The Real Ongoing Costs of a Website in Australia (Domain, Hosting, Maintenance)

Getting your website built is one cost. Keeping it running is another — and it’s the one most people don’t budget for.

Your website isn’t a set-and-forget asset. Things need updating, security patches need applying, hosting needs paying, and your domain needs renewing. None of it is expensive on its own, but if you’re not aware of what’s coming, the annual costs can catch you off guard.

Here’s everything you’ll actually pay to keep a small business website running in Australia.

What’s the short version?

For a standard small business website, expect to pay $300–$1,500 per year in ongoing costs — depending on whether you manage things yourself or pay someone to handle it. That covers your domain, hosting, maintenance, and email. If you’re on a website builder like Squarespace or Wix, your platform fee covers most of it in one bill.

The non-negotiables

These are the costs every website has, regardless of how it was built or who manages it.

Domain renewal: $15–$50/year

Your domain name needs renewing every year. A .com.au domain typically costs $15–$40/year depending on your registrar — common ones in Australia include VentraIP, Namecheap, and GoDaddy. A .com is usually $15–$25/year. Set up auto-renewal so you don’t accidentally let it lapse — if your domain expires, someone else can register it, and getting it back can be expensive or impossible.

Web hosting: $60–$720/year

This is the space where your website lives. The range is wide because hosting quality varies dramatically.

Budget shared hosting starts around $5–$10/month ($60–$120/year). It works, but you’re sharing server resources with hundreds of other websites, which means slower speeds and less reliability.

Managed or business-grade hosting runs $20–$60/month ($240–$720/year). You get better speed, better security, better support, and usually automatic backups. For a business website that needs to be reliable, this is where I’d recommend landing.

Website builders like Squarespace ($18–$40/month) and Wix ($17–$45/month) include hosting in their platform fee, so it’s bundled rather than separate.

My hosting plans start at $29/month — which includes hosting, backups, and basic monitoring. The $59/month plan adds ongoing SEO, monthly reporting, minor edits, and support. Both are month-to-month with no lock-in.

SSL certificate: Free (usually)

The padlock in your browser that tells visitors your site is secure. In 2026, this is free with virtually every modern hosting provider through Let’s Encrypt. If someone is charging you separately for an SSL certificate, check whether your hosting already includes it — for most small business sites, a paid certificate is unnecessary.

Email hosting: $84–$180/year per user

If you’re using a professional email address (you@yourbusiness.com.au), you’re paying for Google Workspace ($10/month) or Microsoft 365 ($9/month) per user. This isn’t technically a “website” cost, but it runs through your domain, so it’s usually part of the same annual bill.

The costs that depend on your setup

Maintenance and updates: $0–$3,600/year

This is where the biggest variation happens — and where most people underestimate.

If you’re managing your own WordPress site: You’ll need to keep WordPress core, your theme, and your plugins updated. This isn’t just clicking “update” — after any update, you need to test that nothing broke. Forms still work? Pages still load? Checkout still functions? It takes time, and if an update causes a conflict, fixing it takes knowledge.

If you’re on a website builder: Squarespace and Wix handle platform updates automatically. You’re mostly just managing your own content. Less maintenance, but also less control.

If you’re paying someone: Professional maintenance plans typically run $50–$300/month in Australia. At the lower end, that covers updates, backups, and basic monitoring. At the higher end, it includes security scanning, performance optimisation, content changes, and regular reporting.

Honestly, the time and stress of managing your own updates is the biggest hidden cost of a DIY website. It’s not just the technical work — it’s the mental overhead of knowing something might break and you’ll have to figure out how to fix it.

This is also where ultra-cheap website builds come back to bite. If your site was built from a generic template by someone offshore — the kind of $199 deal you see advertised on Facebook — getting changes made or issues fixed later can be a real problem. You might not be able to contact the original provider. The code might be messy or undocumented. A new developer may need to start from scratch rather than build on what’s there. The upfront saving can become a much larger cost down the line.

Plugin and tool subscriptions: $0–$500+/year

Most standard business websites don’t need paid plugins. But if you have specific requirements — a complex booking system, advanced forms, membership areas, or e-commerce functionality — you’ll likely need premium plugins or third-party tools that charge monthly or annual fees.

These can range from a few dollars a month for a simple booking tool to hundreds for more complex integrations. For most small business websites, this cost is minimal or zero. For online stores, it’s a different story — we’ll cover that in our online store costs post.

Content updates and SEO: $0–$3,600/year

A website that hasn’t been touched in two years, with outdated information and no new content, tells both Google and your customers that you’re not paying attention. SEO isn’t a one-off setup — it’s ongoing.

If you’re handling this yourself, the cost is your time. If you’re paying a professional, ongoing SEO services in Australia typically start from $200/month for basic local SEO maintenance up to $1,000+/month for more comprehensive work.

My $59/month plan includes basic ongoing SEO — making sure your site stays technically healthy, monitoring your search performance, and keeping things ticking over. It’s not a full-scale SEO campaign, but it covers the essentials most small businesses need.

What does a realistic annual budget look like?

Here’s what a typical small business website costs to run each year in Australia, across three common scenarios:

The DIY path looks cheapest on paper, but factor in the hours you’ll spend on updates, troubleshooting, and learning things you shouldn’t need to learn — and the support plan often works out better value.

The “free website” trap — revisited

I mentioned this in our website pricing guide, but it’s worth repeating here because it’s specifically an ongoing cost issue.

Some agencies offer a “free” website build, then charge $150–$300/month for “hosting.” Over three years, that’s $5,400–$10,800 — for a site you probably don’t own. If you stop paying, the site disappears. Compare that to paying for a proper build upfront ($800–$3,000) and hosting at $29–$59/month, where you own the site outright and can take it wherever you want.

Always ask: do I own this website? What happens if I stop paying? Can I move it to another host? If the answers aren’t clear, that’s a red flag.

Key takeaways

• Budget $300–$1,500/year for ongoing website costs — domain, hosting, email, and maintenance
• Your domain renewal is the one you absolutely cannot miss — set up auto-renewal
• Maintenance isn’t optional, even if it feels like it — things need updating, testing, and monitoring
• The cheapest option on paper isn’t always the cheapest in practice once you factor in your time
• Watch for “free” builds with expensive ongoing fees — do the three-year maths before committing
• Your website is a business asset that needs regular attention, not a set-and-forget project

Want a clear picture of what your website should cost to run? Book a free 15-minute chat — I’ll walk through your specific situation and give you honest numbers.