Menufy vs ChowNow, checked by Zayos
Published July 2026 · Updated July 26, 2026
Menufy is $149 a month on a twelve month agreement or $179 month to month, with no per order commission to the restaurant. ChowNow starts at $249 a month plus a $119 to $499 setup fee. The real split is who pays at checkout.
Read off both vendor sites on July 26, 2026. Sources at the bottom.
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Who pays the per order fee, me or my customer?
Both vendors are flat fee, commission free platforms. That sounds like the same deal. It is not, and the difference sits at your diner’s checkout screen rather than on your invoice.
Menufy: cheaper invoice, a fee your diner may see
Menufy’s pricing page is clean: $149 a month on a 12 month agreement or $179 month to month, the full platform on both, and the words “no per-order commissions”. It says nothing about card processing and nothing about a fee at checkout.
Menufy’s own help centre fills that gap. It describes a customer convenience fee charged directly to the customer, alongside a card transaction rate, and says the restaurant can absorb the fee or set a minimum order above which it is waived.
That article was written under Menufy’s earlier free website model, so we are not going to state a current figure. Ask for the exact diner facing fee on your menu, in dollars, in writing.
ChowNow: higher invoice, everything on one page
ChowNow publishes every charge it makes in one place: the subscription, a $119 to $499 setup fee, 2.95% + $0.29 per transaction, $250 to $420 for a printer, $99 a year for the Apple developer account behind a branded app, and $7.98 per order for Flex Delivery.
All of it lands on the restaurant. No diner facing platform fee appears on the pricing page.
You pay more per month. In exchange, nothing shows up on a customer receipt that you did not put there, which matters more than owners expect when a regular calls to ask what the extra dollar was.
A platform fee does not disappear when it moves to the diner. It moves to the part of the transaction you cannot see on your own invoice.
What is the gap on my invoice, in dollars?
Card processing sits within a fraction of a cent per order on both sides, so it cancels out. This is platform cost only, one location.
Menufy’s annual plan saves roughly $1,300 to $1,700 in year one against ChowNow Launch, and neither number moves when your order count does.
But that saving is only the whole story if Menufy is not charging your customers a fee you have not asked about. Get the diner facing number first, multiply it by your monthly orders, and put it in this table before you decide. On 1,000 orders, a $1 convenience fee is $12,000 a year coming out of your customers’ pockets on your menu.
What do I run out of on each one?
ChowNow’s three tiers are gated on marketing, not orders. Launch gives you 500 contacts. Grow gives 2,000 contacts plus 2,000 email and SMS credits at $349. Elevate gives 5,000 and 5,000 at $449. So your bill rises when your guest list grows, which is exactly when a guest list starts being worth something.
Menufy has no tiers at all. Its pricing page states: every plan comes with the full platform, no tiers, no add-ons, no surprises. Loyalty, coupons, automated email and text marketing, AI assisted Google review replies, SEO, Google listing management, cloud analytics and a dedicated success manager are all listed as included on both plans.
On paper, a restaurant with 4,000 email contacts pays Menufy $149 and ChowNow $449 for the same list.
What ChowNow gives back for that is enumerated integration depth: 20+ point of sale systems listed as included on every tier, a branded mobile app in your own name, and a consumer marketplace app. Menufy runs its own consumer portal and app too, so both have a discovery channel; ChowNow is the one that also puts your restaurant’s name on an app icon.
Menufy vs ChowNow, line by line
Which one should I sign?
Single location owners optimising the invoice
$149 a month on the annual plan, the entire platform with no tiers, free equipment, no setup fee, and a dedicated success manager. Against ChowNow Launch that is roughly $1,300 to $1,700 saved in year one. Take the win, but confirm the diner facing fee in writing first.
Anyone with a big email list and a small budget
ChowNow charges you for guest contacts. At 4,000 contacts you are on Elevate at $449 a month. Menufy publishes no contact cap and charges the same $149 either way. If you have spent years building a list, this is a $3,600 a year difference.
Owners who refuse to put a fee on a customer’s receipt
Every ChowNow charge is on the restaurant and every one of them is published on one page. If you have spent years telling regulars that ordering direct is cheaper than the apps, you do not want a convenience fee undermining that at checkout. This is a real reason to pay $100 more a month.
Restaurants that need the POS to match, and want their own app
20+ point of sale integrations listed as included on every tier, plus a branded mobile app under your own name for a $99 a year Apple developer fee. Menufy does not enumerate POS integrations on its pricing page. If your tickets have to land in your register automatically, ask both for the specific integration by name before you sign.
Related: the full ChowNow comparison, how much ChowNow costs, and how to choose an online ordering system.
Where Zayos fits, and where it does not
We build Zayos, so treat this as the interested party it is. It is $499, $599 or $699 a month per location, month to month, no setup fee. That is more than both vendors on this page and we are not going to pretend it is not.
On the question this page is about, we answer it out loud rather than in a help article. The restaurant pays nothing per order. The diner pays a flat service fee at checkout: $0.99 pickup, $2.99 delivery, $0 dine in, 10% on catering. Those exact numbers are on our public pricing page and they do not change by menu. The restaurant keeps 100% of food revenue and 100% of tips.
What the higher price buys is scope. At $599 your DoorDash, Uber Eats and Grubhub tickets come onto the same kitchen tablet as your direct orders through Otter, the order aggregation layer many kitchens already run. Neither Menufy nor ChowNow does that.
When not to pick us. If you want the lowest possible monthly line and you are fine with a convenience fee at checkout, Menufy at $149 is cheaper than us and will stay cheaper. Say so and we will not argue.
Naya Grill in Pompano Beach and West Palm Beach is the restaurant live and taking orders on Zayos today, keeping over $48,000 a year that used to go to marketplace commissions. Seven more storefronts are built, with ordering opening at each launch. We are a Fort Lauderdale, Florida company. See what Zayos is, our pricing and how it works.
The questions to ask both sales reps
Which one costs my restaurant less per month?
If Menufy is cheaper for me, is somebody else paying for it?
Does ChowNow charge my customers anything at checkout?
What actually gets more expensive as I grow?
Is the 12 month Menufy agreement worth $30 a month?
Which one is better if I want fewer things to manage?
Do either of them reduce what DoorDash charges me?
Sources
Every figure above was read off the vendor’s own site on July 26, 2026. Where a vendor does not publish a number, this page says so instead of guessing.
- ◆ restaurant.menufy.com/pricing · $149 a month on a 12 month agreement with free equipment, $179 month to month with no agreement and no penalty, “no per-order commissions”, and the statement that every plan comes with the full platform with no tiers and no add-ons.
- ◆ support.menufy.com · the customer convenience fee, the option for the restaurant to absorb it or waive it above a minimum order, and a 2.75% + $0.30 card transaction rate. This article predates the current paid plans, which is why no current dollar figure is stated on this page.
- ◆ menufy.com · the consumer ordering portal and app, and the payment methods offered to diners.
- ◆ get.chownow.com/pricing · Launch, Grow and Elevate prices on monthly and annual billing, the $119 to $499 setup fee, 2.95% + $0.29 per transaction, contact caps of 500 / 2,000 / 5,000, 20+ POS integrations, printer hardware $250 to $420, the $99 annual Apple developer fee, Flex Delivery at $7.98 per order.
- ◆ get.chownow.com cancellation policy · the cancellation form plus consultation call requirement.
Zayos is a product of Zay Revenue Group, LLC of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and competes with both vendors named here. We publish their own numbers and link to them so you can check us.
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More head to head reads on the comparison hub · ChowNow alternatives