Durable vs Mixo (2026): Run a Business or Test an Idea?

Pricing figures updated 6 September 2026: USD prices are converted at the current rate (1 USD ≈ 1.40 AUD, verified 5 September 2026) and shown ex-GST, replacing the retired 1.55 + GST basis. A GST-registered Australian business that supplies its ABN is not charged GST on an imported digital service; other buyers should allow ~10% on top (Methodology).

Verdict (TL;DR): These two AI builders solve different problems. Durable stands up a whole micro-business — site, CRM and invoicing — in about 30 seconds. Mixo spins up a landing page and email waitlist in about a minute to test whether an idea has legs. Buy Durable if you're already trading and want a presence plus a starter toolkit today. Buy Mixo if you're validating an idea and want the cheapest possible way to see if anyone bites. Both bill in USD. For the typical Australian sole trader running a real local service business, Durable wins on utility — with one caveat: invoice from your accounting software, not from Durable.

Compared 30 June 2026 by Adam. Based on our Durable review (16/25) and Mixo review (17/25).

The tension

Both tools promise the same magic: describe your business in a sentence, get a live website in under a minute. Both deliver on that. But they part ways the instant you ask what the site is for.

Durable wants to run your business. Each paid plan bundles a basic CRM, invoicing, an AI marketing assistant and a logo studio around the site. The pitch is "stand up your whole micro-business in an afternoon." It suits the plumber, cleaner or mobile groomer who is already trading and needs a presence — plus a few tools to chase leads and bill customers.

Mixo wants to test an idea. It builds a single landing page with an email signup form, then gets out of the way. There is no shopping cart, no product catalogue, no invoicing. The pitch is "launch a lead-generating website in 60 seconds," per Mixo's own homepage. It suits the founder or side-hustler who wants to know if anyone cares before spending a cent.

So the real question isn't "which builds a better website." It's "are you running a business, or testing whether you have one?"

What each one costs in Australia

Neither tool bills in Australian dollars. Both charge in USD through standard online checkout, so any AUD figure below is our conversion at ~1.40, shown ex-GST. Confirm the exact charge and tax line at checkout.

Two notes on the numbers.

Durable's Grow plan is now US$49/mo (US$41/mo annual), down from the US$99 we recorded in June. We re-checked the live pricing page for this comparison and the figure has dropped — a material change we'll fold into the standalone review on its next update.

Mixo's paid pricing is genuinely unsettled. Mixo's own homepage schema shows paid pricing topping out around US$6/mo, while older third-party directories still list "Basic / Growth / Premium" tiers at US$9 / US$19 / US$39. Mixo's help centre names the current paid tiers "Business" and "Premium" but lists no prices. Treat the entry figure as indicative and confirm at checkout.

The headline is simple. Mixo is far cheaper — a few dollars a month, or free. Durable costs real money because you're paying for the CRM, invoicing and marketing agents, not just the page.

Feature diff

Read the table and the split is obvious. Durable is wider — it does more things, none of them deeply. Mixo is narrower — it does one thing, and does it superbly.

Durable's advantage is the bundle. For a brand-new sole trader, having a site, a place to store customers and a way to draft a blog post in one login removes real friction. The catch is that every tool is entry-level. The CRM and invoicing are fine for your first hundred customers, not a growing operation, and the one-page sites resemble each other.

Mixo's advantage is focus. The 60-second claim is close to true, the free plan lets you publish a live page for nothing, and email signups land in a dashboard you can export to any marketing tool. That is exactly the kit an idea-validation page needs. But the moment you want to sell something or grow past a handful of pages, you hit a wall and rebuild elsewhere.

Neither tool lets you export the site itself. With both, you're building on rented land.

Australian fit

This is where both tools show their limits, and where they differ in an interesting way.

Durable is a US company based in San Francisco. It bills in USD with no local GST tax invoice, and — more pointedly — its invoicing feature is US-centric. A builder that invites you to send invoices but doesn't handle Australian GST or BAS is a mismatch for the exact sole trader it targets. There's no Australian hosting region, the AI copy defaults to US spelling and business framing unless corrected, and support is online-only on US time. We scored Durable's Australian Fit 2/5. The practical workaround: use the site, but invoice from Xero, MYOB or QuickBooks, not from Durable.

Mixo has the more surprising story. It was founded by Adam Arbolino and is based in Sydney (per Crunchbase), making it one of the very few AI website builders in this category that is actually Australian. But "founded in Australia" is not "built for Australian customers." There's still no AUD billing, no confirmed Australian data residency, and no Australia-specific compliance language beyond a general GDPR mention. We scored Mixo's Australian Fit 3/5 — one point ahead of Durable, largely on the local-founder timezone and market-understanding edge.

For a simple lead-capture page holding no sensitive data, none of Mixo's gaps are dealbreakers. For anyone in finance, legal or health collecting client details, the unconfirmed data residency is a reason to ask the vendor directly before publishing. On GST, both tools leave you to keep the receipt and check the tax line yourself — neither issues a clean Australian tax invoice.

Neither tool clears the Australian Fit ≥ 4/5 bar, so neither can wear five stars or be named a category Top Pick. That's a category-wide problem: for a builder that bills you like an Australian business, our Top Pick remains Wix.

Who buys which

Buy Durable if you're already trading. You're a mobile groomer, a cleaner, a consultant, a tradie — you have customers today and need a web presence plus a light toolkit to manage them. Durable's speed and bundle earn their keep. Accept the USD billing, ignore the built-in invoicing, and treat it as a fast starting line you'll graduate from once you pass your first hundred customers. It scored 16/25 in our review.

Buy Mixo if you're testing an idea. You have a hunch, not a business. You want to publish a landing page, run some traffic at it, and see if the emails come in — this week, for free or a few dollars. Mixo does that better than almost anything, and the Sydney-founder angle is a pleasant bonus. It scored 17/25. But don't mistake it for a long-term home; the day you need to sell something, you'll be rebuilding elsewhere.

The verdict for the typical Australian buyer. Mixo scores one point higher, but the two aren't really competing for the same wallet. For the reader this comparison is written for — a sole trader running a local service business — Durable is the more useful tool. It gives you an actual business presence plus a starter toolkit, where Mixo gives you a test page and a waitlist. That extra utility is worth the higher price and the USD billing, provided you invoice from your accounting software instead of Durable's US-centric feature.

If you're not yet trading — if you're still asking whether the idea works at all — flip the recommendation. Spend nothing on Mixo, prove the demand, then build the real thing. And if you can stretch the budget and want a site you won't outgrow in six months, both of these are a starting line, not a destination: Wix is where most Australian businesses should end up.

Read next

• Durable Review Australia 2026
• Mixo Review Australia 2026
• Category guide: Best AI Website & App Builders in Australia 2026

Sources

1. Durable pricing — https://durable.com/pricing — checked 30 June 2026 (Free US$0; Launch US$25/mo, US$22/mo annual; Grow US$49/mo, US$41/mo annual; USD billing). Wayback snapshot to be captured on publish. — Wayback 3 September 2026
2. Mixo free-plan help page — https://www.mixo.io/help/does-mixo-have-a-free-plan/ — checked 30 June 2026 (free-plan inclusions; paid tiers named "Business" and "Premium", no prices listed). Wayback snapshot to be captured on publish. — Wayback 17 May 2026
3. Mixo homepage — https://www.mixo.io/ — "60 seconds" wording, feature claims (primary). Checked 30 June 2026. Wayback snapshot to be captured on publish. — Wayback 1 August 2026
4. Crunchbase: Mixo — https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/mixo-9545 — founder and Sydney location (secondary). Checked 30 June 2026. Wayback snapshot to be captured on publish.
5. AID Durable review (score 16/25, Australian Fit 2/5) — internal, 7 June 2026.
6. AID Mixo review (score 17/25, Australian Fit 3/5) — internal, 20 June 2026.

The AI Directory Australia is an independent editorial publication. We don't accept payment for positive reviews. Read our Methodology and Affiliate Disclosure.