Short answer: ask who will own the domain and the website, what you’ll see before you pay, what the price includes, what it costs every month after launch, and how you can leave. Get every answer in writing before you pay a deposit.
1. Who will own the domain?
The domain should be registered to your business, with your ABN, and you should be able to log in to it. Walk away if the answer is “we’ll keep it in our account”. Here’s how to check who owns your domain.
2. Do I own the website once it’s paid?
You should be able to take the website with you. Some deals only rent you a site, and you lose it if you stop paying.
3. What will I see before I pay?
A good designer shows you a design or a preview before asking for most of the money. Be wary of paying in full for work you haven’t seen.
4. What exactly does the price include?
Ask for a written list: how many pages, who writes the words, who supplies the photos, how many rounds of changes, and whether forms, Google Business Profile setup and basic SEO are included. “We’ll work it out as we go” is how quotes grow.
5. What will it cost every month after launch?
Ask what the monthly fee covers: hosting, security certificate (SSL), backups, updates and how many changes. Ask what an extra change costs.
6. Is there a minimum term, and how do I cancel?
Ask for the minimum term in months, whether it renews automatically, and whether there’s a fee for leaving early. Small businesses have been caught out before. In 2023, the ACCC accepted an undertaking from tradie platform hipages after raising concerns that subscribers weren’t adequately told about automatic 12-month renewals and early termination fees (ACCC).
7. What happens if I want to leave?
You should get your files, your content and every login, within a set time and at a set cost.
Answers that mean you should walk away
- They won’t register the domain in your business’s name.
- There’s no written quote or list of what’s included.
- They want full payment before you’ve seen any design.
- The exit fee only appears in the fine print.
How we answer these
- Domain: registered in your business’s name, and you get the login.
- Website: yours once the build is paid.
- Before you pay: a free homepage mockup. The 50% deposit is due only after you approve it, and the rest at launch.
- Price: fixed and published on our pricing page, with two rounds of changes in every build.
- Monthly: hosting, SSL, backups, security updates and 15 to 60 minutes of changes, from $79 a month. Extra changes are $100 an hour in 15-minute blocks, quoted before we start. See care plans.
- Minimum term: none. Care plans are month to month, and you can cancel any time.
- Leaving: no exit fee. Within 5 business days of you asking, we hand over your code and content and help move your site to a new host.