Free vs. Paid Online Food Delivery Website Design Templates: Which is Right Now

Did you know that over 70% of food orders are now placed online instead of through traditional calls or walk-ins? In today’s digital-first economy, if your restaurant or food delivery business doesn’t have an engaging, mobile-friendly website, you’re leaving serious revenue on the table.

This is a fact.

But here’s the real challenge: How do you build a stunning food delivery website without draining your budget or wasting weeks on development?

The answer often lies in choosing the right online food delivery website design template. And if you’ve been exploring your options, you’ve likely come across two paths: free templates that promise fast, zero-cost setups, and paid templates that offer premium features and customization.

So, which one is right for your business in 2025?

To make a proper decision, you have to know about the pros and cons of free vs. paid food delivery website templates, explore real-world use cases, and help you choose the best fit based on your goals, budget, and growth stage.

Whether you're a local restaurant going digital or a full-scale delivery brand launching a new platform, this comparison will help you build the best foundation for success.

Curious? We’re too.

Starting with the basic help, you to make a better decision.

Unlock the best food delivery website template! Compare free vs. paid options, features, customization, and long-term costs to launch your online food business successfully.

What Are Online Food Delivery Website Design Templates?

Simply put, a food delivery website templates are a pre-created sets of UI components, including screens and well-optimized code of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. This can save you time and the cost associated with the custom development, and give you the upper hand to launch the platform quickly.

These templates are created with layouts suitable for restaurants, delivery apps, food trucks, and multi-vendor platforms.

A good web template includes:

• Homepage with hero banners

• Digital menu sections

• Order and checkout functionality

• Customer login/register pages

• Mobile responsiveness

• Integration support (for payment gateways, delivery plugins, CRMs, etc.)

They’re available for platforms like WordPress, Shopify, Wix, and even as raw HTML5/CSS3 packages.

The goal?

To let you get your food business online faster and better, without hiring a full development team.

Now that you know about the templates, let’s understand their benefits and limitations. First, we have to take an overview of free food website templates.

Overview of Free Food Delivery Web Design Templates

Before proceeding to buy a free website template, it’s better to know why they’re helpful and in which conditions they are avoidable.

4 pros of free templates

Take a look at choosing a free template can be beneficial:

1. Zero Cost, Low Risk: The obvious advantage. You don’t pay anything costs, which is ideal if you’re testing a new idea or starting with a low budget.

2. Quick Setup: Most free website templates are simple, minimal, and easy to configure. The drag-and-drop feature allows you to set up the platform within a day and start tasks like front-end website development and backend development.

3. Community Driven: Many food web designs are open-source or widely used, meaning you’ll find support through forums and tutorials.

4. Great for Learning: If you're new to website building, a free template is a low-risk way to experiment. You can learn how to set up a professional-looking platform without any prior technical expertise.

Keep maintaining patience for purchasing the free-of-cost templates without knowing their cons.

5 cons of free templates

Don’t be amazed that the free website templates only bring advantages; they have limitations, too:

1. Limited Customization: Most of these templates are just static HTML layouts and generic UI designs. So, there’s no choice but to set up your food delivery website from the competition by changing the colors, layouts, and button placement without touching the code itself. You only become an outdated platform without having advanced features like food item recommendations through AI and one-tap checkout.

2. Generic Designs: Whenever you’re looking for a city-wide food delivery chain platform development or want a national presence, the web design of your food website matters. Customers only feel personalized when they see something new and extravagant. But with the free templates, you just become the same as other online restaurants preferring free web design.

3. No Technical Support: Purchasing a free food delivery website template is not helpful anymore due to any professional support from expert web developers. If something breaks or doesn’t function right, you’re on your own.

4. Update Issues: Many free templates aren’t actively maintained, which may lead to performance or security issues over time. As you’re building a brand new food delivery network platform, you can’t afford a single tint to affect the reputation.

5. SEO & Mobile Optimization? Not Always: Some free HTML and CSS templates look good but perform poorly when it comes to speed or SEO. Why? Because they are usually created without any experience of coding and best user experience practices.

Choosing a template that is available at zero cost will not be useful to a professional website anymore, especially in online food delivery, where the user experience always matters.

Premium Food Delivery Website Templates Overview

Apart from free templates, you can go with the premium food delivery website templates, usually referred to as paid templates. Due to their user persona, researched UI and UX design, and highly skilled coding practices, your food delivery platform doesn't feel generic anymore.

But we believe in transparency. You should know the benefits of premium website templates:

5 benefits of choosing paid templates

Here’s a list of benefits to prefer a paid template over a free one.

1. Premium Features Included: You’re entitled to get built-in functionalities like advanced filtering, delivery area mapping, scheduling options, cart functionality, and loyalty programs that are part of paid templates.

2. Modern, Unique Designs: The best part of these templates is the accessibility of professionally designed layouts that match current UI/UX standards in 2025. There’s no need to take a service of a website UI/UX design (until your goal is to make a USP) to keep maintaining the brand's presence effectively.

3. SEO-Ready & Optimized: Paid food delivery templates usually follow SEO best practices, including clean code, fast loading times, and mobile-first design. This indicates your website is just ready to go live with a frontend development and backend system integration.

4. Ongoing Updates & Support: When you get a premium template, you can ensure the food delivery software application can stay compatible with the latest plugins and cross-browser enabled with frequent updates and support from the developers.

5. Brand-Centric Customization: Despite using pre-designed UI elements, screens, and code, you get the flexibility to fully customize your site’s colors, fonts, layouts, and animations to match your brand. So, at minimal costs, you will save thousands of web development costs.

Cons of Paid Templates

Here are the cons of choosing a premium template.

1. Upfront Cost: These template prices range from $20 to $200+, depending on the platform and complexity. You have to pay a subscription fee and plugins to keep your site uninterrupted.

2. Learning Curve for Some: Premium templates come packed with features, and understanding their functionality can be more challenging, especially non-technical background.

3. May Need Add-ons: Even paid templates sometimes require you to purchase extra plugins or licenses for full functionality. So, when you purchase a template at $100, you have to pay an additional amount to keep using the features; otherwise not.

Food Delivery Website Templates Key Decision Factors

Not sure which side to go with? Here are the major decision points to help guide you to choose between a free and a paid website template:

Once you understand the difference between free and paid food delivery templates, let’s check the real-world scenarios using them in website development.

Real-World Scenarios: Which Template Makes Sense?

Let’s look at two examples that bring clarity to your decision without any regret to launch a successful food delivery system:

Scenario 1: A family-owned local restaurant using a free website template.

• Launching a simple online ordering system during weekends.

• Wants a clean site with a few pages and basic functionality.

• Doesn't have a big tech team or budget.

Best Fit: A well-structured free template with a clean, mobile-responsive layout.

Scenario 2: A growing cloud kitchen brand prefers a paid template.

• Has multiple food brands under one roof.

• Needs real-time tracking, user logins, coupon management, and integration with food aggregators.

• Invested in brand identity and ready for paid social media ad campaigns.

Best Fit: A premium paid template that allows deep customization, high performance, and scalable features.

The Hidden Costs You Should Know About

Free templates aren’t always free, and paid website templates aren’t always all-inclusive. Watch out for these traps:

• Free Templates May Require Paid Plugins: For things like payment gateway integration, SEO optimization, or delivery zone mapping.

• Paid Templates Can Have Add-Ons: Some sellers offer tiered licenses or charge extra for support and updates after a year.

• Compatibility Costs: Free templates might not work smoothly with your platform updates, leading to hidden troubleshooting costs.

How to Choose the Right Restaurant Website Template: A Quick Checklist

Here’s a simple list you can use to evaluate both free and paid templates:

• Is the template mobile-friendly and fast-loading?

• Can it handle orders, cart management, and checkout?

• Does it allow menu flexibility and easy updates?

• Are there customer engagement tools (CTAs, loyalty prompts, etc.)?

• Is there support available (community or official)?

• Will it scale with your business in 6–12 months?

• Is it SEO-ready and designed for conversions?

If the answer is yes to most, you’re on the right path.

Final Words: Which Template Is Right Now?

The verdict isn’t about free vs. paid. It’s about what’s right for your business, right now.

If you're bootstrapping or testing an idea, go ahead and launch with a free template. There’s no shame in starting lean, especially if speed to market is critical.

But if your food delivery business is more than a side hustle, if you’re serious about UX, branding, SEO, and conversions, a paid template is worth the investment.

Looking to explore both options?

Check out our curated collection of free and paid food delivery website templates, professionally built for restaurants, ghost kitchens, and delivery services of all sizes.

Browse Food Delivery Templates Now

Set your business up for online success with the right template, whether free or paid. Your future customers are just a click away.

With the template purchase need support for a complete web development and secure setup? Don’t go anywhere. Theme Bitrix has everything to fulfill your business needs. Contact us.