Best website builder for restaurants: Wix, Squarespace, Shopify, GoDaddy and the restaurant-only options
The best website builder for restaurants is the one that matches how you take orders. Wix is the best fit for most small places: from about $17 a month, with restaurant apps for menus, ordering and table reservations [1]. Squarespace looks best and has a built-in menu tool, but orders and reservations go through partners [1]. Shopify suits places that sell goods or ship; GoDaddy is the cheapest to start; restaurant-only platforms such as Owner.com and Popmenu cost $179 to $499 a month and include marketing [2] [3]. Prices are annual-billing starting prices and the sources disagree on some, so confirm on the builder's own page.
If you only need a menu, hours, a map and a pickup order form, you may not need a builder: build a free menu site with pickup ordering from a photo of your menu. Below: the builders side by side, the job-by-job pick, what to check before you pay, and the mistakes owners make.
The builders side by side
| Builder | Starting price | Online ordering | Reservations | Menu tool |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wix | from $17 a month (annual) [1] | Yes, Restaurant Orders app [1] | Yes, Table Reservations app [1] | Yes, Restaurant Menus app, printable QR menus [1] |
| Squarespace | $16 a month (annual) or $25 monthly [4] | Partial, through partners [1] | Partial, through Tock or OpenTable [1] | Yes, built-in menu creator [1] |
| Shopify | $29 a month [1] | Yes, with local pickup and delivery controls [1] | Not covered by our source | No dedicated menu tool described [1] |
| GoDaddy | from $9.99 a month [1] | No; relies on a partner such as ChowNow [1] | No; partner such as OpenTable [1] | Not described as a feature [1] |
| Hostinger | from $2.99 or $11.99 a month (the source gives both) [1] | Yes, in restaurant templates [1] | Yes, in templates [1] | Limited [1] |
The review page we read gave two prices for Squarespace and Hostinger, so use these as a range and check the live price. Plans with a transaction fee on selling, such as Shopify's 2.9% + 30ยข on its Basic plan, cost more per order than a flat monthly tool [1]. Cheap promotional first-year prices rise on renewal on many builders, so look at the renewal price.
Best website builder for restaurants, by the job
A cafe, bakery or fine-dining room that wants good looks
Squarespace. The menu creator and templates make a clean page, and reservations go through a partner like Tock [1]. Plan for a monthly partner cost if you want ordering. See our guides to a cafe website and a bakery website.
A food truck or fast-food counter
Wix, because ordering and a QR menu are apps you add from the editor [1]. A truck also needs a page that changes weekly; see the food truck website guide.
A restaurant that sells goods and ships
Shopify. Pickup and delivery controls exist, and the store side is strong, at a card fee on sales [1].
A local place on the lowest budget
GoDaddy or Hostinger, with ordering from a partner or a free page. Check what renews at.
A restaurant that wants the site, ordering and marketing done for it
A restaurant-only platform: Owner.com at $249 plus 5% or $499 flat, or Popmenu at $179 to $499 a month [2] [3]. They cost more because they do more.
A place already on a POS
Use the POS's ordering and put a simple site in front of it; see Toast vs Square.
What a restaurant site must do, whichever builder
A builder with 500 templates is no use if the page fails the diner in the first ten seconds. Check for these before you choose; our what to put on a restaurant website guide goes through each.
- The menu as text, not only a PDF. Text loads on a phone and Google can read it; see how Google reads a menu.
- Hours, address and a tap-to-call phone number at the top of the home page.
- An order or reserve button that works on a phone without an app download.
- Speed. Test the demo site on your phone on mobile data.
- Your own domain, registered in your name.
- Easy edits. If a price change takes you an hour, you will stop changing prices. See how to edit your menu online.
The real cost of a builder
The price on the page is the plan. A year of a restaurant site on a builder usually adds up like this: the plan (annual billing, often a promo rate in year one), a domain at around $10 to $20 a year, an ordering or reservation partner if the builder has none, and card fees on any orders it takes. A $17 plan is about $204 a year before those. Compare that with $2,148 or more a year for Popmenu or $2,988 for Owner Flexible's subscription alone [2] [3]. What a restaurant website costs has the full range, including a done-for-you site.
Free versus paid
Wix has a free tier, but it carries Wix ads and does not allow your own domain [5]. That is fine for a test and wrong for a restaurant that wants to be found. If you want a real free route, read how to make a restaurant website for free, or use the pickup page that needs no builder at all. For orders, restaurant website builders with online ordering compares the ordering side in detail.
Mistakes to avoid
- Choosing by templates. Pick by ordering, reservations and how easily you edit.
- Not reading the renewal price. Year one is often cheaper than year two.
- Putting the menu only in a PDF or image. Phones and search can't use it well.
- Paying for features you will not use, like loyalty and email, with no plan to send them.
- Letting a vendor register your domain. It makes leaving hard.
- Skipping Google. Your Google Business Profile brings more diners than most new sites; set it up first.
How to choose in twenty minutes
- Write down how a diner orders today: phone, walk-in, a delivery app, your Google listing. The builder must add to that, not replace it.
- Pick the one thing the site must do: show the menu, take pickup orders, take bookings, or sell goods. That picks the builder from the table above.
- Open the builder's restaurant template on a phone and put your real menu in it. If it takes more than twenty minutes, it will be a chore every time prices change.
- Check the renewal price and the cost of ordering on the builder's own price page, not a review.
- Buy the domain in your name, point it at the site, and set your Google listing's website link to it.
Builders against restaurant-only platforms
A builder gives you the tools and leaves the work to you; a restaurant-only platform does some of the work, such as writing menu pages, setting up ordering, or sending marketing. That is the whole difference in price: Wix at about $17 a month against Owner.com at $249 or more [1] [2]. For a restaurant with a busy owner and decent online sales the extra help can be worth it. For one with a quiet website and mostly walk-in trade, it is money for features that will sit unused. Start with the cheaper route, and move up only when a real order count says the site is a source of sales.
The first week after you pick one
- Day 1: register the domain in your name and put the menu in as text, with prices, sections and short descriptions.
- Day 2: add hours, the address, a tap-to-call number and a map. Add a photo of the food or the room, your own, not stock.
- Day 3: turn on ordering or reservations, then place a test order from a phone on mobile data.
- Day 4: set the website link on your Google listing and, if you take orders, the order link. See how to get your restaurant on Google Maps.
- Day 5: print a QR code that opens the page and put it on bags, receipts and the door.
- Week 2: look at which page diners open most and fix that one first.
A site you finish in a week and keep current beats a better one you never launch. For ideas on what good ones look like, see restaurant website examples, and for the page that tells your story, the about us page.
Questions
What is the best website builder for a small restaurant?
Wix for most: low price, and ordering, reservations and menu apps [1]. Squarespace if looks matter most and you are happy to use partners.
What is the cheapest website builder for a restaurant?
GoDaddy from $9.99 or Hostinger from a promotional price, as listed [1]. A free pickup page costs nothing.
Which builder has online ordering built in?
Wix (Restaurant Orders), Shopify and Hostinger templates do; Squarespace and GoDaddy rely on partners [1].
Do I need a builder at all?
Not if you want a menu, hours and pickup orders: see do restaurants need websites.
Wix or Squarespace for a restaurant?
Wix for ordering and reservations in one place, Squarespace for looks. See Squarespace vs Wix for restaurants.
Is a restaurant-only platform worth it?
Only if you would use the marketing and your online sales are large. See all our guides for the numbers.
Sources
- 5 best restaurant website builders, Website Builder Expert, read Nov 10, 2026 (an affiliate review site; its Squarespace and Hostinger prices differ between header and body).
- Owner.com pricing, Owner.com, read Nov 10, 2026.
- Popmenu pricing, Restolabs, read Nov 10, 2026 (a rival).
- Squarespace vs Wix, Capterra, as shown in search results Nov 10, 2026.
- Wix vs Squarespace, NerdWallet, as summarised in search results Nov 10, 2026.