Popmenu has three published plans: Starter at $179 a month, Essentials at $299 and Premier at $499, or $159, $269 and $449 a month if you prepay a year. Online ordering is an add-on on every plan, and Popmenu does not publish its price. Each online order also carries a flat $1 fee, which the restaurant pays or passes to guests, and card processing through Stripe is 2.9% + 30¢. On Starter, with 300 orders a month at $30, that is about $539 to $830 before the ordering add-on.
What do Popmenu’s plans cost?
Popmenu’s pricing page, read on November 12, 2026, lists these prices. An annual plan is prepaid.
| Plan | Monthly billing | Annual, per month | Saved over a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $179 | $159 | $240 |
| Essentials | $299 | $269 | $360 |
| Premier | $499 | $449 | $600 |
| Build your own (custom, one or many locations) | Ask sales | Ask sales |
Starter is the website: search-friendly pages, an interactive menu, Google Business Profile sync, guest contact collection, automated email, dish reviews and an event calendar. Essentials adds mass email, social posting, 500 text messages and six AI-written emails and social posts a month. Premier adds 5,000 texts, audience segmentation, a waitlist and reservations, guest feedback, review management, and gift cards, loyalty and offers. Popmenu says you can switch plans at any time without a penalty, and multi-location groups get tiered savings.
Is online ordering included in Popmenu’s price?
No. In the plan comparison table, the online ordering suite (direct ordering, catering, in-house and DoorDash delivery, curbside pickup) is marked “Add-on” on Starter, Essentials and Premier alike. Popmenu’s pages give no price for it, so ask for one in writing before you sign.
Popmenu does publish what it takes per order:
| Fee | Amount | Who pays |
|---|---|---|
| Standard ordering fee, each pickup or delivery order (DoorDash deliveries included) | $1.00 flat | Restaurant or guest, the restaurant’s choice |
| Specialty ordering fee, catering and event orders | 3% of the subtotal | Restaurant or guest, the restaurant’s choice |
| Card processing on Stripe | 2.9% + 30¢ | Restaurant, unless it sets up a pass-through in Stripe |
| DoorDash delivery, 0 to 3 miles | $6.99, up to $10.49 past 9 miles | Guest, unless the restaurant subsidizes it |
| DoorDash regulatory response fee, California | $2.00 | Charged by DoorDash in California |
Popmenu calls this commission-free, and on a standard order it takes no percentage of the food. Because the $1 is flat, it costs more on small tickets: 3.3% of a $30 order and 2% of a $50 one. A $500 catering order carries a $15 fee.
How does Popmenu collect the $1?
That depends on how the restaurant takes payments. On Stripe or Square, Popmenu withholds the fee from each order; its help center’s example is a $15 order where the restaurant receives $14. On a POS such as Toast or Clover, the restaurant collects the whole payment and Popmenu bills the card on file for its fees, daily, weekly or monthly. If you pass the $1 to guests on a POS, Popmenu still bills you for it, because the guest’s dollar went to you.
Popmenu’s help article on processing lists Square at 2.6% + 15¢ for online orders. Square’s own pricing lists 2.6% + 15¢ as its in-person rate on the Free plan and 3.3% + 30¢ for online payments, as our Square online ordering costs post shows. Ask Square which rate applies to orders that come through Popmenu.
Do guests see Popmenu’s $1 fee?
We built two carts at Breakfast Brothers in Arlington, Texas, the restaurant Popmenu shows on its own online ordering page, and stopped at checkout without paying. One order of catfish and grits came to $18.00, plus a $1.00 line labeled “Pop Menu Pick up Orders” and $1.49 of tax. Two orders came to $36.00, with the same $1.00 line and $2.97 of tax.
The line stayed at $1.00 when the food doubled, and the tax matched the food alone, so the dollar was not taxed. That fits Popmenu’s flat fee passed to guests, though the checkout does not call it a fee. A 20% tip was selected by default at checkout, $7.20 on the $36 cart. We checked one restaurant; others may pay the fee themselves.
What does a month of Popmenu orders cost?
Say a restaurant on Starter, billed monthly, takes 300 online pickup orders a month at $30, or $9,000, and pays by Stripe. We leave tax and tip out of the order total to keep the numbers simple, although card fees apply to the whole payment. When guests pay the $1, it is part of the card payment, so Stripe’s 2.9% applies to it too. The ordering add-on has no published price, so it is not in the table.
| Cost | Restaurant pays the $1 | Guests pay the $1 |
|---|---|---|
| Stripe processing, 2.9% of the payments plus 300 x 30¢ | $351.00 on $9,000 | $359.70 on $9,300 |
| Popmenu ordering fee, 300 x $1 | $300.00 | $0 |
| Starter plan, monthly | $179.00 | $179.00 |
| Restaurant’s monthly total, before the ordering add-on | $830.00 | $538.70 |
| Paid by guests | $0 | $300.00 |
Prepaying Starter for a year takes $20 a month off both totals: $810.00 and $518.70. On Premier, billed monthly, the same orders cost $1,150.00 or $858.70 before the add-on.
Is Popmenu worth it?
If you want a restaurant website, email and text marketing and reviews from one company, Popmenu prices that openly. Starter at $159 to $179 a month costs less than Owner.com’s $249 entry plan, although Owner includes ordering. Our Owner.com pricing post covers that bundle, and our BentoBox pricing post covers one that now needs a Clover POS.
The $1 fee is cheap next to a marketplace. DoorDash takes 15% to 30% of a delivery order and 6% of a pickup order, as our DoorDash fees for restaurants post shows, and $1 on a $30 order is 3.3%. The ordering add-on is the price Popmenu does not publish. Get it in writing, and ask whether it needs an annual term, before you compare Popmenu with anything else.
If all you need is an ordering page, a $179 website plan plus an add-on of unknown price is a lot to pay for one. Our comparison of online ordering systems prices the ordering-only options.
Where Expresso fits
Expresso builds no website and does no email or text marketing, so if you want Popmenu for those, Expresso does not replace it. Expresso has no delivery and no loyalty program; promo codes are its only discount.
Expresso gives you an ordering link for pickup, curbside, scheduled and table orders, which you can put on any website, your Google profile or a QR code, and orders ring on a kitchen tablet of its own ($149 once). There is no monthly fee and no contract. The restaurant pays card processing of 3.2% + 30¢ on the order total, and guests pay a 2.5% convenience fee on the food subtotal, shown at checkout with the tax. On the same 300 orders at $30, before tax and tip, that is about $385 a month to the restaurant and $225 in guest fees.
Against Popmenu Starter with guests paying the $1, Expresso’s $385 is about $154 a month less than the $538.70 above, and its guests pay $75 less. That leaves out Popmenu’s ordering add-on, which has no published price, and Expresso’s $149 tablet, paid once. On orders under $40, Expresso’s 2.5% is smaller than Popmenu’s flat $1; above $40 it is larger.
Take orders online without a monthly fee
Expresso gives your restaurant its own ordering page, QR codes for every table and a kitchen tablet. No monthly fee and no contract: card processing of 3.2% + 30¢ per order.
Request a demo →