Why Your Restaurant Website Choice Matters in 2026
Restaurant website visitors want the menu, the hours, the address, a table or a way to order. If that takes more than a few taps on a phone, they go back to Google Maps or open a delivery app. That second outcome is the expensive one. Owner.com's pricing page says third-party apps charge customers fees of up to 15% of their order, and the marketplaces charge the restaurant a commission on top. Every order you move to your own site keeps more of that money with you.
That is why "best website builder" means something different for a restaurant than for a photographer or a consultant. Pretty templates matter less than:
- Online menus that are real text (not a PDF), easy to update, and readable by search engines
- Online ordering for pickup and delivery, and how much each order costs you in commission, service fees and card processing
- Reservations, either built in or through a tool you already use, such as OpenTable, Resy, Tock or Toast Tables
- Gift cards, and whether a card bought online can be redeemed at your counter
- Catering and private events, from a simple inquiry form to full event orders
- Google Business Profile, since that is where many guests first find your hours, menu and order button
- Mobile speed and ease of use, because most of your traffic is on phones
- POS integration, so online orders land in your kitchen without someone retyping them
- Total cost, including monthly fees, transaction fees and add-ons
This guide compares six options: two general builders with restaurant features (Wix, Squarespace), two POS companies that build websites around their point of sale (Square Online, Toast), a restaurant marketing platform (Owner.com), and the restaurant website specialist now part of Clover (BentoBox).
Two housekeeping notes. First, Weebly: Weebly's own homepage now says "Weebly is now a part of the Square product suite," and Square's restaurant tools (the online ordering profile, QR code ordering, kitchen display routing and Order with Google) are sold as Square Online inside Square's plans. If you are a restaurant considering Weebly today, Square Online is the product you would actually use, so that is what we review here. Second, GoDaddy: its Website Builder (with the Airo AI tools) is a capable general small business builder, but it has no restaurant ordering or reservation features to match the tools below, and we could not confirm its current plan prices on GoDaddy's own site for this update. We replaced it with Owner.com, which is built only for restaurants and publishes its pricing.
Wix review
Wix is a general website builder, but its restaurant tools are built by Wix itself rather than bolted on through third parties. That is the main reason it is our top pick: a single owner can set up a menu, commission-free ordering, reservations and gift cards in one dashboard without signing up for three other services.
Key restaurant features
- Wix Restaurants Orders (free to install): Wix describes it as taking "pickup, delivery and dine-in orders on your Wix site, including QR code ordering for dine-in," with menus, item options and add-ons, special requests, and a back office for live order tracking. Wix bills it as commission-free.
- Wix Table Reservations (free to install): lets guests book "directly from your site, Google Search and Maps 24/7," with a floor plan, party size and table limits, prepayment and reminders to reduce no-shows, and ticketed "experiences" such as tasting menus or wine nights.
- Menus built into the site as text, so search engines can read them.
- Gift cards, coupons, loyalty, email campaigns and a CRM, all listed by Wix as part of the restaurant toolset.
- On-demand delivery integration and POS syncing, which Wix mentions on its restaurant page without naming every partner. Square's App Marketplace lists a Wix Restaurants integration that sends orders into Square POS.
- The Wix app for managing orders and reservations from your phone.
Pricing
Wix prices vary by country; these are the US prices for yearly subscriptions paid up front:
- Free: Wix subdomain and Wix branding; no online payments.
- Light: $17/month. Custom domain (free for one year), 2 GB storage. No online payments.
- Core: $29/month. Accepts payments, basic eCommerce, 50 GB storage. This is the realistic minimum for online ordering.
- Business: $39/month. Standard eCommerce, 100 GB storage.
- Business Elite: $159/month. Advanced eCommerce, unlimited storage.
Other billing periods are available, and there is a 14-day money-back guarantee. Card processing fees through Wix Payments are charged on top.
Pros
- Ordering, reservations, menus, gift cards and loyalty are first-party Wix tools, so they share one dashboard and one customer list
- Reservations can be taken from Google Search and Maps as well as your site
- Full design freedom compared with POS-built websites
- Low cost: $29/month billed yearly covers payments for a single location
Cons
- More setup work than a POS-built site: you create the menu in Wix, and keeping it in step with your POS depends on an integration
- Page speed depends on how many apps, images and effects you add, so keep the homepage lean
- Paid add-ons and the higher plans add up if you run several locations
Who should use it
Independent restaurants, cafes, food trucks and small groups that want a good-looking site with their own ordering and reservations, and that are not locked into a POS that already includes a website.
Who should avoid it
Restaurants on Toast or Clover, whose POS companies sell websites wired directly into the kitchen, and owners who want someone else to build and run marketing for them.
Square Online review
Square Online is Square's website and online ordering product. Weebly now sits inside the same Square product suite. For restaurants it is two things: a free, branded online ordering profile that syncs with Square POS, and a website builder for menus and information pages.
In 2026 Square sells it inside its overall Square plans (Square Free, Square Plus and Square Premium) rather than as separate website plans. That matters: the monthly fee also pays for POS features, and it is charged per location.
Key restaurant features
- Online ordering profile: Square says it lets you "take commission-free delivery and pickup orders through a branded ordering profile that seamlessly syncs with your Square POS." Included in every plan.
- Order with Google: guests can order from your page through Google Search and Maps. Included in every plan.
- Pickup and local delivery with ordering windows and order minimums; restaurant preorders for a specific date and time.
- QR code ordering (Plus and Premium) and AI voice ordering in beta (Plus and Premium).
- Third-party order management: DoorDash, Grubhub and other delivery app orders land in the same Orders tab.
- Reservations: Square Plus lets you embed tools such as OpenTable through custom code blocks; Square lists direct reservation integrations with OpenTable and SevenRooms in Square Premium only.
- Physical and eGift cards sold from the POS or online store.
Pricing
- Square Free: $0/month. Website builder with SEO tools, ordering profile, pickup and delivery, Order with Google. No custom domain. Online card payments 3.3% + 30¢.
- Square Plus: $49/month per location, 30-day free trial. Adds custom domain, expanded site design, custom code and video embeds, QR code ordering, loyalty. Online payments 2.9% + 30¢.
- Square Premium: $149/month per location, 30-day free trial. Adds reservation integrations, 24/7 phone support and the lowest in-person rates. Online payments 2.9% + 30¢.
- Gift cards: 2.5% load fee on Free and Plus, 0% on Premium.
- Kitchen display (Square KDS app) and kiosks cost extra per device on Plus and Premium.
Pros
- A genuinely free way to take commission-free online orders that land straight in your POS
- Menu and item changes sync across POS, online, kiosks and delivery apps
- Order with Google is included even on the free plan
- One vendor for payments, POS, ordering and gift cards
Cons
- Design options are limited compared with Wix and Squarespace, especially on the free plan
- A custom domain needs Square Plus at $49/month per location, which costs more than most website builders if you only want the website
- Built-in reservation integrations require Square Premium at $149/month per location
Who should use it
Cafes, bakeries, counter-service restaurants and food trucks that already use (or plan to use) Square POS and care more about orders than about design.
Who should avoid it
Full-service restaurants whose website is part of the brand experience, and anyone using a different POS.
Toast review
Toast is a restaurant POS company, and its website products are add-ons for Toast POS customers rather than a builder anyone can sign up for. If you already run Toast, its websites are the most tightly connected option available to you, because the site, ordering, reservations, gift cards and catering all use the same menu and guest data.
How Toast's website products are sold
Toast's help center describes two related products:
- Toast Websites: a full restaurant website connected to your own domain. It is part of the Digital Storefront Pro Suite, and Toast says it can also be bought on its own after previewing your site.
- Toast Online Ordering and Online Ordering Pro: the ordering page itself. Pro adds branded styling, custom fonts and menu templates, a branded subdomain, a location picker and pixel tracking.
The Digital Storefront suite comes in tiers: the Essential bundle includes Online Ordering, Toast Local and Toast Delivery Services; the Pro bundle adds Toast Websites; Premium adds a branded mobile app. US customers add these through Toast Shop.
Key restaurant features
- AI Express Setup that drafts a site from your Google Business Profile, existing website and other online information, then a Sites Editor for changes
- Your Toast menu on the site, so prices and items stay in step with the POS
- Online ordering with no per-order commission to a third party; Toast says orders flow into the POS "the same way as in-house orders"
- Delivery with your own drivers or Toast Delivery Services (not both at the same restaurant)
- Toast Tables reservations and waitlist, with deposits, built into the website
- Pages for gift card purchases, catering intake forms, loyalty signup and email marketing signup
- Google reviews: your 4- and 5-star Google Business Profile reviews show in a testimonials module and refresh automatically
- Toast Catering & Events for banquet event orders, estimates and event calendars (a separate module)
Pricing
Toast's help center directs restaurants to Toast Shop or their Subscriptions page for current pricing of Toast Websites and the Digital Storefront suites. We could not confirm a public price on Toast's site, so ask Toast for a quote that lists the website, ordering, gift card and reservation subscriptions separately, plus processing rates.
Pros
- The tightest link between website, ordering, kitchen and POS of any option here
- Reservations (Toast Tables), gift cards, loyalty and catering live in the same system as your sales
- AI setup from your Google Business Profile gets a site live quickly
- Commission-free direct ordering, with Toast's own delivery service as an option
Cons
- Only for Toast POS customers; you cannot use it on its own
- Pricing is not transparent on the public site, and features are split across suites and add-ons
- Less design freedom than a general builder
Who should use it
Restaurants already on Toast POS, especially multi-location groups that want one menu feeding the website, ordering and kitchen.
Who should avoid it
Anyone not on Toast, and owners who want to keep their website independent of their POS contract.
Squarespace review
Squarespace has the best-looking templates in this group, and for a restaurant whose brand is the room, the plates and the photography, that counts. Its restaurant toolkit is a mix of a native menu block and partner integrations for ordering and reservations.
Key restaurant features
- Menu blocks: text-based menus (Squarespace notes they are more SEO-friendly than PDFs) that can hold several menus, such as brunch, lunch and dinner, with sections, descriptions and prices. Available on all current plans.
- Online ordering through ChowNow: Squarespace's restaurant page promotes "commission-free online ordering for pickup or delivery" with ChowNow. Squarespace's help center also lists the Allday Ordering extension, and you can link to a Tock page for orders.
- Reservations: an OpenTable block on all current plans (one per page), and Reservations blocks for Tock, which need a Tock subscription. American Express completed its acquisition of Tock in 2024; Squarespace says existing blocks keep working.
- Gift cards and native commerce: you can sell gift cards and food items through Squarespace's own store. Squarespace describes its gift cards as for use on your online store, so check how they would work at your counter before relying on them.
- Pages for private events, hours and location, plus built-in SEO tools and analytics.
Pricing
No free plan; every site starts with a 14-day free trial.
- Basic: $19/month billed yearly ($25 monthly). 2% fee on online store transactions; card processing from 2.9% + $0.30.
- Core: $29/month billed yearly ($39 monthly). 0% store transaction fee.
- Plus: $49/month billed yearly ($65 monthly).
- Advanced: $99/month billed yearly ($139 monthly).
ChowNow and Tock are separate subscriptions with their own pricing.
Pros
- The most polished templates and typography here, with little effort
- Clean, fast-to-edit menu block that search engines can read
- OpenTable and Tock blocks make reservations easy to add without code
- Clear, published pricing
Cons
- No native restaurant ordering system; pickup and delivery depend on ChowNow, Allday Ordering or a link to Tock
- No direct link to most restaurant POS systems, so menus live in two places
- Basic plan adds a 2% fee on store sales, which matters if you sell gift cards or merchandise
Who should use it
Design-led restaurants, bars and wine shops where the website is mostly about atmosphere, menus, events and reservations, and where ordering is a smaller part of the business or already handled by a partner.
Who should avoid it
Takeout-heavy restaurants that want ordering, kitchen routing and the website in one system.
Owner.com review
Owner.com is not a general website builder. It is a restaurant growth platform: Owner builds an SEO-focused website and ordering system for you, then runs automated email and text marketing to bring customers back. You pay more than any other option here, and in return you do less of the work yourself.
Key restaurant features
- AI-optimized website with automated SEO pages
- Online ordering with delivery management and a kitchen tablet
- Branded mobile app for your restaurant
- Loyalty and rewards, and AI email and SMS marketing
- Direct catering orders
- POS integrations at no extra cost: Owner says it has a native integration with Clover and connects to Toast, Square, Lightspeed and others
- Setup and migration help, chargeback protection and 24/7 support
Pricing
Both plans are month-to-month, with no long-term contract:
- Flexible: $249/month plus a 5% restaurant fee on each order.
- Flat Rate: $499/month with no restaurant fee. Owner recommends it for restaurants with $5,000 or more in monthly online sales; special rates for multi-location groups.
- Guest fee: on both plans, Owner says guests pay a 5% order support fee that covers fulfillment and customer service.
Pros
- Website, ordering, app, loyalty and marketing in one package, set up for you
- Works with most major POS systems, including Toast, Square and Clover
- No long-term contract
- Built around one goal: moving orders from delivery apps to your own channel
Cons
- The most expensive option here, before card processing
- Guests pay a 5% order support fee, so your direct prices are not truly fee-free for them
- Owner's pricing page does not list reservations, so plan on linking out to a separate reservation tool
Who should use it
Takeout- and delivery-heavy restaurants doing enough online sales that the monthly fee pays for itself, and owners who would rather pay for done-for-you marketing than learn email campaigns.
Who should avoid it
Small cafes with low online volume, full-service restaurants that mostly need reservations, and anyone on a tight budget.
BentoBox review
BentoBox built its name on websites for full-service restaurants and hospitality groups, with a focus on design, events and commerce. Fiserv, Clover's parent company, acquired BentoBox in 2021, and the product now appears as Clover Hospitality by BentoBox. The key fact for 2026: BentoBox's site says "BentoBox products/services are only available to Clover POS customers."
Key restaurant features
- Restaurant websites designed for hospitality, with location pages for multi-unit groups
- Online ordering that syncs categories, items, modifiers, prep times and inventory with Clover POS, at no extra integration cost
- Online catering with its own ordering flow
- Events, tickets and inquiries: event management, inquiry forms, payment requests and ticketed events
- Store and gift cards, including merchandise
- Reservations: BentoBox's own reservations and digital waitlist service, plus integrations with OpenTable and Resy
- Google Profile Sync, email marketing and a loyalty program (free for customers using BentoBox ecommerce)
- Digital accessibility guidance and tools in the help center
Pricing
BentoBox does not publish prices; its pricing page now points new customers to Clover's restaurant POS. One fee is documented: when a guest orders online, the guest pays a $0.99 service fee collected by Clover Hospitality by BentoBox (subject to state laws). Card processing runs through Clover, Stripe or Square.
Pros
- Built for full-service restaurants, with strong catering, events and gift card tools
- Integrates with the reservation platforms many full-service restaurants already use
- Online ordering syncs directly with Clover POS
Cons
- Only available if you use Clover POS
- No public pricing
- Guests pay a $0.99 service fee on online orders
Who should use it
Full-service restaurants and hospitality groups that use Clover POS and want a polished site with catering, events and gift cards built in.
Who should avoid it
Anyone not on Clover, and small restaurants that want transparent, self-serve pricing.
Head-to-Head Comparison
Online menus
All six publish menus as text rather than PDFs, which is better for search and for phones. The difference is where the menu lives. Toast, Square Online and BentoBox (with Clover) pull menus from your POS, so a price change happens once. Wix and Squarespace have their own menu tools, which are easier to style but can drift out of step with your POS unless you connect an integration. Owner.com connects to your POS as part of setup.
Online ordering and commission
Every option here markets direct ordering as commission-free compared with delivery apps, but the fine print differs:
- Wix: commission-free ordering app; you pay your plan (Core or higher) and card processing.
- Square Online: commission-free ordering profile on every plan, including the free one; online card payments are 3.3% + 30¢ on Free and 2.9% + 30¢ on Plus and Premium.
- Toast: no per-order commission to a third party; you pay Toast's subscription and processing.
- Squarespace: ordering through ChowNow or another partner, each with its own pricing.
- Owner.com: 5% restaurant fee per order on Flexible (none on Flat Rate), plus a 5% order support fee paid by guests.
- BentoBox: a $0.99 service fee per order paid by the guest.
Reservations
- Wix: its own Table Reservations app, with booking from Google Search and Maps.
- Toast: Toast Tables, with deposits, built into Toast Websites.
- BentoBox: its own reservations and waitlist service, plus OpenTable and Resy integrations.
- Squarespace: OpenTable and Tock blocks.
- Square Online: embed a reservation widget with custom code on Plus; direct OpenTable and SevenRooms integrations on Premium.
- Owner.com: not listed on its pricing page; link to your reservation provider.
Gift cards
Toast and Square Online sell gift cards that work across the POS and online, which is what most restaurants want. Square charges a 2.5% load fee on Free and Plus. BentoBox includes a store with gift cards. Wix offers gift cards within its business tools. Squarespace gift cards are designed for its online store. Owner.com's pricing page does not mention gift cards.
Catering and events
Toast (Catering & Events module) and BentoBox (online catering plus events, ticketing and inquiry forms) are the strongest. Owner.com includes direct catering orders. Wix supports ticketed dining experiences through Table Reservations. Square Online supports preorders for a set date and time. Squarespace handles private events with pages and forms.
Google Business Profile
Getting your order and booking buttons onto Google matters. Square Online includes Order with Google on every plan. Wix Table Reservations takes bookings from Google Search and Maps. Toast builds sites from your Google Business Profile and shows your best Google reviews. BentoBox offers Google Profile Sync. With Squarespace and Owner.com, plan to set up your Google profile links yourself or confirm the details with the vendor.
Mobile speed and ease of use
POS-built sites (Toast, Square Online, BentoBox) use fixed layouts that are hard to slow down, at the cost of design freedom. Wix and Squarespace give you more control, which also means more ways to load a heavy homepage; compress photos and avoid autoplay video. Owner.com builds the site for you with SEO in mind. None of the vendors publish page speed figures we could verify, so test your own site with Google PageSpeed Insights after launch.
POS integration
Toast, Square Online and BentoBox are each tied to one POS (Toast, Square and Clover). Owner.com connects to several, with a native Clover integration and connections to Toast, Square and Lightspeed. Wix syncs with "advanced point of sale solutions," including a Wix Restaurants integration listed in Square's App Marketplace. Squarespace has no direct restaurant POS link.
How to Choose: Decision Framework
Start with your POS
This one question settles most decisions:
- Toast POS: get a quote for Toast Websites and Online Ordering first. Compare it with Owner.com if you want done-for-you marketing.
- Square POS: start on Square Online Free; upgrade to Plus when you want your own domain and QR ordering.
- Clover POS: look at BentoBox, and at Owner.com, which integrates natively with Clover.
- Another POS or none: Wix is the strongest self-serve choice; Squarespace if design matters most.
Ask these questions
- What share of your sales is takeout and delivery? Above a few thousand dollars a month online, ordering quality and fees matter more than templates.
- Which reservation system do you use, and does the builder support it without code?
- Do gift cards need to work both online and at the counter?
- Who will update the menu, and how often?
- How many locations do you have? Square and Toast charge per location.
Red flags
- Online ordering that lands on a tablet your staff must retype into the POS
- Guest service fees you did not know about
- A custom domain locked behind a higher plan than you budgeted for
- A menu uploaded only as a PDF
What to test in a trial
- Place a real order from your phone on mobile data, from Google to checkout
- Make a reservation the way a guest would
- Change a menu price and check that it updates everywhere
- Buy a gift card online and try to redeem it in person
The Verdict: Final Recommendations
1) Wix: Best for most independent restaurants
Wix gives you commission-free ordering, reservations bookable from Google, menus, gift cards and loyalty from one company, on a plan that costs $29/month billed yearly. It is the best balance of features, design freedom and price for restaurants that are not tied to a POS website.
2) Square Online: Best free start and best for Square POS
If you use Square, start here. The free plan already covers commission-free ordering and Order with Google. Upgrade to Plus when you need a custom domain.
3) Toast: Best for Toast POS restaurants
The website, ordering, Toast Tables, gift cards and catering share one menu and one guest database. Get a written quote.
4) Squarespace: Best for design-led restaurants
Choose it when your website is mostly about atmosphere, menus, events and reservations, and you are happy to use ChowNow or Tock for ordering.
5) Owner.com: Best for growing takeout sales
Expensive, but it bundles website, ordering, app and automated marketing, and works with most major POS systems.
6) BentoBox: Best for Clover full-service restaurants
A strong hospitality platform for catering, events and gift cards, now available only with Clover POS.
Conclusion
For a restaurant, the website is less a brochure and more a cash register. The best choice depends first on your POS: Toast, Square and Clover customers should start with the website tools built for their system, because menus and orders flow straight into the kitchen. If you are independent of those systems, or want more control over design, Wix is the best pick for most restaurants: commission-free ordering, Google-connected reservations and gift cards for $29/month billed yearly. Choose Squarespace if looks come first, and Owner.com if you want someone else to drive your online orders and can afford it.
Whichever you choose, test it like a hungry guest would: on a phone, from Google, through checkout.
Emily Rodriguez