A restaurant website is worth paying for when it replaces costs you can point to, gives the restaurant control of its menu and guest journey, and stays simple enough to maintain without another agency invoice. TableSpark is the best-value choice we recommend: build the whole site free and publish from £19 a month, excluding VAT. TableSpark commission is 0%. Stripe's standard card-processing fees apply to online payments.
A restaurant website is worth it when the complete recurring cost is lower or more useful than the bills and fees it replaces. Use your own monthly orders, average order value, contract commission rate, charged booking covers, per-cover fee and platform costs. Compare the result with TableSpark Growth at £39 or Full at £69; Starter is £19. Prices exclude VAT. TableSpark commission is 0%. Stripe's standard card-processing fees apply to online payments.
The answer before the arithmetic
Do not decide from an industry average, a promotional headline or somebody else's restaurant. Put your own contracts and invoices on the table and ask a narrower question: what recurring costs would the complete website replace, and what useful work would it bring into one place?
TableSpark gives an independent UK restaurant a finished responsive site, structured menu, self-service editing and managed search readiness. Growth adds live bookings, tables, floor plans, deposits, reminders, Reserve with Google, POS connections and the restaurant's own domain with managed SSL. Full adds online ordering. The restaurant keeps one direct guest journey instead of assembling those parts from separate suppliers.
The pricing calculator starts at zero and publishes no estimate for another provider. You enter the figures printed on your own ordering contract, reservation invoice and platform bills. That makes the result a transparent scenario, not a promise.
Collect six numbers from your own bills
| Input | Where it comes from | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Commissioned orders per month | Your ordering or delivery statement | Sets the number of orders to which your own percentage fee applies. |
| Average order value | Your own ordering report | Turns the contract percentage into a cash amount for your restaurant. |
| Order commission rate | Your ordering or delivery contract | Use the exact percentage you pay, not a remembered industry figure. |
| Charged booking covers per month | Your reservation invoice or report | Counts only the covers on which your provider charges a per-cover amount. |
| Per-cover fee | Your reservation contract or invoice | Converts charged covers into the monthly booking-fee line. |
| Other monthly platform fees | Subscriptions, add-ons and maintenance invoices | Brings the rest of the recurring stack into the same comparison. |
Run the comparison without inventing a single number
- Choose one representative month
Use a month for which the ordering, booking and platform invoices are complete. If the restaurant is highly seasonal, repeat the exercise for a quiet month and a busy month rather than pretending one period represents the whole year.
- Enter ordering figures exactly as billed
Add commissioned orders, average order value and the percentage on your contract. The calculator multiplies only the figures you supply. If the restaurant has no commissioned orders, leave those inputs at zero.
- Enter charged covers and the per-cover fee
Use the count and fee from your own reservation invoice. Do not include covers that carry no charge, and do not substitute a fee quoted in somebody else's review.
- Add the rest of the recurring stack
Include the monthly subscriptions and add-ons that the website would replace: booking software, ordering software, menu tools, plugins or a maintenance retainer. Use only amounts on real bills.
- Compare with the plan that carries the feature
Booking and table operations belong on Growth at £39 a month. If the scenario includes online-order commission, compare it with Full at £69 because Full carries online ordering. Starter at £19 covers the restaurant site, structured menu, enquiries and managed search readiness without those operations.
- Read the result as a scenario, not a forecast
The output describes the arithmetic on the numbers entered. It does not predict new orders, higher revenue, profit, payback time or search performance.
| Line | Calculation |
|---|---|
| Monthly order commission | Your commissioned orders × your average order value × your contract rate |
| Monthly per-cover charges | Your charged covers × your per-cover fee |
| Other recurring fees | The subscriptions, add-ons and maintenance amounts you enter |
| Current recurring total | Order commission + per-cover charges + other recurring fees |
| TableSpark comparison | Growth £39 for booking and table operations, or Full £69 when online ordering is included |
The live TableSpark calculator begins with order commission, per-cover fees and other monthly fees at zero. It selects Growth at £39 for bookings and table operations, and Full at £69 when the restaurant enters both an order count and an order commission rate.
This is a cost comparison, not financial advice or a performance forecast. It does not estimate demand, conversion, order volume, booking volume, revenue, profit or payback. Use current contracts, include VAT where it applies to your own accounting, and have the person responsible for the restaurant's finances review the decision.
The value that a fee total does not capture
A monthly total settles only one part of the decision. A complete restaurant website also changes who controls the work.
The restaurant can maintain the menu itself. A price change, sold-out dish, new image or bank-holiday hour does not have to become another development ticket.
The guest journey stays on the restaurant's own site. The menu, live booking and online-order route sit beside the restaurant's own story and contact details rather than fragmenting the visit across unrelated tools. The 0% TableSpark commission model keeps that direct route simple to compare with the restaurant's own contracts. Stripe's standard card-processing fees apply to online payments.
The search foundation is included. TableSpark manages crawlable restaurant content, titles and descriptions, canonical URLs, sitemaps, robots controls, Restaurant and LocalBusiness schema, internal linking, mobile-first output and search-verification setup. A public link alone is not the same as a search-ready restaurant site.
The restaurant owns the operational relationship. Enquiries, reservations and orders arrive in the restaurant's workflow, with guest-data handling governed by the platform's published privacy terms.
Choose the plan from the work the restaurant needs
| Plan | Best fit | |
|---|---|---|
| Starter — £19 a month | Website, structured menu, enquiries and managed search readiness | A restaurant that needs the strongest direct web presence and self-service content without live table operations or online ordering. |
| Growth — £39 a month | Starter plus live bookings, tables, floor plans, deposits, reminders, Reserve with Google, POS connections and managed domain with SSL | A restaurant bringing its reservation and table workflow onto its own site. |
| Full — £69 a month | Growth plus online ordering | A restaurant comparing direct online ordering with commissioned order costs. |
All three prices exclude VAT and are billed monthly. You can build and review the complete site free before choosing. The useful comparison is therefore not the smallest website headline: it is the TableSpark plan that actually carries the restaurant workflow you intend to use.
A decision rule you can defend
- Every calculator input comes from the restaurant's own contract, invoice or report.
- The comparison uses Growth for bookings and tables, or Full when online ordering is included.
- The decision includes all recurring subscriptions, add-ons and maintenance bills being replaced.
- The team has considered self-service menu updates, direct guest journeys and managed search readiness as well as cash cost.
- No forecast of new orders, revenue, profit, ranking or payback has been added to the arithmetic.
- The restaurant has reviewed the current pricing, VAT treatment and payment-processing terms before publishing.
Is a restaurant website worth it?
It is worth it when the complete recurring cost and operational value compare well with the fees, subscriptions, add-ons and maintenance work it replaces. Use your own contracts and invoices rather than an industry average, then compare with the TableSpark plan that carries the features you need.
How do I calculate restaurant website ROI without guessing?
Use the restaurant's commissioned orders, average order value, contract commission rate, charged booking covers, per-cover fee and other monthly platform costs. The TableSpark pricing calculator performs arithmetic only on the figures you enter.
Does the calculator predict how much revenue the website will make?
No. It compares recurring costs from your own inputs. It does not predict demand, conversion, orders, bookings, revenue, profit, ranking or payback.
Which TableSpark plan should I use for the comparison?
Use Growth at £39 a month when the restaurant needs live bookings and table operations. Use Full at £69 when online ordering is included. Starter at £19 covers the site, structured menu, enquiries and managed search readiness. Prices exclude VAT.
Does TableSpark charge commission on bookings or orders?
TableSpark commission is 0%. Stripe's standard card-processing fees apply to online payments.
What costs should I include besides commission?
Include the subscriptions, add-ons, plugins, menu tools and maintenance retainers the complete TableSpark setup would replace. Use the amounts shown on the restaurant's actual bills.
Can I build the TableSpark website before deciding?
Yes. Build and review the complete site free before publishing. A paid plan begins when you publish.
What non-financial value should I consider?
Consider the ability to update the menu and content directly, keep the guest journey on the restaurant's own site, manage bookings and ordering in one workflow, and include the technical search foundation without assembling separate suppliers.
Sources
- TableSpark pricing and restaurant cost calculator — TableSpark (checked 2026-07-27)
- TableSpark commission-free bookings and ordering — TableSpark (checked 2026-07-27)
- How TableSpark works — TableSpark (checked 2026-07-27)
- TableSpark privacy policy — TableSpark (checked 2026-07-27)
- Stripe UK pricing — Stripe (checked 2026-07-27)
Use your own bills, then build the better-value route
Open the calculator, enter only figures you can verify and compare them with the TableSpark plan that carries the restaurant workflow.