Plate IQ (Ottimate) is AP automation — invoices, approvals, and bill pay. PlateCost is recipe and menu cost software for operators who need to know plate cost %, margin per serving, and what to reprice next.
Free Starter plan · No credit card required · Cancel anytime
Straight talk first
Plate IQ and PlateCost are not the same product. Plate IQ is a strong fit if you want to automate the back-office invoice pipeline. If your real question is “what is each dish actually costing me, and where am I losing margin?” — that’s the problem PlateCost is built for.
Side by side
An operator-first comparison across the dimensions that matter when you're evaluating restaurant cost software.
| Dimension | Plate IQ | PlateCost |
|---|---|---|
| Primary product category | AP automation, invoice capture, bill pay | Recipe costing, menu margin, operator decisions |
| Who it serves first | Finance / AP teams, accounting workflow | Owners, GMs, and chefs costing dishes and pricing menus |
| Recipe & menu costing | Not the core product | Core product — ingredients, recipes, plate cost %, margin per serving |
| Pricing model | Quote-based / sales conversation required | Public, self-serve: Free Starter, $149 Pro, $249 Scale |
| Time to first answer | Implementation cycle with the AP team | Sign up, build a recipe, see plate cost in the first session |
| Invoice ingestion | Deep AP automation and approval workflow | Invoice OCR on Scale that updates ingredient costs and recipe math |
Pricing for Plate IQ is not published as standard tiers in public sources we’ve verified. PlateCost prices are listed on the pricing page. Use the comparison directionally and confirm any vendor pricing directly with the vendor.
Best fit
Both products solve real problems. The right call depends on what you need to decide this week.
If your back office is buried in paper invoices, manual coding, and approval bottlenecks, Plate IQ’s AP automation does heavy lifting that PlateCost does not try to replicate.
Invoice capture is the main job
You need OCR, GL coding, approval routing, and bill pay woven into your accounting stack across many vendors and locations.
Finance team owns the buying decision
Your CFO or controller is selecting the tool, and the success metric is AP cycle time and accounting hygiene.
Multi-entity AP at scale
You’re running a multi-concept group where AP volume justifies a dedicated automation platform.
If the real pain is not knowing whether a dish is profitable, where food cost % is drifting, or what to reprice next, PlateCost is built for that decision — not for AP workflow.
Recipe and menu costing is the job
You need ingredient costs, recipe math, and menu margin in one workflow that updates when supplier prices change.
Operators — not just finance — will use it
Owner-operators, GMs, and chefs need to look at a dish and trust the food cost %, margin per serving, and target status.
You want to start today, not enter a sales cycle
Self-serve sign-up, transparent pricing, and the ability to verify the workflow on a free Starter plan before upgrading.
How PlateCost works
PlateCost mirrors how operators actually work — not how AP teams process invoices.
Enter ingredients with pack size and unit. Cost per unit and per oz calculate automatically.
Compose prep recipes and menu items with yields and portions. Plate cost updates in real time.
Every dish shows food cost %, margin per serving, and target status before it ever hits a guest check.
Use menu engineering, profit tracking, and Price Optimizer to choose what to reprice, promote, or simplify.
Pricing
Start free. Move to Pro for menu engineering and profit tracking. Move to Scale for purchasing visibility.
Starter
Free
Build a real recipe and see plate cost % before you pay.
Pro
$149/mo
Menu engineering, Profit, Price Optimizer, weekly digest.
Scale
$249/mo
Adds Purchases, Waste Estimator, Menu Simplifier, snapshots.
FAQ
No. Plate IQ is AP automation; PlateCost is recipe and menu cost software. Many operators run both — Plate IQ for invoice and bill workflow, PlateCost for plate-level margin decisions. They solve different problems.
Yes, on the Scale plan. Purchases lets you log invoices and update ingredient costs from them, so recipe math reflects what you actually paid. It is not a full AP system — it’s built to feed the costing model, not replace your accounting workflow.
Starter is free. Pro is $149/month and adds menu engineering, profit tracking, Price Optimizer, weekly digest, and exports. Scale is $249/month and adds Purchases, Waste Estimator, Menu Simplifier, and historical cost snapshots. All public on the pricing page.
Yes. PlateCost is purpose-built for the recipe and margin layer and doesn’t touch your AP stack. Sign up on Starter, load a few real ingredients, and see whether the costing workflow earns its place before you upgrade.
Load a few ingredients, build a real dish, and see the food cost % and margin per serving in your first session.
Free Starter plan · No credit card required · Upgrade anytime