Best online food ordering and delivery website platforms

If you own a restaurant today, you have to offer takeout and delivery. During the pandemic millions of people tried online ordering and delivery. They enjoyed the ease of ordering and the ability to either select curbside pickup or delivery.

Besides the increased interest, restaurants benefit from online ordering. On average,  online orders are larger than those made in-person. In other words, it pays to invest in a quality online ordering system.

But how do you go about building a website for takeout and delivery on a limited budget?

A custom website can cost thousands of dollars and require ongoing maintenance. Many restaurants do not have the financial capabilities to hire a web developer to build a custom website.

Fortunately, many companies have products that are easy to use and are designed to help restaurant implement a website for takeout and delivery.

Several of these companies have either purchased companies with restaurant ordering capabilities or have partnered with other technology platforms. That is because restaurant ordering is very different than traditional e-commerce. Food must be prepared quickly and often orders are customized. As well, the menu might be different for lunch and dinner.

That is why you need a website platform designed with restaurants in mind. You need one that can help you grow your business and make online ordering a profit center.

Best platforms

• Wix
• Squarespace
• WordPress
• BentoBox
• GoDaddy
• Shopify
• Square

Wix

Based in Israel, Wix is a website building platform with over 200 million registered users around the world. The company has focused on the restaurant industry since 2016 when it launched Wix restaurants.

Wix has multiple templates designed for the food industry. The templates cover anything from delivery only restaurants to bakeries. Each template has customizable features so any restaurant can add creative design elements.

The benefit of Wix is the ease of use. The Wix for restaurants system allows restaurants to take commission-free orders and is integrated with 16 payments systems including PayPal, Square, Stripe, and Authorize.net.

Last year, Wix realized it needed to upgrade its online ordering and delivery platform and purchased SpeedETab. With the acquisition, restaurants can integrate a restaurant’s POS with online and offline orders, making kitchen operations and delivery easier.

 The Wix dashboard is simple to use. A restaurant can changes menus and add different sections to the menu. It can add photos of individual menu items.

Customers can place orders for pickup or delivery, and the system allows a restaurant to set a defined area for delivery. Delivery times can also be adjusted based on the customer’s location.

From placing the order to completion, orders are managed as they progress. and Subscriptions are monthly or annually. Wix is a proven platform for numerous restaurants.

A few examples include Red Bamboo and Soufi’s.

Squarespace

Known for its use of visual design, Squarespace was founded by a student at the University of Maryland. The builder is easy to use and lets restaurants move objects into place and build a custom website. 

Squarespace has multiple restaurant templates. While some are easier than others to use, they all require a restaurant to have limited technical skills to build the website.

The company began offers restaurant ordering and integration in 2016 when it formed a partnership with Chownow, an online ordering platform. At the time, all restaurant templates were preloaded with Chownow and restaurant owners could easily add online ordering functionality.

ChowNow is utlized by 14,000 restaurants. The system allows restaurants to edit menus, manage orders and send orders directly to the POS. The restaurant also sets orders for pickup or delivery. Restaurants even have the ability to manage an in-house delivery operation.

Connecting the two platforms is easy and just requires a couple of steps. Customers order directly from the restaurant’s website and are able to collect all the data. The system can send orders directly to the restaurant’s POS system and allows purchasers to select takeout or delivery.

In 21021, Square significantly upgraded the order capabilities for restaurants when it purchased Tock for $400 million. But most of Tock’s features are not accessible yet through Squarespace. Launched in 2014 by restaurateur Nick Kokonas and technology professional Brian Fitzpatrick, Tock originally focused on reservations and kitchen management. The platform was completely relaunched in 2020 to focus on the needs of the restaurant industry during the pandemic. The company launched Tock to Go that allowed restaurants offer pickup and delivery.

It is only a matter of time before more of Tock’s features are integrated into Squarespace but that is not the case now. A professional web developer is needed to access many of the benefits of Tock.

An example is Jacks Bar.

WordPress

Nearly 50% of websites on the Internet are powered by WordPress. The platform is free and developed through a collaborative effort. Many developers these days prefer to work with WordPress, because the platform allows people with limited knowledge to add content but is versatile enough to add customization.

With WordPress, online ordering and delivery options are limitless. Most online platform allow full integration with WordPress. A restaurant can choose from the numerous online ordering platform depending on features and functionality.

But unlike other drag and drop platforms, a restaurant will most likely have to hire someone to design the website and integrate the software. Many of the ordering platforms require technical knowledge to integrate with the platform.

The benefits of WordPress are numerous. For one, a business owns everything. Unlike some website builders, the restaurant owns the content. A restaurant can collect the data and better understand customer’s needs.

As well, the design is fully customizable. A professional website designer can achieve the look and feel that the restaurant desires. For example, a restaurant could install an ecommerce section or move from one online ordering platform to another.

WordPress is also easy to make search-friendly. Google loves WordPress sites because they can be easily designed for the search engine to understand them.

The platform is stable and scalable. As a restaurant business grows, it can easily update the features on the site.

A key feature of WordPress is the ability to directly call a national third-party delivery company without paying the high fees when the order is placed directly on the marketplace. That is a feature that most online ordering platforms can integrate into the site.

Examples are Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza,  Lupa and Pho Cafe 

Bentobox

According to BentoBox, over 5,000 websites around the world are powered by the company’s technology. BentoBox builds websites for restaurants and has created a custom dashboard for the businesses to manage the website.

Started in 2013, BentoBox is a platform for restaurants that wants another organization to build and manage their website. They have an entire team that designs the site and integrates specific functionality.

Restaurants can offer gift cards, incentive programs, takeout and delivery. The platform integrates with POS systems like Square and Toast.

One of the key advantages of BentoBox is a partnership with DoorDash. Through the arrangements, restaurants can call a DoorDash delivery driver directly and not be charged the commission for being listed on the marketplace.

The BentoBox dashboard is simple to use and restaurants can easily update the contents, add video and photos. Menu items can be updated quickly and the owners can update each item to add specific tags like dietary restrictions and spice.

The main drawback to BentoBox is that the content lives on a BentoBox server. That means a restaurant has less control over a website. It can be a challenge to move a website away from BentoBox.

Bentobox charges for the design of the website and a monthly fee. Various service levels are offered at different price points.

An example is Pepe’s.

GoDaddy

Based in Arizona, GoDaddy is best known for its quirky TV ads and a place to purchase domains and host a website. Less known is GoDaddy’s website builder with the ability to add online ordering and delivery.

In the past, GoDaddy’s website builder was not very robust, but the company has improved its capabilities somewhat in recent years. The interface is easy to use and gives users the ability to create simple but elegant designs.

The builder has over 20 restaurant-specific websites templates. Most of the templates have a modern look and feel. They range from ones that are focus on photos to ones that are more text-oriented.

Like Squarespace, GoDaddy has also partnered with ChowNow for online integration. The cooperative effort gives restaurants a discount on a ChowNow subscription and the platform easily integrates with GoDaddy’s website builder.

With ChowNow and GoDaddy, a restaurant can offer curbside pickup and delivery. The integration requires a restauran to add a new section and with a couple of clicks of the mouse online ordering is added to the site.

DoorDash and GoDaddy have an agreement that allows DoorDash to help a GoDaddy customer add Doordash delivery to a website. The restaurant just gives DoorDash access to the site.

The main advantage of Godaddy is the domain registration and website hosting are in the same location. A restaurant can register a domain and build a website within the same platform.

Like other website builders, the disadvantage of GoDaddy is its limited capabilities. A restaurant cannot add certain capacities that are available with a custom-designed site.

An example is GoGi Korean Restaurant.

Shopify

Shopify is best known as an e-commerce platform where businesses sell everything from clothes to bicycles. Given the online ordering capabilities, Shopify also works as a platform for restaurant online orders and delivery.

Founded in 2006 by Tobias Lütke and Scott Lake, Shopify has a variety of templates for restaurants but some of the nicer themes cost money. Most of the themes have a modern feel and can be used to create a quality website.

Like any other e-commerce platform, restaurants can add and delete photos and updated product descriptions. One advantage of being an e-commerce platform is the ability to track the number of items that are ordered. A restaurant might need this capability if a limited number of an item are produced daily.

Menu customization is another important feature, like when a salad has different dressing options or a person wants to order an item without certain ingredients. Menu items can be categorized so appetizers can be separated from main course items.

The drawback is being an e-commerce platform. The designs are not as elegant and versatile as some of the other platforms, and restaurants are limited in their ability to add non-commerce pages.

A nice feature is adding local delivery. The restaurant can set the radius of local delivery. DoorDash offers an entire section on integrating with Shopify.

Online tipping is one of the more unique features of Shopify. A restaurant can add a tipping option so customers can add a tip at checkout. At checkout, all major payment options are accepted.

An example is Luke’s Lobster

Square

Square is a point-of-sale system that has an online integration option and website builder. It is an easy-to-use system that can get a restaurant online quickly.

Square’s POS is a good value and is used in a lot of bars, restaurants, pop-ups, food trucks and others in the hospitality industry. Many restaurants use Square as their POS so it makes sense to add a Square website.

Square has several restaurant website templates. They are mobile-friendly and designed around creating an online menu and taking orders. Square offers per transaction pricing plan or several monthly subscription plans.

A key advantage of a Square website is a partnership with DoorDash. A Square website has the ability to utilize DoorDash delivery drivers outside of the marketplace. That reduces the overall cost of delivery for the restaurant.

The biggest negative is the design. The builder for Square focuses on purchasing items like an e-commerce site. It does not give the restaurant the ability to create custom landing pages. A restaurant is mostly just listing items on the site.

On the positive side, a Square website easily integrates the physical location and the online ordering platform. Square’s POS processes orders online and at the restaurant. That makes keeping track of orders easier, but some people have complained about technical issues with the product.

The Square system allows the restaurant to track inventory based on all sales, track order history and the option of adding payroll management.

Square charges per transaction with no fees but can also create custom packages for large customers.

An example is Mark and Vinny’s