10 Best UpMenu Alternatives for Restaurants in 2026

UpMenu’s cheapest plan costs $49 per month and limits you to just 90 online orders. That works out to roughly $0.54 per order before processing fees even kick in.

For a busy restaurant pushing 300+ orders a month, you’d need to jump to the $89 or $169 plan just to avoid hitting a cap. And if you’re a small cafe or food truck doing 50 orders a month, you’re still paying $49 for features you may never touch.

UpMenu is a capable platform. It handles online ordering, branded websites, mobile apps, loyalty programs, and marketing tools all under one roof. But not every restaurant needs all of that, and the pricing doesn’t always match smaller budgets.

Whether you’re looking for something cheaper, simpler, or just a better fit for how your business actually works, there are solid options out there. We compared 10 UpMenu alternatives across pricing, features, order limits, and ease of setup to help you find the right one.

Quick picks:

UpMenu is a cloud-based restaurant online ordering and management platform. It gives restaurants a branded ordering website, mobile apps for iOS and Android, QR code menus, a built-in CRM, loyalty programs, email and SMS marketing, delivery management with a driver app, and analytics.

It positions itself as an all-in-one solution for restaurants that want to take orders directly (without paying marketplace commissions to apps like Uber Eats or DoorDash). Restaurants, pizzerias, and food delivery businesses worldwide use the platform.

The catch? UpMenu’s Basic plan starts at $49/month with a cap of just 90 orders. That’s about 3 orders per day. If you need more, you’ll pay $89/month (Standard) or $169/month (Premium). Processing fees are charged on top. And the free trial is only 7 days, which doesn’t give you much time to test things properly.

For restaurants that just need an online menu and basic ordering, UpMenu can feel like paying for a full toolbox when you only need a screwdriver.

Before picking a new platform, here are the things that matter most when comparing restaurant online ordering systems:

Menubly is an online menu and ordering platform built for small to medium food businesses that want to get online without overspending. At $9.99 per month, it costs a fraction of what UpMenu charges, and there are no order caps or commissions on any plan.

Where UpMenu tries to be an all-in-one management platform, Menubly focuses on what most small restaurants actually need: a mobile-friendly digital menu, commission-free online ordering, and a simple web presence. You can set up your menu and start taking orders in under 30 minutes, with no technical skills required. It’s not a full POS system, and that’s the point. You’re not paying for inventory management or employee scheduling you’ll never use.

Menubly is best for small to medium restaurants, cafes, bakeries, food trucks, and bars that want affordable online ordering and a professional digital menu without paying for a full management platform they don’t need.

Try Menubly free for 30 days — no credit card required.

Owner.com is an AI-powered restaurant marketing platform that bundles online ordering with a branded website, a custom mobile app, automated email and text campaigns, and a rewards program. It’s built for restaurants that want to actively grow direct orders and reduce dependence on third-party delivery apps. The platform improves your Google visibility, sends automated promotions, and builds a branded ordering experience across web and app.

Unlike UpMenu, Owner.com focuses heavily on marketing automation. It sends email and SMS campaigns on your behalf, runs a rewards program to drive repeat orders, and helps you show up higher in Google search results. You also get full ownership of customer data — emails, phone numbers, order history — so you can market directly to your customers.

Established, higher-volume restaurants with the budget for a premium marketing platform that want to pull orders away from DoorDash and Uber Eats and build direct customer relationships through automated marketing.

GloriaFood (owned by Oracle) offers a genuinely free online ordering system for restaurants. The core product includes unlimited orders, unlimited locations, and zero commission, with no monthly fee and no contracts. You get a website ordering widget, Facebook ordering, QR code menus, table reservations, and scheduled orders.

The free plan is surprisingly complete for basic ordering needs. Unlike UpMenu’s $49/month Basic plan with its 90-order cap, GloriaFood lets you take unlimited orders from day one without paying anything. If you want more — online payments, a branded mobile app, or a custom website — paid add-ons unlock those features.

Budget-conscious restaurants that want free basic online ordering right now and are willing to add paid features later as the business grows. Especially good for new restaurants testing online ordering for the first time.

Square for Restaurants is a full restaurant POS system that includes a free online ordering page, payment processing, inventory tracking, employee management, and reporting. It’s one of the few platforms where you can run both your in-person register and online orders from a single system without paying a monthly subscription on the entry-level plan.

Where UpMenu focuses on online ordering and marketing, Square gives you the full restaurant operations stack — POS, kitchen display, staff scheduling, payroll, and online ordering all in one place. The ecosystem includes hardware options, AI-powered demand forecasts, and a growing marketplace of integrations.

Restaurants that need both an in-person POS and online ordering in one system with a low barrier to entry. Good for businesses already in the Square ecosystem or those that want a single vendor for payments, POS, and ordering.

ChowNow builds commission-free ordering systems for restaurants with a strong focus on branded mobile apps. You get your own iOS and Android app, a branded ordering website, access to the ChowNow marketplace for customer discovery, and POS integrations with Toast, Square, Clover, and Revel.

What sets ChowNow apart from UpMenu is the branded app and marketplace combination. Your restaurant gets its own mobile app in the App Store and Google Play, plus exposure through the ChowNow consumer marketplace app. Their Flex Delivery feature connects you to DoorDash and Uber drivers for a flat $3.99 per delivery — so you don’t need your own fleet.

Restaurants that want their own branded mobile app and access to a marketplace discovery channel, with budget to invest in a premium platform. Best suited for restaurants doing enough volume to justify the $199+/month cost.

Toast is the industry-leading restaurant POS system, built from the ground up for food service businesses. It covers point-of-sale, online ordering, delivery, payroll, team management, inventory, reporting, and more. The ecosystem is massive, with purpose-built hardware, 200+ integrations, and add-on modules for almost every restaurant need.

Toast is a different category from UpMenu. Where UpMenu is an online ordering platform, Toast is a full restaurant operations system. You’d choose Toast if you need a complete POS with hardware, staff management, payroll, and online ordering all tied together. The downside? Online ordering is an add-on, and total costs add up fast.

Full-service and high-volume restaurants that need a complete POS ecosystem with hardware, payroll, inventory, and online ordering all tied together. Not the best fit if you only need online ordering — you’d be paying for a lot of extras.

Flipdish offers branded web ordering, mobile apps, digital kiosks, POS, and automated marketing in one platform. It uses AI to tailor menus, recommend dishes based on order history, and customize promotions for individual customers. The platform also includes a kitchen display system, inventory management, driver tracking, and payroll tools.

Flipdish goes further than UpMenu on the branding side. You get your own branded website, app, and even self-ordering kiosks for in-store — all with your restaurant’s look and feel. The AI-driven menu personalization is a standout feature, adjusting what customers see based on their past orders and preferences. It’s built for restaurant brands that want full control over every digital ordering channel.

Growing restaurant brands and multi-location businesses that want branded digital ordering across web, app, and kiosk channels with AI-powered personalization. Best suited for restaurants scaling beyond a single location.

SpotOn is a full restaurant management system that connects front-of-house, back-of-house, and back-office operations. It includes commission-free online ordering (SpotOn Order), a cloud-based POS, built-in reservations and waitlist management, labor management tools, and delivery integrations with DoorDash.

SpotOn competes directly with Toast but tends to offer more transparent pricing and flexible plans. The key difference from UpMenu is that SpotOn gives you a full POS system with commission-free online ordering built in — not bolted on as an extra. You can also manage reservations, waitlists, and labor all from the same platform.

Restaurants that want a full POS system with commission-free ordering, built-in reservation management, and labor tools at a more transparent price point than Toast. Good for mid-size restaurants that have outgrown basic ordering platforms.

Restolabs is an online ordering system built for restaurants that need to manage multiple locations, order types, and delivery zones from a single dashboard. It supports pickup, in-house delivery, third-party delivery integrations (DoorDash, Uber Direct), QR dine-in ordering, and catering — all from one backend.

The big advantage over UpMenu for multi-location restaurants is Restolabs’ centralized management. You can clone menus across locations in one click, set different delivery zones with custom minimum orders, manage location-specific pricing, and track performance across all outlets without switching between dashboards. The platform also offers a generous 60-day free trial — far longer than UpMenu’s 7 days.

Multi-location restaurant groups that need centralized menu and order management with delivery zone control across all outlets. Also strong for restaurants that offer catering alongside regular ordering.

Sauce is a commission-free ordering and delivery platform that replaces the 20-30% marketplace fees from apps like Uber Eats and DoorDash with a transparent, flat-fee model. Restaurants keep 100% of their order revenue. Sauce provides access to a national network of delivery drivers, live mobile order tracking, 24/7 delivery support, and POS integrations.

Where UpMenu focuses on online ordering with marketing tools, Sauce zeroes in on delivery logistics. The flat delivery fee of $8.99 for up to 5 miles (split between restaurant and customer) means you know exactly what delivery costs before the order even comes in. There’s no percentage-based commission, so your margins stay the same whether someone orders $20 or $200.

Delivery-heavy restaurants that want to replace third-party marketplace commissions with a predictable, flat-fee delivery model. Best for restaurants doing high delivery volume where percentage-based fees eat into margins.

The best platform depends on your budget, business type, and what you actually need. Here’s a quick breakdown:

For most small to medium food businesses, the simplest path is also the most affordable. If you need an online menu and commission-free ordering without the complexity of a full POS system, Menubly gives you everything you need at $9.99/month with no order limits.

It depends on your needs and budget. For affordable online menus and ordering, Menubly offers similar ordering features at $9.99/month with unlimited orders and zero commission. For a free option, GloriaFood provides basic ordering at no cost. For a full POS system with ordering, Square for Restaurants has a free plan.

UpMenu’s Basic plan starts at $49/month with a limit of 90 orders. The Standard plan costs $89/month, and the Premium plan is $169/month. Processing fees are charged on top of the monthly subscription. Enterprise plans are available with custom pricing.

Yes. Most alternatives let you rebuild your menu quickly, and some offer migration help. Menubly provides a free menu conversion service where you can upload a PDF or photo of your existing menu and their team will digitize it for you, saving hours of manual setup.

GloriaFood is free for basic online ordering with unlimited orders and locations. If you want a paid platform with more features, Menubly starts at $9.99/month with zero commission and unlimited orders. Square for Restaurants also offers a free POS plan with online ordering.

UpMenu does not charge a per-order commission percentage. Instead, it uses a flat monthly subscription model with order caps per plan (90 orders on Basic, more on higher tiers). However, processing fees are added on top of the monthly price, and those fees can increase as your order volume grows.

For small restaurants with limited budgets, Menubly ($9.99/month, zero commission, unlimited orders) and GloriaFood (free core ordering) are the most cost-effective options. If you also need an in-person POS, Square for Restaurants offers a free plan that includes both POS and online ordering.

UpMenu is a solid platform with strong features, but its $49/month starting price with a 90-order cap makes it expensive per order for small restaurants. The 7-day trial is short, and the processing fees on top of the subscription add up.

Here are the top picks from this list:

Many small restaurants don’t need a full management platform. They need an affordable way to put their menu online, take orders, and keep 100% of their revenue. If that sounds like your restaurant, start with something simple and upgrade only when your business demands it.

Try Menubly free for 30 days — no credit card required. Create your online menu in minutes, start taking commission-free orders, and see how much you can save compared to UpMenu.