Best online ordering systems for restaurants: a fair comparison

Published July 2026 · Updated October 4, 2026

The best online ordering system for a restaurant depends on what you already run. Toast or Square ordering suits restaurants on those registers. Owner.com, ChowNow and Zayos suit independents who want their own branded site. Olo suits large chains. Compare pricing model, customer data, contract and POS fit.

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How do the main online ordering systems for restaurants compare?

Eight systems and the delivery marketplaces, on the six things an owner signs for. We build Zayos, so it is listed last and its limits are in the table. Competitor prices are shown only where that company's own pricing page showed them on 4 Oct 2026.

System Pricing model Commission Who owns the customer data Contract POS fit Best for, and the limit
Owner.com $249 a month plus a 5% restaurant fee per order, or $499 a month flat. Guests pay a 5% order support fee. Source: Owner.com pricing, https://www.owner.com/pricing, read 4 Oct 2026. 5% per order on the lower plan, none on the flat plan. The guest pays 5% on both. The restaurant, for orders on its own site. Ask how the list exports. Month to month, per its pricing page. Confirm your POS with Owner.com before you sign. Independents who want a website, ordering and marketing handled in one subscription. The guest fee is a percentage, so it grows with the ticket. Card processing rates are not on its pricing page.
ChowNow Three plans from $229 to $449 a month depending on plan and annual or monthly billing, a setup fee of $119 to $499, and 2.95% + $0.29 per transaction. Source: ChowNow pricing, https://get.chownow.com/pricing/, read 4 Oct 2026. No percentage commission is listed. Card processing applies on every order. The restaurant, for orders on its own site and app. Annual or monthly billing. Terms are not stated on its pricing page. Confirm your POS with ChowNow before you sign. Independents who want direct ordering with a published price list. The setup fee and per-transaction processing sit on top of the subscription.
Toast Online Ordering Toast publishes its current pricing at https://pos.toasttab.com/pricing. Online ordering is sold as part of a Toast plan. Check the plan you are quoted. Toast runs the card processing. The restaurant, inside its Toast account. Set in your Toast agreement. Toast POS only. It is the built-in option for Toast restaurants. Restaurants already on Toast that want one menu and one vendor. It does not run without Toast hardware and Toast payments.
Square Online Square lists a Free plan at $0 a month and paid plans above it. Paid plan prices and processing rates are published at https://squareup.com/us/en/pricing. Source: Square pricing, https://squareup.com/us/en/pricing, read 4 Oct 2026. No commission on your own Square site. You pay card processing. The restaurant, inside its Square account. Check Square's terms for the plan you pick. Square POS. It is the built-in option for Square restaurants. New or low-volume restaurants that want the lowest fixed cost to start. It is a general store builder. Check it has the restaurant features you need.
BentoBox BentoBox does not publish pricing; it quotes per restaurant (https://www.getbento.com/pricing/, read 4 Oct 2026). Ask for every per-order fee in writing with the quote. The restaurant, for orders on its own site. Set in the quote. Confirm your POS with BentoBox before you sign. Restaurants where the website design comes first and ordering is added to it. You cannot price it from the website.
Popmenu Popmenu publishes its current pricing at https://get.popmenu.com/pricing. Ask whether online ordering is included in your plan or added to it. The restaurant, for orders on its own site. Set in your Popmenu agreement. Confirm your POS with Popmenu before you sign. Restaurants that are buying marketing tools and a website first, ordering second. Ordering is one part of a marketing product, so check the total for your setup.
Olo Olo does not publish pricing; it quotes per brand after a demo (https://www.olo.com/, read 4 Oct 2026). Set in the quote. Ask for per-order and per-module fees in writing. The brand. Set in the quote. Built to connect to the POS systems large chains run. Multi-unit chains with an IT team and many locations. The sales process and the integration work are sized for chains, not one to five locations.
Delivery marketplaces (DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grubhub) No monthly fee in most cases. 15% to 30% base commission per order; 25% to 35% blended real cost once delivery, marketing and processing fees stack. 15% to 30% base commission on each order. The marketplace. The diner is its customer, not yours. Varies by app and plan. Through an aggregator such as Otter, or the app tablet. Being found by diners who do not know your restaurant yet. The cost is a share of every order, and you cannot market to the diner afterwards.
Zayos (we build it) $399 Operator, $499 Operator + Tablet, $599 Concierge, per location per month. No setup fee. None. The diner pays a flat $0.99 service fee on pickup and delivery, $0 dine-in, 10% on catering. The restaurant. The customer list is yours. Month to month, no contract. Orders inject into Clover, Square or Shift4. Toast works; Toast bills its own $50 a month integration fee. Independents and small groups that want their own ordering site and, on the $499 Operator + Tablet plan, marketplace orders on the same kitchen tablet. A young company. Ordering sites are English only. No branded mobile app.

Vendors change plans. Confirm current terms with each one before you sign. For a head-to-head, see all Zayos comparisons.

Source for the prices and rates in this section: Square pricing and plans, read 4 Oct 2026. A company can change them; its own page is what counts.

How should a restaurant choose an online ordering system?

Start with six questions. How is it priced: a flat monthly fee, a percentage of each order, or both? Is there a commission on your own direct orders? Who owns the customer list? Is there a contract? Does it send orders into your POS (point of sale, your register)? Who is it built for?

A flat fee costs the same in a slow month and a busy one. A percentage grows with your sales. Work out both at your own order volume before you compare feature lists.

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Which online ordering system is best if you already have a POS?

If you run Toast and you are happy with it, Toast Online Ordering is the simple choice: one menu, one vendor. The same is true of Square Online for a Square restaurant. Neither needs a second system.

Look at a separate ordering system when you want your own domain and brand, when you want marketing tools the register does not have, or when you want marketplace orders on the same screen as direct orders. Zayos sends direct orders into Clover, Square or Shift4 at no extra cost.

What POS integration means for a restaurant

What does a restaurant online ordering system cost?

Published prices differ widely. Owner.com is $249 a month plus 5% per order, or $499 a month flat (Source: Owner.com pricing, https://www.owner.com/pricing, read 4 Oct 2026). ChowNow plans run $229 to $449 a month plus a $119 to $499 setup fee and 2.95% + $0.29 per transaction (Source: ChowNow pricing, https://get.chownow.com/pricing/, read 4 Oct 2026). Square lists a Free plan at $0 a month (Source: Square pricing, https://squareup.com/us/en/pricing, read 4 Oct 2026). Zayos is $399 to $599 per location per month.

BentoBox and Olo do not publish pricing. Toast and Popmenu publish theirs on their own pricing pages, linked in the table above. Card processing applies on every system, including ours.

Zayos pricing

Where does Zayos fit, and what are its limits?

Zayos is commission-free online ordering on the restaurant's own branded site, built by Zay Revenue Group in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The restaurant keeps 100% of food revenue, and 100% of tips on pickup and dine-in. On delivery the tip goes to the driver.

The limits are real. Zayos is a young company. Ordering sites are English only. Automations such as win-back and birthday run by email. There is no branded mobile app. If any of those is a requirement, another system on this list fits better.

Restaurants are live on Zayos and taking direct orders today, including Farooj Abo Alabed and Bella Roma NY Pizza. We get you live in under a week.

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Source for the prices and rates in this section: Square pricing and plans, read 4 Oct 2026. A company can change them; its own page is what counts.

What else do owners ask about online ordering systems?

What is the best online ordering system for a small restaurant?
For a single independent restaurant the short list is the ordering built into your register (Toast or Square), or a direct ordering site such as Owner.com, ChowNow or Zayos. Pick by total monthly cost at your order volume, who owns the customer list, and whether orders reach your POS.

Which online ordering systems charge no commission?
Zayos charges no commission on any plan. Owner.com's $499 flat plan has no restaurant fee per order, while its $249 plan adds 5% per order (Source: Owner.com pricing, https://www.owner.com/pricing, read 4 Oct 2026). ChowNow lists a subscription plus 2.95% + $0.29 per transaction (Source: ChowNow pricing, https://get.chownow.com/pricing/, read 4 Oct 2026). Check every system for per-order and guest fees.

Do restaurants own their customer data on these systems?
On a direct ordering system the customer ordered from your site, so the list belongs to the restaurant. Ask each vendor how it exports. On a delivery marketplace the diner is the marketplace's customer, and you cannot email or text them afterwards.

Is the best online ordering system the cheapest one?
No. A $0 plan with a percentage on every order can cost more than a flat plan once your volume grows. Compare the yearly total at your real order count and average ticket, then weigh what each system includes.

Should a restaurant leave the delivery apps for a direct ordering system?
Most restaurants keep the apps for new diners and move regulars to their own site. The apps charge a 15% to 30% base commission. A direct order on a flat plan costs the restaurant no commission.

Why is Zayos on a list that Zayos wrote?
Because owners searching for the best online ordering system should see it next to the others, with its limits stated. It is listed last, it is not ranked first, and every competitor price on this page comes from that company's own pricing page with the link shown.

Where do the competitor prices on this page come from?

Related: what an online ordering system for restaurants is, commission-free online ordering, Owner.com pricing, Toast online ordering alternatives, DoorDash alternatives.

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