The 7 Best Restaurant Website Builders for Food Businesses

If you’re a restaurant owner, manager, or marketer, you’re probably thinking of creating a restaurant website.

Restaurant websites work like an ecommerce platform but for food businesses. You can set one up and get online orders, take online reservations, promote your site, or include a digital menu.

To help you pick the best restaurant website builder for your needs, I’ve ranked and reviewed the best options in the market.

There are more below, but here are my top 5 picks.

With Squarespace, you can make beautiful restaurant websites to showcase your brand and offerings.
BentoBox is a great all-around tool to help you create stunning restaurant websites.
Wix is an easy-to-use option for anyone looking to create a website easily.
Speed is the name of the game if you’re using a tool like Weebly, which features the fastest and lightest websites for restaurants and food businesses.
UpMenu focuses on integrating restaurant features. This restaurant website builder has a wide range of capabilities and advanced features that will help you optimize your restaurant’s operations.
Table of Contents

What Features Should a Restaurant Website Have?

What Features Should a Restaurant Website Have?

Basic restaurant website builders should have the following features to enable restaurants to grow fully.

Restaurant Website Templates

These are pre-designed websites you can customize with your content and branding.

They are a helpful tool for creating a website quickly and easily, as they provide a basic structure and design that you can build upon.

Menu Builder

It should include options to add photos, descriptions, and prices for menu items and the ability to organize things into categories such as appetizers, entrees, and desserts.

Some menu builders also allow you to highlight special items or create customizable sections for daily specials.

Online Ordering

A good website builder should include features for managing phone and online orders, such as viewing and tracking orders, marking orders as complete, and updating order statuses.

Online Reservations

This can be a convenient option for customers and help streamline the reservation process for your restaurant. You can view and track reservations, mark tables as booked or available, and update reservation statuses.

Marketing and Online Promotions

This allows you to share information about your restaurant, promote special offers and events through strategies like: social media integration, email marketing, printable coupons and special promotional offers.

Loyalty Programs

You can encourage customers to return to your restaurant and reward them for their loyalty.

These often include features such as tracking customer purchases, offering rewards and incentives, and sending personalized communication to customers.

Contact Forms

Contact forms allow customers to quickly reach out and make inquiries or requests.

You can place the contact form in a prominent location on your website, such as the top or bottom of the homepage, or create a dedicated “Contact” page.

best restaurant website builder

What Are the Best Restaurant Website Builders?

Here are the best restaurant website builder tools for your business.

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out of 10

Omar's Take

Squarespace has a wide variety of restaurant templates, plus a drag-and-drop editor that allows you to create a restaurant website that stands out.

This makes it one of the most flexible website builder tools when creating a restaurant website. It also has excellent ecommerce features, such as the ability to sell gift cards.

Best For:
Design-savvy Restaurant Marketers
Price:
Starts at $23/mo
Annual Billing:
Starts at $192/year
Promotion:
14-day free trial

Squarespace is a robust restaurant site builder that lets you create stunning websites with absolute ease.

Its drag-and-drop editor gives you complete control of what your website might look like, so your site stands out amongst the competition.

It also features many marketing and SEO tools that help you get traffic to your website through search engines. Their website insights are highly detailed, matching options like Google Analytics.

You can also integrate your Squarespace restaurant website with tools like OpenTable to take online reservations.

 Squarespace most flexible website builder tools

 

 

Features

Here are Squarespace’s key features.

Drag-and-Drop Builder
Arguably, one of its most significant selling points among all the website builders on this list is Squarespace’s drag-and-drop website builder, which lets you create a unique restaurant website even if you have no prior design experience.

Restaurant-Specific Templates
What makes Squarespace an excellent website builder for restaurants is its hundreds of versatile restaurant templates.

These templates will suit a restaurant, food truck, cafe, bar, or any other food business. That way, you don’t have to start your designs from scratch.

Ecommerce Functions
Squarespace lets your customers order and pay straight from your website.

SEO and Marketing Tools
Using Squarespace’s SEO and marketing tools, you can quickly drive people to your website and turn visitors into customers.

There are also marketing tools that let you retain customers, such as:

  • Email marketing automation
  • Coupons
  • Social media tools
  • Blogging
  • Integration to sell gift cards

Cons

As great as Squarespace is as a website builder, creating restaurant websites isn’t its strongest suit. Its website builder has many limitations and fewer restaurant templates in its design store.

Other website builders on this list have more focus on restaurant use-case scenarios.

Pricing

Squarespace’s pricing plans

These are Squarespace’s pricing plans available to you.

  • Personal – $23 monthly
  • Business – $33 monthly
  • Basic Commerce – $36 monthly
  • Advanced Commerce - $65 monthly

You can also buy a custom domain on Squarespace’s domain marketplace.

0
out of 10

Omar's Take

This option is easily one of the best website builders for restaurants in the market, as it caters specifically to restaurants.

All its tools, restaurant website templates, and features exist to enhance restaurant, cafe, and other food businesses’ operations.

Moreover, BentoBox websites have built-in SEO tools and enhancements that help their sites rank faster on Google and other search engines.

Best For:
Busy Restaurant Owners
Price:
Starts at $149 a month
Annual Billing:
N/A
Promotion:
N/A

Bentobox is a robust restaurant website builder that empowers food businesses through its suite of marketing, operations, and engagement tools.

It provides tools and features to enhance a restaurant’s brand, improve customer loyalty, and streamline processes through front-of-house management systems like online reservations.

Bentobox is a robust restaurant website builder

Features

Here are BentoBox’s key features.

Restaurant Website Builder
Bentobox is one of the most easy-to-use restaurant website builders in the market. Its set of restaurant website templates include beautifully crafted designs that meet all ADA compliances.

Moreover, you can connect your website to other online channels, including social media accounts and Google Business accounts.

Restaurant Dashboard
Through your restaurant dashboard, you can manage and access your restaurant’s website design, analytics, your restaurant’s location, and more.

Online Ordering
Take and track orders from your more techy customers.

Loyalty Program
Reward your regulars through your loyalty program.

Automated Email Marketing
Engage your past customers and turn them into patrons through an automated email marketing sequence.

Events Management Dashboard
Access events management tools like live streaming platforms, automation, and event booking management, among others.

Cons

BentoBox is quite powerful on its own. However, you can’t change the source code or power it up with third-party plugins.

Pricing

bentobox pricing plan

BentoBox’s pricing plans are as follows:

  • Essentials - $149 monthly plus a $1,000 setup fee
  • Plus - $249 monthly plus a $1,500 setup fee
  • Online Ordering Feature - $79 per location monthly plus a $500 setup fee
  • Event Management - $99 per location monthly plus a $250 setup fee
0
out of 10

Omar's Take

If you build a website for your restaurant using Wix, you won’t have to worry about all the nuts and bolts that come with a complex restaurant website builder.

It’s also arguably the easiest restaurant website builder to use, given how simple the user experience is. Nevertheless, you will still have enough customizations to enable your site for multiple uses.

This mix of function and simplicity gives you a comprehensive solution for building a stunning restaurant website.

Best For:
Beginner restaurant owners
Price:
Starts at $4.50 monthly for business plans; ecommerce plans start at $17 per month
Annual Billing:
$192
Promotion:
Free plan without your domain (custom domain)

Wix is one of today’s most popular website builders among business owners and entrepreneurs.
The website builder for restaurants has several website templates with some excellent restaurant-specific templates in its lineup.

You also get great marketing tools, design customizations, and ecommerce functions in one tool.

Wix's features that help boost your business are available on a paid plan. You can also try a free version if you can't commit to a paid plan yet.

Its plugin market also expands what you can do with your website to get more customers, market your restaurant, and grow your brand.

wix website builders among business owners

Features

Here are Wix’s key features.

Restaurant Website Templates
Wix has over 800 designer-made restaurant templates, with many great restaurant-specific templates for your business.

Free Online Ordering Functionality
Wix has a system for taking online orders, which lets customers specify whether they’ll pick up or have their orders delivered. There’s also a menu designer with beautiful menu page layouts available.

Online Payments Gateway
As an ecommerce restaurant builder, Wix allows you to take payments through various channels, including credit card, debit card, PayPal, and SEPA debit payments.

Free Logo Maker
Create a logo identity for your food business using Wix’s easy-to-use logo maker. This tool lets you get well-crafted logos that fit your needs and preferences.

Cons

Once you launch your Wix restaurant website, you will no longer be able to change to other restaurant templates.

There’s also the issue of some restaurant templates having slow load times. This is a big issue, as slow loading speeds can lead to higher website bounce rates and poorer search engine optimization rankings.

Free Domain
Wix gives you a free domain for one year, but you’ll need to get a paid plan to get a free domain.

Pricing

 

wix website pricing plans

These are Wix’s pricing plans:

  • Free plan
  • Combo plan – $16 monthly
  • Unlimited plan – $22 monthly
  • Pro plan – $27 monthly
  • VIP plan – $45 monthly
  • Business Basic (ecommerce) – $27 monthly
  • Business Unlimited (ecommerce) – $32 monthly
  • Business VIP (ecommerce) – $59 monthly
  • Enterprise – Custom pricing

wix business and ecommerce pricing plans

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out of 10

Omar's Take

Weebly is best known for its excellent marketing tools and powerful design tools. It’s powered by Square Online, a reliable payment gateway solution that lets you take online orders securely from your site.

Best For:
Fast and light websites
Price:
Starts at $13 a month (for paid plans)
Annual Billing:
Starts at $120 a year
Promotion:
Free version without custom domain

You’ve probably heard of Weebly at some point if you’ve been in the market for a website builder for your restaurant or food business.

That’s because it’s another highly popular website builder business owners use to create restaurant sites.

Another great thing about Weebly is that it has some of the best website speeds. The light site sizes make it the right website builder for someone looking to rank higher on search. Its many SEO tools also support this case.

Weebly is best marketing and powerful design tools

Features

Here are Weebly’s key features.

Third-Party Apps and Integrations
Weebly supports integrating thousands of apps to expand your restaurant website’s marketing, operations, and design capabilities.

Beautiful Website Templates
Weebly’s library contains gorgeous restaurant templates you can customize with their website builder. You can also create a stunning online store for restaurant online ordering.

There are also many restaurant-specific websites to choose from. You won’t run out of website templates.

Drag-and-Drop Designs
Another reason why Weebly is a crowd favorite is its drag-and-drop tool. This feature lets you choose from restaurant templates and customize what the restaurant business website will look like to your audience.

Website Animations
The website animations on the site builder add flair to your website to make it stand out.

Ecommerce Abilities
If you pay for an online store plan on Weebly, you get access to advanced features for ecommerce, like the following:

  • Accept payments through Square Online
  • Add a shopping cart
  • Order and inventory management

Cons

Compared to other restaurant builders, Weebly can be hard to use if you don’t have a website design background.

There’s also no dedicated customer support, even for higher plans, so getting a response from their customer service team might take a while.

Pricing

Weebly’s pricing plans

Weebly’s pricing plans are as follows:

  • A free version
  • Connect Plan - $13 monthly
  • Pro Plan - $18 monthly
  • Business Plan - $35 monthly
  • Business Plus Plan- $46 monthly
0
out of 10

Omar's Take

Another of the best website builders for restaurants that focus on providing built-in restaurant features is UpMenu.

The restaurant website creator has all sorts of capabilities and advanced features that optimize your restaurant operations.

Best For:
Online menus
Price:
Starts at $49 a month
Annual Billing:
N/A
Promotion:
Free plan for 7 days

Over 7,000 restaurant users now use UpMenu.

While that's less than the millions that use products like Squarespace and WordPress, UpMenu has done a great job of niching down and focusing on restaurant website creation.

With UpMenu, you get a branded online ordering system and website in five minutes and just a few clicks. It’s the perfect choice for those who want to create an online menu quickly.

upmenu best website builders for restaurants

Features

This website builder for restaurants includes features like the following:

Branded Website Builder
With an UpMenu plan, you can build a restaurant website from their theme store. They have several beautiful restaurant-specific templates to choose from to spruce up your restaurant website.

Online Ordering System
UpMenu can also add online ordering to your restaurant website. That way, you can take orders, make payments, and manage deliveries all in one virtual space.

Table Reservations and Ordering
The restaurant website builder has a seamless system for managing reservations and online ordering. This makes it easy to move front-of-shop operations to your website.

Loyalty Program
Reward customers who visit you regularly with a loyalty program that will drive up your customer lifetime value.

Cons

UpMenu is excellent if you want something readily available, but there are several limits to how much you can customize your website.

There are limited reporting and analytics on the platform, so you won’t see much of your output and results. It’s also relatively expensive for the amount of functionality you have.

There’s also a cap limit to the number of digital orders you can take on UpMenu’s two lower pricing plans.

Pricing

upmenu pricing plan

These are the pricing plans available for UpMenu:

  • Basic Plan - $49 a month - up to 90 orders
  • Standard Plan - $89 a month - up to 250 orders
  • Premium Plan - $169 a month - unlimited orders
0
out of 10

Omar's Take

WordPress is one of the most popular builders and content management systems in the world.

Apart from being a great way to build stunning websites without technical knowledge, it has a suite of plugins and templates to help you make your own restaurant website.

Best For:
Advanced website builders
Price:
Free
Annual Billing:
N/A
Promotion:
Open-source Program

65% of all websites using a content management system uses WordPress, making it one of the most widely used website builders. It’s excellent for creating all sorts of websites, including restaurant websites.

 WordPress is popular builders and content management systems

Features

These are all the features that make WordPress stand out.

WordPress Themes
With WordPress websites, you have a massive library of WordPress themes developed by third-party designers and developers.

There are tons of great free restaurant website templates to choose from. You can also get a premium version for a highly affordable one-time price.

WordPress Third-Party Plugins
WordPress also has a third-party plugin marketplace with all sorts of website plugins with various functions and capabilities, such as:

  • An online reservation and booking system
  • A secure online payments gateway
  • Online orders manager
  • Advanced design tools
  • Advanced marketing tools
  • Coupons and loyalty programs
  • Google Maps pins
  • Forms and contact information
  • Site speed enhancer

 

Domain and Hosting
With WordPress, you can set up a domain, so your restaurant has its unique dot com address.

You can use a service like GoDaddy or Bluehost to buy your domain and set up your website on hosting.

Mobile-Friendly Dashboard
WordPress’ backend dashboard to manage pages, widgets, blogs, and settings is relatively easy to use. Moreover, it’s mobile-responsive, so you can edit your website on your phone or tablet.

Cons

WordPress is easier to set up than building a website entirely from scratch. However, it’s not the easiest one on this list.

You might need the help of an experienced WordPress web admin or developer from time to time with some technical settings and customizations.

Pricing

WordPress.Org is free, but you can also opt to use the more plug-and-play version, WordPress.Com. However, this version comes with a recurring subscription plan.

wordpress pricing plan

Here are Wordpress’ pricing plans:

  • Free plan
  • Personal (with a domain) – $4 monthly
  • Premium – $8 monthly
  • Business – $25 monthly
  • Ecommerce – $45 monthly
0
out of 10

Omar's Take

Flavor Plate has an easy restaurant website creation process. It also has a variety of restaurant-specific templates that make it stand out from generic website builders.

Best For:
Beginners
Price:
$39/mo
Annual Billing:
N/A
Promotion:
30-day free trial

One of Flavor Plate’s most significant selling points is its extraordinary customer support. They have specialists who will walk you through the setup and maintenance process, making Flavor Plate the best website builder for beginners.

Flavor Plate is ideal for those who want basic restaurant websites. It provides all the essentials, including contact forms, website templates, order management systems, and marketing tools.

Flavor Plate  an easy restaurant website creation process

Features

Here are the key features Flavor Plate offers.

Menu Management
You have an easy-to-use dashboard to maintain and update your menu, so adding specials and new items is more effortless.

Event Calendar
Manage events in your space using an event calendar that helps update people on what might be happening in your restaurant.

Gift Card Sales
Sell gift cards to get more sales and new visitors.

Communications Tools
Unlike most options on this list, Flavor Plate has a communications channel for you to manage your contact form messages from queries and clients and schedule announcements.

Cons

Flavor Plate isn’t as big as many other restaurant site builders yet, so there’s still much to prove.

Currently, its free plan has many limits, making it unlikely that you’ll be able to launch a fully useful site without upgrading to a paid plan.

Pricing

flavor plate pricing plan

Flavor Plate has a flat fee of $39 a month. You can also access their free plan for 30 days.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Why Does a Restaurant Need a Website?

Why Does a Restaurant Need a Website?

A website helps promote your restaurant and menu, especially on online platforms. You can use it to achieve several commercial goals and milestones, such as the following:

Get More Customers

A well-designed restaurant website can increase your visibility and make it easier for customers to learn about and visit your restaurant.

It can provide information about your menu, location, and hours of operation. It can also offer more convenience with features like online reservations and ordering.

Streamline Your Restaurant Operations

Automated features like an online reservation system, online ordering, menu updates, and customer communication can optimize your operations.

And if your website has analytics features, you can analyze data about customer behavior and store performance to spot areas for improvement.

Reward Repeat Customers

You can encourage repeat customers to keep returning to your restaurant and help build long-term customer loyalty by rewarding them.

There are several ways of doing this, such as loyalty programs, special offers, personalized recommendations, and sending exclusive offers and promotions through newsletters.

Grow Your Brand

You can create a strong brand identity with a website by showcasing your restaurant’s unique style and personality.

You can tell the story of your restaurant, including its history, philosophy, and team on your website. This can help customers feel more connected to your brand.

How Do I Choose the Best Restaurant Website Builder?

How Do I Choose the Best Restaurant Website Builder?

What is the best website builder for a restaurant? How do I land on the perfect one?

There’s no such thing as an ideal or perfect restaurant builder, but you can find the one with restaurant features that fit your needs best if you know what points to consider.

Many website builders offer free trials or demos, so you can try out the platform and see how easy it is before committing to a paid plan.

 

  • Ease of use. Look for a website builder that’s easy to use, even if you have little to no technical skills.
  • Customization options. Make sure the website builder allows you to fully customize the look and feel of your website to match your restaurant’s branding and style.
  • Responsive design. You can use a responsive website design builder to have a site that looks good on any device, including smartphones and tablets.
  • Online ordering. If you want to offer online ordering on your website, make sure the website builder supports it.
  • Pricing. Consider the cost of the website builder and whether it fits within your budget.
  • Customer support. Look for a website builder that offers reliable customer support if you need help building or managing your website.
  • Integration with social media. It can be helpful if your website builder allows you to easily connect your website to your restaurant’s social media accounts.

 

Why Use a Specialized Restaurant Website Builder vs a General Website Builder?

You always have the option to choose a general website builder when creating a website for your restaurant of food business. However, there are several benefits to using a builder specific for restaurants.

Here are a few reasons why:

Restaurant-specific Designs

Using an ecommerce restaurant builder gives you access to restaurant templates already specific for restaurants. That way, you don’t have to create a design from scratch.

This saves you significant effort and time when launching your restaurant’s official website, and lets you deploy your site as soon as possible.

Restaurant-specific Features

Restaurant websites gives you restaurant-specifice features with functions that support a food business’ operations, such as online ordering systems, digital menus, table reservations systems, and loyalty programs for patrons.

With these functions, you can better serve your customers and get more results, whether it’s bookings, orders, or visits.

Easier to Use and Maintain

By using generalist website builders, you’re forced to learn many nuances to keep the site updated. Most of the restaurant website builders in this list are intuitive, making your website launch and maintenance straightforward.

Final Thoughts

An ecommerce restaurant website builder is a valuable tool for creating and managing a website for your restaurant.

You can create a professional-looking website that helps you attract new customers and showcase your menu and specials.

There’s no perfect restaurant website builder, but when choosing one, it’s essential to consider factors such as ease of use, customization options, responsive design, and pricing.

By taking the time to research and compare different website builders, you can find the one that best fits your needs and budget and create a restaurant website.

If you’re looking for more ways to streamline your restaurant business, check out my guide on POS systems for restaurants.

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Omar Founder of OJ Digital Solutions

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