Comparison · September 2026
Every builder here lets you do the things that matter. Almost nobody does them. Here is what we measured, what each platform is genuinely good at, and when you should not hire us.
Most comparisons of website builders are written by people selling one of them. This one is too — we build restaurant websites. So instead of opinions, here is what we measured: in September 2026 we scanned 128 Sydney restaurant websites, recorded which platform each one runs on, and checked the same four things on every site.
The result is not that one platform is bad. It is that the platform barely predicts the outcome. Every builder here lets you publish a text menu and add restaurant structured data. Almost nobody does.
| Platform | Menu as text | Restaurant schema | Tap-to-call | Median response | What it does well | Where it falls down here |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WordPress | 13% | 2% | 61% | 1284 ms | Anything is possible with the right plugins and someone to set them up. | Lowest menu-as-text rate in our sample. Usually nobody is maintaining it. |
| Squarespace | 24% | 0% | 53% | 2124 ms | Best-looking templates of the group; easy to keep tidy. | Not one Squarespace restaurant in our sample had restaurant structured data. Slowest median response too. |
| Wix | 38% | 15% | 8% | 816 ms | Most flexible editor; good app ecosystem. | Only 8% had a tap-to-call number — the worst of any platform here. |
| Shopify (n=9) | 44% | 0% | 33% | 1162 ms | Strong if you sell packaged goods as well as meals. | Built for products, not for a dine-in menu. |
| Square Online (n=6) | 0% | 0% | 17% | 1492 ms | Free to start, and ordering ties straight into a Square POS. | None of the six in our sample had a menu as readable text. |
| GoDaddy (n=4) | 25% | 0% | 50% | 1341 ms | Cheap and quick to stand up. | Thin templates; none had restaurant structured data. |
Percentages are of the restaurants in our sample using that platform, not of the platform's capabilities. Where the sample is under ten sites the figure is marked n and should be read as indicative only. Median response is time to first byte, before images load.
There are good reasons to use one of these builders instead:
Not "better templates". The four things in the table above are done as part of the build, not left as an exercise:
And the part that is not about the site at all: you see the finished website before you pay anything, and the domain is registered in your own business name.
| Option | Up front | Ongoing | ~3 years | Who does the work |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Squarespace Business | $0 | ~$25 / mo | ~$900 | You |
| Wix (Core / Business) | $0 | ~$42–55 / mo | ~$1,500–2,000 | You |
| Square Online (free) | $0 | 2.2% + 30c per order | varies | You |
| Restaurant Web | Quoted | Quoted | Quoted | We build it, you approve it |
AUD, GST included, advertised platform prices as at September 2026 — the platforms change theirs without notice, so check before you decide. Our own line is quoted per restaurant: you see the finished site before you pay, then get one written quote with a fixed price for the build and the yearly fee that keeps it online. Optional monthly services and any ad spend are separate.
They can be. Both are capable platforms, and the limits are not technical. But in a September 2026 survey of 128 Sydney restaurant websites, of the 40 built on Wix, Squarespace, Square Online or GoDaddy, 0 had all four basics right — a menu as readable text, a tap-to-call number, opening hours on the page and restaurant structured data. The platforms let you do these things; they do not do them for you, and most restaurant owners never get to them.
WordPress, by a wide margin: 54 of the 128 sites we could identify, about 42%. Squarespace (17) and Wix (13) follow. WordPress sites in our sample also had the lowest rate of menus published as readable text, at 13%.
On Squarespace's Business plan at about AU$25 a month, roughly $900 over three years plus your own time. On Wix, roughly $1,500. Square Online is free monthly but takes 2.2% + 30c on every online order. Restaurant Web is quoted per restaurant: we build the site first, you see it finished, and then we send a written quote with a fixed price, GST included, covering the build and the yearly fee that keeps it online. Platform prices checked September 2026; check current pricing before deciding.
When you want it live today, when someone in the family enjoys tinkering with it, or when your needs are genuinely simple and you would rather keep the monthly cost low. A tidy Squarespace site kept up to date beats an expensive site nobody maintains.
Publishing the menu as an image or a PDF. Across all 128 sites we scanned, only about one in five had a menu that Google and AI assistants can read as text with prices. That single fix matters more than the choice of platform.
See yours first
Tell us your restaurant's name and suburb. We run the same checks on your site and show you the finished replacement — free, no obligation.