Everybody selling restaurant software says they’re the best. Here’s a straighter answer. These are the tools we’d actually point a new pizzeria owner toward, sorted by job, with the honest trade-offs. None of them is right for everybody — pick for the shop you’re running, not the one in the brochure.

Point of sale (POS)

Your POS is the spine of the whole operation. A few worth a look:

• Square for Restaurants — the easiest and cheapest way to start. Free base software, you pay per transaction. Great for a small counter or takeout shop that doesn’t need delivery routing yet.
• Toast — the all-in-one heavyweight. Does just about everything, but costs more and takes longer to learn. Good when you’re growing and sick of duct-taping systems together.
• SpotOn — one of the few that actually publishes its pricing, with both a $0-software path and a month-to-month plan. Worth a quote.
• Clover — sleek hardware, backed by Fiserv. Just know the bundle pricing usually rides on multi-year contracts, so price the whole term before you sign.
• HungerRush, SpeedLine, Adora, or Thrive — the pizza specialists. If delivery with your own drivers is a real chunk of your business, these handle dispatch, driver tracking, and complicated pie builds in ways the general systems just don’t.

One heads-up: Revel got bought by Shift4, so new buyers now get pointed at Shift4’s SkyTab. If somebody pitches you Revel, ask where the roadmap goes.

Online ordering

You want orders coming through a channel you own — not just the delivery apps skimming a cut off every one. Depending on what matters to you:

• ChowNow, Owner.com, or Lumit — branded, commission-free ordering on your own site. You keep the margin and the customer data.
• Slice — pizza-specific, and it comes with marketplace reach if you want the extra discovery.
• Square Online or GloriaFood — the cheapest way to switch ordering on if you’re watching every dollar.

Scheduling and labor

• 7shifts — built specifically for restaurants and the most popular pick for independents. Ties scheduling to your POS sales so you’re not overstaffing a slow Tuesday.
• Homebase — has a genuinely free plan for a single location. Easiest place to start when it’s just you and a small crew.
• When I Work or Deputy — solid alternatives; Deputy’s strong if you’re juggling labor-law rules.

Accounting and payroll

• QuickBooks or Xero — the standard for your books, and most bookkeepers already know them.
• Gusto — dead-simple payroll for a small team.
• Restaurant365 — a heavier, restaurant-specific system that bundles accounting, inventory, and payroll. Overkill on day one; worth a look once you’ve got a few years or a second location under you.

Food cost and inventory

• MarketMan or xtraCHEF — track what you’re actually spending on ingredients and where it’s leaking out.
• Restaurant Depot — cash-and-carry wholesale that independents lean on hard. Pair it with a local produce guy and a cheese supplier.
• Sysco or US Foods — the broadline distributors for everything else.

Getting found

• Google Business Profile — free, and the single most valuable thing you can set up. It’s what decides whether “pizza near me” turns up your shop.
• Yelp for Business and Meta — claim them, keep them accurate, and actually post.

None of this is a magic button. The right stack is the smallest one that runs your shop without you fighting it. Start simple, add tools when the pain is real, and don’t pay for features you won’t touch for two years.