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Wix vs Squarespace vs GoDaddy vs Shopify: 2026 prices
Wix, Squarespace, GoDaddy and Shopify sell a subscription and a template. In Australia that runs from $167 to $744 a year, you build the site yourself, and none of the four hands it over. Our builds start at $690 plus GST once ($759 including GST), twelve months of hosting included, then $99 a year including GST covering hosting, your domain name and ongoing SEO updates. Every number is below, checked 2 September 2026.
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Plenty of businesses should take the subscription. Work out whether you are one of them before you sign up. Every competitor figure came off that company's own Australian pricing page on the date above, and we write out the arithmetic behind the three-year column underneath the table so you can check it.
Every price in one table
| Platform | Cheapest usable plan | Year one | Three years | Who builds it | Do you own it? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GoDaddy (as published) | $13.95 to $24.95/mo | $167 to $299 | $502 to $898 | You | No |
| Wix (incl GST) | $17.77 to $39.77/mo | $213 to $477 | $640 to $1,431 | You | No |
| Squarespace (as published) | $28 to $62/mo | $336 to $744 | $1,008 to $2,232 | You | No |
| Shopify (as published) | $42/mo + fees | $504 + fees | $1,512 + fees | You | No |
| Alien Web Design | from $690 + GST once | $759 incl GST | $957 incl GST | We do | Yes |
All competitor figures are Australian list prices taken from each company's own pricing page on 2 September 2026, at the annual-plan rate where one is sold. Wix's prices are published including GST. Squarespace's and GoDaddy's are printed as published; neither basis is assumed. Shopify's are as published, and every sale carries a transaction fee on top of the plan. Our figures include GST throughout: $759 to build, then $99 a year.
How to read the table
Every competitor figure is the Australian list price on that company's own pricing page as at 2 September 2026, taken at the annual-plan rate wherever the company sells one. Where a platform charges more to bill you monthly, we name the monthly figure in that platform's section below instead of hiding it in the table.
GST is the trap in a comparison like this, so we label each side. Wix publishes its Australian prices including GST. Squarespace states no basis on its pricing page, and we have not confirmed GoDaddy's either way, so we print both exactly as published and assume nothing. Shopify's are as published, with transaction fees on top. Ours include GST in every cell of that table: $759 to build, then $99 a year.
Three years is the monthly price multiplied by 36, or the yearly figure multiplied by three, at today's prices, rounded to the dollar. The two methods differ by at most a dollar. We assume no price rise on either side, so every figure here is today's price held still for three years.
The last two columns are matters of fact. On all four platforms the hosting is part of the plan, and none of the four lets you export a working copy of the site, so leaving any of them means a rebuild. A built site is code sitting on hosting you control, under a domain registered in your name.
Pick the row you would actually buy, then read that row's page: the numbers there are worked through in full. If you already know the site has to bring in work, skip the reading and send us the address.
Wix
Wix sits between $17.77 a month for Light and $39.77 for Business, including GST. That is $213 to $477 in year one and $640 to $1,431 over three years. It earns its money on control. You think of a change at eleven at night, you make it, it is live. The catch arrives when the card stops working. Your custom domain disconnects and the site drops to an ad-covered Wix subdomain. It is not deleted, and it does not come with you either, because Wix does not let you export a working site. Business at $477 a year is the closest of the three Wix plans to what a build costs, so that comparison is the one worth following month by month. Read Alien Web Design vs Wix: the month the lines cross, and what leaves Wix with you.
Squarespace
Squarespace is $28 a month for Personal and $62 for Business on an annual plan, so $336 and $744 in year one, and $1,008 to $2,232 over three years. It looks good with no help from you. The templates are why people choose it, and wanting a site that looks good is a fair reason to buy one. Two things to check before you renew. First, those are the annual rates and they assume you pay a year up front: billed monthly the same two plans are $40 and $89, which works out at $480 and $1,068 a year against $336 and $744. Second, the Australian pricing page does not state whether the figure includes GST, so we print it as published instead of guessing in our own favour. Read Alien Web Design vs Squarespace: why year one is a wash and year three is not.
GoDaddy
GoDaddy's website builder runs $13.95 to $24.95 a month on an annual plan, and its store plan is $26.95, so year one is $167 to $299, or $323 with the store, and three years is $502 to $898, or $969 with the store. It is the cheapest option on this page. If the lowest number decides it, buy the entry plan and stop reading. It also arrives as one bill covering the domain, the hosting and the site. The domain is the thing to check. It is free for the first term only, then it renews at the standard rate on top of the plan, so the third year of a GoDaddy site is the plan plus a domain invoice. Read Alien Web Design vs GoDaddy: the cheapest entry tier, the tier that is a wash, and the row that is not like for like.
Shopify
Shopify Basic is $42 a month on an annual plan, or $56 billed monthly, so $504 in year one and $1,512 over three years before you sell anything. Every sale then carries 1.75 per cent plus 30 cents, and another 2 per cent if you take payment through a gateway other than Shopify Payments. The checkout is what Shopify is for. If you carry real inventory, with variants, stock levels that have to stay accurate and shipping priced by weight or zone, use it. We build on Shopify, and we will tell you when that is the answer. But most people pricing a store plan are selling four things, and four things do not need a cart. Read Alien Web Design vs Shopify: when you need a store, and when you are paying for one you don't.
Which row fits which business
The cheapest row is only the right row if it does the job you need doing. Four shapes of business, four answers, and one of them is not a subscription.
| Shape of business | Row that fits | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A business card that will not change, and you enjoy building it | GoDaddy entry or Wix Light | Lowest cost on the page. You do the work, and the site stays theirs. |
| A portfolio you will maintain yourself, and the annual fee does not bother you | Squarespace | You are paying for the templates. That is a real thing to buy. |
| Real inventory: variants, stock levels, shipping rules | Shopify, built by us if you like | The checkout is the product. If stock has to stay accurate, that earns a subscription. |
| A site that has to bring in work | Built: $690 to $2,490 plus GST | Designed around the searches that pay, owned outright, $99 a year after the first twelve months. |
The subscription buys you a tool. The build buys you the outcome.
What the same money buys if someone builds it
A year of Squarespace Business is $744. A year of Wix Business is $477. Hold those two numbers while you read the table below, because the left column is what the same money buys once, with the work done for you and the result in your name.
| Build | Right for | From, plus GST | Incl GST | Your words |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| One page | One service, one area, one phone number that has to ring | $690 | $759 | You supply |
| Five-page business site | Services, service areas, proof and a quote form | $1,490 | $1,639 | Light edit |
| Larger custom build | Calculators, integrations, a page for every service and suburb | $2,490 | $2,739 | Written for you |
| Online store | Products, cart, payments, stock | $3,490 | $3,839 | Scoped in the quote |
The $2,490 row is where Select Coolrooms sits. Their old site drew roughly three unpaid visits a month. We rebuilt it around a live quote calculator wired into their CRM, and it produced $299,521 in quotes in four days, ranking #1 for "cool room builders Sydney", a search that costs $14 a click.
Every tier includes twelve months of hosting, SSL and monitoring, a fixed written quote before any work starts, and the code, the domain and the hosting in your name. After the first twelve months it is $99 a year including GST, covering hosting, your domain name and ongoing SEO updates. That is the whole ongoing cost: $957 including GST over three years, against $502 to $2,232 as those four platforms publish them, for a site that stays theirs. The four builds in full.
Three we have built
Every row in the table above buys a tool. This is what the other column buys, on sites you can open right now.
- A Sydney coolroom builder. The old site drew roughly three unpaid visits a month. The rebuild carries a quote calculator wired into their CRM, issued $299,521 in quotes in four days, and ranks first for a search that costs $14 a click.
- A Mosman chiropractor. Invisible in local search before, first for its main local term after, and named first in Google's AI answer for "who is the best chiro in mosman", cited from its own pages.
- Our own review tool. The off-the-shelf platform cost about $600 a month, so we built one. It starts at $56 a month and the client keeps it.
The rest are on our work page, live, with no logins and nothing staged.
Questions people ask before choosing a builder
What is the cheapest way to get a business website in Australia?
GoDaddy's website builder at $13.95 to $24.95 a month on an annual plan is the cheapest of the major options as at 2 September 2026, followed by Wix from $17.77 a month including GST. Both require you to build and maintain the site yourself, and neither leaves you owning it.
Is it cheaper to build a website myself or pay someone?
In year one a DIY builder is usually cheaper, between about $167 and $744 depending on platform and tier. Our builds start at $690 plus GST once with twelve months of hosting included, so from year two onward a built site costs less, $99 a year against $167 to $744, and you own the result rather than renting it.
What happens to my site if I stop paying for a website builder?
The platform hosts the site as part of the plan, and none of the four lets you export a working copy, so when the plan ends the site does not come with you and moving means a rebuild. Wix is the one we can describe exactly: the custom domain disconnects and the site drops to an ad-covered Wix subdomain rather than being deleted. With a built site you own the code and the domain, so there is nothing to lose when a subscription ends.
Do you charge a monthly fee?
No. The build is a one-off and includes twelve months of hosting, SSL and monitoring. After that it is $99 a year including GST, which covers hosting, your domain name and ongoing SEO updates, and you own the code and the domain throughout.
Which website builder is best for a small business in Australia?
If it is a business card that will not change and you enjoy building it yourself, GoDaddy's entry plan or Wix Light is the cheapest way to have one. If it is a portfolio you will maintain yourself and the annual fee does not bother you, Squarespace has the templates. If you carry real inventory with variants and stock levels that have to stay accurate, Shopify has the checkout, and we build on it. If the site has to bring in work rather than sit there, none of the four does that job for you, and a built site from $690 plus GST is designed around the searches that pay, owned outright, and $99 a year after the first twelve months.
Do your prices include GST?
Our builds are quoted plus GST with the inclusive figure printed beside every one, so $690 is $759 including GST. The $99 a year includes GST, and so does the $957 three-year total. Competitor figures on this page are printed as their own pricing pages publish them: Wix states its Australian prices including GST, and Squarespace states no basis, and we have not confirmed GoDaddy's, so we do not assume one either way.
What to do with this table
Pick the row you would actually buy, not the row you wish you needed. Read that platform's page, where the same numbers are worked through in full. And if you already have a site and you want to know what replacing it costs, send us the address: you get a fixed written quote back, and the number does not move after that.
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Or call 02 9161 8000. Sydney based, 18+ years.