Restaurant technology: a scorecard for choosing software in 2026

What restaurant software covers now

Restaurant software used to mean a POS and maybe an ordering page. Today it usually means one system between your guests and your kitchen. It takes online orders, keeps the menu matched to the POS, runs loyalty and campaigns, and keeps your Google listing right. Some of it now also does work on its own, like answering reviews. That's the category restaurant software describes. The buying question is which system does those jobs best for your restaurant.

• Online ordering on your own site and apps.
• A menu that stays matched to the register.
• Loyalty, guest contacts, and campaigns tied to orders.
• Your Google listing, reviews, and search pages.
• No fee on marketplace orders.

Score live customer sites on 20 checks

A demo shows the best case. A live customer site shows what your guests will get. Ask each vendor for two or three restaurants on their software, then score each site on the checks below. They are the checks our free website audit runs, with the same weights. The weights add up to 100. A site's score is the weight it passes, divided by the weight you could check.

• Order button keeps the guest on the restaurant's own domain: 14 points.
• Mobile PageSpeed performance of 90 or more: 8 points.
• Menu is text on the page, not a PDF or image: 7 points.
• Email, phone, or rewards signup on the homepage: 7 points.
• Structured data with the restaurant's name, address, and hours: 7 points.
• Core Web Vitals: main content under 2.5 seconds, layout shift under 0.1, blocking time under 200 ms: 6 points.
• Page can be indexed by search engines: 6 points.
• Google listing's website points to this site: 6 points.
• Google listing has hours, phone, website, and price level: 6 points.
• Menu page shows at least four food photos: 4 points.
• Phone-width viewport set: 4 points.
• Page title of 10 to 65 characters: 4 points.
• Phone and street number match the Google listing: 4 points.
• At least 100 Google reviews at 4.2 or higher: 4 points.
• Page title names the city: 3 points.
• Meta description, main heading, HTTPS, canonical link, and sitemap: 2 points each.

What a good score looks like

You need a yardstick before a score means anything. On September 24, 2026 we ran these checks on five national chains. Chipotle scored 70 and Sweetgreen 66. Shake Shack came in at 56, with Domino's and Panera Bread at 47 each. PageSpeed couldn't finish a mobile test on four of the five, and Sweetgreen, the one it could measure, scored 44 out of 100. A day later we ran them on royal.appetier.com, our own live storefront, which is not a demo. It passed 15 of the 16 checks that read the website. It missed Core Web Vitals, because its main content took 2.9 seconds to show against Google's 2.5. Ask every vendor for the same kind of honest miss list.

• Weigh reviews and the Google listing separately. Software can't write your reviews for you.
• Treat the order button check as close to a deal breaker. The guest's contact, loyalty points, and reorders all depend on the order staying on your site.
• Write each vendor's score down on the same sheet, so the comparison survives the sales calls.
• Leave out a site you can check on less than half the weight. We left CAVA off our list that day for that reason.

Test speed three times, not once

PageSpeed Insights is free, and anyone can run it on any site. Its score moves a lot from run to run, though. On September 25, 2026 we measured our own storefront anywhere from 77 to 97 within one hour. A Lighthouse run that day put its main content on screen in 2.4 seconds. The median PageSpeed run that same day showed 2.9. The tool matters too. That day a Lighthouse run on our own laptop scored the storefront 91, while one PageSpeed run scored it 99. Neither number is wrong. They are why one run proves nothing, for us or for anyone else.

• Run each customer site three times and keep the middle score.
• Test on the mobile setting, since most guests order on a phone.
• Test the menu or order page as well as the homepage.
• Compare vendors on the same day, so network conditions match.
• Use PageSpeed Insights for every vendor. A Lighthouse run on your laptop imitates a phone over your own connection, so its score differs.

Ask what the POS changes, and what it holds up

The POS question has two halves. First, does a price, an hour, or a sold-out item in the POS reach the online menu on its own? Second, does the launch wait on the POS connection? Appetier connects Square, Shopify POS, Toast, Clover, Revel, and Micros, and connecting a POS is optional. A first location can go live from a logo and a menu photo, and the POS can follow. More on the connection is on POS sync.

• Name your POS and ask to see a price change reach the storefront live.
• Ask whether direct orders print in the POS without an extra tablet.
• Ask whether the software charges a fee on DoorDash and Uber Eats orders.
• Ask what happens to online ordering if you switch POS next year.

Ask for the fee at your own sales

A rate on a pricing page tells you little. Run your own numbers through it. Give every vendor two figures: the direct sales you expect in the first months, while orders build, and in an established month. Ask for the total they would bill for each. Here are Appetier's answers so you have one to compare against. Growth takes no commission: each location pays a flat monthly fee set by its direct sales, nothing under $500 and never more than $199. The fee waits until the orders arrive. See pricing for every band.

• $2,000 of direct sales in a month: a $79 fee.
• $10,000 in a month: $199.
• $50,000 in a month: still $199.
• A month with no direct orders: nothing.
• Service fee on the guest's bill: none. Card processing: your own processor's rates, or Stripe at 2.9% + 30¢, with no Appetier markup.
• Enterprise: $399 a month per location after a 30-day free trial, for groups that want single sign-on, their own drivers, or API access.
• To price other vendors the same way, the comparison page totals each one's month at your orders and average order, from its public pricing page.

Find the costs that aren't on the pricing page

Some costs only show up in the contract or on the first statement, and a vendor will rarely raise them first. Ask about each one by name. Put the answers in the same sheet as the scores.

• A service fee added to the guest's bill at checkout.
• A markup on card processing above what the processor charges.
• A fee on marketplace orders.
• Setup, onboarding, or menu entry charges.
• Separate prices for the iPhone and Android apps.
• A contract term, and what it costs to leave early.

Ask what stays yours if you switch

A price tells you what you pay now, but your domain, card processor, and loyalty members decide what leaving costs later. Appetier's answers are below, so you have a marker.

• Domain: one DNS record puts the storefront on a subdomain such as order.yourplace.com. The rest of your domain stays yours.
• Cards: keep your own processor, or use Stripe at 2.9% + 30¢. Card data never reaches Appetier.
• Current website: keep it, and paste in the Appetier menu, order button, and reservations.
• Loyalty: upload your old provider's file, up to 10,000 rows. Each member claims points with the same email.

Ask what it does without you

More restaurant software now acts on its own: it writes menu descriptions, replies to reviews, and sends campaigns. That saves real hours, but only when you set the limits, so ask each vendor who decides how far it goes. Appetier's answers are specific. Prices never change unless you allow it. Reviews of three stars or fewer always come to you, and a campaign never offers a bigger discount than you set. One switch pauses everything.

• Ask which messages go out without your approval.
• Ask for a weekly record of what it changed and what followed.
• Ask what it can't undo. A sent message and a posted photo stay sent.

Check that loyalty and campaigns share the order

Loyalty only works if a guest earns on the order they are already placing. Ask to see a guest join at checkout and earn points on the same order. Then ask how a campaign's results are counted. On Appetier, only campaigns claim revenue in the weekly results, and each claim traces to a message that went out. See loyalty and restaurant marketing for how the two connect.

• Watch a guest sign up at checkout during the demo.
• Ask how long after a message an order still counts toward it.
• Ask whether quiet hours hold for texts and push messages.

A one-week evaluation plan

You can do all of this in a week without a consultant. Keep the shortlist small. Three vendors is plenty, and two is fine if only two support your POS.

• Day 1: shortlist vendors that support your POS and your number of locations.
• Day 2: collect two or three live customer sites from each.
• Day 3: score every site on the 20 checks, and run PageSpeed three times each.
• Day 4: send each vendor your first-month and established-month sales, and ask for the fee.
• Day 5: book demos, and ask the POS, automation, and loyalty questions above.
• Day 6: run the free audit on your own site to see where you start.
• Day 7: compare the sheet and pick.

Choosing restaurant software FAQs

• What is the most important thing to check in restaurant software?: Whether the order button keeps guests on your own site. It carries 14 of the 100 points in the scorecard, more than any other check.
• How do I test a vendor's speed claims?: Run PageSpeed Insights on the mobile setting three times against a live customer's order page, and keep the middle score. One run can swing by 20 points.
• Should restaurant software require my POS before launch?: It shouldn't have to. On Appetier, connecting a POS is optional, and a first location goes live from a logo and a menu photo.
• What should restaurant software cost?: Ask for the total at your own monthly sales. Appetier's Growth plan takes no commission, and its flat fee never goes past $199 a month per location.
• Can I score my current website the same way?: Yes. The free audit runs the same 20 checks on your site and Google listing in about a minute.

Next steps

Score your current site with the free audit, and from the report ask to see your own restaurant on Appetier. Read what Appetier covers on restaurant software, then start free.