Apicbase
AI-native back-of-house operating system for multi-site restaurants, hotels and caterers.
By Apicbase · HQ Antwerp, Belgium · 4.0/5 verified-buyer score
Positioning guardrails
Best for
- Multi-site restaurant groups and franchise networks standardising recipes, purchasing, inventory and COGS across every outlet.
- Hotel chains and resort groups running several F&B outlets on one shared recipe and cost database.
- Contract caterers and central production kitchens planning production, BOMs and supplier ordering from one hub.
- Dark kitchen and delivery-only operators that need tight prime-cost control per unit.
- Foodservice groups whose teams want to query live operational data through AI assistants via MCP.
Ideal size: 5+ outlets / 100+ users people · Multi-site operator with a central F&B, supply-chain or finance function
Not for
- Single-site independent restaurants and cafes with no group structure or central kitchen.
- Operators below roughly five outlets, the entry point of the Growth plan.
- Businesses looking for a POS, delivery or guest-facing reservation system.
- Teams that want to buy software without any data setup or onboarding work.
- Buyers who need published, self-serve pricing instead of a sales conversation.
Value metrics scorecard
Time-to-Value
4-6 weeks with guided onboarding
~30 days to first production value
Total Cost of Ownership
$0/yr
Starts at $0 · Quote-based per-location subscription billed annually by credit card; monthly billing adds 15%. Volume discounts grow with location count. Prices are not published and are quoted through sales.
Implementation Friction
3/5
Engineering + admin effort required
Buyer Score
out of 5 · verified buyers
Full cost breakdown
Mandatory implementation fee
None
Seat tiers
Growth: 5 library users and 3 location users per site, max 30 locations. Professional: 10 library users and 5 location users per site, unlimited locations.
Add-on costs
- HACCP & Tasks
- Internal Ordering
- Production Planning
- Traceability
- API access
- Menu Planning
- Carbon Footprint
Company & support
Who is behind Apicbase, and how your team gets help once it is live.
Company
- Founded
- Not recorded
- Headquarters
- Antwerp, Belgium
How you get support
- PhoneNot listed
- EmailNot listed
- Live chatPlan not stated
- Support portal / ticketsPlan not stated
- Community forumNot listed
- Help centre / docsPlan not stated
- Dedicated account managerEnterprise only
- In person / on-siteNot listed
- Hours
- Not recorded
- Response time
- Not stated
Support portal at support.apicbase.com plus an in-app chat bubble staffed by the Apicbase team (no bots). The pricing FAQ also cites onboarding, a Help Centre and an Academy. Enterprise adds a dedicated CS manager and a 99% uptime SLA. A sales phone number and email are published separately and…
“Not listed” means the vendor’s public pages don’t mention that channel, not that it is unavailable. Ask about it during evaluation.
Market position
Where Apicbase sits against its closest alternatives. Pick any two of cost, speed, friction and buyer score, and up to 9 companies to compare.
Quadrant view
Implementation friction × Verified buyer score
The lines cross at the median of the solutions shown, so about half sit on each side of each line.
Companies on the chart 6 / 10
- Apicbase
- Nory
- Fourth
- meez
- Restaurant365
- Kojo
Add or change companies
Up to 10 companies including Apicbase. Listed closest first.
Stack fit signal
Compatibility with standard B2B ecosystems.
Ships an official MCP server. Connects to Claude Code, Claude Desktop, ChatGPT connectors and Cursor out of the box.
AI & MCP readiness
What Apicbase ships in AI, and what it asks of your ecosystem.
AI features shipped
Apicbase describes an in-app AI Assistant, AI that fills missing allergen and dietary data, voice and barcode counting, and AI-driven sales-mix and budget forecasting. Natural-language querying runs through the vendor's MCP server in ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot or any MCP-compatible assistant.
In your ecosystem
- AI connection
- Official MCP server
- Model key
- Not recorded
- AI usage audit
- Full audit trail
Industry verdicts
How Apicbase speaks to each vertical it serves — same data, sector lens.
Restaurants & Food ServiceThinner margins demand tighter control.
Best for in Restaurants & Food Service
- Chains that must standardise recipes, allergens and portion costs across dozens of outlets.
- Groups using POS-integrated inventory, automatic stock depletion and count-variance dashboards.
- Operators with commissaries or central production that need BOM ordering and production planning.
- Brands that want supplier catalogue price updates and three-way invoice matching.
Not for
- Single-site restaurants and cafes without group reporting needs.
- Operators with fewer than five outlets, below the Growth plan entry point.
- Concepts needing guest-facing POS, delivery or reservation functionality.
Multi-unit restaurants are Apicbase's core segment, alongside franchise brands and dark kitchens. Reference customers include a Danish poke chain and a global dark-kitchen franchise. Entry point is five outlets; Growth caps at 30 locations, Professional removes the cap. Pricing is quote-based and billed annually, with add-on modules such as HACCP & Tasks, Traceability and Production Planning.
Hospitality & TravelFill rooms, keep guests coming back.
Best for in Hospitality & Travel
- Hotel chains and resorts running several F&B outlets on one recipe and cost database.
- Groups that need recipes, purchasing and food cost kept in sync with an ERP or finance system.
- Hotel F&B teams wanting supplier ordering and stock control at property level.
Not for
- Hotels without a material food and beverage operation.
- Independent B&Bs and small single-property operators.
- Teams looking for a PMS or guest-facing hotel platform.
Apicbase positions itself as the F&B backbone for hotel groups and cites citizenM as a reference customer, acting as the single source of truth for recipes, purchasing and food costs in sync with the group's ERP. It fits hotels where F&B is material and multiple outlets or units must be governed consistently. It is not a property management, booking or guest-experience system.
Compliance attestations
* IAPP AIGP certifies individuals, not products. It means named staff hold the credential — not that the platform does.
Bottom line
Apicbase is an AI-native back-of-house platform for large and enterprise foodservice: recipe and allergen management, menu engineering, procurement, inventory, production planning and COGS reporting across every site, with POS, supplier and ERP integrations and a public REST API. Pricing is quote-based per location, billed annually from a five-outlet entry point. A vendor-shipped MCP server lets ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or Copilot query live operational data under permission controls and audit logging. SOC 2 Type 2 and GDPR aligned.
Frequently asked questions
How is Apicbase priced?
Pricing is quote-based and not published. Plans are per location and billed annually by credit card; monthly billing adds 15%. The Growth plan starts from five outlets and caps at 30 locations, Professional removes the cap, and volume discounts apply as you add sites. Add-on modules such as HACCP & Tasks, Traceability, Production Planning, Menu Planning, Carbon Footprint and API access are priced separately.
What does onboarding involve?
Apicbase provides guided onboarding packs and assigns experts to get your recipes, suppliers and dashboards live, and the Enterprise plan adds a dedicated customer success manager. Exact timelines depend on how many sites and how much data you migrate, so they are scoped with the vendor rather than fixed in public material.
Does Apicbase offer an MCP server for AI assistants?
Yes. Apicbase ships its own MCP server, so ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot or any MCP-compatible assistant can query live Apicbase data. Connections are permission-based, encrypted, audit-logged and revocable, and answers draw on live recipes, costs, inventory and sales rather than generic analysis.
Is Apicbase secure and compliant?
The trust page states SOC 2 Type 2 compliance and full alignment with EU GDPR. Data is encrypted in transit and at rest, access is role-based with audit logging, SSO and 2FA are supported, and data is logically isolated per tenant. Infrastructure runs on AWS with daily backups, fault tolerance and a stated 99.99% uptime target, with a 99% SLA on Enterprise.
What is the minimum number of outlets?
The Growth plan starts from five outlets. Growth supports up to 30 locations, while Professional and Enterprise remove the location cap and raise included user, API and storage limits.
Does Apicbase replace our POS?
No. Apicbase is back-of-house software that integrates with ePOS systems rather than replacing them: sales data flows into stock, purchasing and COGS, and updates run nightly for operational stability. It also connects to suppliers and ERP or finance tools, with a full REST API for custom integrations.