Restaurant Website With Online Ordering: Builder vs Done-for-You (UK, 2026)

There are two honest ways to get a restaurant website that takes orders: build it yourself on a website builder, or pay a provider to build it and run it under your name. This guide compares them on time, cost shape, ordering and payments, apps, maintenance and who each suits, reusing the Wix and Shopify figures we checked on 20 October 2026 for our [Wix vs Shopify guide](/blog/online-ordering-website-restaurants-wix-vs-shopify-uk). Aexir is a done-for-you provider, so weigh our conclusions accordingly.

A restaurant website with online ordering is a site where customers browse your menu, pay by card and choose delivery or collection, with the order arriving at your kitchen directly. A builder (Wix, Shopify, Squarespace and the like) gives you templates and an ordering add-on to assemble yourself. A done-for-you provider supplies the site, the ordering, the payments and usually the till as one service and sets it up for you.

How long does each route take to launch?

On a builder the honest answer is a weekend for the pages and another for the ordering. You pick a template, type in every item with sizes and extras, connect payments, set delivery areas, test checkout on a phone, and then find the modifier you cannot build. The time is yours, so it looks free.

With a done-for-you provider you send the menu as a PDF, a photo or a link to your current listing, check the draft and the delivery zones, and go live. Aexir’s team builds the menu with sizes, extras and deals and the site goes up at yourname.aexir.com; the app plans take longer because Apple and Google review the app. The 30-day setup plan is a realistic timeline for either route.

What does each route cost, and what shape is the cost?

From our 20 October 2026 check: Shopify Basic is £25 a month or £19 on annual billing, Grow £65 or £49, VAT not stated, and restaurant ordering in practice means an app such as Zapiet Eats at $49.99 a month for 250 orders then $0.10 per order, billed in US dollars. Wix publishes US dollar prices "for reference only", Core about $29 and Business $39.77 a month on yearly billing, taxes excluded, with the Wix Restaurants Orders app free to install and a branded app on a separate plan with no published price.

The shape matters more than the number. A builder is a plan fee plus an ordering add-on plus card fees. A done-for-you provider is one monthly fee at a published price plus card fees: Aexir’s Web plan is £30 a month ex VAT for the ordering website and POS on the Go, Plus at £40 adds the branded app, Pro at £50 is app, website and till, and additional locations are £1 a day.

How do ordering and payments differ?

On a builder, ordering is a retail checkout with food bolted on. Modifiers and meal deals are where builders strain: in our October check a Wix App Market review said you "cannot add modifiers to variations", and Shopify needs an app for restaurant ordering at all. Payments are the builders’ strength: Shopify Basic 2% + 25p and Wix Payments 2.1% + 20p are both below Aexir’s 2.5% + 30p, about 18p to 20p less on a £25 order.

On a done-for-you platform the checkout is built for food: sizes, extras, deals, scheduled orders for a set time, promo codes, Apple Pay and Google Pay, and the order on the till with the kitchen ticket printed. You pay a higher card rate for that; across 500 card orders a month, Aexir costs roughly £87.50 more than Shopify Basic in card fees, which is what the monthly fee has to earn back through what is included.

Which route gives you an app?

Shopify does not offer a merchant-branded app; its Shop app is Shopify’s own marketplace. Wix sells a branded app on a separate plan with no published price, plus Apple’s $99 a year and Google Play’s $25 (both checked 20 October 2026). A done-for-you platform such as Aexir puts your own iOS and Android app on the stores under your name on the Starter, Plus and Pro plans, with loyalty stamps, points and push notifications attached. The restaurant app builder guide walks through every route to an app, and the restaurant ordering app page shows ours.

Who maintains it after launch?

A website is never finished. Prices change, items sell out, sections are seasonal, plugins need updating. On a builder every one of those is your job, in a page editor, usually after close; with an agency build it is an invoice. On a done-for-you platform the menu lives in the till: change a price in POS on the Go and the website updates straight away, put a section on a time and day schedule, and let a stock count hide a sold-out item automatically.

Hosting, the SSL certificate and uptime are included on both builders and done-for-you platforms, so neither route leaves you a server to manage. The difference is who answers when checkout fails at 7pm on a Friday: on a builder that is a help centre; with Aexir it is the team that built your menu.

Who should use a builder, and who should go done-for-you?

A builder suits you if

• You mainly need a brochure site: menu, hours, photos, a bookings link, with light collection ordering.
• You sell products as well as meals, such as sauces, hampers or coffee beans, which Shopify in particular is built for.
• Your orders are large and infrequent, so the lower card rate outweighs the monthly fee, and someone on the team will keep the menu current.

Done-for-you suits you if

• You deliver and want partner couriers dispatched per order rather than hiring drivers.
• You want online, phone and walk-in orders on one till with food modifiers and a kitchen printer, and an app under your own name with push notifications you send yourself.
• You would rather one monthly fee at a published price than a plan, an add-on, a POS tier and a branded-app plan, some priced in dollars and one unpublished.

What does the done-for-you route cost with Aexir?

The Web plan is £30 a month ex VAT: a branded ordering website at yourname.aexir.com, delivery and collection, card payments through Stripe at 2.5% + 30p, and POS on the Go, with the menu built and setup handled by the Aexir team. Plus at £40 adds the branded iOS and Android app; Pro at £50 is app, website and POS on the Go; additional locations are £1 a day each; partner courier delivery is charged per delivery if you use it. We are now live in France as well. Detail is on the restaurant website page and the pricing page; named competitors are on the alternatives hub.