Online ordering system: three routes and what each costs

An online ordering system is software that lets customers order from you without a phone call. That is the easy part of the definition. The hard part is that there are three completely different ways to get one, and they are usually sold as if they were the same purchase.

This guide sets out the three routes, what each one really costs, and the question that separates them once the novelty has worn off.

Route one: list on a delivery marketplace

You appear inside somebody else's app. They bring the customers, take the payment, and in most markets they arrange the delivery too.

What it costs. A percentage of every order, taken before the money reaches you. The rate is set by the marketplace and can be changed by the marketplace.

What it is good at. Being found by people who have never heard of you. That is a real service and worth paying for at the start.

Where it hurts. The customer belongs to the app. Their name and number sit in a database you cannot read, so you cannot tell them you have opened on Fridays, and you cannot reward them for coming back. Our guide to online food delivery platforms goes through this route in detail.

Route two: have one built for you

A developer or an agency builds an ordering system for restaurants to your description. You own the result.

What it costs. A large amount once, then a smaller amount forever. The second part is the one that surprises people. Somebody has to renew the hosting, patch the software, fix the checkout when a phone update breaks it, and be reachable at nine on a Thursday evening.

What it is good at. Anything unusual. If your business has a rule nobody else has, a custom build can carry it.

Where it hurts. Time and dependence. You wait months for version one, and every later change is a quote and a queue. If the person who built it moves on, you are looking for somebody willing to inherit a stranger's code.

Route three: subscribe to a ready-made system

You rent software that already exists, put your menu into it, and start.

What it costs. A flat monthly price. No share of your sales.

What it is good at. Speed and predictability. Most kitchens are taking orders the same day, and the price you pay in a busy month is the price you pay in a quiet one.

Where it hurts. You get the features that exist, not the ones you imagine. This is why the honest way to judge the best online ordering system for you is to test it against your real menu and your real evening, not against a wishlist.

The question all three routes hide

Ask this of any option in front of you: after a year of this, whose customer list is it?

That single question reorders the comparison. Route one gives you volume and no list. Route two gives you a list and a maintenance bill. Route three should give you both, and you should check rather than assume.

In Get Menu the names, numbers and order history belong to your restaurant, and you can export the whole list on any day, including the day you decide to leave. Old order details are cleared automatically after 120 days, which is a retention rule rather than a limit on your list.

"I spend my working life looking at where a business process breaks. With restaurants it is almost never the cooking and almost never the app the customer sees. It is the handover. The order is on a screen and the kitchen is across the room, so somebody becomes a human copy and paste machine." — Agha Shah Zaman, co-founder of Get Menu

What route three looks like in practice

Here is the shape of it in Get Menu, from the customer tapping to the accountant filing.

Your own ordering page sits at an address on getmenu.ae, included in every plan, and reads properly on a phone held in one hand. You choose from 12 page layouts, colour themes and a font picker, so a coffee list and a full dinner card do not have to look the same. Arabic item names sit beside the English.

Items carry options and add-ons with their own prices. A choice can be required, so an order cannot arrive missing its size. Stock counts fall as orders come in, and an item greys itself out at zero without anybody watching it.

At checkout every line is priced again from your live menu, a double tap cannot order twice, and a minimum order value stops baskets that are not worth the trip. The customer gets a status page for their order with no login needed.

Then the handover, which is the part route two usually gets wrong. Three messages go out within a couple of seconds. The customer gets a confirmation. Your managers group gets the kitchen ticket. Your riders group gets a dispatch note carrying the map pin the customer dropped at checkout. Meta's own description of the WhatsApp Business app is a business profile that greets people the moment they start a conversation, and this is the same instinct applied to orders: reach people where they already are instead of asking them to install something.

For delivery you set a fee per building and free delivery over a threshold you choose. For tables, a code is generated for every table and the ticket carries the table number. A group can order from their own phones onto one bill.

For repeat business there are stamps, tiers your regulars grow into, and a loyalty card in Google Wallet that updates itself, with the Apple version built and waiting on a certificate. Coupons carry caps, exclusions and expiry dates. On the paperwork side, invoices carry your tax registration number as a PDF, and sales export to a spreadsheet.

Payment is cash or your own card machine at the door. There are no online payments anywhere in the system, so there are no card details to protect.

A sensible order to switch it on

You do not have to do everything in week one. This sequence works for most restaurants.

1. Put the menu in, uploading from a spreadsheet if you have one.
2. Send your own ordering page to 10 orders worth of regular customers and watch what they get stuck on.
3. Print table codes only after the menu has settled.
4. Turn on one promotion, not six.
5. Leave loyalty until you have enough repeat names for it to mean something.

Give the search side time as well. Google says its crawler finds pages through links from other pages, and that some changes show within hours while others take months. Put your ordering link on your social profiles and your listings on day one, then be patient.

Picking a route without regret

If you are new and unknown, route one has a real job to do. If you have unusual rules that no product covers, route two is honest work. For most independent restaurants and cafes, route three answers the need in an afternoon and keeps the customer list where it belongs.

Whatever you choose, judge it by 30 minutes of real use rather than by a slide. Our guides to a restaurant app and to pos software for restaurant work through the neighbouring decisions. Get Menu charges no commission at all, which is 0 percent of every order you take, and the trial runs 15 days without asking for card details.

Frequently asked questions

What is an online ordering system?

Software that shows your menu to a customer and accepts their order without a phone call. A complete one also prices the order, tells your kitchen, handles the address and keeps a record of who bought what.

Is it cheaper than a delivery app?

Usually, once you have any repeat business. A marketplace takes a share of every order forever, while a subscription is a fixed monthly cost no matter how much you sell.

Can I use both a marketplace and my own page?

Yes, and many restaurants do. The apps bring strangers, your own page keeps the regulars, and there is no rule against running both.

How do customers pay on my own ordering page?

Cash or your card machine when the order arrives. There are no online payments, so no card details are stored.

Do I need a website first?

No. The ordering page is a web page with your name on it, so for many small restaurants it does the job of a website as well.