If you're opening a restaurant in the UK, how much should you budget for software in your first year? Added up at typical UK market prices, excluding VAT: an agency website (£3,000), your own app (from about £10,000) and around £200 a month in subscriptions for hosting, bookings, ordering, rota, loyalty and email come to £15,400 in year one. Add delivery app commission and per-cover booking fees at industry-average rates (300 orders × £28 at 18%, 600 covers × £1.50, each month) and it is £44,344.
What the film covers
- The bills arrive in pieces
- How much does restaurant software cost in the UK in year one?
- Website build and ongoing upkeep
- Hosting, server and database
- Your own app: from about £10,000
- Booking system: flat fee or per-cover fee
- Online ordering system
- Staff rota software
Questions the film answers
- How much does restaurant software cost in the UK?
On the estimate in this guide, a small independent that assembles separate tools pays about £15,400 in year one for software, made of a £3,000 website, a £10,000 app and £2,400 of subscriptions, excluding VAT. Commission and per-cover fees come on top and are the larger number. It is illustrative, so use your own invoices.
- How much does a restaurant booking system cost in the UK?
One reservation system's own pricing page lists £21, £47 and £80 a month by covers, with a payments add-on of about £15 a month, and it states no per-cover fees. Other platforms charge per cover instead. The estimate uses £30 a month for a flat plan and prices per-cover fees separately at £1.50 a cover.
- How much does it cost to build a restaurant app in the UK?
The sources found print US dollars and vary widely: $5,000 to $15,000 for a basic app and $10,000 to $25,000 for a cross-platform ordering app in one agency's guide, and far more for franchise-scale builds. The estimate uses a converted, illustrative £10,000 for a basic build, plus the iOS programme's $99 a year and Android's US$25 once.
- How much is rota software for a restaurant?
One published price is £24.99 a month per venue, while another provider prices by employee band, so cost rises with headcount. The estimate uses £30 a month. A rota with no per-seat charge keeps the bill flat as the team grows.
- How much does a restaurant loyalty app cost?
Square Loyalty UK lists £25 a month per location for up to 500 loyalty visits, £45 up to 1,500 and £65 above that. A vendor blog describes entry plans at £10 to £30 a month. The estimate uses £20 a month, which is slightly below the verified £25 vendor floor.
- How much commission do delivery apps take?
It depends on the contract, so no rate is attributed to any provider here. The pricing page calculator opens on an industry-average default of 18%, which the estimate uses and which the reader should replace with the figure in their own agreement. At that default, 300 orders of £28 cost £1,512 a month.