Çentik vs ChowNow: Restaurant Loyalty in the U.S. for 2026

Çentik vs ChowNow at a glance

The shortest answer: choose based on the job you need the software to perform. Çentik focuses on digital loyalty at the physical venue: customers can earn stamps through an NFC touchpoint or QR flow without installing a dedicated customer app, and Çentik publicly documents browser, Apple Wallet and Google Wallet access. ChowNow combines loyalty with direct online ordering, a branded mobile app, restaurant websites, discovery channels, delivery tooling, marketing and POS integrations. ChowNow's current U.S. pricing page lists Launch from $229/month on an annual plan or $249 month-to-month, with higher Grow and Elevate tiers. Centik+2Centik+2

The table deliberately uses 'not confirmed' rather than 'does not support' where public documentation is incomplete. That distinction matters in a product comparison: absence from the pages reviewed is not proof that a capability does not exist.

What ChowNow is built to do

ChowNow is broader than a standalone loyalty product. Its 2026 product and pricing materials combine direct online ordering, an SEO-oriented restaurant website, a branded mobile app, marketplace and discovery distribution, catering, marketing, delivery management, reporting and POS integrations. ChowNow advertises integrations with systems including Toast, Square, Revel and Clover and says its wider integration catalog exceeds 20 connections.

That broader scope is the strongest reason to consider ChowNow. If the restaurant wants to replace or consolidate online ordering, create its own branded ordering channel, bring orders into the POS and connect customer marketing to purchase history, ChowNow is solving substantially more than loyalty alone.

How ChowNow Rewards works

ChowNow's current support documentation describes a digital sticker program for takeout orders placed through ChowNow. Operators choose the minimum order amount that qualifies, how many stickers unlock a reward and whether the reward is a percentage or fixed-dollar discount. Diners can see progress in the ordering experience and their ChowNow account, and an unlocked reward is automatically applied to a later qualifying order. ChowNow also states that Rewards currently operate per restaurant location rather than across locations.

What Çentik is built to do

Çentik takes a different route. Its public English product pages describe an in-store digital stamp card that runs in the browser and can be updated through a physical NFC counter point or QR flow. The customer does not have to install a dedicated Çentik app. Çentik also documents Apple Wallet and Google Wallet support, customer management, repeat-visit analytics, campaigns, QR Menu Pro, staff accounts and multi-location support. Centik+2Centik+2

Çentik therefore fits a different operational moment: the customer is already standing at the counter, has bought something through the merchant's existing checkout process, and needs a fast way to receive loyalty credit. The public 'How it works' page explicitly states that Çentik can run independently of the merchant's POS. Centik

The biggest difference: counter loyalty vs ordering-led loyalty

For many restaurants, this is the decisive difference. ChowNow's Rewards system is designed around qualifying ChowNow orders. Çentik is designed around the physical visit, with an NFC or QR interaction used to update a digital loyalty card. A takeout-heavy restaurant trying to move customers from marketplaces into its own online ordering channel may value ChowNow's connected ordering, customer-data and marketing stack. A café, bakery or counter-service business that already likes its POS and ordering setup may prefer adding loyalty without replacing that stack. ChowNow+2ChowNow+2

Pricing is not an apples-to-apples comparison

ChowNow's pricing reflects a much broader commerce platform. Its public pricing page currently lists annual starting prices of $229/month for Launch, $319/month for Grow and $409/month for Elevate; month-to-month figures shown on the same page are $249, $349 and $449 respectively. It also lists a $119-$499 setup fee, 2.95% + $0.29 payment processing, a $99 annual Apple developer fee for branded mobile apps, optional printer costs of $250-$420 and $7.98 per Flex Delivery order. Operators should confirm the exact quote and plan configuration before signing. ChowNow

price. The English homepage displays Pro at $9.99/month, while the separate English pricing URL was rendering ₺999/month when researched on September 24, 2026. The supplied internal U.S. market document references a different international price again. Because these public and supplied sources conflict, this page should not present one U.S. Çentik price as authoritative until the live checkout or canonical pricing page is aligned.

Where ChowNow is the more complete fit

• You need direct web ordering rather than loyalty alone.
• You want a restaurant-branded mobile ordering app.
• You want orders routed into a supported POS rather than keeping loyalty independent of the commerce stack.
• You want centralized menu and third-party order-management capabilities available in the broader ChowNow platform.
• You want loyalty behavior directly linked to qualifying online takeout orders.
• You value restaurant discovery and ordering distribution across channels such as Google, Apple Maps and Yelp.

Independent review platforms broadly reinforce ChowNow's positioning as restaurant ordering software rather than a narrow loyalty tool. Capterra listed ChowNow at 4.7/5 from 47 reviews in its August 2026 profile, while G2 listed the seller at 4.6/5. Review summaries frequently praise ease of use, ordering workflow and support, while some reviewers report limitations around customization, reporting, menu management or integration friction. These are user-reported experiences rather than guarantees for every restaurant. Capterra+2G2+2

Where Çentik may be the more focused fit

• Your primary problem is repeat physical visits rather than building a new online-ordering channel.
• You want customers to earn loyalty credit with NFC or QR at the counter.
• You do not want to require a dedicated customer app download.
• You want loyalty to operate independently of your existing POS.
• Apple Wallet and Google Wallet access are important to your desired customer experience.
• You want a lightweight loyalty, customer-management, campaign and QR-menu layer rather than a full restaurant ordering platform.

Limitations to understand before choosing

Çentik should not be presented as a replacement for the full ChowNow platform. ChowNow includes substantial ordering, delivery, discovery, website, branded-app and POS-integration capabilities that Çentik does not currently document as equivalent public features. If those capabilities are central to the project, replacing ChowNow with a loyalty-only layer could create more work elsewhere.

Conversely, ChowNow's documented Rewards workflow is tied to qualifying orders inside its ordering ecosystem and is currently configured per location. Operators whose loyalty program needs to center on walk-in counter visits, NFC interactions or a POS-independent card should validate whether ChowNow's ordering-led model matches that workflow. ChowNow

Migrating from ChowNow to Çentik

Treat migration as a data-reconciliation project, not a simple software switch. ChowNow says restaurant partners receive access to diner ordering data and contact information. However, the public documentation reviewed for this comparison did not establish a standard ChowNow-to-Çentik migration path or confirm that every active sticker balance, unlocked reward, consent record and location mapping can be exported in a migration-ready format. ChowNow

• Export and validate the customer fields ChowNow actually makes available to your restaurant.
• Confirm separately whether active sticker counts and already-unlocked rewards can be exported; do not assume customer contact data includes loyalty state.
• Preserve email/SMS consent and suppression status rather than treating every exported contact as marketable.
• Map ChowNow location-specific rewards to the intended Çentik location structure before importing anything.
• Define how outstanding rewards will be honored during the transition and communicate the rule before cutover.
• Keep a reconciliation file containing customer identifier, source location, old loyalty state, new loyalty state and migration date.
• Run a limited pilot before shutting down the previous reward experience.

No automated ChowNow-to-Çentik reward migration was publicly documented in the sources reviewed. Any promised import of reward balances or historical data should therefore be verified with both vendors before it is communicated to customers.

Decision checklist for U.S. restaurant operators

• Is your main objective online ordering growth or in-store repeat visits?
• Must loyalty be attached automatically to an online transaction?
• Do you need a branded ordering app and restaurant website?
• Do you need loyalty to work without changing your POS?
• Is an NFC counter interaction important?
• Do customers need Apple Wallet or Google Wallet access?
• Should rewards work across several locations or separately by location?
• Which customer and loyalty data must be portable if you later change systems?
• What is the true annual cost after setup, processing, delivery, hardware and optional services?
• Which current integrations are operationally critical?

Frequently asked questions