Why this page exists before the data does
Most of what an Australian business finds when it searches for “how much does a website cost” is either a generic global figure with no relevance to the Australian market, or a single agency’s own price list dressed up as a market survey. Neither answers the actual question (what businesses here are really paying, broken down by the kind of site, the kind of business, and the state they’re in). Building that answer honestly means collecting real figures from real Australian businesses first, and publishing how that was done alongside whatever the numbers turn out to be. This page is that plan, written down before the collection starts, so it can be checked rather than taken on trust once results are added.
What the study will measure
The intended scope is Australian small and medium businesses that have commissioned a website (new build or a substantial rebuild) in roughly the past two years. For each response, the study aims to record: the total price paid (or quoted, if the business chose not to proceed), the type of build (a brochure/informational site, an e-commerce store, a booking or quoting-enabled site, or a custom web application), who built it (a freelancer, an agency, an in-house hire, or a DIY platform like Squarespace or Shopify), what was included in that price (design, copywriting, photography, SEO setup, ongoing hosting and maintenance), the business’s industry, and its state or territory. That last field is what would let the eventual results say something Geelong- and Melbourne-relevant instead of a flat national average, which is where most existing figures stop short.
How the data will be collected
The plan is direct outreach rather than a scraped or purchased list: a structured intake form, promoted through Delta Infotech’s own client base and referral network, and (subject to agreement) through local business associations and chambers of commerce in the regions Delta Infotech serves. The target is a minimum of 150 verified responses spread across at least four states or territories before a first set of results is published, weighted toward the trades and local-service businesses this site is built for, since that’s the segment least served by existing overseas-skewed data. That number is a collection target, not a result. Nothing on this page describes what’s already been gathered, because nothing has been.
Each response will be attributable to a real business (even if published anonymously), and a response describing a quote that was never actually paid will be recorded as a quote, not folded into paid-price figures without saying so. Getting the collection method wrong (small sample, one region, one industry, quotes and invoices mixed together without a label) is exactly how a well-intentioned page turns into another unreliable number for a future search to trip over, so the method is being fixed before a single response comes in.
What the analysis will show, once there's something to analyse
Once a first batch of responses clears the collection target, the plan is to publish: a median and a range for each build type, the same broken down by state where the sample allows it, a comparison between DIY-platform and commissioned-build pricing, and a breakdown of what typically sits inside the headline price versus what’s billed separately (ongoing hosting, content updates, SEO work). Anywhere the sample is too thin to say something reliable (a single response from one state, for instance), the page will say so rather than present a thin number as a market figure.
Where this stands today
As it stands, this page carries the plan and nothing else. It will be updated (with a visible note on when and with how large a sample) once real responses exist to report, and the methodology above will stay published alongside the numbers rather than being replaced by them, so anyone linking to this page later can see exactly how the figures were produced.
If a business wants to contribute a real, recent website cost to this study (what was paid, what it included, and roughly what kind of site it was), the quickest way in right now is direct: get in touch. In the meantime, Delta Infotech’s own current approach to web design pricing and what’s included is published plainly on the pricing page, one real, attributable data point while the wider study is still being built.