Find the right restaurant tech without the sales calls
Tell us what you're shopping for. We research the options, read the contract terms, and email you a shortlist of one to three that fit your restaurant. Free.
Tap anything on the map that you need.
What one minute gets you
Not a list of every vendor. A short answer from someone who has already done the comparing.
Your week back
Skip the five demos and the follow-up calls. Read one email.
The watch-outs, up front
Contract length, forced card processing, leased hardware. We flag them before you talk to anyone.
A stack that fits together
We match new systems to the ones you already run, so nothing needs retyping.
No cost, no obligation
You pay us nothing. Take our suggestions or ignore them.
From Stack.Restaurant
Subject Your POS shortlist for Luna's Taqueria
Hi Maria, you told us: counter service, one location, about 40 seats, and you want out of a long contract. These three fit.
Vendor A Best overall fit
Built for counter service. Month-to-month. Keeps taking orders offline.
Watch out: you must use their card processing.
Vendor B Lowest monthly cost
Runs on tablets you already own. Connects to your payroll.
Watch out: phone support ends at 8pm.
Vendor C Best if you plan to expand
Strong multi-location reporting and menu control.
Watch out: two-year term with auto-renewal.
Reply with a number and we'll introduce you by email. If none fit, no reply needed.
Illustration of a typical reply. Real replies name real vendors.
Where are you right now?
Pick the one that sounds like you. We'll show what usually gets hard and how we'd help.
You're choosing everything at once, on a deadline
Every vendor wants a signature before you've served a single guest. The risk is buying too much, for too long.
What usually gets hard
- Picking a POS, payments, payroll and ordering all in the same month
- Long contracts and bundled hardware pushed before you have any sales data
- Paying for features you won't need until year two
- No time to sit through demos while you're building out the space
How we help
- A starter stack sized for opening day, and a list of what can wait
- Options with short terms, because your first year is the least predictable
- Systems that already connect, so nothing is retyped from day one
- One email to read instead of a week of sales calls
Where we'd start
What worked for one location is starting to crack
Spreadsheets, shared calendars and one-login tools don't survive a second or third site.
What usually gets hard
- No single view of sales, labor and food cost across locations
- Menu and price changes made by hand, location by location
- Per-location pricing that quietly doubles your software bill
- Managers each running things their own way
How we help
- A check of which current systems scale and which don't
- The multi-location pricing questions to ask before you sign
- Back-office, scheduling and inventory tools that report across sites
- A sensible order to add them in, so you're not switching everything at once
Where we'd start
You want out, without a bad month getting there
Most of the pain in switching is timing and paperwork, not the new software.
What usually gets hard
- Auto-renewal windows that are easy to miss
- Exit fees and equipment leases that outlast the contract
- Worry about losing menus, sales history and guest data
- Fear of downtime during the changeover
How we help
- A shortlist with exit terms and contract lengths compared side by side
- The dates that matter, so you give notice in time
- What to export from your old system before you cancel
- Replacements that connect to the systems you're keeping
Where we'd start
Money is leaking and it's hard to see where
Card fees, delivery commissions, labor and food cost all creep. Usually one of them matters far more than the rest.
What usually gets hard
- Card processing fees you can't decode from the statement
- Delivery app commissions eating takeout profit
- Labor scheduled on habit instead of expected sales
- Food cost that's only known at month end
How we help
- Help finding your biggest lever first, before buying anything
- How to work out your real card rate and compare offers fairly
- Direct ordering options so regulars stop costing you a commission
- Labor and inventory tools only where the payback is clear
Where we'd start
Great food, not enough people saying so
Most guests pick a restaurant from a search result and a star rating. Too few reviews, or a few bad ones left unanswered, costs you covers every week.
What usually gets hard
- Happy guests rarely leave a review unless someone asks
- Bad reviews sit unanswered because nobody has the time
- Hours, menus and photos out of date across Google, Yelp and the apps
- A website that doesn't show up when people nearby search
How we help
- Tools that ask every guest for feedback at the right moment, inside Google's rules
- One inbox to read and answer reviews from every site
- Website and menu tools built to be found in local search
- A straight answer when the fix is service, not software
Where we'd start
You inherited someone else's decisions
New owners often find contracts, leases and logins they didn't choose and can't fully see.
What usually gets hard
- Software contracts and equipment leases signed by the previous owner
- Accounts and guest data tied to someone else's email
- Staff attached to systems that may not be worth keeping
- No record of what is paid for, or why
How we help
- A keep, replace or drop review of everything you inherited
- Questions to ask the seller about contracts and data before closing
- Replacements that won't force a retrain in your first month
- A clean setup in your own name
Where we'd start
More orders, more tablets, less margin
Off-premise sales grow fast and get messy faster.
What usually gets hard
- A row of tablets and orders retyped into the POS during a rush
- Commissions on guests who already know you
- Menus and sold-out items out of sync across apps
- No names or emails for the people ordering
How we help
- Direct ordering that sends orders straight into your POS
- Tools that merge the delivery apps into one screen
- Loyalty that rewards ordering direct
- A plain comparison of flat-fee and per-order pricing
Where we'd start
Nothing is on fire, which is the best time to look
Stacks collect overlap and price creep. A quick review often finds savings, and sometimes finds nothing to change.
What usually gets hard
- Two tools doing the same job
- Features you pay for and never switched on
- Prices that went up at each renewal
- Newer options you haven't had time to look at
How we help
- An honest read of what to leave alone
- Overlaps you could cancel
- One or two additions, only if they'd clearly pay for themselves
- No pressure to change anything
Where we'd start
Buying restaurant tech, two ways
On your own
- Fill in a demo form on every vendor's site
- Your phone starts ringing, and keeps ringing
- Sit through hour-long demos to learn the price
- Compare quotes built to be hard to compare
- Find the contract traps after you sign
With Stack.Restaurant
- Fill in one form, once
- Everything happens by email, on your schedule
- A shortlist of one to three, with reasons
- Costs and terms laid out side by side
- Watch-outs flagged before the first demo
Already running a few systems? Get a free stack check.
Tap what you use today. We email what we'd add, what we'd change, and what we'd leave alone.
Check my stackAdvice without the pressure
Email only
We never call you, and we never pass your phone number to anyone.
Free for restaurants
You pay nothing to us, ever. Vendors cover our fee when there is one.
You stay in control
We introduce you to a vendor only after you say yes.
Every layer of your tech stack
Most restaurants run five or six systems that barely talk to each other. We help you choose each one so the whole stack works together.
Point of sale
The base of the stack. Everything else plugs into it.
Online ordering
Your own ordering site and delivery app integrations.
Payments
Card rates, terminals and contract terms.
Payroll and HR
Pay runs, tax filings, tips and onboarding.
Accounting and back office
Books, invoices and reporting across locations.
Scheduling and hours
Shift planning, time clocks and labor cost.
Loyalty and marketing
Rewards, campaigns, reviews and guest data.
Inventory
Counts, ordering, recipe costing and waste.
Reservations
Bookings, waitlists and table management.
From the blog
All articlesHow to get more reviews for your restaurant, and what software can and can't do
More reviews come from asking every guest, at the right moment, inside the platforms' rules. Here is what to do by hand first, and where tools really help.
Nine questions to ask before you sign a POS contract
Your point of sale is the hardest system to replace. These nine questions surface the lock-ins and hidden costs before you sign.
Flat rate or interchange-plus: how card processing pricing really works
Every card fee has three parts, and only one of them is negotiable. Here is how to read a quote and work out what you really pay.
Get your shortlist
Send your request
It takes about a minute. The more you tell us, the better the match.
We do the homework
We compare vendors against your size, service style, budget and the systems you already run, and we read the contract terms.
Get a shortlist by email
One to three options, each with plain reasons and the watch-outs you should know before a demo.
Decide on your own time
Want an introduction? Reply yes. Not interested? Do nothing. We won't chase you.