How to choose a digital menu platform (and when we are not it)

Almost everything sold as a “digital menu” falls into one of three groups, and knowing which one you are looking at settles most of the decision.

Comparing a QR generator with a POS suite on price tells you nothing. Compare inside a group.

1. Does the printed code survive a menu change? If changing a price means reprinting table cards, the tool has failed at the one job that makes a QR menu cheaper than paper.
2. Can you edit it yourself, in seconds? Some platforms still route changes through their support desk. Ask how long a price change takes on a Friday night.
3. Is there a commission? A percentage of every order dwarfs any monthly fee within a year. Get the answer in writing.
4. Do your guests' languages work properly? Not “is there a translate button”, but: does an Arabic menu lay out right to left, in a typeface that has the glyphs, with prices that still read correctly?
5. What happens if the company disappears? See below. This one is not hypothetical.

Oracle has announced that GloriaFood will be retired on 30 April 2027. New sign-ups are already closed, no migration tool has been provided and no successor product has been named. Restaurants in more than fifty countries used it, largely because it was free and took no commission.

It is worth being clear about why this is in a comparison page and not a sales pitch: it is the clearest available answer to “what happens if the company disappears”, and the lesson generalises to every vendor on your shortlist, including us. Ask two things before you commit a menu to anyone — whether you can export it, and whether the software can keep running without the company. DigiMenu ships a Docker image and a compose file for exactly that second reason.

• A QR menu that opens in any phone browser, with no app
• Menus in English, Persian, Arabic, Turkish and Spanish — the guest chooses
• Full right-to-left layout, not a mirrored afterthought
• Dishes, photos and prices edited by the owner, live in seconds
• Per-table QR codes, so an order knows which table sent it
• A live order board for waiters and a kitchen screen for the pass
• Guests can call a waiter from the table
• Revenue, top dishes, busy days and a forecast
• Staff accounts: owner, manager, waiter, kitchen
• No commission on any order, on any plan
• Self-hostable with Docker on your own server

Three plans: $19, $39 and $99 a month. What is in each, and a working menu you can open right now.

A comparison page that only lists strengths is an advertisement wearing a lab coat. These are the reasons to choose something else, and they are current as of 2026-09-15.

• Integrate with a POS. If your tills must see these orders automatically, we are not there yet.
• Take card payments online. Guests order at the table and pay the restaurant the way they already do.
• Handle several branches under one account. One restaurant, one account, today.
• Carry allergen or dietary labels on a dish. There is no field for it yet, so the menu cannot claim one.
• Deliver the custom website sold on the Max plan — it is marked coming soon in the panel, and it is not built.
• Show you reviews from other restaurants, because the product is new and there are none to show.

What should a restaurant compare digital menu platforms on?

Five things, in this order: whether the printed QR code survives a menu change, whether you can edit prices yourself in seconds, whether there is a commission on orders, whether your guests' languages are supported properly, and what happens to your menu if the company disappears. Feature lists matter far less than these five, because every platform's feature list looks similar and these five are where they differ.

Is a cheaper digital menu platform worse?

Not necessarily, and price is a poor way to choose. The menu-first tools that cost under $10 a month do the menu part well and stop there. If a QR menu is all you need, paying more buys you nothing. The cost appears later, when you want orders to reach a kitchen screen or staff to have separate accounts.

What happens to my menu if the platform shuts down?

Ask before you sign up, because it happens. Oracle has announced that GloriaFood will be retired on 30 April 2027, with no migration tool and no named successor, affecting restaurants in more than 50 countries. The questions worth asking any vendor are whether you can export your menu, and whether the software can run on your own server if the company stops.

Which digital menu platforms support Arabic or Persian menus?

Few support them properly, and the distinction that matters is not translation but direction. A menu in Arabic or Persian has to lay out right to left, with the correct typeface and enough line height for the script, and prices have to stay readable inside a right-to-left line. DigiMenu ships English, Persian, Arabic, Turkish and Spanish, the guest picks at the table, and the restaurant's own dish names are never machine-translated.

Do digital menu platforms charge commission on orders?

The menu-first ones generally do not; the marketplace and delivery ones generally do. It is the single largest long-term cost difference between two products that look similar on a pricing page, so it is worth confirming in writing. DigiMenu takes no commission on any plan.

When is DigiMenu the wrong choice?

When your tills must receive these orders automatically — there is no POS integration. When you run several branches from one account. When guests must pay by card inside the menu. And when you need allergen labels on every dish, because there is no field for them yet.

The GloriaFood retirement date and the absence of a migration path were reported by the vendor's own in-app notice and covered independently by several platforms in this market during 2026. Everything stated about DigiMenu on this page was checked against the software itself on 2026-09-15, not against its marketing.