8 Best Web Hosting Plans for Restaurants (July 2026)

Learn how standout web hosting can boost your restaurant's online appeal and efficiency, from page speed to social media integration.

Writer: Deidra Slough

Deidra Slough, Contributing Expert

Deidra Slough created her first website when she was 16 years old and applies her extensive experience to articles that creatively explain complex topics in a way beginners can understand. For more than a decade, Deidra worked at the University of Florida, New Jersey Institute of Technology, and New York University exploring new ways to excel in research, database creation, project management, and customer service. Her work has appeared in national and international publications, including Impact Magazine and the International Journal of E-Learning and Distance Education, and she now finds a passion in helping HostingAdvice readers understand the challenges they face in their own online journeys.

Editor: Lillian Castro

Lillian Castro, Senior Editor

Lillian Castro brings more than 30 years of editing and journalism experience to our team. She has written and edited for major news organizations, including The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the New York Times, and she previously served as an adjunct instructor at the University of Florida. Today, she edits HostingAdvice content for clarity, accuracy, and reader engagement.

Reviewer: Cristian Lopez

Cristian Lopez, News Manager

Cristian Lopez uses his Business Marketing background from the University of Illinois at Chicago to create comfortable environments for customers, clients, and colleagues to share their thoughts and ideas openly. From interviewing tech leaders to conducting UX market research projects, Cristian knows the importance of storytelling — a key variable for innovation and inspiration. His goal at HostingAdvice is to wow readers on the ever-evolving nature of the tech industry and bring his audience the most reliable and exciting content on all things hosting.

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I know the life of a restaurant owner is stressful because I used to own one. You spend the bulk of your time developing culinary masterpieces, managing employees, keeping the books, ordering products, and yelling at the suppliers when they send you bad potatoes.

Finding the best web hosting for restaurants simply wasn’t on the menu.

But in today’s era of digital dining, your restaurant needs an online presence just to keep up with the status quo. Ninety percent of guests go online to research where to eat before they dine, with 57% visiting the restaurant’s website before making a decision.

We’ve cut through the clutter to offer you only the top web development choices for your restaurant. Let’s dive in!

Best Web Hosting for Restaurants

Imagine good web hosting as the equivalent of a top-notch server at your restaurant — both create the first impression for your customers. Whether it’s fast page loading or a friendly greeting, you want your visitors to feel welcomed and leave satisfied.

A good host will do the job quickly and effectively, blending into the background of the business. You are unlikely to see reviews about servers unless a customer had a negative experience with long wait times or a discourteous encounter.

All in all, your web host should work silently and efficiently to give your customers excellent service.

We’ll look at variations in storage, reliability, speed, security, and customer service to find the best web hosting provider. You can also compare each provider’s offerings with your restaurant’s needs in mind.

Monthly Starting Price $1.99
  • Beginner-friendly setup with free domain for the first year
  • AI-powered site setup with 1-click WordPress install
  • Free CDN, malware scanning, WAF, and DDoS protection
  • Weekly backups + 99.99% uptime SLA
  • WordPress.org recommended host since 2005
  • Get started on Bluehost now.
Our Expert's Review

Sead Fadilpasic

Sead Fadilpasic, Contributing Expert

Sead is a web hosting authority with over 15 years of hands-on experience evaluating hosting performance, WordPress optimization, VPS configuration, and modern website builders. Backed by a degree in Journalism and Public Relations, he specializes in translating technical hosting concepts into clear, actionable insights for businesses and site owners. His expertise extends into cybersecurity, blockchain, and privacy, and his work has appeared in top-tier outlets including TechRadar Pro, Tom’s Hardware, SiliconANGLE, Al Jazeera, and the Forbes Technology Council.

, Hosting Expert
★★★★★ 4.9/5.0

Sead Fadilpasic (HostingAdvice.com): Bluehost pricing is about as competitive as the industry offers. Sign up for a shared hosting plan for as little as $1.

Go to full review »
Money Back Guarantee Disk
Space
Domain
Name
Setup
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30 days 10 GB NVMe SSD FREE (1 year) 5 minutes

Bluehost is one of our all-time favorite providers, especially when it comes to web hosting for a small business. Restaurant owners will particularly enjoy the user-friendly interface, great customer support, and inexpensive plans.

Bluehost offers tons of great features for restaurant owners, including unlimited storage, bandwidth, and domains on most plans. In addition to including the Weebly website builder, WordPress endorses Bluehost for its premium service and support.

Both design platforms feature dozens of pre-built templates for restaurants that you can customize with your logo, menu, and other appetizing components of your brand. A WordPress theme specialized for restaurants is right around the corner.

Features and benefits:

Given the quality of Bluehost’s offerings, you’d understandably expect the hosting provider to charge more. Sure, you can likely find cheaper options if you plan on having a fairly small website and don’t need much storage, but quality would likely suffer.

You may have noticed that Bluehost doesn’t have an uptime guarantee as do a large percentage of other providers, but don’t let that deter you. Bluehost’s reliability consistently tests at or above the industry standard, and its customer support is always at the ready to help you through any issues you may have.

Monthly Starting Price $2.69
  • Best overall value: Nothing at this price comes close feature-for-feature.
  • AI builds your site in minutes — no technical skills needed
  • Up to 3 websites with free SSL
  • Weekly backups and managed WordPress
  • 2 business mailboxes free for 1 year
  • Get started on Hostinger now.
Our Expert's Review

Sead Fadilpasic

Sead Fadilpasic, Contributing Expert

Sead is a web hosting authority with over 15 years of hands-on experience evaluating hosting performance, WordPress optimization, VPS configuration, and modern website builders. Backed by a degree in Journalism and Public Relations, he specializes in translating technical hosting concepts into clear, actionable insights for businesses and site owners. His expertise extends into cybersecurity, blockchain, and privacy, and his work has appeared in top-tier outlets including TechRadar Pro, Tom’s Hardware, SiliconANGLE, Al Jazeera, and the Forbes Technology Council.

, Hosting Expert
★★★★★ 5.0/5.0

Sead Fadilpasic (HostingAdvice.com): As the shared hosting market has become more saturated, things like unlimited storage, bandwidth, and email accounts have become the norm. Hostinger, however, goes above and beyond the norm by also giving users an unrestricted  number of websites, databases, FTP users, subdomains, and parked domains for most plans.

Go to full review »
Money Back Guarantee Disk
Space
Domain
Name
Setup
Time
30 days 20 GB SSD FREE (1 year) 3 minutes

Looking for unbeatable prices? Hostinger has you covered! With starting rates at just $0.99 and renewals much lower than other hosts, your wallet will thank you.

Are you wondering what’s being sacrificed for the lower price? The good news: not much.

Features and benefits:

If you’re basing your entire decision on a free domain, you may be disappointed. Hostinger includes a free domain name with all but its cheapest plan.

However, you can register a .COM with Hostinger for less than $10 per year — again, much cheaper than what it costs with other registrars we’ve tested.

Otherwise, we expect you’ll be impressed with the web host’s accelerated WordPress infrastructure, regular backups, and CloudFlare-protected nameservers.

If you’re wary that Hostinger.com’s prices may be too good to be true, take advantage of the 30-day, money-back guarantee to take it for a test drive yourself.

Monthly Starting Price $3.75
  • Free domain name, SSL certificate, and CDN included
  • Unmetered bandwidth — no limits on traffic or storage
  • 1-click WordPress install and easy cPanel control panel
  • 30-day money-back guarantee, no long-term contracts
  • Get 66% OFF by buying 36 months upfront
  • Get started on HostGator now.
Our Expert's Review

Lynn Cadet

Lynn Cadet, Contributing Expert

Lynn Cadet is a seasoned technology writer with extensive experience covering web hosting, software platforms, and IT infrastructure. At HostingAdvice.com, she has authored more than 300 articles analyzing everything from server architecture and cloud performance to cybersecurity, SaaS innovations, and developer-driven tools. She also conducts hands-on testing of web hosts, evaluating performance, usability, and reliability, to produce thorough, data-driven reviews. A graduate of the University of Florida, Lynn’s reporting and editorial work can also be found across multiple online publications.

, Hosting Expert
★★★★★ 4.5/5.0

Lynn Cadet (HostingAdvice.com): HostGator is a great compromise between performance and price. The company offers unlimited emails, MySQL databases, disk space, and bandwidth, plus one-click installs of popular open-source projects, in addition to a 99.

Go to full review »
Money Back Guarantee Disk
Space
Domain
Name
Setup
Time
30 days 10 GB SSD - 100 GB SSD FREE (1 year) 4 minutes

HostGator, which is sister companies with Bluehost, started in a college dorm in 2002 before being acquired for a monstrous $225 million. (Don’t we all hope to build something that will one day sell for that much?)

Having been around for so long and benefiting from the resources that a big corporation can provide, HostGator comes to the table with lots of good things to offer.

Features and benefits:

HostGator serves over 2 million websites, and the company proudly states that about a third of its customers are web pros who “know where the gettin’ is good.”

Beginners can thrive too. HostGator crafted its own website builder to cater specifically to them. Also, HostGator includes the ever-familiar cPanel control panel, ecommerce tools, and even a $150 credit for Google ads.

Monthly Starting Price $2.99
  • LiteSpeed servers with NVMe SSD storage on all plans
  • One-click installs and free expert site migration
  • Built-in WAF, malware scanning, and DDoS protection
  • Automated daily backups with 30-day restore
  • Free domain for 1 year + free SSL included
  • Get started on hosting.com now.
Our Expert's Review

Christina Lewis

Christina Lewis, Senior Content Manager

Christina Lewis is a web designer and technical writer who bridges design, development, and hosting with clear, practical advice. With a Master’s degree in web design and communications from the University of Florida, she combines a foundation in mass communications with real hands-on experience creating websites and managing hosting environments. Now, she combines her writing experience with her technical knowledge to craft and edit content that gives value to novice techies and field experts.

, Hosting Expert
★★★★★ 4.9/5.0

Christina Lewis (HostingAdvice.com): There are plenty of excellent cPanel shared hosting providers out there, so what sets Hosting. com apart from the rest.

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Money Back Guarantee Disk
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Domain
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Setup
Time
30 days 15 GB NVMe SSD FREE (1 year) 4 minutes

If you want to further update your restaurant’s professionalism and credibility, you may want to consider utilizing a custom email address that builds the recognition of your brand (yourname@restaurantname.com).

Hosting.com offers unlimited email inboxes even with its lowest tier plans so that you and your entire team can shine when developing relationships with clients and vendors both large and small.

Features and benefits:

When it comes to meeting the needs of a restaurant website, hosting.com’s offerings leave little to critique. The hosting provider’s go-to advantage is its inherently speedy and modern infrastructure, featuring high-powered SSD storage drives.

While it might be a bit much to ask, it would be fantastic if hosting.com included an automatic backup option with its most affordable plan. However, for restaurants, even basic backups might not be a big issue since changes tend to be minimal or easily recreated if necessary.

Hosting.com’s free site migration services spare restaurant owners from much of the complex process, and we especially appreciate how the host further streamlines its customers’ workflow with a free website staging environment.

Monthly Starting Price $4.59
  • FREE BoldGrid site builder and templates
  • FREE website, domain, and cPanel migrations
  • SSD storage makes your site load up to 20x faster
  • Security suite includes SSL and hack protection
  • Unlimited bandwidth and email accounts
  • Get started on InMotion now.
Our Expert's Review

Dave McQuilling

Dave McQuilling, Technology Journalist

Dave McQuilling is a technology journalist with nearly two decades of experience and bylines in Forbes Vetted, SlashGear, Digital Trends, HowToGeek, and more. He specializes in hands-on reviews of web hosting and digital services for HostingAdvice.com, helping readers make informed, practical tech decisions.

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, Hosting Expert
★★★★★ 4.9/5.0

Dave McQuilling (HostingAdvice.com): InMotion Hosting offers an excellent business-class shared hosting plan — with a price tag lower than several other budget hosts. For the IT crowd in the audience, you’ll appreciate SSH access, as well as support for PHP, Ruby, Perl, Python, WP-CLI, and other popular languages.

Go to full review »
Money Back Guarantee Disk
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Domain
Name
Setup
Time
90 days 100 GB SSD - Unlimited SSD/NVMe Select Plans 5 minutes

Billing itself as the last host you will need, InMotion Hosting is a strong contender for one of the top business-friendly web hosts. Thanks to modern, high-speed infrastructure, a lengthy money-back guarantee, and friendly support, your restaurant site will be in good hands.

The affordable rates and unlimited bandwidth are eye-catching features, for sure, but we especially appreciate how InMotion Hosting integrates with WordPress. Add to that the fact that the InMotion Hosting team created BoldGrid, a custom drag-and-drop website builder, and it’s clear why InMotion Hosting is our top choice for hosting the CMS.

Features and benefits:

If you’re not keen on designing your website or dealing with the hassle of finding a web developer, don’t worry. Like several other hosts mentioned here, InMotion Hosting can handle all the work for you.

The hosting company’s built-for-you QuickStarter websites give restaurant owners a custom-built one-page WordPress website in just two days for just shy of $100.

The mobile-friendly site will display your business’s contact information, connect social media accounts, and start your SEO foundation. Sure, a one-page website will probably not be enough for most restaurants, but it’s a good place to start.

Best Website Builders for a Restaurant

For people who don’t know how to code or struggle with WordPress, creating a website would be nearly impossible without a website builder or web developer. If you want to prioritize a restaurant website builder, we have created a list of excellent options.

Before we dive in, you will want to know the answers to a few questions to narrow down the options:

The answers to these questions are so vast and distinctive, we can’t tell you which restaurant website builder will meet your exact needs (though we are more than happy to dig into it with you).

Instead, we will point out four website builders that provide diverse options that are likely to check off the majority of your boxes.

6. Wix.com

Monthly Starting Price $17.00
  • Trusted by 250 million websites across 190 countries
  • 2,000+ designer-made templates for every industry
  • Built-in eCommerce, scheduling, blogging, and events
  • Built-in SEO tools, email marketing, and Google/Facebook ads
  • 99.99% uptime on multi-cloud hosting with enterprise security
  • Get started on Wix now.
Our Expert's Review

Lynn Cadet

Lynn Cadet, Contributing Expert

Lynn Cadet is a seasoned technology writer with extensive experience covering web hosting, software platforms, and IT infrastructure. At HostingAdvice.com, she has authored more than 300 articles analyzing everything from server architecture and cloud performance to cybersecurity, SaaS innovations, and developer-driven tools. She also conducts hands-on testing of web hosts, evaluating performance, usability, and reliability, to produce thorough, data-driven reviews. A graduate of the University of Florida, Lynn’s reporting and editorial work can also be found across multiple online publications.

, Hosting Expert
★★★★★ 4.6/5.0

Lynn Cadet (HostingAdvice.com): Website building is where Wix shines. The thousands of templates, the intuitive editor, the industry-leading designs that cater to a variety of specific fields and use cases — all these facets represent a platform that excels at facilitating easy web design for the non-tech-savvy user.

Go to full review »
Money Back Guarantee Disk
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Time
14 days 2 GB - Unlimited FREE (1 year) 4 minutes

The Wix restaurant website builder offers fully customizable layouts with drag-and-drop editing tools that are easy to use and great for beginners.

Most are optimized for mobile devices and can be enhanced with apps available from the Wix App Market, including tools for online reservations, menus, and online orders. With more than 260 available apps, you are likely to find the functionality you need.

Wix also offers a free hosting plan that is very useful for business owners on a tight budget. Be aware, however, that the free plan only comes with a Wix subdomain (restaurantname.wixsite.com) and no ability to remove Wix ads from your website.

You will likely want to eventually upgrade to one of the paid plans to bolster the professionalism of your site.

Remember that you can’t switch your template after you’ve published your site.

So be sure you like your restaurant website design before going live. The design choices can be overwhelming (a blessing and a curse), but taking the time to sift through them is worth it to ensure a polished final product.

Monthly Starting Price $2.29
  • Drag-and-drop design with the Gator™ site builder
  • Hundreds of mobile-friendly templates
  • FREE hosting, domain name, and SSL certificate
  • Easily add a blog, store, and social media
  • Analytics portal helps gauge site performance
  • Get started on HostGator now.
Our Expert's Review

Lynn Cadet

Lynn Cadet, Contributing Expert

Lynn Cadet is a seasoned technology writer with extensive experience covering web hosting, software platforms, and IT infrastructure. At HostingAdvice.com, she has authored more than 300 articles analyzing everything from server architecture and cloud performance to cybersecurity, SaaS innovations, and developer-driven tools. She also conducts hands-on testing of web hosts, evaluating performance, usability, and reliability, to produce thorough, data-driven reviews. A graduate of the University of Florida, Lynn’s reporting and editorial work can also be found across multiple online publications.

, Hosting Expert
★★★★★ 4.5/5.0

Lynn Cadet (HostingAdvice.com): Setting itself apart from the scores of competitors that rely on white-labeled website builder solutions, HostGator spent the time to painstakingly craft its own platform. Gator provides a frustration-free experience that pairs the simplicity of drag-and-drop design with the company’s powerful and respected web hosting services.

Go to full review »
Money Back Guarantee Disk
Space
Domain
Name
Setup
Time
30 days 10 GB SSD - 40 GB SSD FREE (1 year) 4 minutes

HostGator would fit perfectly in either category — web hosting or website builder. We’ve even named the hosting provider as one of our favorite hosts to grow with, meaning HostGator is a great fit for small businesses and restaurant sites.

You can get to HostGator’s website builder (Gator Builder) in one of two ways. You can sign up for hosting and get the basic builder functions included, or you can target the website builder directly to access features only available in the higher-tier site builder plans.

For example, the highest tier offers features like Facebook integration, coupon codes, and multipayment processors. By signing up with the website builder, you will also get free hosting, supported email campaigns, an online store, a free domain for a year, and PayPal integration.

This restaurant website builder is both smart and easy to use. Just enter some basic details, and you’ll instantly see a suggested design tailored for you. Plus, Gator has a built-in logo maker to help you define your brand.

You will likely want to use a number of your own photos with high-quality, professional images of your dishes and your space for the majority of your material, but HostGator has your other images covered with its Unsplash image library.

Site statistics are provided for all plans so you can put your site together and keep an eye on how much traffic it’s getting. If you feel like the expense isn’t worth the benefit, you can take advantage of HostGator’s 45-day money-back guarantee.

Monthly Starting Price $0.00
  • Get started for FREE, no credit-card required
  • Easy-to-use interface with tons of customization
  • GoDaddy InSight™ provides tailored action plans
  • 99.9% uptime with an award-winning support team
  • Built-in marketing tools and expertise
  • Get started on GoDaddy now.
Our Expert's Review

Lynn Cadet

Lynn Cadet, Contributing Expert

Lynn Cadet is a seasoned technology writer with extensive experience covering web hosting, software platforms, and IT infrastructure. At HostingAdvice.com, she has authored more than 300 articles analyzing everything from server architecture and cloud performance to cybersecurity, SaaS innovations, and developer-driven tools. She also conducts hands-on testing of web hosts, evaluating performance, usability, and reliability, to produce thorough, data-driven reviews. A graduate of the University of Florida, Lynn’s reporting and editorial work can also be found across multiple online publications.

, Hosting Expert
★★★★★ 4.7/5.0

Lynn Cadet (HostingAdvice.com): GoDaddy uses a custom website builder and easy access to dozens of content management systems to offer a user-friendly site-building solution to customers. Most of GoDaddy's hosting plans include these options at no additional cost.

Go to full review »
Money Back Guarantee Disk
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Domain
Name
Setup
Time
30 days Unlimited New or Transfer 5 minutes

GoDaddy has long been known as a household name for hosting and domain registration, but you may be less familiar with its website builder.

The newest version of GoDaddy’s website builder is a beginner and user-friendly tool with an entire category of templates that are specific to restaurants.

The best part is that you can get started for free. If you just want to test the waters, you can get started with the free plan (with ads) and upgrade or incorporate add-ons as needed.

For those who need a little extra support, GoDaddy can help you develop designs for social media posts, blog content, and marketing materials. The SEO Wizard can also help optimize your site.

GoDaddy truly offers a one-stop-shop with its hosting capabilities, domain registration, website builder, and marketing support. However, all this peace of mind comes at a fairly steep price compared with the price of services from other web hosting companies on our list.

If you want an ecommerce store, for instance, it will cost about $25/month. This is quite a bit more than you would pay other providers and highlights the need to have a clear understanding of your site’s needs now and in the future before you get started.

What is Web Hosting for Restaurants?

A web hosting service, generally speaking, maintains web servers that hold files that make up websites. The company will rent you space on these servers to both store your files and make them available for public access online.

Every website is hosted on a server, be it physical or virtual.

Web hosting for restaurants differs from web hosting for other entities like a Fortune 500 company, travel blog, or personal website in several ways:

All in all, most restaurant sites are typically compact enough to be hosted on shared servers and are unlikely to need dedicated hosting.

Websites are incredibly useful when managed well, yet they can also pose challenges. In today’s digital world, users have come to expect nothing but the best.

Downtimes, slow page loading speeds, unprofessional designs, and poorly communicated information can easily cost you a sale. In extreme cases, they can even cost you a customer.

Consider a hosting provider that supports a platform with a restaurant theme, an online ordering system, and provides top-notch customer support to help you through any difficulties. It should also be fast and reliable to avoid discouraging potential customers.

Why Do I Need a Web Hosting Plan for My Restaurant?

Without a hosting plan, you can’t present your website.

Your online presence is a primary means of advertising for your business. You may have coupons in the Pennysaver, use Constant Contact, or cater events at cost to get your name out there, but much of that effort will be wasted if your customers can’t find you online.

Having a strong online presence, particularly a website, can be make-or-break for generating more revenue.

A website gives you credibility, develops your brand, directs customers, makes your customer service more efficient, and provides a platform for you to interact with the people who are interested in your services.

You can draw people in with an appealing web design, appetizing pictures of your food, and a showcase of your ambiance. Through your website, you can also present coupons and promotions to make your restaurant that much more enticing.

How Do I Choose the Best Hosting for My Restaurant?

Restaurants typically don’t host things like large database-driven applications or downloadable software, so you’ll probably have relatively minimal needs in terms of disk space, at least to start.

There are, however, a number of features that differ between various hosting providers that you will want to keep an eye out for.

Here are some questions you should know the answer to as you dive into the options:

  1. How much information do you want on your website and how big are the files? If you plan to provide something like a knowledge center with lots of cooking videos, you will consume more storage space than if you were to simply display your address and hours.
  2. Will you need functionality to take reservations and online payments? You’ll want to pay particular attention to options with payment platforms or compatibility with plugins that can do the job. You should also pay attention to security features to protect your customers who are providing personal payment information.
  3. Do you have multiple locations? Will you need functionality to unify the overall brand while seamlessly separating the details of the individual locales? Consider having layouts and themes that can achieve this goal.

We suggest you choose an option with a website builder that offers a workable restaurant template that generates a responsive website to use with any mobile device.

Having a responsive website is crucial now that there are so many tools ݟ including computers, tablets, and phones ݟ people use to access online content. 51.6% of the world’s web traffic, with 60% of searches coming from mobile devices.

Speed is also very important. The last thing you want is a hangry customer throwing their phone against a wall because they could not get to the checkout screen fast enough.

If your website doesn’t load within three seconds, you could easily be losing 53% of your potential customers right off the bat.

Be sure the hosting provider you select has a reputation for excellent customer service. When your website goes down, you want to make sure it gets back up quickly. Your time is much too valuable to spend on the phone with a company that isn’t doing its job while you’re losing customers.

How Much Does It Cost to Create a Website for a Restaurant?

As with many things in life, the answer is — it depends.

In short, a website for a restaurant could range from $0 to $20+ per month. You can build a nice, simple website for $3 per month. Or, if you’d like to beef it up a bit, you can plan to spend closer to $10 monthly. For more in-depth information, check out our article on this topic.

Let’s take a look at a few typical costs:

A hosting plan could run you anywhere from zero (free) to hundreds of dollars. Since restaurants don’t typically require a lot of advanced features, programming, security, space, or bandwidth, shared hosting is typically the go-to plan structure.

This helps narrow down the pricing quite a bit as $19.99 per month is the most expensive shared hosting plan offered by a company on this list (GoDaddy’s Business Hosting).

Your domain may be free for a year, depending on the terms of your service agreement. If it isn’t included, you are looking at paying an average of $15/year for a domain, which comes out to about $1.25/month.

The biggest variables are the extra features that you can add. A few examples include custom emails, added security like CloudFlare, extra backups, and web design or SEO services.

What’s the Difference Between Web Hosting and a Website Builder?

A website builder is software that helps generate the content that will be presented by the web host. If your hosting provider is your restaurant’s hostess or server, a website builder would be the interior or graphic designer responsible for the restaurant’s decor and menu styling.

  1. The website builder (or designer) develops an appealing layout to present important information to the consumer.
  2. The web host hangs onto your website files much like a server will store the menus until a customer or visitor is ready to see them.
  3. Once the information has been called for (someone clicks on the website or a customer is ready to be seated), the host brings the information from the storage location to where the potential customer can access it.

Ultimately, the website builder facilitates the creation of the frontend visual representation of your restaurant’s information while the host works in the background to ensure that said information can reach the user.

Despite the two distinct purposes, however, you can find both solutions with the same provider. Hosted website builders like Wix and Weebly include a stress-free hosting solution, while many traditional web hosts offer self-hosted website builders.

Web hosting and website building for restaurants may have a specific focus, but there is still infinite customizability that can sometimes make narrowing down a provider difficult.

Discerning restaurant owners will weigh their specific needs when planning the restaurant’s online presence, including whether to prioritize options that focus on the website builder or the hosting package.

How Do I Build a Website for My Restaurant?

Building a website might feel intimidating, and it’s natural to be cautious about diving into something new. But with today’s tools, you can break down the process into just a few straightforward steps:

While each step may present its own challenges, the overall path to launching successfully is quite straightforward.

Step 3 certainly has the widest room for variation. Thankfully, between the various providers, a web development system that caters to your experience, requirements, and budget can likely be found with ease.

As you consider your needs for Step 3, think about features that might set your site apart from a corporate website, a blog, or even a personal page.:

For more detailed information, check out our website development guide and other how-tos.

What Should Be on a Restaurant Website?

A restaurant’s website doesn’t need to be very complicated. There are only a few pieces of information you absolutely must have, such as location, hours, and contact information.

It is also highly advisable to have your restaurant menu on your website. Not only will it help with your SEO, but it will also provide beneficial information to your customers that could make your customer service considerably more efficient, freeing your employees’ time for other tasks.

Once you have those elements, there is a wide world of extras you can explore including:

  • Reservations
  • Online ordering
  • Map features
  • Blog posts
  • Reviews
  • Events calendar
  • Notification features
  • An online store
  • Coupons and promotions
  • Videos

There are plenty of online resources dedicated to helping restaurant owners unlock their websites’ full potential.

A great place to start gathering information and getting ideas is thedigitalrestaurant.com. You can find plenty of free articles online once you have an idea of what you wish to learn about or improve upon.

Don’t Forget About Dishing Up Online Ordering and Social Media

If you aren’t capitalizing on opportunities presented by online ordering and social media, you are surely missing out. During these turbulent times of COVID, many customers want to minimize risks as much as possible.

When I ran a restaurant before the pandemic, online ordering was a game-changer for my catering clients. Companies planning meetings or events loved the ease of digital transactions.

The time saved not having to quadruple-check how a name is spelled, being put on hold, or listening to a new employee stumble through the menu options is invaluable for the often overworked administrative professionals who have 100 other things to do.

Letting customers place catering orders online was incredibly beneficial for me as a restaurant owner. It freed my employees from the tedious job of taking orders and handling questions that are usually already addressed on the menu.

At one moment, we were working smoothly, and the next, we received a $500 order for the following day, all while my team kept prepping veggies without a hitch. Plus, my phone lines stayed open for more orders and any questions.

If you want to be super innovative, you can combine online ordering with social media through services like theorder2go.com. You could even explore the cutting edge of social media ordering, like Pizza Hut and its full emoji-based menu (though sadly that didn’t take off).

If you’re not an early adopter, you can stick to the traditional use of social media as a marketing tool — #food is one of the most used tags on Instagram, after all, so take advantage!

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About the Author

Contributing Expert

Deidra Slough created her first website when she was 16 years old and applies her extensive experience to articles that creatively explain complex topics in a way beginners can understand. For more than a decade, Deidra worked at the University of Florida, New Jersey Institute of Technology, and New York University exploring new ways to excel in research, database creation, project management, and customer service. She holds a master's degree in mass communications from the University of Florida. Her work has appeared in national and international publications, including Impact Magazine and the International Journal of E-Learning and Distance Education, and she now finds a passion in helping HostingAdvice readers understand the challenges they face in their own online journeys.

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