GloriaFood Review: Is It Right for Your Business?
With more than a decade of hospitality experience, Mary has worked in some of the most celebrated restaurants in the world. Her expertise is featured across Fit Small Business in restaurant, retail, and starting a business content.
Katie-Jay aims to put answers in the hands of small business owners by leveraging over 10 years of retail and hospitality experience. With a background in gemology, she specializes in jewelry and luxury ecommerce.
This article is part of a larger series on POS Systems.
GloriaFood, a restaurant software platform, includes online ordering and reservation tools—which you can use together or separately. You can take your time to test drive the system because its baseline functions are completely free to use. With restaurant point-of-sale (POS) integrations, marketing tools, and friendly customer support, GloriaFood is on a mission to provide affordable software for small, independent restaurants.
What We Like
- Free baseline software
- Bring your own payment processor
- Custom delivery zones
- QR code ordering
- Browser-based software operates on preexisting hardware
What's Missing
- Delivery management tools are limited
- May not be robust enough for high-volume operations
- Basic features, including online payments, only available as paid add-ons
Deciding Factors:
- No monthly software fee, no long-term contract required
- Add-on monthly pricing: $9 – $59
- Integrations
- Delivery: Shipday, Tookan, GetSwift, OrderLord
- POS: SambaPOS, DinePlan, MobiPOS, Joy POS
- Middleware: 40+ backdoor POS integrations available through ItsaCheckmate; Ordermark
- Customer support: 24/7 email and webchat Monday–Friday, 9 a.m.–4 p.m. Saturday–Sunday
- Standout features:
- Mobile app connects to your restaurant’s website
- Robust customer management features
- Open API
- Basic reservation system
- Affordable marketing tools
- Excellent customer service
When to Use GloriaFood
GloriaFood is incredibly easy to plug into your restaurant website. With no monthly subscription fees or commissions, this platform is spectacular for restaurants on a budget.
- Mom-and-pop restaurants and food trucks: The baseline GloriaFood platform is free to use and includes tools for reservations and online ordering, making it an excellent partner for restaurants needing to manage costs closely.
- Restaurants needing to use their preexisting payment processor for online ordering: One of GloriaFood’s biggest advantages as an online ordering system is the ability for its users to bring their own payment processor. Combined with robust features and friendly pricing, this makes the software a winning pick for restaurants.
- Restaurants seeking free reservation software: GloriaFood delivers a basic reservation system free of charge, which works well for small restaurants using an analog table management system. It runs on iOS and Android devices and offers contactless solutions for prepayment.
When GloriaFood Would Not Be a Good Fit
- Restaurants with high-volume delivery: If your restaurant gets a high volume of delivery orders, you’ll need the more robust dispatch tools provided by a built-in POS online ordering system, like Toast. See our Toast review for details.
- Multilocation restaurants: While GloriaFood will work for a multilocation restaurant, you’ll want the more muscular central reporting functions of a robust POS-built tool such as Revel Systems. Learn more in our Revel Systems review.
Looking for something different? See our top picks for the best restaurant POS systems and the leading POS systems for small businesses.
GloriaFood Pricing
GloriaFood is a “freemium” platform—the baseline software is free, but users can pay for advanced features to extend its functions. If all you want to do is accept food orders and reservations from your restaurant website, you won’t pay anything. However, if you want to accept online payments with your online food orders, you will need an add-on.
Add-On | Monthly Cost |
|---|---|
Sales-optimized website | $9 |
Branded mobile app | $59 |
Process online payments | $29 |
Advanced marketing and promotions | $19 |
GloriaFood’s add-on functions are competitively priced, but some of them might seem a little basic to justify the extra charge. However, this setup ensures that tiny mom-and-pop restaurants don’t pay for functions they won’t use.
Cash-only restaurants or those wanting to avoid higher card-not-present processing fees don’t even have to pay for something as basic as online payments. This a la carte pricing structure makes GloriaFood uniquely suited for micro-operations like food trucks and neighborhood takeout spots.
GloriaFood Payments
You can use GloriaFood’s online ordering and reservation features without accepting any online payments, or you can add a payment processor. If you choose to accept online payments, GloriaFood simply acts as the connection between your restaurant and whatever merchant account provider you choose. You can use a preexisting payment processor if you have one or create an account with accessible payment gateways Stripe or PayPal.
The ability to bring your own processor can be a game-changer for accessibility. Small restaurants with tight margins can opt only to accept in-person payments. If you want to test-drive the process in a low-stakes way, open and attach a Stripe account.
GloriaFood Hardware
You can run your GloriaFood dashboard on any internet browser. The order receiving app is downloadable on Android and iOS; clients with a verified account can access the download from the GloriaFood website.
GloriaFood recommends installing the order-receiving app on a dedicated device with a strong, stable internet connection for optimal performance. It also suggests leaving the charger plugged in at all times, disabling standby mode, and keeping the app running in the foreground.
GloriaFood Features
GloriaFood plugs into your restaurant’s website and connects it to a mobile app. The software works particularly well on WordPress, which lists the GloriaFood plug-in directly in its app marketplace. Currently, more than 10,000 active WordPress users use GloriaFood’s platform.
If your website is not hosted on WordPress, you’ll add your online ordering and reservation buttons to your website with a simple HTML code copied from your GloriaFood admin page. Most restaurant owners will be able to handle the installation—but if you contract with a designer to maintain your website, they can efficiently manage the back-end configuration with no problem.
In addition to the online ordering and reservation features we will explore in detail below, GloriaFood includes
- QR Code ordering: GloriaFood gives you the option to toggle on a QR code that links to your online menu, allowing you to accept in-house, contactless orders. QR code ordering is a quick way to expand your operation by using customer smartphones as self-ordering kiosks.
- Marketing: GloriaFood creates an optimized link for Facebook sharing so that you can put an “order now” button directly on your Facebook page. For an additional monthly subscription, you can add the ability to run sales promotions. This paid plan supports client segmentation so you can create targeted marketing campaigns.
- Sales optimized website: For an additional $9 per month, the GloriaFood team will streamline your website to ensure increased search engine visibility.
- Custom built website: If you don’t have the time or administrative bandwidth to build a website, GloriaFood has a website builder that creates a custom website in minutes.
- Customer management: GloriaFood prompts your customers to save their contact and payment information when they order or book a reservation—and that information is accessible for future reservations and orders.
- Branded mobile app: You can offer your customers a mobile ordering app, which will be listed in smartphone app stores with your restaurant branding and logo.
- API integration: GloriaFood has an open application programming interface (API), so you can connect it to other restaurant software with open APIs.
Online Ordering Functions
- Manual order approval: Approve every order before it prints so that your kitchen is never surprised by any orders.
- Allow advance orders: Choose to allow orders days or weeks in advance.
- Massive modifiers: Find modifications and add-ons as easy-to-navigate checkboxes.
- Accept online or in-person payments: Choose whether to accept online payments or require all orders to be paid in advance.
- Pickup or delivery: Include options for pick-up orders or delivery.
- Google Maps: Integrate with Google Maps to direct and track your drivers.
- Custom delivery zones: Set as many custom delivery zones as you need, with accompanying fees.
The GloriaFood menu setup wizard walks you through every detail, so you can feel confident that you’ve included all the necessary information.
If you don’t have images of all your menu items, GloriaFood supplies a bank of basic images you can use. It also supports multiple modifiers, add-ons, and combo building. When a customer places an order, you receive alerts via email and the GloriaFood dashboard—which also let you confirm or decline orders and advise customers of an accurate pickup or delivery time.
Accept or decline online orders from your mobile device.
(Source: GloriaFood)
Once you approve customer orders, they will see a confirmation on their order screen and receive a detailed email confirmation with their receipt.
GloriaFood supports multiple delivery zones with customizable order minimums and delivery fees if you choose to offer delivery. The system also integrates with Google Maps to provide driving directions and provide customers with accurate delivery times.
Reservations
- Customize party size: Set minimum and maximum party limits so that you are never surprised by unexpected parties.
- Set reservation hold time: Decide how long to hold tables for late guests.
- Advance reservations: Choose how far in advance customers can place reservations.
- Order-ahead option: Allow reserved guests to attach their meal order to their reservation so that your kitchen knows what to expect.
GloriaFood’s reservation system is pretty basic. The software allows you to accept reservations from your restaurant website, but it doesn’t have an accompanying floorplan to process reservations once customers arrive.
If you have a manual system for seating and tracking tables in your restaurant, this won’t limit your operations. However, if you are looking for something to replace an end-to-end reservation and table management system like OpenTable or Resy, GloriaFood will feel a little cramped.
GloriaFood has a user-friendly online reservation system.
(Source: GloriaFood)
For small restaurants with a good analog table management system, though, GloriaFood has a lot to offer. You can choose exactly what party size you can accept reservations for and how far in advance customers can make them. You can also allow reserved customers to order their meals ahead alongside their table reservation. All of these features are entirely free to use.
Marketing
- Promotion templates: Use built-in coupon templates to create banner ads on your website.
- Customer segmentation: Categorize customers by order frequency, overall spend, or other custom categories to create bespoke promotions.
- Reporting and analytics: Track your promotions to identify effective strategies.
- Delivery heatmaps: Focus your promotional efforts on slow delivery areas to drive new business.
Unlocking some of GloriaFood’s marketing tools requires a monthly subscription. But at $19 per month, the fee is incredibly reasonable.
For that affordable price, small restaurants on a budget can access promotional tools that might otherwise be out of their reach. Customer segmentation lets you create custom categories for tracking your customer behavior, then pitch tailor-made offers to each customer type. However, basic banner ad promotions like offering a percentage off of a large order amount are included in the free GloriaFood package.
Heatmaps show where your delivery orders are coming from.
(Source: GloriaFood)
If you use your GloriaFood system for delivery, you can pull a heatmap report that shows which parts of your town order the most. Identifying areas that order a low volume of delivery shows you where a coupon in a local door hanger campaign might have the most significant impact, and GloriaFood tracks each of your promotions, so you will see which coupons or promotions are driving new sales.
Integrations
GloriaFood has an open API that allows restaurant owners to connect the software with other tools. Restaurant owners that are not tech-savvy will likely need to work with a software designer to complete those connections, though.
If you lack the technical bandwidth to build an API integration yourself, GloriaFood has several practical, pre-built third-party integrations, including:
- Delivery and driver management: Shipday, Tookan, GetSwift, OrderLord
- Third-party delivery platforms: Ordermark, ItsaCheckmate
- POS integration: SambaPOS, DinePlan, MobiPOS, Joy POS
If you don’t see your preferred POS on the integration list, GloriaFood has a backdoor POS integration. You can use the intermediary app ItsaCheckmate to directly feed your GloriaFood online orders into any of the 40+ POS systems that partner with ItsaCheckmate. Popular providers include:
- Toast
- Revel
- SpeedLine
- HungerRush
- Cake
- Rezku
- Clover
- MICROS
GloriaFood Ease of Use
- DIY set up: Fill out basic information and receive reservations and orders the same day.
- Guided setup option: Have the GloriaFood team set up your menu for a fee.
- Alert call: If the system experiences errors, GloriaFood will call to alert you.
- Extended customer service: Customer support reps are available via email and web chat 24 hours a day, Monday through Friday (plus business-hour weekend availability).
GloriaFood is incredibly easy to use. When you first log in to its dashboard, the platform prompts you to add all the necessary information.
The menu setup is incredibly intuitive as well. GloriaFood includes pre-built menu templates for several popular cuisine types, from pizza and burgers to Indian and Italian. If you don’t have photos of your menu items, you can use the bank of mouthwatering food photos in the dashboard. If you lack the bandwidth to set up your menu yourself, you can ask the GloriaFood team to build it for you at a custom price.
If you run into trouble, the GloriaFood team is available via in-app chat. The chat line is staffed 24 hours a day Monday through Friday and from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern time Saturday and Sunday. If the platform experiences any technical difficulties, the system auto-generates a voice call to alert you.
GloriaFood Software Alternatives
Read our ranking of the best online ordering software for small businesses—or consider these alternatives to GloriaFood:
Best For | Pricing | ||
|---|---|---|---|
 | Restaurants that want built-in online ordering with payments and simple delivery | Monthly fees starting at $0 (plus processing fees); add-ons available | |
 | Affordable, pay-as-you-go online ordering with available marketing tools | $0 monthly fee; $1.50 per-order commission fee (plus 2.5% + 30 cents payment processing fee) | |
 | Online ordering with POS integration | Monthly subscriptions start at $55 | |
 | Pre-paid online ordering and reservations | Reservations software starts at $199/month; online ordering and delivery tools available for a 3% per-order commission fee (plus processing fees) | |
 | High-volume restaurant reservations | Monthly subscriptions start at $249 |
What Users Think of GloriaFood
Most GloriaFood fans are small, independent restaurants struggling to afford online ordering and reservations software—and these users love the free restaurant software. Wherever you look, you’ll find positive GloriaFood reviews.
- Capterra: 4.7 out of 5 based on 50+ reviews
- G2: 4.9 out of 5, based on about 15 reviews
- Google Play: 3.7 out of 5 based on 1,100+ reviews
Users love the ability to add ordering and reservation buttons to their restaurant websites and Facebook pages, and restaurant owners like the platform’s hardware flexibility. However, some complain that the software experiences glitches and has connectivity issues after updates. Many would like to see admin controls in the smartphone app, too. We consider these minor flaws in a robust, free restaurant software tool.
Users Like | Users Don’t Like |
|---|---|
Extremely low cost | Cannot toggle off orders from the smartphone app |
Works on virtually any hardware | Software updates can cause glitches/connectivity issues |
Do-it-yourself setup gives restaurants control | Cannot bulk upload information from CSV files |
Bottom Line
GloriaFood’s free to low-cost online ordering and reservation software gives small, independent restaurants tools to compete with large brands. You can operate this flexible software from any internet-connected device, bring your own payment processor, and accept cash only for your orders. If you need extra support, you can pay a small fee for additional features like a sales-optimized website. To see if it is a fit for your restaurant, visit its website to get started for free.
