Getting started
From signing up to taking your first order — the whole first day, in order.
Read the walkthrough script for this guide
- Open the signup page. Signing up is three steps and the bar across the top shows which one you are on.
- Step one: type your restaurant name. Watch the web address fill itself in underneath and show a tick when it is free — that address is yours, your name on our domain.
- Step two: your own name, your email, a password of twelve characters or more, and your WhatsApp number with its country code. The password rules tick green as you type.
- Step three: your plan. Monthly plans start with fifteen days free and need no card. Pay-as-you-go has no monthly fee and no free trial — you pay per order and add a card afterwards from Plan and billing. Tick the terms and press Create.
- The success page shows your live address with Copy and Open buttons. A WhatsApp message arrives on the number you gave with the same links.
- Sign in. This is your dashboard. The dark bar down the left is the whole product: Run the day, Set it up, Bring them back, Know your numbers, and Account at the bottom.
- Start where the panel tells you to: Settings, then Getting started. It is a live checklist — each row links to the screen that finishes it and ticks itself when you have.
- First real job: Menu. Add one category, then one item with a price and a photo. Your page is already public — open the storefront link in the left bar and look.
- Then Settings, Restaurant settings, Working hours — the days and times you take orders, in your own timezone. And Ordering rules for your minimum order and delivery estimate.
- Then Settings, Condominiums and delivery fees. Add each building or area you deliver to with its own fee — that is the dropdown customers pick at checkout.
- Then Settings, WhatsApp. Scan the QR code with the WhatsApp app on your restaurant phone. From now on order confirmations send themselves, from your own number.
- Place a small test order from your own page. Watch it land on the Orders board and the confirmation arrive on WhatsApp. You are open for business.
Step by step
Set up your restaurant on day one
Signup to first real order, in the order that gets you trading fastest. Nothing here needs a card.
- On the signup page fill in Restaurant name — the web-address field fills itself underneath and shows a tick when free.
- Fill in Your name, Email (your login), Password (12+ with upper, lower and a digit — the ticks turn green) and your WhatsApp number with its country code.
- Pick your plan. Monthly plans are grouped under 'Monthly — 15 days free first'; pay-as-you-go under 'Pay per order — no monthly fee, no trial'. Choosing pay-as-you-go reveals one tick box you must confirm, because that track bills per order (cancelled ones included), adds 5% VAT and needs a card before it starts.
- Tick the Terms box, complete the verification, press Create my restaurant. The success page shows your live address with Copy and Open buttons, plus — on a monthly plan — the exact trial end date.
- Sign in at your address +
/admin, open Menu, add one category and one item with a price — your page is already public; watch it appear in another tab. - Prefer a checklist? Settings → Getting started is the same list inside the panel, ticking itself off as you go.
- Settings → Restaurant settings → Working hours: set the days and times you take orders.
- Settings → Restaurant settings → Ordering: Minimum order, the Delivery ETA quoted to customers, optionally Free delivery over an amount.
- Settings → Condominiums & delivery fees: add each building/area you deliver to with its own fee — the dropdown customers pick at checkout.
- Settings → WhatsApp → Connection & groups: scan the QR with the restaurant phone (owner-only step).
- Place a test order with your own number, watch it land on the Orders board and the confirmation arrive on WhatsApp. You are open.
Set your opening hours, including hours past midnight
One row per weekday, in your restaurant's own timezone — the switch that stops orders arriving at 3am.
- Open Settings → Restaurant settings → Working hours (the page names the timezone above the rows).
- Per day: tick Closed, or set the open and close times.
- Trading past midnight? Set the closing time EARLIER than the opening: 18:00 to 02:00 means you close at two in the morning, not shut all day.
- Press Save working hours.
- Check your page: outside hours customers see the closed screen with a countdown to your next opening and the week's hours — they can read the menu, they just cannot order.
- Closing for one day (a holiday): tick Closed on that weekday and untick it after — there is no separate one-off holiday switch today. (Ramadan has its own dated hours.)
Set up Ramadan mode
A greeting and live iftar countdown, separate Ramadan trading hours that expire by themselves, and an optional gift with iftar orders.
- Make sure your location is set first (Settings → Branding, the Locations block) — prayer times are calculated for it, and without one Ramadan mode stays dormant and says so.
- Open Settings → Restaurant settings → Ramadan. The Today panel shows Iftar (Maghrib), Suhoor ends (Fajr), and whether it is Ramadan today.
- Tick 'Ramadan mode active' and 'Show the greeting and countdown on my storefront'; optionally write your own greeting.
- Under 'When Ramadan is', keep 'Follow the calendar' (it tracks the ninth Hijri month by itself); on crescent night use the Moon-sighting adjustment to shift a day either way — it takes effect immediately.
- Under 'Prayer times', pick the calculation method matching the mosque your customers listen to; fill the kitchen-location override only if your kitchen sits elsewhere.
- Under 'Ramadan trading hours', choose 'Suggest and ask me' or 'Use the hours below automatically', then set per-day rows — close earlier than open means trading past midnight, which is what a suhoor kitchen wants. Your normal hours are stored separately and never overwritten.
- Under 'The iftar gift': No gift, On every iftar order, or Offered at checkout; tick which items may be given and set the minutes before/after iftar. The gift lands on orders at 0.00 — totals, VAT and takings unchanged.
- Press Save. If a 'Suggested Ramadan hours' block appears (built from today's real prayer times), one press fills the rows in for the month only.
Common questions
How do I create my restaurant page?
Go to the signup page and work through its three steps: your restaurant name (which fills in your web address), then your own name, email, password and WhatsApp number, then the plan you want. Accept the terms and press Create. Your ordering page goes live immediately at your own address on our domain — no app to install, nothing for your customers to download.
What web address do my customers use?
Your restaurant gets its own subdomain — for example your-restaurant followed by our platform domain. The signup page checks availability as you type and suggests alternatives if your first choice is taken.
How long is the free trial?
15 days with the full product — every feature, including WhatsApp automation — and no card needed to start. The trial also has a generous cap of 1,000 orders, which almost no restaurant reaches in two weeks. When the trial ends your page pauses until you subscribe; your menu and settings are kept. One thing to know before you choose at signup: the free trial belongs to the MONTHLY plans. Pay-as-you-go has no trial, because there is no monthly fee to try — you pay per order from your first order, and the signup form says so beside the choice.
What happens to my data if my trial ends and I don't subscribe right away?
Your page is paused, not deleted, for 7 more days — sign up to a plan in that window and everything is exactly as you left it. After that grace period the trial account is removed.
Do I need to install anything?
No. Everything — your customer page, your admin panel, your orders board — runs in a normal web browser on any phone, tablet or computer. The only external step is linking WhatsApp by scanning a QR code, which uses the WhatsApp app you already have.
What should I set up first?
In this order: (1) your menu — at least your main categories and items with prices; (2) opening hours; (3) minimum order amount; (4) the buildings/areas you deliver to with their fees; (5) link WhatsApp. That's enough to take real orders. Photos, themes and promotions can come after. You don't have to hold that list in your head: Settings → Getting started is the same checklist inside the panel, each row linking to the screen that finishes it, and it works out what you have already done from your actual data rather than from a box someone ticked.
How do customers pay?
Cash on delivery or card machine on delivery — the customer picks at checkout. There are no online payments anywhere in the system, and no card details are ever typed or stored. This is deliberate: it means zero payment setup for you and zero card risk for your customers.
Can I change how my page looks?
Yes — there are 12 different page designs (from photo-heavy grids to elegant text-only menus), more than 50 colour themes, a font picker and three photo styles. All of it is in the Themes section of your admin panel, and changes apply instantly.
Can I see what my page looks like before sharing it?
Your page is live from the moment you sign up — open your own address in any browser, or use the Storefront link in the top corner of your admin panel. Nothing is published 'later'; what you see is what customers see.
How do I take my first order?
Place it yourself: open your page, add an item to the cart, check out with your own name and WhatsApp number. You'll see it appear on your Orders board instantly and receive the customer confirmation on WhatsApp — the exact experience your customers get.
What is the admin panel and where do I find it?
It is your control room — orders board, menu editor, settings, marketing, reports — at /admin on your own restaurant address. Sign in with the email and password you chose at signup.
Can my staff have their own logins?
Yes, and you create them yourself — Settings → Team, owner only. Enter a name and email, press Create manager account, and copy the one-time password it shows once. There are two roles: owner (you — full control) and manager (day-to-day operations; a few sensitive actions such as the WhatsApp connection, cancelling an already-delivered order, and Plan & billing are owner-only). Up to 5 manager accounts per restaurant.
I forgot my password — what do I do?
Use 'Forgot password' on the login page. You'll get an email with a secure link; the link works on any device and can only be used once. After a reset, all other signed-in sessions are signed out for safety.
What shows on my dashboard?
Revenue and orders for today, the last 7 and the last 30 days, your average order value, revenue/orders-per-day charts, a best-sellers table, a repeat-customer table, coupon usage and review-link clicks — plus a needs-attention strip at the top when something wants a decision (it hides itself when everything is calm). It is the landing page of the admin panel.
Do my customers need to create accounts?
No accounts, ever. A customer opens your page, taps items into a cart, gives a name and WhatsApp number, picks their building and unit, and orders. Their browser remembers their details on their own phone for next time — we never make them register or sign in.
Which languages does my page support?
English today, and the platform is built so Arabic can be added later. Your menu items themselves can be written in any language you like — the text you type is the text your customers see.
Can I close my page temporarily?
Set the day to Closed in your opening hours and your page shows a customised 'closed' screen with a countdown to your next opening — customers can look at the menu but cannot order. You can style that screen (colours and message) under Settings.
How do I change my restaurant's time zone?
Settings → Restaurant → Hours, the Time zone section at the top. Pick your country's zone from the list, or choose Other and type the region name (for example Europe/Zurich). Only the owner account can change it. Your opening hours, the times your automatic messages go out, and every report follow the zone you set. The page shows the current time in that zone so you can check it before saving.
What is the minimum order and should I set one?
It's the smallest order value you accept for delivery, checked at checkout — a customer below it is asked to add more before ordering. Most restaurants set one that covers their delivery cost; you can change it any time in Settings.
Does my page work on phones?
It is designed phone-first — most restaurant customers order from a phone. All 12 designs adapt to any screen size, and your admin panel works on a phone too, so you can run the orders board from the counter.
Where do I get help if I'm stuck?
This helpdesk covers the everyday questions tab by tab; the community forum has real questions answered by the platform team; and the Support page lists our email and WhatsApp for anything specific to your account.
Can I try everything without affecting real customers?
Yes — until you share your address, only you know it exists. Place test orders freely; you can cancel them from the orders board (cancelling restores any tracked stock), and your dashboard is yours to reset perspective on once real trade starts.
The signup page says my web address is taken — what now?
The address box checks as you type: a spinner, then a tick or a cross. When taken, you get up to two ready-made alternatives — your name with -dubai, -cafe, -uae or -1 — and tapping one fills the field. The rules: 3–32 characters, lowercase letters, numbers and dashes, no dash at the start or end, and a short reserved list nobody can take.
What password does signup require?
At least 12 characters including an uppercase letter, a lowercase letter and a number — the requirements tick green as you type. Note that changing or resetting a password later only requires 8 characters, so a password that passes those screens would not have passed signup.
The signup page asked for an invite code, or said signups are closed.
Public signup has three settings the platform operator controls: open, invite-only (an Invite code field appears and must match exactly) and closed. Ask the operator for a code — the switch flips without a deploy, so it can change the same day.
What arrives on WhatsApp straight after I sign up?
A welcome message to the number you entered: your live page link, your dashboard link, and your plan. On a monthly plan it states the trial terms and the exact end date; on pay-as-you-go it says plainly that there is no trial on that track and that billing starts once your card is saved. Then, if your WhatsApp line was ready, it tells you to scan the QR under Settings → WhatsApp; if it is still being set up it says so — everything else already works.
Which plan should I pick at signup, and can I change it later?
Pick the shape of the deal, not the details — you can change plan later from Settings → Plan & billing. A MONTHLY plan is a fixed fee whatever you sell, and it starts with 15 free days and no card. PAY-AS-YOU-GO has no monthly fee: you pay a small fixed amount per order plus VAT, there is no free trial, and it needs a card on file before it can start — you add that after signing in, from Plan & billing, on Stripe's own secure page. The rule of thumb: a steady week of orders makes a monthly plan cheaper; an occasional or seasonal kitchen usually does better paying per order.
I was sent a link to 'claim' a restaurant that is already set up. What is that?
Somebody built your restaurant for you — one of our channel partners — and the link hands it over. Open it, choose your own password, and the account becomes yours: the menu, hours and delivery areas they prepared are all there, and your page starts taking orders. The person who set it up loses their access to your dashboard the moment you finish; they keep only the billing relationship. If the link says it has expired or has already been claimed, ask them to send it again from their own portal.
Can I run more than one branch?
Yes. Each branch is its own restaurant on Get Menu — its own menu and prices, its own WhatsApp number and groups, its own staff logins and its own bill — which is what keeps one branch's evening out of another's numbers. If you run several, we can group them so you get one screen putting their sales side by side; ask support and we will set the group up. See /docs/account#how-do-i-see-all-my-branches-in-one-place for what that screen shows.
Do my customers' phone numbers get checked properly?
Yes, worldwide. A number is checked against the real numbering rules for the country code chosen — the wrong length or an impossible prefix is refused at checkout with a plain message, rather than being accepted and failing silently when the confirmation is sent. UAE landlines are refused by name, because WhatsApp lives on mobiles and a landline on an order ticket means a customer nobody can reach.
