Best Online Ordering Systems for Restaurants

• POS: Square, Lightspeed, Clover, POSitouch, Harbortouch, Restaurant Manager, Future POS
• Delivery: DoorDash, Uber
• Middleware: None

For a custom-quoted price, Menufy users can purchase a Menufy tablet and wireless receipt printer to accept online orders. Alternatively, you can download the Menufy Restaurant Console app on any Android tablet that runs Android 4.4 or later. You can also attach an optional Bluetooth-enabled receipt printer to print order tickets. Menufy also integrates directly with a few popular cloud POS systems like Square, Lightspeed, and Clover if you want to receive orders directly in your POS.

Menufy’s standout features include:

• HungerRush 360 marketing: Menufy offers a marketing suite with graphic design support and customized email and SMS marketing campaigns. For $99 per month—and no long-term contract—users get custom-designed smartphone graphics to promote their brand to customers. HungerRush 360 Marketing will send automated messages to your online ordering customers to drive repeat business, and all ad campaigns will be designed in the style of your restaurant.
• Menufy platform app: Like Toast, Tock, and DoorDash, Menufy hosts a listing site and affiliated smartphone app to help introduce your restaurant to new customers.
• Pay-as-you-go delivery: Menufy integrates directly with Uber and DoorDash to provide on-demand third-party drivers to deliver orders. For each delivery, Menufy customers pay a 12.5% commission fee. This rate is higher than some competitors, but users will only pay for what they use.

• POS: Adora, CAKE, Clover, Crisp, Focus POS, Givex, Heartland POS, PAR Menu, Square, Toast, Lavu, Shift4
• Middleware: ItsaCheckmate, Chowly, Cuboh, Deliverect, Mobi2Go, Ordermark, OLO, Omnivore, Otter, UEat, REEF
• Web hosting: GoDaddy, WordPress, Shopify, Squarespace, Wix, Weebly, and BentoBox

You can receive DoorDash Storefront orders via tablet, email, phone, or fax. Alternatively, you can integrate directly with one of the several POS systems DoorDash partners with to receive orders directly in your POS order stream.

If your POS is not currently a DoorDash partner, check with the several middleman apps that DoorDash integrates with; you may be able to route your Storefront orders through one of them to receive orders in your POS. Although, you’ll only be able to view DoorDash Dashers’ locations in your DoorDash dashboard. So, if you choose to use DoorDash drivers, you’ll still want to keep a tablet handy.

DoorDash Storefront’s standout features include:

• Customized branding: Unlike a traditional DoorDash online ordering profile, your DoorDash Storefront is white-labeled. This means that customers see your brand and logos, not DoorDash’s. All Storefront sites have a footer on the page advising that this site is “Powered by DoorDash Storefront.”
• Delivery driver options: With DoorDash Self-Delivery, you can route all delivery orders to either in-house drivers or Dashers. You deliver orders with your own staff for a fee of 8% (DashPass deliveries) to 12% (standard deliveries). Or, you can set orders outside your delivery hours or range to automatically route to Dashers. DoorDash-delivered items are subject to a $6.99–$10.99 delivery fee.
• Power of the DoorDash Platform: For a commission fee, you can list your restaurant on the DoorDash platform to draw new business. This is absolutely not required to use DoorDash Storefront, but it’s a nice option if your sales take a dip or you want to run a promotion. Commission fees range from 6% for pickup orders to 15% to 30% for delivery orders, depending on your desired delivery range and whether you want access to DashPass users.

• POS Integrations: Only Toast POS
• Delivery: DoorDash, Shipday
• Middleware: Chowly, ItsaCheckmate

Getting started with Toast online ordering requires first subscribing to the Toast POS system ($0 to $165+ per month) and purchasing Toast hardware ($0 to $875 per terminal). Toast online orders appear directly in your POS order stream and print automatically in your kitchen or on your kitchen display system (KDS). Toast operates on Toast-designed touch-screen terminals. You can purchase these terminals outright or pay-as-you-go with higher payment processing fees. Toast also has added a direct integration tool with Google to allow restaurants to accept online orders from Google Search results.

Toast’s standout features include:

• Toast TakeOut App: Toast subscribers are featured in the streamlined customer-facing Toast TakeOut smartphone app. This searchable app allows customers to find your restaurant based on location, cuisine, or mealtime preferences and is available from Google Play and the Apple App Store.
• Automated Customer Alerts: Your Toast system will alert customers—and your staff—when an order is marked as complete on your KDS screen. This stops short of comprehensive delivery status updates, but it is automated and incredibly user-friendly.
• Customer arrival notification texts: Toast’s Arrival Notification text allows you to text a link to your customers when they place curbside pickup orders. When they arrive, customers click a link on their smartphone, and a check prints in your restaurant, containing their name and order information. So, your team never has to guess which order to bring out.
• In-house and third-party delivery options: Toast’s built-in basic delivery functions operate a lot like Tock’s. Restaurants can assign orders to in-house drivers and use Google Maps to set custom delivery areas and fees. Toast allows you to manage your drivers’ sales with the same detail as you would a waiter in your dining room, logging sales and tip information for easy payroll reporting. For an additional per-delivery fee, Toast users can route delivery orders to third-party drivers from DoorDash Drive.

• POS: Toast, Lightspeed
• Delivery: DoorDash Drive, Uber
• Middleware: None

You don’t need any specialty hardware to operate Tock, though most users operate the order dashboard on a dedicated tablet or computer. Tock recommends the iPad Pro 11”, iPad Pro 12.9”, and the eighth-generation iPad. It also recommends Chromebooks like the Google Pixelbook and the 10.5” Galaxy Tab S6. Using Toast or Lightspeed as your POS, you can also integrate Tock directly into your POS orderstream.

Tock’s standout features include:

• Controlled order flow: Tock’s online orders are organized by time slot, similar to a table reservation. This feature lets you decide how many orders you accept in a given time frame and bump additional orders to more convenient times. You can allow a la carte ordering or only sell pre-fixed meals or meal kits.
• On-demand third-party drivers: Tock includes essential driver dispatch functions if you manage an in-house team. If you prefer to outsource your delivery operations, Tock integrates directly with both DoorDash and Uber to hail on-demand third-party drivers. Tock customers pay a flat fee for these drivers, and the fees are tacked on to your customer checks. So, you get the convenience of third-party delivery without the high commission rates.
• Two-way SMS-texting: In-app SMS text messaging lets your team communicate directly with customers. You can send preset text messages for order status updates or custom messages for order detail confirmation or alerts. If you expand into delivery, your drivers can also text with your customers.
• Platform Business Listing Site: You can share your Tock order link with customers on your restaurant’s social media channels and restaurant website. Tock also includes all Tock restaurants on its searchable website. Customers in your city can search the website for pickup and delivery options at their preferred mealtime and discover your restaurant. Tock restaurants include the most celebrated independent restaurants in the country, so you’ll be in good company.

• POS: Square for Restaurants
• Delivery: DoorDash, Uber/Postmates, Caviar
• Middleware: Square Online does not integrate with middleware; the Square for Restaurants POS integrates with Chowly, Cuboh, Deliverect, and Slice

You don’t need any special equipment to run Square Online. You can access your order dashboard from any internet-enabled device, and Square also sends you an email for every new online order. So you can see new orders as they arrive, even from a smartphone.

Square Online’s standout features include:

• No long-term contracts: There are no annual or monthly fees associated with Square Online; restaurants only pay for processing fees on online purchases. Even seasonal restaurants and micro-operations like sugar shacks and beachside concession stands can easily expand into online ordering and pay as they go.
• Integrates with Square business tools: The Square platform hosts many intuitive software tools to handle everything from customer loyalty programs to gift cards, marketing solutions, payroll, and invoice management. Square expands its built-in functions with more than 100 integrated third-party apps, covering everything from employee scheduling to accounting and tax compliance.
• Delivery options: You can add a delivery option to your Square Online ordering site and manually manage a driver team. Or you can expand into the Square for Restaurants POS, which integrates directly with third-party delivery apps. Postmates and DoorDash integrations allow you to hail third-party drivers for on-demand, flat-rate delivery. Alternatively, you can dispatch your own drivers for 50 cents per order.

• POS: No direct POS integrations
• Middleman Apps: Deliverect, ItsaCheckmate (both enable POS integration)
• Delivery: Tookan (in-house delivery), Doordash, Postmates

When a new order is placed, it will appear in your Restolabs dashboard and you will also receive the order via email. Customers will automatically be notified via SMS message that their order was sent. You can integrate Restolabs with your POS via the middleman app ItsaCheckmate or Deliverect. Though for Enterprise-level customers, Restolabs can build a custom POS integration if your POS brand is also willing to integrate.

Restolabs’ standout features include:

• Customizable menu templates: Restolabs strikes an excellent balance between templatization and customization. The Restolabs team will create your primary online menu, and from there, you can customize and update it in Restolabs’ easy-to-navigate site editor. Restolabs’ online ordering sites are template-based but provide lots of room for customizing with your restaurant logo and colors. The menu templates are robust enough to support highly modified menu items like build-your-own pizzas and family-style combo deals.
• Delivery options: You can manage a team of in-house drivers via a Tookan integration, or route deliveries to third-party drivers on the DoorDash or Uber/Postmates network. Extra fees will apply from these third-party providers, however. Tookan pricing ranges from $29 to $359 per month. DoorDash and Uber/Postmates rates range from $6 to $9 per delivery with no underlying monthly subscription fees.
• Payment flexibility: Restolabs users can easily configure their online menu to accept online payments, cash payments, mobile wallet payments, or request a card upon delivery (though you’ll want to be sure you have a mobile card reader to process them). It is as simple as ticking a few boxes in the Restolabs dashboard. You can use the system to accept cash only, or add one of the more than 30 supported partner payment processors.

• POS: Only Revel
• Payments: Revel Advantage, First Data, Heartland, TSYS, Worldpay, Chase Paymentech, Elavon
• Delivery: Driver XT by DoorDash, Grubhub
• Middleman apps: Cuboh, Chowly, ItsaCheckmate, Deliverect

Revel Systems is a POS that operates on iPads (like competitor Square for Restaurants). Though, unlike Square—which lets customers use hardware they already own—Revel users must purchase their hardware directly from Revel. Revel sends the iPads to customers pre-configured with the POS software. The iPads themselves can be used as POS terminals, KDS screens, self-service kiosks, customer-facing displays, or tableside order and payment devices.

The Revel team offers guided support, creating your online ordering site from the menus loaded into your POS. This takes a bit more time than building your own website via a setup wizard, but it can be a lifesaver for a restaurant owner with limited administrative bandwidth.

For pricing, you’ll need to contact Revel Systems directly. But whatever the price, the fact that using Revel’s online ordering tools requires a full Revel POS system to operate means that this solution has a higher upfront cost than any other solution on this list. But before you dismiss Revel on cost alone, take a look at the online ordering features.

Revel’s standout features include:

• Integrated orders: Orders from your Revel online ordering site appear directly in your POS order stream. There are no middleware plug-ins and no custom-built API integrations. As with Toast, Revel’s online ordering seamlessly integrates with the underlying POS. You also get the same support team for online ordering as for your POS, and you can use the same payment processor for both your in-person and online transactions.
• Driver management: Revel includes live, maps-based driver management: the Delivery XT Dispatch app. If you manage a team of in-house delivery drivers, Revel shows you their live locations on a dispatch map. You can assign orders based on proximity directly from the map and manage driver reimbursements based on mileage.
• Driver smartphone app: Revel includes a free driver app, Revel Delivery XT Agent, that syncs with your dispatch system. Drivers are notified in their app about new delivery assignments, updated delivery information, and real-time turn-by-turn directions. This driver app gives you Uber-like control over your delivery fleet. It is an excellent fit for restaurants like pizzerias that do a high volume of deliveries.

• POS: Multiple (via open API)
• Delivery: Tookan, Shipday
• Middleware: None

CloudWaitress recommends using Windows tablets and PCs, but you can receive CloudWaitress orders on tablet or computer or even print orders directly to a Wi-Fi-connected printer. You can set up your ordering site using a CloudWaitress menu template and start taking orders for pick up or delivery entirely for free. Like Square and Toast, CloudWaitress also supports on-site QR code ordering via your online store. Once you hit 100 orders per month on the free plan, though, you’ll need to upgrade to a paid subscription. But you can pay your subscription fees month to month and cancel at any time; there are no long-term contracts.

CloudWaitress’ standout features include:

• Customer-facing Mobile App: Yes, Zuppler also offers a customer-branded mobile app, but no one offers a mobile ordering app for as low a price as CloudWaitress. For a one-time fee of $399, you can get a branded iOS and Android customer-facing mobile ordering app.
• Delivery Integrations: Like Restolabs and Square, CloudWaitress integrates with third-party apps to support in-house driver management. CloudWaitress integrates with Tookan and Shipday (formerly QuestTag). Unlocking either of these integrations gives you an Uber-like driver dispatch portal to track your deliveries in real time. Unlike every other system on this list, however, CloudWaitress doesn’t currently integrate with on-demand third-party driver apps like DoorDash Drive.
• Open-door Communication: CloudWaitress actively monitors user feedback and encourages member restaurants to request features they need. If a feature request is popular, you can actively track its progress through the CloudWaitress workflow. This level of transparency helps CloudWaitress develop tools that restaurant owners want and helps CloudWaitress users feel heard.

• POS: Toast, Revel, Lightspeed, Clover, Brink, Par
• Delivery: DoorDash, UberEats, Shipday, Onfleet, First Delivery, Dragontail Systems
• Middleware: ItsaCheckmate, Otter, Chowly

As the only custom-quoted system on this list, Zuppler may be a bit out of budget for very small independent restaurants. Previously listed fees for this system ranged from $129 to $149 per month, which definitely puts Zuppler at the higher end of the systems on this list. But Zuppler’s main focus is on growing your online orders and increasing sales; it now declares itself to be in the “growth services” business.

Zuppler’s standout features include:

• Delivery options: For a custom-quoted fee, Zuppler includes some delivery management functions like the ability to create delivery zones, assign zone-based delivery fees, set delivery hours, and throttle delivery orders. Alternatively, Zuppler integrates with DoorDash, UberEats, and others to provide on-demand third-party drivers. You can also manage in-house drivers with Shipday, Onfleet, First Delivery, or Dragontail Systems integrations.
• Branded mobile app: For a custom-quoted fee, Zuppler users can get a fully branded mobile ordering app. This is a great option for multilocation restaurants with a loyal base of regular customers.
• Customer Connect Order Status Updates: Via Zuppler’s Customer Connect tool, your customers can receive text updates as their orders move through your restaurant. Automated messages and a live track bar show customers when their order is received, prepared, ready for pickup, or out for delivery. This can save your team from answering numerous phone calls about an order.

It really depends on that restaurant’s needs. The ideal online ordering system is one that can easily fit into your business while giving your customers an easy ordering experience. In our evaluation, Menufy was the overall best fit for most restaurant types.

A customer goes online and finds your restaurant. The customer places an order either via your website or a third-party platform. The online ordering system sends orders to your restaurant, either via a POS integration, a dedicated online ordering app tablet, a dedicated ticket printer, an email alert, or a combination of these. Your kitchen staff prepares the order, which is then picked up by the customer, or delivered to the customer via in-house or third-party delivery drivers. Customers can pay for the orders when they are placed via your online ordering site, or you may opt to process payment—either cash or card—when the orders are picked up for delivery.

They offer customers a way to order food from a restaurant via a website or smartphone. These systems allow customers to place detailed orders with modifications, reducing miscommunication and server error. An online ordering system may be the only contact a customer has with your restaurant, so it is important to choose a system that reflects your brand.

In 2020, takeout orders switched to mostly online ordering. Nearly 90% of takeout orders were done online, and this trend has only continued in the years since. Online ordering is convenient and easy to access; it is expected that 185 million people will use online ordering services by 2025.