Meal subscription software that keeps the cook count right
Recurring meal orders are the best business in food and the hardest to keep track of. Tiffinware handles the renewals, pauses, skips and payments, and turns them into tomorrow's cook count.
Why meal subscriptions are worth the work
A one-off order makes you money once. A subscription tells you what you will cook for the next month. With 60 customers on a monthly plan, you know most of next month's income on the 1st, you buy groceries to a count, and you waste less.
The catch is the changes. In a month, 60 customers produce dozens of pauses, skips, address changes, plan changes and late payments. Each one has to reach the kitchen before the cut-off, the driver before the route, and the books before month end. That is the job meal subscription software does.
Recurring orders, from sign-up to renewal
- Plans that fit how you sell: weekly, monthly, or a set number of meals, with veg, non-veg or any menu you run.
- Renewals: a plan can renew on its own, with a saved card charged at renewal through your own Stripe account.
- Pause and skip: customers do it themselves on your ordering page until the cut-off you set.
- Plan changes with credit: move to a bigger or smaller plan partway through, with credit for meals not used.
- E-transfers: Interac payments are matched to the right plan, even from an email you don't recognise.
- Who is about to leave: renewals coming up, customers who stopped, and revenue at risk, in the reports.
The part most subscription tools skip
Subscription apps for online stores are built for products on a shelf. A meal is cooked fresh on a day, for an address, before a driver leaves. Tiffinware turns every subscription into that day's cook sheet, labels and delivery route, so a skip at 8pm is already in the morning's numbers.
Pricing your plans
Price a subscription so a customer saves a little against single meals and you still clear your food cost, packaging and delivery. Our tiffin and meal price calculator does the math, and how to price a tiffin service explains it.
The parts of Tiffinware you'd use
Meal plan subscriptions
Meal plans that keep your cook count right
Customer ordering page
Your own ordering page for customers
Payments & collections
Know who has paid: cards, e-transfers and cash
Daily cook sheet
Know how many meals to cook before you start
Customer CRM
Every customer, their plan and what they owe, on one page
Reports & analytics
See if your kitchen is making money
Questions
How does a meal subscription business work?
Customers pay for a plan (a week, a month, or a number of meals) and get meals on set days until the plan ends or renews. The business knows its orders in advance, so it can buy and cook to a count instead of guessing.
Can Shopify do meal subscriptions?
Shopify can take recurring payments with a subscription app, but it doesn't turn those orders into a daily cook count, labels and delivery routes. See our Shopify vs Tiffinware comparison for meal prep.
How do I handle customers who go on holiday?
They pause their plan on your ordering page before the cut-off. The paused days come off the cook count and the route automatically, and the plan picks up again when they're back.
Can customers change plans in the middle?
Yes. The meals they didn't use become credit they can spend on the new plan, so nobody pays twice and you don't have to work it out by hand.
Is there a fee on each subscription order?
No. Tiffinware is $99 a month flat. Card payments are at Stripe's own rates, paid into your Stripe account.