Two different products
Popmenu’s pricing page, checked on get.popmenu.com in September 2026, sells three plans. Every one of them starts with an “SEO-driven website” and an “Interactive menu,” then adds Google Business Profile sync, guest contact collection, automated email marketing, dish reviews, and an event calendar. The higher plans add mass email, social posting, text messages, a waitlist and reservations, and reputation management. Online ordering and AI phone answering are add-ons.
Gaslamp does one thing on that list: the menu. Pick one of eight designs, type your dishes over the sample menu, and you get a hosted menu, a QR code that never changes, and a print-ready PDF, all from the same edit. No website, no email, no ordering.
Popmenu and Gaslamp, side by side
| Row | Popmenu | Gaslamp |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Starter: $159 a month prepaid annually, or $179 a month. Essentials: $269 or $299. Premier: $449 or $499. Build your own: contact sales. | $19 a month, or $190 a year. |
| Free option | A free consultation; “may provide a free trial for certain offerings.” Menu embed: “First month free with no contract.” Free plan: Not listed. | 30-day free trial, no card. No free plan. |
| The menu | An interactive menu with dish photos, videos, reviews, allergens, and nutrition information. | Eight designs, dietary tags, item photos on the hosted menu. |
| QR codes | Edits “carry across channels instantly (website, Google, QR and delivery).” QR code styles and printable pieces: Not listed. | One code per menu that never changes. Five styles. Table tent, window sign, and counter card to print. |
| A “Print Center” to turn the online menu into a physical one. Print-ready PDF download: Not listed. | Print-ready PDF on paid plans. No print service. | |
| Website | Yes, on every plan. A menu embed is offered for an existing website. | No. A hosted menu page you link to from your site. |
| Ordering and POS | Online ordering add-on at $1.00 per online order. Integrations listed with Toast, Square, Clover, and others. | None. |
| Per location | “Yes, multi-location restaurants receive tiered savings.” | Per account. Unlimited menus on a paid plan. |
Where Popmenu wins
- It does far more. Website, menu, email, texts, reviews, reservations, ordering, and phone answering from one company. Gaslamp does none of that except the menu.
- The menu reaches more places. Popmenu says a price change carries to the website, Google, QR, and delivery. Gaslamp updates its own hosted menu and QR menu only; Google and delivery apps you change by hand.
- It talks to your POS. Popmenu lists integrations with Toast, Square, Clover, and more. Gaslamp has no integrations.
- Help doing it. Plans lead with “Book a demo,” and marketing consulting and photography are sold on the side. Gaslamp is self-serve.
Where Gaslamp wins
- The price of the menu alone. $19 a month versus Popmenu’s lowest listed plan at $159 a month prepaid annually. If a website and marketing are not on your list, that is the gap you are paying.
- The paper on the table. Each of Gaslamp’s eight designs comes out as a print-ready PDF, from the same edit as the phone menu. You take it to any printer.
- Start today, alone. Pick a design, type your dishes in, publish. No demo call, no card for the trial, and the demo editor works on your phone before you make an account.
- Keep the website you have. Link to the hosted menu from it and put the QR code on the tables. Nothing to migrate.
Who should pick which
Pick Popmenu if your website is weak or missing, you want online ordering without a marketplace commission, and you will use the email, text, and review tools every week. For that restaurant, one platform at $159 and up can be cheaper than four separate tools and far less work to keep in step.
Pick Gaslamp if the website is fine and the menu is the mess: the PDF behind the QR is out of date, the printed menu has pen on it, and nobody wants to call the designer again. $19 a month fixes that job and does not pretend to do the others.
There is a middle path, too. Start with Gaslamp for the menu now, and if you later decide you want the full platform, your menu text comes with you: copy it out and take it wherever it goes next. Nothing about a Gaslamp menu locks the words in. The one thing you would replace is the QR code on the tables, because a Gaslamp code opens the Gaslamp hosted menu. Plan that swap for a night you are reprinting anyway.
What Gaslamp does not do
- No website builder, embed widget, or custom domain. The hosted menu lives at its own Gaslamp address.
- No online ordering, payments, reservations, email, or text marketing.
- No POS, Google, or delivery-app sync, and no scan analytics numbers.
- No dish videos or reviews. Item photos show on the hosted menu, not the print PDF.
- Up to three labeled prices per item, from $1 to $9,999, and no “MP” setting. See our price update guide for every place a price lives.
The verdict
Popmenu is a restaurant marketing platform with a good menu inside it. Gaslamp is a menu. If you need the platform, Gaslamp is not a substitute, and we would rather say so here than lose you in week two. If you only need the menu right in print and behind the QR code, you do not need the platform to get it. For the rest of the field, see our menu software roundup.