What it costs to run a website with a database each month

A website with a database costs four things to run each month: the builder or hosting plan, the database, the domain, and a fee on each card payment. For a small Australian business on an AI written site, a site with no database can run on an $8 plan plus a domain, and a site with bookings or orders adds a hosted database that every plan includes, or a Supabase project on your own account.

The table below sets out each line with the price as published on 20 October 2026. This post is about the running costs of a site that stores data; for what a whole small business website costs to set up and own in Australia, including design work and GST, see the full cost breakdown.

Why the database changes the bill

A site without a database is a set of files. Once built, it can be served from a CDN for almost nothing, and the only thing that changes is your content. The moment a site stores bookings, orders, member accounts or form answers, it needs a database that runs all the time, keeps backups and enforces who can read what. That is a running cost, and it is usually the line people forget when they compare builders.

OneCraft writes every site as code. When a feature needs data, the agent turns on a backend: either a schema of its own in OneCraft’s pool project, with a login role that can reach no other site, or a project on the owner’s own Supabase account. Every table gets row level security, and the agent checks each one as an anonymous visitor and as a signed in person before the work can finish. The website with its own database page explains what gets built.

Hosted database or your own Supabase

The two routes cost differently.

Hosted on OneCraft. Every plan, Free included, gives each site a hosted database in OneCraft’s shared pool. The database cost is inside the plan, and nothing else arrives on a separate bill.

Your own Supabase account. Any plan can connect a Supabase account instead, for owners who want the data in an account they hold. Supabase’s free plan allows 2 active projects with a 500 MB database each, but pauses free projects after a week of inactivity. Its Pro plan starts at $25 a month and includes $10 of compute credits, which cover one Micro instance; each further project adds its own compute cost, $10 a month for a Micro. You pay Supabase directly and own the account.

For one site with steady bookings, the hosted route is the cheaper one: OneCraft Starter at $8 with its hosted database, against OneCraft Starter plus Supabase Pro at $25 more. The difference is who holds the database account. If you want the data in an account you control, the second route gives you that for the extra $25.

Credits are for building, not running

OneCraft bills the AI’s work in credits: 1 credit per US cent of model use, builds are free, and a new site costs 1 credit. A measured website generation used about 14 credits, and an app generation 55 to 72. Credits are used when you generate a site or change it in chat, not when visitors use it. A published site with no changes that month uses none. Starter’s 500 monthly credits cover several generations and many chat edits, so most small businesses never buy more.

Payment fees add up faster than plans

If the site takes card payments, two fees apply to each one. Stripe charges its own fee; on its Australian pricing page that is 1.65% plus A$0.30 for domestic cards and 3.5% plus A$0.30 for international cards, plus 2% if currency conversion is needed, with GST included. OneCraft adds a platform fee on payments through your own connected Stripe account: 2% on Starter, 1% on Pro and 0.5% on Pro+. The free plan cannot take payments.

Take 80 orders of A$25 a month, A$2,000 in sales, all on domestic cards. Stripe’s fee is 1.65% of A$2,000, A$33, plus 80 times A$0.30, A$24, so A$57. A 1% platform fee on Pro adds A$20. At this volume the payment fees are larger than the plan, which is why the fee rate, not the plan price, decides the cheaper option once sales grow. Ordering and checkout are covered on the ecommerce website with Stripe page.

The domain

A .com.au or .com is bought from a registrar of your choice and usually paid yearly; auDA sets the rules for .au names, and registrars set the prices. OneCraft does not sell domains. A custom domain needs a paid plan: Starter allows 1, Pro 5. Until then the site lives at a free onecraft.live address, which costs nothing. The custom domain page covers the DNS steps.

Three monthly budgets

A brochure site. No database, no payments: Starter at $8 a month plus the domain. Nothing else.

A booking site on your own Supabase. Starter at $8, Supabase free while it stays busy enough not to pause, then Supabase Pro from $25 when it matters, plus Stripe and a 2% platform fee on deposits.

A shop or members site, hosted. Starter at $8 or Pro at $25 with the hosted database, plus Stripe’s fees and a 1% platform fee on each sale.

Whichever route you take, write the numbers down for a full year with your own expected sales. The headline plan is rarely the largest line once a site takes money, and a well written brief keeps the credits you spend on fixes low.