Ghost kitchens have two software problems. Zayos ranks the tools for each.
Published July 2026 · Updated October 4, 2026
Most ghost kitchens should buy aggregation before direct ordering. Cuboh publishes $119 to $229 a month with unlimited virtual concepts. Otter has the widest channel network, and Deliverect fits multi-country estates. Direct platforms such as Zayos pay off later, once diners know the brand name.
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Source for the prices and rates in this section: Cuboh pricing, read 4 Oct 2026. A company can change them; its own page is what counts.
Which problem are you actually buying software for?
Get every brand and channel onto one screen
A four-brand kitchen on three marketplaces is twelve menus and, without middleware, several tablets. This is the expensive problem: it costs labor every shift, it produces wrong tickets, and it is why aggregation software exists. Solve this first. It is also where the published pricing in this category actually lives.
Own a channel the marketplaces cannot reprice
A direct ordering site turns a marketplace customer into your customer. That is real, and it is also the job most ghost kitchens should do second, because a delivery-only brand has no walk-by traffic to convert. You need a name people already type before a direct site earns its subscription.
We sell a job two product, so we put four job one platforms above it. Every price below was read off the vendor’s own pricing page. Two of the six publish no price at all, which is itself a finding.
Six platforms, ordered by what a delivery-only kitchen needs first.
Cuboh
Best published fit for multi-brandThe multi-brand ghost kitchen that wants a number before a sales call. Cuboh publishes its price, includes unlimited virtual concepts on every tier, and includes multi-location management, which is the exact shape of a commissary running brands out of one line. It is the cleanest published fit in the category.
Published on cuboh.com/pricing, read 2026-07-26: Low-Volume $119/month for up to $20k a month in online ordering revenue, Mid-Volume $169/month for $20k to $30k, High-Volume $229/month above $30k. Unlimited virtual concepts, unlimited ordering platforms, multi-location management and an onboarding specialist are on all three tiers. Cancel anytime. Enterprise pricing is custom.
Pricing is banded by revenue, so a good month can move your tier. It is aggregation and menu sync, not a direct storefront, so it does nothing about who owns the customer.
Otter
Widest channel networkThe kitchen that needs the broadest set of marketplace integrations and one tablet that also acts as the POS. Otter is the default name in this category, and we should disclose that it is the ingestion layer we use ourselves: Zayos Operator + Tablet pulls DoorDash, Uber Eats and Grubhub tickets in through Otter. Judge it on its own terms anyway.
Published on tryotter.com/pricing, read 4 Oct 2026: Otter lists three bundles, Starter at $79, Advanced at $178 and Professional at $278 per location a month. Its product line covers the POS terminal, Order Manager, online ordering, QR ordering and a website builder, so check which bundle carries which. A transaction fee applies on top and its amount is not published.
The unpublished transaction fee is the thing you must get in writing, because on a delivery-only kitchen every order carries it. Setup fees and contract terms are not published either.
Deliverect
Scale and multi-countryGhost kitchen operators running many sites, several countries, or a franchise estate. Deliverect is built for that scale and sells accordingly, and if you are integrating a POS estate across markets it belongs on your shortlist ahead of the smaller tools here.
Not published. Deliverect states on its own US pricing page that cost depends on location, the scale of your digital operations, number of locations and which product you choose, and directs buyers to book a call (accessed 2026-07-26). No tiers, order bands, setup fees or contract lengths are disclosed publicly.
You cannot budget it from the website, which is a real cost when you are modelling a new brand launch. For a single-site kitchen with brands it is more platform than the problem needs.
Chowly
POS-first integrationKitchens whose priority is getting marketplace tickets injected into an existing POS rather than onto a new tablet. If your accounting, inventory and labor already run off the POS, keeping every order inside it is worth a lot, and that is what Chowly sells.
Not published. Chowly shows no price on its own site. It publishes its terms and conditions there, which describe a one-time setup fee per location, a monthly fee per location billed in advance, a monthly minimum per location, and separate per-order terms for its Google Ordering channel. Read those terms and get the actual numbers in a written quote.
A monthly minimum in the terms is a floor, not a price, and the actual per-location monthly fee is quoted, not published. Read the Google Ordering terms carefully before you turn that channel on.
Zayos
When the brand is already known locallyThe commissary or virtual brand operator whose customers already know the name, usually because there is a physical restaurant behind the brand. Concierge at $599 covers up to five virtual brands per kitchen, direct orders and Otter-ingested marketplace tickets share one kitchen tablet, and the customer record stays in an account you can export.
Published on /pricing: $399/month Operator, $499/month Operator + Tablet, $599/month Concierge, per location, month to month, no setup fee. The restaurant pays $0 per order and keeps 100% of food revenue, and 100% of tips on pickup and dine-in. On delivery the tip goes to the driver. The diner pays a flat service fee: $0.99 pickup, $0.99 delivery, $0 dine-in, 10% on catering.
We build it, and for a pure delivery-only brand with no local recognition it is the wrong first purchase. A direct site with no audience takes no orders. It is also the youngest option here: one restaurant is live and taking orders today, Naya Grill in Pompano Beach, with more restaurants are live on Zayos and taking direct orders.
Square Online
Cheapest way to test direct demandThe kitchen that wants to find out whether anyone will order direct before paying a subscription to find out. A free ordering page and a QR code in the delivery bag is a real experiment, and it costs nothing but processing.
Square lists Square Free at $0, Square Plus at $49 and Square Premium at $149 per location a month, with online card payments at 3.3% + 30 cents on Free and 2.9% + 30 cents on Plus and Premium (Square's own pricing page, read 4 Oct 2026).
It does nothing for job one. No marketplace aggregation, no virtual brand management, no menu sync across channels, and processing on the free plan is the highest online rate in this roundup.
Sources for the prices and rates in this section: Otter pricing; Square pricing and plans, read 4 Oct 2026. A company can change them; its own page is what counts.
What does each one publish, and what does it hide?
The four axes that decide a ghost kitchen deal: the price, whether extra brands cost extra, whether there is a per-order fee, and what you are signing.
| Platform | Job it solves | Price | Extra brands | Per-order fee | Contract |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cuboh | Aggregation | $119 to $229/mo, published, banded by online revenue | Unlimited virtual concepts included | None published | Cancel anytime |
| Otter | Aggregation plus POS | $79, $178 or $278/mo per location, published | Not published | Transaction fee, amount not published | Not published |
| Deliverect | Aggregation | Not published, quote only | Not published | Not published | Not published |
| Chowly | Aggregation into POS | Not published, quote only | Not published | Not published | Per onboarding form |
| Zayos | Direct channel plus ingestion | $399 to $599/mo flat per location | Up to 5 virtual brands per kitchen on Concierge | $0 to the restaurant, diner pays a flat $0.99 | Month to month, no setup fee |
| Square Online | Direct channel only | $0 to $149/mo per location | Not applicable | 3.3% or 2.9% + 30 cents processing | Month to month |
Figures reflect each vendor’s own pricing page. Where a cell says not published, the vendor did not disclose it publicly and we declined to estimate.
Sources for the prices and rates in this section: Otter pricing; Square pricing and plans, read 4 Oct 2026. A company can change them; its own page is what counts.
When is direct ordering a bad idea for a ghost kitchen?
When the brand exists only inside a marketplace app. A virtual brand invented last quarter has no sign, no regulars and no reason for anyone to search its name, so a direct ordering site is a door in a field. The commission you are trying to escape is, for that brand, a customer acquisition cost you are genuinely paying for.
Direct ordering starts working the moment a name is worth typing. That usually means a physical restaurant behind the kitchen, a delivery bag people recognise, or a repeat list you built deliberately with inserts and QR codes. Until then, spend on aggregation, keep the tickets clean, and treat the marketplace fee as rent on demand you have not built yet. When you do cross that line, the arithmetic is unforgiving in the other direction: a 25% blended take on $16,900 of monthly volume is $4,225 a month, against $399 to $599 flat for a direct platform. Check it against your own numbers with the free AI report or the commission calculator.
Ghost kitchen software, answered.
What is the best online ordering software for a ghost kitchen?
Should a ghost kitchen build a direct ordering site at all?
How much does ghost kitchen ordering software cost per month?
How many virtual brands can one kitchen realistically run?
Does a ghost kitchen still pay marketplace commission with an aggregator?
What breaks first in a multi-brand kitchen?
Sources for the prices and rates in this section: Cuboh pricing; Otter pricing, read 4 Oct 2026. A company can change them; its own page is what counts.
Sources
- Cuboh pricing page. Low-Volume $119/month up to $20k monthly online revenue, Mid-Volume $169/month for $20k to $30k, High-Volume $229/month above $30k, unlimited virtual concepts and multi-location management on all tiers, cancel anytime (accessed July 26, 2026).
- Otter pricing page. Starter $79, Advanced $178 and Professional $278 per location a month, transaction fee applies with the amount not published (read 4 Oct 2026).
- Deliverect US pricing page. Confirms pricing is not published and depends on location, scale of digital operations, number of locations and product selected (accessed July 26, 2026).
- Chowly terms and conditions. Where Chowly publishes its setup fee, monthly fee, monthly minimum and Google Ordering terms. No price is shown on its site, so none is restated here.
- Square pricing and plans. Free $0, Plus $49, Premium $149 per location a month, online card payments 3.3% + 30 cents on Free and 2.9% + 30 cents on Plus and Premium (read 4 Oct 2026).
- Zayos pricing. The $399, $499 and $599 per location tiers, up to five virtual brands per kitchen on Concierge, no setup fee, and the diner-paid service fee.
Where a vendor publishes no price we say so rather than estimating. Vendors change plans, so confirm current terms, per-order fees and contract length in writing before signing.
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