A custom website is worth the extra over a template when your site has a job a ready-made layout can’t do well. That means looking like your business rather than the next one, meeting your industry’s rules, connecting to tools such as a booking engine, or explaining what you do before a visitor books, for example with a tool that lets them check where they stand. At CatalystHub, a custom five-page build is $500 flat, and our Specialist build, designed for your industry, starts from $1,500. Both prices include GST.

The short version: A custom site is designed from scratch around your business and your customers, with the words written with you. At CatalystHub, custom starts at $500 flat for five pages, live in seven business days. From there it runs to Advanced Design from $700 (animated or 3D), the Specialist build from $1,500 (up to 15 pages, built for your industry), custom Shopify themes from $700, and scoped custom quotes for bigger builds such as corporate sites. All prices include GST. On our website builds you own the code, the domain and the hosting; a custom Shopify theme is yours, on your own Shopify account.

What to do next: Every package and what it includes is on our pricing page. Bigger project? Ask for a custom quote through start your project. Want to see the work first? Our work page has the builds.

Builder, template or custom

Most websites start in one of three ways:

A website builder. You assemble the site yourself from blocks. We’ve compared that route in Wix vs a custom website, so we won’t repeat it here.
A template. You, or a designer, swap in your logo, photos and words. A stock template can be shared with many other businesses, so yours ends up looking like theirs.
Custom. The design starts from your business: what you sell, who buys it, and what you want them to do when they land on the page.

Watch for a “reskin”: an existing template with new colours and a logo on top. We don’t reskin templates. Every CatalystHub site is designed from scratch for the business it’s built for. In practice that means we send you two or three design directions made for your brand and industry, you review them with us, and we lock in the one that feels right before the build starts. Then we refine the words you sent and write the ones you didn’t.

Who designs it and who builds it

Custom web design and development are two halves of one job. Design is how the site looks and reads. Development is building it in code so it works: the forms, the content editor, the booking engine, the online store. At CatalystHub the design and the build aren’t outsourced; our own team does both. Standard builds use Astro, TinaCMS (the editor you use to change words and photos, a bit like a Word document) and Cloudflare. It’s open infrastructure, so another developer could work on it later. For online stores we build custom Shopify themes, and we’re a certified Shopify Partner.

When custom is worth paying more

Here is where custom earns its price:

You want to look like your business, not like the next one. A shared template can’t do that by definition.
Your industry has its own rules and tools. Our Specialist build includes booking engines, capability PDFs and industry compliance such as AHPRA (the health practitioner regulator) and ACCC (the consumer watchdog) rules. A custom Shopify theme comes with custom integrations such as apps, tracking pixels and subscription tools.
The site has to explain something. One of our clients, a law firm, has an interactive tool that lets a business owner check where they stand before they book. Another, a speech pathologist, works in a field parents only search once they’re already worried, so her page opens with the signs before therapy is even mentioned.
The price gap is smaller than you’d think. Our custom five-page build is $500. If you’re weighing that against a budget template, our guide to cheap websites in Perth has four questions that tell a real deal from a trap.

What custom web design costs, level by level

Custom isn’t one price. It scales with the number of pages, the design treatment and what the site has to connect to. Here is ours.

Level	What you get	Price (inc. GST)
Standard build	Custom design, five pages, words written with you, Word-style editor, contact form, live in 7 business days	$500 flat
Advanced Design	The Standard build with an animated or 3D design treatment	From $700
About nine pages	A bigger custom site, priced to your scope	Around $900, custom quote
Specialist build	More advanced custom design for your industry, up to 15 pages, compliance and integrations included	From $1,500
Custom Shopify theme	A fully custom store theme, up to 10 custom-designed pages, custom integrations. Copywriting not included	From $700
Bigger projects	Corporate sites, multi-site rollouts, deeper integrations, design-led platform work	Scoped custom quote

The Standard, Advanced, Specialist and Shopify builds all have seven-business-day delivery written into the contract. The clock pauses only while we wait on your content, and we tell you in writing when it does. Need a logo too? Logo design is $199, with your colours, fonts and file formats, delivered in five business days. Extra pages after launch are $100 a page, and a care plan is optional from $49 a month.

Bigger custom builds: we do those too

We designed the new corporate website for Carey Group, a mining and civil business, built around its safety record and project credentials. It’s in development now. For work that doesn’t sit inside a package, you get a scoped custom quote, fixed-price where we can be. Specialist and Shopify builds can be paid 50/50, at the start and at launch, if you ask.

Why custom prices vary so much

The three 2026 price guides our cost guide cites put a five to eight page site at $2,000 to $5,000, $3,250 to $6,000 and $2,500 to $10,000. As the cost guide explains, most of that spread comes from how a business is set up and what it has to pay for, rather than from how hard the site is to build. We have no sales team, no account managers and no discovery workshops billed by the hour. The full breakdown is in how we build a $500 website without outsourcing it. Our price is lower. We don’t think our quality is, and we’d put our builds beside agency work that costs several times as much.

Based in Perth, building Australia-wide

We’re based in Rivervale and design for businesses across the Perth metro area. Builds are done remotely, so there’s no site visit and no need to be in Perth: we build for clients Australia-wide at the same prices. A Joondalup electrician we built for had been quoted $2,200 by a local agency for the same job; his review is on our Joondalup web design page. For how we work locally, see web design in Perth, or call (08) 6288 0080.

Three custom builds you can load today

These three are live, with a CatalystHub credit in the footer.

Aesir Legal & Advisory, a Perth law firm practising commercial law. A full-bleed Perth skyline video, a moving founder portrait and one navy-and-orange theme across the site, plus the interactive diagnosis tool that lets a business owner self-assess, then book.
Nathan Fischer, a Western Australian stonemason and blacksmith. A dark editorial palette, hand-set display type, and every photograph a real piece standing in a real garden rather than a stock shot. Stonework and ironwork each get their own section.
Sim Dhaliwal, an Adelaide speech pathologist. The page opens with the signs in plain language, sorted into communication, literacy and confidence, before it mentions therapy at all. Warm palette, real session photography, and separate paths for primary, high school and adult learners.

See them on our work page.

How to judge a designer’s portfolio

Whoever you’re considering, a few minutes with their portfolio tells you a lot:

Can you load the sites? Ask for live web addresses, not only screenshots, and open them on your phone as well as a computer.
Do they look different from one another? If every site shares the same layout with different colours, ask whether they started from a template.
Is the work labelled honestly? A good portfolio says what is live and what is still in development. Ours marks work that is still being built “In development”.
Does each site do a job for its business? Look past the colours: does the page lead a visitor to call, book or buy?

Questions to ask about the process

Ask this	CatalystHub’s answer
How many design directions will I see before you build?	Two or three, each designed around your brand and industry. You pick one with us
Who writes the words?	We refine the copy you send and write what you didn’t (Shopify themes exclude copywriting)
Will I get the scope and price in writing before I pay?	Yes, a one-page summary after a 30-minute call
When will it be live, and is that in the contract?	Seven business days on the Standard, Advanced, Specialist and Shopify builds, in the contract
How do changes work?	Unlimited revisions until you’re happy. Send your feedback in one batch and we turn it around in 24 to 48 hours. Bigger changes can take longer
Who actually builds it?	Our own team. The design and the build aren’t outsourced

What you should own at the end

Paying for a custom build should leave you owning the result. On our website builds (Standard, Advanced and Specialist), your code lives in your own GitHub repository with owner access at launch, your domain is registered in your name, and your hosting sits free on your own Cloudflare account. Every login comes on one handover sheet, with a 30-minute video walkthrough. If you ever leave, you take everything with you; that’s written into the contract. Online stores work differently because Shopify hosts them: a custom Shopify theme is yours, on your own Shopify account, with full access handed over at launch. Our guide to who owns your website has the checks to run on any quote.

Where to start

Whichever package you pick, from five pages to a corporate site, Vish and the team design it for your business from a blank page. Compare the packages on our pricing page, look through our work, or start your project. We’re rated 5.0 from 16 Google reviews.

Frequently asked questions

What is custom web design? A website designed for your business from scratch, rather than a ready-made template with your logo added. With us that means two or three design directions to choose from, the words written with you, and a build by our own team.

How much does custom web design cost? With CatalystHub, a custom five-page site is $500 flat including GST. Other packages start from $700, and bigger builds get a scoped custom quote. Every package is on our pricing page.

Is a custom website worth it for a small business? When the site has to look like your business, explain what you do or connect to tools like a booking engine, yes. At $500 for five custom pages, the extra over a template is smaller than most people expect.

Do you do custom work for wholesalers and product businesses, or just templates? Custom. We don’t reskin templates: every site starts from a blank page and your business. For a product business that can be our $500 five-page site, or a custom Shopify theme from $700 with up to 10 custom-designed pages and custom integrations, on your own Shopify account.

Do you take on large custom projects? Yes. Corporate sites, multi-site rollouts, deeper integrations and design-led platform work each get a scoped custom quote, fixed-price where we can be.

Do you offer custom web design in Perth? Yes. We’re based in Rivervale and design for businesses across Perth, and we build remotely for clients anywhere in Australia at the same prices. Call (08) 6288 0080.

Do I own a custom website once it’s built? With us, yes. On a website build the code, the domain and the hosting are in your name, with every login handed over at launch. A custom Shopify theme is yours, on your own Shopify account.