Custom website development in Australia

Custom website development with Pagecog

Pagecog designs and builds custom websites for Australian businesses, then hosts and runs them on a monthly plan. Our base plan is $298 a month, GST inclusive, on a 12 month term with no upfront build fee, and it includes a custom design and build, Cloudflare hosting and small edits. A site that sells products online is the $498 a month e-commerce plan with a Shopify storefront. Larger additions, or a fully bespoke build beyond either plan, are quoted separately as a custom project on request. The pricing page lists every published figure.

Custom here means the design and code start from your business: your services, your customers, the tools you already use and the searches you want to show up for.

When a custom build is worth it

A custom website earns its cost when the site has to do something a theme can't do well. That usually means one or more of these:

• You take bookings, quotes or orders through a process that is specific to how you work.
• The site needs to connect to your other systems, such as a CRM, booking tool or accounting software.
• You have several locations or service areas, each needing its own pages.
• The site changes often and you want someone else making the edits.
• Your current site has reached the limit of what its builder or theme allows.

If none of those apply, a well built themed site is usually the better spend. The $298 a month Website plan covers it, and if you outgrow it, larger additions are quoted separately and you keep everything you've built.

What a custom build includes

A custom build covers the site and the work around it. The base plan includes the hosting, upkeep and small edits, and the items below marked as extras are quoted or added separately:

• Custom design, and copy written by people.
• Custom booking and enquiry forms, with integrations with the tools you already run quoted as additions where they go beyond the base plan.
• Page structures for multiple locations, a region or the whole country, scoped with you.
• Ongoing SEO as a month to month add-on at $549 a month, plus visibility in AI search tools like ChatGPT.
• Google Ads management as a month to month add-on at $549 a month. You keep your own Google Ads account and pay Google your ad spend directly.
• Small edits made when you ask, with a monthly report and a dashboard login.
• Hosting on Cloudflare, with no plugins to patch.

We hold your domain while you are with us, and after the 12 month term we transfer it to you on request.

How a custom build runs

1. Brief. Tell us what the business does and what the site needs to do on the get started page. A few lines is enough to start.
2. Scope and price. We talk through the brief. The base plan is $298 a month, and anything larger is quoted separately before any work starts.
3. Design and copy. Layout and words are worked out together, because a page works best when both are built for the same job.
4. Build and launch. We build on Cloudflare with SEO and analytics set up from the start, test across phones and desktops, then go live.
5. Ongoing work. After launch we keep working on the site each month: edits, content, SEO and reporting.

If you're still comparing agencies, our guide to custom website development before you build covers the questions to ask and the red flags to watch for.

How custom development is priced

Most Australian agencies quote custom work as a one-off project, then charge separately for hosting and a care plan. We use one monthly plan instead, so the build, hosting and small edits sit in a single figure with no upfront build fee. The base plan is $298 a month, GST inclusive, on a 12 month term, and the e-commerce plan is $498 a month. Larger additions or a bespoke build beyond the plans are quoted as a custom project on request. Where you run ads, you pay Google your ad spend directly from your own account.

For a comparison with typical project quotes, see what custom website development costs in Australia, or the broader website cost guide if you're weighing every option from DIY builders up.

Custom builds, redesigns and web design

If your site mostly works and needs a better look, faster pages or clearer copy, a web design or redesign may be all it needs. Custom development is for when the site itself has to do more. Get started and we'll tell you which one fits.