Adobe Express and Gaslamp, side by side
Every Adobe Express fact below was checked on adobe.com in September 2026 and is linked under Sources. Where Adobe’s pages do not say something, the table says “Not listed.”
| Row | Adobe Express | Gaslamp |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free: US$0.00. Premium: US$9.99 a month, billed monthly. Teams: US$4.99 a month per license for the first year, then US$7.99, two seats minimum. | $19 a month, or $190 a year. |
| Free option | A free plan, “No credit card required.” Premium has a 30-day free trial. | 30-day free trial, no card. No free plan. The demo editor needs no account. |
| Menu templates | “Thousands” of menu templates. Sizes include 8.5 × 11, 5 × 7, and 4 × 9.5 inches. | Eight restaurant designs, each made for a kind of place. Start from its sample menu and type your dishes over it. |
| QR codes | A free generator that makes static codes, with “a fixed destination that cannot be changed after creation.” | One code per menu that never changes and always opens the current hosted menu. Five code styles. |
| Hosted menu page | Not listed. The menu page says you can “share it online.” | Yes. Real text sized for the phone, rebuilt when you save. |
| Download as JPG, PDF, or PNG and “print it out.” A print service for menus: Not listed. | Print-ready PDF on paid plans. No print service. | |
| Who edits after launch | You do, in a general design editor. | You do, in a menu editor that runs in a phone browser. |
Where Adobe Express wins
- It costs nothing to start, and nothing to stay. The free plan is a real plan, not a trial. Gaslamp is $19 a month after 30 days.
- It designs everything else. The same login makes the flyer for the wine dinner, the social post, and the sign for the patio. Gaslamp makes menus and QR pieces, nothing else.
- A blank canvas. Thousands of templates, or start from nothing and move every element where you want it. Gaslamp gives you eight designs with a logo, an accent color, and six fonts. If you want a menu nobody else could have drawn, Adobe gives you more room.
- Odd sizes. Tall menus and 5 by 7 cards are templates there. Gaslamp sets its own layouts and its QR pieces at fixed sizes.
Where Gaslamp wins
- The menu is a list, not a layout. Dishes, prices, and sections are entries. Change a price and the design reflows. Nobody drags a text box back into line.
- Change it from your phone. Change a price between tickets or 86 a dish in one tap, and every phone that scans the code sees it about thirty seconds after you save. No design file to reopen.
- The phone and the paper agree. The hosted menu, the menu behind the QR code, and the print PDF are one menu. Edit once and they all follow.
- Edits from the pass. The editor runs in a phone browser with a number keypad for prices. Save, and guests see the change about thirty seconds after you save.
The QR code is the real difference
Adobe says it plainly: its generator makes static codes, and a static code’s destination cannot be changed. That is fine if the code opens a page that stays current. The trouble is what most restaurants point it at: a PDF of the menu, uploaded somewhere. The day a price moves, you export a new PDF, upload it, and either overwrite the old file at the same address or print new codes. Miss a step and table six scans last month’s prices.
A Gaslamp code opens the Gaslamp hosted menu for that menu, and that page is rebuilt every time you tap Save & update live menu. The code itself never changes, so the table tents are printed once. Our guide to dynamic and static codes covers the difference in more detail.
What a price change costs in each
- In Adobe Express: open the design, find the text box, change the number, check nothing else moved, download a new PDF, print it, and replace or re-upload the file your QR code opens.
- In Gaslamp: open the editor on your phone, change the number, tap save. The hosted menu is current about thirty seconds later. Download a fresh PDF when you want new paper, and it already has the new price.
If your menu changes twice a year, the Adobe path is a small chore twice a year, and free. If it changes every week, that chore is the job, and a menu tool starts paying for itself in afternoons.
What Gaslamp does not do
- No free plan. The trial is 30 days with one live menu and its QR code; PDF downloads start when you pick a plan.
- No blank canvas and no flyers, posters, or social posts. Keep Adobe Express for those.
- No print service. You download the PDF and use any printer.
- Up to three labeled prices per item, from $1 to $9,999, and up to 12 sections of 20 items per menu.
- No POS or delivery-app sync. A price changed in Gaslamp is changed on the menus guests read; change it in those systems too.
The verdict
Pick Adobe Express if you design lots of things, the menu rarely changes, and free matters most. It makes a handsome menu and a print file at no cost. Pick Gaslamp if the menu moves every week and you want the paper, the phone, and the QR code to keep up without anyone opening a design file. Plenty of places could use both: Adobe for the flyer, Gaslamp for the menu. The wider field is in our menu software roundup, and if the QR code is the part you care about, start with QR code menus.