QR Codes, Not Apps: Why We Chose Zero-Install Ordering

Every restaurant tech company faces the same question: do you build a native app or a web experience? We chose web, and we'd make the same choice again.

The math is simple. A native app has a conversion funnel: see the app store prompt, tap download, wait for install, open the app, create an account, then finally browse the menu. At each step, you lose customers. Industry data suggests that fewer than 15% of people will download an app to order food at a restaurant they're already sitting in.

With a QR code and a web app, the funnel is: scan, order. Two steps. No app store, no download, no account creation (we make accounts optional). The customer goes from sitting down to browsing the menu in under 3 seconds.

The tradeoff is that web apps have less access to device features -- no push notifications (without PWA setup), no background processing. But for a restaurant ordering use case, we don't need those things. The customer is actively using their phone for 2-5 minutes. That's it.

We invested heavily in making the web experience feel native: smooth animations, instant page transitions, and an interface that feels like an app even though it's running in Safari or Chrome. Several customers have told us they assumed it was an app.