Services by Michael van Diermen
Hosting pricing in Australia is deliberately confusing: a “$2.99/month” sign-up that renews at $18, “unlimited” plans with hidden resource limits, and add-ons for things that should be included. Here’s what hosting actually costs, and what a small business really needs.
What the market charges
Typical Australian shared hosting runs $5–$25 per month ($60–$300/year). The classic trick is the renewal jump: a cheap first year, then double or triple from year two — check the renewal price before you sign anything. Then come the add-ons: SSL certificates ($50–$150/year at some hosts), backups as a paid extra, email accounts capped or charged. A “$5/month” plan can quietly become $300/year.
What a small business site actually needs
- Enough capacity for a business site or store — almost any shared plan has this; “unlimited” marketing wars are irrelevant at this size
- An SSL certificate — non-negotiable, and it should be free (ours are)
- Daily backups included, with free restores
- Email on your own domain
- Australian servers — faster for your customers, and your data stays onshore
- A human who answers — the thing cheap overseas hosts never include
Our answer: one honest number
We charge $65 per year (or $5.40/month) — same price at renewal, with unlimited bandwidth and support, free SSL, daily backups and managed software updates all included. No tiers, no add-on ambush. And if you’re having a new website built by Budget Web Design, your first two years of hosting and your domain are $0.
When you’d pay more (honestly)
A busy online store, a large member site, or heavy custom applications can outgrow shared hosting — that’s when VPS or dedicated hosting (from roughly $30–$100+/month) makes sense. Most small businesses never get there, and shouldn’t pay as if they might.