Catering software organizes and tracks all information related to a catering or events business, from contracts to menu planning, rentals, and banquet event orders.
6 Best Catering Software for 2023
This article is part of a larger series on POS Systems.
Catering software (also called catering management software) is a digital tool that keeps catering businesses organized. Like a point-of-sale (POS) system, the best catering software combines order and payment processing.
But catering software also retains copies of your estimates and contracts, rental agreements, and banquet event orders (BEOs). Large venues can even find room scheduling calendars and client-facing portals that record communications directly in the catering software.
After evaluating several catering management software systems, we found the best to be:
- Best overall for catering businesses of all sizes: CaterZen
- Best for restaurants with catering departments: Toast
- Best for growing home-based caterers: Square Invoices
- Best for catering operations in event venues: Tripleseat
- Best for small, independent caterers: CaterlyApp
- Best for markets and grocers with catering operations: Foodstorm by Instacart
Best Catering Software Compared
Rating | Monthly Fees | Ecommerce Site | Customer Portal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | 4.76 out of 5 | $99–$229 | ✓ | ✓ |
 | 4.28 out of 5 | $0–$165+ | ✓ | ✕ |
 | 4.24 out of 5 | $0–$20 | ✓ | ✓ |
 | 3.78 out of 5 | Custom-quoted | ✓ | ✓ |
 | 3.72 out of 5 | $7.47–$147 | w/ Standard subscription | ✕ |
 | 3.33 out of 5 | Custom-quoted | ✓ | ✕ |
Why you can trust our ratings: This catering software ranking was written by our restaurant expert who has several years of real-world experience composing catering contracts, menus, and BEOs and running both on-premise and off-premise private events.
CaterZen: Best Overall Catering Software
Overall Score:
4.76 / 5
Pros
- 30-day free trial
- Specialized subscription tiers for different caterer types
- User-friendly drag-and-drop menu and delivery route builders
- Excellent marketing and customer management tools
Cons
- Customizing the software takes time
- Open menu items can be glitchy
- May be a bigger system than solopreneur caterers need
What we like:
CaterZen includes all the features any catering company needs, including invoice management, prospect management, online ordering, and delivery management. Better yet, CaterZen packages all of these tools into four distinct service tiers. Small independent caterers can access niche tools like delivery routing and a drag-and-drop menu builder at an affordable price. Large operations can get inventory controls, unlimited BEO templates, and click-to-call functions that save recorded phone conversations to customer records.
All of this, plus a 30-day free trial, makes CaterZen the catering software system to beat. This system has few drawbacks, but solopreneur caterers might find all the bells and whistles a bit overwhelming. Some reviewers also note that adding open menu items to contracts (rather than hard-programmed menu items) can sometimes create duplicate entries. These are minor hiccups to an otherwise excellent catering management system.
Pricing
CaterZen is offered at four distinct pricing tiers, offering the most options for the widest variety of catering types.
- Online Ordering Plus: $99 per month
- Pro: $179 per month
- Pro Plus: $199 per month
- Marketing Pro Plus: $229 per month
Key Features
- 30-Day Free Trial: CaterZen offers a 30-day free trial for nearly all of its subscription levels so you can try before you buy.
- Tailored Subscription Levels: Unlike competitors that simplify their subscription tiers by only offering advanced tools at higher subscription levels, CaterZen has taken the time to build subscription tiers that offer the best small catering tools (like delivery routing and online ordering) in the baseline subscription.
- Drag and Drop Menus and Delivery Routes: Drag and drop menus and delivery routes save all catering businesses a ton of administrative time.
- Customer Relationship Management: CaterZen includes detailed customer tracking tools that feed marketing emails to keep customers returning to your business.
- Electronic Signatures: CaterZen includes electronic signature tools in all subscriptions. You don’t need a separate membership to DocuSign to capture email signatures on your catering contracts.
If you operate a home-based catering business and don’t need advanced menu management tools, Square Invoices or CaterlyApp may be more your speed.
Toast: Best Catering Software for Restaurants
Overall Score:
4.28 / 5
Pros
- Keeps catering menus and contracts in your POS; no separate software needed
- Can add any item from your menu to catering contract
- Excellent lead tracking
- Fully integrated ecommerce site
Cons
- Rental contract management tools are basic
- Requires full POS purchase
- Two-year contract is standard
What we like:
Powerhouse restaurant POS Toast added the Toast Invoice module in 2023. Along with advanced catering and event management tools, this makes Toast the best POS for restaurants with catering departments. With Toast, your catering and event menus and contracts sync directly with your other POS tools. So your sales, labor, and payments all remain in one central dashboard.
Toast’s Catering module includes detailed contract management and allows you to attach affiliated documents like rental agreements to catering events. You can access additional documents like BEOs and signed contracts in your management dashboard, so you don’t have to search your emails for a copy of the right conversation. The only drawback to this system is that you must subscribe to full Toast POS to access the catering tools.
Pricing
Accessing Toast’s invoicing and catering tools requires first subscribing to the Toast POS. The POS requires a two-year contract. Though new users can offset the cost of the POS by using Toast’s pay-as-you-go hardware bundles.
- QuickStart Bundle: $0 per month (for up to two terminals)
- Core: $69 per month
- Growth: $165 per month
- Build Your Own: Custom-quoted
Key Features
- Lead Management: Toast’s Catering and Events module tracks all catering and private event leads in one central dashboard. So managers and owners never miss the chance to land a big contract.
- Contract Building: You can convert catering proposals and contracts directly from the catering and private event dashboard. Toast color codes each event’s status so you can see what proposals need attention at a glance.
- Automated Document Creation: You can create banquet event orders (BEOs), prep lists for the kitchen, pack lists for off-site catering events, and invoices directly in the Toast dashboard. This keeps all documents in a central location that any manager can access; no more texting the private event manager on a busy Saturday night looking for BEOs.
- Integrated Ecommerce Site: You can add catering and event inquiry options to your Toast online ordering site to capture leads directly from customers.
- Full POS Integration: Toast’s Catering and Events and Toast Invoices modules sync with your POS payment processor, inventory module, menus, and delivery tools. This saves you hours of time transferring information and allocating product for catering events. You can also use Toast’s built-in delivery management system for drop off catering orders.
If you need POS-integrated catering tools but are afraid of a two-year contract, look at Square Invoices instead.
Square Invoices: Best for Growing Home-based Caterers
Overall Score:
4.24 / 5
Pros
- Free baseline subscription
- Built-in payment processing
- Easy setup
- Right size software for small, independent caterers
Cons
- No venue management tools
- Recipe management and ingredient tracking requires third-party integration
- Document management is not robust
What we like:
Square Invoices offers a free baseline subscription with easy, built-in online payments. It is incredibly user-friendly—you can self-enroll in minutes and start sending professional proposals and invoices the same day. The invoice module lets you create proposals with multiple package options; a contract will automatically generate from the customer’s selections. You can preset milestone payments and easily accept deposits and other payments via email.
For an affordable $20 per month, you can organize files into projects for larger or more detailed orders. However, it does not autogenerate BEOs from customer information, and recipe tracking requires a third-party integration. Still, if you need tools for streamlining your growing home-based catering business’s estimates and payments, Square Invoices is an excellent catering software.
Pricing
You can get started with Square Invoices for free. For more advanced features—like the ability to send multi-option proposals—Square only charges a nominal monthly fee.
- Free: $0 per month
- Plus: $20 per month
Key Features
- Free Baseline Subscription: Users can start with Square Invoices for free. There are no long-term contracts; all you pay are processing fees for credit, debit, digital wallet, and ACH payments.
- User-friendly Digital Payments: You can send proposals and invoices to clients via email or custom URL. Payment fields are included in all communications, and you can create custom payment schedules complete with email prompts to remind clients if a payment is overdue.
- Multiple Option Proposals: Plus-level subscribers can email proposals with multiple package options directly to customers, saving multiple back-and-forth emails and phone calls.
- Auto-generate Invoices: At the Plus subscription tier, you can automatically generate invoices when a customer selects from a multi-option proposal. The Plus tier also allows you to add custom fields to your invoices and customize the layout.
If you need venue management tools or more robust recipe and inventory tracking, look at a more comprehensive system like Tripleseat or Toast. If you’re a small caterer who needs more document management tools at an affordable price, look at CaterlyApp.
Tripleseat: Best Catering Software for Event Venues
Overall Score:
3.78 / 5
Pros
- Daily digest emails communicate lead status and daily events
- Email templates for client communications
- Detailed client portal
- Direct booking online portal
Cons
- More tools than small operations need
- Pricing is custom-quoted
- Recipe tracking is not robust
What we like:
Tripleseat is an absolute powerhouse catering management system. Beyond expertly managing menu and contract details, Tripleseat specializes in catering lead generation, even supporting a direct booking ecommerce site called Tripleseat Direct. With Tripleseat Direct, customers can place onsite and offsite catering orders for pick-up or delivery directly on your website. The order builder prompts customers to meet order minimums and will even process payments.
Pricing is custom-quoted and tends to be on the pricier side. Large catering operations with multiple bookable event spaces will get the most benefit from Tripleseat; it is simply too large and expensive to make sense for small caterers. Hotels, event spaces, high-volume restaurants, and high-volume caterers will love the excellent lead management and detailed contract tracking in this user-friendly catering management system.
Pricing
Pricing for Tripleseat is custom-quoted. You’ll need to contact Tripleseat directly for pricing that is tailored to your operation.
Key Features
- Lead Generation: Tripleseat supports catering leads from direct online booking, manual entry, and via integrations with OpenTable, Tock, and even Facebook.
- Excellent Document Management: With Tripleseat, you can customize and automate messages from lead receipt emails to templated responses for all catering and event booking stages. Fields auto-populate with the relevant event’s information so you keep all the details correct.
- Tripleseat University: If you need assistance learning all of Tripleseat’s functions, you can access its online training resources anytime.
- Venue Management: Tripleseat easily tracks booking information for multiple spaces and locations on a central calendar so you can avoid double or overlapping bookings. Color-coded labeling shows your catering order status at a glance.
- Flexible Payment Processing: With Tripleseat, you can process payments with Square, Stripe, or Clover.
If you don’t need tools to manage multiple event spaces or operate with a team of catering salespeople, a simpler system like CaterlyApp or Square Invoices might be more your speed. If you need detailed recipe management, look at CaterlyApp or CaterZen.
CaterlyApp: Best Catering Software for Small, Independent Caterers
Overall Score:
3.72 / 5
Pros
- Incredibly affordable for small caterers
- Pricing alerts ensure healthy profit margins
- Shopping list tool ensures you purchase enough supplies
- 14-day free trial
Cons
- Lead management tools are not robust
- Does not have built-in marketing tools
- Starter Package supports a limited number of events
What we like:
CaterlyApp was built by a couple of software developers to help a friend’s catering business solve major pain points. This personal experience is clear in the clever solutions like Google Calendar sync for easy scheduling and included tools for shopping list generation and pricing alerts to help new and solopreneur caterers ensure their business is profitable.
The Starter Package is incredibly affordable, starting at $7.47 per month for up to 5 monthly events and $1.50 for each additional event. Users can unlock unlimited events and employee scheduling tools for $147 per month (or $127 per month when billed annually). The only drawback to CaterlyApp is that it doesn’t have a lot of additional features like venue management that make others on this list more flexible.
Pricing
CaterlyApp’s pricing reflects its mission to support independent caterers. They offer two distinct pricing options to support the smallest and growing catering businesses.
- Starter Package: $7.47 per month (for up to five events), +$1.50 per each additional event
- Standard Package: $127 per month billed annually; $147 per month billed monthly
Key Features
- Recipe Tracking: CaterlyApp includes some of the most robust recipe management tools of the systems on this list. The recipe management module is nearly as robust as a POS-supported inventory management system.
- Shopping List: The Shopping List feature generates a supply list from your upcoming events that is scaled to your projected quantities to ensure you don’t forget any needed ingredients or supplies.
- Recipe Management: CaterlyApp logs all your recipes so you can easily scale them for proposals and events. You and your staff can access the recipes anytime from any electronic device.
- Electronic Signature Support: Standard package users get electronic signatures included for the affordable price of $0.50 per contract. Considering the cost of third-party electronic signature.
If you don’t require detailed recipe management and shopping lists, look for something more streamlined like Square Invoices. If you need venue management alongside document management, try Tripleseat.
FoodStorm by Instacart: Best Catering Software for Grocery Stores
Overall Score:
3.33 / 5
Pros
- Integrates with Instacart for deliveries
- Designed for the unique needs of grocery catering departments
- Multiple order channels: online, in-store kiosks, Instacart app, or manual entry (for phone and email orders)
- Strong customer management and marketing tools
Cons
- Pricing is custom-quoted
- Lead management is not strong
- No venue management tools
What we like:
FoodStorm by Instacart is specifically designed to manage catering orders for grocers and markets. Prepared foods are a huge opportunity for independent markets and grocers to expand revenue streams beyond basic cake and deli platter orders. If you want to start selling catered meals for Thanksgiving and other holidays or even support full-scale large-event catering, FoodStorm has the right tools.
FoodStorm’s overall score is lower than competitors mostly because its tools are so niche. The document management features are not robust enough for an event venue or large off-site catering operation. But if your market needs to focus on growing online orders and prodding abandoned carts, FoodStorm is the best-fitting catering software for your business.
Pricing
Pricing for FoodStorm by Instacart is custom-quoted. Contact FoodStorm for a tailored price quote.
Key Features
- Multi-channel Ordering: FoodStorm accepts orders via your store’s ecommerce website, the Instacart App, or an optional in-store self-service kiosk. You can also manually input orders you receive over the phone or via email.
- Customer Management: You can encourage customer orders with abandoned cart prompts and email marketing tools. Real-time customer feedback messages allow clients to feel heard and tell you—privately—about any opportunities for improvement.
- Comprehensive POS Integrations: FoodStorm integrates with most grocery POS systems. So you can link your FoodStorm catering menus to your checkout stands to allow customers to pay for catering items as they would standard grocery items.
- Instacart Integration: FoodStorm is owned by the grocery delivery app Instacart. It syncs seamlessly with the Instacart delivery app to accept orders and route deliveries to third-party drivers.
If you need venue management or tools for the detailed documentation that off-premise catering requires, look at CaterZen, Toast, or Tripleseat. If you need a lower-cost solution with fewer tools, Square or CaterlyApp are better fits.
Methodology–How We Evaluated
We scored more than a dozen popular catering management software systems on the criteria of what tools are important to catering businesses. As a publication focused on the needs of small and medium businesses, we prioritized the needs of the smallest catering businesses over the needs of enterprise-level operations. So our rubric rewarded low costs, user-friendliness, and breadth and depth of available features. Click through the slides below for a detailed breakdown of our scoring criteria.
20%
Price and contract terms
30%
Document management
15%
Additional tools
20%
Ease of use
15%
Expert score
20% of Overall Score
First, we looked for systems that offered free baseline subscriptions or free trials. We rewarded software with short-term contracts and no user or event limits. We also looked for catering software that included built-in payment processing.
30% of Overall Score
15% of Overall Score
This category rewards niche tools that are notable but not necessary to every type of caterer. We awarded points for catering software that includes venue management, customer relationship management, marketing, and deep-level reporting. We also looked for systems that support third-party integrations for further customization.
20% of Overall Score
We looked for systems with detailed online knowledge bases with comprehensive tutorials. We also rewarded systems with 24/7 customer support and evaluated the user-friendliness of the main user interface, back office dashboard, and any client-facing tools.
15% of Overall Score
Finally, we scored each system based on our food service expert’s overall opinion of the system’s standout features, value for money, popularity amongst working caterers, and user-friendliness.
*Percentages of overall score
Catering Software Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Catering software helps catering businesses and solopreneurs organize their menus, contracts, delivery schedules, and other catering business operations in a single dashboard. Depending on your catering operation type, you might want online ordering, lead management, customer profiles, marketing tools, or recipe costing tools.
You can typically find all of these in most catering software packages, though each system will have slightly different strengths. Catering management software pitched to restaurants will focus on contract management and online ordering. Software for a home-based caterer likely prioritizes digital invoices and recipe costing.
There are several types of caterers, and you can divide them into categories based on the business type or their most common client type. The smallest catering businesses are home-based caterers; they work out of a licensed home kitchen (where legally permitted; some states do not license home-based caterers). Some catering businesses operate out of a hotel, restaurant, bakery, or grocery store.
There are also enterprise-level commercial catering companies that operate out of large commercial kitchens built specifically for catering large events (like the MET Gala, for example) or for corporate clients.
The two major types of catering services are on-premise and off-premise. On-premise catering is when the food is served in the location where it was prepared, as in a private event venue, hotel, country club, or restaurant. Off-premise catering is when food and beverages are served in a different location from where they were prepared, as in an outdoor wedding venue, or a private home.
You can further categorize catering services by client type. Many caterers offer
- Social event catering: Social events are any type of party, such as family reunions, rehearsal dinners, and bar mitzvahs.
- Corporate catering: There are major bucks to be made catering for conferences and large meetings.
- Wedding catering: Some companies specialize in wedding catering, while others fold wedding catering into social event catering.
- Commercial concessions: Some caterers specialize in preparing food for concession stands that don’t have operational kitchens.
- Military catering: This is its own specialty service, often with its own protocol for food handling, maximum budgets, and food safety.
Bottom Line
Catering businesses come in all sizes. The catering software you need will depend entirely on the type of catering business you have and the information you need to organize. CaterZen emerged as the best overall catering management software for most caterers in our catering software evaluations. It earned high marks for its multiple subscription levels, user-friendly drag-and-drop tools, and detailed knowledge base. To see if this system fits your catering business, contact CaterZen for a demo and start your free trial.
