Most owners think the cost of a website stops on launch day. You pay the invoice, the site goes live and that is that. It is a comfortable idea and it is wrong.
A website is closer to a ute than a fridge. It is cheap to run if you service it, and expensive if you ignore it until the warning light comes on. Ongoing website costs are small, predictable and easy to plan for once you know what they are.
What ongoing website costs actually include
When you pay for a build, you are paying for the thing to exist. Ongoing costs are what keep it online, secure, accurate and useful. They fall into four buckets:
- Fixed costs: domain name, hosting and security certificate.
- Support costs: updates, backups, fixes and small changes.
- Tool costs: booking, email, forms, chat and similar subscriptions.
- Growth costs: photos, new content, SEO and advertising.
The first two are non-negotiable. The last two depend on what you want the site to do. All figures below are typical ranges, they vary between providers, and they are shown before GST unless stated.
The fixed costs: domain, hosting and security
These are the bills that keep your site visible. If they lapse, your site disappears and your email can stop working with it.
Domain name. A .com.au domain typically runs somewhere between $15 and $40 a year. You need an ABN or another genuine Australian connection to hold one. Make sure the domain is registered in your business name, not the name of whoever built your site.
Hosting. Basic shared hosting can be $10 to $20 a month. Better managed hosting, with faster servers and proper backups, is more often $25 to $60 a month. Cheap hosting is not always bad, but a slow server quietly costs you enquiries.
SSL certificate. This is the padlock that makes your site load as secure. Many hosts include it free. If yours charges for it, ask why.
A common mistake is letting renewals go to an old email address. Before and after: a missed renewal notice means a dead website on a Monday morning. A calendar reminder means a two-minute payment.
Support and updates: the cost people skip
Websites are software, and software needs updating. Themes, plugins and security patches all age. Skip them for a year and you are far more likely to get a broken contact form, a hacked site or a page that no longer works on the latest phones.
This is where a care plan earns its keep. A decent plan usually covers:
- Regular updates and security checks
- Offsite backups you can actually restore from
- Uptime monitoring, so someone notices when the site goes down
- A set number of small edits each month, like changing hours or swapping a price
Care plans in Australia commonly range from about $50 to $300 a month depending on what is covered. The alternative is paying hourly for each fix as it happens, which is fine if your site is tiny and rarely changes. For most businesses a flat monthly figure is easier to budget and cheaper than one emergency repair.
Ask any provider what happens if you only need one edit a month. Ask whether unused edits roll over. Ask whether you can leave and take your content with you.
Tools and subscriptions that creep in
This is the bucket that surprises people. Each tool looks cheap alone, then you add them up.
Common examples:
- Online booking or scheduling software
- Email marketing platform
- Live chat or call tracking
- Payment gateway fees on online sales
- Premium plugins or add-ons for your site
- Stock photo or font licences
Many of these are free at a basic level and then jump in price as your contact list or booking volume grows. Some are billed in US dollars, so the cost moves with the exchange rate.
Here is a job you can finish in under 30 minutes. Open your business credit card or bank statements for the last three months. Highlight every recurring charge linked to your website. Write each one down with its monthly cost and what it does. If you cannot say what it does, that is your first cancellation candidate.
Content and marketing: the part that makes the site earn
A site that never changes slowly stops working. Opening hours drift out of date, prices change, the team photo shows someone who left two years ago. Google also tends to favour sites that look looked after.
Budget a little for the following:
- Fresh photos: a professional shoot every year or two can run from a few hundred dollars to over a thousand, depending on the job.
- New content: a service page, a short article or an updated FAQ a few times a year.
- SEO: ongoing work can start from a few hundred dollars a month, and it takes months to show results. Be wary of anyone promising first place on Google.
- Advertising: entirely optional, and it is a marketing cost rather than a website cost. Keep it in a separate line so you can judge it fairly.
You do not need all of this at once. A plumber in Burleigh with steady word of mouth might only refresh photos and tweak a few pages. A new cafe trying to be found by tourists may put more into local search. Spend where your customers actually come from.
A sample yearly budget
Here is a rough way to picture three common setups. These are illustrations, not quotes, and your numbers will differ.
Lean. Domain, basic hosting, and you handle updates yourself. Roughly $300 to $700 a year. This suits a simple brochure site if you are comfortable logging in and doing the maintenance. The risk is that it only works if you actually do it.
Supported. Domain, quality hosting, a care plan, one or two tool subscriptions and a small annual content refresh. Roughly $1,000 to $3,000 a year. This is where most small businesses with a site that matters to their income tend to land.
Growing. Everything above plus regular SEO, content and perhaps advertising. Often $4,000 a year or more. It makes sense when the website is a main source of new customers and you can measure the return.
A useful rule of thumb: many owners find it sensible to set aside a modest slice of the original build cost each year, but there is no magic percentage. Start from what your site needs to do, then work backwards.
If you are GST registered, you can generally claim GST credits on business website expenses, but check with your accountant or bookkeeper for how it applies to you.
Things to do this week
- Search your inbox for domain and hosting renewal emails and note the renewal dates in your calendar.
- Confirm the domain is registered in your business name and that you hold the login.
- List every recurring website-related charge from the last three months and cancel anything unused.
- Ask your web provider in writing what your current plan covers and what it does not.
- Pick a yearly website budget figure, even a rough one, and write it down.
Knowing your yearly number turns website costs from a nasty surprise into a line in the budget. If you would like help working out what a sensible plan looks like for your business, have a look at our small business website design packages and see what is included before you commit to anything.