How much does a restaurant website cost in 2026?

The three ways to buy a website, and what they really cost

When a restaurant owner asks for a quote, they almost always end up facing three options. They look like three different prices for the same thing, but they buy very different things.

The difference isn't the starting price: it's what you're left with after three years. With a monthly fee you've paid twice as much and, if you change supplier, you often start again from zero, domain included, which is the worst part, because it's the address your customers have saved and Google has indexed.

The things that really move the price

1. The menu (€0–400)

A PDF menu costs nothing and is worth nothing: it downloads slowly, it's hard to read, and Google doesn't understand it. A menu built as real pages, with categories, allergens and prices you can update yourself, is the part that costs the most and pays back the most. If your menu changes every week, it's the one item you shouldn't skimp on.

2. Languages (from €150 per language)

You only need this if you work with tourists. In a seaside or mountain resort it's worth every euro; in a city neighbourhood, almost never. Be wary of machine translations left as they are: a badly translated menu does more harm than no translation at all.

3. Bookings (€0–500)

A form that sends you an email costs little. Linking it to a booking system (TheFork, Plateform, your own restaurant software) costs more, because it has to be set up and tested. Look at the numbers: if you get ten bookings a day by phone, a form takes work off your hands; if you get two, a “Call” button may be enough.

4. Photos (€0–600)

This is the item restaurant owners underestimate most. Photos of your dishes are the reason someone chooses you over the place next door. If you already have decent photos, cropping and optimisation are enough. If you don't, a half-day shoot costs between €300 and €600 and is worth more than any visual redesign.

5. The Google side (€0–400)

A properly set-up Google Business Profile, structured data, text written around what people really search for in your area. It's invisible work: you can't see it on the website, but it decides whether the website brings people in. A beautiful website that nobody finds is a poster hung in the cellar.

What it costs to keep it running

Here the figures are small and fixed:

• .it domain: €10–20 a year.
• Hosting: from €0 (a static website on Cloudflare Pages or Netlify fits within the free plan) to €60 a year for traditional hosting.
• HTTPS certificate: free, included everywhere. If someone makes you pay for it, change supplier.
• Maintenance: optional, €20–40 a month if you want it. On a static website you need little; on WordPress you really do, because the plugins have to be kept updated.

The right question isn't “how much does a website cost”, but “how much does it cost me not to have one”. Two extra diners a week, at €25 each, come to €2,600 a year.

The five classic traps

1. The 36-month contract. It looks like a monthly fee; it's really a loan. Read the minimum term before you sign.
2. A domain registered to the agency. Look up the holder on a whois service: your name or your VAT number (Partita IVA) should be there.
3. “Guaranteed first place on Google.” There's no such thing: nobody can guarantee it. Whoever promises it is selling hot air, often on an instalment plan.
4. A website you can't update. If changing a price means opening a ticket and waiting three days, you've bought yourself a problem.
5. A template with other people's photos. If the photos on your website are the same as on twenty other restaurants' sites, customers can feel it, even if they couldn't explain why.

The honest figure

For a restaurant or a pizzeria in a small town, with a digital menu, bookings, photos sorted out and the Google side done properly, the realistic figure in Italy today is between €700 and €1,200, paid once, plus around €40 a year for domain and hosting. Under €400 you're buying a template filled with your details in a hurry. Above €3,000 you enter the territory of multi-site businesses, e-commerce sites or major photo productions.

If you want a concrete reference, our prices are set out on our website, and the page on websites for restaurants explains what's in each package.

Three questions to ask anyone who gives you a quote

• “Who is the domain registered to?” The right answer: to you.
• “If I change supplier in a year, what do I take with me?” The right answer: everything.
• “Can I update the menu myself from my phone?” The right answer: yes, and I'll let you try it before I hand the website over.