How Much Does a Website Cost in Canberra?

A $475 page and a $5,500 package aren't the same product at different margins. The studio package includes written content and a year of hosting, so you're buying a copywriter and a host along with the build. The $475 and $950 builds exclude hosting, a domain and an SSL certificate, and maintenance is charged at $75 an hour. Put all of that in before comparing.

A fair way to line quotes up is to ask each provider for the same three numbers: the build price, the cost of the first year, and the cost of each year after. Then note who supplies the words. With us the build is $399, $899 or $1,499, hosting is $30 a month after launch, and the domain is about $20 a year in your name. We don't write copy: you send the words, and we arrange them into pages. For a consultancy that already has a capability statement, or a practice with fees and service descriptions on file, that material is usually most of the way there.

A subscription spreads the cost. The Canberra service at $147 a month has no build fee and a six-month minimum, after which it runs month to month; it covers design, hosting, backups, security monitoring and content changes. That suits a business that would rather not find a lump sum at the start. Here's how it adds up over three years next to our prices:

The subscription page doesn't say whether GST is added, or whether you keep the site's files and design if you cancel; it says only that you own your domain. Ask both questions before signing any monthly plan. With us, the design and files are yours once the site is paid for, our $30 hosting has no contract, and if you leave we give you a copy of the files. Our guide to monthly plans versus paying upfront goes through the trade-offs in more detail.

A higher local quote is the right one in plenty of cases. Choose a studio that offers the extra work if:

• you need the words written for you, which the $5,500 studio package includes and we don't offer;
• you want professional photography of your team or premises, which we don't take on;
• a contract requires an independent accessibility audit or a formal conformance report;
• the site has to connect member logins, a CRM or several systems, which the cost guide prices at $15,000–$40,000 for an integrated site;
• you want face-to-face workshops in Canberra, or ongoing SEO and advertising managed for you.

For a trade, clinic, cafe or small consultancy that needs a clear site setting out its services, credentials and contact details, most of that goes beyond the job.

To be upfront, we don't have clients in the ACT yet. Our current clients are in South Australia, New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland. Two of them show the kind of site professional firms in Canberra often need. Resolve Forward, a family law dispute resolution practice in Sydney, has six service pages, priced packages linked to online booking and a five-step intake form. Simple Engineers, structural engineers in Adelaide, have a quote form that shows fee ranges and takes file uploads. Both are in our portfolio.

Everything runs by phone and email from Ste 3/110 Hutt St, Adelaide. Canberra and Adelaide change their clocks on the same days, so Canberra is half an hour ahead all year. You get a draft link to check when it suits you and send changes until you're happy. Resolve Forward wrote in their Google review that we “made every requested change promptly and without hesitation.” You pay once you approve the draft, and owe nothing if you don't go ahead.