KitchenAsty

KitchenAsty is an open-source, self-hosted platform for restaurant ordering and operations. Customers can place delivery or pickup orders with guest checkout and scheduling, while staff follow incoming orders on a real-time kitchen board. Restaurants can manage multiple locations with separate menus, hours, delivery zones, and staff, alongside reservations, reviews, loyalty points, coupons, automation, analytics, and an admin dashboard. Payments include Stripe, PayPal, and cash; Google and Facebook sign-in are also supported. A customer-facing Expo app for iOS and Android offers menu browsing, ordering, payments, tracking, reservations, notifications, and order history. The RESTful JSON API uses JWT-protected endpoints and is limited to 100 requests per 15-minute window per IP address. The software is under the MIT License and says it has no monthly SaaS fees. Restaurants host it on their own server or cloud instance and are responsible for customer data and their privacy policy. The project recommends 2 GB RAM and 1 vCPU for one location, or 4 GB RAM and 2 vCPU or more for heavy traffic or multiple locations. The software is provided as-is without warranty.

KitchenAsty combines ordering and restaurant operations with customer-facing apps and an API. Self-hosting gives operators control of deployment but leaves them responsible for customer privacy and their own infrastructure.

KitchenAsty suits restaurants that want to run their own ordering system and manage kitchen workflows, reservations, and customer engagement. Its multi-location features are intended for operators managing several sites.

Overview

KitchenAsty is an open-source platform for restaurant ordering, kitchen work, reservations and customer engagement. It best suits operators who want to run their own ordering system and can manage the hosting behind it. Its breadth is compelling, but the operational control comes with responsibility for infrastructure and customer privacy.

Key features

Customers can order delivery or pickup through a website or branded iOS and Android app, with guest checkout and scheduled ordering. The app also supports payments, live order tracking, reservations, push notifications and order history, giving restaurants a customer-facing channel beyond a web storefront.

On the operations side, staff get a real-time kitchen order board, while multi-location management supports separate menus, hours, delivery zones and staff. Reservations, reviews, ratings, loyalty points and coupons round out the customer-retention tools. Analytics cover revenue, orders and customers; event-driven rules can send email, webhook and SMS notifications.

Payments include Stripe, PayPal and cash, with webhook-driven status updates. Google and Facebook sign-in are supported, and six languages are included: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian and Portuguese. The RESTful JSON API uses JWT-protected endpoints and allows 100 requests per 15-minute window per IP address, a meaningful constraint for integrations with bursts of traffic.

KitchenAsty is released under the MIT License and uses Docker for deployment. The self-hosting guide recommends HTTPS, backups, firewall rules, strong secrets, restricted CORS origins and production mode. It suggests a 2 GB RAM, 1 vCPU server for one location, rising to 4 GB RAM and 2 vCPU or more for heavy traffic or multiple locations. Those safeguards are useful guidance, not a substitute for an operator who can maintain the deployment. The software is provided as-is without warranty.

Pricing

KitchenAsty is free, with no monthly SaaS fees, and there is no free trial because the project itself is free. There are no paid tiers or published seat quotas to weigh against its features. The trade-off is that free software does not include managed hosting: operators must provide the server or cloud instance and handle deployment and upkeep themselves. Questions go to GitHub Issues or GitHub Discussions.

Platforms

KitchenAsty supports web, Android, iOS, API access and self-hosted deployment. The customer app and website serve ordering; the API provides a route for integrations, subject to its per-IP request limit.

Who it's for

It is a strong fit for restaurants that want branded ordering, kitchen workflows and customer-engagement tools in one self-hosted system, especially those with the technical capacity to run it. Multi-location controls and the recommended higher server capacity make it relevant to operators with more than one site, provided they can manage the added hosting demands.

It is a weaker fit for a restaurant seeking a managed service or a vendor to take responsibility for customer-data practices. The project privacy policy covers its documentation website; operators running their own instance are responsible for customer data and their own privacy policy. Hosting, maintenance and warranty risk also sit with the operator.

Pros and cons

• Pros: Free, MIT-licensed software avoids monthly SaaS fees while combining ordering, kitchen operations, reservations and loyalty tools.
• Pros: Branded mobile apps, guest checkout, scheduled orders and delivery or pickup cover several customer ordering needs.
• Pros: Multi-location controls separate menus, hours, delivery zones and staff, making the platform more suitable for operators beyond a single storefront.
• Cons: Self-hosting shifts deployment, server upkeep and customer privacy obligations to the restaurant.
• Cons: The API limit of 100 requests per 15-minute window per IP may constrain integrations with concentrated request volume.
• Cons: As-is software without warranty leaves operators without a product warranty, and support is directed to GitHub Issues and Discussions.

Alternatives

For a different kind of self-hosted software, the NAS Software category collects storage-focused options, while Food Ordering Software and Restaurant Online Ordering Software are relevant categories for comparing ordering tools.

TrueNAS is a better direction for readers seeking a NAS platform: its free Community Edition runs on any x86 hardware and includes community support. ZimaOS may suit someone looking for a NAS option with a mobile and PC client, Thunderbolt support and Developer Mode in its free plan. napp-it is worth considering for noncommercial home use capped at three servers on its CS Home plan; that plan has no capacity limit and no support.

NovaNAS is another free, open-source NAS operating system, but it requires Debian 13 and at least 2 GB RAM, a 1-core CPU and a 20 GB system drive plus data drives. OpenNAS offers a free, open-source beta installer for self-hosting on x86_64 hardware. OSNEXUS QuantaStor has a free Community Edition for non-commercial, educational and testing use, with 80 TB raw capacity and a four-server maximum per storage grid.

TurnKey File Server is a free Debian-based file-server option. ZetaNAS offers a free self-hosted community edition with core storage features and no capacity or node limits.

Verdict

Choose KitchenAsty if you want a free, MIT-licensed restaurant ordering platform that connects customer apps and storefronts with kitchen and multi-location operations, and you can own the hosting and privacy work. Look elsewhere if you need managed infrastructure or want another party to take responsibility for customer-data handling.