Shopify vs custom when a restaurant starts selling
Gift cards, merch and meal kits are not the same problem as a live menu. Pick the shop tool for retail. Keep dishes in Quiteful.
Growing restaurants often confuse two jobs: selling things and publishing a menu. Shopify is mature at carts, gift cards, shipping. It is a poor allergen source of truth.
Buy the commodity layer for merch. Build or embed the glue for dishes. The invoice is not just the theme. It is staff fighting a product that almost fits service.
Hybrid is usually right. Shopify or similar for retail. Quiteful for the live menu. The website holds both without pretending they are the same object.
Price the lifecycle: apps, theme lock-in, who updates Christmas hampers, who 86's monkfish. A cheap app with six hacks is not cheap.
Do not rebuild commerce for the romance of custom. Do not shove tonight's menu into a product catalogue either.
Common questions
- Should the menu be in Shopify?
- Not if you need allergen logic, last-updated time and QR publishing. Use commerce for things you sell to take home. Use a menu platform for what you cook tonight.
- When is custom shop software worth it?
- When the retail workflow is the product and off-the-shelf keeps forcing workarounds. Most restaurants should not start there.