Three routes, one decision. A freelancer, an agency, or software. Everyone selling you one of them says theirs is the answer. Here's the honest London version, with real numbers, so you can pick the one that fits your room and your budget instead of the loudest pitch.
£300-3,500+/mo: UK freelance social media manager: entry £300-700, mid £700-1,500, premium £1,500-3,500+ per month
£1,250-16,750/mo: UK agency retainers: single-channel £1,250-3,500, full-service £3,500-16,750 per month, with London firms charging significantly more than regional ones
£250-550/mo: UK restaurant marketing agency packages: £250/mo starter, £550/mo premium with SEO
The three routes, and what each really costs in London
You've got one site in London and a feed that keeps going quiet. There are three real ways to fix that: hire a freelancer, sign an agency, or run software yourself. None of them wins for everyone, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling.
The costs sit far apart. A UK freelance social media manager runs £300 to £700 a month at entry, £700 to £1,500 mid-range, and £1,500 to £3,500+ once they're doing video and campaigns (per tootleworks). A single-channel agency retainer is £1,250 to £3,500 a month, full-service £3,500 to £16,750, and whito notes London agencies charge significantly more than regional firms. Restaurant-specific packages can start lower: 6stars lists £250 a month starter and £550 with SEO. Software runs from tens to a few hundred a month.
Freelancer: flexible, but one person with capped hours
A freelancer is the flexible option and often the cheapest way to get a real, capable person. You get someone who can come into your room, shoot your food properly, and learn your tone. For a lot of single sites, that's plenty.
The catch is capacity. At the £300 to £700 entry rate you're buying a handful of hours and roughly eight to twelve posts a month (per tootleworks), not daily coverage. And it's one person: when they're on holiday, off sick, or land a bigger client, your feed goes dark. A freelancer is a single point of failure. Excellent for occasional shoots and a steady hand, risky as your only plan if you need something out every single day.
Agency: full-service, but slow and premium in London
An agency is the full-service route: strategy, content, paid campaigns, and reporting, all handled by a team. If you're funding real ad spend and want one group to own the whole thing, that's the genuine case for it.
The downsides are start speed and price. A retainer gets signed before anything ships, and onboarding, brand decks, and approval rounds eat the first few weeks. And London is expensive: whito puts full-service retainers at £3,500 to £16,750 a month and notes London firms charge significantly more than regional ones. For a single site, you often end up paying agency overhead to get a fraction of an agency's actual attention.