managed hosting in Australian data centres, software and security updates, and three minor revisions a month. The packages page lists every plan, and the website cost guide explains what moves the price.

Other studios price differently. Some charge nothing upfront and a higher monthly fee on a fixed contract. That can suit your cash flow, but check who owns the website when the contract ends.

What each option costs, side by side

What to have ready before you ask for a quote

Whichever way you go, the build is quicker and cheaper if the basics are sorted first.

Your ABN

You will want one before you buy a .com.au domain name. Applying costs nothing: business.gov.au says "It's free to register for an ABN through the Australian Government's Australian Business Register (ABR)."

Your business name

ASIC says you must register a business name unless you are "operating as an individual sole trader under your first name and surname". So Jane Citizen can trade as Jane Citizen without registering anything, but "Citizen Plumbing" needs a registration. business.gov.au lists the ASIC fee as $47 for one year or $108 for three years. Settle the name before the website is designed around it.

Your domain name

auDA, which administers .au domain names, says the most common way to qualify for a .com.au is "by having an active ABN or ACN". The shorter .au direct names are open to "anyone with a validated connection to Australia", and auDA says you do not need an ABN or ACN for one. Register the name in your own name, with your own email address, even if someone else does the paperwork. Our guide to what a domain name costs in Australia covers prices and renewals.

Your content

Have a short description of each service, the suburbs or regions you cover, ten or so good photos of your work, and two or three reviews you have permission to use. In our experience, missing content delays more small websites than anything technical does.

Seven questions to ask before you pay anyone

1. Who owns the website and the domain name? The answer should be you, in writing.
2. What is the total for the first year, including GST? Add the build, hosting, domain name, email and any licences.
3. What does it cost in year two? Introductory prices end.
4. Is there a minimum term? If so, ask what it costs to leave early.
5. How do I get changes made, and what do they cost? A phone number that changes or a new service should not be a project.
6. Can I move the site somewhere else? A site on a builder generally stays on that builder. Ask what you could take with you.
7. Who do I contact when it is down? Get a name and a way to reach them.

A provider who answers all seven plainly is worth shortlisting. One who avoids the first is not.

Which one to choose

• Choose a website builder if you have more time than money right now and are happy to learn as you go.
• Choose a freelancer if you have found one whose work you like and you have a clear agreement about hosting and updates after launch.
• Choose a studio with a care plan if the website needs to bring in enquiries and you would rather spend your hours on paid work.

If you start with a builder and outgrow it, nothing is wasted. The words, photos and reviews you gathered are the hard part, and they carry over to whatever comes next. Our small business website design page shows what a custom build includes, and tradies will find examples on the tradie and builder websites page.