Online Ordering September 17, 2026 · 12 min read

JB

Every guide to a free online ordering system for restaurants still leads with GloriaFood. GloriaFood's own homepage now says it reaches end of life on April 30, 2027.

So the list needs redoing. Below are eight systems that advertise a free tier, what each one actually gives you for nothing, and the exact point where it starts charging. Every price here was read off the company's own page on 17 September 2026.

A disclosure before we start: OrderEatRepeat is our product. It is number one on this list because it is ours, not because we ranked it. You will find the case against it in the same paragraph as the case for it, and the two systems we would genuinely send you to instead are named further down.

Is GloriaFood still the best free online ordering system?

No. GloriaFood is still free and still working, but GloriaFood's homepage states it "will reach end of life on April 30, 2027" — so anything you build on it has a deadline.

The same notice says Oracle "does not offer a direct replacement for GloriaFood products and services" and points customers at a third party called FoodAmigos.

This matters more than it sounds. GloriaFood is the answer Google's own AI Overview gives for this search, it is the number one organic result, and it is what every competing listicle recommends. A restaurant that searches today gets told, by the most authoritative-looking sources available, to sign up for a product with a shutdown date.

Why we made ours free

I run restaurants myself, and I know how thin the margins are. Paying a lot for online ordering isn't something I'd want, and I don't think it should cost a lot in the first place.

So we stopped charging for the part that costs us nothing: taking the order. We charge for the parts that do cost us money every month — card processing, email sending, and the support that comes with them. That is the whole logic of the pricing below, and it is why the free plan has no clock and no order cap on it.

Which free online ordering systems are actually free in 2026?

Four of the eight are genuinely free to take orders with no order cap: OrderEatRepeat, GloriaFood, Square Online and TastyIgniter. Only two of those four — OrderEatRepeat and GloriaFood — are also free on every location, and one of them shuts down in April 2027. The other four are capped, paid, or have no published price at all.

1. OrderEatRepeat — free, unlimited orders, unlimited locations

Ours. The free plan takes unlimited orders across unlimited locations with 0% commission, no card at signup, and we build your menu for you. It is free with no end date announced.

What you do not get for free: your diners pay in person, not on the storefront. No receipt printing, no separate staff logins, no reports or CSV export, and our name sits in the storefront footer. Card checkout, promotions and follow-up emails are $39 CAD / $35 USD each per location, per month, or $99 CAD / $89 USD for all three — and buying any one of them removes the branding and unlocks printing, staff logins and reports.

Pick it if you want a real free plan from someone who is not winding down, and you can live with cash and card-on-collection until you are ready to pay. It and GloriaFood are the only two systems here that are free on every location rather than just the first.

2. GloriaFood — free, unlimited, and ending April 30, 2027

Still the most generous free tier in the category: unlimited orders, unlimited locations, no commission, no monthly fee, no contract and no card to sign up, per GloriaFood's pricing page.

Online card payments are a $29 per month add-on. Their POS is $49 per month per location on a two-year commitment. Advanced promo marketing is $19 per month.

Pick it if you need something running tonight and you accept that you will migrate before April 2027. Do not build your ordering on it if you are opening a new site.

3. Square Online — free, but the free tier costs more per order

Square Free is $0/mo. per location and it is a proper product, not a trial. The catch is in the processing rate, published on Square's own online ordering page: the free plan charges 3.3% + 30¢ online, while Square Plus at $49/mo. per location charges 2.9% + 30¢.

That is a rare and worth-knowing structure. You are not choosing between free and paid — you are choosing between a monthly fee and a higher rate on every order. At roughly $12,250 a month in online orders the 0.4% difference covers the $49 fee.

Pick it if you already run Square in the till. The integration is the reason, not the price.

4. TastyIgniter — free forever, if you can run a server

Free and open source, self-hosted, zero commission, no monthly cost — TastyIgniter is the only entry here with no company that can change its mind. It reports 20,000+ installs and has been active since 2013.

You supply the hosting, the updates, the SSL certificate and the person who fixes it at 7pm on a Friday. That person is the price.

Pick it if you have a developer. If you do not, this is not free, it is deferred.

5. Chow Local — "free forever", with an order cap they do not publish

Chow Local's page promises "Zero Commissions. No Credit Card Needed. Free Forever!" Their own FAQ then says the free plan "will allow you to get a limited number of orders every month" — and never says how many.

The paid steps are steep: the Basic plan is $149/month for up to 150 orders and the Pro plan is $299/month for unlimited, both in Canadian dollars plus 5% GST, per Chow Local's own page.

Pick it if nothing. Find out the free cap before you build a menu on it.

6. Jotform — free for ten paid orders a month

Jotform ranks for "free online food ordering system" and it is a form builder, not an ordering platform. The free Starter plan allows 5 forms, 100 monthly submissions and — the number that matters — 10 monthly payment submissions, per Jotform's pricing page.

Ten paid orders a month. The next step up, Bronze, is $34/month billed annually for 100 payment submissions.

Pick it if you take a handful of pre-orders for a market stall. It is not a restaurant ordering system.

7. Vev — ranks for "free", is not free

Vev's page is titled "Free Online Ordering System" and ranks on page one for that phrase. Vev's own pricing page opens with "Vev starts at just $12.90 per month" and offers "30 days free trial of Pro."

There is no free plan. Pro is from $27.90/m and the top tier from $54.90/m.

Pick it if you were going to pay anyway. Just know the word free on that page refers to a trial.

8. FoodAmigos — Oracle's suggested exit, with no published price

This is the company Oracle names on GloriaFood's homepage as the transition route. Their pricing page says "One clear price. No hidden costs" — and then does not show a price. The only actions are "Get Free Demo" and "Book appointment."

There is no free tier mentioned anywhere on it.

Pick it if you are willing to take a sales call. Everyone being pushed there from GloriaFood is going from a free product with no signup call to a paid product with one.

Where does each free plan stop being free?

Every free tier draws a line somewhere, and on six of these eight the line is card payments or order volume. The table below is the whole decision in one place.

All figures read from each company's own page on 17 September 2026. Prices change; check before you sign.

Can my customers pay by card on a free plan?

Usually not, and this is the single most common free-tier limit in the category. GloriaFood charges $29 a month for it, OrderEatRepeat charges $39 CAD / $35 USD, and Jotform caps it at ten paid orders a month on the free plan.

Square is the exception: card payments work on the free plan, but at the higher 3.3% + 30¢ online rate rather than the 2.9% + 30¢ its paid plans get.

If your customers pay when they collect, the free tiers here are genuinely free. If you need money taken at checkout, budget between $29 and $39 a month on almost all of them. On ours that is the Online payments add-on, priced per location.

Does a free online ordering system take commission on orders?

The eight systems here do not take a percentage of your orders — free and commission-free happen to line up on this list. That is not true of the category as a whole, and it is the thing to check first on anything not listed above.

The distinction matters because "free" and "commission-free" are marketed interchangeably and mean different things. A marketplace can be free to join and still take 15–30% of every order. A platform can charge a monthly fee and take nothing per order. What you want to know is the total cost at your volume, not which of the two words a homepage uses.

Card processing is separate again, and you pay it on every system including the free ones. That fee goes to your processor, not the ordering platform.

Is Square Online really free for restaurants?

Yes, with one caveat that is easy to miss. Square Free is $0/mo. per location and is not a trial, but its online processing rate of 3.3% + 30¢ is higher than the 2.9% + 30¢ on Square Plus at $49/mo. per location.

So the honest way to describe it is not "free versus paid" but "pay monthly, or pay per order." Work out your online card volume and the answer falls out. Under roughly $12,000 a month, free wins. Above it, the paid plan is cheaper.

Everything else about Square Online is strong, particularly if your till is already Square. That integration, rather than the price, is the reason most restaurants on this list should look at it.

What do you actually give up by not paying?

Branding, staff logins, printing, reporting and usually card checkout — these are the five things almost every free tier holds back. Locations are the other common limit, and only OrderEatRepeat and GloriaFood leave it off entirely.

Here is the pattern across the list. Free plans are generous on the things that cost the vendor nothing — menu items, order volume, storefront pages — and strict on the things that cost the vendor money every month: card processing, email sending, printing hardware support, and human help.

That is worth knowing because it tells you which limits will actually bite. An order cap bites at your busiest moment, which is the worst possible time. A branding line in a footer never bites at all.

What should I do if I'm on GloriaFood right now?

Nothing urgent, but do not wait until 2027. You have until April 30, 2027 and GloriaFood says it remains committed to supporting existing customers until then, so the sensible move is to run a replacement in parallel during a quiet month rather than migrate under pressure.

Export your menu before you need it. Whatever you move to, the menu is the part that takes the longest, and it is the part you will want in your own hands.

If you want the longer version of this, we wrote a GloriaFood alternative page, what the delivery apps charge on top, the full cost breakdown, and a step-by-step migration guide.

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