GloriaFood says that restaurants can order food online for free. But here’s what most owners find out after a few months: that “free” ordering widget costs $30 a month as soon as you need customers to pay for delivery online.
Want to add a website with your brand? That will cost you another $9 a month. Need marketing tools? Add $19 more.
You pay $57 to $116 a month for a platform whose customer service has gotten much worse since Oracle bought it in 2020.
You probably hit one of GloriaFood’s walls if you’re reading this. You might need better controls for your delivery zone. Maybe you’re in charge of more than one location and have to switch between different dashboards. Or you’ve sent in a support ticket and haven’t heard back in days.
We looked at a lot of restaurant ordering systems and found six that really do what they say they will. Some give you more features for less money. Others are better at scaling. A few are really good at certain kinds of restaurants. This is what we found.
Why are restaurant owners leaving GloriaFood?
GloriaFood is great for very simple businesses that only do pickups. But quickly growing restaurants run into problems that aren’t clear until you’ve already put money into them.
The biggest problem? The free plan only works for orders that are picked up. If you accept delivery orders with online payment, you’re automatically on a paid plan.
There is no integration with the kitchen display system, which makes it hard for front-of-house and kitchen staff to work together. Delivery management is basic; you can’t figure out fees based on actual distance, only flat rates or percentage-based pricing.
Customer service has become a big problem. Restaurant owners say that support tickets go unanswered for days or even weeks after Oracle bought GloriaFood in 2020. When a technical problem causes you to lose orders, the delay has a direct effect on your income.
Another problem for multi-location operators is that they have to log in to each location’s dashboard separately. There is no one place to manage menus, no one place to look at all the data, and no way to change prices at all locations at once. For a restaurant group that is growing, this adds extra work for the staff.
The platform also doesn’t have any advanced marketing tools besides basic coupons. No loyalty programs, not enough ways to target customers, and not enough room for promotions. If you want to use advanced engagement tools to get people to come back, you’ll have to look somewhere else.
What to Look for in a GloriaFood Alternative?
Before we get into the details of each platform, let’s talk about what really matters when picking an online ordering system.
Direct ordering without a commission is not up for discussion. You’re switching from GloriaFood to avoid paying marketplace fees, so be careful not to sign up for another fee-per-order model by mistake. Check the prices before you buy.
Real POS integration cuts down on hours of manual work. Your ordering system should work perfectly with your current POS, sending orders straight to the kitchen without staff having to enter data again. Before you buy, make sure to check which POS systems each platform works with.
If you offer delivery, it matters that your delivery zone is flexible. Can you make zones based on a radius, a ZIP code, or your own boundaries? Can you figure out the delivery fees based on the real distance? These features keep you from having to deliver 15 miles away for a flat fee of $3.
For brands that want to grow, support for multiple locations is very important. As you grow beyond one restaurant, you need features like a single dashboard to manage all locations, centralized menu updates, and consolidated reporting.
Prices that are clear stop surprise bills. Find platforms that make all of their costs clear from the start, such as fees for processing payments, extra features, and any transaction fees. It’s a bad sign if prices aren’t easy to find on their website.
The 6 Best Alternatives to GloriaFood
1: Deonde
Deonde just for restaurants that are tired of paying commissions to third-party platforms and are sick of having to deal with limited ordering systems.
You can order through your own branded website and mobile app without paying a commission. You get to keep all of your orders. We work with more than 50 payment gateways around the world. You can manage multiple locations from a single dashboard, and we offer advanced delivery zone controls that let you calculate fees based on distance.
What makes us different is that we’re more than just an ordering widget. We handle everything for your restaurant, from tracking inventory and scheduling staff to analyzing customer data, running automated marketing campaigns, and giving you real-time reports. Your customers can order from your website, mobile app, Facebook page, Instagram, WhatsApp, or QR codes.
Our basic plan starts at $39 a month, and we have enterprise options for chains with more than one location. You can try us out for free for 30 days without having to give us your credit card information.
Best for: Independent restaurants and chains that are growing (1–10+ locations) and want more than just ordering tools
2. POSBytz
Offers a complete restaurant ERP system that does more than just let customers order food online. Their cloud-based platform has everything you need for a business, including POS, online ordering, inventory management, accounting, CRM, and payroll.
Their recipe and ingredient-level inventory tracking is the best part. POSBytz automatically takes away the exact ingredients used when you order a dish online. This lets you know exactly how much the food costs and stops you from running out of stock.
They have a built-in accounting system that keeps track of profits and losses by location, as well as QR code table ordering and integration with multiple channels (like Swiggy, Zomato, and Talabat). Their Kitchen Display System makes it easy for online orders to be sent to the kitchen.
POSBytz is great for restaurants in the Middle East, India, and Southeast Asia because it works well with third-party delivery services.
Best for: Restaurant chains with multiple locations that need full back-office operations, especially in the Middle East and Asia.
3. Orderable
Is different because it’s a WordPress plugin that makes your current website into a full ordering system.
Orderable gives WordPress users more control than any other plugin. WooCommerce’s payment processing, inventory tools, and marketing integrations let you manage everything from your WordPress dashboard. No need to log in to a different platform.
The plugin lets you set delivery, pickup, and dine-in orders with flexible time slots, lead times, and blackout dates. You can set daily order limits to keep the kitchen from getting too busy during busy times.
Orderable has a real free version with basic features. Their Pro plan costs $149 a year (yes, a year, not a month), which makes it one of the cheapest options.
The problem? You have to use WordPress. Orderable won’t work for you if you use Wix, Shopify, or Squarespace.
Best for: Restaurants that use WordPress and want full control and low ongoing costs.
4. Ressto
Ressto is a specialized platform for free online ordering system for restaurants that only lets customers order directly from restaurants.
While Ressto only works with individual restaurant owners who want to order directly from their brand. You get a website, a mobile app, and a full order management system with no commission.
Ressto has features like table reservations, ordering with QR codes, loyalty programs, and marketing automation. We made the interface just for owner-operators who need powerful tools that aren’t too hard to use.
The starter plan costs $39 a month and includes all the basic features. There are no hidden fees and no transaction fees other than the normal ones that come with processing payments.
Best for: Small chains (1–3 locations) and single-location restaurants that want a simple, cheap way to take orders directly.
5. Toast
Is a big name in restaurant technology. They have a full POS system with online ordering built in.
Their online ordering module works perfectly with their POS hardware, making it easy to order food for dine-in, takeout, or delivery. Orders go straight to the kitchen display screens, staff can handle everything from one tablet, and customers can see where their order is in real time.
Toast is great at analytics and reporting. You will learn a lot about sales by channel, peak ordering times, popular menu items, and how customers act. Email campaigns, loyalty programs, and managing gift cards are some of the marketing tools they use.
The bad news? Price. For each location, Toast’s online ordering starts at $69 a month, plus a 2.49% + 15¢ fee for processing payments. Those processing fees add up quickly for restaurants that do a lot of business.
Best for: Full-service restaurants and chains that want a single point of sale (POS) and ordering system and don’t mind paying more.
6. Square
Has grown from a payment processing company to a full restaurant management platform.
You don’t need any extra hardware to use their online ordering with Square POS. Customers can order through Square’s network, your website, or a custom ordering page that Square makes for you.
The best thing about Square is how easy it is to use. It only takes a few minutes to set up. Even people who aren’t tech-savvy can figure out how to use the interface. Built-in payment processing costs 2.9% plus 30 cents for online orders.
Square Online is free for basic features, but you can pay $29 a month for more advanced features. Adding online ordering is a natural next step for restaurants that already use Square POS.
The downside? You can’t customize it. Square’s templates work, but you can’t change them very much. If you want your brand to stand out online, Square may seem too generic.
Best for: Restaurants that already use Square POS and want to let customers order online quickly and easily without having to make a lot of changes.
How do you pick the best option?
First, figure out what bothers you the most about GloriaFood. Need better support for multiple locations? Deonde or POSBytz. Want the option that costs the least? Able to be ordered. Square Online makes sense if you already use Square POS.
Think about how you want to grow. If you want to open more locations in the next year, pick a platform that is made for managing more than one location from the start. Changing platforms again in a year is a waste of time and money.
Try it out before you buy. Most platforms let you try them out for free or set up a demo account. Place test orders, change menus, check the reporting, and see how easy it is for your staff to use the interface.
If you’re using a certain system, make sure it works with POS. Not every ordering platform works with every POS system. Before you sign a contract, make sure that the integration is there and works well.
Questions that are often asked
1. Is there a GloriaFood alternative that is really free?
Orderable has a free WordPress plugin that lets you order things. Square Online lets you place basic orders for free every month (you only have to pay for processing fees). But “free” platforms always have limits. Paid plans give restaurants access to features they will eventually need.
2. Which option gives you the most for your money?
Orderable at $149/year is hard to beat for WordPress users. We think that Deonde at $39/month has the best feature-to-price ratio for single-location restaurants because it has a lot of features.
3. Is it possible to move my current menu from GloriaFood?
Most platforms let you import menus from a CSV file or make them from scratch in their system. The process of moving usually only takes a few hours, not days. We help restaurants move to Deonde for free.
4. Do these other options charge fees?
There are no commissions on any of the six options listed here for direct orders. Instead of paying commissions on each order, you pay a monthly fee. Payment processing fees (usually 2.5–3% per transaction) are separate and go to the payment processors, not the platform.