If you’ve taken the plunge and decided to open a new restaurant, cafe, bar, food truck or any other food service business and are starting your journey around finding the perfect restaurant website builder, you might be wondering if you actually need a website and if it's worth the effort? Or, how am I going to connect my customers to my services, link them to my menu and ensure all of this information is consistently correct and up to date!
With Menuzen.site we help solve this problem for business owners around the world who run food and beverage operations such as restaurants, cafes, bars, food trucks, market stalls, and literally any type of business that runs a menu!
I must note, If you are an industry expert looking at other options due to resources and control we have you covered too.
Having an online presence through a website instantly helps add credibility and allows your customers to find you through Google searches. With a website you can ensure your customers can find your menu, services and business contact information.
This keeps your website and linking profile up to date as this is important as having a website as this information is publicly available online.
Your customers (or future customers) despise searching for a new and exciting place to eat, or finding your restaurant on Instagram and not having access to the menu or opening hours - it almost defeats the purpose of having a web presence entirely!
So, as a restaurant owner you need some type of online presence to allow your customers to interact with you.
Ok sounds good but what are the available options?
Let’s look at the major platforms today and see how they help you create your restaurant website.
Wix
Wix is an affordable page editor that has specific templates for Wix Restaurant customers. There’s a wide variety of designs to choose from and signing up after selecting a template brings you straight to the editor:
Immediately, you can see that a level of technical proficiency is required. You need to learn the interface in order to make basic edits. Whilst reasonably intuitive, it still requires a strong commitment to learn the system. That being said, you have a high level of control, including the ability to blog and embed other code to link booking systems or function enquiries.
In terms of costs, Wix has a free trial option but plans start from $4.50 USD per month for an ad supported account.
Weebly
Another page builder tool, Weebly is a simplified page builder that focuses on Square payments integration to make simple and fast online ecommerce stores possible.
The Weebly restaurant templates are limited however, which means it will take more time for you to create your perfect weebly restaurant website. Additionally, the editing experience, whilst drag and drop, does require some time to learn if you are unfamiliar with website editing.
For pricing, Weebly also contains an ad support free tier however you cannot use your own domain.
Linktree
Another option for a free website builder for restaurants is Linktree. Linktree is a bio site editor which allows you to create a microsite and link to other services. Think of it as a website before your website.
For restaurants, it allows you to create a very simple presence and link to things like your menu, full website, orderings services and more.
There are no preset restaurant templates to choose from, but some limited customisation is available which covers what you likely need. The editing interface is highly intuitive and simple, however it only allows for the addition of links. Meaning you’ll need to link customers off to another page to see information such as your opening hours.
It’s priced competitively and the free plan allows for enough functionality to make it useful. However, you do need to consider additional costs as you will need a website as well as a Linktree.
Menuzen.site
Menuzen.site is our own solution to this issue. Our Menuzen.site product is tailor made for restaurant owners on the go. We have many professional restaurant menu design templates ready to choose from as well as allowing you to edit only the information you need.
Editing your Menuzen.site is simple and able to be completed on your mobile device in minutes.
Menuzen.site is completely free too with the ability to use your own domain coming soon.
UpMenu
UpMenu is an online ordering system for restaurants. It provides a range of features to facilitate online food ordering and delivery services directly from a restaurant's own website or mobile application, rather than through third-party platforms.
Ok. That all sounds great, but I want a professional website. How much does that cost?
The age old question of how much does it cost for me to build a website. This shouldn't be your question! The question should be do I have access to make updates and if not how much does that cost. Time and time again businesses lock in to contracts with website builders or agencies to create websites who help you get set up, but the ongoing management which is crucial to the food service industry on the move, what happens to them?
The freelancer, platform or agency you pick will affect the overall cost of building and managing your online presence for your business.
Let's say you choose to use a website builder like Wordpress, Wix, Weebly or Squarespace and depending where you are located in the world, this could cost anywhere between $10 - $60 per month.
Working with a web developer through an agency can set you back $1,000 all the way through to $30,000 as an upfront cost depending on the complexity of your website and the quality of the agency with increased ongoing monthly costs compared to website builders.
Certain platforms offer free services that have as much impact for your customers within a range of verticals. Menuzen.site is a key example of providing you the ability to share all of the key information your business needs to share online at a fraction of the cost (literally no cost!) and ensuring you have the ability to control and update on the go.
So can I create a website myself?
The answer is most definitely, but the question is do you have full control and access on the go as a busy individual? Updating contact information, opening hours and menus services on the fly with a website takes up lots of time.
As mentioned above Menuzen.site removes the need for concern and allows you simply from your mobile phone to make updates in seconds that reflect no matter where your website link is shared! Not to mention, the Menuzen.site product is free forever and connects to one of the top menu creation tools available.
Menu creation tools? How do I update my menu and items on the go?
Managing your website, your menu and then ensuring your menu talks to your website and vice versa is a tricky thing and something that can chew up your time.
With Menuzen.site and Menuzen.com we allow you as a business owner to have a simple yet impactful website with links to all your services, contact information and your menu powered through Menuzen.com - a free to use menu designer product.
Menuzen.com allows you to select from menu templates and themes and update them on the go. Manage multiple menus, items invite your team, it's all possible and simple.
Share your menu once from Menuzen.com through to your Menuzen.site, and make the updating nightmares a thing of the past. Menuzen’s innovative menu management system allows you full access 24/7 on the go to update show live pricing and item update - free forever.
Menuzen.site and the tools provided by Menuzen for restaurants, cafes, bars etc. ensures this is never the case by giving you full control over your web presence and ability to make updates to your menu, website and more on the go from your mobile phone.
