Owner.com costs $249 a month plus 5% of each order, or $499 a month flat, and your guests pay a 5% fee on top either way. Toast Websites and Toast Online Ordering run about $75 a month each, but they come tied to Toast’s card processing and a one- to three-year contract. Popmenu is about $179 to $499 a month, with online ordering about $50 more plus $1 per order charged to the guest. Square Online is $0 to $149 a month with 2.9% to 3.3% card fees and no contract. A site you own costs more up front, about $1,500 to $12,000 depending on features, then $30 to $400 a month to run. Platforms get you live fast and handle the upkeep. Your own site costs more on day one, but the domain, the design and the customer list are yours, and you can change ordering tools without starting over.

What each option costs

Option Monthly fee Order and guest fees Contract
Owner.com $249 or $499 5% per order on the $249 plan. Guests pay 5% on both. Month to month
Toast $75 website + $75 ordering Card fees 2.49% to 3.69%, plus 15¢ per order 1 to 3 years
Popmenu About $179, $299 or $499 Ordering about $50 a month, plus $1 per order to the guest Could not confirm
Square Online $0, $49 or $149 3.3% + 30¢ on Free. 2.9% + 30¢ on paid plans. None
Your own site About $30 to $400 to run Depends on the ordering tool you pick None

A few costs hide below the table.

Toast software only runs on Toast hardware, and you must use Toast for card processing. Contracts run one to three years, and there is a fee for leaving early. One guide that read Toast’s merchant agreement says the fee on a pay-as-you-go plan can be $150 for every month left on the term. Ask Toast for the exact number before you sign.

We could not load Popmenu’s pricing or terms pages. The Popmenu figures here come from a third-party guide, so confirm them with Popmenu. That guide lists a start-up fee of about $1,300 and a 10% discount for paying a year up front. It also says some customers report trouble canceling. Ask for the contract term in writing.

Owner.com’s pricing page does not list a delivery price. One third-party guide puts it at about $7 an order with no markup. Confirm that before you count on it. Owner’s two plans cost the same at about $5,000 a month in orders, since 5% of $5,000 is $250.

Square says there are no locked-in contracts. You can cancel or switch anytime.

Who owns what

Your domain. Toast lets you connect a domain you already own to Toast Websites or Online Ordering Pro. With Toast Websites, you can also buy a domain through Toast. Square lets you connect your own domain on the Plus and Premium plans, and you can keep it with the company you bought it from. Owner.com says you always keep ownership of your domain name. It points your domain at the site Owner builds. We could not load Popmenu’s pages about domains. Whatever vendor you pick, get the answer in writing. If the domain is in a vendor’s name, your web address leaves when you do.

Your customer list. Square lets you export your customer directory from the dashboard at any time as a CSV file, a plain file you can open in a spreadsheet. Toast lets you download your guest list as a CSV file too. It emails you a link, and the link expires after 72 hours. Owner.com’s marketing, as one third-party guide describes it, promises full access to your customer contact data. Its restaurant agreement is narrower. It says the business may use customer data “only in connection with its use of the Services,” and it does not promise an export when you leave. We could not load Popmenu’s pages about export.

Your website. On every platform, the site lives on the platform. Owner.com’s agreement says Owner keeps all rights in the service and its content, and that you must stop using the platform when the contract ends. That is normal for software, but it means the site is rented, not owned. With a site you own, the files, the design and the domain are yours.

When a platform is the better call

You need ordering live this week. Owner.com says many restaurants can launch within a week. A custom site takes longer.

You already run Toast POS. Orders flow straight to the kitchen, and $75 a month for a site is small next to the contract you already signed.

You do little online volume. Square’s free plan costs nothing until a card runs. Owner’s $249 plan keeps fixed cost low while orders are small.

Nobody on your team wants to touch a website. Platforms handle hosting, updates and security for you.

When your own site is the better call

You plan to be open for years. A restaurant site runs $1,500 to $4,000 for menu and contact, $4,000 to $8,000 with reservations, and $6,000 to $12,000 with online ordering. Over five years that is $25 to $200 a month for the build, and the site is yours at the end.

You want to change tools without losing your address. You can own the site and still use a platform’s ordering. Toast and Square both let you point a domain you own at their ordering pages. Your menu, photos and story stay on a site you control. If the ordering vendor raises prices, you swap a link, not the whole site.

You want your customer list in your own hands, in a file you can open.

What about DoorDash?

DoorDash takes 15%, 25% or 30% of delivery orders depending on the plan, and 6% of pickup orders. Its own online ordering tool is commission-free but carries a processing fee. The real question with any of these is which one you can leave.

Four questions before you sign

  1. Whose name is on the domain?
  2. Can I export my customer list, in what format, and after I cancel?
  3. How long is the term, does it auto-renew, and what does it cost to leave early?
  4. What fees do my guests see at checkout?

What we would do

We build sites the restaurant owns, on a domain in the owner’s name, with the ordering tool that fits how you work. If you already run Toast or Square, we keep it and connect ordering on a subdomain, an address like order.yourrestaurant.com. See our websites service. Not sure which way to go? Book a free 20-minute audit. You get three written findings within two business days.

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