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sunday app alternatives for pay at the table

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The Volio team
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sunday lists $199 or $299 a month plus $5 per QR code in the US. Six other ways to let guests pay at the table, and who each one suits.

Orders board in the back office: tables being made and ready, each marked paid

sunday puts a QR bill, and ordering, on top of the POS a restaurant already runs. As of October 2026 the alternatives fall into three groups: the QR ordering built into the POS you have (Toast, Square, SumUp), platforms that connect to a POS (me&u, qlub), and one system that does the menu, the order, the payment and the POS itself (Volio’s QR ordering, new in 2026). The till you have, and whether you plan to keep it, decides which group to look at for pay at the table.

What sunday does and what it costs

Three sunday products work at the table. sunday Pay is the bill on the guest’s phone: “Scan, split, tip, pay. 10 seconds, no app.” sunday Ordering adds the order: “Guests scan, order, reorder and pay”. sunday Handhelds are payment terminals for staff.

sunday connects to a POS; it does not sell one. Its FAQ says: “We currently support Toast, Clover, Lightspeed, NCR, and Micros.” The same answer points to its partners page for the current list.

As of October 2026, its US pricing page lists Standard at $199 a month and Premium at $299. Each QR code is $5 and on-site onboarding is an optional $299. On the UK page, Standard is £149 and Premium £199 a month. The UK page also prices add-ons by the month, Order & Pay at +£50 among them, under the line “All addons already included in Full Premium Suite”.

Neither pricing page lists a card processing rate, a guest-side fee or a contract length. The full bill, line by line, is in what the sunday app costs.

When another product fits better

  • Your POS is not one of the five named. Check sunday’s partners page before ruling it out.
  • You already pay for a POS with QR ordering in it. Toast, Square and SumUp each sell their own.
  • You are doing the sums for a small room. For 12 tables in the US that is 12 × $5 = $60 for codes once and $199 a month, before a card rate you have to ask for.
  • You want to know who pays for a phone payment. In May 2024 The Caterer reported a £2.99 “Sunday checkout fee” on a bill at a Big Mamma Group restaurant in the UK. Big Mamma, whose founders created sunday, said paying by QR code was optional, that “more than 60% of our clients pay by using a credit card terminal or cash, with no fee incurred”, and that the fee was “between 0.5% and 2% (capped for big checks)”. The Caterer reports the fee as one Big Mamma added. With any vendor, ask whether a guest fee exists and who switches it on.

The alternatives, by what you already have

Every cell comes from the vendor’s own site, linked under Sources, as of October 2026. Prices are in the currency published.

Product Works with Published price Sold in
sunday Toast, Clover, Lightspeed, NCR, Micros US $199 or $299 a month, $5 per code; UK £149 or £199 “8 countries”; US, UK and French sites
Toast Mobile Order & Pay Toast POS only Listed as an add-on; price not published US and UK price pages; full list not published
Square QR code ordering Square, on Plus or Premium $49 or $149 per location a month; online card rate 2.9% + 30¢ (US) Square takes cards in 8 countries
SumUp Order & Pay SumUp POS Plus £39 a month and a 2.50% transaction fee (UK) UK prices; other countries not published
me&u A POS on its integrations list Venue pricing not published; guest platform fee at venues in Australia $0.20 to $2.90 per order, unless the venue covers it Australia, New Zealand, UK, US
qlub A POS in its directory, or on its own Not published Offices in the Gulf, Asia-Pacific, Brazil and the US
Volio Any till, or none 30 days of Pro free, then a plan: see pricing; a small fee, shown before paying New in 2026

If you run Toast, Square or SumUp, start with the feature they already sell. All three take the order as well as the payment. Toast’s help centre describes scanning to “browse the menu, order, and pay”, and guests can pre-authorise a card to pay at the end of the meal, a feature the same page says is not yet available in Canada, Australia, Ireland and the UK. Square’s page says “Guests can order, add notes, and pay immediately”, and its plan chart shows QR code ordering on Plus and Premium, not on Square Free. SumUp’s page says “No apps to fuss with. No need to create an account.” All three also sell card hardware, which Volio does not.

If you keep another POS, me&u and qlub connect to it, as sunday does. me&u says “6,000+” locations use it and has added reservations, loyalty and gift cards. qlub’s site counts 3,000+ restaurants, hotels and hospitality businesses, and it offers a handheld terminal. Neither publishes what a venue pays. me&u’s help centre does publish what a guest pays at venues in Australia: a platform fee of $0.20 to $2.90 per order by order size, unless the venue covers it. qlub lists no European office, so the first call settles whether they serve you.

If you have no POS you want to keep, Volio does the menu, the order, the payment and the POS in one plan. It is new: it launched in October 2026. The longer list, with Flipdish and Storekit, is in QR code ordering systems compared.

What sunday does better

  • It is connected to the POS. sunday’s digital bill page has a section headed “Already integrated to your system” and shows its POS partners. Volio does not write payments into another POS: you match a list at close.
  • It is in use. sunday’s pricing page says “5,000+ restaurants across 8 countries”. Volio is new: it launched in October 2026.
  • It has hardware. sunday sells payment handhelds. Volio sells no hardware.
  • It publishes its support terms. Its UK plans list 24/7 support and “100% chargeback coverage”. Volio makes neither promise.

If your POS is on sunday’s list and you want phone payments without touching the till, sunday is the shorter road.

Three questions that choose for you

  1. Are you keeping your POS? If yes, look at its own QR ordering first, then at sunday, me&u or qlub, and check that your POS is on their list.
  2. Should guests order from the phone, or only pay? Pay-only keeps the waiter taking every order. With ordering, staff carry more and key in less. What order and pay means sets the two side by side.
  3. What does a month cost with every line in? Ask each vendor for the plan, the card rate, any fee per bill and the contract length in writing. What a QR ordering system costs has the published numbers.

Where Volio fits

Volio is order and pay in the browser. A table orders together from several phones, each guest can pay their own part, and the tip comes before paying. There is no integration to set up: the back office lists what phones paid today, and you match it on the till you keep. Or you use Volio’s own POS.

Every plan starts with 30 days of Pro, free, and a venue that cancels keeps its QR menu online, free: see the plans and prices. Volio takes a small fee on a bill paid by phone. Guests see it before they pay, or you switch to covering it. Nothing is taken when a guest pays cash or the waiter.

Volio launched in October 2026.

Sources

Pages read on 12 October 2026.

Guests do the asking. You do the hosting.

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