How to choose an ordering system

Updated September 2026

Most owners compare products that are not in the same category — a €13 digital menu against a €70 platform that issues receipts — and then wonder why the quotes make no sense. This guide sorts the market into the four things people mean by “ordering system”, gives you the questions that actually separate them, and is honest about where Hack Snack is the wrong answer.

The four categories, and what each one actually does

Almost every product sold in Greece as a “σύστημα παραγγελιοληψίας” falls into one of four groups. They solve different problems and their prices are not comparable.

1. QR digital menu

Replaces the paper menu with a page your guests open by scanning a code. Typically €10–15 per month. It shows the menu; it does not take an order, does not reach the kitchen, and does not issue a receipt. Right choice if your problem is printing costs and menu changes — not if your problem is service speed.

2. POS / cash register with wireless ordering

The traditional Greek model: a till, a waiter handheld, and a licence, usually bundled with hardware and often installed on a machine in the venue. Strong on fiscal compliance and on working without internet. Weaker on guest-facing features, and you are buying equipment as well as software.

3. All-in-one cloud platform

One subscription covering QR ordering, the waiter app, the kitchen display, printing, the customer database and myDATA transmission, running in the browser on hardware you already own. Costs less up front than a POS bundle and more per month than a menu. This is the category Hack Snack is in.

4. Delivery marketplaces

e-food, Wolt and BOX are a sales channel, not a management system. They bring you orders you would not otherwise get, and they keep a percentage of each one. They are complementary to categories 2 and 3, not a replacement — most venues end up running both.

Eight questions to ask before you sign

These are the questions where vendors genuinely differ. Ask them in this order.

Does it transmit to myDATA by itself?

In Greece this is not optional. Ask whether the system transmits every receipt and invoice to AADE in real time, or whether it exports a file for your accountant. The difference is an hour a week, forever.

Is there a commission on each order?

A flat subscription and a percentage per order look similar at ten orders a day and very different at three hundred. Get the answer in writing, including for orders that arrive through the QR code rather than a marketplace.

What happens when the internet drops?

A cloud system needs a connection; a local till does not. Ask what the failure mode looks like on a Saturday night — can you still print, still serve, still issue receipts — and decide how much that risk is worth to you.

Who owns the customer data?

If guests order through a marketplace, the marketplace owns the relationship. If they order through your own QR code, you should own it. Ask whether you can export the customer list, and check the answer before you have three years of it.

Do I have to buy hardware?

Some vendors sell a bundle with a terminal, a handheld and a printer. Others run on the phones your staff already carry. Compare the first-year total, not the monthly figure.

What does the second outlet cost?

If you might open another venue, ask now. Per-outlet pricing, a group discount and a per-company licence produce very different numbers at three locations.

How hard is it to leave?

Ask how you export your menu, your orders and your customers, and in what format. A vendor confident in their product will answer immediately.

Who answers the phone on a Saturday night?

Support hours matter more in hospitality than in almost any other industry, because your busiest hours are outside everyone else’s office hours.

What it actually costs

Three cost models circulate in this market, and the cheapest headline number is rarely the cheapest year. A digital menu is €10–15 a month but leaves the ordering problem unsolved. A POS bundle is often a low monthly licence on top of several hundred euros of hardware, so the first year dominates. A cloud platform is a flat monthly fee per outlet with no equipment to buy. And a marketplace commission has no monthly fee at all, which is why it feels free until you multiply it: at a €25 average check and 40 delivery orders a day, a commission in the usual range costs more per month than any subscription on this page. None of that makes one model wrong — it makes them answers to different questions.

When Hack Snack is the wrong choice

We would rather tell you now than three weeks into onboarding.

You only want a menu

If you have no interest in taking orders digitally and just want to stop reprinting cardboard, a dedicated QR-menu product costs a fraction of what we do and will serve you perfectly well.

You run a delivery-only kitchen

If every order arrives from a marketplace and you have no dining room, most of what we build — table management, waiter handhelds, guest QR codes — is weight you are carrying for nothing. An integration is a better fit than a platform.

You cannot rely on a connection

We run in the cloud. If your venue genuinely loses connectivity often and you cannot put a mobile backup in place, a local till is the more honest recommendation.

You are a retail shop

We are built for hospitality — covers, tables, courses, kitchen timing. Retail POS, stock-keeping units and shipping are a different product category and we are not it.

Where Hack Snack does fit

Venues with a dining room, a terrace or sunbeds, that want guests to order and pay from their phone without an app, want the kitchen to see the order at the same moment as the waiter, and want every receipt to reach AADE without anyone typing it twice. Three plans, per outlet, per month, no commission on any order, and the first month free without a card. If that is the shape of your problem, book a demo and we will show you it running on a real venue rather than a slide.

PHONE

+30 210 300 0391

Call us anytime

EMAIL

[email protected]

For any inquiry

ADDRESS

Athens, Greece

Serving businesses across Greece

Hack SnackHack Snack

Digital Business Solutions

Quick Links

  • Home
  • Features
  • Products
  • FAQ
  • Buyer’s guide
  • Benefits
  • Contact

Legal

  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Service
  • Cookie Policy

Contact Us

[email protected]

+30 210 300 0391

Ermou 1, 14452, Athens

© 2026 Hack Snack. All rights reserved