Best Restaurant Website Builder

A good website can signal boost your restaurant. Read on for some of the best website builders that can help you show off your menu and attract customers.

Not every website builder works great for restaurants.

You don't want to try one out only to realize it doesn't have the features you need.

But there are those that can cater specifically to restaurants. And we've got them listed down for you.

From customizable menus to delivery options, you're likely to find a suitable option. Read on.

10 Best Website Builders for Restaurants

Making the website itself doesn't have to be difficult. The best options will make it easy for you.

Let's start with Wix.

Wix

Best for small cafes and restaurants

Wix is a great website builder for restaurants. They provide an online ordering and reservation system. Their restaurant templates also make it easy to start.

And if you own a small café? Their social media platform integrations can easily get the word out. Eye-catching pictures on your site can be a good source of interest.

The editor comes with preset layouts you can edit right away, such as the About page, Contact, and more. You won't need to worry about adding the basic pages when you start customizing.

Pricing:
Wix has three plans for Business and eCommerce websites. All three come with the necessary plugins to accept online payments.^[1]

• Business VIP: $59/month, with unlimited storage and unlimited hours of video
  
• Business Unlimited: $32/month, with 100GB of storage and 10 hours of video
  
• Business Basic: $27/month, with 50GB of storage and 5 hours of video

These three plans allow for online orders, reservation management, and custom menus.

Features:
Wix's restaurant-specific builder has tools to streamline your entire operation in one package.

POS integrations can sync your menu and orders with other point-of-sale options to keep records in check. Their built-in analytical tools can help you keep track of sales as well.

You can even add content to your website. Food blogs or updates on new recipes can contribute to SEO. That way, customers can find you through Google search.

Squarespace

Best for non-techy restaurant owners

Squarespace is great for restaurant owners with little to no technical skills. It's intuitive, with many templates to choose from. The templates are specially made for online stores, restaurants, blogs, etc.

The platform provides easy-to-follow instructions to help you get your website up and running. Its tools include email marketing, SEO, and eCommerce integration, not to mention its visual editor.

Pricing:
Squarespace offers a 14-day free trial per template. Choose from the selection of plans once the trial ends:^[2]

• Personal: $16/month billed annually
  
• Business: $23/month billed annually
  
• Commerce Basic: $27/month billed annually
  
• Commerce Advanced: $49/month billed annually

Features:
The platform offers many visual-focused templates for you to choose from. The builder is minimalist with prebuilt sections. You can also easily drag and drop elements.

And if you need customers to make reservations? You can use Tock. It's their restaurant management system. Just add the widget to your Squarespace website.

Tock can also handle table management, takeout and online orders, and online ticketing for events.

Weebly

Best for restaurant owners on a budget

Weebly offers integration with free restaurant apps that allow you to showcase your menus, promote deals and coupons, and facilitate food orders. These apps are developed by third-party developers and can be accessed through the Weebly App Center.

But there may be an additional charge to use this tool, depending on the plan and extent of use.

Online stores and sites can be started on their free plan. It's rather unique, as other builders insist that you choose a paid plan for the eCommerce features.

Pricing:
Weebly offers a free plan to start. If you need an upgrade, you can choose from:^[3]

• Personal: $10/month billed annually
  
• Professional: $12/month billed annually
  
• Performance: $26/month billed annually

Features:
Weebly offers customizable webpage designs geared toward growing your business.

Its builder is intuitive and perfect for small online businesses. But depending on the plan, it can handle the workload of a larger business, too.

Flavor Plate

Best customer support

If you're looking for a website builder that is laser-focused on restaurant support, Flavor Plate may be what you're looking for.

You can start with a free trial to explore their builder and templates. A dedicated support specialist will be on hand to help you build your website and its content if you prefer.

Pricing:
Flavor Plate has only one paid plan at $39 per month.^[4] The plan contains everything a restaurant might need: from menus, online orders, templates, social media integration, and more.

Features:
Flavor Plate websites have online ordering, gift cards, and communication tools like contact forms.

They also offer a thermal printer that you can set up in the kitchen. That way, you can print orders as they come in.

Hostinger

Best for local restaurants

Hostinger's website builder comes with a selection of 13 templates for restaurants. The drag-and-drop functionality makes it a good choice for beginners.

You can embed restaurant reviews from Yelp, Google, Tripadvisor, and more. This way, your audience will know what others think of your restaurant! Let word-of-mouth marketing do the rest.

Pricing:^[5]
Hostinger offers a single plan for its website builder, which is also known as Website Builder & Web Hosting plan.

The initial yearly subscription for this plan is $2.99 per month. The renewal cost will depend on the billing cycle you choose, which includes options for 12, 24, and 48-month durations.

Features:
Hostinger has basic SEO tools to help get your restaurant's website to climb the search ranks quickly.

And through the map integration feature, you can let locals know where you are.

GoDaddy

Best general website builder

GoDaddy is known for domains. But did you know they offer a lot of other services, including website building?

They offer some restaurant-specific templates. Some of these are content-focused while others are image-focused.

Although, the website builder is limited. It doesn't have the many features its competitor offers. But that also makes it simple to use.

Pricing:
GoDaddy offers a free plan. It has limited features, like other free plans. But there's also a 7-day trial for paid plans. That way, you can test all the features first before committing.

Here are the paid plans you can choose from:^[6]

• Basic: $9.99/month
  
• Premium: $14.99/month
  
• Commerce: $16.99/month
  
• Commerce Plus: $29.99/month

Features:
GoDaddy's toolkit is geared toward building an online presence and doing it well. You can handle social media content creation and management, blogging, ads, SEO, email marketing, and more.

Plus, it's an all-in-one platform. So you can purchase your domain and hosting right from the website builder.

WordPress

Best customization features

WordPress is most popular for bloggers, small businesses, and even Fortune 500 companies. But it can handle what you need for a restaurant just as well.

You don't need any coding skills to get started. Changing your menu and prices or posting a promotion should be a breeze.

It also has many professionally designed themes that you can use. And many of them are fit for a restaurant.

Pricing:
WordPress also has the option of a free plan for life. But this will come with the WordPress.com subdomain.

To have a custom domain for your restaurant, you will need to purchase a plan:^[7]

• Personal: $4/month billed annually
  
• Premium: $8/month billed annually
  
• Business: $25/month billed annually
  
• Commerce: $45/month billed annually

Features:
WordPress is known for its customizable themes. You can create an appealing-looking website for your restaurant without needing to stress about the design.

One of WordPress' many plugins is the option to include a map to your website. Google and other location-centric plugins can be added to the site at the push of a button as well.

The platform's social media integration is another feature to consider. There are several free plugins that can link to your restaurant's social media pages. You can post updates and announcements automatically.

UpMenu

Best food delivery system

UpMenu is a website builder made with food delivery and online ordering in mind. You can manage your customer's orders from the website or through the app.

It also features tools for marketing automation to free up your time. This way, you can focus on other, more important tasks.

Pricing:
After the 7-day free trial, you will be asked to choose from one of the three paid plans:^[8]

• Basic: $49/month
  
• Standard: $89/month
  
• Premium: $169/month

Their plans are certainly on the more expensive side compared to other website builders.

Features:
UpMenu is made for the restaurant industry, so it comes with an online ordering system. While it doesn't charge a commission per order, you may have to pay $1.90 per order over the limit.

The Basic plan only accepts up to 75 orders, while the Standard plan accepts up to 210. But the Premium plan has no limit.

They also offer a branded Google or iOS mobile app. This makes it convenient for your customers to order from your restaurant.

BentoBox

Best restaurant POS system integration

BentoBox is another website builder made specifically to cater to the restaurant industry. Their commission-free ordering system can include both kitchen tickets and merchandise if your restaurant needs it.

Their platform seamlessly integrates the back of the house with the front of the house. And because the POS system is integrated, you can keep track of your sales, inventory, and other analytics in one place.

Pricing:
BentoBox offers a variety of different products depending on your needs and what you want on a website. They have a few add-ons, but the main plans are:^[9]

• Essentials Website: $149/month with $1,000 setup fee
  
• Plus Website: $249/month with $1,500 setup fee

Features:
BentoBox's strength is in its online ordering tools. It offers all your need to process online orders, take online payments, generate and sell gift cards, and offer catering services.

You can set up dine-in ordering and online ticketing (for events), too. The builder itself is optimized for mobile-friendly websites. It's a huge deal since many customers order through mobile.

Most importantly, you can choose from many restaurant-specific templates. You can add photos easily, so you can entice your customers on what to order.

Square

Best simple website builder

Square is best known as a payment processor. But did you know it also has a simple website builder?

This website builder's forte is running e-commerce websites. That said, it has the tools that let you build a site for restaurants, too.

There are features for mobile ordering and delivery. You can even take advantage of its POS system.

Pricing:
Square offers a free plan, so you can get your restaurant up and running with no budget. It comes with built-in SEO tools. And you can use Square's POS system with it.

You'll also get features on local delivery and shipping. But if the free features aren't enough, you can upgrade to these plans:^[10]

• Plus: $29/month
  
• Premium: $79/month

Features:
Square's website builder is beginner-friendly. But that also means there are not a lot of customization features. For restaurants, however, you can take advantage of different fulfillment options.

Your customers can order for pick-up, in-house delivery, and on-demand delivery. You can also order hardware (like kitchen printers) if you need them.

How to Choose a Restaurant Website Builder

It's easy to get lost in the many features that website builders offer. But you need to consider what your business really needs.

There are restaurant-specific features and then general website features to look into.

Restaurant Features

Not all website builders are the same. Some will have more restaurant-specific features than others.

Here are some of the things to look for:

• Menus
  Your visitors will want to know what's cooking! Posting your menu on your website helps potential customers decide if they want to place an order.

• Maps/Location
  It's important that your visitors know where your restaurant is so they can go there and eat! This is less important if you're an online-only store focusing on online deliveries. Although, it's still a good option to have.

• Third-party review site integration
  Letting customers leave reviews of your restaurant helps boost legitimacy. Integration with review sites helps you show off those 5-star ratings you've earned.

• POS system integration
  If you're planning on taking online orders, you're going to need this one. Some website builders have tools that send online orders straight to your POS at the cashier or the kitchen's printer. It helps keep the process streamlined.

• Social media integration
  Having a good social media presence will help your restaurant gain traction. Those media feeds on your website will keep new visitors in the loop.

• Email marketing
  Have an event or a new promo coming up? Let your visitors know all about them by setting up an email newsletter.

General Website Features

Now, there are website-specific features a good website builder should have.

Here are the things you'll want to consider:

• Ease of use
  Do you have a lot of coding knowledge? A good website builder will help you create a professional website even if you don't know how to code.

  Drag-and-drop builders make it easier to visualize what the site will look like. You can also choose from prebuilt templates to save a lot of time.

• Customization options
  Your restaurant's website needs to stand out from the competition. One way to make that happen is to have full customizability of the site.

  Pick a website builder that will let you change menu page layouts, fonts, and colors to showcase your brand.

• Free elements
  When editing a website, elements refer to text boxes, images, maps, forms, and more. Some of these are free and ready to use right away, while others might require a paid plugin.

• Payment options
  Will you be having online orders? If yes, this is one of the most important features to consider. Does the builder have PayPal integration, or can it accept debit and credit cards? These features aren't always offered for free.

• Domain and hosting options
  Some website builders also offer domain and hosting options. Is it easier for you to purchase a domain, host it, and build it all in one place?

How We Came Up With the List (Methodology)

When coming up with this list, we asked ourselves: what does a restaurant really need to find success online? Which one has the best features to reach that goal?

We considered the price, ease of use, and available tools the website builders offer. There are lots of options, with some being best for online stores and others more suited for content.

The majority of this list includes drag-and-drop features, which make the creation and customization a lot smoother. Our picks are mobile-friendly, too, so your audience's experience will be consistent no matter the platform.

What the Experts Say

CreditDonkey asked a panel of industry experts to answer readers' most pressing questions. Here's what they said:

Bottom Line

While there are plenty of cheap website builders that you can choose for your restaurant, they're not all the same.

Your restaurant's website will need different features from another small business. So be more particular about features for online ordering, delivery, payments, etc.

Make sure you know what you need before you commit to a plan. You can use free trials (if any) to test if the interface works for you.

References