LOKAL vs. the usual stack
Everything your business needs, in one app — not four.
Most owners end up paying for a POS, a website builder, a phone answering service, and an online-ordering platform — four bills, four logins, and commissions on every order. LOKAL replaces the whole stack with one flat plan.
What each tool actually covers
LOKAL is built to be the only app you open. Everything else is a piece of the puzzle.
| Capability | LOKAL All-in-one | Restaurant POS Toast, Square | Website builder Wix, Squarespace | AI phone service Smith.ai, Ruby | Ordering platform ChowNow |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Professional website + custom domain | |||||
| Commission-free online ordering | |||||
| Point of Sale (register, inventory) | |||||
| AI phone receptionist that takes orders | |||||
| Appointment bookings + calendar | |||||
| Loyalty + SMS notifications | |||||
| 0% commission on your own orders | — | — | |||
| One login for everything | |||||
| One bill for your whole stack |
The real cost of piecing it together
To match what LOKAL includes, most businesses subscribe to several tools at once.
Restaurant POS + ordering
$0–$165+/mo softwaree.g. Toast, Square
Plus payment processing (~2.6–3.5% + per-order fee), hardware, and add-ons. Real-world all-in costs commonly run $300–$2,000+/mo.
Website builder
~$16–$49/moe.g. Wix, Squarespace
Built to publish a website. Ordering and POS are separate add-on products, and there's no AI phone line — so you're back to stitching tools together.
AI / phone answering
~$97–$650+/moe.g. Smith.ai, Ruby
Billed per call or per minute and capped by plan; a standalone service that doesn't know your menu, orders, or customers.
Direct online ordering
~$119–$328/moe.g. ChowNow
A monthly subscription on top of payment processing; marketplace apps (DoorDash, Uber Eats) instead take 15–30% commission per order.
With LOKAL
One app. $99.99/mo
Website, commission-free ordering, POS, AI phone receptionist, bookings and loyalty — all included. Plus only the AI minutes you actually use (about $0.10/min) and any tax.
Just $1 for your first month. After that your plan renews monthly at the price above, plus the AI minutes you actually use (about $0.10/min) and any tax. No yearly lock-in. Cancel anytime.
Start for $1Comparison reflects each category's standard published plans and typical use. Competitor names are trademarks of their respective owners and are used only to identify the category of tool. Pricing shown for other providers is approximate, was gathered from public sources in July 2026, and may change — please verify current pricing and features directly with each provider. “Limited” means the capability exists only on higher tiers, as a paid add-on, or in a reduced form.