So, you’ve had a restaurant website for a while, and you’ve successfully attracted quite a large client base. However, more of your competitors are launching their own restaurant apps. If you want to continue being competitive, you’re going to have to jump on the bandwagon, too.
But wait - don’t you need to have strong technical knowledge and be fluent in at least four coding languages to launch a competitive restaurant app?
Luckily, the answer is no.
With the power of a no-code app builder, which doesn’t require any coding or technical expertise to use, you can easily build your own eye-catching and highly functional app. It will look and appear just like one built by a coding pro.
Today, a large variety of no-code app builders for restaurants are available. We’ve sifted through them and found our favorites. In this article, we’ll introduce you to our three favorite platforms that will enable you to build the restaurant app of your dreams.
What is No-Code Tech?
Gone are the days when you needed ample coding and technical expertise to build your own app. Now, app builders leverage no-code technology that lets anyone with a desktop or mobile device easily create their own app.
No-code tech harnesses the power of a drag-and-drop interface - to use this, just move your mouse to drag buttons and pictures onto your app. You’ll choose a template and then add on features, components, and integrations that connect you to other apps or software like Google Maps or a payment platform.
What we Considered When Choosing our App Builders
Simply Googling “no-code app builder” will return hundreds of results. You might spend more time scrolling through this dizzying selection than actually building your app. We’ve got experience working with apps. The restaurant apps we’ve chosen follow these two important rules of thumb:
- Restaurant-Friendly Templates: When you start building your app, one of the first building actions will be to choose a template. Many app builders have generic templates that aren’t suited towards building a restaurant app. If you choose one of these builders, you might waste time trying to find the right template for your needs.
We’ve made sure that the app builders on our list had a wide range of restaurant templates, so you can pick one that works for you, and begin creating your app on the fly.
- Payment Integrations: Restaurant apps must have payment integrations. You’ll probably want to include a takeout feature for your restaurant app. Giving your customers the ability to pay for their meals immediately and from your app will make their experience with your app super convenient.
Also, a payment integration will make organizing your finances stupidly simple. You won’t need to worry about using other payment forms and keeping track of your transitions - an integrated payment system keeps all payments to your account in one place.
During our restaurant app builder search, we tossed aside app builders that didn’t have payment integrations. Each of our chosen app builders can be integrated with major payment platforms like Stripe, Square, and PayPal.
Our Three Favorite Restaurant App Builders
- Adalo, to build almost any personalized feature you envision into your restaurant app.
- Jotform, to make specialized order and inventory management forms.
- Appy Pie, to manage large-scale restaurant operations from an app.
Adalo
You can use Adalo to build any type of app you can think of. Adalo also features an insanely intuitive drag-and-drop interface. Adalo is so easy to use you’ll be able to figure out how to use the drag-and-drop interface without any instruction.
Adalo has a huge selection of integrations, allowing you to create many features. For instance, if you want to build a messaging app, Adalo’s integration with Twilio makes this possible.
Why Adalo is A Great Choice For Building Your Restaurant App
- Adalo gives you a lot of freedom when it comes to the design side of things. You can put buttons and links almost anywhere on your app and change up your template’s color scheme and layout with ease. Maximum design freedom will let you cater your app to your exact taste.
- After you build your app, you can publish it in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. This makes your app available to an exponential number of customers, and you can publish your app as a website for customers who want to use their web browser to try your app.
- Need inspiration for your app’s design or special features? Check out the Made in Adalo page, which showcases several Adalo-made apps. If you have any specific questions about special features you want, just ask someone in the Adalo Community Forum.
Adalo has a large number of active and experienced app builders who are more than willing to help you. No matter what your question is, Adalo can lend a hand!
Pricing
Adalo’s pricing starts at $36/month.
Jotform
Jotform gives you the power to build different forms, making it a great choice for making a takeout app. If you take bulk orders, use one of Jotform’s specialized bulk order templates to tailor your ordering system to your bulk customer segment.
Jotform has many restaurant templates, and if you have a unique idea, simply combine several elements from other templates and create your own.
Why Jotform is A Great Choice For Building Your Restaurant App
- Jotform’s autoresponder feature makes communication and record creation super easy. It instantly converts orders to receipts or invoices into PDFs. Autoresponder then emails these documents to your customers. This gives your customers a receipt and creates a payment record for your accounting purposes.
- You’ll get tons of versatility beyond online ordering using Jotform for your restaurant operations. Use Jotform to organize your inventory and recipes; you’ll also be able to make profiles for your staff to streamline human resource management.
- With integrations to popular customer relationship management (CRM) programs Hubspot, Zoho, and Salesforce, Jotform makes customer record keeping simple. You’ll be able to immediately send your largest clients’ order records, receipts, and invoices to your CRM system. These integrations will help you keep track of all your important records and keep you on top of your business.
Pricing
You can create up to 25 forms at $34/month on Jotform’s Bronze Plan; if you’re a bigger restaurant and need to make 100 forms, you’ll pay $99/month on the Gold Plan.
Appy Pie
Appy Pie guides restaurant app builders through the types of apps they can specifically create for their restaurants. It has a mammoth selection of restaurant templates, so you can make the best choice for what you need. Appy Pie created templates for each restaurant app function, such as restaurant search, table booking, delivery, etc.
You’ll be able to pinpoint how you want your app to function with such an organized amount of templates available.
Why Appy Pie is A Great Choice For Building Your Restaurant App
- Appy Pie is used by big restaurant industry players like Chipotle, Domino's, and Starbucks. The fact that these well-known and highly professional brands use Appy Pie for their own app creation demonstrates Appy Pie’s capacity to handle complex operations.
- You’ll find convenient admin tools in Appy Pie, like delivery person tracking and management, a centralized control feature for running your chains from one place, and internal push notifications to notify staff about urgent tasks. Using these features will contribute to smooth internal operations.
- To better understand your customers, Appy Pie provides an App Analytics tool. This will track app-user purchasing behavior, time spent on the app, length of stay in your restaurant, etc. Use this feature to gain insights into menu items and how customers interact with people on your serving staff.
Pricing
Appy Pie’s Basic Plan is $16/month per app created, but only supports Android; if you need iOS (Apple), you’ll have to pay $60/month for the Platinum Plan.
Next Steps
Before you select your app builder, you’ll need to consider important things like the size of your operations and customer base, and these can be managed or optimized with your app.
While Jotform is good for making individual forms for each aspect of your restaurant and Adalo lets you build almost anything for your app, you might want to consider Appy Pie if you’re a huge chain because of its centralized management feature.
Once you select your app-building tool, it’s time to get to work and start building! You’ll soon find that having your very own restaurant app will greatly improve how your staff operates and will also improve your restaurant’s customer experience.
