How much does a website
cost in Brisbane?

Short answer: a professional small-business website costs anywhere from a few hundred dollars a year for a DIY builder plan to several thousand dollars for a custom-built site, depending on how much design, content and integration work it needs. Automated Australia's Brisbane-built sites are fixed-price and published: $1,499 once for a five-page Premium build, or $2,499 once for an eight-page Bespoke build with a dominant hero experience. Both include SEO and accessibility checks before handover, plus 30 days of defect fixes.

What actually moves the price up or down?

Two websites can look similar and cost very different amounts. The gap almost always comes down to a handful of factors, and any studio quoting you should be able to explain each one plainly.

Number of pages and content volume

A five-page site with a home, about, services, gallery and contact page is a much smaller job than a site with a dozen service pages, a blog and a resource library. More pages mean more layout decisions, more copy to write or edit, and more content to check before launch. Page count alone is one of the first questions any honest quote should ask, because it changes both the design time and the amount of content someone has to produce or review.

It is also worth asking what happens if the page count grows mid-project. A scope that only covers five pages but ends up needing eight is a common way a "fixed price" quietly becomes a moving target. A clear, written scope agreed before work starts protects both sides from that drift.

Custom design vs. a proven template

A site built from a proven layout, with brand colours, your content and your imagery dropped into a structure that already works, is faster and cheaper to build well than a site designed from a blank canvas with an original hero composition, individually designed sections and a custom page flow. Neither approach is inherently better. It depends on whether your business needs to stand out with something nobody else has, or needs a polished, reliable presence quickly and affordably.

Be wary of a quote that calls a template a custom build, or a custom build that is really just a template with your logo swapped in. Ask directly whether the layout is unique to your business or shared with other clients in your industry.

Integrations (booking systems, CRM, payments)

A simple enquiry form is a small, well-understood piece of work. Wiring a site into a booking calendar, a CRM, a payment gateway or a quoting tool is a different job again. It touches another system's API, needs testing against real data, and usually needs ongoing maintenance as that other system changes over time. Any quote that does not ask what you need connected is guessing at your price, not calculating it.

Ongoing hosting, updates and support

The build price is only half the picture. A website needs hosting, a domain, security updates and, realistically, someone to make small changes after launch: a new price, a new team photo, a seasonal offer. Ask what happens in month two, not just what happens on launch day, and get that ongoing cost in writing before you sign anything.

What does Automated Australia charge in Brisbane?

Two tiers, both fixed prices published on our pricing page, both AUD and ex GST for the agreed base delivery. There is no request-a-quote wall between you and the real number.

Choose Premium for established layouts, clear service information and a straightforward enquiry path. Choose Bespoke when the brief needs an original hero composition, individually designed sections or a custom page flow. More pages alone do not make a site Bespoke, and a booking integration alone is an addition rather than a tier upgrade.

Starting prices cover the agreed base delivery. Extra pages, additional revisions, new content, integrations and work outside the written scope are quoted separately and approved before work begins. See the full pricing breakdown for every add-on, including AI agents, CRM and content packs.

Is a cheap DIY website (Wix, Squarespace) worth it for a Brisbane business?

Honestly, it depends what the site needs to do. A DIY builder plan is a reasonable choice for a very early-stage business, a hobby project or a simple one-page presence. It is cheap to start, and you can edit it yourself without waiting on anyone. The trade-off is that you are doing the design, copywriting, SEO setup and ongoing maintenance yourself, on a platform built for the widest possible audience rather than your specific business.

For a business that depends on its website to generate enquiries, such as a trade business, a clinic or a professional service, the weak points usually show up later. Templates that look like every other DIY site in the same category, limited control over page speed and structure, and no one accountable when something breaks or Google's rules change. A custom-built site costs more up front because a person is actually designing around your business rather than you filling in a generic template.

There is also a middle ground worth naming plainly: a proven layout, tailored to your brand by someone who builds websites for a living, without the fully bespoke price tag. That is closer to what a Premium build is designed to be. Which option is worth it depends on what the site has to achieve, not on which one looks cheaper this month.

What's a fair ongoing cost after launch?

Every website needs somewhere to live and someone keeping it current. These are Automated Australia's own ongoing plans, published in full on /pricing.

• Website Updates & Support, $99 a month. Monthly website changes, reviews and a support channel — for owners who'd rather not edit the site themselves.
• Website + CRM, $250 a month. Updates plus CRM upkeep, lead-capture support and 24/7 support — so enquiries are organised, not just emailed.
• Full Infrastructure, $1,499 a month. Website, CRM, payments, agents, automations, analytics and integrations — a full digital operating system, managed for you.

These are the exact figures on our pricing page, not a national average. Treat any "typical" monthly hosting figure you read elsewhere as a rough guide only, and ask any studio you are quoting with to show you their own published number in writing.

Questions to ask any web designer

Whoever you build with, these five questions will tell you more than any price range on a page like this one.

• Is the price you have quoted fixed, or will it change once the brief is agreed?
• How many pages, revision rounds and content updates are actually included?
• Who owns the finished website, and can I take it and move it elsewhere if I want to?
• What happens after launch: is there a support plan, and what does it cost per month?
• Can I see live, working examples of sites you have actually built, not just mockups?

A studio that answers all five clearly and in writing, before you have paid a deposit, is one worth trusting with the rest of the project.