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Maple alternatives for restaurant phone ordering
The closest Maple alternatives are Loman, Serviio, Bitebuddy and Kea, which also take phone orders into the POS. Serviio and Bitebuddy charge per order instead of a monthly fee. Slang.ai is the pick if your calls are mostly reservations. Maple is still the lowest published flat price for AI phone ordering: $350 a month, or $220 a month paid yearly.
Maple in one paragraph
Maple sells two restaurant plans. Voice ($150 a month, $85 paid yearly) answers calls, hours and common questions, and transfers calls. It does not take orders. Pro ($350 a month, $220 paid yearly) adds phone orders into the POS, secure payment over the phone, reservations on OpenTable, order confirmation texts, upselling and white-glove onboarding. Maple lists Toast, Square, Clover and Shift4 Dine, says "no complicated contracts" and charges no per-minute fees. It says "multilingual voice" without naming the languages.
Owners look for alternatives for four reasons: they want to pay per order instead of per month, they take more reservations than orders, they need a POS Maple does not list, or they want someone to set it up and keep tuning it.
Maple alternatives compared
| Best for | Takes the order into the POS | Payment on the call | Price (vendor-published) | Terms | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AZ phone hostset up and run with you | Owners who want the phone, table and website run as one system | Yes, plus catering intake and order lookup by caller ID | Texts a pay link and stays on the line; the ticket prints only once paid | No price list. Quoted per restaurant | Month-to-month; about 3 months alongside staff first |
| Maple Pro | Low flat price with POS ordering | Yes (Toast, Square, Clover, Shift4 Dine) | Yes | $350/mo, or $220/mo paid yearly | No complicated contracts; no per-minute fees |
| Loman Premium | Order and card on the call, wide POS list | Yes (Toast, Clover, Square, SpotOn, Shift4, Aloha, Olo and others) | Yes | Not published (request pricing) | No per-minute fees; 24 to 48 hour onboarding |
| Serviio | No monthly fee | Yes, confirmed with the caller first | Not mentioned | 2% per submitted order. No monthly or setup fee | 3-month free trial; no contract |
| Bitebuddy | Paying only for completed orders | Yes (Toast, Square, Clover, Olo, SpotOn, NCR Aloha) | Not mentioned | $1.50 per completed order (list rate) | Pay-as-you-go or prepaid bundles |
| Kea | Flat price, card and wallets on the call | Yes (11+ POS incl. Toast, Square, Clover, Olo) | Card, Apple Pay, Google Pay | Flat rate on request; no per-order cost | Not published |
| Slang.ai | Reservation-led full-service restaurants | No. Texts an ordering link | No | Core $399, Premium $599 per location | Not published |
Swipe the table sideways to see every column.
Every fact is from the vendor's own page in October 2026. "Not mentioned" means we did not find it there, not that the product lacks it.
Per order or per month: which is cheaper?
Use published prices and your own phone order numbers. These are straight arithmetic, not vendor claims.
When to stay with Maple, and where AZ is different
Stay with Maple if
- You want a published price and to be live without a long conversation.
- Your POS is Toast, Square, Clover or Shift4 Dine and you want card payment on the call.
- Your phone orders are steady enough that a flat fee beats a percentage.
- These vendors answer for many restaurants. Ours answers for one, our own.
Look at AZ if
- You want the order paid before it cooks. The ticket prints only once the guest pays.
- Your callers speak Urdu or Hindi. The host greets in Urdu, Hindi and Spanish. Non-English calling is the newest part and still being tuned.
- You want more than the phone. The same menu and guest list run the table QR, the website and the kitchen printer.
- You want it run with you. We review calls and teach the host your answers. Plan on about three months alongside your staff before it carries nearly all calls.
Our phone host on a real line
real calls answered by the AI phone host in its first three weeks on the line (Sep 25 to Oct 15).
of those calls became paid orders.
calls came outside posted opening hours. Every one was answered.
Our proof restaurant in Houston, counted from its call archive and Clover on Oct 15, 2026. Not every call goes smoothly: some callers hang up during the greeting and names get misheard. That is why a new restaurant runs the phone host alongside its staff for about three months.
Related comparisons
Full table of eleven vendors: AI phone hosts compared. The ranked shortlist: best AI phone answering for restaurants. Two names owners ask about most: Slang.ai vs Loman. Costs in detail: AI phone answering cost. How we work: what a forward-deployed engineer does.
Where these facts come from
- Maple pricing - read Oct 2026
- Loman pricing - read Oct 2026; no prices shown
- Serviio - read Oct 2026
- Bitebuddy - read Oct 2026
- Kea - read Oct 2026
- Slang.ai pricing - read Oct 2026
Questions owners ask
What is the best alternative to Maple for restaurants?
It depends on how you want to pay. Loman and Kea take the order and the card on the call like Maple Pro, with prices on request. Serviio charges 2% per submitted order with no monthly fee. Bitebuddy charges $1.50 per completed order. If most calls are reservations, Slang.ai fits better.
How much does Maple cost?
Maple's pricing page in October 2026: Voice is $150 a month ($85 paid yearly) and answers calls only. Pro is $350 a month ($220 paid yearly) and adds POS ordering, payment on the call and OpenTable reservations. No per-minute fees.
Is there an AI phone ordering service with no monthly fee?
Yes. Serviio charges 2% per submitted order with no monthly or setup fee and a three-month free trial. Bitebuddy lists $1.50 per completed order, pay-as-you-go.
Does Maple take payment over the phone?
Maple's Pro plan lists secure payment over the phone. The Voice plan does not take orders.
Does any Maple alternative speak Urdu or Hindi?
Serviio lists Hindi. Maple and Loman say multilingual without a list. AZ's phone host greets callers in Urdu, Hindi and Spanish; non-English calling is our newest piece and still being tuned with real callers.
What does AZ charge?
We do not publish a price list. We quote the jobs you want covered and take no vendor commission. If Maple or Serviio fits you better, we will say so.
Tell us what is hurting. We show you it working on your menu.
Same-day reply. No vendor commissions, so we recommend whatever fits, including a tool on this page that is not ours.
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