How much does a restaurant app cost? Monthly and 3-year prices, compared

A restaurant ordering app costs about $99 to $500 a month on the restaurant platforms that publish their prices, plus card processing and, on some plans, a fee on every order; over three years that is roughly $3,600 to $25,000 in platform fees alone at 300 orders a month. A custom-built app has no standard price, and on top of the build you pay Apple $99 a year and Google a one-time $25 to publish under your own developer accounts. Food orders can't use Apple's or Google's in-app payments, so card fees are the same as on your website. An app pays off only if it moves enough orders off delivery apps, which for a $99 plan is about 16 orders a month.

How much does a restaurant app cost per month?

Prices from each company's own pricing page, on the date shown. All are per location.

For what goes into a custom build, read our restaurant app development cost breakdown.

What does a restaurant app cost over three years?

Worked example: one location, 300 online orders a month at $30 ($9,000 a month), for 36 months. Card processing is about the same everywhere (2.79–2.95% plus 19–30¢) because Apple and Google don't take a cut of food orders, so this table shows platform fees only.

UpMenu's 300 orders are over the 210-order tier, so the unlimited tier is used. Owner.com suggests its Flat Rate plan once online sales pass about $5,000 a month, as they do here. Menuthere is our product; the comparison uses each company's own published prices, and plans include different extras (marketing, POS links, setup help), so compare what you'd actually use.

What do Apple and Google charge?

More detail: what Apple and Google charge to publish a restaurant app, whether food orders use in-app payments and whether Apple rejects a website wrapped in an app.

Does an app pay for itself?

An app earns its keep by moving orders off marketplaces and by bringing regulars back with push notifications. A simple test:

Saving per order moved: a $30 order on a 25% marketplace tier costs $7.50; on your own app with card fees of 2.9% + 30¢ it costs $1.17. Each order moved saves $6.33.

If your regulars already order on your own website, the app's job is smaller: it has to bring them back more often, which is what push notifications are for. If most of your orders still come through DoorDash or Uber Eats, an app (or simply your own ordering link) is how you move them.

Do you need an app, or is a website enough?

An app is worth paying for when:

• you have regulars who order every week and would keep an icon on their phone;
• you want to send push notifications (a new special, a holiday menu) to people who chose to install it;
• you run loyalty and want points in the guest's pocket;
• you have several locations or a brand guests already search for in the app stores.

A website is enough when most orders are one-offs, your guests find you on Google, or you're just starting online ordering. A good ordering website can be added to the home screen like an app (how customers add it), and web push on iPhone has limits (can a web ordering app send push notifications on iPhone?). See what a PWA is, does my restaurant need its own app? and our four-question test.

Can a small restaurant have an app like Starbucks?

Not the same app: big chains build their own, with ordering ahead, payment cards and tiered rewards, and maintain them with in-house teams. A small restaurant can have the parts that matter to its regulars (its own name and icon in the stores, ordering ahead for pickup or delivery, points back on every order and push notifications) on a platform plan instead of a custom build. That is what the platform plans in the table above sell.

How Menuthere helps

The Branded App plan ($99 a month) is everything in Pro plus your restaurant's own app on Google Play and the App Store, under your name and icon.

• What's in it: your Android and iOS app, unlimited push notifications to your app's customers, order status updates on their phone, and custom notifications for festivals, offers or any announcement. Pro runs behind it: your ordering website and QR ordering, loyalty points, your own drivers with live tracking, and several outlets.
• 0% commission, and food payments go through your own Stripe account, so there's no app-store cut on orders.
• Nothing to pay at signup. You set up your menu yourself and add at least 10 dishes with photos, press Register App and book a call with our founder. The first $99 month is paid in advance, before we build your app, and your subscription counts from the day the app goes live. We build and publish the app around your menu.

See how your app would look with the free restaurant app preview, read more on the Branded App page, or compare everything else in online ordering for restaurants. Loyalty ideas that work well in an app are in restaurant loyalty program ideas.

Your own app on Google Play and the App Store, $99 a month, nothing to pay at signup.

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