Since 2014, online ordering and delivery have grown 300 percent faster than dine-in traffic. In other words, the COVID-19 pandemic just sped up an already fast-growing trend. To stay competitive, restaurants must offer online ordering and delivery.

The question is how? There’s no shortage of platforms restaurants can use. So how do they choose the one that’s best—both for their needs, and the needs of their guests?

To answer that, restaurants need to determine what’s most important in a digital ordering platform. It needs to be fast, convenient, and easy to use. It needs to come with a wide variety of features that enhance your restaurant’s digital presence. And, most importantly, it needs to be affordable for restaurants that already operate on razor-thin margins.

In researching potential platforms, you’ve probably come across Chownow, SinglePlatform, etc. We can’t lie—it’s a pretty solid option for restaurants. But it’s not the best option out there. Read on to learn about the Menufy, SinglePlatform, and Chownow competitors all restaurants need to know.

Menufy and Chownow Competitors: Why Not Use Third-Party Delivery Apps?

Let’s start with the obvious question: If you need online ordering and delivery, what’s wrong with all the popular third-party apps that offer just that? 

Apps like UberEats, DoorDash, Seamless, and Postmates have been widely embraced by restaurant guests—especially since the COVID-19 pandemic limited dine-in business and forced both restaurants and their guests to pivot to more delivery and takeout orders for a time. Their popularity among diners and their convenience and ease of use make them seem, on the surface, like a natural choice for restaurants who want a quick, simple path to offering online ordering and delivery.

But these apps actually come with some major drawbacks.

First, there’s the cost. Most third-party delivery apps charge restaurants fees to get started using their services, and then take more fees and percentage commission from every order that’s placed. They’ve been widely criticized by restaurants who say they can’t turn a profit with third-party delivery orders.

But there’s another major problem with third-party apps that many restaurants might not know about. In the digital age, using restaurant technology tools allows businesses to gather customer data which can be used to inform their marketing efforts and boost their profits. However, third-party delivery apps keep all that data for themselves. This means restaurants have no way to track or remarket to their delivery customers.

There are restaurants that go with third-party apps anyway because they want a convenient solution that doesn’t take a lot of time and technology knowledge on their part. But there are tools that can offer you a simple and better online ordering and delivery experience without all the drawbacks of third-party apps.

Chownow vs Popmenu: Which Is the Best Online Ordering Platform?

There are a lot of comprehensive restaurant platforms (which we’ll look at below), but we want to talk about one in particular: Popmenu.

If you’re interested in Chownow competitors, Popmenu is the one you should know about.

Chownow offers restaurants a lot of great tools and handy features for online orders and delivery. And their commission-free delivery structure is far more affordable than third-party delivery apps.

In other words, if you only want to offer online orders and food delivery, Chownow isn’t a bad option for you. But Popmenu can offer your restaurant so much more.

As you can see from the feature comparison chart, Popmenu offers all the same online ordering and delivery features as Chownow, and similarly, charges restaurants a flat monthly fee with no commissions on orders. But it also does so much more than that.

One of the biggest differences is that Popmenu is an all-in-one restaurant solution for building a digital presence, which means it offers things like dynamic menu technology, website management, and automated remarketing. Chownow offers website management, but only for an additional monthly charge.

The other difference that sets Popmenu apart is how easy and accessible it is for restaurant owners and managers. Popmenu gives you an online dashboard that you can access from any device, as well as client apps for both iOS and Android devices. Plus, in a recent release, Popmenu offers overviews so you can see your return-on-investment in their tools. On the other hand, Chownow uses a proprietary tablet, and only includes one for each restaurant account. That means, to use Chownow on more than one device, you’ll have to pay more.

Here’s the bottom line: If you want the most bang for your buck, you want Popmenu. It comes with more features and more tools so you can save time and money at your restaurant, all while streamlining operations and providing a better guest experience.

9 Chownow Competitors and How Their Features Stack Up

There are many other alternative platforms for restaurants to consider: SinglePlatform, Upserve, OrderEm, Square, iMenu360, Cloud Waitress, Menufy, and Toast—just to name a few.

But no other restaurant solution offers a comprehensive technology stack for one monthly rate—let’s look at all the features that Popmenu includes for every customer:

• Menu management (including multi-location menu management and a physical menu designer)
• Native iOS and Android client apps
• Website management
• Online ordering
• Third-party delivery integration
• Google Business Profile integration
• Automated remarketing to guests
• Digital gift card creation
• Events calendars
• QR codes
• Native email support
• Mass SMS
• Scheduled social posting
• AI Social Posting
• Offers and promo code generation
• Dish photos
• Dish reviews
• Waitlisting
• Overviews and Restaurant Insights
  

There is no other restaurant solution that offers all of those features. With other platforms, you might be able to get them all—but only with plug-ins and add-ons that make the whole system more complex (not to mention more expensive).

Popmenu is truly the only all-on-one restaurant solution that will create and manage your digital presence, help guests find you, and save you time and money with its comprehensive set of tools that all work seamlessly together. In other words, it’s the only Chownow competitor you need to know about.

Ready to Control Your Online Presence — From First Impression to Final Transaction?

Schedule a free Popmenu demo today.