A Wix or Squarespace website for a small Australian business costs roughly $210 to $520 a year on the plans most owners choose, and closer to $370 to $670 a year once you add a business email address and a domain renewal. Most price guides on page one quote US dollars or are years old, so they make these builders look cheaper or simpler than they are. The plan is only part of the bill. Domains renew at full price after the free first year, email is extra, and selling online adds payment and transaction fees. Then there is the cost nobody puts on an invoice: the hours you spend building and maintaining the site yourself. Every price here is in AUD as listed on 28 October 2026, and prices change, so treat them as a point-in-time snapshot.
Key Takeaways
- Squarespace lists AUD prices from $18.70 a month (Basic, paid annually, including estimated GST) to $163.90 a month (Advanced, paid monthly).
- Wix’s plans page, viewed from Australia, shows plans from $17.77 to $159.77 a month, billed yearly and marked as including GST. Confirm the final figure at checkout.
- Paying monthly instead of yearly costs about 40% more on Squarespace for the same plan.
- The free domain only covers year one. After that you pay the normal renewal price, and email is a separate cost on most plans.
- A typical small business site on Wix Core or Squarespace Core costs about $1,400 to $1,500 over three years before you count your own time.
What Wix costs in Australia
Wix’s paid plans run from about $18 to $160 a month, billed yearly. Wix’s plans page, viewed from an Australian connection on 28 October 2026, listed these prices, each marked “Price includes GST”:
- Light: $17.77 a month, 2 GB storage, free domain for one year. Accepting payments is not listed on this plan.
- Core: $29.77 a month, 50 GB storage, accept payments, basic ecommerce.
- Business: $39.77 a month, 100 GB storage, standard ecommerce. Wix marks this as its recommended plan.
- Business Elite: $159.77 a month, unlimited storage, advanced ecommerce.
There is also a free plan, but it runs on a Wix web address and shows Wix branding, so it does not suit a business.
Two catches apply. First, the displayed prices are for yearly subscriptions paid in full upfront. Wix says other billing periods exist but does not show their prices on the plans page. Second, the same page carries a general note that “Prices and currency vary by location” and that the final price appears on the purchase page before you pay. Treat the figures above as a guide and check the checkout screen before you commit.
What Squarespace costs in Australia
Squarespace publishes AUD prices directly, and they are the clearest of the two. These are the figures shown on its pricing page on 28 October 2026, including estimated GST:
| Plan | Paid annually (per month) | Paid monthly | Online store transaction fee | Card rate shown |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | $18.70 | $26.40 | 2% | 1.8% + $0.30 |
| Core | $30.80 | $42.90 | 0% | 1.8% + $0.30 |
| Plus | $53.90 | $75.90 | 0% | 1.6% + $0.30 |
| Advanced | $119.90 | $163.90 | 0% | 1.4% + $0.30 |
Viewed in a browser in Australia, the same page shows the GST-exclusive figures, for example Basic at $17 a month paid annually and $24 paid monthly. Both versions describe the same price.
The table shows why billing period matters. Core costs $369.60 a year if you pay annually and $514.80 if you pay monthly. That is about $145 a year for the flexibility to cancel.
Wix vs Squarespace plan prices side by side
On entry-level plans, Wix and Squarespace cost about the same. The real difference is which features you get at each price. This table lines up the plans most small businesses choose, using annual billing. The Wix figures are as displayed from Australia, and the Squarespace figures come from its AUD price list.
| Wix Light | Wix Core | Squarespace Basic | Squarespace Core | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Per month (annual billing) | $17.77 | $29.77 | $18.70 | $30.80 |
| Per year | $213.24 | $357.24 | $224.40 | $369.60 |
| Free domain, first year | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Take payments | Not listed | Yes | Yes (2% store fee) | Yes (0% store fee) |
| Google Workspace email included | Not listed | Not listed | No | Free for first year |
Check the final price at checkout, as plans and GST display can change.
If you only need a brochure site and never take payments, Wix Light is the cheapest real business option. If you want to sell anything, compare Wix Core with Squarespace Core, since Squarespace Basic charges a 2% fee on every store sale.
The extra costs that are easy to miss
The monthly plan is the number everyone compares, but four other costs decide your real bill.
Your domain after year one
Both builders include a free domain for the first year only. Wix’s help article on the free domain voucher says your domain “will then renew the following year at the regular price”, and you must enter payment details when you claim it so the renewal can be charged. Wix does not publish a fixed renewal price. Its guide to domain renewal prices says the cost depends on the extension, your currency, the number of years, privacy protection and local tax.
Squarespace’s pricing page says domains from its free offer “will renew at our standard rate, plus applicable taxes, after the first year”.
For a benchmark, Australian registrar VentraIP’s domain price list showed a .com at $24.95 a year and a .com.au at a discounted $9.95 a year on 28 October 2026. Budget about $25 a year for renewals and you will not be caught short.
Business email
A builder plan does not give you a working [email protected] inbox on its own. Google Workspace’s Australian pricing lists Business Starter at A$9.90 per user per month, with tax not included. With GST that is about $130 a year per person.
Squarespace’s plan comparison shows that Core, Plus and Advanced include one Google Workspace account “free for the first year”. Basic does not. From year two you pay Google’s normal rate.
Payment and transaction fees
If you sell online, you pay a card processing fee on every sale, and on some plans a platform fee on top. Squarespace Basic charges a 2% online store transaction fee on top of card processing. Core and above charge 0% on store sales but still charge 5% (Core) or 1% (Plus) on digital content and memberships.
Check which payment provider you can actually use. The FAQ on Squarespace’s pricing page lists the countries where Squarespace Payments is available, and Australia is not on that list. Australian sellers usually connect a provider such as Stripe, whose Australian pricing is 1.65% + A$0.30 for domestic cards and 3.5% + A$0.30 for international cards, including GST.
Wix’s public fee table for Wix Payments covers the US, EU, UK, Canada and Switzerland, and does not list Australian rates. Check the payments section of your Wix dashboard before you price your products.
Apps and add-ons
Both builders come with templates included, so you do not need to buy one. The costs creep in through apps. Many third-party apps for bookings, reviews, pop-ups or advanced forms charge their own monthly fee, and a few of those can add more than the plan itself. List the features you need before you choose a plan, then price the apps that provide them.
One-year and three-year totals for a typical small business site
For a small service business with one email address and no online store, expect to pay about $370 to $490 in year one and about $1,400 to $1,500 over three years. Here is the working for the two most common choices, using annual billing and GST-inclusive figures. Plan prices come from the Wix plans page and Squarespace’s price list, email from the Google Workspace AUD rate plus 10% GST, and the domain allowance from VentraIP’s .com price. Prices change, so treat these as a point-in-time estimate.
| Cost | Wix Core, year 1 | Wix Core, 3 years | Squarespace Core, year 1 | Squarespace Core, 3 years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plan | $357.24 | $1,071.72 | $369.60 | $1,108.80 |
| Google Workspace (1 user) | $130.68 | $392.04 | $0 (free first year) | $261.36 |
| Domain renewal (about $25/yr) | $0 | $50 | $0 | $50 |
| Total | $487.92 | $1,513.76 | $369.60 | $1,420.16 |
Pay monthly on Squarespace Core and the three-year plan cost alone rises from $1,108.80 to $1,544.40. Add a store and you add card fees on every sale.
The cost of your own time
Your time is usually the biggest cost of a DIY Wix or Squarespace site, and it never shows up on a receipt. Writing the copy, finding photos, setting up pages, connecting a domain and email, and learning the editor all take hours. Then the site needs updates, new photos, price changes and fixes when something looks wrong on a phone.
A simple way to price it: estimate your hours, then multiply by what an hour of your time is worth to the business. As an example only, 30 hours to build a site and 2 hours a month to keep it current, valued at $60 an hour, is $1,800 upfront and $1,440 a year. Use your own numbers. If you are a tradie who could be quoting or on the tools, the real figure is often higher.
The bigger hidden cost is a site that does not bring in work. A builder gives you the tools, but it does not plan your pages, write copy that answers your customers’ questions, or set up tracking so you know which pages produce enquiries. Those are the parts that decide whether the site pays for itself. Keener’s builds start with customer and competitor research and a page plan agreed before any design, and that planning is usually where DIY sites fall short.
When paying someone makes more sense
DIY Wix or Squarespace is the right call when your budget is tight, your needs are simple and you enjoy the work. A clean five-page site for a new sole trader, a portfolio, or a simple event page all fit well. Squarespace in particular produces good-looking sites with little effort. If that describes you, a builder is a sensible choice and you should keep your money.
There are two other paths worth weighing.
Pay a designer to set up Wix or Squarespace. You keep the low monthly cost and the easy editor, and someone else handles the design, copy and setup. This suits owners who want to make their own small edits later.
Move to a custom WordPress site. This makes more sense when the site is a main source of leads, you need features the builders do not do well, or you want to own your site outright. Wix’s help article on exporting sites is clear that a Wix site “needs to be hosted and operated on Wix’s servers” and cannot move to another host. A WordPress site can be moved to any host you choose.
In the interest of transparency, Keener builds on WordPress with Elementor, and on WooCommerce for online stores, so weigh that when reading this section. The upfront cost is higher. A custom build is quoted to scope, based on the number of pages, whether you need an online store, who writes the content and how complex the design is, and ongoing hosting and maintenance through Keener’s website care plans start from $60 a month (ex GST), covering hosting, weekly updates, uptime monitoring and daily backups. For a full breakdown of build prices across options, see how much a website costs in Australia, and for the platform decision itself, read the Wix vs Squarespace vs WordPress comparison.
Results from client sites show why the upfront spend can pay back. Booms Up Civil Group had no previous website and recorded 350+ conversions in 12 months after launching a site with SEO and short-term ads. Little Fuzzies, a paediatric allied health practice, recorded 145+ conversions in its first 3 months. These are the outcomes of strategy, copy and tracking as much as the platform, and a well-planned builder site can also perform.
If you are weighing the three ways to get a site made, the guide to DIY, freelancer or agency websites sets out the trade-offs.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a basic Wix site cost?
A basic Wix business site on the Light plan costs about $17.77 a month, or $213.24 a year, billed yearly, based on Wix’s plans page viewed from Australia in October 2026. That includes a free domain for the first year, but accepting payments is listed only from the Core plan up. Add about $130 a year for a Google Workspace email address and about $25 a year for the domain from year two.
What are the disadvantages of using Wix?
The main disadvantage is lock-in. Wix says its sites must stay on Wix’s servers and cannot be moved to another host, and its help centre says blog posts currently cannot be exported to other platforms. You also rent the site for as long as you use it, prices are only fully confirmed at checkout, and features you add through third-party apps can carry their own monthly fees.
What happens after 1 year of free domain Wix?
Your domain renews at Wix’s regular price and is charged to the payment details you entered when you claimed it. Wix does not publish one renewal price, because it varies with the extension, currency, term, privacy protection and tax. You can see your exact renewal amount under Premium Subscriptions in your Wix account. You can also transfer the domain to another registrar.
How much are Squarespace website fees?
Squarespace plans cost $18.70 to $119.90 a month paid annually, or $26.40 to $163.90 paid monthly, including estimated GST, as listed in October 2026. Selling online adds card processing fees and, on the Basic plan, a 2% store transaction fee. Core and above charge 0% on store sales but still charge a fee on digital content and memberships.
Is Squarespace or Wix cheaper?
They are close. Wix Light ($17.77 a month) is slightly cheaper than Squarespace Basic ($18.70) on annual billing, and Wix Core and Squarespace Core sit within about a dollar a month of each other. Over three years, Squarespace Core often works out cheaper for a service business because it includes Google Workspace email free for the first year.
Getting the numbers right for your business
The cheapest plan is only cheap if the site brings in customers. Start with the annual price, add email and a domain renewal, count your own hours, and compare that total with what a site that brings in work is worth to you. If a builder is the right fit, use it with confidence.
If you want a second opinion on whether a builder, a designer-built Wix site or a custom site suits your business, talk to Keener about website design. If you are on the Central Coast, see Central Coast website design.