# Elements vs ChowNow

ChowNow is an online ordering service for restaurants. A restaurant gets a direct ordering tool on its own website, a website built for it if it needs one, a branded iOS and Android app, a listing on ChowNow's diner marketplace, and orders from a discovery network across Google, Apple Maps and Yelp. Plans include catering and QR code ordering, automated email and SMS marketing, a loyalty program, fraud and chargeback protection, order aggregation from third-party delivery apps, delivery management, more than 20 point-of-sale integrations and 24/7 support ([pricing](https://get.chownow.com/pricing/)). ChowNow does not take a commission on orders. It is a subscription, in three plans billed monthly or yearly, with a one-time setup fee and a fee on each transaction ([pricing](https://get.chownow.com/pricing/)). ChowNow is not a point-of-sale system; its orders ["integrate with leading POS systems including Toast, Square, Revel, Clover, and more."](https://get.chownow.com/pricing/)

Elements is not an ordering service. It is an integrated app environment for building web apps with an AI agent, and it includes the parts an online ordering site is made of: a Postgres database for the menu and orders, Stripe Checkout for card payments, realtime rows so a new order appears on the kitchen screen as it is placed, email templates sent through an SMTP provider such as Postmark, sign-in for staff, and background jobs. From a prompt, an agent can build a restaurant its own ordering site and kitchen board, running on a server the restaurant rents. It replaces online ordering, not the point-of-sale system at the counter: the registers, card readers, printers and in-store orders stay where they are.

On ChowNow, the ordering tool, the branded app and the marketplace belong to ChowNow, for a monthly fee and a per-transaction fee. An ordering site you build is yours, at a fixed monthly cost, and it can share one database with the rest of the restaurant's work: catering requests, the email list, the people who order every week. What you give up is the branded app, the marketplace, the point-of-sale integration and ChowNow's support and chargeback cover. Both charge a fee on each order, so the comparison comes down to the monthly fee against what you would build.

## What ChowNow Gives You That Is Hard to Build

ChowNow is more than an ordering page, and several of its pieces sit outside anything a restaurant builds for itself.

- **Orders that reach your point-of-sale system.** ChowNow sends online orders into more than 20 POS systems ([pricing](https://get.chownow.com/pricing/)). An app you build shows orders on its own kitchen board, in a browser on a tablet; getting them into your POS means building against that POS's API.
- **A branded mobile app.** ChowNow publishes an iOS and Android app under the restaurant's name, with the restaurant paying Apple's annual developer fee ([pricing](https://get.chownow.com/pricing/)). An Elements app is a website, opened in a phone's browser.
- **Discovery.** ChowNow lists restaurants on its marketplace and passes orders from Google, Apple Maps and Yelp. A site of your own starts with the diners who already know you.
- **Chargeback protection.** ChowNow says ["if you get a chargeback, we cover it."](https://get.chownow.com/pricing/) With your own app, Stripe [Radar](https://stripe.com/radar/pricing) screens payments for fraud, but a disputed charge is yours to answer, and Stripe charges a fee for each dispute ([pricing](https://stripe.com/pricing)).
- **Delivery and third-party orders.** ChowNow arranges delivery drivers through Flex Delivery, for a fee on each delivery order, and gathers orders from delivery apps into one place ([pricing](https://get.chownow.com/pricing/)). The demo below is pickup.
- **People to call.** ChowNow offers setup help and 24/7 support by phone and chat. With your own ordering site, nobody is on call but you, though an agent can take on most of the fixing.

## What Building It Looks Like

Online ordering is a menu, a cart, a payment and a screen in the kitchen. Here is what stands in for each ChowNow feature:

| ChowNow feature | In an app you build with Elements |
|---|---|
| A menu with photos, prices and options | Pages in Elements HTML, rendered on the server, with the menu stored in your Postgres database and photos uploaded by the owner ([html](/learn/man/html), [database](/learn/man/database), [file upload recipe](/learn/man/recipes/file-upload)) |
| Card checkout | Stripe Checkout, with the order's prices taken from your own rows, so card numbers never touch your app ([payments](/learn/man/payments)) |
| Order status for the diner | A page that moves from received to preparing to ready as the kitchen works, kept live by a LiveTable ([livetable](/learn/man/livetable)) |
| Email receipts | A receipt written in Elements HTML and mailed through Postmark or another SMTP provider when the order is paid ([email](/learn/man/email)) |
| Incoming orders in the kitchen | A kitchen board where new orders appear as tickets the moment they are paid, on any screen with a browser ([livetable](/learn/man/livetable), [channel](/learn/man/channel)) |
| Menu management and sold-out items | Admin pages for the owner and staff, gated by a role column ([admin roles recipe](/learn/man/recipes/admin-roles)) |
| Reporting | A page of today's orders and revenue that updates as orders come in ([live dashboard recipe](/learn/man/recipes/live-dashboard)) |
| Marketing email to past diners | A list built from your own orders, emailed on a schedule by background jobs ([jobs](/learn/man/jobs)) |
| Sales tax | [Stripe Tax](https://stripe.com/tax/pricing), added to each order wherever the restaurant is registered |
| Fraud screening | Stripe [Radar](https://stripe.com/radar/pricing) |
| Branded app, marketplace, POS integration, delivery drivers | No equivalent. These stay with ChowNow, or with a delivery or POS provider. |

What Stripe charges for Checkout, Tax and Radar is posted at [stripe.com/pricing](https://stripe.com/pricing). Because the menu, the orders and the email list are tables in the same database, a regular who orders lunch every Friday, a company that books catering and a subscriber to your specials are one list of people.

## The Demo: Orderhatch

[Orderhatch](https://elements.dev/demos/01a0f44c-eff4-72bd-8850-b62e0d56b6cd) is online ordering and a kitchen display for a neighborhood taqueria, built with Elements by an AI agent from one prompt. Diners browse a menu by category with photos, prices and options such as protein, salsa and add-ons, pick a pickup time, ASAP or a slot later today, and pay by card through Stripe. An order status page moves from received to preparing to ready, and the diner gets an email receipt. In the kitchen, new orders arrive as tickets in columns, oldest at the top, each with a timer, and staff tap to move them along or mark an item sold out for the day. The owner edits the menu and hours and sees today's orders and revenue. New orders, ticket moves and sold-out items update live on every screen.

Give your agent the prompt from the demo page and Orderhatch runs on your computer, ready for your own menu.

## Adding It Up

*This is an example, not a customer.* A taqueria takes online pickup orders through ChowNow. Here is what each side charges by:

| Cost | ChowNow | Your own app |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly fee | By plan, billed monthly or yearly ([pricing](https://get.chownow.com/pricing/)) | $100 for [Elements](/pricing), plus a server ([DigitalOcean pricing](https://www.digitalocean.com/pricing/droplets)) and an email provider for receipts ([Postmark pricing](https://postmarkapp.com/pricing)) |
| Per-order fees | A share of each transaction plus a fixed fee | Stripe's card fee, a share of each payment plus a fixed fee ([pricing](https://stripe.com/pricing)) |
| Setup | A one-time setup fee | The agent's work to build it |

Add up a month on each side at your own order volume. ChowNow's pricing page does not say whether its transaction fee replaces card processing or comes on top of it. Read it as replacing it, which is the reading most favorable to ChowNow; then both sides charge a fee on each order, and the comparison turns on ChowNow's monthly plan against Elements, a server and email. ChowNow's price also buys the branded app, the marketplace, the POS integration, chargeback cover and support. Weigh those against the difference.

The case for your own app gets stronger when it does more than take orders. Catering inquiries, a weekly specials email and a list of your regulars can be part of the same app, in the same database, with no second subscription. If you already pay separately for an email marketing service or a catering form, add those to the ChowNow column.

## When to Keep ChowNow

- **You want a branded app in the app stores.** ChowNow publishes one for you. An Elements app is a website.
- **Online orders have to land in your POS.** ChowNow's integrations do that for more than 20 systems.
- **You offer delivery.** ChowNow's Flex Delivery and its order aggregation from delivery apps take real work to replace.
- **Chargebacks and support matter more to you than the monthly fee.** ChowNow covers chargebacks and answers the phone around the clock.
- **You already sell through DoorDash.** DoorDash says its own online ordering for restaurants is ["commission-free but do carry a payment processing fee"](https://merchants.doordash.com/en-us/pricing). Compare that before building anything.
- **You would rather not run software.** ChowNow does the upkeep.

## Questions

### How does ChowNow charge?

ChowNow sells three plans, billed monthly or yearly, with a one-time setup fee and a fee on each transaction. Its rates are at get.chownow.com/pricing. ChowNow does not take a commission on orders.

### Does an Elements ordering app replace my point-of-sale system?

No. It replaces online ordering. Your registers, card readers, printers and in-store orders stay on your POS. Orders from an app you build appear on the app's own kitchen board in a browser, and they reach your POS when an agent builds an integration with that POS's API.

### Is my own ordering app cheaper than ChowNow?

Compare the monthly fees. Both sides charge a fee on each order: ChowNow lists a transaction fee, and Stripe charges a card fee on each payment. The rest is ChowNow's monthly plan against Elements at $100 a month plus a server and an email provider. ChowNow's rates are at get.chownow.com/pricing and Stripe's at stripe.com/pricing.

### Can diners order from their phones?

Yes, in the phone's browser. An Elements app is a website, so there is no listing in the App Store or Google Play. ChowNow's branded mobile app has no equivalent in an app you build.

### Who handles chargebacks with my own app?

You do, through Stripe. Stripe Radar screens payments for fraud, and Stripe charges a fee for each dispute, listed at stripe.com/pricing. ChowNow says it covers chargebacks for its restaurants, which is part of what its price buys.