👉 Update Spring 2023: Untappd for business now has two tiers: Essential ($899/year) and Premium ($1199/year).
Just over a year ago they increased their price from $599 to $899 (a 50% increase). The limitations built into this new two tier system appear designed to once again charge existing and previous customers more for their services.
BeerMenus, a popular Untappd alternative with most of the same features, costs just $599 per year.
Maybe you’ve received some phone calls from the Untappd for Business sales team. Maybe a buddy in the industry mentioned it to you. Or maybe you're currently using Untappd for Business at your bar or restaurant.
Regardless, you’re wondering whether it’s right for your bar or restaurant, so you want to learn more.
When you're considering this, you'll certainly evaluate Untappd for Business (something you can do in our Untappd for Business: the Definitive Guide article).
But many small business owners investigate BeerMenus, a popular Untappd for Business alternative and competitor. Read on to learn which would be a better fit for your business.
BeerMenus and Untappd for Business both provide Print Menus, TV Menus, Website Menus, social media integrations, event promotion, a beer database of thousands of different beers, an Andorid and iOS mobile app, and access to local audiences.
Choose BeerMenus if you want, require, or value:
Choose Untappd for Business if you want, require, or value:
If the reasons to choose BeerMenus aren’t important to you and your customers are very active on Untappd (i.e. you have thousands of check-ins per month), Untappd will likely be the best choice for you.
Learn more about Untappd for Business.
BeerMenus and Untappd reach different audiences, who use the services for different reasons, and support different marketing channels (Untappd has sponsored badges and BeerMenus reaches locals using search engines to find specific beers and automates email marketing).
Depending on where your business is located, your goals, and your budget, it could make sense to use both services.
| Customer experience and business practices | BeerMenus | Untappd |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | $0 - $599 per year | $899-$1199 per year (see below) |
| Free plan | ✅ | ❌ |
| Free trial period | âś… | see below |
| Ease of use | see below | see below |
| Time it takes to update menu | see below | see below |
| Invite and manage coworker access | âś… | âś… |
| Try without talking to a sales person | ✅ | ❌ |
| Transparent pricing | ✅ | ❌ | Databases | BeerMenus | Untappd |
| Beer database | âś… | âś… |
| Wine database | âś… | see below |
| Spirits database | âś… | see below | Print Menus | BeerMenus | Untappd |
| Print menus | âś… | âś… |
| Print menu: design themes | âś… | âś… |
| Print menu: custom design for no additional fee | ✅ | ❌ | Touchless QR code menus | BeerMenus | Untappd |
| QR code menus | ✅ | ❌ |
| QR code menus: built in response to COVID pandemic | ✅ | ❌ |
| QR code menus: custom design for no additional fee | ✅ | ❌ | Digital Menus | BeerMenus | Untappd |
| TV Menu/Digital Board | âś… | âś… |
| TV Menu: custom design for no additional fee | ✅ | ❌ |
| Custom specials or ad slides on TV menus | âś… | âś… | Online Marketing | BeerMenus | Untappd |
| Website menu | âś… | âś… |
| Website menu: custom design for no additional fee | ✅ | ❌ |
| Google search traffic from people looking for specific beers | ✅ | ❌ |
| Email marketing | ✅ | ❌ |
| Push notification marketing | âś… | âś… |
| Facebook and Twitter intergration | âś… | âś… |
| Local audience | see below | see below |
| Promote events | âś… | âś… |
| Sponsored badges | ❌ | ✅ |
| Include non-beer (e.g. food, wine, etc.) items on public menus | ✅ | ❌ |
Here's a little more detail about these dimensions.
With BeerMenus, you can immediately create an account and start a full featured trial without providing billing information or a phone number.
Though they now offer a trial period in some cases, they still prefer getting you into their sales funnel immediately.
The first step of that is to fill out a lead form and wait for a sales person to call you. After a sales person gives you a slideshow demo of the product over the phone (i.e. images, not a live demo of the product), Untappd pushes for you to commit to paying for the product for a year. If you push back, they may offer you the option of monthly pricing or a free trial. If you cancel Untappd for Business after a free trial or being a customer, you lose access to the data you entered.
With BeerMenus, you have 14 days to test out all features without interruption from us (unless you ask us to help). No credit card is required.
If you don’t upgrade by the end of the trial, you’re downgraded to the free plan. On the free plan, you can view and edit your menu, but you lose access to Pro features (Print Menus, TV menus, marketing tools). During your trial, you can contact BeerMenus support via chat, email, or phone to get questions answered or help getting set up.
BeerMenus also provides design customization for print, TV, and/or website menus during your trial for no additional fee.
Ease and speed of updating your menu
With BeerMenus, there’s one form to add/edit menu items, and you can instantly search for any item you’ve already added. This means you can make menu changes in 5-10 seconds. When you select an item from the BeerMenus database, an editable version of the description is immediately loaded, so you can customize the description before you add it to your menu.
With Untappd for Business, you need to first create menu sections. After you create menu sections, you can only add/edit or search menu items one section at a time. For example, if you set up a draft list section and a bottles section, after you update your draft list you then need to navigate to your bottles list to make changes to that section.
Also, it's a two-step process to add an item to your menu on Untappd. First you search for and add the item, then you need to click on the item to add additional information (size, package type, pricing, description, etc.) Adding an item to your menu on BeerMenus is a one-step process.
With BeerMenus, you can view pricing before, during, and after your trial, choose monthly or annual billing, and upgrade when you’re ready.
Untappd does not list its prices publicly on its website or in its help docs, so there's no information to be found there.
Untappd's price had been $599 per year, but Untappd recently (winter 2021) increased its price tos $899 for all businesses on Untappd (a 50% price increase). Even businesses that have been with them for years saw their price increase.
With this new pricing Untappd will be substantially more expensive than a BeerMenus membership.
With BeerMenus, you'll pay a maximum of $599 per year, though monthly and more inexpensive plans are available (and if you send an email to dylan at beermenus.com you'll get an additional discount :)).
BeerMenus was founded by two beer-loving and home-brewing brothers over 10 years ago, one of whom is still the CEO. It's a family business that's able to operate according to its values.
Untappd, based in Wilmington, North Carolina, was founded by Greg Avola and Tim Mather in 2009. It was purchased by the company Next Glass in 2016 and neither founder is involved with the business any longer.
Next Glass is essentially a private equity company, and many former customers express that their experience with Untappd felt "corporate" and that it was difficult to contact their support team if they had any questions.
They also charge higher prices, and aspects of their customer agreement paints a full picture of their "corporate" ethos. For example:
BeerMenus and Untappd for Business both provide access to a beer database with descriptions, style, ABV, and brewery info. Untappd’s beer coverage is broader for beers that are not sold within the United States.
Untappd now provides a wine and spirits database (as of Spring 2023) but it is not clear how robust the database is. Additionally, in order to access the database you must use their "Premium" plan, which costs $1199 per year.
On the other hand, BeerMenus provides access to an ever-growing wine and spirits database with descriptions, producer, style and additional info, which you have access to in all our plans (the most expensive of which is just $599/year).
Both services offer multiple themes to choose from and the ability to choose what information you want to show for each menu item.
Only BeerMenus offers to create a custom design for you and for no additional fee.
Untappd charges an additional fee for custom menu designs.
BeerMenus also supports customizing the number of columns and what info is shown for each item by section. For example, your draft list could be two columns and include descriptions while your bottle list is three columns and doesn’t include descriptions.
Only BeerMenus offers a true QR code menu product.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, BeerMenus built a QR code menu product in order to provide businesses a way to get the benefits of our Print Menu product (update quickly from anywhere, beer descriptions, etc.) in the strange new world of the pandemic, where traditional paper menus no longer work for many businesses.
BeerMenus provides businesses their unique QR code (you can choose from 3 designs, depending on your customers' level of technological sophistication).
BeerMenus provides businesses their unique QR code and, like with our other menu products, QR Menus from BeerMenus are customizable to your business, so your menu will actually feel like your menu. It's the most user-friendly QR Code Menu in the beer industry.
Untappd for Business does not offer true QR code menus. Instead, the QR codes they offer bring customers to your page on untappd.com, which is full of banner advertisements and the like.
Both services offer multiple themes to choose from, the ability to choose what information you want to show for each menu item, and the ability to create slides for ads or specials.
Only BeerMenus offers to create a custom design for you and for no additional fee.
Untappd charges several hundred dollars for a custom TV Menu design.
Untappd for Business provides a way to show recent Untappd check-ins on your TV menu.
Both services offer website menus (embed your live menu on your website), posting menu updates and announcements or specials to Facebook and Twitter, promoting events, and push notifications to people who follow your business or locals who follow a beer you add to your menu.
Only BeerMenus offers to create a custom design for your website menu for no additional fee.
Only BeerMenus enables you to reach people using Google and other search engines to find local places carrying or serving specific beers. Learn more about SEO for craft beer businesses.
Only BeerMenus enables you to automate email marketing to people who follow your business or locals who follow a beer you add to your menu. Learn more about email marketing.
Only BeerMenus enables you to include wine, spirits, food and other non-beer items on your public page.
Only Untappd for Business enables you to schedule Facebook or Twitter announcements to go live at a time in the future or to recur weekly.
Only Untappd for Business offers sponsored local badges for an additional fee.
Untappd is first and foremost a service for tracking what you drink. BeerMenus is first and foremost a service for deciding where to buy beer. If you want to reach beer drinkers when they’re deciding where to go, BeerMenus is the most targeted option.
BeerMenus and Untappd reach different audiences in different locations. 95% of BeerMenus’s audience is in the U.S. while Untappd’s audience is split between the U.S. and many other countries.
With Untappd for Business, a sales person demoing the service will show you a report of the local audience in your area. It’s unclear if you’re able to see that report on an ongoing basis.
With BeerMenus, you can see your local audience in the Insights section of where you manage your business.
The primary reason people use each service is a key difference between BeerMenus’s and Untappd’s local audiences. In a survey of BeerMenus and Untappd users, when asked the primary reason they use Untappd, 64.9% selected to record what they drink, 15.2% selected look up beer info, 8.8% indicated the social aspect (see what friends are drinking, badges, etc.) and 10.4% selected either decide where to drink or buy beer or find places selling specific beers).
The BeerMenus audience has much more buying intent. When asked the primary reason they use BeerMenus, 88.4% selected decide where to drink or buy beer or find places selling specific beers, 4.4% selected look up beer info, and 1.6% selected find local beer events.
