How to make a website for a restaurant for free

You can make a restaurant website for free with a free plan from a restaurant menu builder or a general site builder: you add your menu as text, your hours, address and phone, then link the site from your Google Business Profile. What free plans leave out is usually your own .com address, online payments, or unlimited orders, so pick the one whose catch matters least to you. The steps below take an afternoon, and most of that is typing the menu.

Below: what "free" really covers, six free routes and the catch in each, the steps from a menu photo to a live site, how to take orders with no fee, and when it's worth paying.

1. What does a free restaurant website really include?

"Free" means you pay no monthly plan. Something is still paying for the hosting, and on most free plans it's one of these:

• Their address, not yours. Your site lives at a sub-address of the builder (for Wix, something like name.wixsite.com/yourplace). Your own .com needs a paid plan [1].
• Their ads or badge. Wix's free plan shows a Wix banner on every page [1] [2]; other free plans show a small "made with" badge.
• No online payments. Wix's free plan can't take payments; that starts on a paid plan [2].
• A higher card fee. Square Online's free plan charges 3.3% + 30¢ on online card orders, against 2.9% + 30¢ on Plus [3].
• A fee or a cap on orders. Some ordering builders host the site free and charge per order; Flipdish, for one, says its builder and hosting are free and it charges a fee when an order is placed [4]. Others cap free orders at a number a month [5].

None of these is a problem in itself. A diner looking for your hours doesn't care about the address bar. They matter once you want people to type your address from memory, or once orders are steady.

2. Six free ways to make a restaurant website

If you had a business.site website, it is gone; your Business Profile itself still works, and the website field on it should now point at your new site. Prices and limits for the paid plans of these tools, side by side, are in what a restaurant website costs.

3. Which free option fits your restaurant?

• Takeout, pizza, a café or a food truck that mainly needs a menu people can read on a phone and a way to order ahead: a restaurant menu builder. It's built for a menu with prices and options, which a general builder makes you lay out by hand.
• You already use Square at the counter: Square Online's free plan, so orders land on the same system. Watch the 3.3% online rate [3].
• A sit-down place that sells an atmosphere (a wine bar, a tasting menu): a general builder like Wix gives more room for photos and story, but you'll pay to remove the banner and add your domain [1].
• Someone on your team builds websites: a template, hosted free. Only if they'll still be around to change the specials.

For what each kind of place should put on the page, see the cafe website guide, the bakery website guide and the food truck website guide.

4. How to make it, step by step

1. Gather what you have. Your menu (a photo, a PDF or the printed one), your hours including holidays, the address, the phone number that someone answers, and 3–6 real photos of your food and your front door. Photos taken on a phone near a window are fine.
2. Pick the tool from the table above, and sign up on the free plan. Don't pay for anything yet.
3. Put the menu in as text, not as a photo or PDF. Each section, each dish, its price, its options. Google reads text; it can't reliably read a picture of a menu, and a diner on a phone can't zoom a PDF comfortably. More on that in how Google reads your menu. Some menu builders will type it up for you from a photo.
4. Write the top of the page. Your name, what you serve in a few words ("Neapolitan pizza and natural wine"), today's hours, and two buttons: Order (or Call) and Directions.
5. Add the facts diners look for: address with a map link, parking or where to find you, the phone, allergens, whether you take cards. The full list is in what to put on a restaurant website.
6. Turn on ordering if your tool has it (next section), and place a test order yourself.
7. Open it on your phone, on mobile data, not wifi. Read the menu with one thumb. That's how most diners will meet it: standing outside, or in a car deciding where to eat.
8. Connect it to Google: add the address to the website field of your Google Business Profile, and the menu link to the menu field. If you aren't on Maps yet, get your restaurant on Google Maps first; it's free too.

The quickest version of all eight: build a free menu site from a photo of your menu, check what it read, and go live with no card.

5. How to take orders online for free

There are three ways a free site can take orders, and they cost very different amounts:

Pay-at-pickup is the cheapest and simplest: the order rings your phone or tablet, the diner pays when they collect it. It suits takeout and quick-service places where most people pay at the counter already. The trade-off is the occasional no-show; keep pickup windows short and call back anyone who orders a large amount.

The fees in the last row are worked out order by order in DoorDash commission fees and Uber Eats commission fees. If you use GloriaFood for free ordering now, note that GloriaFood is closing on April 30, 2027, so build on something that will still be there.

6. Do you need your own domain?

Not to start. A free sub-address works for a QR code on the table, a link on Instagram and the website field on Google, because nobody types those. Your own .com helps when:

• you print the address on menus, bags or a van, and people need to remember it;
• you want an email like orders@yourplace.com;
• you might switch tools later: a domain you own can be pointed at the new site, so your printed QR codes and Google link keep working.

A .com usually costs $10–$20 a year from a registrar [9]. Register it in your own name, not inside a builder's plan, so you can move it. Some builders include a domain free for the first year on yearly plans, then charge for it [2].

7. Free websites and Google

A free site can rank as well as a paid one for the searches that matter to a restaurant: your name, and "pizza near me" style searches, which come mostly through your Google Business Profile. What helps:

• The menu in text, with dish names people search ("birria tacos", "gluten-free pizza").
• Your name, address and phone written the same way on the site and the profile.
• One page per thing you want found: catering, private events, a second location.
• A real title on the home page: your name, what you serve and your town ("Rosa's Taqueria, tacos and birria in Fresno").

The sub-address doesn't stop Google finding you; a menu stuck in an image does.

8. Put the site where diners already are

• Google: website and menu fields on your Business Profile (step 8).
• A QR code on the table, the counter and the door, pointing at the menu page. Use a QR that points to an address you control, so it never needs reprinting. A free one is on our QR code menu page.
• Instagram and Facebook: the link in your bio.
• Delivery bags: a card with the QR and "order direct for pickup".
• Your phone message: "you can also see the menu and order at…"

9. When is it worth paying?

Stay free until one of these is true, then pay for exactly that and nothing else:

• You're hitting an order cap every month. That's a good problem: the plan that removes it now pays for itself.
• You need card payments online (pre-orders for cakes, catering deposits).
• You're printing the address and want your own .com.
• The banner or badge bothers you more than the plan costs.

What not to pay for yet: a custom design, an app, loyalty points, email marketing suites. A takeout place with a clear menu, today's hours and an order button has what most diners use.

Common mistakes

• Uploading the menu as a PDF or photo instead of text. Hard to read on a phone and hard for Google to read.
• Out-of-date hours. One wasted trip loses a regular. Change holiday hours on the site and the Google profile on the same day.
• Old prices. Pick a tool you can edit from your phone in a minute, or you won't.
• Building the whole site before the menu. The menu is the page; the rest is what surrounds it.
• Choosing a tool with a fee per order without reading what that fee is.
• Linking the delivery app as your "website". Every order through it pays the app's commission, including your regulars'.

Questions

Can I make a restaurant website for free?

Yes. Menu builders, Square Online and Wix all have free plans [1] [3] [5] [6]. Expect their address instead of your own, and limits on payments or orders.

Does Google still make free websites for businesses?

No. Google shut its Business Profile websites (business.site) in March 2024, and the redirects to the profile ended on June 10, 2024 [7] [8]. The Business Profile itself is still free.

What is the best free website builder for a restaurant?

For takeout and quick service, a builder made for menus, because it handles sections, prices and options and often ordering. For a place selling an atmosphere, a general builder. Compare what the free plan leaves out in section 2.

How long does it take?

An afternoon for most places; typing the menu is the slow part. A builder that reads a menu photo cuts that to checking what it read.

Can a free website take online orders?

Many can: pay-at-pickup ordering is free on several menu builders, and Square's free plan takes card orders at 3.3% + 30¢ [3]. Check whether there's a monthly order cap or a fee per order.

Can I move to my own .com later?

Usually, yes: on a paid plan you connect a domain you own. Register it in your own name so you can point it at any site later [2].

Ready to try it? Build your restaurant website free from a photo of your menu, with pickup orders that ring your phone and no card to go live. Still deciding? Read do restaurants need websites, look at restaurant website examples, or compare restaurant website builders with online ordering. Running a pizzeria? See what a pizza website needs. For more on sites, ordering and Google, see all our guides.

Sources

1. Is Wix free?, Wix, read Nov 2, 2026 (as listed in search).
2. Wix plans, Wix, read Oct 22, 2026 (paid plans, payments, free domain for the first year on yearly plans).
3. Square Online plans, Square, read Oct 22, 2026.
4. How to build a restaurant website with Flipdish in 10 minutes, Flipdish, read Nov 2, 2026.
5. Menuthere pricing, Menuthere, read Oct 23, 2026.
6. Menubly pricing, Menubly, read Oct 23, 2026.
7. Websites created with Google Business Profiles to shut down in March, Search Engine Journal, 2024.
8. Google shut down Google Business Profiles websites, Search Engine Roundtable, March 2024.
9. Restaurant website cost breakdown, Appello, read Oct 23, 2026.