Three platforms cover 95% of Australian SMB website needs in 2026: Shopify, Webflow, and custom builds (typically Astro or Next.js). Each is the wrong choice in specific situations. Here is how to know which one fits your business.
TL;DR for Melbourne SMBs
- You sell physical products and ship them? Shopify, almost always.
- You sell services / B2B / content? Webflow, usually.
- You need 50+ programmatic pages, true performance, or SEO at scale? Custom Astro.
- You sell digital subscriptions? Custom or specialised platforms (Memberstack, Outseta).
That covers most cases. Below is the detail.
Shopify — for physical product DTC
Best for: Direct-to-consumer ecommerce. Anyone shipping physical products in Australia.
Why: Australia Post and Sendle integration, AfterPay/Zip checkout, GST handling, Shopify Payments AU support, deep ecosystem (Klaviyo, Recharge, Loop, Yotpo).
Pricing for AU SMBs:
- Shopify Basic: $39/month + 1.7% transaction fee
- Shopify Standard: $109/month + 1.6% transaction fee
- Shopify Advanced: $399/month + 1.4% transaction fee
- Shopify Plus: From $2,500/month + custom pricing
When to upgrade to Plus: Once monthly revenue passes ~$80K AUD or you need checkout customisation, multipass SSO, or B2B price lists.
SEO reality: Shopify SEO is fine for most product/category page needs. It is weaker on programmatic content pages (location pages, comparison pages, content hubs). If your SEO strategy depends on content marketing more than product pages, Shopify is suboptimal.
Build cost in Melbourne: Theme development on Shopify 2.0 from $7,500. Most full builds with Klaviyo + Meta CAPI + migration $10K–$28K.
Webflow — for service / content / B2B
Best for: Service businesses, B2B SaaS marketing sites, agencies, consultants, content-led brands.
Why: Designer-friendly visual builder, fast hosting on AWS CDN, strong CMS for content, decent SEO defaults, no theme constraints.
Pricing:
- Webflow Site Plan (CMS): US$23/month
- Webflow Site Plan (Business): US$39/month
- Webflow Enterprise: custom
Add Webflow Workspace plan if you have multiple sites: from US$19/month per seat.
SEO reality: Webflow SEO is solid. Native sitemap, schema, redirects. Faster than WordPress for almost any use case. Slower than a properly-built Astro site but the difference rarely matters under 100 pages.
Build cost in Melbourne: Webflow service-business builds from $6,500. Most builds with custom CMS structure, motion design and integrations $10K–$22K.
The gotcha: Webflow’s CMS limits matter once you pass 100+ collection items, or need complex multi-language sites, or want to integrate with backend systems. If your roadmap involves significant programmatic content, choose Astro instead.
Custom Astro / Next.js — for performance and scale
Best for: Content-heavy sites, programmatic SEO, performance-critical projects, sites that need to integrate with custom backends.
Why: Sub-1-second load times, zero JavaScript by default (Astro), unlimited customisation, owned codebase, no platform lock-in, no per-seat fees.
Pricing:
- Hosting: ~$5-50/month on Cloudflare Pages or Vercel (often free tier)
- No platform subscription
- No transaction fees
SEO reality: This is the best SEO outcome possible. Programmatic pages, perfect Core Web Vitals, full schema control, unlimited content structure. Most of Austra Digital’s location and service-page hub strategy runs on Astro because Webflow could not handle it cleanly.
Build cost in Melbourne: From $12K for a content/service site. $20K–$45K for content-heavy or programmatic builds. $40K+ for marketplaces, directories, multi-language.
The gotcha: You need a developer to make any structural change. Webflow lets your marketing manager update a hero section; Astro does not, unless you build content-management on top (Decap CMS, Sanity, Contentful — adds $50-300/month and another layer to maintain).
The decision tree
Honest answers to these four questions:
1. Are you selling physical products?
- Yes → Shopify.
- No → continue.
2. Will you have more than 100 pages, or programmatic content?
- Yes → custom Astro.
- No → continue.
3. Does your marketing team need to update content without a developer?
- Yes → Webflow.
- No → custom Astro is faster + cheaper to host.
4. Are you running a marketplace, directory, complex backend integration, or subscription product?
- Yes → custom Astro / Next.js.
- No → see question 3.
What we recommend by Melbourne business type
- DTC ecom brand (jewellery, beauty, food, fashion): Shopify.
- Allied health clinic with 3-12 staff: Webflow.
- Mid-size law firm or accounting practice: Webflow.
- B2B SaaS marketing site: Webflow.
- Single-location café or restaurant: Webflow (or Squarespace if budget is tight).
- Multi-location franchise (5+ locations): Custom Astro for programmatic location pages.
- Marketplace / directory / two-sided platform: Custom (Next.js).
- Subscription/membership product: Custom + Memberstack/Outseta.
- Content publisher / blog-first business: Custom Astro.
How fast can a Melbourne agency build this?
Realistic timelines from kickoff to launch:
- Simple Shopify or Webflow build (5-15 pages): 4 weeks.
- Mid Shopify with custom integrations: 6-8 weeks.
- Webflow with custom CMS structure: 6-8 weeks.
- Custom Astro content site (20-50 pages): 6-10 weeks.
- Custom Astro with programmatic pages (100+): 8-14 weeks.
- Marketplace / multi-language / complex backend: 12-24 weeks.
If a Melbourne agency quotes you 12+ weeks for a standard service-business website, that is a margin tactic, not a real timeline.
Next step
- Web Design Melbourne service page — full breakdown of what we build and how.
- Shopify Developer Melbourne — for DTC brands specifically.
- Free 3-min Loom audit — drop your current site URL and I will record a video covering what is working and what is not.