ezCater alternatives for a real catering program, Zayos included.
Published July 2026 · Updated July 26, 2026
ezCater charges catering partners a 15% commission on Marketplace orders plus a 2.99% payment transaction fee, and 7% plus 2.99% on ezOrdering orders taken from your own site. Alternatives split into two jobs: replacing the demand, and replacing the software. Both paths are priced below, Zayos included.
What does ezCater charge a catering partner?
Two rates, depending on where the order came from, per ezCater’s Catering Partner Help Center. There is no signup fee and no monthly fee, and payment arrives in the weekly payout, both of which are genuinely operator friendly and worth saying before the criticism starts.
| Channel | Commission | Transaction fee | What it excludes |
|---|---|---|---|
| ezCater Marketplace | 15% commission | 2.99% payment transaction fee | Commission excludes voluntary tips and taxes. Transaction fee excludes voluntary tips. |
| ezOrdering (your own site) | 7% commission | 2.99% payment transaction fee | Commission excludes voluntary tips and taxes. Transaction fee excludes voluntary tips. |
Marketplace: $75 commission plus $14.95 transaction fee, about $89.95, roughly 18% of the order before food cost. ezOrdering: $35 plus $14.95, about $49.95. On a flat fee direct platform where the customer pays the service fee, the kitchen keeps the full $500. Those three lines are the whole argument on this page.
What are you actually paying ezCater for?
ezCater sells two things in one invoice, and only one of them is easy to replace. Getting this distinction right is the difference between saving money and losing a channel.
It brings you corporate buyers you would not have found
This is the part operators underestimate until they leave. ezCater sells to office managers, executive assistants and procurement teams with expense accounts, recurring meetings and a preference for a single invoice. That audience does not find you through Instagram. If a large share of your catering revenue is first time buyers who found you on the Marketplace, you are paying 15% for customer acquisition, and customer acquisition at 15% is not obviously a bad deal.
It runs the catering software: quotes, headcounts, delivery windows, invoices
The ordering flow, the lead times, the per person maths, the delivery instructions, the receipts. This is the replaceable half. Any competent catering ordering builder can do it, and several charge a flat monthly fee rather than a percentage of every tray. The mistake is paying marketplace acquisition rates on repeat orders from a buyer who already knows your name.
How do I cut catering commission without losing the corporate orders?
Five steps, in order, over about 90 days. This is the sequence we would run for a restaurant doing real catering volume, and step one is not "switch vendors".
- 01
Separate the two things you are paying for
Pull the last 12 months of catering orders and split them into first time buyers and repeat buyers. The first group is what the Marketplace earned. The second group is what it is charging you for a second time. Most catering programs are surprised by the ratio.
- 02
Get your buyer list out while your account is healthy
Contact names, company names, order dates, headcounts and what they ordered. Do this before any conversation about leaving, and confirm the export actually opens. A catering program lives on its repeat corporate accounts, and that list is the asset.
- 03
Give repeat buyers one direct link, and make it easy
Two workable options. ezOrdering keeps you inside ezCater at a 7% commission plus 2.99% transaction fee on orders that come from your own site, which is roughly 8 points cheaper than the Marketplace rate. A direct catering builder on your own domain, priced as a flat monthly, removes the percentage entirely. Pick one and put it everywhere: email signature, invoice footer, the card in the delivery bag.
- 04
Keep the Marketplace listing for discovery, and measure it honestly
You do not have to choose one channel. Keep the listing that finds new offices, move the accounts that already know you, then check the split again after 90 days. If Marketplace first time buyers stay strong, the 15% is doing its job. If they have gone flat, you are paying acquisition rates for retention.
- 05
Re-price the catering menu once, deliberately
Most catering menus were priced before commission entered the picture. Decide what the direct price is, what the marketplace price is, and whether the delivery fee sits inside the menu price or outside it. Doing this once, in writing, beats absorbing the difference for another year.
Which ezCater alternative fits your catering program?
Six options, two of which are ezCater. Prices are from vendor pricing pages or attributed to the source that reported them, accessed July 2026.
Stay on the ezCater Marketplace
Best when most of your catering revenue is first time corporate buyers.
The option every competitor page skips. ezCater charges no signup fee and no monthly fee, pays out weekly, and brings buyers with budgets you cannot easily reach. On a $500 order, 15% plus 2.99% is about $89.95, roughly 18% of the order before food cost. That is expensive for a repeat customer and reasonable for a new one. Judge it per buyer, not per invoice.
ezOrdering, ezCater's own lower rate channel
Best as a first move, because it changes nothing operationally.
ezCater publishes a second channel for orders that come from your own website rather than the Marketplace, at 7% commission plus the same 2.99% transaction fee, with commission excluding voluntary tips and taxes. On that same $500 order it is about $49.95 rather than $89.95. Nothing about your kitchen, your menu or your invoicing changes. If you do nothing else on this page, compare your repeat order volume against the 8 point difference and see what it is worth.
Toast
Best when catering is one part of a full POS replacement.
If catering is growing inside a restaurant that is also replacing its register, consolidating is reasonable. Per NerdWallet's Toast review (updated January 13, 2026): a free Starter Kit, $69 a month for the Point of Sale plan, processing at 2.49% + $0.15 card present with upfront hardware, 3.09% + $0.15 pay as you go and 3.50% + $0.15 card not present, on a standard two year contract with early termination fees, with online ordering priced as an extra. Catering specific flows such as headcount pricing and lead times are worth testing carefully before you commit for two years.
Square
Best for a small catering side of the business that just needs to take orders.
Per NerdWallet (updated March 20, 2026), Square for food and beverage runs $0, $49 and $149 a month, with online processing at 3.3% + $0.30 on the Free plan and 2.9% + $0.30 on Plus and Premium. Square's own pricing page (accessed July 2026) states no hidden fees and no locked in contracts, cancel or switch anytime. There is no percentage of the catering order beyond card processing, which is the point. There is also no corporate buyer network, which is the other point.
Popmenu
Best when catering is a marketing problem, not a software problem.
Popmenu approaches catering from the demand side: interactive menus, campaigns and review presence that make a local office manager pick you in the first place. Popmenu's own site (accessed July 2026) says setup is included, there are no contracts, and online ordering is commission free with a flat $1 fee per online order. It does not publish a monthly rate. Restolabs reports Starter $179, Essentials $299 and Premier $499 with a 3% processing fee on catering orders (updated January 8, 2026). Ask for the catering line specifically, because that is where the percentage reappears.
Zayos
Best when repeat catering is real and you want the percentage off your side of the ledger.
Ours, so weigh it accordingly. Zayos includes a catering builder on your own domain with per person quantities, lead times, delivery windows and a quote flow, inside the same flat monthly fee as the rest of the platform: $499, $599 or $699 per location per month, month to month, no setup fee. The structural difference from ezCater is who pays. On Zayos the diner pays the service fee at checkout, 10% on catering, and the restaurant keeps 100% of the food revenue and 100% of tips. On a $500 catering order that is $500 to the kitchen with $50 paid by the customer on top, versus about $410 net after a 15% commission and a 2.99% transaction fee on the Marketplace. Honest counterweights: Zayos brings you no corporate buyers, so if the Marketplace is your demand engine this replaces the software half only. We are also the newest platform here. Naya Grill in Pompano Beach and West Palm Beach is the only restaurant live and taking orders on Zayos today, keeping over $48,000 a year that used to go to commissions at about 3,000 orders a month, and eight more storefronts are built with ordering opening at launch.
Catering channels and catering software, compared.
The column that decides most of this is "brings the demand". A marketplace does. A platform does not, and no amount of features changes that.
| Option | What it is | Cost to the restaurant | Brings the demand | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ezCater Marketplace | Catering marketplace | 15% commission plus 2.99% transaction fee | Yes, corporate buyer network | Winning first time office accounts |
| ezOrdering | ezCater ordering on your own site | 7% commission plus 2.99% transaction fee | No, you bring the buyer | Cutting the rate on repeat orders with zero disruption |
| Toast | POS with ordering add-ons | $0 or $69/mo plus 2.49% to 3.50% + $0.15 | No | Catering inside a full POS replacement |
| Square | POS and online ordering | $0 / $49 / $149 per month plus processing | No | A small catering side, lowest fixed cost |
| Popmenu | Marketing platform with ordering | Not published. Reported $179 to $499/mo plus 3% on catering | Indirect, through marketing | Catering demand generation locally |
| Zayos | Direct ordering and catering builder | $499 / $599 / $699 per location. Diner pays 10% on catering | No | Repeat catering with no percentage on the restaurant |
- ezCater Catering Partner Help Center, pricing and payment and what is ezOrdering. Marketplace 15% commission (does not apply to voluntary tips or taxes) plus 2.99% payment transaction fee (does not apply to voluntary tips); ezOrdering 7% commission plus the same 2.99% transaction fee; no signup or monthly fees; payment included in the weekly payout. Verified 2026-07-26 through the live search index of ezCater’s own help centre, which blocked direct retrieval on the day of writing. If ezCater’s published rates differ from the above, ezCater’s own help centre is authoritative and this page will be corrected.
- Flashcater, alternatives to ezCater. Corroborates roughly 15% commission plus roughly 2.99% processing on Marketplace orders and 7% via ezOrdering, and describes the repeat buyer returning to the marketplace rather than to the restaurant. Accessed 2026-07-26.
- NerdWallet, Toast POS review (updated January 13, 2026). Free Starter Kit, $69/mo Point of Sale, processing 2.49% + $0.15 card present with upfront hardware, 3.09% + $0.15 pay as you go, 3.50% + $0.15 card not present, two year contract with early termination fees, online ordering costs extra. Accessed 2026-07-26.
- NerdWallet, Square fees (updated March 20, 2026) and Square pricing. Free $0, Plus $49, Premium $149 per month; online 3.3% + $0.30 on Free, 2.9% + $0.30 on paid; no hidden fees or locked in contracts. Accessed 2026-07-26.
- Popmenu pricing (setup included, no contracts, flat $1 per online order, monthly rate not published) and Restolabs (updated January 8, 2026) for reported tiers and the 3% catering processing fee. Accessed 2026-07-26.
- Zayos pricing and the diner service fee. The $499, $599 and $699 per location tiers, no setup fee, and the 10% catering fee paid by the customer.
ezCater alternatives, answered.
How much commission does ezCater take from a restaurant?
What does that cost on a real catering order?
Should I leave the ezCater Marketplace entirely?
What is ezOrdering and how is it different from the Marketplace?
Can any alternative replace the corporate demand ezCater brings?
How does catering work on Zayos specifically?
Find out what commission cost you last year.
The free AI report runs your real order volume and average ticket, catering included, and shows what the marketplaces took. About 60 seconds, no card.