What Happens to Your Restaurant Website When You Leave BentoBox or Popmenu?
BentoBox, Popmenu, Owner, SpotHopper, and Toast each host the website they build for you. When the contract ends, the hosting ends. At the time of writing none of them export a site, so whatever was on the pages is gone from the public internet the day the switch happens, unless you copied it first.
What each one holds
- BentoBox hosts the site with its menu tools and ordering. Menus are entered into BentoBox's system and rendered on the pages.
- Popmenu hosts the site and stores menus as structured items with photos, reviews, and ordering built in.
- Owner builds the site around its ordering and hosts both together.
- SpotHopper includes the site in a marketing package with the social posting and email tools.
- Toast Websites is tied to the Toast point-of-sale account.
In every case the pages, the menu text, and the photos are served from the vendor's servers. You typically keep the domain, if it was registered in your name.
What to save before you switch
- A complete copy of the public pages. Every page as HTML, a full-page screenshot of each, the photos at the largest size the site served, and linked PDF menus. Dead Simple Backups does this in one run and keeps doing it monthly.
- Your menus as a document. If the vendor lets you export menu items, do it. If not, the backup's menu pages hold the same text.
- Photos at original size, from wherever the photographer delivered them.
- Reviews and social content that live in the vendor's tools, if you want them.
- The domain login. Confirm the domain is in your name and you can change where it points.
Switching without losing search rankings
Your menu and location pages rank in local search. When the new site goes up, keep the same addresses where you can, and set up redirects from the old ones to the new ones. The backup's page list shows every address the old site had.
If the site already came down
Check the Wayback Machine for menu text and photos; results vary. Rebuild from whatever you have, then set up a monthly backup so the next switch is a handover, not a loss.
Q: Can I keep my BentoBox or Popmenu website if I cancel?
No. The site is hosted by the vendor and comes down with the contract. A copy of the public pages, made while the site is live, is what you keep.
Q: Do I keep my domain when I leave a restaurant website vendor?
If it was registered in your name, yes. If the vendor registered it, ask for a transfer before the contract ends.
Squarespace doesn't give you a copy of your site. We do: every public page, full-page screenshots, images and fonts, in your inbox on the 1st.
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