A website for cafés.
Put today's board on the front page.
Someone deciding whether to come wants one set of opening times, a price for breakfast or a coffee, whether a dog or a pushchair can come in, and how to ask about the 14 allergens. We design and build the website around that board, then host it and help you keep the specials current.
From £15/mo, plus a one-off build pack from £29.
The first screen names the street and the bacon. It does not name a price.
This is a live example of our work, not a customer business.Of the sites we read
A menu, and almost no prices.
We read the front page of 82 UK café, coffee shop and tearoom websites between 25 and 27 August 2026 and recorded what each one said and offered. Other pages were not read. The figures describe those sites, not every café in the UK. Where a figure comes from page text, it includes reviews and footers. Opening-hours language is a phrase match, not a timetable we checked. One coming-soon front page was kept, so the 82 is not only finished sites.
13 of 82, 15.9%. of 82 front pages had any price.
That is 15.9%. A pound sign sits in the price field of 12 (14.6%), and anywhere in the page text of 15 (18.3%). The word menu is on 72 (87.8%). Opening-hours language is on 64 (78.0%).
A few of those 13 are not a meal anyone is comparing: a gift, a tea infuser, a sheepskin, a whole celebration cake, a pizza menu. They stay in the count. None of the price fields said whether VAT was included. The word VAT is on 7 (8.5%). This page states no rate and no threshold.
The chain field was empty on all 82. That is the field, not who owns the business. An area is named on 71 (86.6%). A year of opening is on 13 (15.9%).
Today's board
Eight lines, in the order they get asked.
Write the line you would give at the counter, and leave off anything that is not true of the room.
Open
64 of 82
Opening-hours language is on 64 (78.0%): phrases such as opening hours, open daily, or a Monday range. It is not a timetable we checked. Print one set, including the day you are closed. A Tynemouth page, below, prints three.
Breakfast
4 of 82
The word breakfast is on 41 (50.0%), and in the price field of 4 (4.9%). Lunch is on 30 (36.6%) and in the price field of none. Brunch is on 24 (29.3%). If the offer stops at 11.30, say what starts instead.
Coffee
3 of 82
Coffee, latte, cappuccino or flat white is in the price field of 3 (3.7%). The services list names coffee on 3 (3.7%), which is a separate field, not proof the others sell none. A Clapham page prints a latte at £3.80 and a flat white at £3.40.
Cake
4 of 82
The word cake is on 38 (46.3%), and in the price field of 4 (4.9%). Cake, bakery or pastry is on the services list of none. Afternoon tea or cream tea is on 13 (15.9%), and in the price field of 2 (2.4%).
Dogs
16 of 82
Dog-friendly, dogs welcome, or dog friendly is on 16 (19.5%). Say whether upstairs counts. Pushchairs were not counted, so there is no figure.
The step
5 of 82
Wheelchair, accessible, step-free or step free is on 5 (6.1%). The match is wider than a step-free room. An Aldringham tea room says it is all on one level, with a WC for limited mobility. The word accessible, on its own, is not that fact.
Allergens
9 of 82
The word allergen is on 9 (11.0%). Gluten is on 10 (12.2%). Vegan is on 16 (19.5%) and vegetarian on 10 (12.2%). In England, Wales and Northern Ireland the duty is the 14, not a vegan badge. The pages we checked do not say that wording applies in Scotland.
Book
59 of 82
A phone number is on 59 (72.0%). Email is on 46 (56.1%), a contact form on 16 (19.5%), online booking on 30 (36.6%). Table-booking language is on 17 (20.7%), which is not that online route. WhatsApp is on 1 (1.2%). The word Instagram is on 31 (37.8%). Instagram as a booking route is on none.
Café website examples
Four front pages put a price, or the room, where it can be used.
Real front pages from the same read, by region only. The prices are theirs, not ours to copy, and these are not ThemeSmith customers. Independent, locally owned or family-run is on 15 (18.3%).
Clapham, London
Jericho, Oxford
- Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm
- Saturday, 8am to 6pm
- Sunday, 9am to 5pm
The vegan breakfast is the same £13 as the vegetarian one. Vegan is not, by itself, free from milk, egg, fish or shellfish. The extracted drinks line stops after espresso, so nothing after it is listed. A newspaper ranking is on the page. Leave it off.
Hornchurch, Essex
Also on the page: light lunches, private events, outdoor seating, and delivery with one day's notice, up to 5km. Hygiene is in the navigation. No rating number was in the accreditation field. Do not invent one.
Aldringham, Suffolk
- Open seven days
- A former workshop, all on one level
- Eleven tables inside, two outside
- Tables for 2, 4, 5 or 8
- Two WCs, one for people with limited mobility
- Large parties should book
- Summer, April to September: sandwiches, salads, a ploughman's
- Winter, October to March: soups and stews
- A licence to sell alcohol
- Homemade cakes and scones
- About twenty loose-leaf teas, in individual pots
Tynemouth, three clocks
- Open daily, 8:30am to 5pm
- Open daily, from 8.30am until 10pm
- Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm, Saturday and Sunday 8.30am to 5pm
The same page says the street-food kitchen is temporarily closed and the coffee shop is open as usual. It does not say which clock is which. Reconcile them before they go up.
Food-hygiene language is on 6 page texts (7.3%) and in 3 accreditation fields (3.7%). Sheringham states a 5, very good. North of Billingshurst, the field says five, and mentions free wifi. Wifi is on 3 of the 82 (3.7%). Carmarthenshire says level 5 and names the county council. Publish your own result. Do not add a star score or a guest quote.
One we built
Sele writes the day down, and leaves the prices off.
The Sele Pantry is an example build for a fictional café on Priestpopple in Hexham, not a customer. Nothing on it is a testimonial for ThemeSmith. There is a home page and a privacy page. The gaps below were left as built.
What the page does
Dogs and pushchairs are welcome, including upstairs. Everything but the bread is baked there. The room seats forty, with its own hatch, or a buffet around Hexham. A wake is confirmed within a day. The form asks for a name, a phone, the day, how many, and a note. It does not ask for email. Private hire or a function is on 15 of the 82 (18.3%), catering on 9 (11.0%). Give the seats, and say how the booking is confirmed.
What it leaves out
Coffee and breakfast prices are not printed. Sponge, rich fruit, lemon and chocolate are quoted within 24 hours, with allergens written down. That suits a made-to-order cake. It does not replace a coffee price, which 3 of the 82 put in the price field. No hygiene rating is shown. The strap says fourteen years beside since 2011. From 2011 to 2026 is fifteen. Do not copy the pair. £5 million of public liability is the fiction, not the sum an English council has to ask for.
The rating on Sele is invented
The example prints 4.7 from 341 Google reviews, repeated in its structured data. Both figures are invented, and four quotes sit under them. They are not quoted here. The crops stop before that block. Do not put this on a live site.
The form and the privacy page
The enquiry goes to the business. ThemeSmith stores it so the business can read it, and does not use it to market to the sender. The privacy page mentions email when a form asks for it. This form does not. The form and the privacy page should name the same fields.
Where the page has to be exact
The 14 allergens, the rating, and the pavement.
Checked against the official pages on 6 October 2026. A fee, a fine, or a start date that was not on those pages is not repeated here. The two gov.uk allergen pages say they apply to England, Northern Ireland and Wales. They do not say Scotland.
The 14, for loose food and for a bagged sandwich
For a meal, and for food packed after the order, the allergen guidance requires the 14 in writing, or verbally with a written notice of how to ask. Distance selling needs the same information before the purchase is completed and again on delivery. Order online, click and collect, order ahead, or collect in store is on 13 of the 82 (15.9%).
Food packed on the premises before the customer chooses it needs, from 1 October 2021, a label with the name and the full ingredients, the 14 emphasised. A sandwich or a cake already in a bag is the usual case. Food packed after the order does not need that label, and it still needs the 14. Free-from is a guarantee. Vegan is not automatically free from egg, fish, crustaceans, molluscs or milk.
- Celery
- Cereals containing gluten: wheat, rye, barley, oats
- Crustaceans
- Eggs
- Fish
- Lupin
- Milk
- Molluscs
- Mustard
- Peanuts
- Sesame
- Soybeans
- Sulphur dioxide and sulphites, above ten parts per million
- Tree nuts: almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, brazil nuts, cashews, pecans, pistachios, macadamia
The sticker, the calories, the register, the tables
England, Wales and Northern Ireland use the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme, from 0 to 5. Display at the premises is the law in Wales and in Northern Ireland, and is voluntary and encouraged in England. Putting the rating on the website is encouraged by guidance. It is not a legal requirement. Scotland uses the Food Hygiene Information Scheme: Pass, Improvement Required, Exempt Premises, or Awaiting Inspection. Do not use 0 to 5 in Scotland, and do not describe Scottish premises display as a legal duty.
Calorie labelling, from April 2022, applies to large out-of-home businesses in England with 250 or more employees. The government response includes cafés in that line. A small independent café is outside it. Do not quote a fine.
Registering a food business is free, at least 28 days before trading, and cannot be refused. If you are already trading, the Food Standards Agency says register as soon as possible.
Tables on the highway in England need a pavement licence. The fee is capped at £500 first time and £350 to renew. Councils may charge less. A licence can last up to two years. Consultation is 14 days, excluding public holidays. Insurance is the amount that authority requires. There is no national sum. Outdoor or pavement language is on 13 of the 82 (15.9%), and a garden off the highway is not this licence.
Website design for cafés
A template can hold a phone number. It will not price the flat white.
Suggestions for "cafe website", "website for cafes" and "coffee shop website" run to templates, examples, design, a free download, GitHub, HTML and Figma, plus a café website in India. Not a table booking, and not an allergen page. "Cafe website" is the one café phrase in the 100 to 1,000 searches a month band. The top-of-page high bid is £3.71. The account was not spending, so this is a band. The other two phrases have no band of their own in that file.
A builder is credited on 26 (31.7%). The average service list has 3.0 items. A template will not choose today's clock, whether the vegan breakfast matches the vegetarian, or that a cake already in a bag needs a label. We write the brief with you, build the site, then look after it for a monthly fee. You check the work before it goes live.
The build is a one-off cost. Hosting and ongoing work are monthly.
A home page can carry the hours, one breakfast, one coffee, the dog, the step, and how to ask about the 14. Add a menu page when lunch needs its own lines.
Monthly plans
Edits with your assistant use credits. You can buy more, and bought credits do not expire. Monthly billing has no annual contract, no setup fee and no minimum term.
One-off build packs
1 page
3 pages
5 pages
Each pack includes a custom domain, 30 days of Forge edits, global hosting, SSL and backups, and is paired with your first month of whichever plan keeps the site live. Add pages any time, priced per page. You see the price before you pay.
Cancellation takes two clicks from Settings, then Cancel. There is no call and no form. The site keeps running until the end of the billing period. Your domain stays yours, and if you leave we send a static snapshot you can put on another host. Failed builds are not charged, and a person follows up the next working day. There is no introductory rate. We give 30 days' notice before a price change. Moving up or down shows the exact amount first: up is charged straight away for the rest of the month, and down credits what you have not used against the next bill.
Get startedQuestions café owners ask
Before you have the site built.
What should the front page show before someone travels?
One set of hours, a price, the dog or the pushchair, the step, how to ask about the 14 allergens, and a phone number. A phone is already on 59 of the 82. A booking button only if it really books.
Does the hygiene rating have to be on the website?
No. Wales and Northern Ireland require the sticker at the premises. England premises display is voluntary, and a website is guidance rather than a legal requirement. Scotland uses Pass, Improvement Required, Exempt Premises, or Awaiting Inspection, not 0 to 5. Six of the 82 used the language on the page. Publish the result you were given.
What allergen information does a café have to provide?
In England, Wales and Northern Ireland: the 14, in writing or verbally with a notice of how to ask, before a distance order is finished and again on delivery. Food packed before the customer chooses it needs a full ingredients label from 1 October 2021. Free-from is a guarantee. Vegan is not automatically free from milk, egg, fish or shellfish. Those pages do not say Scotland.
Does a small café have to print calories?
Not on the rule we checked. From April 2022, large out-of-home businesses in England with 250 or more employees have to display calories for non-prepacked food and soft drinks. A small independent café is outside that line. Do not quote a fine. The rule is England only.
What does a ThemeSmith site cost, and can a menu page be added later?
Starter is £15/mo for one live site and 150 credits a month. Business is £39/mo for three live sites and 500 credits a month. Build packs are £29, £59 and £89 for one, three and five pages, each with 30 days of Forge edits and paired with the first month of a plan. You can add a menu page later, priced per page, and you see the price before you pay.
Do tables on the pavement need a licence?
In England, tables on the highway need a pavement licence. The fee is capped at £500 first time and £350 to renew. Councils may charge less. Insurance is the sum that council asks for. Sele's £5 million line is fiction. This scheme was checked for England, and a garden off the highway is not it.