Evaluation RuleDecision layer

When to Adopt SmartlyMenu: The 5-Location White-Label Threshold

At what client count and retainer structure does reselling SmartlyMenu as a white-label ordering product beat simply referring restaurant clients to a third-party QR menu vendor? Adopt SmartlyMenu once you can bill 5 or more restaurant locations a recurring menu-and-ordering fee that exceeds the $29/mo Pro cost per site, and only if you will staff the payment gateway support yourself.

By InnovaAI ResearchPublished

“At what client count and retainer structure does reselling SmartlyMenu as a white-label ordering product beat simply referring restaurant clients to a third-party QR menu vendor?”

Adopt SmartlyMenu once you can bill 5 or more restaurant locations a recurring menu-and-ordering fee that exceeds the $29/mo Pro cost per site, and only if you will staff the payment gateway support yourself.

Common Mistake

Agencies sign one restaurant client, resell the Pro plan at a markup, and treat the 0% platform fee as passive income, then discover they are now the first call when a Stripe or PayPal gateway fails at dinner service. The fee model shifts payment risk to the agency, not away from it, so a single-location reseller absorbs support cost that a 5-location operator spreads across retainers.

Why This Works

The Pro tier at $29/mo (or $24.17/mo billed annually) removes SmartlyMenu branding, supports 200 menu items, 5 menus, and 10 QR codes, and routes payments through the client's own gateway at 0% platform fees, which is what makes a per-location resale margin possible. The Business tier at $79/mo raises the ceiling to 1,000 menu items for larger or multi-concept clients. Because the platform pushes payment handling onto the agency, the economics only work when the agency already has the delivery capacity to support ordering infrastructure across several accounts.

Apply When
  • •The agency already manages 5 or more restaurant, food truck, or ghost kitchen accounts, matching the multi-location management scope SmartlyMenu is built for.
  • •Clients can connect their own Stripe, PayPal, or Square account, since the 0% platform fee model depends on the client owning the payment gateway.
  • •The agency wants to sell ordering as a branded product rather than a referral, which requires the Pro tier's white-label branding removal at $29/mo per location.
  • •Menu complexity stays under 200 items and 5 menus per location, the ceiling on the Pro plan before stepping up to Business at $79/mo.
  • •The agency is prepared to own payment support and gateway troubleshooting, because SmartlyMenu does not absorb that operational load.
Open the SmartlyMenu courseSmartlyMenu decision recordBrowse the Academy

More on SmartlyMenu