Short answer: anywhere from $500 to $5,000+ upfront, or $30 to $300/month ongoing. But that's like asking how much a ute costs — depends whether you're looking at a beat-up Hilux or a fully-kitted Ranger.
The real question isn't "how much does a website cost?" It's "what do I actually get for my money, and what's the right option for my tradie business?"
In this post, we're breaking down every option available to Australian tradies right now — DIY builders, local agencies, freelancers, and subscription models — with actual numbers, no fluff. By the end you'll know exactly what fits your business and your budget.
The three ways tradies get websites in 2026
Every website for an Australian tradie falls into one of three buckets. Here's what each one actually costs:
| Option | Upfront Cost | Monthly Cost | Year 1 Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| DIY (Squarespace/Wix) | $0–$500 | $30–$50 | $360–$1,100 |
| Freelancer (Upwork/Airtasker) | $800–$2,500 | $50–$150 | $1,400–$4,300 |
| Local Agency | $2,000–$5,000 | $150–$300 | $3,800–$8,600 |
| Gateway 360 Subscription | $0 | $98 | $1,176 |
We're obviously biased, but keep reading — we'll walk through each option honestly so you can decide for yourself.
Option 1: DIY website builders (Squarespace, Wix, Shopify)
Upfront: $0–$500 | Monthly: $30–$50 | Your time: 20–60 hours
Squarespace and Wix look easy on the surface. Pick a template, drag some photos in, change the text, publish. Done in a weekend, right?
In reality, most tradies who start this route end up with a site that looks "close but not quite" — the template was designed for a cafe or a photographer, not a plumber. The contact form doesn't work properly on phones. The loading speed is average. And the SEO setup is buried in menus you'll never find.
The real cost here is your time. Twenty hours of a tradie's time is worth $1,000–$2,000 in lost billable work. Plus there's the frustration of dealing with a platform that wasn't built for local service businesses.
The DIY reality check
A Melbourne electrician we know spent 30 hours building his own Wix site. It looked okay on desktop but was slow on mobile and had almost no Google traffic after 6 months. He ended up switching to Gateway 360 — our site was live in 5 days and generating calls within 2 weeks. The $98/month saved him about $3,000 in lost billable hours he'd spent on the DIY route.
Verdict: DIY works if you genuinely enjoy tinkering with websites and have the time. For most tradies, it's a false economy.
Option 2: Freelancers (Upwork, Airtasker, Fiverr)
Upfront: $800–$2,500 | Monthly: $50–$150 (hosting + maintenance)
Freelancers sit in the middle — cheaper than agencies, but you get what you pay for. A $500 Fiverr gig will get you a template-based site built in a day. A $2,000 freelancer on Upwork might give you something more custom.
The problem: Freelancers come and go. The person who built your site might be unavailable when you need changes. They might not understand Australian SEO (local keywords, Google Business Profile integration, Australian hosting). And "maintenance" is rarely included — when your site breaks six months later, you're paying again.
Verdict: Good option if you find a reliable freelancer who specialises in tradie websites and offers ongoing support. Risky if you're just picking the cheapest option on a gig platform.
Option 3: Local agencies ($3,000+ upfront)
Upfront: $2,000–$5,000 | Monthly: $150–$300
This is the traditional route. You walk into a web agency in Melbourne or Sydney, they show you a portfolio, quote you $3,500, and you hand over a deposit. Two to three months later, you have a website.
The upside: agencies are reliable, professional, and you can sit down with them face-to-face. They handle everything from design to launch.
The downside: You're paying for their overhead. Office rent, account managers, sales commissions, coffee machine — all of it gets baked into your quote. And that $3,500 is just the start. Hosting, maintenance, small updates — it all adds up. Over two years you're looking at $7,000–$12,000.
The other catch: many agencies build your site on their own platform or builder, meaning if you stop paying, your site disappears. You don't actually own it.
Verdict: Best for tradies who want white-glove service and have the budget. Overkill for a solo plumber or a 3-person electrical team.
Option 4: Subscription model (like Gateway 360)
Upfront: $0 | Monthly: $98 | No lock-in contract
Subscription platforms for tradie websites have exploded in the last few years, and for good reason. You pay a flat monthly fee — no deposit, no surprise invoices, no "oh, that's extra."
At Gateway 360, $98/month gets you more than most tradies realise:
- A custom 5-page website built for your trade, not a generic template
- Domain name included — you own it, even if you leave
- Professional Australian hosting with SSL, sub-2-second load times
- Google Business Profile setup and optimisation
- On-page SEO — keyword research for your trade and suburb
- 60 social media posts per month for Facebook and Instagram
- Monthly performance report — calls, visitors, where leads came from
- Unlimited support — real humans, not a ticket system
Over two years, you pay $2,352 total. Compare that to $8,300 for a traditional agency. You save nearly $6,000 and get the same (often better) result.
Verdict: Best value for solo tradies and small teams. No upfront risk, everything included, and you can walk away anytime.
Hidden costs most tradies miss
Whatever option you choose, watch out for these extras that inflate the real cost:
- Domain registration — $15–$25/year (sometimes not included)
- SSL certificate — $50–$200/year if not bundled
- Professional email — $5–$15/month per inbox
- Stock photography — $50–$300 for decent tradie-relevant images
- Copywriting — $200–$500 if you don't write the content yourself
- Ongoing updates — $50–$150/hour when you need text or photo changes
A "$500 website" from Fiverr can end up costing $1,500+ by the time you add everything you actually need.
What you should actually pay based on your situation
If you're a solo tradie on a tight budget: Go subscription ($98/month). No upfront cost, everything included, and you'll be online in under a week. One extra job pays for the whole year.
If you're a 2–10 person crew: Same answer — $98/month still works. The social media posts and Google optimisation alone are worth it. Use the extra budget on Google Ads to drive even more calls.
If you've got 20+ staff and complex needs: You might need a custom build with booking systems, invoicing, or multi-location features. In that case, an agency ($3,000–$8,000) or a custom developer might be the right call.
If you enjoy DIY and have the time: Go for it. Just factor in 20–40 hours of your own time and the opportunity cost of not being on the tools.
The one number that matters most
Here's the thing. Whether you spend $500 or $5,000 on a website, the only number that matters is how many calls you get.
If a website costs you $1,176/year (our subscription) and brings you just one extra $300 job per month, that's $2,424 in profit after the site cost. That's a 206% return on investment.
If you spend $5,000 on a website and it brings you five extra jobs per month, that's a great deal too.
The worst option isn't the expensive one — it's the one that doesn't work. A cheap website that nobody finds is more expensive than a good one that brings you calls every day.
What Pulse Plumbing did right
Pulse Plumbing was paying $3,200/year for a DIY site that brought them 5 calls a week. They switched to Gateway 360 ($98/month), we rebuilt their site and optimised their Google presence. Within a month they were getting 47 extra calls per week. That's 2,444 extra calls per year from a site that costs less than their old one. Read the full case study →
Bottom line
A good tradie website in Australia costs anywhere from $0 upfront + $98/month (subscription) to $5,000 upfront + $200/month (agency).
The right answer depends on your budget, your time, and how many calls you want to generate. But if you're a typical Melbourne tradie — busy on the tools, want results without the headache, and don't want to blow your budget — the subscription model is hard to beat.
One extra job a month covers it. Everything after that is pure profit.