Do restaurants need websites?

Yes, almost every restaurant needs a website, but a small one. Most diners look a place up before they go, and your Google profile, Instagram and delivery app listings each answer only part of what they want. A website is the one place you control that shows the full menu as text, today's hours and a way to order that doesn't pay an app a cut of every order.

It doesn't have to be expensive or elaborate. Below: what diners actually check, what a website does that Google, social media and the apps can't, what going without one costs on real numbers, when a site matters less, and the smallest site worth having.

1. Do diners really check a restaurant's website?

Most do, at least some of the time. In a survey Toast reported, 32% of respondents said they always check a restaurant's website before visiting, 51% sometimes, 14% rarely and 4% never [1]. An older OpenTable survey of more than 6,000 US diners, from 2015, found 86% looked at menus online before eating out [2]. Survey figures vary with who was asked and when, so read them as a direction rather than a promise: a large share of your customers will look for your menu and hours online before they come or order.

What they look for is plain. A hungry person on a phone wants to know what you serve, what it costs, whether you're open now, and how to order, call or get there. Our guide on what a restaurant website must show lists each in order.

2. "Isn't my Google profile enough?"

Your Google Business Profile is free and it's where many diners find you first, on Maps or in search. Set it up and keep it true; it's the most important thing on this list (how to set it up for a restaurant). But it isn't a website:

• Its menu is limited. You can add a menu, but sizes, choices, add-ons and allergy notes don't fit well, and diners' photos of an old paper menu often sit next to it.
• It needs somewhere to send people. The profile has a Website field and lets you add your own food ordering link [3]. Without a site, those links go to a delivery app or nowhere.
• Google no longer builds free sites. Google shut its Business Profile websites (business.site) in March 2024 [4]. Places that relied on them lost their site.
• You share it. Anyone can suggest edits to your profile, and diners add photos and questions. Your website is the one page only you change.

3. "I have Instagram and Facebook. Do I still need a website?"

Social media is good for showing today's special and keeping regulars around. It's weak at the jobs a hungry stranger has:

• The menu is buried in a highlight or a photo from months ago, and nobody can tell if prices are current.
• Hours are in a bio line that's easy to forget to change.
• Some people won't open a social app, or aren't logged in.
• Posts scroll away; a link in bio is one more tap before the menu.
• Search engines read a website's text menu much better than a menu inside a photo (how Google reads your menu).

Keep posting. Put your website link in every bio so the post brings people to the menu and the Order button.

4. "I'm on DoorDash and Uber Eats. Isn't that my website?"

A delivery app listing shows your menu and takes orders, and it brings customers who've never heard of you. It's also the most expensive way to take an order from someone who already knows you. DoorDash charges restaurants 15%, 25% or 30% of each delivered order by plan, and 6% on pickup orders in its app [5]. Uber Eats charges 20%, 25% or 30% on delivery and 7% or 10% on pickup [6].

When your Google profile, your Instagram bio and your flyers all point at the app, every regular who orders pays the app's fees and you pay its commission. A website with its own ordering is how you send those regulars somewhere cheaper, while the apps keep bringing new people.

5. What each channel does, side by side

They aren't rivals. The profile and social media bring people; the apps bring strangers and delivery; the website is where all of them can land.

6. What does having no website cost?

A worked example, not your numbers. A takeout place gets 200 orders a month through a delivery app at $25 each, $5,000 a month. Say a third of them, about 67, come from regulars who'd happily order direct if there were an easy place to do it.

Even a site that costs a few hundred dollars a year pays for itself here if regulars use it. The sum to do is your own: last month's app orders, how many were repeat customers, and what the app took. More on that in commission-free online ordering.

There are quieter costs too. Without a site, diners find your menu on third-party pages and old photos, often with wrong prices or hours you can't change. A wasted trip to a place that was closed loses a regular.

7. When a website matters less

To be fair to the forum owners who say they don't need one [8]: a site matters less if

• almost all your trade is walk-in from a busy street, and your menu is on a board that rarely changes;
• you're booked out by regulars and don't want more customers;
• you don't want to take any orders ahead and you'll keep your Google profile's hours and menu exactly right.

Even then, a one-page site with the menu, hours and phone costs little and stops the wrong information from being the only information. And if any of these change, from a slow month to a new competitor, the site is already there.

8. The smallest website worth having

You don't need a designer or ten pages. One page with these, in this order, does most of the work:

1. Name, what you serve in a few words, and open now.
2. Order, Call and Directions buttons.
3. The menu as text, with prices, sizes and choices.
4. Hours, including holidays.
5. Address, parking or pickup notes.
6. Two lines on who you are, and a few real photos if you have them.

Then link it from your Google profile's website and order fields, every social bio, your receipts and your bags. That's a complete restaurant website. Examples by kind of place are in our guides for a café, a bakery, a food truck and a pizzeria.

9. What it costs and how long it takes

A restaurant website costs anything from $0 to more than $5,000 a year. Free plans on menu tools and builders cost nothing, with limits like the builder's address or an order cap; site builders run about $17 to $159 a month on Wix [9]; restaurant platforms with ordering and marketing list $249 to $499 a month [10]. A designer adds $1,000 or more once. The full table is in how much a restaurant website costs, and the free routes, step by step, in how to make a restaurant website for free.

Time: an afternoon for most places, most of it typing the menu. A builder that reads a menu photo cuts that to checking what it read. After that, a few minutes whenever prices or hours change.

10. Does a website help a restaurant show up on Google?

It helps. Google ranks local places mainly on relevance, distance and prominence, and says links and articles about a business and its position in web results count toward prominence [11]. A website gives Google your menu words to match searches like "vegan tacos" or "gluten-free pizza", and gives other sites something to link to. The step-by-step plan is in SEO for a restaurant website.

Common mistakes

• A site nobody updates. A website with last year's prices or hours is worse than none. Pick a tool you can change from your phone.
• The menu as a PDF. Slow to open, hard to read on a phone, hard for Google to read.
• An Order button that goes to an app. It keeps paying the commission on your regulars.
• Paying for features you don't use: an app, loyalty, email suites, before the basics are right.
• Buying the domain in someone else's name. Register it yourself so you can move it.

Questions

Is it necessary for a restaurant to have a website?

Not by law, but most restaurants lose orders and trips without one: a large share of diners check online first [1], and the website is the only place you control the whole menu and ordering.

Can a small restaurant run without a website?

Some do, on walk-in trade and a Google profile they keep exact. They're usually paying more in app commission than a simple site would cost, or turning away orders ahead.

Is a Facebook page enough for a restaurant?

Not on its own. It's good for news and regulars, weak for a current menu, hours and ordering, and some diners don't use it. Link your website from it.

What is the purpose of a restaurant website?

To help a hungry person decide and act fast: see the menu and prices, check you're open, then order, call or get directions.

How much does a basic restaurant website cost?

$0 on free plans with limits, about $100 to $400 a year on cheap paid plans, more on restaurant platforms and with designers [9] [10].

Do I need a website if I'm on Google Maps?

Yes, ideally. The Maps listing needs somewhere to send people for the full menu and for orders that don't go through an app [3].

If you'd like to see yours before deciding, build a free restaurant website from a photo of your menu: no card to go live, pickup orders ring your phone and diners pay at the counter. More answers are in all our guides for restaurant owners.

Sources

1. Restaurant reviews and ratings data, Toast, read Nov 3, 2026 (as listed in search; the page blocks direct reading).
2. Survey says diners have increasing appetite for mobile technology, PYMNTS, 2015, on OpenTable's survey (as listed in search).
3. Food ordering links on your Business Profile, Google Business Profile Help, read Oct 22, 2026.
4. Websites created with Google Business Profiles to shut down in March, Search Engine Journal, 2024.
5. DoorDash commission rates and pricing, DoorDash, read Oct 23, 2026 (as listed in search).
6. Uber Eats commission for restaurants, our guide with its sources, Nov 2, 2026.
7. Stripe pricing, Stripe, read Nov 1, 2026.
8. Do restaurants still need websites, or just their menus online?, Alignable forum, read Nov 3, 2026.
9. Wix plans, Wix, read Oct 22, 2026.
10. Owner.com pricing, Owner, read Oct 23, 2026.
11. Tips to improve your local ranking on Google, Google Business Profile Help, read Nov 3, 2026.