A cafe or restaurant website needs fast, reliable shared hosting with Australian servers — budget $10–$20 per month. Your site doesn’t need to do much, but what it does needs to work perfectly: display your menu, show your hours, and let people book a table or find your address. When a hungry customer searches on their phone, your site needs to load instantly.
What Hospitality Websites Need
Restaurant and cafe websites are simpler than most business owners think. Customers visit for three reasons:
- Menu — what do you serve, and what does it cost?
- Hours and location — when are you open, and how do I get there?
- Booking — can I reserve a table?
Everything else — your story, your team, your Instagram feed — is secondary. Build around those three core needs.
The Typical Setup
- Home page with hero image, hours, and location
- Menu page — ideally as text on the page (not a PDF — PDFs are hard to read on mobile and invisible to Google)
- Contact/location page with embedded Google Map, phone number, and address
- Booking integration — a widget from a booking platform (more on this below)
- Gallery of food and venue photos
- About page with your story
This is a brochure site with some images. Shared hosting handles it easily.
Hosting Type and Budget
Shared Hosting Is Plenty
A hospitality website with five to eight pages and a gallery of photos is well within the capabilities of shared hosting. You don’t need a VPS, cloud hosting, or anything more complex.
If you’re running WordPress (the most common platform for restaurant sites), a standard shared plan or an entry-level managed WordPress plan gives you everything you need.
| Item | Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Shared hosting (AU servers) | $10–$20/month | Higher end if you want managed WordPress |
| Domain (.com.au) | $15–$25/year | |
| SSL certificate | Free | Included with any reputable host |
| Backups | Free | Should be included |
| Booking platform | $0–$50/month | Third-party, not a hosting cost |
| Hosting total | $135–$265/year | Excludes booking platform |
See our cost guide for what hosting actually costs after intro pricing expires.
Australian Servers Matter
Your customers are local. A server in Sydney or Melbourne means your site loads in under a second on mobile — which is how most people search for restaurants. A server in the US adds noticeable lag, especially on image-heavy pages.
Check whether your hosting provider has Australian servers. Not all of them do, even if they market themselves as “Australian hosting.”
Booking Systems Don’t Need Special Hosting
A common misconception: you don’t need expensive hosting to run a booking system. The booking system runs on the booking platform’s servers, not yours. Your website just embeds a widget or links to the booking page.
Popular booking platforms for Australian hospitality:
- ResDiary — popular with Australian restaurants, integrates with Google
- Quandoo — strong in Australia, owned by Recruit Holdings
- OpenTable — global platform, good for fine dining
- Square — if you already use Square POS, their online booking integrates neatly
- Simply Book — budget-friendly option for smaller venues
These platforms handle their own infrastructure. Your hosting provider doesn’t need to support anything special — just a standard website that can embed a widget or link to a booking URL.
Image-Heavy Sites Need Adequate Storage
Hospitality websites tend to be image-heavy — food photography, venue shots, event galleries. This means:
- Storage: Make sure your hosting plan includes at least 10–20 GB of storage. Most shared plans offer this as standard.
- Image optimisation: Convert images to WebP format and resize them before uploading. A 5 MB photo straight from a camera is overkill — 100–200 KB per image is plenty for web display.
- Page speed: Large images are the number one reason restaurant websites load slowly. Compress them before uploading rather than relying on your hosting to compensate with raw speed.
Mobile-First Design
Over 70% of restaurant searches happen on mobile devices. When someone searches “cafe near me” or “best Thai food Surry Hills,” they’re on their phone. Your hosting and website need to be fast on mobile connections.
What this means for hosting:
- Australian servers (lower latency on mobile networks)
- Fast server response time (under 200ms)
- Support for caching (so repeat visitors load even faster)
What this means for your website:
- Responsive design that works on all screen sizes
- Menu as text, not a PDF (PDFs are nearly unusable on phones)
- Click-to-call phone number
- Embedded Google Map for directions
Google Business Profile Is Your Best Friend
For hospitality businesses, Google Business Profile drives more traffic than your website. When someone searches “restaurants near me,” the map results come from Google Business Profile. Your website supports this by:
- Confirming your hours and menu
- Showing up in organic search results alongside your Business Profile
- Providing a booking link that Google can display
Keep your Google Business Profile updated with current hours (especially holiday hours), photos, and menu items. Respond to reviews. This matters more for your bottom line than any hosting upgrade.
What You Don’t Need
- E-commerce hosting — unless you’re selling products online (merchandise, gift vouchers at scale), you don’t need e-commerce-grade hosting. A simple PayPal or Square link handles occasional gift card sales without special hosting.
- High-traffic plans — even a popular restaurant rarely gets more than a few thousand website visits per month. Shared hosting handles this comfortably.
- Content delivery network (CDN) — your audience is local, so a CDN’s global distribution isn’t necessary. Australian servers are sufficient.
- Premium email — basic email included with hosting works for reservations and enquiries. You can add Google Workspace later if you need team calendars and file sharing.
Choosing a Provider
For a hospitality website, look for:
- Australian servers — Sydney or Melbourne for fast local loading
- AUD billing — avoid foreign transaction fees
- SSL and backups included — non-negotiable basics
- WordPress support — if you’re using WordPress, one-click installation and automatic updates
- Good uptime — when a customer visits your site and it’s down, they go to the next result
Browse our provider directory for independent reviews, or take the hosting quiz to find the right fit.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I put my menu on my website or just link to a PDF?
Put it on your website as text. PDFs are hard to read on mobile phones (pinch and zoom), they don’t show up in Google searches, and they’re harder to update. A simple text menu page with item names, descriptions, and prices is better for customers and better for SEO.
Do I need a separate app for online ordering?
If you’re doing takeaway or delivery, platforms like Uber Eats, DoorDash, or Menulog handle the ordering infrastructure. You don’t need special hosting for this. If you want your own ordering system (to avoid platform fees), services like Square Online or Mr Yum provide the technology — your hosting just needs to link to them.
How often should I update my website?
Update your menu and hours whenever they change. Beyond that, a hospitality website doesn’t need constant updates. Add new photos quarterly, update your “About” page annually, and make sure your Google Business Profile stays current. WordPress updates (core, themes, plugins) should happen monthly for security.
Is Squarespace or Wix better than WordPress for a restaurant?
For a simple restaurant site, Squarespace or Wix are often easier — they include hosting, templates designed for restaurants, and require no technical maintenance. WordPress gives you more flexibility and is cheaper long-term (since you control the hosting), but requires more upkeep. Either is fine; pick whichever your web designer recommends or whichever you’re comfortable managing.
What if I want to sell gift vouchers or merchandise online?
For occasional sales, a simple PayPal button or Square Online link works without any hosting changes. If you’re planning a full online store with inventory management, you’ll need either WooCommerce (which requires better hosting) or a separate platform like Shopify.