TastyIgniter is a free, open-source restaurant ordering system you host yourself. Resto is a restaurant management suite you buy once and also host yourself. Both are Laravel applications that put your data on your own server, so this is a comparison between two self-hosted options, and TastyIgniter has the lower price. This page sets out how they differ and who should choose which.
At a glance
| TastyIgniter | Resto | |
|---|---|---|
| How you pay for the software | The core is free. Its site lists essential extensions at no cost and paid extensions as optional extras | One-time licence: $21 Regular, $129 Extended |
| Where it runs | Your own hosting, with your own database | Your own hosting, with your own database |
| Starting point | An online ordering system for restaurants, with POS, loyalty and delivery integrations available as marketplace extensions | A full restaurant management suite: POS, kitchen display, inventory, accounting and payroll in the licence |
| Online payments | Stripe, PayPal, Mollie, Authorize.net and Square out of the box, plus cash and pay at till | Stripe Checkout, plus cash on delivery and pay at counter |
| Source code | Open source under a permissive licence | Source code included, used under the terms of your licence |
| Support | Community forum and Discord, and a premium support service from the TastyIgniter team | 6 months of support with every licence |
| Updates | From the project, which has been active since 2013 | Every future update is free for the life of your licence |
What both do
Both are Laravel applications you install on your own hosting. Both take direct online orders for delivery and pickup, manage reservations and several locations from one login, offer a REST API and ship translated.
What Resto adds
Resto’s licence covers the work of running a restaurant, not just taking orders online:
- A point of sale with modifiers, combos, split payments, tips, refunds and offline orders that sync when the connection returns
- A kitchen display with per-station tickets, routing, and bump and recall
- Tables and a waiter app that runs on a phone
- Recipe-based inventory that deducts ingredients on every sale and tracks food cost per dish
- Double-entry accounting, staff shifts and payroll
- A delivery dispatch board and a branded QR menu
The Resto page has the full list and a live demo.
How the costs are structured
Because TastyIgniter’s core is free, Resto will not be cheaper on software. The difference is how much of the restaurant each one covers out of the box, and what you would add to TastyIgniter to match it. You can work out your own figure for both:
| TastyIgniter | Resto | |
|---|---|---|
| Software | Free core | The licence price, once |
| Extras | Any paid extensions you choose from its marketplace, such as a POS, each priced by its author | Included in the licence |
| Hosting | Your own, as with Resto | Your own. A $10 a month hosting plan or VPS does the job, so $600 over 60 months |
| Setup help | Premium support from the TastyIgniter team, priced on request | Our managed service from $20 a month, where we manage your installation |
| Card processing | Your payment provider’s own fees | Stripe’s own fees on online card payments; nothing for cash |
The own versus rent page works through five years of owning compared with renting.
Where TastyIgniter is the better choice
- You want the lowest cost. The core is free, with no monthly fee and no commission per order, according to its site.
- Online ordering is the main job. It is built around direct ordering, with group ordering, verified reviews, promotions and a newsletter capture on the storefront.
- More online payment gateways. It supports Stripe, PayPal, Mollie, Authorize.net and Square out of the box. Resto’s online gateway is Stripe Checkout.
- A large community. Its site cites more than 20,000 installs, a forum, a Discord and over 100 community extensions.
- Open source under a permissive licence, so you or a developer can change anything.
- Track record. It has been active since 2013. Resto’s first release was in August 2026.
Where Resto is the better choice
- You want the whole restaurant in one licence. POS, kitchen display, recipe costing, accounting and payroll come together, so there are no extensions to choose and fit.
- An offline-ready till. The POS queues orders on the device and syncs them when the connection returns.
- Recipe-level food cost. Ingredients are deducted on every sale and cost per dish is recalculated as prices change.
- Ordinary hosting is enough. Resto needs no Node.js, Redis, WebSockets, queue workers or cron. If your host runs Laravel and MySQL or MariaDB, Resto runs there. See the server requirements.
- Installation help is available. Six months of support come with the licence, and the managed service from $20 a month covers your installation.
What you take on
With either, you install the software on your own hosting and keep your own backups. For Resto you follow the install guide in the documentation and apply updates by copying files and running migrations. If you would prefer not to, the managed service from $20 a month covers the installation for you, and we’ll add the details once the service pages are ready.
Questions
Is TastyIgniter really free?
Its site says the core is free with no usage limits, no monthly fee and no commission per order, and that paid extensions are optional extras. Check its marketplace for the current price of any extension you need.
Does Resto take online orders like TastyIgniter?
Yes. Resto has a branded QR menu and online store for dine-in, pickup and delivery, with delivery zones, fees and a dispatch board. Online card payments go through Stripe Checkout, and cash on delivery and pay at counter are included.
Which licence does a restaurant need?
The licence guide explains Regular and Extended. In short, Extended is the one that lets you charge your own customers for the software as a service.
Can I try Resto first?
Yes, there is a live demo to log in to and click through. TastyIgniter also has a demo on its own site.
Statements about TastyIgniter come from its home and features pages, which we read on 6 October 2026. Its features and extensions change, so check its site for the current list.