- Free Version: Available for teams of up to 10
- Pricing: Premium plan $24/month (with a free 30-day trial period)
- Platforms supported: Available as a mobile app (iOS and Android) or a web-based software
SafetyCulture (iAuditor)
Why use SafetyCulture?
Companies in the food and beverage sector, whether big or small, will benefit from SafetyCulture’s food service management software as its numerous features streamline vital processes through automated inspections and compliance checks to ensure safety and quality in food handling. But what makes this platform one of the best in the industry is its capability to monitor inventory, employee activities, and customer orders in real time with the help of sensors, analytics, and centralized dashboards for communication.
Features:
- Keep tabs on employee and customer activity in the dining room and kitchen using surveillance cameras and monitor inventory and equipment in warehouses or factories with the help of automated sensors.
- Build customized checklists for food quality inspections, customer feedback forms, and employee performance scorecards, or use any of the available templates from the Public Library.
- Create and update personnel schedules and notify employees through Heads Up.
- Handle incidents in the workplace immediately through Issues and Actions and generate automated reports for further review.
- Build good working relationships among employees by providing continuous training sessions, especially for new hires.
Why use Fourth?
One of the leading workforce and inventory management suites, Fourth works incredibly well as a food service management software and is used by world-renowned fast food chains. Their products like Adaco for inventory, HotSchedules for employee rostering, and PeopleMatter for onboarding employees are all geared toward operational optimization and business success.
Features:
- Inventory management
- Menu consistency with safety compliance
- Full integration with POS and other sales software
- Free Version: None
- Pricing: Call the sales team for a custom quote
- Platforms supported: Web, iOS, Android
Why use Toast?
Used by nearly 100,000 restaurants all over the world, Toast is one of the best food service management software, as it offers the most comprehensive set of tools, from e-mail marketing all the way to food deliveries. With this software, companies can run their business efficiently and are assured of productivity.
Features:
- Menu management for digital menus
- Order and table management
- Scheduling and payroll management
- Free Version: Yes, specifically for small businesses like single-location cafes and food trucks.
- Pricing: Core plan costs $69 per month (customized demo also offered)
- Platforms supported: Web, iOS, Android
Why use BlueCart?
Servicing more than 100,000 businesses with a compiled 2 billion transactions, BlueCart is an all-in-one order management platform for food services that streamlines various workflows, increases sales, and ensures customer satisfaction.
Features:
- Marketplace publishing
- Order processing with shipping
- Customer information capture
- Free Version: None
- Pricing: Starts at $10 per month, billed annually (with a free trial)
- Platforms supported: Web, iOS, Android
Why use ChefMod?
This highly-favored food service software solution connects the art of culinary and the science of managing administrative tasks. On top of numerous tools that increase the business’ productivity and, consequently, revenues, they offer $250 as a referral fee for those who decide to use ChefMod.
Features:
- EZRecipe for menu management
- Order processing
- Robust analytics
- Free Version: None
- Pricing: Not indicated. Contact the software provider for more information (with a free demo)
- Platforms supported: Web, On-premise, iOS, Android
Why use Avero?
A leader in software solutions for the hospitality sector (e.g., restaurants, food and beverage services in hotels and casinos), Avero collects data from the current system and digitizes it for analysis to improve the different aspects of a business’s performance.
Features:
- Sales and productivity
- Real-time monitoring on mobile
- Group analytics
- Free Version: Yes. Starter plan is free for any users with basic features
- Pricing: Essential package costs $300 per location per year (with a free demo)
- Platforms supported: Web, iOS, Android
Why use xtraCHEF?
While Toast has recently acquired xtraCHEF, the software continues to be a stand-alone application complete with its original features. This digital solution helps food and beverage service businesses manage inventory, optimize operations, and make better financial decisions without disregarding gastronomic quality and top-notch customer service.
Features:
- Food cost and recipe management
- Data-driven insights
- Integrated data across systems
- Free Version: None
- Pricing: Starts at $149 per month (with a free demo)
- Platforms supported: Web, iOS, Android
Why use Restaurant365?
With numerous core solutions for accounting, store operations, and workforce management, Restaurant365 improves any food and beverage business’ back office and transforms the workflows in the front house, dining, and kitchen that guarantee revenues. The software provider offers comprehensive plans or stand-alone modules.
Features:
- Daily sales and forecasting
- Inventory and recipe management
- Actual and theoretical food costing
- Free Version: None
- Pricing: Essential package costs $435 per month, billed quarterly (free demo provided)
- Platforms supported: Web, iOS, Android
Why use 7shifts?
A scheduling software designed for restaurants, 7shifts helps companies with employee hiring, training, scheduling, payroll, and most importantly, retention. By ensuring that front and back-of-house workers are well supported, and with the numerous other management tools in the system, businesses can achieve their goals.
Features:
- Scheduling with templates
- Labor budget tool
- Restaurant performance analytics
- Free Version: Yes, specifically for single locations with up to 30 employees
- Pricing: Entree plan costs $29.99 per month, per location, billed annually (with a 14-day free trial)
- Platforms supported: Web, iOS, Android
Why use Fimble?
One of the most comprehensive management solutions for restaurants and other food service businesses, Fimble unifies store management, in-store and online ordering, and other relevant tasks to improve operations, profit, and customer experience.
Features:
- Inventory management
- Order management (in-store and mobile)
- Analytics
- Free Version: None
- Pricing: Starts at $69 per store per month, billed annually
- Platforms supported: Web, iOS, Android
What is Food Service Management Software?
Food service management software is a digital tool designed for streamlining and automating various tasks in the food industry, such as inventory management, staff scheduling, menu planning, and order processing. Used by restaurants, cafes, catering companies, and even food manufacturing companies, this software solution reduces costs, enhances operational efficiency, and provides safe and high-quality products and superior services.
Importance
Disorganized inventory checks, inferior personnel scheduling, dismal food hygiene, and mistakes in processing orders result in numerous issues that could mean the end of a business. Having the best food service management software prevents those problems from cropping up and ensures success through improved productivity, enhanced team collaboration, compliance with regulations, and most importantly, increased customer satisfaction. Here are some specifics:
- Improves cost control – One of the biggest challenges food businesses face is managing their inventory. With general tools like automated data collection, asset tracking, resource allocation, and more specific ones such as menu engineering, recipe standardization, and pricing management, companies won’t have to worry about food getting spoiled or money going to waste.
- Streamlines staff scheduling – Perhaps the most complex and labor-intensive task in this industry is creating efficient schedules. This is very true for restaurants, which have varying demands throughout the week and extra requirements during holidays. Foodservice software solutions have built-in analytics that help managers identify these trends. With that, they can better plan the shifts thanks to automated rostering and pinpoint the best personnel for particular tasks through performance tracking.
- Enhances customer relations – Satisfying the customer’s needs is a must in this industry. With the help of automated order-taking, processing, and even delivery service, problems like incorrect orders and delays are minimized or eradicated. Some platforms may also include digitized feedback forms, loyalty programs, and other targeted marketing campaigns.
Key Features
Comprehensive quality management systems may have some modules that could work for this industry. However, food service management software has very specific functionalities, such as the following:
- Centralized dashboard
- Template database (e.g., inspection checklists, customer feedback forms)
- Asset and inventory management
- Staff scheduling
- End-to-end process and product monitoring
- Menu and recipe engineering
- Order processing with delivery capabilities
- Incident management
- Reporting and Analytics
- Collaborative tools
- Integration with POS, loyalty programs, etc.
- Mobile accessibility
Choosing the Right Food Service Management Software
All options detailed above will be an immense help to any food service and manufacturing companies. Take another look at the different software solutions below before you decide on your top pick:
| App Name | Free Version | Paid Plan | Mobile App |
| SafetyCulture | Yes | $24/user/month* | Yes |
| Fourth | No | Custom quote | Yes |
| Toast | Yes | $69/month | Yes |
| BlueCart | No | $10/month* | Yes |
| ChefMod | No | Not indicated | Yes |
| Avero | Yes | $300/location/year | Yes |
| xtraCHEF | No | $149/month | Yes |
| Restaurant365 | No | $435/month** | Yes |
| 7shifts | Yes | $29.99/month/location* | Yes |
| Fimble | No | $69/store/month | Yes |
* billed annually
** billed quarterly
