Which website builder is best for a small business in Australia?
The best website builder is the one that fits what your site has to do. For a service business that needs a few pages and an enquiry form, Squarespace, Wix and GoDaddy are all workable. For selling products, Shopify is built for it. For a site with lots of articles, WordPress.com gives the most flexibility.
We are not going to rank these one to five. Any list that does is guessing about your business. The honest answer is that all five can produce a decent small business website, and all five can produce a poor one.
What separates them is cost once the intro offer ends, transaction fees if you sell online, how much design control you get, and whether you can take your site elsewhere later.
How much do website builders cost in Australia?
Paid plans start from about A$17 a month on an annual Squarespace plan, A$42 a month on Shopify billed yearly, and US$4 a month for WordPress.com Personal billed annually. Wix shows US$17.77 a month as a reference price, with local prices varying. Monthly billing costs more on every platform.
Look at the price on the plan you will actually need, not the cheapest plan. Squarespace's Basic plan charges a 2% fee on online store sales, which disappears on Core at A$28 a month annually. Shopify adds a third-party transaction fee of 2% on Basic if you use an outside payment provider.
GoDaddy lets you start building for free with 50 AI credits a month and includes a free domain with paid plans. We could not confirm its current Australian plan prices, so check them on GoDaddy's own pricing page before you commit.
Source: Official pricing pages for Squarespace (AUD), Shopify Australia (AUD), WordPress.com (USD), Wix (USD reference) and GoDaddy Australia, checked October 2026.
What are the cheapest website builders worth using?
Free plans are fine for testing, not for a business. Wix's free plan puts Wix ads on every page and uses a wixsite.com address. WordPress.com's free plan shows ads and does not allow a custom domain. The cheapest builder worth paying for is the lowest plan that lets you use your own domain without ads.
For most small service businesses that is WordPress.com Personal at US$4 a month annually or Squarespace Basic at A$17 a month annually. Both remove platform ads and include a free domain for the first year on annual billing.
Remember that the free domain is usually for year one only. Budget for the renewal, and for the plan price once any first-year discount ends.
Source: Wix Help Center, Upgrading your Wix site; WordPress.com pricing page; Squarespace pricing page.
Which website builder is best for an online store in Australia?
Shopify is the most complete option for a dedicated online store, with plans from A$42 a month billed yearly and Australian card rates shown on its local pricing page. Squarespace works well for smaller catalogues on its Core plan or higher. WordPress.com Commerce, at US$45 a month annually, suits stores that also publish lots of content.
Compare the fees, not just the plan. On Shopify Basic, online card payments are 1.7% plus 30 cents through Shopify's own payments, and 2% extra if you use a third-party provider. Squarespace Core charges no extra store fee, with card processing from 1.8% plus 30 cents through Squarespace Payments.
Apps and paid themes add up. Price out the shipping, reviews and email tools you need before deciding.
Source: Shopify Australia pricing page (AUD); Squarespace pricing page (AUD); WordPress.com pricing page (USD).
How do you choose the right website builder?
Score each builder on five things: the total yearly cost on the plan you need, fees on sales, mobile design quality, the SEO controls you get, and how easily you can export your content and leave. Google indexes the mobile version of your site, so check every template on a phone before you choose.
Speed matters too. Google's Core Web Vitals call a page good when its main content loads in 2.5 seconds or less, it responds to taps in under 200 milliseconds, and the layout shift score is below 0.1. Build a test page and run it through Google's PageSpeed Insights before committing.
Check you can edit page titles, meta descriptions and URLs, add a contact form, and connect Google Analytics. Ask what happens to your site if you cancel. GoDaddy says you can download your code anytime; on other platforms, moving usually means rebuilding the design.
Source: Google Search Central, Mobile-first indexing best practices; Google Search Central, Understanding Core Web Vitals; GoDaddy Australia Website Builder page.
Can a website builder rank well on Google?
Yes. All the major builders produce pages Google can crawl and rank. Rankings come from useful content, a clear structure, local signals and links, not from the builder's brand. A builder will not hold a good site back much, but it will not fix thin content either. Nobody can guarantee a number one ranking.
Where builders can limit you is technical control: page speed, structured data, and how much you can customise templates. For most small businesses those limits do not matter until the site is well established.
If search is your main source of enquiries, plan the pages around what people actually search for before you pick a template.
Source: Google Search Central, Do you need an SEO?
When is hiring a web designer worth it instead of a website builder?
Hire a designer when your time is worth more than the build fee, when you need copy written for you, or when the site has to bring in enquiries from day one. MarketingOnWeb builds 5-8 page sites for $499 + GST with copy, images, a contact form and basic SEO included, and you own the site and domain.
A DIY builder is the right choice if you enjoy it, have time, and can write clear copy about your services. Many business owners underestimate the writing, not the design.
Larger sites take more planning. MarketingOnWeb's packages run to $999 + GST for 15-20 pages and $2,999 + GST for 75-150 pages. Whoever builds it, make sure the domain and hosting are in your name.
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