Two sliders. Eleven platforms. Three years of software rent, setup and order fees — on each vendor's own published 2026 prices, next to a page that is paid for once.
The same three years, every platform, at the volume you set above. Tap a row to put it in the calculator. ShopLaunch is the green bar: $199, paid once.
Each bar is the platform's default plan below — the one that includes a website and online ordering: Toast Core ($219/mo), BentoBox Essentials (last list, $149/mo), Owner.com at whichever of its two plans is cheaper for you, Popmenu Starter ($179/mo), Square Plus ($49/mo), ChowNow Launch ($229/mo), Clover Starter ($179/mo × 36), SpotOn POS Essentials, Slice Online Growth ($39/mo + $3.00 an order), TouchBistro POS + Online Ordering ($69 + a reported $50) and Lightspeed Essential ($189/mo). The row for the platform you picked shows the plan and volume above it.
A calculator that adds up everything is a calculator that lies. These three lines are deliberately not in the total.
Every platform here takes a cut of each card payment — Toast 3.50% + 15¢ online, Square 2.9% + 30¢, Clover 2.3% + 10¢, ChowNow 2.95% + 29¢, SpotOn 2.79% + 20¢, Slice 2.90% + 30¢ — and TouchBistro and Lightspeed publish no number at all, only "quoted", "default" or "custom". We do not process cards at all, so counting it would be comparing a page with a payment processor. You pay it either way, to somebody. It is left out on both sides.
Toast, Square, Clover, SpotOn, TouchBistro and Lightspeed are registers. Owner.com, ChowNow and Slice take orders and keep the guest list. The calculator compares the website and menu line — the part a static page does without a subscription. If you need a register or an ordering flow, keep the platform and take the page off its bill; if you need neither, the whole bill is the saving.
On Square's Free plan and SpotOn's All-In the software is $0 and you do the work: set the page up in their editor, keep the hours and prices current, make the QR codes. We have not priced your evenings. The $199 is someone else doing it, once.
Popmenu charges $1.00 per online order and Owner.com's guests pay a 5% order-support fee — either can be passed to the guest, so neither is in the total. Where a per-order fee is definitely the restaurant's (Slice's $2.00 or $3.00 an order, Owner.com's 5% on its Flexible plan, SpotOn's 0.20% of card volume on the Core Bundle) it is counted, which is why the Slice and Owner.com numbers move when you move the sliders.
One payment. No subscription, no commission, no hardware, no contract, nothing to cancel at the end of a term. Live the next business day.
All eleven platforms, the three-year totals at 250 orders a month, and the five questions to ask before you renew.
Payment is taken by Polar Software, Inc., our merchant of record, on their checkout page — we never see your card. By ordering you agree to our terms and refund policy.
Where the numbers come from. Toast: Traditional pricing on its Starter Kit checkout — $69 / $219 / $578 a month, $1,153 countertop kit, 2-year agreement (read 11 November 2026). BentoBox: no price published since the Clover fold-in; last list $149 / $249 a month plus $1,000 / $1,500 setup (2023). Owner.com: $249 a month + 5% of orders, or $499 flat, guests paying 5% on both. Popmenu: $179–$499 a month plus $1.00 an online order. Square for Restaurants: $0 / $49 / $149 a month per location. ChowNow: $229 / $319 / $409 a month on annual billing plus $119–$499 setup (top of the range used) and 2.95% + 29¢. Clover: $179–$354 a month for 36 months with hardware inside. SpotOn: All-In $0 a station, POS Essentials $55 a station plus $750–$995 of hardware, Core Bundle $50 a month plus 0.20% of card volume. Slice: Online Growth $39 a month + $3.00 per card order, Complete Growth $99 a month + $2.00 per online or phone order + $1,000 implementation, 2.90% + 30¢ cards, month to month. TouchBistro: POS $69 a month with hardware required, Essentials Bundle $119, online ordering a third-party-reported $50. Lightspeed Restaurant: Starter $69 / Essential $189 / Premium $399 a month, kitchen display $30 a screen, reservations an add-on, hardware separate, rates quoted. US list prices, before tax. Vendors change them — check before you sign. Something out of date? Tell us and we will correct it with the source.
Each page has that vendor's price ladder, contract terms, the three-year arithmetic and the sources.