What Better Cater does

Better Cater, Inc. is a privately held, bootstrapped SaaS company founded in 2011 by Anthony Franco and headquartered in San Francisco, California. The company operates an all-in-one, web-based catering management platform that unifies proposals, electronic signatures (via Signable), event calendaring (with Google, Outlook, and Apple integrations), CRM, Banquet Event Order (BEO) templates, recipes and sub-recipes with food costing, automatic packing lists, kitchen production reports, invoicing, and—since February 2025—integrated payment processing through Better Cater Payments. The technology is delivered as cloud-hosted SaaS with mobile-first access; an API is exposed on the Premium plan for custom integrations.

The company targets a horizontal segment of catering operators ranging from solo proprietors to multi-location caterers, spanning corporate catering, function/event caterers, on-site catering, restaurants and franchises, large-scale food prep, and food trucks. Customers cited publicly include Dash and a Handful Catering, Fabio's Events & Catering, The 2300 Club / 2300 Catering, Golden Corral, Urban Taste Catering, Olive Wood Pizza, and Zoo; named customers are predominantly SMB with select enterprise logos.

Better Cater monetizes through two subscription tiers: Plus at $99/month (or $83/month annual) for single-location caterers and Premium at $149/month (or $125/month annual) for multi-location caterers, with all features—rather than tiered add-ons—bundled into every plan and additional seats billed at $20–$25 per user per month. Distribution is direct-to-customer via the company website using a product-led growth model with a 14-day full-access free trial, supplemented by personalized demos for mid-market prospects; no channel partners, resellers, or institutional investors are disclosed. Spherical Insights LLP identified the company among 15 leading vendors in the global catering software market in a 2024 report sizing the market at USD 400 million with a projected 13.65% CAGR through 2035.

Name

Better Cater

Legal name

Better Cater, Inc.

Website

https://bettercater.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2011

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Better Cater is a bootstrapped, cloud-hosted SaaS platform founded in 2011 that provides catering businesses with an all-in-one system for proposals, e-signatures, event management, recipes, food costing, packing lists, CRM, and integrated payments across two subscription tiers starting at $83/month.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

San Francisco

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Subscription SaaS - Plus Plan: Monthly or annual subscription for single-location caterers. Includes 1 location, 3 lead forms, 10 e-signatures per month, and email support. Additional users cost $25/mo per user (monthly billing) or $20/mo per user (annual billing).
2. Subscription SaaS - Premium Plan: Monthly or annual subscription for multi-location caterers and growing teams. Includes unlimited locations, unlimited lead forms, unlimited e-signatures, priority support, and API access. Additional users billed at per-user rates.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Better Cater is an all-in-one catering management SaaS platform that helps catering businesses manage events, proposals, menus, staff, invoicing, and client relationships from a single system. It bundles proposals, electronic signatures, CRM, event calendars synced with Google/Outlook/Apple, recipes and food costing, automatic packing lists, BEO templates, kitchen production reports, and integrated payments into every plan. Customers access the platform via web and mobile, with API access on the Premium tier for custom integrations.

Product overview

Better Cater is a unified all-in-one catering software platform designed for catering businesses ranging from solo operators to multi-location operations. The core product, Better Cater, provides a comprehensive suite of integrated modules including event management, proposal generation, menu and recipe management, food costing, staff scheduling, client relationship management (CRM), invoicing and payments, rental tracking, BEO (Banquet Event Order) templates, venue management, and reporting/analytics. Unlike competitors that tier these features behind higher-priced plans or sell them as add-ons, Better Cater includes all core features in every plan. The company also offers Better Cater Payments for integrated payment processing. The platform is accessible via web browser and mobile devices, with API access available on the Premium plan for custom integrations.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Better Cater All-in-one catering management software platform that enables catering businesses to manage events, proposals, menus, staff, invoicing, and client relationships from a single unified system. It bundles tools for winning clients (proposals, e-signatures, CRM), running events (calendar, event management, mobile access), and saving time (recipes, food costing, automatic packing lists, reporting) into every plan starting at $83/month.
• Better Cater Payments Integrated online payment processing capability within Better Cater that lets catering businesses accept all major credit cards (Visa, Mastercard, American Express) through a streamlined and secure flow, eliminating reliance on external payment tools.

Quantifiable outcome

• Proposals can be prepared in minutes versus hours from previous in-house processes
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers7 records

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration4 records

Feature10 records

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves3 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Caterease: Caterease is a long-standing catering management software platform serving event and off-premise caterers with proposals, BEOs, and event tracking. It competes head-to-head with Better Cater in the SMB catering software category with overlapping feature sets and pricing tiers.
• CaterTrax: CaterTrax provides catering management software including online ordering, production, and CRM for corporate and institutional caterers. It directly competes with Better Cater for off-premise and corporate catering operators.
• Total Party Planner: Total Party Planner is catering and event planning software that targets independent and small caterers with proposals, contracts, and event management. It is a direct competitor with comparable PLG-style positioning to Better Cater.
• Aria Foodservice Software: Aria Foodservice Software offers catering and foodservice management software including menu planning, production, and invoicing for caterers. It overlaps materially with Better Cater's recipe, costing, and event management feature set.
• CaterPro Software: CaterPro Software provides catering business management tools focused on proposals, event orders, and kitchen reporting for off-premise caterers. It targets the same SMB catering operator profile as Better Cater.

Broad incumbents

• ezCater: ezCater is a corporate catering marketplace and technology provider, much larger and broader than Better Cater. It overlaps thematically in serving catering operators but its core model is marketplace demand generation rather than SaaS workflow tools.
• Toast: Toast is a leading restaurant management platform with broad capabilities including some catering/event-order functionality. It is a broad incumbent that competes for restaurant and franchise customers that also operate catering programs, overlapping with Better Cater's restaurant customer segment.
• Square for Restaurants: Square for Restaurants is a broad point-of-sale and operations platform serving small and mid-sized restaurants, some of which run catering operations. It is a horizontal incumbent whose lighter catering tooling competes with Better Cater for restaurant caterers.
• Restaurant365: Restaurant365 is a cloud-based accounting, inventory, and operations platform for restaurants. Its operations module partially overlaps with Better Cater's event and production tracking for restaurant customers operating catering businesses.
• Crunchtime: Crunchtime is a restaurant and foodservice operations platform providing inventory, food costing, and labor management. Its food-costing and production-reporting features overlap with Better Cater's recipes and kitchen production reports for larger catering kitchens.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/BetterCater

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles5 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Better Cater