Per Diem vs Craver: Which Restaurant App Platform Is Better for Square?

TLDR

A branded app should fit into the way your restaurant already works, not give your team another system to manage. That makes the choice between Per Diem and Craver especially important for businesses using Square. Both platforms offer branded mobile ordering, loyalty, delivery, push notifications and direct Square integration. The differences become clearer when you look at how menus and orders connect with Square, how customers use the app, and what each platform gives you to keep those customers coming back. Here is a current comparison of Per Diem and Craver based on their available features as of September 2026.

Per Diem vs Craver at a Glance

Per Diem and Craver both start at $99 per month and can launch branded iOS and Android apps for restaurants and coffee shops. Both connect with Square POS, support direct ordering and give businesses tools for loyalty and customer engagement.

Here is how their main app features compare.

The overlap is significant. Both can handle the basic job of giving a Square merchant its own ordering app. The decision gets easier once you look at what happens behind that app.

Per Diem vs Craver Square Integration

For a restaurant already using Square, integration should reduce work at the counter. Staff should not have to maintain separate menus, enter digital orders manually or change the way they already process orders.

How Per Diem Works With Square

Per Diem connects closely with the Square setup a restaurant already uses. Menus, categories, items, modifiers, pricing, inventory and locations stay synced, while app and web orders flow directly into Square POS. Changes made in Square carry over to Per Diem, so teams do not have to manage the same information in two places.

The integration also extends beyond ordering. Restaurants can use Square Loyalty or Per Diem Loyalty, accept Square gift cards, and use purchase data from Square to understand and engage customers. This keeps Square at the center of daily operations while Per Diem adds the branded ordering and customer experience around it.

How Craver Works With Square

Craver connects its branded app with Square POS for ordering, menu updates, inventory, Square Loyalty and gift cards. App orders are sent into Square, while inventory changes update in real time.

The key limitation is menu sync frequency. Craver states that Square menu changes sync nightly, rather than as they are made. Its Square connection is largely centered on supporting the ordering app, while Per Diem uses the Square ecosystem across a broader customer journey, from ordering and loyalty to purchase data, CRM and marketing.

App Design and Customization Controls

A restaurant app should feel like the restaurant it belongs to. Per Diem gives businesses extensive control over the look and customer experience of their app, rather than limiting branding to a logo and a few visual changes.

Restaurants can customize their app icon, logo, colors, fonts, imagery, banners, and other customer-facing elements while having a clean navigation for customers. The same identity can also carry across web ordering and a custom website.

Per Diem also gives merchants control over how customers interact with the app. Businesses can configure app features, organize how menus and categories appear, highlight promotions and products, and decide which parts of the experience are visible to customers.

Craver provides branded apps with customization for elements such as colors, fonts, images, and content. Its approach follows a more template app structure, with branding applied within that fixed framework.

For businesses that care about creating a distinct digital identity, Per Diem provides greater flexibility to shape both how the app looks and how customers experience it. The result is a branded experience designed around the individual restaurant rather than the same basic presentation with different brand assets.

*Choosing a restaurant app involves more than comparing feature lists. See the key things restaurants should look for when choosing a mobile ordering app. *

Per Diem vs Craver Loyalty Programs

Loyalty is a key differentiator that makes Per Diem a top choice for restaurants using Square. Instead of limiting businesses to one loyalty setup, Per Diem gives merchants the flexibility to continue using Square Loyalty or build a richer rewards experience with Per Diem Loyalty.

Per Diem Loyalty supports:

• Custom points and earning rules
• Silver, Gold and Platinum tiers
• Birthday and VIP rewards
• Referral rewards
• Visit streaks
• Monthly challenges
• Points multipliers
• Spin the Wheel, Scratch Card and Pick a Box rewards

This gives a restaurant far more ways to shape repeat behavior. A coffee shop could reward five visits in a week, give Gold members a special perk, run double points during a slow period or reward customers for referring friends.

Craver has its own loyalty tools and also supports Square Loyalty. Its program covers points, rewards, discounts and referrals.

Per Diem's advantage is the range of ways merchants can build engagement into the program while still keeping the option to use Square Loyalty. A business does not have to choose Per Diem based on one fixed loyalty model.

Push Notifications: From Order Updates to Personalized Marketing

Push notifications serve two different jobs in a restaurant app. Some keep customers informed about their orders. Others give restaurants a direct way to bring customers back.

Per Diem supports both.

Transactional notifications can keep customers updated when an order is confirmed, being prepared, ready for pickup or out for delivery.

For marketing, restaurants can schedule push notifications for promotions, new menu items, seasonal launches, events and other updates. Push notifications are included in Per Diem's Starter plan, so merchants can start reaching app customers without adding the CRM.

Where Per Diem goes further is personalization. With its CRM, restaurants can use customer behavior and Square purchase data to build segments and target specific groups rather than sending the same promotion to everyone. A merchant could reach regulars, VIPs, new customers, lapsing customers or other relevant audiences with offers designed for them.

Craver includes push notifications in its Core plan and lets merchants schedule promotions, announcements, and order updates. However, its core platform does not offer the same depth of customer segmentation and CRM driven personalization available with Per Diem.

More Control Over Order Fulfillment and Delivery

Per Diem gives restaurants flexibility in how every order is fulfilled, with pickup, curbside pickup, scheduled orders, delivery, catering, and group ordering available within the same ordering experience.

Delivery can be handled through DoorDash Drive, Uber Direct or the restaurant's own drivers, with Grubhub coming soon. Merchants are not locked into one delivery setup. They can use Smart Courier Selection to automatically choose a courier based on cost, speed or reliability, or select a preferred provider for all orders.

Restaurants also have detailed control over delivery areas, minimum spends, fixed or courier based fees, free delivery thresholds and delivery hours. Regular and catering delivery can even use different providers, fees and rules. Prep times can be set separately for pickup, delivery and curbside, with overrides by location and day.

Curbside is built into the fulfillment flow too. Customers can provide their vehicle details and tap “I’m here” when they arrive, giving staff the information needed to bring the order out.

Craver offers pickup, curbside and delivery through DoorDash and Uber. Its public delivery offering primarily connects those courier networks to direct restaurant ordering.

The difference is how much control sits behind fulfillment. Restaurants using Per Diem can manage everyday delivery, in-house drivers, courier selection, curbside, catering delivery, and larger group orders from one platform, with detailed rules for how each order type should work.

Beyond the App: Per Diem Adds a Restaurant CRM

A branded app gives customers a place to order. The next challenge is understanding who those customers are and giving them reasons to order again.

This is where Per Diem separates itself from Craver.

Per Diem offers a restaurant CRM that brings customer activity and Square purchase data into the same platform used for ordering and loyalty. Restaurants can see how customers behave, identify valuable groups, and use that information to decide who should receive a campaign.

Instead of treating every app user the same, merchants can create segments around customers such as:

• VIPs and high spenders
• Regular customers
• New customers
• Lapsing customers
• Lapsed customers
• Customers with specific purchasing behaviors

Those audiences can then be reached through push notifications, SMS, and email.

Craver offers app marketing features including push notifications, referrals and promotions, but does not provide a comparable built-in CRM with the same combination of Square purchase data, customer segmentation and multichannel marketing.

For a growing restaurant, that changes what the app can actually do. Per Diem is not only a place where customers order. It gives the business tools to understand those customers and bring them back.

*Points and discounts are only one way to build loyalty. Learn how streaks, challenges and gamified rewards can keep customers engaged between orders. *

Push, SMS and Email Work Together

Per Diem gives restaurants three direct channels for reaching customers: push notifications, SMS and email.

A coffee shop could send a push notification to regular app users about a new seasonal drink, text an offer to customers who have started visiting less often, and email a broader audience about a new menu or event.

These campaigns can be built around customer segments rather than relying only on mass messages.

This matters because different customers respond to different channels. Per Diem gives restaurants one place to manage those relationships instead of requiring separate tools for the app, customer segmentation, SMS, and email.

Olivia Makes Restaurant Marketing Easier

Per Diem also includes Olivia, its AI marketing assistant.

Rather than manually building every campaign from scratch, merchants can tell Olivia what they want to accomplish. Olivia can help create campaigns, customer segments, coupons, banners and promotional content based on that goal.

For example, a merchant could ask Olivia to help bring back customers who have not ordered recently or promote a slow afternoon period. The restaurant already has ordering and customer data inside Per Diem, giving the marketing tools useful context to work with.

Craver does not currently offer a comparable built-in AI marketing assistant across its core platform.

Per Diem Offers More Ways to Grow Beyond Mobile Ordering

The difference between the platforms becomes even clearer when a restaurant needs something beyond everyday pickup and delivery.

Per Diem supports catering and group ordering, allowing restaurants to handle larger and more complex orders through their own digital experience. It also supports subscriptions for businesses that want to create recurring programs around products or customer perks.

For multi-location businesses, Per Diem can connect locations while giving brands tools to manage the experience across the organization. Franchise Mode extends this further for growing restaurant groups that need greater control across locations.

This makes Per Diem a stronger fit for businesses that do not want to replace their app platform as they grow. A single location coffee shop can start with branded ordering and push notifications, then add richer loyalty, CRM, marketing, catering, subscriptions or multi-location capabilities as its needs change.

*Learn more about Per Diem for Franchisees here. *

Per Diem vs Craver Pricing

Both Per Diem and Craver currently have plans starting at $99 per location per month, but comparing the monthly subscription alone misses important differences.

Per Diem Starter includes the branded iOS and Android apps, web ordering, Square integration, delivery, catering, group ordering, Square Loyalty support, and marketing and transactional push notifications.

Businesses that want the broader growth toolkit can move to Pro Plus, which adds CRM, customer segmentation, email and SMS marketing, automations and additional loyalty and engagement capabilities.

Craver's Core plan also starts at $99 per location per month and covers its branded ordering app and core engagement features. Additional products, such as its Subscription Bundle, carry an additional cost.

The better pricing question is therefore not simply which platform starts at $99. It is how many customer-facing and marketing tools the restaurant can run through that platform as it grows.

Which Is Better for Square Restaurants: Per Diem or Craver?

For restaurants using Square, Per Diem is the stronger choice for businesses that want their branded app to become a long-term customer growth channel.

Craver covers the core requirements of a mobile ordering app, including branded ordering, Square integration, delivery, loyalty, and push notifications.

Per Diem goes considerably further.

It combines a highly customizable branded app and web ordering with deep Square integration, Per Diem Loyalty or Square Loyalty, personalized push marketing, CRM, customer segmentation, SMS, email, AI-assisted marketing, catering, group ordering, subscriptions and tools for multi-location brands.

That means restaurants do not have to think about the app as an isolated ordering product. The same platform can help them take an order, recognize the customer behind it, reward that customer and bring them back.

FAQs

Does Per Diem work directly with Square?

Yes. Per Diem connects with Square for menus, items, categories, modifiers, pricing, inventory, locations, orders and other operational data. Orders from Per Diem flow into the restaurant's existing Square workflow.

Does Per Diem automatically sync menus from Square?

Yes. Square can remain the source of truth for the restaurant's menu, with connected menu information syncing into Per Diem. Restaurants can then control how those items and categories are presented to customers.

Does Per Diem have its own loyalty program?

Yes. Restaurants can use Per Diem Loyalty to create custom points, earning rules, rewards, tiers, referrals, streaks, challenges, birthday offers, multipliers and gamified rewards.

Can I still use Square Loyalty with Per Diem?

Yes. Per Diem supports Square Loyalty, so businesses already using it can keep their existing loyalty setup. Merchants can choose between Square Loyalty and Per Diem's own loyalty capabilities based on the experience they want to create.

Does Per Diem offer CRM and customer segmentation?

Yes. Per Diem's CRM uses customer and Square purchase data to help restaurants understand their customers, build segments and run targeted campaigns across push, SMS, and email.

What is the biggest difference between Per Diem and Craver?

Craver is primarily focused on providing restaurants with a branded ordering app and related engagement features. Per Diem provides the branded app plus a broader Square-connected growth platform, bringing together ordering, loyalty, customer data, CRM, personalized marketing and AI-powered marketing tools.

Is Per Diem or Craver better for restaurants using Square?

Per Diem is the stronger option for Square restaurants that want extensive integration and a platform that can grow beyond mobile ordering. Its combination of branded ordering, loyalty, CRM, customer segmentation and multichannel marketing gives restaurants more ways to build direct customer relationships from the Square ecosystem they already use.