ChowNow

ChowNow builds online ordering that runs on the restaurant's own website, Google profile and branded mobile app. Guests order pickup or delivery directly, and orders arrive on a tablet or go into a connected POS.

The pitch is ownership: orders placed through your own channels give you the guest's contact details and keep you off the per-order commissions charged by delivery marketplaces. ChowNow also offers delivery through partner drivers, marketing emails to past customers, and its own diner app.

Ask how fees are structured, which POS systems it connects to, and how menus stay in sync with the POS so a sold-out item disappears from the online menu too.

It also offers branded apps for restaurants that want their own icon on a guest's phone, though many independents find a good ordering page on their website covers most orders.