How much does a QR menu cost in Egypt?

Ask three QR menu vendors what they charge and you will get three answers that can't be compared: one is "free", one is a monthly fee in dollars, one wants a one-time payment "for life", and a fourth takes a cut of every order. For an Egyptian owner who also has to think about exchange rates and card limits, the sticker price tells you very little.

This guide breaks QR menu pricing into the four models you will actually meet, shows what each price level normally buys, and gives you a short worksheet to work out your real annual cost in EGP. Where we use numbers, they are illustrations you should replace with your own quotes.

1The four ways QR menu tools charge

Almost every product on the market fits one of these models, or mixes two of them.

Model	How you pay	Good for	Watch out for
Free	Nothing up front	Testing whether guests will scan at all	Vendor branding on your menu, ads, visit caps, QR codes that stop working if the free tier ends
Monthly or annual subscription	Fixed fee, usually in USD	Venues that change menus and prices often	Paying for tiers you don't use, dollar exposure, auto-renewal
Lifetime license	One payment, sometimes plus a yearly "maintenance" fee	Very stable menus that rarely change	The vendor disappearing, no updates, hosting costs moved onto you
Per-transaction or commission	A percentage or fixed fee per order	Low-volume ordering, seasonal venues	Costs that grow as you grow, and pricing that punishes your busiest months

A menu that only displays dishes is a different product from one that takes orders, so compare like with like. A free display-only menu and a paid ordering system are not competing for the same job.

2What each price level usually buys

Instead of comparing vendors line by line, place your needs on this ladder and only pay for the rung you need today.

1. A link to a PDF or image. Often free. Guests pinch and zoom, you can't search it, and every price change means a new file. Fine for a juice stand, painful for a 60-item menu.
2. A real digital menu. Categories, photos, search, instant edits, your logo. This is the core product most cafés need.
3. Menu plus table ordering. Guests order from their phone, staff get the order, waiter-call buttons, guest feedback.
4. Operations suite. Delivery and takeaway ordering, a POS, a kitchen display, loyalty, reservations, several languages and team accounts.

To give you one public reference point, here is how Menyo's published plans map onto that ladder (prices are in USD and billed by card):

Plan	Monthly	Annual	What it adds
Starter	$19	$189	1 menu, 3 QR codes, basic analytics, a simple place website
Growth	$49	$489	3 menus, 15 QR codes, dine-in orders, waiter calls, feedback, your own menu URL
Professional	$99	$989	Delivery and takeaway orders, POS, kitchen display, up to 3 menu languages, loyalty, reservations, team accounts

Starter and Growth come with a 2-day trial. Use those rows as a way to see how features stack up in price, not as a claim about what anyone else charges. Check each vendor's current pricing page yourself, because these numbers change.

3Paying in dollars from Egypt: the costs nobody quotes

Most software is priced in USD. On an Egyptian card that brings three extra costs that never appear on the vendor's pricing page:

• The exchange rate your bank applies, which may differ from the rate you see in the news.
• Foreign transaction or cross-border fees added by the bank on each charge.
• Card limits on foreign-currency spending. Egyptian banks have changed these limits several times in recent years. A declined renewal can take your menu offline on a Friday night.

Annual billing has a second advantage when the pound is under pressure: you lock the dollar amount for a year, although you still pay at the exchange rate on the day of the charge. Monthly billing spreads the cash out but exposes every month to a new rate. Neither is always better. If cash is tight, monthly. If your card limit is the risk, annual.

For your books, ask your accountant how to record an overseas software subscription and whether any tax applies to imported digital services in your situation. Keep the invoices the vendor emails you.

4Hidden costs to add before you compare

The subscription is only one line. Add these before you decide a tool is cheap or expensive:

• Printing table tents, stickers or acrylic stands for the QR codes (a one-time cost, plus replacements when they get scratched or stolen)
• Photos: your own phone shots, a photographer, or the time to find usable images
• Translation into Arabic, English and any tourist language you serve, if the plan doesn't include it
• Staff time to build the menu the first time (a menu scanner that reads your existing paper menu cuts this a lot)
• Extra QR codes, menus or languages beyond your plan's limit
• Monthly visit caps: a busy venue can hit a small cap in a few weeks
• The cost of switching later, including reprinting every QR code if the old ones were tied to the old vendor

The last point matters more than people expect. When GloriaFood announced it was winding down, owners who had printed its links everywhere faced a full migration. If your QR code points to a short link you control, you can move without reprinting. Our guide to static vs dynamic QR codes explains how to check this.

5Lifetime licenses: do the break-even math first

A lifetime offer looks attractive when prices are rising. Run this before paying:

Break-even months = lifetime price ÷ monthly price of a comparable subscription.

Illustration: a lifetime deal at $600 against a $19 monthly plan breaks even after about 32 months. That is almost three years during which the vendor has to stay in business, keep its servers running, keep the product updated for new phones and browsers, and keep answering your support messages, all without any new money from you.

Ask the seller these questions in writing:

1. Who hosts the menu, and who pays for hosting after year one?
2. Are new features included, or only bug fixes?
3. What happens to my QR codes and menu data if the company closes?
4. Can I export my menu (items, prices, photos) in a usable file?

6Per-transaction models: when they make sense

Commission pricing feels safe because you pay nothing when nothing sells. The catch is that it scales with your success.

Monthly cost under commission = orders per month × average order value × commission rate, plus any fixed fee per order.

Illustration: a café taking 300 orders a month through its menu at an average of EGP 250 has EGP 75,000 flowing through the system. A commission of even a few percent on that is a monthly cost that can overtake a flat subscription, and it rises in Ramadan and summer exactly when your volumes peak. Put your own order count and average ticket into the formula, then compare it with the flat fee of a plan that covers the same features.

Commission makes sense in two cases: you take very few orders online, or your business is seasonal (a beach kiosk in Sahel that is shut half the year). Otherwise, a flat fee usually wins once ordering becomes a normal part of your day. We cover the bigger version of this trade-off, delivery app commissions, in direct ordering vs Talabat.

7A 12-month budget worksheet (illustration)

Here is how a small Cairo café that wants a menu plus table ordering might budget. All figures are placeholders: swap in your bank's rate and your printer's quote.

Line	Calculation	Your number
Subscription	Annual plan price in USD × your bank's rate + bank fee	EGP ____
QR table stands	Number of tables × price per stand	EGP ____
Spare stands	About one in five tables, for breakage and theft	EGP ____
Photos	Photographer day rate, or zero if you shoot yourself	EGP ____
Setup time	Hours to build the menu × hourly cost of the person doing it	EGP ____
Printed backup menus	A few copies for guests who prefer paper	EGP ____

Then compare the total with what you spend today on printed menus, a job we walk through line by line in the true cost of reprinting paper menus in Egypt.

Rule of thumb: pay for the rung of the ladder you will use in the next three months, not the one you might use next year. Upgrading later is easy. Paying for unused features every month is how software bills creep up.

8Frequently asked questions

Is a free QR menu good enough for a small café in Egypt?

It can be, as a test. Check whether the free tier shows the vendor's branding or ads, caps monthly visits, and whether your QR code keeps working if the free plan changes. If the answer to the last question is unclear, don't print it on 20 tables.

Should I pay monthly or annually?

Annual is usually cheaper per month and means one foreign-currency charge a year. Monthly keeps more cash in the business and lets you cancel quickly. If your bank's foreign-spending limit is low, annual can be the safer option.

Can I pay for a QR menu in Egyptian pounds?

Some local providers bill in EGP; most international platforms bill in USD by card. Your card is charged in dollars and your bank converts it, so ask your bank about fees and limits before subscribing.

What happens to my QR codes if I cancel?

It depends on the vendor. If the code points to the vendor's own link, it usually stops showing your menu. Ask before you print, and keep your menu data exportable.

9The short version

Price QR menus on a 12-month total in EGP, not on the headline number. Add bank fees, printing and setup time, run the break-even on any lifetime offer, and run the commission formula on any per-order pricing. Then buy the smallest plan that does the job you have now.

If you want to try a menu that starts at $19 a month with a 2-day trial, you can create your Menyo account here and compare plans on the pricing page.