Shopify for restaurants
Shopify for restaurants: what works and what it costs
Shopify can take restaurant orders, with local delivery and pickup built in. Timed orders, priced add-ons, table QR ordering and kitchen tickets come from apps. Here is the full picture, with a monthly cost you can check.
Free plan: 50 orders a month, 0% commission, no card needed.
Free plan, 50 orders a month, 0% commission. Paid plans from US$17 a month.
The short answer
Yes, it works. With apps around it.
A restaurant usually needs three ways to sell at once: delivery, takeaway and dine-in. Shopify covers the first two out of the box. You set delivery areas and a price per area, and customers can choose pickup at your location.
The restaurant parts sit outside the core product. A customer can't pick a time for their order without an app. A burger with "add bacon +$2" needs an options app. There is no table ordering or kitchen ticket in Shopify's own documentation. Each of those is a monthly app.
That is fine if you're happy to manage a few apps, or if most of what you sell is shipped products. If the kitchen is the business, a restaurant ordering system covers all three order types in one place.
- Built in: local delivery zones, pickup, online tips, gift cards
- Apps needed: order times, priced add-ons, table QR, kitchen display
- Extra 2% to 0.2% per order without Shopify Payments
- Menuthere: all three order types and kitchen tickets on the Free plan
What Shopify gives a restaurant
Shopify's built-in features, checked against its own help pages
What a restaurant gets before adding any app, read on Shopify's Help Center on 20 October 2026.
| Feature | What Shopify does | The limit for a restaurant |
|---|---|---|
| Local delivery | Delivery by distance from your location or by postal code, up to 10 zones per location, up to 160 km (100 miles) | Each zone has a fixed price. There is no per-km price, so a distance fee means several zones |
| Minimum order | A minimum order amount per delivery zone | Works as you'd expect |
| Pickup in store | Customers choose pickup and see a "Usually ready in" time: 1, 2, 4 or 24 hours, 2-4 days or 5+ days | No 15- or 30-minute option, and the customer can't choose a pickup time |
| Order date or time | Not in Shopify's delivery or pickup settings | A checkout date picker is a developer build on Shopify Plus, or an app |
| Dishes with options | Up to 2,048 variants and 3 options per product, each variant with its own price | An extra that adds to the price, such as "extra cheese +$1", needs an app |
| Tips | Online tipping at checkout, up to 3 preset percentages and a custom amount | Built in |
| Printing | Order Printer prints invoices and packing slips | Shopify retires it after 31 March 2027, in favor of document templates in the admin |
The restaurant gaps
Where a restaurant on Shopify adds apps
Each card names an app from the Shopify App Store with its price on 20 October 2026, so you can add up your own stack.
Order for a time
Friday 7:30 pm takeaway or tomorrow's lunch needs a date and slot picker. Zapiet Eats covers menus, hours, scheduled orders and dine-in for US$49.99 a month with 250 orders, then US$0.10 an order.
Add-ons that cost extra
Sides, sauces and extra toppings with a price need an options app. Globo Product Options charges for add-ons from US$9.90 a month; its free plan has no add-on pricing.
Ordering at the table
QR table ordering is thin on Shopify. Flip POS offers it with a kitchen display from US$25 a month for one location, with only 2 reviews when we checked.
Tickets for the kitchen
Shopify's own docs don't cover kitchen tickets or a kitchen display. Restaurant POS apps such as POS Cafe, from US$29 a month, send tickets to kitchen printers.
Delivery priced by distance
Native zones charge a fixed price each. Zapiet Rates by Distance prices by distance from US$14.99 a month for 100 quotes, then US$0.05 each.
Allergens on each dish
Shopify has no allergen or nutrition field. You add your own metafields, or an app such as It's Got: Nutrition Facts from US$8 a month.
Fair to Shopify: its free Shopify Local Delivery app plans routes for your own drivers, up to 100 stops, and online tipping is built into checkout. Those are two things many restaurant tools charge for.
A worked example
One restaurant, 600 online orders a month: the monthly bill
A restaurant taking 600 online orders a month across delivery, takeaway and dine-in, with sides and extras on most dishes. Monthly billing in US dollars, before card fees, which you pay on either side.
| Cost line | Shopify setup | Menuthere Lite | Menuthere Pro |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plan | Basic: US$39 | US$17 | US$39 |
| Scheduled orders, menu hours, dine-in | Zapiet Eats: US$49.99 + 350 extra orders × US$0.10 = US$84.99 | Included | Included |
| Add-ons with prices | Globo Product Options Premium: US$9.90 | Included | Included |
| Kitchen tickets | POS Cafe Essential: US$29 | Included (printed from the dashboard) | Included |
| Fee per order without Shopify Payments | 2% of sales on Basic | None | None |
| Your own riders with live tracking | Shopify Local Delivery app: free route planning | Not included | Included |
| Monthly total before card fees | US$162.89, plus 2% if you can't use Shopify Payments | US$17 | US$39 |
Shopify Basic costs US$29 a month billed yearly. Menuthere yearly billing charges 10 months for 12. App prices are from each app's Shopify App Store listing; many apps have free tiers for low volumes. Menuthere's Free plan covers the same menu, order types and kitchen tickets for up to 50 orders a month, without online payment.
When Shopify is the better choice
Keep Shopify for what it does best
Bottled sauces, spice kits and merch shipped nationwide. That is a product business, and Shopify is built for it: shipping rates, product pages, reviews, marketplaces. Menuthere doesn't ship parcels.
Gift cards and vouchers sold online. Shopify sells gift cards on every plan.
A big retail side. A deli counter or restaurant shop with hundreds of packaged products fits a store platform better than a menu.
Most restaurants with a shop do both: Shopify for the shop, a menu system for the kitchen. Add an Order food link on your Shopify site that opens your Menuthere ordering page, and each side does what it's made for.
How to switch or start
From Shopify to a restaurant menu in an afternoon
- 1
Create your free page
Start at get started. Find your restaurant on Google or add it by hand. No card for the Free plan.
- 2
Upload your menu
Send a photo or PDF of your menu. Dish names, prices and sizes are read in for you to check. See menu import.
- 3
Set the three order types
Turn on delivery with your zones, takeaway and table QR ordering. Print your table QR codes.
- 4
Point your links to it
Link it from your Shopify or other website, or connect your own domain on Lite. Add it to Instagram and your Google Business Profile.
Questions owners ask
Answered, plainly.
Sources (14) · checked 2026-10-20
- Shopify pricing (US dollars) · Shopify, read 20 October 2026
- Setting up local delivery · Shopify Help Center, read 20 October 2026
- Setting up pickup in store · Shopify Help Center, read 20 October 2026
- Adding variants · Shopify Help Center, read 20 October 2026
- Tipping · Shopify Help Center, read 20 October 2026
- Shopify Order Printer · Shopify Help Center, read 20 October 2026
- Identify your POS needs · Shopify Help Center, read 20 October 2026
- Zapiet Eats ‑ Restaurants · Shopify App Store, read 20 October 2026
- Globo Product Options, Variant · Shopify App Store, read 20 October 2026
- Flip POS ‑ Restaurant & Winery · Shopify App Store, read 20 October 2026
- POS Cafe: Coffee Shops & QSR · Shopify App Store, read 20 October 2026
- Zapiet ‑ Rates by Distance · Shopify App Store, read 20 October 2026
- It's Got: Nutrition Facts · Shopify App Store, read 20 October 2026
- Shopify Local Delivery · Shopify App Store, read 20 October 2026
Delivery, takeaway and dine-in, one menu
Make your restaurant's ordering page from a menu photo. Free to start, 0% commission.
