Owner.com built its reputation on getting independent restaurants off third-party delivery apps and onto their own website, and it does that well. What its own pricing page does not lead with is that guests pay a fee on every order regardless of plan, and the cheaper plan adds a second fee on top of that for the restaurant. This piece counts every real line item on both platforms, not just the headline number.
What Owner.com Actually Offers
Owner.com sells a full package: an AI-optimized restaurant website, online ordering, a branded mobile app, automated SEO pages, a loyalty and rewards program, AI-powered email and text marketing, direct catering orders, and 24/7 support. Both of its plans include the entire feature set. There is no stripped-down starter tier missing half the product.
Owner also handles setup and migration for you. A dedicated specialist builds the website, connects the menu, and gets a restaurant live, typically within a week if the domain and Google Business Profile details are on hand.
Included on Every Plan
- AI-optimized website with automated SEO pages
- Online ordering and a branded iOS and Android app
- Loyalty and rewards program
- AI-powered email and text marketing campaigns
- Direct catering order pages
- Setup and migration handled by a dedicated specialist
- Chargeback protection and 24/7 support
The Signup Process
Even though Owner's pricing is public, there is no self-serve checkout. Every signup route leads to booking a free demo call before an account is created.
What Owner.com Actually Costs
Owner runs two plans. Flex is $249 per month plus a 5% restaurant fee charged on every order. Flat is $499 per month with no restaurant-side fee at all.
The detail that is easy to miss on a first read: on both plans, the guest also pays a 5% order support fee at checkout, described as covering fulfillment and customer service. That fee exists whether a restaurant is on Flex or Flat.
So Flat removes the restaurant's own per-order fee, but a guest checking out on either plan still sees an added charge on their receipt. Owner's own FAQ frames this as the reason a restaurant should compare Owner's numbers to third-party apps charging 15% or more, and on that comparison it holds up. It is a different comparison against a platform with no per-order fee on either side.
| Plan | Monthly Fee | Restaurant-Side Fee | Guest-Side Fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flex | $249/mo | 5% per order | 5% order support fee |
| Flat | $499/mo | None | 5% order support fee |
What AUANI Offers Instead
AUANI starts at $0 a month with no setup fee. The Free tier carries a 10% marketplace fee and includes:
- Pickup, dine-in, and real courier delivery through Uber
- A punch-card loyalty program
- POS sync
- A guest list you can export at any time
- Reviews tied only to verified completed orders
The Monthly plan is $300 a month, drops the marketplace fee to 5%, and adds:
- A fully hosted WordPress website
- Your own ordering widget at 0% marketplace fee
- A full Google visibility suite: live ranking data, named competitor comparison, a geogrid map, and one-click profile fixes
- Menu analytics
Add a second location and the whole account's marketplace fee drops to 3%, with an extra location costing $100 a month. There is no guest-paid fee on any AUANI tier, on the marketplace or through the direct widget.
Side by Side
| Feature | Owner.com | AUANI |
|---|---|---|
| Cheapest monthly price | $249/mo (Flex) | $0/mo (Free) |
| Restaurant-side per-order fee | 5% on Flex, 0% on Flat | 10% Free, 5% Monthly, 3% at 2+ locations |
| Guest-side per-order fee | 5% on every plan | None |
| Direct ordering widget fee | Included in plan price, guest still pays 5% | 0% on Monthly, no guest fee |
| Signup process | Demo call required | Self-serve application |
| Setup fee | None (specialist handles it) | None |
| Free permanent tier | No | Yes |
Running the Same $1,200 Month Through Both
Take a small operation doing $1,200 in online orders a month, split between marketplace discovery orders and repeat direct orders, and run it through both platforms at their entry tier.
- Owner Flex: $249 plan cost, plus a 5% restaurant fee ($60) on the month's orders, and every guest also pays 5% ($60 total) at checkout on top of their order total.
- AUANI Free: $0 plan cost, a 10% marketplace fee ($120) on orders that came through AUANI's own discovery, and 0% on anything a guest orders through a direct channel once that guest already knows the restaurant.
- AUANI Monthly: $300 plan cost, a 5% marketplace fee on discovery orders, and 0% on anything routed through the restaurant's own 0% widget, with no added line on the guest's receipt either way.
At this volume, Owner's Flex plan and AUANI's Free tier land close in total dollars moved, but the shape of who pays what is different: Owner's fee sits partly on the restaurant and partly on the guest at checkout, while AUANI's marketplace fee sits entirely on the restaurant's side of the ledger.
The Real Trade-Off
What Owner's Managed Model Buys
Owner's model is genuinely full-service. A dedicated specialist builds the site, and the company has real case studies showing large, sustained sales growth for restaurants that stick with it. For an owner who wants the entire online presence handled by someone else, that hands-off setup has real value, and the $120 million Series C behind Owner means the roadmap is well-funded.
What AUANI's Model Buys Instead
AUANI's model buys the ability to try the platform for free, with no call required, before deciding whether the paid tier's website and Google visibility suite are worth $300 a month. A restaurant that would rather not touch the setup at all can also have AUANI's team build the website, connect the menu, and get the account live, the same hands-off path Owner sells, without needing to learn WordPress. Either way, no guest ever sees an extra fee tacked onto their receipt, on the marketplace or off it.
Who Owner.com's Model Doesn't Fit At All
A restaurant that wants to test an online ordering platform before committing to a monthly bill will not find that option here. There is no free tier, and no signup path skips the demo call. A restaurant sensitive to guests seeing an extra fee at checkout, even a modest one, is also working against Owner's built-in order support fee rather than with it.
An Honest Case for Choosing Owner Anyway
If a restaurant genuinely does not want to touch any of the setup work, the case for Owner is straightforward: pay the flat rate, hand the whole project to a specialist, and get a polished, professionally built website and app without learning WordPress or reviewing a Google Business Profile personally. That same hands-off path is available on AUANI's paid tier too, so the real decision usually comes down to the guest-facing fee and the case-study track record Owner has built, not whether someone else can build the site.
Best For
Owner.com suits a restaurant that wants a fully managed website and marketing system handled by someone else, and does not mind a guest-facing fee on every order in exchange for that hands-off setup. AUANI suits a restaurant that wants to test the platform for free first, keep a guest's receipt free of any added fee, and decide for itself when the paid website and Google visibility tools are worth paying for, whether it configures things directly or has AUANI's team set it up instead.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Owner.com charge restaurants a commission?
On the Flex plan, yes, a 5% restaurant fee applies to every order. The Flat plan removes that restaurant-side fee, but costs $499 a month instead of $249.
Do guests pay extra on Owner.com?
Yes. Owner adds a 5% order support fee at checkout on both the Flex and Flat plans, charged to the guest rather than the restaurant.
Does AUANI have a similar guest-facing fee?
No. AUANI does not add any fee to a guest's checkout total, on the marketplace or through its own direct ordering widget.
Can a restaurant try Owner.com for free before committing?
No. Owner has no free tier, and signup requires booking a demo call rather than a self-serve trial.
Is AUANI's Free tier permanent, or a trial?
It is permanent. AUANI's Free tier has no time limit and carries a 10% marketplace fee with no monthly cost.
Which platform is cheaper for a very small restaurant?
AUANI's Free tier has no monthly cost, which makes it the lower floor for a restaurant not ready to commit to a paid plan. Once volume grows enough that AUANI's paid Monthly tier makes sense, the comparison depends on how much of that volume can move to a 0% direct channel.
For the full picture of how AUANI stacks up against every platform in this comparison at once, see the master fee comparison table. For the delivery marketplace side of this question, AUANI vs. DoorDash covers commission math specifically. For the full picture beyond fees, see the Restaurant & Bar online ordering guide.