The best website builder for a small business in Australia
The facts the affiliate lists skip: Australian dollar prices with and without GST, year two, bookings and payments here, .com.au, how fast real Australian visitors find each one, and what you can take with you.
On This Page
Most "best website builder" lists you'll find are written by sites that get paid when you click through to the builder, and they say so in the small print. The top three results on Google for this search all carry that disclosure. I have the opposite problem: I sell websites on subscription, so I compete with every builder on this page. The fair thing I can do is give you the facts that matter in Australia and that the lists tend to skip: Australian dollar prices with and without GST, what year two costs, which ones take bookings and payments here, which sell a .com.au, how fast real Australian visitors find them, and what you can take with you if you leave.
- Service business with bookingsWix (Core, AU$42 a month billed yearly, GST included) has bookings built in and the fastest real-world sites in Australia on average. GoDaddy is a cheaper alternative with bookings on its Premium plan.
- Selling productsShopify, which runs its own payments in Australia in AUD. It charges an extra fee if you use another payment provider.
- Owning the site outrightWordPress, the only one where you can take the whole site to another host.
Everything here comes from each builder's own Australian pricing and help pages, auDA, W3Techs and the HTTP Archive's Chrome data, read on 11 October 2026. Prices change often, so check before you buy.
What each one costs Australians
Two traps hide in the headline prices. Some builders show US dollars to Australians, and the ones that show Australian dollars don't agree on GST. And some headline prices are introductory: Hostinger's lowest price, for instance, needs four years paid up front and then renews at more than three times the rate.
| Builder | Typical small-business plan | Currency and GST | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wix | Core, AU$42 a month billed yearly | AUD, GST included | Light (AU$21) has no bookings or payments |
| Squarespace | Core, A$28 a month billed annually | AUD, excludes GST (A$30.80 with it) | Bookings need Acuity, a separate subscription in US dollars |
| WordPress.com | Business, US$25 a month billed yearly | USD, excludes tax | Plugins on every paid plan |
| Shopify | Basic, A$42 a month yearly or A$56 monthly | AUD; GST not stated on the pricing page | For selling products |
| GoDaddy Website Builder | Premium, A$22.69 a month annual or A$49.95 monthly | AUD; GST not stated | Renewal price after the first year isn't shown |
| Hostinger Website Builder | Premium, A$4.39 a month with 48 months paid up front | AUD, excludes GST | Renews at A$15.89 a month before GST |
| Webflow | Basic, US$15 a month billed yearly | USD, plus tax | Most design control; email support only |
Scroll the table sideways to see every column.
Compare year two, not month one. And remember that card fees, domains, email and apps sit on top of all of these. I've worked through Wix's full yearly cost in Wix pricing in Australia.
Which builder fits you?
Bookings and payments in Australia
- Built-in bookings: Wix (Core and above), GoDaddy (Premium and Commerce) and Hostinger. Squarespace uses Acuity, a separate subscription. WordPress.com uses plugins, Shopify uses apps, and Webflow needs an embedded booking tool.
- Wix Payments isn't available in Australia. Australian Wix sites use Stripe, Square, PayPal and others, at those providers' rates.
- Shopify Payments is. From 1.7% plus 30 cents per online card payment on Basic, in AUD. Use another provider and Shopify adds its own fee: 2% on Basic, down to 0.2% on Plus.
- GoDaddy connects to Stripe, PayPal and Square in Australia, but its plan page marks payment links, QR codes and invoicing as US and Canada only.
- Already using practice software? Cliniko, HotDoc and the rest work with any builder through a "Book now" button. Embedding their booking page needs a plan that allows code.
Your .com.au
auDA, which runs .au, says the most common way to qualify for a .com.au is "having an active ABN or ACN". If you already own one, every builder here lets you connect it, and that's the normal route for an established business. If you're buying new:
- GoDaddy, Hostinger and Squarespace sell .com.au domains.
- WordPress.com doesn't: no .au domain is on its list.
- Wix and Shopify contradict themselves. Each has one page offering a .com.au and another saying, or implying, it can't sell one. Keep your .com.au with an Australian registrar and connect it.
How fast they are for real Australian visitors
Google's Chrome browser records how fast real visitors find each website, and the HTTP Archive publishes that by platform. This is the share of sites on each platform whose Australian mobile visitors got a good result on all three of Google's Core Web Vitals.
A fair caveat: these are averages across every site. Builders that control the hosting and code for every site, like Wix, GoDaddy and Shopify, tend to average higher than open platforms where anyone can add heavy themes and plugins, like WordPress. A well-built site on any of them can pass; a badly built one on any of them can fail. The gap is mostly in how quickly the main content loads.
What you can take with you
| If you leave | You can take |
|---|---|
| WordPress | The whole site, to any WordPress host |
| Webflow | The code, on a paid Workspace plan, but "CMS, User Accounts, Ecommerce content" aren't included and forms stop working |
| Squarespace | Some pages, one blog and images, as a WordPress file |
| Shopify | Products and customers as spreadsheets. The theme downloads, but only runs on Shopify |
| Wix | Contacts, bookings, products and other data as spreadsheets. The site and blog posts stay |
| Hostinger | Copy and paste; Hostinger's help says to "Recreate any layout or design elements" elsewhere |
| GoDaddy | I found no site export for its classic builder |
Scroll the table sideways to see every column.
If you're already on Wix and thinking of going, my guide to leaving Wix covers the export and how to keep your Google rankings.
Support, data and accessibility
- Support: Shopify, GoDaddy and Hostinger advertise 24/7 support. Wix's live chat runs on US Eastern hours, mostly overnight in Sydney, with callbacks around the clock. Webflow is email only, aiming to reply within 48 hours.
- Data: none of the builders I checked offers Australian data hosting on a small-business plan, as far as their pages say. Wix uses data centres in the US and Ireland; Squarespace in the US.
- Accessibility: none of them promises your site will meet WCAG. Each offers tools and puts the responsibility on you.
Who's actually using what
W3Techs, which tracks the technology behind websites, puts WordPress on 55.7% of .au websites whose platform it can identify, Shopify on 14.7% and Squarespace on 7.6%. Worldwide, WordPress runs 40.1% of all websites. Popularity isn't the same as fit, but it does mean help, developers and plugins are easy to find for WordPress.
My view
If you'll build and edit the site yourself, and you need bookings, Wix is hard to beat on speed and convenience in Australia, as long as you accept you can't take the site with you. If you sell products, Shopify. If owning the site matters more than convenience, WordPress, with someone to look after it. And if you'd rather not build it at all, that's a different question: who builds it, what it costs over a few years, and who owns it at the end. I covered that in website subscription or one-off build.
Questions I get asked
What is the best website builder for a small business in Australia?
For a service business that takes bookings, Wix (Core) or GoDaddy (Premium). For selling products, Shopify. For owning the site outright, WordPress. Compare the year-two price in Australian dollars with GST.
Is Wix or GoDaddy better?
Both have bookings built in and both are fast for Australian visitors on average. Wix shows prices with GST and has more features; GoDaddy's first-year price is lower, but its renewal price isn't shown.
Is Squarespace or Wix better for a small business?
Wix has bookings built in and was faster for Australian mobile visitors on average. Squarespace's templates are polished, but bookings need Acuity, a separate subscription.
Is Wix an Australian company?
No. Wix is based in Israel, with data centres in the US and Ireland. It shows Australians prices in Australian dollars including GST.
Which website builders sell .com.au domains?
GoDaddy, Hostinger and Squarespace. WordPress.com doesn't, and Wix and Shopify contradict themselves. Every builder lets you connect a .com.au you already own.
Can ChatGPT build my website?
Several builders now offer AI site generators, and they can produce a first draft quickly. The draft still needs your real details, your bookings and someone to keep it accurate.
About this guide
Written by Joseph Alzein, founder of bdog. bdog builds websites on subscription, so I compete with every builder here, and none of them pays me. Prices come from each builder's Australian pages, read from Sydney on 11 October 2026; speed data from the HTTP Archive Core Web Vitals report for August 2026. Prices change often, so check before you buy.
Main sources:
- Wix plans
- Squarespace pricing
- WordPress.com pricing
- Shopify Australia pricing
- GoDaddy Website Builder plans
- GoDaddy: payment methods
- Hostinger Website Builder (Australia)
- Webflow pricing
- Webflow: exporting site code
- Shopify: exporting products
- Hostinger: moving your content
- auDA: .com.au domain names
- HTTP Archive: technology report
- W3Techs: .au content management
