ChowNow
ChowNow is a Playa Vista, Los Angeles-based restaurant technology company providing commission-free online ordering, branded mobile apps, marketing tools, and operational software purpose-built for independent restaurants. Founded in 2011, ChowNow powers ordering websites, native iOS/Android apps, QR-code dine-in ordering, catering, email and SMS marketing, a rewards program, Flex Delivery, order aggregation, and centralized menu management for 20,000+ restaurants. The platform integrates with 20+ point-of-sale systems including Toast, Square, Revel, Clover, Lightspeed, Heartland Genius, Skytab, and PosiTouch, and syndicates restaurant menus through a Discovery Network spanning Google, Apple Maps, Yelp, and other channels, with optional hand-off to DoorDash, UberEats, and Grubhub for last-mile delivery. ChowNow's business model is flat-fee software-as-a-service for restaurants rather than per-order commissions, and the company does not publish a public developer API, SDK, OpenAPI specification, webhooks reference, or open developer portal. Third-party integration is handled through pre-built connectors managed inside the restaurant dashboard and a private partnerships program; prospective POS, delivery, and technology partners apply through a partnerships form rather than self-serve API documentation. The company's public GitHub presence consists primarily of forks of open-source Python/JavaScript tooling and archived internal libraries, with no SDK, client library, or specification repositories.
More than an index entry, but the surface is still mostly links rather than artifacts — the cohort most likely to move a full band from modest, well-targeted work.
API Evangelist profiles ChowNow the way a machine reads it — 25 machine-readable artifacts, pulled from the provider's own public surface and indexed so a developer, an analyst, or an AI agent can evaluate it against every other provider on the network.
Every provider in the network is reduced to the same set of machine-readable artifacts — OpenAPI contracts, event specifications, GraphQL schemas, runnable collections, pricing and rate-limit signals, security posture, OAuth scopes, and the agent surfaces (MCP servers and skills) that let software drive the API on its own. We profile them because the interface is the part of a company you can actually inspect: it is a truer signal of what a provider does than any marketing page. From those artifacts we compute the Kin Score — ChowNow scores 18.9/100 (emerging), with a separate agent-readiness read of 0/100 (human only). The full breakdown is below, followed by every artifact we hold — each card links through to its machine-readable definition on apis.io.
Kin Score
This is the API Evangelist rating — a single, repeatable read computed from the artifacts on this page. Green fill is points earned; the red track is points possible, so every bar shows earned-versus-possible at a glance.
Kin Score
How this is scored →scored 2026-07-27 · rubric v0.5
How we profile ChowNow
Each block below is one kind of artifact we hold for ChowNow. For each we say what it is and why it earns a place in the profile, then list every one we've indexed — capped at two rows, scroll within the panel for the rest.
Pricing Plans 1
Pricing is part of the interface. Machine-readable plans tell you what a tier costs and includes before you commit — one of the six things the Kin Score reads for commercial clarity.
Published pricing tiers and plan structures.
Features 13
The notable capabilities this provider advertises, captured as structured features so they can be searched and compared instead of read one landing page at a time.
Notable capabilities this provider offers.
Online Ordering
Commission-free direct online ordering for restaurant websites, replacing per-order marketplace commissions with flat-fee SaaS.
Branded Mobile Apps
Custom-branded native iOS and Android ordering apps published under the restaurant's own identity.
Website Builder
Restaurant website creation with integrated direct ordering.
Marketplace
ChowNow's aggregated consumer ordering marketplace that surfaces member restaurants to diners.
Discovery Network
Menu and ordering syndication across Google, Apple Maps, Yelp, Tripadvisor, Snap, and other discovery channels.
QR Code Dine-In Ordering
Scan-to-order experience for on-premise dine-in service.
Catering
Specialized catering and large-order management.
Email And Text Marketing
Customer communication campaigns with contact slots and email/SMS credits scaled by plan tier.
Rewards Program
Customer loyalty and rewards program to drive repeat ordering.
Flex Delivery
Flexible last-mile delivery with optional hand-off to DoorDash, UberEats, and Grubhub, billed per delivery order.
Order Aggregation
Consolidation of orders from multiple ordering channels into a single stream sent to the POS or printer.
Advanced Reporting
Business analytics, payment insights, and operational reporting.
POS Integrations
Pre-built connectors to 20+ point-of-sale systems for direct order injection.
Scroll within the panel for all 13 ·
Security Posture 1
Authentication, domain security, vulnerability disclosure, and trust-center signals — the evidence that a provider takes security seriously enough to document it. We profile it because you can't govern what you can't see.
Authentication, domain security, vulnerability disclosure, and trust-center signals.
Use Cases 5
What developers actually build with this provider — captured so the catalogue answers 'what is this for', not just 'what does this expose'.
What developers build with this provider.
Commission-Free Direct Ordering
Independent restaurants take online orders on their own site and apps without paying per-order commissions to marketplaces.
Owning The Customer Relationship
Restaurants retain customer contact data and use built-in marketing to drive repeat business rather than renting access from aggregators.
Unifying Multi-Channel Orders
Order aggregation routes web, app, dine-in QR, and third-party delivery orders into one POS or printer workflow.
Expanding Discovery Reach
Syndicating menus and ordering through Google, Apple Maps, and Yelp to capture demand without ceding margin.
Adding Delivery Without Commission Lock-In
Using Flex Delivery to offer last-mile fulfillment on a per-order fee basis instead of marketplace commission tiers.
Integrations 5
Pre-built integrations with other platforms tell you where this provider already fits in a stack.
Pre-built integrations with other platforms and tools.
Point Of Sale Systems
Auphan, Brink, Clover Connect, Curv, Dinerware, EPOSnow, Givex, Genius for Restaurants, InTouch POS, Lavu, Lightspeed, Maitre'D, Oracle MICROS, PixelPoint, POSitouch, Revel, Sil...
Delivery Apps
DoorDash, Grubhub, Skip, and Uber Eats for last-mile delivery hand-off.
Discovery Networks
Apple Maps, Google, Snap, Tripadvisor, and Yelp.
Printers And KDS
Epson and Star Micronics receipt printers and kitchen display systems.
Payments
Card processing through ChowNow's transaction-fee model, with payment insights surfaced via Stripe.
Resources
Every other property we hold for ChowNow — documentation, portals, status pages, policies, and corporate surface — grouped by the job it does, following the integrator's arc from getting started to running in production.
Get Started 1
Portal, sign-up, and the first successful call
Build 1
SDKs, sample code, and the tooling you integrate with
Access & Security 1
Authentication, authorization, and security posture
Operate 1
Status, limits, changes, and where to get help
Commercial 2
Pricing, plans, and the legal terms of use
Company 3
The organization behind the API
Other 9
Properties that don't map to a standard resource type
Scroll within the panel for all 9 ·
← All providers · Data indexed from github.com/api-evangelist/chownow · machine-readable index on apis.io