Free catering software rarely costs zero: you pay for it through a commission on your sales, through modules billed separately, through the time your team spends re-entering what it does not do, or through the difficulty of getting your data back the day you leave. That is not a reason to rule it out; it is a reason to do the math. Here is how.
The four ways to pay for “free” software
- **The commission.** Some online ordering platforms take 3% to 6% of every sale, with no fixed fees. At $10,000 in online sales per month, that is $300 to $600 per month, more than most subscriptions. The commission is attractive when volume is low, and becomes the most expensive item when volume grows.
- **Paid add-ons.** The core is free; invoicing, online payments, reports or extra users are billed. Add up what you actually need before comparing.
- **Data entry time.** A free tool that handles orders but not production or invoicing makes you copy every order twice. At 15 minutes per order and 20 orders per week, that is 5 hours per week, or 260 hours per year.
- **The exit.** If your customers, your menus and your history cannot be exported in a readable format, switching tools will cost more than any subscription.
The math in three lines
For each option, add up over one year:
- **direct costs**: subscription, commissions, add-ons, users, setup fees;
- **time**: hours of data entry or re-entry per week × 52 × your loaded hourly rate;
- **risk**: what an order error or an unpaid invoice due to lack of follow-up would cost, based on your experience.
The cheapest option is the one with the smallest total, not the smallest subscription. The ROI calculator does this math from your hours and your hourly rate.
What a subscription costs, plainly
In Québec, subscriptions to catering management software range from about $60 to $500 per month depending on the number of users and modules, and ERPs add implementation fees and a commitment. Caterer Manager publishes its prices on the Pricing page: $199, $495 and $999 per month with annual payment in Canada (€125, €300 and €600 excl. VAT in France), with the seats included per plan and $50 (€30 excl. VAT) per additional seat. Support is included; there is no hardware to buy and no commission on your sales.
When free is the right choice
- You are just starting out and handle fewer than ten or so orders per week.
- You do not have an online store yet and want to test demand.
- You are willing to handle production and invoicing separately for a few months.
In these three cases, a free commission-based tool is reasonable. Note from the start the date when volume will make the commission more expensive than a subscription: that is your signal to switch, with your data in hand.
Questions to ask before signing, free or not
- What do you take from my sales, and on which payments?
- What is billed separately?
- How do I get my data back if I leave?
- Who answers when it doesn’t work on a Saturday morning, and in what language?
- How long does entering an order take, from the call to the invoice?
A vendor who answers all five in writing is telling you what their software really costs.
