"Free restaurant website" sounds attractive. You open a tab, pick a template and within an hour something is online. But for a restaurant the question is not only whether you have a site, but whether guests can also book, view your menu and land on your own address without detours.
In this article you compare the popular options: WordPress, Wix, Squarespace and what you get when website and reservations sit in one platform. Not a theoretical comparison, but what restaurant owners actually need in practice.
What "free" really means
A free plan almost always means: limited features, a subdomain (yourvenue.wixsite.com) or ads on your page. For a restaurant that wants to look professional, that is rarely enough. Guests expect your own domain, a clear menu and a reservation button that works on mobile. Those three things are seldom in a truly free package, or you pay separately for plugins, apps and hosting.
So do not count on "€0 per month", but on total cost: website, domain, reservation tool, maintenance and time you invest yourself. A cheap site you have to update every month or where booking does not work ultimately costs more than an all-in solution that does cover everything.
What a restaurant website minimally needs
Before comparing platforms, complete your checklist. Guests expect at least:
Menu you can update yourself when dishes or prices change.
Online booking via your own site, linked to real availability (not a form you follow up manually).
Opening hours and contact, plus directions and parking info where relevant.
Custom domain (for example restaurantname.be), so you are not tied to a platform URL.
Mobile-friendly design: most reservations come from a smartphone.
If one piece is missing, you still send guests to Google, Instagram or an external booking platform. That works, but you lose control and often pay commission. Read more about your booking flow in our article on where guests book.
WordPress: flexible, but rarely truly free
WordPress is open source and popular with restaurants that have a web builder or agency. The software itself can be free, but you almost always pay for hosting, a domain, a theme and often plugins. For online booking you need a separate plugin or embed that talks to your reservation system. Menus are sometimes maintained via a page builder, sometimes via a separate plugin.
The upside: full freedom in design and extensions. The downside for a busy owner: updates, security, plugin conflicts and the fact that website and reservations live in different tools. Does your booking plugin break after an update? Your site is online, but booking does not work. For those who are technical or have a fixed partner, WordPress can work well. For those who mainly want to cook and host, it is often too much hassle.
Wix and Squarespace: quick online, extras cost extra
Wix and Squarespace are drag-and-drop builders: pick a template, drag blocks and publish. Ideal for a nice landing page quickly. Their free or cheap plans have limits: Wix branding, limited bandwidth or no custom domain on the lowest tier. For a professional restaurant website you quickly land on a paid subscription of several tens per month, plus annual domain costs.
Booking works via built-in apps, external widgets or links to platforms such as TheFork or OpenTable. Those integrations are not always seamless: guests sometimes click through to another environment, or you pay commission per booking. You can put your menu in the builder, but updating large menus in a visual editor is time-consuming. Wix and Squarespace excel at design and speed to go live; they are weaker when you want reservations, table plan and menu centrally in one hospitality system.
Stitching separate tools together
Many restaurants stack solutions: a free or cheap site via Wix, a separate reservation platform, menu as PDF on the site, Instagram as the "real" showcase. Each link works on its own, but nothing talks to anything else. You update your menu in three places, your reservation link in your bio differs from the one on your site, and you do not know which channel actually drives bookings.
The apparent saving on a "free website" disappears into subscriptions, commission and hours of admin. Compare that with one platform where site, widget, menu and guest data connect. Also read our step-by-step guide for online reservations on your own website if you already have a site and mainly want to improve the widget.
Website included with Restotailor
Restotailor is not a free website builder, but an answer to the question: what do you really need without buying everything separately? Your own restaurant website is included in your €65 per month all-in subscription. No separate hosting bill, no hunting for WordPress plugins, no reservation app on top of your Wix plan. You build your site in Restotailor, match colours and fonts to your brand, update your menu in one place and the reservation widget is built in by default.
You connect your custom domain, so guests land on your URL and book in one flow. Because the site ties to your table plan, opening hours and reservation rules, the widget always shows what is correct. No embed you have to replace manually after every change. With analytics you also see whether visitors on your site actually book. For many restaurants that is cheaper and simpler than WordPress plus hosting plus reservation tool plus maintenance.
Conclusion
A truly free restaurant website barely exists if you want to book professionally, keep your menu current and use your own domain. WordPress offers flexibility at the price of maintenance and separate parts. Wix and Squarespace get you online fast, but booking and menu often need extra tools or cost. Restotailor takes a different approach: website, menu, widget and custom domain in one package for €65 per month, with no commission on reservations. Do not evaluate only the monthly price of your site, but the full picture. What you save on "free" can cost you more in time, commission and missed bookings.