◆ Zay-OS vs ChowNow

ChowNow looks cheaper at $149. Then the per-order fees show up.

ChowNow's entry price is lower on the sticker. But they charge the restaurant a per-order fee on top of the monthly, the mobile app is extra, and marketplace orders stay on their own tablets. At 3,000 orders/mo a ChowNow operator pays roughly $3,199/mo all-in. Zay-OS stays at $499 flat.

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Quick answer

ChowNow looks cheaper at $149-$199 per month vs Zay-OS at $499 flat, but ChowNow charges the restaurant a per-order fee on top of the monthly while Zay-OS shifts the $2.99 per-order fee to the diner. At 3,000 orders per month, ChowNow all-in lands around $3,199/mo; Zay-OS stays at $499 with Otter marketplace ingestion and CRM included.

Side by side

The line-by-line difference.

ChowNow
Zay-OS
Headline monthly cost
~$149-$199/month per location for their core direct-ordering plan.
$499/month per location flat. Operator + Marketplace $599. Concierge $699 (up to 5 locations).
Per-order fee charged to the operator
Yes — ChowNow charges the restaurant a per-delivery fee on top of the monthly. The "no commission" framing only refers to a percentage take.
No fee paid by the operator. The diner pays $2.99 per order at checkout (or 10% above $29.99). Restaurant keeps 100% of food revenue.
Mobile app
Extra fee. Mobile app is upsold as a separate SKU.
PWA + branded site included on every tier. Diners can install the site to their home screen with one tap; no app store dance.
Marketplace ingestion (Uber Eats / DoorDash / Grubhub)
No — ChowNow is direct-ordering-only. You still run separate marketplace tablets.
Yes, via Otter on Operator + Marketplace ($599/mo). Every channel routes to the same kitchen tablet.
Customer CRM
Available, but the deeper CRM and marketing tools are typically an upsell or higher-tier plan.
Included on every tier. Name, email, phone, full order history, exportable. SMS + email + web push from your domain.
POS sync
Selected POS only, typically as an add-on.
Otter-deep — 25+ POS bundled into the $599 tier. Toast, Square, Clover, Lightspeed U, Revel, Aloha, Brink, HungerRush, Oracle Micros.
Contract
Annual contract standard. Cancellation typically requires written notice.
Month-to-month, every plan. Cancel any time, full data export.
You can run both in parallel during cutover

Already on ChowNow? Bring your domain and your diner list — we will migrate both.

ChowNow gives the restaurant full ownership of the customer list, exportable. Same with Zay-OS. The migration is a domain re-point and a CSV import — typically a week start to finish — and you can keep the ChowNow site live while the Zay-OS direct site is being branded and pushed.

Otter ingestion of your Uber Eats / DoorDash / Grubhub orders comes online in the same week. By the time you flip the DNS, every channel routes through the same kitchen tablet and your CRM is populated.

ChowNow keeps doing (during cutover)
  • ◆ Existing direct site stays live
  • ◆ Order history exports cleanly
  • ◆ Customer list exports as CSV
  • ◆ Month-to-month cancellation possible
Zay-OS picks up the pieces
  • ◆ Branded direct site on your domain
  • ◆ Otter ingests marketplaces on day 1
  • ◆ CSV import into the CRM, history intact
  • ◆ Same $499 flat fee, no per-order add-on
The all-in math

Per location, per month, at three volumes.

Assumes ChowNow plan at $199/mo with a $1/order operator fee (typical for direct-ordering plans). Your actual numbers may vary — run the grader.

~$2,699 vs $499
2,500 orders/mo
$35 avg ticket, single location
ChowNow: $199 monthly + $2,500 per-order. Zay-OS: $499 flat. Delta: ~$2,200/mo saved.
~$5,199 vs $499
5,000 orders/mo
$35 avg ticket, busy location
ChowNow: $199 monthly + $5,000 per-order. Zay-OS: $499 flat. Delta: ~$4,700/mo saved.
~$10,199 vs $499
10,000 orders/mo
$35 avg ticket, multi-brand
ChowNow: $199 monthly + $10,000 per-order. Zay-OS: $499 flat. Delta: ~$9,700/mo saved.
Run the free grader on your numbers →
Straight answers

ChowNow comparison questions.

Is ChowNow cheaper than Zay-OS?
On the sticker price it looks cheaper — about $149-$199 per month vs Zay-OS at $499. But ChowNow charges the restaurant a per-delivery fee on top of the monthly, and the deeper CRM, marketing, and mobile app are upsells. A restaurant doing 3,000 orders per month at even $1 per order in ChowNow operator fees pays ~$3,000/mo on top of the $199 monthly — total ~$3,199 vs Zay-OS at $499. The flat fee wins fast.
Does ChowNow really charge the restaurant per order?
ChowNow markets itself as "no commission," and they do not take a percentage of food revenue the way DoorDash or Uber Eats do. But they do charge per-order or per-delivery fees on certain plans, and add-ons (mobile app, advanced marketing, certain POS integrations) compound on top. Zay-OS structures the entire economics so the diner pays the $2.99 per-order fee, not the restaurant.
Does ChowNow ingest marketplace orders into one tablet?
No. ChowNow is a direct-ordering platform — your Uber Eats, DoorDash, and Grubhub orders still come into their own separate tablets and you still juggle the menu in three places. Zay-OS Operator + Marketplace ($599/mo) uses Otter to ingest every marketplace order into the same kitchen tablet as your direct orders.
What is included in the $499 Zay-OS Operator tier vs the cheapest ChowNow plan?
Operator at $499/mo includes the branded direct ordering site, customer CRM with SMS + email + web push, kitchen tablet, Florida SEO + GEO + Google Business setup, DAVO daily sales-tax bundling, and the operator console. ChowNow at the entry price covers the direct site and basic ordering; marketing, mobile app, advanced CRM, and marketplace coexistence are higher tiers or add-ons.
Who pays the per-order fee on Zay-OS?
The diner pays a $2.99 per-order fee at checkout, or 10% when the subtotal is over $29.99 — whichever is greater. The restaurant keeps 100% of the food revenue. We publish this on the /pricing page so neither operator nor diner is surprised.
Should multi-location operators pick ChowNow or Zay-OS?
For 2-5 locations, Zay-OS Concierge at $699/mo flat covers all of them and includes quarterly menu copy refresh and monthly marketing review. ChowNow scales per-location monthly plus per-order fees, so a 5-location operator at 3,000 orders/mo/location compounds quickly. Run grader.zay-os.com on your actual numbers — the multi-location math is where the flat fee separates hardest.
Keep reading
Zay-OS vs Owner.com →
The other major flat-fee direct-ordering category.
Zay-OS vs Slice →
Slice is pizzeria-only — Zay-OS works for every cuisine.
Zay-OS vs DoorDash →
Marketplace commission math, per volume tier.
Also: how it works · integrations · restaurant online ordering · pricing

Flat fee. No per-order surprise. No annual contract.

If ChowNow's per-order math is eating your margin, the cleanest fix is a flat fee. Run the grader to see the all-in math on your actual volume.

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