# Websites for takeaways

> Websites for takeaways with one clear commercial purpose: taking orders directly instead of paying thirty per cent to an aggregator.

- Source: https://nerdsharks.com/industries/takeaways
- Publisher: Nerdsharks (Exeter, Devon, UK)
- Updated: 2026-09-27

There are 46,440 takeaways and mobile food businesses across 378 UK local authorities (ONS UK Business Counts, SIC 56103, 2025, OGL v3.0).

## How customers choose

Takeaway customers are transactional and fast. They know roughly what they want, they want to see the menu with prices, and they want to order in under two minutes. Most arrive through an aggregator app out of habit rather than preference - and a meaningful share will order direct if the direct route is genuinely easier and slightly cheaper. Repeat ordering is very high in this trade, so converting a customer away from an aggregator once is worth a great deal over a year.

## What most websites in this trade get wrong

Most takeaways have effectively outsourced their online presence to an aggregator and hand over a large percentage of every order for the privilege. A direct ordering site that is even slightly clunkier will not win, so the bar is high: the direct route has to be genuinely fast and give the customer a visible reason to use it. The other failure is a menu image scanned from a paper leaflet, which cannot be searched, read on a phone, or priced correctly.

## What the website has to do

- **Direct online order** - Every direct order saves the aggregator commission, which is most of the margin.
- **Repeat direct ordering** - The lifetime value of moving one regular off an aggregator is substantial.
- **Phone orders** - Still a large share of the market and must stay one tap away.

## Pages

- **Home** - Order now, delivery area, opening hours.
- **Menu** - Full menu in text with current prices.
- **Order online** - The direct ordering route.
- **Delivery area** - Postcodes covered and minimum spend.

## Features that matter

- **Direct online ordering with card payment** - The entire commercial case for the website.
- **A visible reason to order direct rather than through an app** - Without an incentive, habit wins and the site earns nothing.
- **Menu as text with current prices, never a scanned leaflet** - A scanned image cannot be read on a phone or found in search.
- **Delivery postcodes and minimum order stated clearly** - Prevents the failed orders that lose customers permanently.
- **Prominent tap-to-call** - Phone ordering remains a large share of takeaway trade.

Trust signals: Current menu and prices; Food hygiene rating; Delivery area; Opening hours.

Seasonality: Weekend evenings dominate. Major sporting events and poor weather produce sharp spikes.

## Local authorities with the most

| Local authority | Businesses |
|---|---|
| Birmingham | 885 |
| Manchester | 695 |
| Glasgow City | 650 |
| Leeds | 645 |
| Bradford | 475 |
| Liverpool | 450 |
| Sheffield | 425 |
| County Durham | 410 |
| North Yorkshire | 385 |
| City of Edinburgh | 385 |

## The offer

- **Monthly**: £299 upfront, £99/month (the upfront is a setup fee), 12-month minimum term. We build it, host it and look after it - and after 24 monthly payments, it is yours.
- **Own It**: £1,795 upfront, £49/month, no minimum term. Buy the website outright. It is yours to keep, move or cancel.
- **Pro**: £6,950 upfront, £299/month, 12-month minimum term. No limits. For large, multi-site and fast-growing businesses.
- Payment: The setup fee is paid when you book, and it starts the design. Monthly fees are collected by Direct Debit, covered by the Direct Debit Guarantee, from the day your site goes live.
- Guarantee: You see your finished design on your phone and approve it before anything goes live, with two full rounds of changes included. Nothing launches until you are happy with it. The Monthly plan runs for 12 months from launch.
- Bolt-ons: Google Business Profile management £29/month; Local SEO pack £49/month; Business email £5/month. Coming soon, not yet on sale: Missed-call text back, Review booster.
- VAT: We are not VAT registered, so there is no VAT to add to these prices.

## Questions

### Can we just upload our menu as a PDF?

We would strongly advise against it. A PDF menu cannot be read on a phone without pinching and zooming, cannot be found by search engines, and is almost always out of date. Setting the menu as real text on the page is usually the single biggest improvement a restaurant website can make.

### How do I keep my opening hours up to date?

Send us the change and we make it - that is what the monthly change is for, and bank holidays are the most common one. Wrong opening hours are worse than no website at all, because they send a customer on a wasted journey and they rarely come back.

### Is it worth taking orders through my own site?

Financially, yes - aggregator apps typically take a large percentage of every order, and that is most of the margin on a takeaway. The catch is that the direct route has to be genuinely as easy as the app and give the customer a visible reason to use it, or habit wins.