UpMenu vs ChowNow, checked by Zayos
Published July 2026 · Updated July 26, 2026
UpMenu prices by order count: $49 for 75 orders, $89 for 210, $169 unlimited, no setup fee. ChowNow prices by contact count and starts at $249 a month plus setup. Under 210 orders a month UpMenu is cheaper. ChowNow buys you a United States marketplace app.
Read off both vendor pricing pages on July 26, 2026. Sources at the bottom.
Free, 60 seconds, no card.
Which one survives my growth?
These two vendors price on completely different axes, which is why the usual side by side reads as noise. UpMenu charges you for orders. ChowNow charges you for guest contacts. So the question is not which is cheaper, it is cheaper at what.
Here is the same restaurant, walked up four rungs. ChowNow is priced at Launch billed monthly throughout, because its tier only moves when your email list grows past 500 people.
Getting started, 60 orders a month
Basic, $49. Cap is 75 orders.
Launch, $249 plus $119 to $499 setup.
UpMenu, by about $200 a month
UpMenu branding stays on your site at this tier. Removing it requires Premium.
Building, 200 orders a month
Standard, $89. Cap is 210 orders.
Launch, $249.
UpMenu, by about $160 a month
You are ten orders from the ceiling. One good weekend moves you up a tier.
Past the cap, 400 orders a month
Premium, $169. Unlimited orders.
Launch, $249.
UpMenu, by about $80 a month
Premium is also where UpMenu branding comes off and API access switches on.
Busy, 1,000 orders a month
Premium, $169. Still unlimited.
Launch, $249. Tier moves on contacts, not orders.
UpMenu, by about $80 a month
Neither one charges per order, so the gap stops widening here. It stays flat.
UpMenu publishes the caps but not what happens when you pass one. There is no overage rate on the pricing page and no stated behaviour for order 76 on Basic or order 211 on Standard.
Ask before you sign, and get the answer in writing. The difference between an automatic tier bump and a checkout that stops taking orders is the difference between a good Saturday and a very bad one.
What does the price become once I add what I need?
UpMenu unbundles and publishes every add-on, which is unusually honest and also where the cheap headline goes. ChowNow bundles more into the subscription and charges for the start.
UpMenu Premium ($169) plus the mobile app ($49), loyalty ($19), marketplace integrations ($9) and delivery services ($40) is about $286 a month. ChowNow Launch is $249 with a branded app, 20+ POS integrations and the marketplace app already inside.
So the honest summary is this: UpMenu is dramatically cheaper if you only want ordering, and slightly more expensive than ChowNow once you want everything. The branded app alone is $588 a year on UpMenu against a $99 Apple developer fee on ChowNow.
Where do I operate, and who picks up the phone?
This is the part most comparisons skip, and for a lot of restaurants it settles the question on its own.
UpMenu publishes its prices in five currencies (US dollars, pounds, euros, Swiss francs and Canadian dollars), has been operating since 2012, and lists clients in over 40 countries. Its own site runs in English and Polish. That is a genuinely international product, and if you are running a restaurant in Warsaw, Manchester or Zurich, ChowNow is simply not built for you.
ChowNow is the opposite by design. Prices in US dollars, 24/7 phone and chat support on a United States number, 20+ integrations with the point of sale systems American restaurants actually run, and a consumer marketplace app whose users are American diners. That focus is the product.
Outside North America, UpMenu wins by default. Inside it, ChowNow is buying you a demand channel that UpMenu does not have.
UpMenu vs ChowNow, line by line
Pick the one that matches your situation
Under about 200 online orders a month
$49 or $89 against a $249 floor with a setup fee on top. There is no argument to make here. A small operation should not pay $249 a month for online ordering, and UpMenu has a free trial and no contract so the downside is a few hours of your time.
Anywhere outside North America
Five published currencies, clients in over 40 countries, running since 2012. ChowNow prices in US dollars, supports on a US number and runs a US marketplace. Geography is not a tiebreak here, it is the whole decision.
United States restaurants that want the full stack
Once you add UpMenu’s mobile app, loyalty, marketplace integrations and delivery services onto Premium you are at about $286, above ChowNow’s $249 with a branded app and 20+ POS integrations included. If you were going to buy all of it anyway, buy it bundled.
Anyone who wants their own name on the app icon
A branded mobile app is $49 per location per month on UpMenu, which is $588 a year. On ChowNow it is included and you cover a $99 annual Apple developer fee. And UpMenu’s branding stays on your ordering pages until you reach Premium.
Related reading: the full ChowNow comparison, how much ChowNow costs, and the wider field of online ordering systems.
Where Zayos fits, and where it does not
Zayos is ours, so read it as such. It is $499, $599 or $699 a month per location, month to month, no setup fee. That is well above both vendors on this page, and there is no version of this comparison where we are the budget pick.
There are no order caps. No tier moves when your orders or your contact list grows, and there is no add-on menu: the price you sign is the price at 100 orders and at 5,000. 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) and the restaurant keeps 100% of food revenue and 100% of tips.
The $599 tier is the reason operators move: it pulls DoorDash, Uber Eats and Grubhub tickets onto the same kitchen tablet as your direct orders through Otter, the order aggregation layer many kitchens already run. Neither vendor here does that.
When not to pick us. If you are doing 60 online orders a month, UpMenu Basic at $49 is the right answer and we would be wasting your money. And we only operate in the United States, so if you are outside it, UpMenu is your shortlist, not us.
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 and our pricing.
The seven questions worth asking before you sign
What happens if I go over UpMenu’s order limit?
At what point does ChowNow become worth $80 more a month?
Which one is cheaper for a small restaurant?
Will my restaurant’s name be on the site, or UpMenu’s?
I am outside the United States. Does that decide it?
Which one gets me orders I would not otherwise have had?
Do I need a new point of sale for either of these?
Sources
Every figure above was read off the vendor’s own site on July 26, 2026. Prices move without notice. Confirm before you sign, and tell us if a number here has changed.
- ◆ upmenu.com/pricing · Basic $49 (75 orders), Standard $89 (210 orders), Premium $169 (unlimited); the feature list per tier including branding removal and API access on Premium; add-on pricing for the mobile app, driver app, delivery services, loyalty, marketplace integrations and POS; free setup; no contracts; free trial; a separate subscription per location; the five published currencies; no refunds and end of period cancellation.
- ◆ upmenu.com/about-us · operating since 2012, clients in over 40 countries, English and Polish site.
- ◆ get.chownow.com/pricing · Launch, Grow and Elevate 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 with matching email and SMS credits; 20+ POS integrations, fraud and chargeback protection and 24/7 phone and chat support on every tier; $250 to $420 printer hardware; the $99 annual Apple developer fee for branded mobile apps; 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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