Online ordering systems for restaurants: costs compared

An online ordering system gives your restaurant its own page where guests order and pay, and sends each order to your kitchen. Most of them charge no commission per order. They make their money from a monthly subscription, a per-order fee, card processing, or some mix of the three. On the prices they published on October 14, 2026, a restaurant taking 400 online orders a month at $30 each would pay $504 on Expresso, $516 on Square’s free plan, $699 on ChowNow’s Launch plan and $849 plus card processing on Owner.com’s Flex plan.

What an online ordering system does

Guests open a link from your website, your Google profile or Instagram, pick items and options, and pay by card. The order lands on a tablet or your POS with a pickup time, and the guest gets a confirmation. Some systems add delivery through a courier network, a branded app, email and text marketing, or table ordering by QR code.

DoorDash and Uber Eats work differently. They are marketplaces: guests find you inside their app, and they take a commission on each order. On your own ordering page the guest orders from you, you keep the customer list, and the system’s fee is usually flat.

What does an online ordering system cost?

Prices are from each company’s own site on October 14, 2026.

DoorDash Storefront is only open to restaurants with an active DoorDash store. Toast’s online ordering page sends existing Toast customers to add it from their account, and everyone else to a demo or Toast’s main pricing page.

What 400 orders a month costs on each

Say a restaurant gets 400 online orders a month with an average ticket of $30, so $12,000 in online sales. This is what each system with a published rate would cost it, before setup fees and hardware.

Menufy ($149 or $179), Owner.com’s Flat plan ($499) and DoorDash Storefront ($0) would add card processing at rates their pages do not list, so we left them out of the totals.

At this volume the systems without a monthly fee cost the least, and the gap grows the fewer orders you take: at 100 orders a month, ChowNow’s $229 subscription is $2.29 an order before processing. The subscription systems include more for the money, such as a website, marketing emails and texts, and a loyalty program. If you would use those, compare them against what you pay for the same tools today.

Which one fits your restaurant?

• You already run Square or Toast. Start with their own online ordering. Orders land in the POS you have, and Square Free adds no monthly fee.
• You get most of your delivery orders from DoorDash. DoorDash Storefront adds commission-free ordering from your own site, with DoorDash drivers doing the delivery.
• You want a website and marketing tools in the same bill. Owner.com and Menufy bundle them, and so does ChowNow, with features that vary by plan. Expect $149 to $499 a month.
• You want pickup and table ordering with no monthly fee and no new POS. Expresso fits here. GloriaFood does too if guests pay when they pick up; taking cards online costs $29 a month plus your gateway’s fees.

Questions to ask before you sign

• Is there a contract, and what does leaving cost? Menufy’s $149 price needs a 12-month agreement.
• Who pays card processing, and at what rate? Several pricing pages leave it out.
• Does the guest pay a fee at checkout? It changes what your menu really costs them.
• Is there a setup fee or hardware to buy? ChowNow lists $119 to $499 for setup and $250 to $420 for a printer.
• Who owns the guest list, and can you export it?
• Do you need delivery? Some systems only do pickup.

Where Expresso fits

Expresso is online ordering for independent restaurants that want their own ordering page and no monthly fee. Guests order pickup, curbside or scheduled orders from your link, or scan a QR code at the table and pay there. Orders ring on a kitchen tablet ($149 once) and can print on a Star Micronics printer. Card processing is 3.2% + 30¢ per order, guests pay a 2.5% convenience fee shown at checkout, and payouts go to your bank every week.

Every order is placed and paid online by the guest, so Expresso works alongside your POS rather than replacing it. It has no delivery drivers and no loyalty program; promo codes are its discount tool. If you need delivery or a managed website, one of the subscription systems above covers more.