Zonal alternatives · 2026

Zonal alternatives for restaurants.

Zonal has a free plan. Menuthere gives your restaurant its own ordering website, QR menu and table ordering with 0% commission, free to start and $9 a month on Lite.

Start free Menuthere vs Zonal

Menuthere vs Zonal

What changes when you switch.

Zonal is an Edinburgh-based hospitality technology company whose EPoS runs large UK pub, restaurant and hotel groups such as Greene King, Mitchells & Butlers and PizzaExpress. Its online ordering products plug into that EPoS: white-labelled Order & Pay (branded app or web, with QR table ordering), Click & Collect, kiosks, and Zonal Delivery, which pulls Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber Eats orders into the till. These are sold by quote with no published prices; Zonal's newer akru POS for independents (UK and US) has no software fee, charges only a card rate (from 0.89% + 3p in the UK) and includes online pick-up menus.

Price

Zonal: Free plan

Menuthere: Free plan · from $9/mo

Commission per order

Zonal: Not published for Order & Pay, Click & Collect or Zonal Delivery (quote only). akru lists no POS or per-order fee beyond its card rate.

Menuthere: 0%

Contract

Zonal: Not published for Zonal's enterprise products. akru: no contract lock-in in the UK and US; the US hardware-included plan runs a 36-month term.

Menuthere: Month to month

Setup fee

Zonal: Not published. akru says new venues can be trading in under an hour with no engineer visit.

Menuthere: None

Side by side

Menuthere and Zonal, feature by feature.

“—” means the company doesn't publish it. Menuthere's plan for each feature is shown next to it.

Menuthere and Zonal compared
	Menuthere	Zonal
Price	Free plan · from $9/mo	Free plan
Commission per order	0%	Not published for Order & Pay, Click & Collect or Zonal Delivery (quote only). akru lists no POS or per-order fee beyond its card rate.
Contract	Month to month; 7-day free trial on Lite and Pro	Not published for Zonal's enterprise products. akru: no contract lock-in in the UK and US; the US hardware-included plan runs a 36-month term.
Own ordering website	Yes	Yes
QR table ordering	Yes	Yes
Pickup	Yes	Yes
Delivery orders	Yes	Yes
Your own drivers	Yes · Pro	Not published
Scheduled orders	Yes · Lite	Yes
Online payments	No	Yes
POS	No	Yes
Loyalty	Yes · Pro	Yes
Marketing tools	Yes · Lite	Yes
WhatsApp ordering or updates	Yes	Not published
Branded app	Yes · Enterprise	Yes
Delivery-app integration	No	Yes
Multiple locations	Yes · Pro	Yes
Menu translation	Yes · Lite	Not published
Reservations	Yes · Lite	Yes

Menuthere's online payments work in India today; elsewhere customers pay cash, on delivery or at pickup while card payments are being added.

Why restaurants look elsewhere

What restaurants say about Zonal.

Recurring points from reviews, forums and the press, each from a source listed at the foot of the page.

Trustpilot has only seven reviews of Zonal (2.4 out of 5); four of them, from July 2024 to July 2026, describe support as slow, unresponsive or email-only, including an account manager who left without a handover.
Several Trustpilot reviewers describe onboarding problems: a migration sold as seamless that was not, a chaotic onboarding with an inexperienced trainer, and remote training they found uninspiring (July 2024 to July 2026).
A July 2026 Trustpilot reviewer reports prices going up by over 100%, with the choice to pay or move to a different system.

Be fair to it

When Zonal is the better choice.

Order & Pay (branded app or web) and Click & Collect are white-labelled with the restaurant's own branding, and orders go straight into the Zonal EPoS and kitchen with no re-keying; QR codes pre-fill the table and venue, and room or caravan-plot ordering is supported (Zonal Order & Pay and Click & Collect pages).
One ecosystem: EPoS, kiosks, Bookings & Table Management, Airship CRM, loyalty programmes, vouchers and gift cards, plus Zonal Delivery, which brings Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber Eats orders into the EPoS, syncs menu changes to all of them and allows different prices per delivery provider (Zonal homepage and Delivery page).
Click & Collect lets guests order for a set collection time, caps order volume when busy and shows the next available time; PizzaExpress runs it across 456 restaurants, and Zonal's online ordering page quotes PizzaExpress reporting a 5% upturn in incremental sales (Zonal Click & Collect and online ordering pages).
akru, Zonal's POS for independents, publishes its pricing: no POS software fee, no multi-site fee and no lock-in, just 0.89% + 3p per card payment in the UK, with online pick-up menus included (akru pricing page).

And Menuthere's limits

What Menuthere doesn't do yet.

Online card payments work only in India today; elsewhere customers pay cash, on delivery or at pickup.
No POS of its own on the self-serve plans (Petpooja integration on Pro).
No integration with delivery apps such as Uber Eats or Deliveroo.
The free plan shows a Menuthere badge.

Questions

Zonal alternatives, answered.

It depends on what you use Zonal for. For your own ordering website and QR table ordering without commission, Menuthere is free to start and $9 a month on Lite.

Yes. Menuthere charges 0% commission on every plan, including the free one (50 orders a month included). Your payment provider's card fee still applies where you take card payments.

Quote only for Zonal's main ordering products: no prices are published for Order & Pay, Click & Collect, Zonal Delivery, kiosks or ZonalPay (demo or sales contact). akru, Zonal's POS for independents, which includes online pick-up menus, has no POS software fee, no multi-site fee and no lock-in; the only charge is its card rate. UK: 0.89% + 3p per debit or credit card payment, 2.99% + 3p on Amex and corporate cards, on any Android 13+ device. US: $0 a month software, 2.39% + 10¢ with your own hardware, or 2.99% + 10¢ with hardware included on a 36-month term (Amex and corporate cards 3.5% + 10¢). Zonal USA's EPoS can be bought outright, leased over 60 months or paid monthly (Zonal as a Service), by quote. Commission: Not published for Order & Pay, Click & Collect or Zonal Delivery (quote only). akru lists no POS or per-order fee beyond its card rate.. Card processing: Enterprise: ZonalPay, Zonal's own payment service for EPoS, web and app ordering and booking deposits, at quoted rates; Order & Pay and Click & Collect take payments through PayPal Braintree. akru (akruPay, charged by Zonal): UK 0.89% + 3p on debit and credit cards and 2.99% + 3p on Amex and corporate cards; US 2.39% + 10¢ (own hardware) or 2.99% + 10¢ (hardware included), 3.5% + 10¢ on Amex and corporate cards.. Figures as published by Zonal, checked 2026-09-26.

Yes. Menuthere's AI imports a menu from a photo, an Instagram post or a Google link, and you can edit every item, size and add-on afterwards.

In India, yes: Razorpay, Cashfree, Easebuzz or OrangePG, set up on Pro. In other countries, not yet: customers pay cash, on delivery or at pickup, and card payments are planned.

How Zonal ranks: UK · US

Sources · checked 2026-09-26

Zonal (official) — Online Ordering Systems | Zonal, read 26 September 2026
Zonal (official) — Order & Pay | Zonal, read 26 September 2026
Zonal (official) — Click & Collect | Zonal, read 26 September 2026
Zonal (official) — Zonal Delivery | Zonal, read 26 September 2026
Zonal (official) — Zonal launches delivery management platform, read 26 September 2026
Zonal (official) — Zonal homepage (product navigation), read 26 September 2026
Zonal (official) — ZonalPay | Zonal, read 26 September 2026
Zonal (official) — About us | Zonal, read 26 September 2026
Zonal (official) — Volaris Group acquires hospitality tech firm Zonal, read 26 September 2026
Zonal (official) — akru EPoS | Zonal, read 26 September 2026
akru (Zonal) (official) — akru POS: Point of Sale (POS) Solutions for UK Restaurants, read 26 September 2026
akru (Zonal) (official) — POS Pricing | Akru Pay | Akru, read 26 September 2026
akru (Zonal Hospitality Systems Inc.) (official) — akru POS | Restaurant & Bar POS System for US Independents, read 26 September 2026
akru (Zonal Hospitality Systems Inc.) (official) — Become an akru Partner: POS Reseller Program for US Dealers, read 26 September 2026
Zonal USA (official) — Restaurant & Hospitality POS Systems | Zonal USA, read 26 September 2026
Zonal USA (official) — Restaurant Online Ordering Integrated with POS | Zonal USA, read 26 September 2026
Trustpilot — Zonal Retail Data Systems reviews, read 26 September 2026
Menuthere (official) — Menuthere pricing, read 26 September 2026

Switch from Zonal without paying commission.

Menuthere gives your restaurant an ordering website, QR menu and table ordering. Free to start, live in minutes.

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What changes when you switch.

Menuthere

Zonal

Price

Free plan · from $9/mo

Free plan

Commission per order

Not published for Order & Pay, Click & Collect or Zonal Delivery (quote only). akru lists no POS or per-order fee beyond its card rate.

Contract

Month to month; 7-day free trial on Lite and Pro

Not published for Zonal's enterprise products. akru: no contract lock-in in the UK and US; the US hardware-included plan runs a 36-month term.

Own ordering website

Yes

QR table ordering

Yes

Pickup

Yes

Delivery orders

Yes

Your own drivers

Yes · Pro

Scheduled orders

Yes · Lite

Yes

Online payments

Yes

POS

Yes

Loyalty

Yes · Pro

Yes

Marketing tools

Yes · Lite

Yes

WhatsApp ordering or updates

Yes

Branded app

Yes · Enterprise

Yes

Delivery-app integration

Yes

Multiple locations

Yes · Pro

Yes

Menu translation

Yes · Lite

Reservations

Yes · Lite

Yes

Zonal alternatives for restaurants.

What changes when you switch.

Menuthere and Zonal, feature by feature.

What restaurants say about Zonal.

When Zonal is the better choice.

What Menuthere doesn't do yet.

Zonal alternatives, answered.

What is the best Zonal alternative for restaurants?

Is there a Zonal alternative with no commission?

How much does Zonal cost?

Can I move my menu from Zonal to Menuthere?

Can Menuthere take online payments?

Switch from Zonal without paying commission.

Loading Menuthere...

Zonal alternatives for restaurants.

What changes when you switch.

Menuthere and Zonal, feature by feature.

What restaurants say about Zonal.

When Zonal is the better choice.

What Menuthere doesn't do yet.

Zonal alternatives, answered.

What is the best Zonal alternative for restaurants?

Is there a Zonal alternative with no commission?

How much does Zonal cost?

Can I move my menu from Zonal to Menuthere?

Can Menuthere take online payments?

Switch from Zonal without paying commission.