Menuly and Toast QR menus solve the same problem from opposite directions: one is source-available software you can own outright for $24, the other is a subscription at $29+/mo run entirely on someone else's servers.
Head to head
| Menuly | Toast QR menus | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $24 once | $29+/mo |
| Cost after 1 year | $24 | $348+ |
| Your data | Your SQLite file | Their cloud |
| Locations | Unlimited | Per-location pricing |
| Menu page speed | Server-rendered HTML, no JS | Bloated hosted pages |
| Works offline (builder) | Yes — desktop mode | No |
| Source code | MIT, on GitHub | Closed |
What Menuly does well
- Menu builder — Categories and items with name, description, photo and dietary tags, all drag-to-reorder.
- Server-rendered menu page — Pure HTML with inline critical CSS and no JS bundle, so it loads instantly on any phone with sticky category nav.
- 86 it in one click — Toggle an item out of stock and it vanishes from the live menu immediately, toggle back when the kitchen restocks.
- Specials section — Mark items as specials and flip one switch to show a Today's Specials section at the top of the menu.
What Toast QR menus still does better
There's a real reason Toast QR menus costs what it does: a bigger team, broader integrations and dedicated support behind it. If that ecosystem is genuinely what you need, it's worth paying for.
Which one should you pick
If your workflow depends on Toast QR menus's specific integrations or you'd rather not run anything yourself, stay put — that's a legitimate call. If you're comfortable owning the tool and want to stop paying $29+/mo for a job your own hardware can do, Menuly pays for itself and then some: menuly pays for itself in under one month of a QR-menu subscription — and it never charges you per location.
Try Menuly — $24, once
Self-hosted QR digital menu builder for restaurants and cafes with printable table tents.