I get asked this a few times a week: should I use Wix or Colen for my restaurant? I'm the founder of Colen, so I'm biased, but I'm going to give you the straight answer, including the cases where I would send you to Wix instead of my own product.
Both can end at a real, working restaurant website. What actually differs is how much of the work lands on you, how fast you're online, and which features come built in. Here is what actually matters for your restaurant.
Short answer: If you want to design every pixel yourself and you need built-in online ordering or table reservations, use Wix and be ready to pay for the plan that includes them. If you want a professional restaurant website live in minutes, built from what people already love about your place, use Colen.
The short version
Wix is a general website builder. It hands you a blank canvas and a pile of templates, and then you make every decision: layout, fonts, colors, what each page says, where the menu goes, how the hours are formatted. It is genuinely powerful. It is also a real project, and most owners I meet underestimate how many evenings it eats.
Colen is different by design. It only builds restaurants and cafés, and it is built on one idea: your Google Maps page already knows what people love about your place. Colen reads that, the top reviews, the dishes guests come back for, your best photos, your hours, and turns it into a website built to bring you more customers. You start from a finished site, in your voice, and you edit only what you care about. I'll be plain about one gap too: Colen does not do online ordering or table reservations, and Wix does.
Contents
- Wix vs Colen at a glance
- How each one actually works
- What restaurants actually need from a website
- Restaurant features, head to head
- Price, honestly
- Pricing side by side
- When Wix is the better call
- When Colen is the better call
- Why waiting on a website costs you
- Frequently asked questions
- So which one?
Wix vs Colen at a glance
| Wix | Colen | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | General site builder | Restaurant-only builder |
| Who does the setup | You, from a template | It does, from your Google Maps link |
| Time to live | Afternoon to a few days | A few minutes |
| Photos & reviews | Add by hand | Pulled from Google Maps |
| Menu | Add by hand | Upload your PDF or photos, show as-is or turn into a text menu |
| Site copy | You write it | Written from your real reviews |
| Languages | Set up and translate each one | English, French, Arabic, translated for you (Pro) |
| Free to start | Yes | Yes |
| Paid plans | From $17/mo (billed yearly) | $12/mo or $99/yr (yearly saves $45) |
| Your own domain | Free for 1 year on any plan | On Pro (connect one you own) |
How each one actually works
Wix
With Wix you start from a template and make it yours. You pick a template, drop in your photos, type your hours, write your About page, and lay out your menu. Wix Restaurants is a built-in module in its paid plans, so if you want online ordering, table reservations, or a delivery and pickup manager, that is where they live. Wix also has menu-management tools built in.
None of it is hard on its own. It is just a hundred small decisions, and every one is time you are not spending on the floor or in the kitchen. I've watched owners lose three weekends to "I'll finish the site this Sunday." If you enjoy that kind of work, great, that's a feature. If you don't, it is the real cost of Wix, and it doesn't show up on the price page.
Colen
Colen turns what people love about your business into a website built to bring you more customers. Here is what happens.
- Paste your Google Maps link. That's the only thing you give it.
- Colen builds everything. It reads your top reviews, finds the dishes and experiences guests consistently love, pulls in your best photos, your hours, and your business details, then writes professional copy from your real story.
- You're live. You land in a dashboard where you can edit text, swap photos, tune colors, and manage your menu.
You start from a finished site, in your voice, not from an empty page. That is the difference that gives you your evenings back.
A few things worth knowing about how it works day to day. The Menu Manager is built in, so you can add items, change prices, or update photos from your phone in seconds, and the live site updates instantly. If your menu lives on paper or a PDF, you can upload it and choose to show it as-is or have Colen turn the photos into a proper text menu (3 photos on the free plan, unlimited on Pro). Colen handles the technical SEO basics automatically, including search-friendly pages, metadata, and mobile optimization. And Colen does not sell or manage domains, so if you want your own, you connect one you already own.
If you want to see the shape of a real Colen site before you commit to anything, look at Boho Café in Rabat, Chēz Coffee & Brunch in Paris, or SAND Cafe in Southsea. Each one was built from a Google Maps link.
What restaurants actually need from a website
Start with what diners do. According to TouchBistro's 2024 American Diner Trends Report, which surveyed 1,500 US diners, 80% of diners always or often look at a restaurant's website, and 85% check the menu online most of the time. These are the people deciding where to eat, and they are checking before they walk in.
Why does a restaurant need a website in 2026? Because diners look at your website and your menu before they choose where to eat, and a restaurant with no site of its own hands that decision to whoever else shows up in the search results. A restaurant website needs to do a small number of things well: show a current menu, look right on a phone, and be easy to find on Google. Everything else is a bonus.
Menus matter most, since so many diners check them online. If your menu is a blurry photo on a social page, or a PDF that's out of date, you are losing people at the exact moment they were ready to choose you. Mobile matters because that is where a hungry person looks you up. And being on Google matters because that is where diners start. According to a 2023 PYMNTS report, 62% of consumers use Google to search for restaurants.
That's why this comparison starts from what a restaurant actually needs, not from a feature list. Both tools can cover the basics. The rest of this article is about the differences.
Restaurant features, head to head
| Feature | Wix (on the right plan) | Colen |
|---|---|---|
| Online ordering | Commission-free, built in | Not available |
| Table reservations | Built in | Not available |
| Menu | Manual, built-in menu tools | Upload PDF or photos, show as-is or turn into a text menu |
| Built from your Google Maps page | No | Yes, this is the core of the product |
| Copy written for you from your reviews | No | Yes |
| Multilingual site | Yes, you set up and translate each one | English, French, Arabic, translated for you (Pro) |
| Mobile-friendly | Yes | Yes, mobile-first |
| Custom domain | Free for 1 year on any plan | On Pro (connect one you own) |
| Branding on free tier | Wix branding and a Wix subdomain | Small "Made with Colen" badge, removed on Pro |
| Site analytics | Yes | Full site analytics on Pro; visitor count and tap rate on free |
The biggest difference is online ordering, so let me say it plainly. Wix advertises commission-free online ordering on its restaurant product page, and it also offers table reservations. Colen has neither built in. If your restaurant needs to take orders through its own website or book tables directly, Wix is the honest answer, and I would not try to talk you out of it.
On menus, they work very differently. Wix gives you menu tools that you fill in by hand. Colen lets you upload your menu as a PDF or photos and choose whether to show it as-is or turn it into a clean text menu, then hands you a Menu Manager where you can edit items and prices from your phone. If your specials change every week, being able to fix one in ten seconds while you're standing next to the pass is worth more than it sounds.
On the story of your place, they also differ. Wix asks you to write the copy. Colen writes the copy from the reviews and details already sitting on your Google Maps page, which usually captures what guests actually love about you better than a blank page ever will. You can see that in action on any of the sites linked above, they read like the room, not like a template.
On languages, Wix supports a multilingual site, but you set up each language and translate it yourself. Colen builds up to 3 languages on Pro (English, French, and Arabic) and translates them for you. If your customers speak more than one of those, that saves you a lot of work. If you need a language outside those three, Colen does not cover it today.
On the basics, both are mobile-friendly. Colen is built mobile-first, and Wix sites work on phones too. Neither will give you trouble there.
Price, honestly
Wix has a free plan, but it uses a Wix subdomain and shows Wix branding, so restaurants tend to outgrow it fast. The paid plans, billed annually in the US in 2026, are Light at $17 a month, Core at $29 a month, Business at $39 a month, and Business Elite at $159 a month. Every paid plan includes a free custom domain for the first year. Wix Restaurants is a built-in module in the paid plans, not a separate product, so the price you pay is the plan price. If you want deep customization and built-in online ordering, that money can be well spent.
Colen is free to start, and the free plan is a real restaurant website, not a stripped demo. You get a complete site built from your Google Maps link, hosted on yourbusiness.colen.app, with 3 menu photos turned into digital text, and the ability to edit your text, photos, and colors anytime. Pro is $12 a month, or $99 for the year if you pay upfront (saves you $45). Pro adds your own custom domain, unlimited menu photos to text, up to 3 languages, removal of the "Made with Colen" badge, more color palettes to choose from, more social and delivery links, and full site analytics.
If Pro lapses, nothing is deleted. Your site stays live and drops back to the free Starter plan. Your custom domain turns off until you resubscribe, and site analytics falls back to visitor count and tap rate only. Everything else stays put.
Pricing side by side
| Plan | Wix | Colen |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Wix subdomain, Wix branding | Complete restaurant site on yourbusiness.colen.app |
| Entry paid | Light: $17/mo (billed annually) | Pro: $12/mo or $99/yr (yearly saves $45) |
| Mid | Core: $29/mo | Colen has one paid tier |
| Higher | Business: $39/mo | — |
| Top | Business Elite: $159/mo | — |
| Custom domain | 1-year free on any paid plan | Included on Pro (connect a domain you own) |
| If you stop paying | Check Wix's terms | Site stays live, drops to free tier, nothing deleted |
Wix prices are in USD, billed annually, per Forbes Advisor's 2026 Wix pricing guide. Colen prices are in USD; your local currency and tax are shown at checkout.
When Wix is the better call
I mean this. For some owners Wix is the right call, and I would rather you hear it from me.
- You want full control over the design and you actually enjoy that work
- Your place is unusual enough that a restaurant template would fight you
- You need built-in online ordering or table reservations and are ready to pay for the plan that includes them
- You already run on Wix and know your way around it
When Colen is the better call
- You want a professional restaurant website live in minutes, not across a weekend
- You would rather that time went into service than into fonts and spacing
- Your reviews and photos already live on Google and you want them working for you, not sitting there
- You want the copy written from what your guests actually love, not from a blank page
- You need the site in English, French, or Arabic without translating everything twice
For most independent owners I talk to, that second list is their life. That's who I built Colen for. If you want a look at the finished product, take a minute with Boho Café, Chēz Coffee & Brunch, or SAND Cafe before you decide.
Why waiting on a website costs you
While you are deciding, your future customers are already looking. Per TouchBistro's 2024 Diner Trends Report, 80% of US diners always or often look at a restaurant's website. The same report found that 85% check the menu online most of the time. And per PYMNTS in 2023, 62% of consumers use Google to search for restaurants.
Plenty of independent restaurants still have no real site of their own, only a social page they don't fully control. If yours is one, you are missing from the exact place where most of your future diners are looking.
The cost of waiting is not dramatic. It is a slow leak of people who would have walked in. A place with no real site quietly loses those diners to the spot down the street that shows up well and has a menu they can read. That is the real reason to get something live soon, whichever tool you choose.
Frequently asked questions
Is Wix good for restaurants? Yes. Wix can build a strong restaurant website, especially if you want to design it yourself. Wix Restaurants is a built-in module in its paid plans, with online ordering, table reservations, menu management, and a delivery and pickup manager. The trade-off is your time, since you do the setup yourself, and the fact that the restaurant tools come with a paid plan.
How much does a Wix restaurant website actually cost? Wix's paid plans, billed annually in the US in 2026, run from $17 a month for Light, to $29 for Core, $39 for Business, and $159 for Business Elite (see Forbes Advisor's Wix pricing guide). Every paid plan includes a free custom domain for the first year. I could not verify from a primary source which specific tier carries the restaurant tools, so check Wix's own pricing page for the plan that includes what you need before you commit.
Does Wix charge a commission on online orders? Wix advertises commission-free online ordering on its restaurant product page. I have not compared payment processing fees, so check those with Wix before you rely on the numbers.
Is Colen really free?
Yes. The free Starter plan gives you a complete restaurant website built from your Google Maps link and hosted on yourbusiness.colen.app, with 3 menu photos turned into digital text, and the ability to edit your text, photos, and colors anytime. Pro is $12 a month, or $99 for the year if you pay upfront (saves $45), and adds a custom domain, more languages, and extra features. You can launch on free and stay there for as long as you like.
Can I build a restaurant website from my Google Maps page? With Colen, yes. That is the core of the product. You paste your Google Maps link, and Colen reads your photos, top reviews, menu, and hours, then writes the copy from them and builds the site. Wix does not build a site from your Google Maps page, so there you add everything by hand.
Do I need my own domain to have a restaurant website?
No. On the free Colen plan your site lives at yourbusiness.colen.app, and on Wix's free plan it lives on a Wix subdomain. A custom domain is nicer for your brand. On Wix, every paid plan includes one free for a year. On Colen, Pro lets you connect a domain you already own, since Colen does not sell or manage domains.
What happens to my restaurant website if I stop paying? On Colen, if Pro lapses your site stays live and drops to the free Starter plan. Nothing is deleted. Your custom domain turns off until you resubscribe, and site analytics falls back to visitor count and tap rate only. I can only speak to my own product here, so check Wix's terms for what happens on their side.
Do I need to know how to build a website to use either? With Colen, no. You paste your Google Maps link, it builds the site, and you edit from a simple dashboard. With Wix you do not need to code, but you build and arrange the site yourself, from a template, so expect to spend real time on it.
So which one?
- Wix gives you control and built-in online ordering and table reservations, and takes your time. Colen turns what people love about your business into a finished website, and takes your Google Maps link.
- Wix paid plans start at $17 a month, billed annually. Colen Pro is $12 a month, or $99 for the year if you pay upfront (saves $45), and the free plan is already a complete restaurant site.
- If you need online ordering or reservations, use Wix. If you want to be more than a pin on the map by tonight, start with Colen and move up to Pro only when you need it.
Want to see your own site before you decide anything? Paste your Google Maps link and Colen builds it in a few minutes, free to start. Try it on the Colen homepage, or see what the free and Pro plans include.