Editorial Standards and How We Compare Options
How DigitalRestaurateur stays independent, where our figures come from, the criteria we use when we compare channels and tools, and how we correct mistakes.
DigitalRestaurateur has no product of its own, nothing on this site is included or ranked because someone paid for it, and any commercial relationship will be disclosed right where it appears. This page sets out how we keep that true, where our figures come from, the criteria we use when we compare one option with another, and how we fix mistakes.
Independence
- We have no product of our own. There is no DigitalRestaurateur app, point-of-sale system, ordering platform or agency service. We are not trying to steer you toward something we sell.
- Today the site carries no ads, no affiliate links and no sponsored content. No company has paid to be mentioned in any guide.
- If that changes, three rules apply. Nothing is included or ranked because it pays. Any link that could earn us money is disclosed next to the link, not hidden in a footer. Any paid placement is labelled as paid, in plain words, on the page where it appears.
- Money never changes a recommendation. If a free option does the job better than a paid one, the guide says so, whether or not anyone pays us.
Where our figures come from
We work from the most direct source we can find, in this order:
- The platform's own documentation: Google, Meta, Microsoft and the rest, for how their products work and what they cost.
- Government, regulators and trade bodies: for example the US Federal Trade Commission on email marketing rules, and the National Restaurant Association on industry finances.
- Published research: studies we can link to, with the original where it is available.
- A company's own survey or report, only when nothing better exists, and we name the company in the sentence so you can weigh who produced it.
When a figure cannot be traced to a source we trust, it does not go on the page. When a worked example uses made-up numbers to show a calculation, we say that it does.
How we compare channels and tools
When a guide compares options, such as types of loyalty program, ad channels or email tools for different sizes of restaurant, we judge them on what matters to the person paying the bill:
| Criterion | What we look at |
|---|---|
| Total cost | Monthly fees, set-up costs, per-order commission and transaction fees, and what it costs to leave |
| Effort | How long it takes to set up and to run each week, for a restaurant without a marketing team |
| Time to results | Whether it fills tables this week or builds over months |
| Can you measure it | Whether you can tell which bookings, orders or visits it produced |
| Who owns the customer | Whether you keep the guest's contact details and can reach them again without paying a middleman |
| Fit | Which kinds and sizes of restaurant it suits, and which it does not |
We publish the criteria so you can apply them yourself, including to options we have not covered. We do not claim to have tested products we have not tested, and we do not publish star ratings or "best" rankings without a stated method behind them.
Updates and corrections
Every guide shows the date it was published and, once revised, the date it was last updated. We only change that date when the guide's content changes. If you spot something out of date, unclear or wrong, tell us through the contact page and we will check it against the source and correct it.
For who we are and how we research a guide, see about DigitalRestaurateur.