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Jack Green
Jack Green

Posted on Originally published at tools.jackgreen.top

I Built a Free Square Menu Alternative for Independent Restaurants

#javascript #webdev #productivity #opensource

I Built a Free Square Menu Alternative for Independent Restaurants

Square charges $69/month for menu management. That's $828 a year for a tool that just formats text.

I was helping a restaurant owner figure out their food costs when I discovered they were paying Square for this. A food cost calculator should take 5 minutes to build, not cost $828/year.

I closed the Square tab. Opened a text editor. Built something better that afternoon.

What It Does

Restaurant Menu Designer — a free, browser-based menu builder that also calculates your food cost margins.

  • Design menus — Add items with name, description, price, and cost. Organize by category.
  • Auto-calculate margins — Food cost % and gross margin per item, color-coded (green ≤30%, yellow 30-40%, red >40%)
  • Print-ready output — Clean, professional menus that print to PDF via your browser
  • No subscription — Open the page and start designing. No account, no signup, no paywall

Why It Exists

Independent restaurants and food trucks are tired of bundled POS subscriptions. Square Menu costs $69/mo — that's $828/year for a tool that just formats text. This tool does that AND tells you if your margins are actually healthy.

Restaurant owners should know their food cost percentage without paying for it.

Features

  • Menu builder with name, description, category, price, and cost
  • Auto-calculated food cost % and gross margin per item
  • Color-coded margin indicators: green (healthy ≤30%), yellow (warning 30-40%), red (risky >40%)
  • Category management — show/hide sections for layout control
  • Print-ready menus with restaurant name, tagline, and clean item layout
  • LocalStorage persistence — your menu saves between sessions
  • Works offline after first load
  • No watermarks on your output
  • No data leaves your browser

The Math

Square Menu: $69/month = $828/year
This tool: $0

Over 10 years, that's $8,280 saved. For the same menu design AND margin analysis.

Open Source

It's all on GitHub — fork it, improve it, run it yourself. If you're a developer frustrated by paywalled utilities, go build something better. It's faster than you think.

Try it free

Built for restaurant owners who are tired of subscription traps.

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