Comparing QR ordering products by feature list is close to useless. They all list digital menus, table QR codes, order management and analytics, because they all do those things. The differences show up somewhere else — in the pricing model, in where orders land, and in who ends up holding your money.
Here's what to ask instead. We build one of these products, so read this with that in mind — but the questions are the ones we'd ask of any vendor, including us.
1. How does the pricing scale?
This is the biggest long-term difference and the easiest to overlook while the number is small.
| Model | What happens as you grow |
|---|---|
| Percentage of each order | Cost rises with revenue, forever. Your best months are your most expensive. |
| Per-table or per-terminal fee | Adding a screen or section becomes a purchasing decision. |
| Flat monthly | Predictable. Busy months cost the same as quiet ones. |
Do the arithmetic on your good months, not your average ones. A 2% commission sounds trivial until you multiply it by a full year of dinner service.
2. Where do orders actually arrive?
Ask to see this, not hear about it. "Order management" can mean a proper kitchen display with audible alerts and stages, or it can mean an email and a push notification on someone's phone.
The second option works fine in a demo and fails on a Friday night. If orders land anywhere other than a screen the kitchen is already watching, something will get missed.
3. Who receives the payment?
If you enable online payment, this is the question that matters most and gets asked least.
Some platforms collect on your behalf and remit later, which means your revenue sits with the vendor for days and you're exposed if they have problems. Others let you connect your own payment provider, so money settles straight into your account and the software never touches it.
Ask directly: "When a guest pays, whose account does that money land in first, and when do I get it?" The answer tells you a lot.
4. Can QR codes be revoked?
Printed codes leak. Someone photographs one, or a card walks out of the building. If codes can't be regenerated, that's permanent.
Good systems sign each code and let you invalidate old ones by reissuing. Ask what happens to a code someone screenshotted last month.
5. What does a guest see when the network drops?
Every vendor's demo runs on good Wi-Fi. Ask what happens on bad Wi-Fi: mid-order, at payment, and when the kitchen screen loses connection. You want a specific answer, not reassurance.
The related question — "has an order ever been lost, and what caused it?" — tends to produce a more honest conversation than anything on a pricing page.
6. Who enters your menu?
Menu entry is the real work of setup, and it's where most trials die. Thirty dishes with photos, prices, categories and modifiers is a couple of hours if you're focused.
Ask whether they'll load it for you, whether there's an import, and how long a typical venue takes. A vendor who says "ten minutes" without mentioning your menu is describing the account creation, not the setup.
A test worth running: during a trial, load five real dishes, print one code, sit at a table and order as a guest. Ten minutes of that reveals more than a scheduled demo, because you experience it the way your guests will — including the parts the salesperson wouldn't have shown you.
7. What happens to your data if you leave?
Boring, and worth two minutes. Can you export your menu, your orders, your guest contacts? A product that makes leaving painful is telling you something about how it expects to keep you.
8. Does it fit how your room actually works?
Some genuinely useful questions that don't appear on comparison charts:
- Can a server place an order too, or only guests?
- Can one table add to an existing order, or does each round start fresh?
- Can you turn a single dish off instantly when it sells out?
- Does the guest have to enter a name or phone number to order?
- Does it handle your tax setup correctly on the bill?
Any one of these can be the thing that makes a system unusable in your venue while being irrelevant in another.
Ask us these questions
Start a trial and put the list above to the test — no card required, and nothing to cancel if it isn't a fit.
Start 14-day free trialThe shortlist, in order
- How does pricing scale as I get busier?
- Where exactly do orders arrive?
- Whose account does guest payment land in?
- Can printed codes be revoked?
- What happens when the network drops?
- Who loads my menu, and how long does it really take?
- Can I export my data and leave?
If a vendor answers all seven plainly, that's a good sign regardless of which product you pick.
Related: how QR ordering systems work · five ways venues get rollout wrong