Short answer: a restaurant website can cost anywhere from about $0 a month to several thousand dollars up front. Where you land depends on who builds it and, more importantly, how you take online orders.
The build is usually the cheap part. The fees that come with ordering are what add up over a year. Here's how it breaks down in 2026.
The three ways to get a site
1. Build it yourself on a general builder
Squarespace runs about $16 to $99 a month on annual billing, according to ChowNow's 2026 guide. Wix is in the same range.
You'll spend a weekend or two setting it up. Then you'll need to add online ordering through a separate service, which comes with its own monthly fee or per-order charge.
Typical cost: $200 to $1,200 a year for the site, plus whatever the ordering add-on charges.
2. Hire a web designer or agency
ChowNow puts a standard agency build at $2,500 to $3,500, and custom work goes higher. On top of that you'll pay for hosting and for someone to make updates. Every time your hours or prices change, that's an email and maybe an invoice.
Agencies make sense when you want a one-of-a-kind design. They make less sense when you need to change the menu every week.
Typical cost: $2,500 to $3,500 or more up front, plus ongoing hosting and update fees.
3. Use a restaurant platform
Restaurant platforms bundle the website, online ordering and often an app and marketing tools. Here's what a few of them charge in 2026:
| Platform | Monthly price | Other fees |
|---|---|---|
| Owner.com | $249 + 5% per order, or $499 flat | 5% guest fee reported on both plans |
| ChowNow | $229, $319 or $409 | Card processing |
| DinerMagnet | $0, $199 or $349 | $0.99 per order on the $0 plan only |
Owner.com and ChowNow prices come from third-party pricing pages (Sauce, CostBench and Capterra), so check with them directly. Ours are on our pricing page.
The costs people forget
Your domain name. A standard .com usually costs about $10 to $25 a year. Make sure it's registered in your name, not your web company's.
Card processing. Every online payment has a processing fee. Stripe's standard US rate is 2.9% plus 30 cents per card payment. Some platforms include it in their price and some add it on top, so ask.
Per-order fees and commissions. This is the big one. A 5% fee sounds small until you run the numbers. At 400 orders a month with a $35 average ticket, 5% is $700 a month, or $8,400 a year. Delivery apps are worse: DoorDash's marketplace plans charge 15% to 30%.
Setup or implementation fees. Some platforms charge one-time setup fees. CostBench reports an implementation cost of about $1,000 for at least one well-known platform. Always ask before you sign.
Photos. Good food photos make a huge difference online. You can shoot them on a recent phone in daylight, or hire a local food photographer for a half day.
What a realistic year looks like
Let's take a neighborhood restaurant doing 300 online orders a month at $35 each, or $10,500 in online sales.
- Squarespace + an ordering add-on: roughly $200 to $1,200 a year for the site, plus whatever the add-on charges per order or per month.
- Agency site: about $3,000 the first year before ordering is even set up.
- Platform at $499 a month: about $6,000 a year.
- DinerMagnet Growth at $199 a month: $2,388 a year, or $1,990 if you pay yearly. No per-order fees.
- DinerMagnet Starter: $0 a month. At 300 orders, the $0.99 fee comes to about $297 a month, and many restaurants add it to the guest's checkout instead of paying it.
Card processing applies on top of all of these.
How to keep the cost down
- Start small and upgrade later. A free plan lets you test how many orders you actually get before you commit to a monthly bill.
- Avoid percentage fees if you're busy. Once you pass a few hundred orders a month, a flat monthly price almost always wins.
- Make updates yourself. A platform you can update from your phone saves you from paying a designer every time the menu changes.
- Move regulars off the delivery apps. Every order that moves from a marketplace to your own site saves you the commission. Here's how commission-free ordering works.
If you're comparing platforms right now, our guide to the best restaurant website builders covers who each one fits. And if you want to see what DinerMagnet would cost for your restaurant, book a 20-minute demo and we'll run the numbers with your own menu.
FAQ
How much should a small restaurant spend on a website?
For most small restaurants, $0 to $200 a month is plenty if online ordering is included. Spend more only if you need custom design work or have several locations.
Is it cheaper to build a restaurant website myself?
Up front, yes. But a general builder doesn't include restaurant ordering, so you'll pay for an add-on, and your time setting it up and keeping it current isn't free either.
Do restaurant websites charge a commission?
Some do. Look for per-order fees, percentage fees or a "guest fee" on the pricing page. DinerMagnet never takes a percentage of your sales.
What's included in a restaurant website?
At minimum: your menu, hours, location, photos and a way to order. Better platforms add online ordering, Google-friendly menu pages, a loyalty program and email or text marketing.