This is version 0.1 of the online ordering model, and it's a draft: the weights are waiting for external validation and the vendor data is still being verified. The tables below are generated from the model itself, so their weights are always the ones we use.
Delivery apps and direct ordering platforms aren't substitutes, so they have separate rankings with their own weights:
- Direct ordering (the overall ranking): your own website and app, your POS's ordering module and the direct options of the delivery apps. It weighs the real cost of a typical restaurant's orders over a year (monthly fee, commissions, fees per order, card processing and setup), whether the platform charges your customers a fee, the contract, your access to your customers' data and the tools to bring them back, POS and delivery app integrations, support and whether the product is stable.
- Delivery apps: their cost for the same restaurant (the commissions pay for delivery too), how many diners use them and what they offer to bring orders in, support and the contract.
- Listed, not scored: platforms for chains, order aggregators and delivery services for direct orders. They're bought differently, usually by quote, so each gets a review with the same template and no score.
In the Spanish edition of this site, the Spanish-language criteria count too: the ordering page for your customers, support, the restaurant dashboard, the terms and the website in Spanish. In this English edition they aren't part of the score.
A price that isn't published counts as missing, never as zero, and the score never assumes a card processing rate. What your customers pay is shown apart and never added to your cost. Third-party ratings, promotions and anything commercial never count toward the score. A platform needs enough verified data before it enters any ranking.
Criteria and weights
Spanish-language criteria count only in the Spanish edition
These criteria count only in the Spanish edition of this site: ordering page in Spanish for your customers, support in Spanish, restaurant dashboard in Spanish, US website in Spanish, terms in Spanish, and app in Spanish for your customers. In this English edition they aren't part of the score, and the weights in each table add up to 100% without them. So a platform can have a different RTC Score in each edition.
Listed, not scored
Enterprise platforms, Order aggregators, and Delivery for your direct orders: we list these products with the same template and sources, but we don't score them. They're bought differently, usually by quote, or they serve other platforms.
Direct ordering (the overall ranking)
| Criterion | Pillar | Weight | What we measure | How it's scored |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12-month cost of the reference restaurant | Cost | 29.5% | 12-month cost of the reference restaurant | Cost of the reference restaurant over 12 months (monthly fee, commissions, fees per order, card processing and setup): full score at $5,000, zero at $17,000. If a charge isn't published the cost is missing, unless what is published already reaches $17,000: then it scores zero |
| Contract term | Contract and exit | 7.4% | Contract term | By steps: Month to month → 10/10; 1–12 months → 7.5/10; 13–24 months → 5/10; 25 months or more → 2.5/10 |
| Direct POS integrations | Operations and integrations | 6.3% | Direct POS integrations | By option: Toast → 1.7/10; Square → 1.7/10; Clover → 1.7/10; Shift4 POS → 1.7/10; SpotOn → 1.7/10; Lightspeed → 1.7/10; Others → 1.7/10; None → 0/10 |
| 24/7 support | Support | 6.3% | 24/7 support for restaurants | Yes = 10/10, No = 0/10 |
| Your customers' data | Your customers and marketing | 5.3% | Your customers' data | By option: Export, plus a built-in CRM → 10/10; You can export it → 8/10; You can see it but not export it → 3/10; No access → 0/10 |
| Product status | Stability | 5.3% | Product status | By option: Active → 10/10; Active, changed owners in the last 2 years → 8/10; Only sold to some customers → 5/10; End of life announced → 0/10 |
| Fee charged to your customers | Cost | 4.2% | Fee charged to your customers | By option: None → 10/10; Only if the restaurant turns it on → 8/10; The platform may charge a variable fee → 5/10; Mandatory fee set by the platform → 0/10 |
| Delivery app orders in the same place | Operations and integrations | 4.2% | Delivery app orders in the same place | By option: Included → 10/10; Paid add-on → 6/10; Through a third-party aggregator → 4/10; Not offered → 0/10 |
| Support channels | Support | 4.2% | Support channels | By option: Phone → 5/10; Chat → 3/10; Email or form → 1/10; Text message → 1/10 |
| Published pricing | Cost | 3.2% | Published pricing | By option: Published → 10/10; Partly published → 5/10; Quote only → 0/10 |
| Cancellation fee | Contract and exit | 3.2% | How the cancellation fee works | By option: No cancellation fee → 10/10; A fixed amount → 5/10; Other (see the clause) → 3/10; The fees left in the term → 2/10 |
| Refund when you cancel | Contract and exit | 3.2% | Refund when you cancel | By option: Prorated refund → 10/10; The terms don't say → 3/10; No refunds → 0/10 |
| Website with your own domain | Your customers and marketing | 3.2% | Website with your own domain | By option: Included → 10/10; Paid add-on → 5/10; Not offered → 0/10 |
| Brings you new customers | Your customers and marketing | 3.2% | Brings you new customers | By option: Delivery app marketplace → 10/10; Its own discovery network → 8/10; Search and marketing tools → 5/10; None → 0/10 |
| Handles fraud and chargebacks | Operations and integrations | 3.2% | Handles fraud and chargebacks | Yes = 10/10, No = 0/10 |
| Notice to cancel | Contract and exit | 2.1% | Notice to cancel | Linear: full score at 0 days, zero at 90 days |
| App with your brand | Your customers and marketing | 2.1% | App with your brand | By option: Included → 10/10; Paid add-on → 5/10; Not offered → 0/10 |
| Loyalty and email or text marketing | Your customers and marketing | 2.1% | Loyalty and email or text marketing | By option: Included → 10/10; Paid add-on → 5/10; Not offered → 0/10 |
| Works without the vendor's own POS | Operations and integrations | 2.1% | Requires the vendor's own POS | Yes = 5/10, No = 10/10 |
Delivery apps: a separate ranking
These products are ranked only among themselves, with their own criteria and weights. Each table adds up to 100%.
| Criterion | Pillar | Weight | What we measure | How it's scored |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12-month cost of the reference restaurant on the app | Cost | 40% | 12-month cost of the reference restaurant | Cost of the reference restaurant over 12 months (monthly fee, commissions, fees per order, card processing and setup): full score at $9,000, zero at $21,000. If a charge isn't published the cost is missing, unless what is published already reaches $21,000: then it scores zero |
| Share of US delivery spending | Reach of the delivery apps | 13.3% | Share of US delivery spending | Linear: full score at 50%, zero at 0% |
| 24/7 support | Support | 10% | 24/7 support for restaurants | Yes = 10/10, No = 0/10 |
| Subscription for your customers | Reach of the delivery apps | 7.8% | Subscription for your customers | Yes = 10/10, No = 0/10 |
| Minimum orders guarantee | Reach of the delivery apps | 6.7% | Minimum orders guarantee | Yes = 10/10, No = 0/10 |
| Support channels | Support | 6.7% | Support channels | By option: Phone → 5/10; Chat → 3/10; Email or form → 1/10; Text message → 1/10 |
| Publishes its fee caps by city | Cost | 4.4% | Publishes its fee caps by city | Yes = 10/10, No = 0/10 |
| Contract term | Contract and exit | 4.4% | Contract term | By steps: Month to month → 10/10; 1–12 months → 7.5/10; 13–24 months → 5/10; 25 months or more → 2.5/10 |
| Cancellation fee | Contract and exit | 3.3% | How the cancellation fee works | By option: No cancellation fee → 10/10; A fixed amount → 5/10; Other (see the clause) → 3/10; The fees left in the term → 2/10 |
| Notice to cancel | Contract and exit | 3.3% | Notice to cancel | Linear: full score at 0 days, zero at 90 days |
The formula
Each criterion gives a partial score from 0 to 1. The RTC Score is 10 × the weighted average of the criteria we could verify, reduced when data is missing: × (1 − 0.5 × (1 − completeness)). Completeness is the share of the total weight we could verify.
Below 60% completeness, a platform is marked as not having enough data and isn't ranked. That check always uses the base weights, so a ranking by type of restaurant never includes a platform the overall ranking leaves out. A price the vendor doesn't publish counts as missing: it lowers completeness, and with too little data the platform isn't ranked.
Reference profile for cost
Reference: 400 online orders a month, $30 ticket, 70% pickup: 400 online orders a month at an average ticket of $30 ($12,000 in sales), 70% of them picked up and the rest delivered, over 12 months. On direct orders your customers pay the delivery fee.
Assumptions behind the cost criteria
- The cost adds the plan's monthly fee, the orders over the plan's limit, the commissions by channel, the fixed fees per order, card processing and one-time setup fees, over the months compared. The monthly cost spreads setup over those months.
- Delivery apps charge a commission on the orders they deliver and a different one on pickup orders; we apply each to its share of the orders. Your own website or app orders pay the platform's commission on direct orders, if any.
- Card processing counts at the vendor's online rate, or $0 when the vendor includes it in its commission. A rate the vendor doesn't publish is never $0: the score counts it as missing. Only the calculator offers an assumed rate, and it says so on each product.
- On direct orders your customers pay the delivery fee in the reference restaurant. In the calculator you can make your restaurant pay part or all of it, at a cost per delivery you choose.
- What the platform charges your customers (service or support fees) is shown apart and never added to your cost. The fees the delivery apps charge your customers aren't published per restaurant, so they aren't shown.
- We use the cheapest plan that we can price for the reference restaurant, with that plan's own commissions.
- Optional add-ons (branded app, loyalty, extra integrations, the vendor's tablet when it's optional) are shown on each pricing page but not added.
- Promotions, like 0% commission for the first weeks, are never subtracted from the cost or counted in the score; the calculator shows them apart.
Weights by type of restaurant
Rankings by type of restaurant multiply some weights of the direct ordering ranking. The direct ordering ranking always uses the base weights.
| Ranking | Adjustments |
|---|---|
| Budget | 12-month cost of the reference restaurant ×1.5 · Fee charged to your customers ×1.25 · Your customers' data ×0.75 · Website with your own domain ×0.75 · Brings you new customers ×0.75 · App with your brand ×0.75 · Loyalty and email or text marketing ×0.75 |
| Pizzerias and high-pickup restaurants | 12-month cost of the reference restaurant ×1.14 · Fee charged to your customers ×1.14 · Published pricing ×1.14 · Direct POS integrations ×1.33 · Delivery app orders in the same place ×1.33 · Handles fraud and chargebacks ×1.33 · Works without the vendor's own POS ×1.33 |
| Online ordering in your POS | Works without the vendor's own POS ×0 · Direct POS integrations ×0 |
| Multi-location | 12-month cost of the reference restaurant ×0.71 · Fee charged to your customers ×0.71 · Published pricing ×0.71 · Direct POS integrations ×1.33 · Delivery app orders in the same place ×1.33 · Handles fraud and chargebacks ×1.33 · Works without the vendor's own POS ×1.33 · Your customers' data ×1.33 · Website with your own domain ×1.33 · Brings you new customers ×1.33 · App with your brand ×1.33 · Loyalty and email or text marketing ×1.33 |
| Growing your online sales | 12-month cost of the reference restaurant ×0.8 · Your customers' data ×1.5 · Website with your own domain ×1.5 · Brings you new customers ×1.5 · App with your brand ×1.5 · Loyalty and email or text marketing ×1.5 |
| Food trucks and ghost kitchens | 12-month cost of the reference restaurant ×1.15 · Contract term ×1.3 · Cancellation fee ×1.3 · Refund when you cancel ×1.3 · Notice to cancel ×1.3 |
What never affects a score
Commissions, affiliate deals, sponsorships and price requests. The scoring engine has no access to them, and every vendor gets the same rubric.
Changelog
v0.1.0 ·
First draft, pending external validation. Two rankings with their own weights: direct ordering (cost 35, contract 15, your customers and marketing 15, operations 15, support 10, stability 5, Spanish 5 in the Spanish edition) and delivery apps (cost 40, reach 25, support 15, contract 10, Spanish 10 in the Spanish edition). Enterprise platforms, order aggregators and delivery services for direct orders are listed without a score. Third-party ratings and promotions don't count toward the score; the calculator shows promotions apart.