An Untappd for Business alternative that starts free

Untappd for Business (UTFB) is the venue side of Untappd: a subscription for bars, restaurants, bottle shops and taprooms, sold as two plans, Essentials and Premium. According to Untappd's pricing page, Essentials includes:

• a verified venue listing on Untappd;
• menus built from Untappd's beer database, which it describes as over 3 million beers;
• digital menus and signage for TVs, plus web, QR code and print menus, published from one dashboard;
• POS integrations, naming Toast, Square and GoTab;
• push notifications to Untappd users subscribed to your venue whenever you update the menu;
• an events manager and local analytics built on Untappd's consumer data.

Premium adds wines, spirits and ready-to-drink items from a larger beverage database, unlimited non-beer items and users (Untappd's help center says Essentials is limited to 20 non-beer items and 5 users), custom CSS for menus, API access and, for breweries, a Beer Distribution Stats dashboard showing how your beers perform across venues on Untappd.

One thing that often confuses breweries: your Untappd brewery page, the beer database entry where people check in your beers, is separate from UTFB, which runs your venue. A brewery with a taproom ends up with two listings on Untappd, and claiming your brewery page is its own process, apart from a UTFB subscription.

Untappd doesn't publish its prices. The pricing page asks you to fill in a form and says pricing "may vary based on geography and market". Its help center adds that subscriptions are annual or monthly, that you can request a demo or start a 7-day free trial, and that adding a new location goes through their team for pricing.

You'll find dollar figures in third-party reviews, but since Untappd doesn't publish them, we don't repeat them here. When you ask for a quote, ask for:

• the price per location, billed annually and billed monthly;
• which plan covers what you actually need (POS sync, more than 5 users, wine or cider on the menu);
• the renewal date and how much notice you need to give to cancel;
• what happens to your menus, website embeds and QR menu codes if you cancel.

QR Beers starts from the can, not the venue. Every beer gets its own page, a QR code on the can opens it, and the tap list is one of the things those pages connect to.

• Tap list and TV mode on every plan, Free included. List what's pouring, in order: your own beers from your catalog plus guest taps, with sizes and prices. It's a public page for phones and a full-screen mode for the TV above the bar. Kick a keg and it drops off both.
• A QR code on the can. Each beer, and optionally each canning run, has a code that opens its page: style, ABV, hops, story, ratings, what's on tap. Codes are re-pointable, so a printed can never goes stale.
• Freshness by batch. Register a canning run and its page shows the canned-on date and a verdict: Peak fresh, Drink soon or Past its best-by. Link a tap line to its batch and the tap list shows freshness too.
• A drinker list that's yours. Drinkers sign up on your pages by email or WhatsApp to hear about the next batch. Those are contacts on your own list, not followers on someone else's app.
• Ratings that come to you. A one-tap thumbs up or down, then optional reasons and a comment, delivered to your dashboard.
• English and Spanish. Every public page exists in both languages and the drinker picks. If you write your story in only one language, both versions show it until you add the other.
• It starts free. The Free plan covers one brewery, unlimited beers and batches, text pages, three printable codes in use plus your brewery's own code, the tap list and TV mode, ratings, comments and signup capture.

• Pricing. UTFB: quote on request, annual or monthly, with a 7-day free trial; each new location is priced through their team. QR Beers: starts free, and the tap list and TV mode are included on every plan.
• Tap list and TV menu. Both have them. UTFB adds menu templates, print menus, website embeds and a simple website builder. QR Beers has a phone page and a TV mode, with no print templates or website embed today.
• Beer data. UTFB fills menus from Untappd's database. On QR Beers your own beers come from your catalog, and guest taps are typed in by hand.
• POS integration. UTFB integrates with Toast, Square, GoTab and others. QR Beers has no POS integration.
• Discovery. UTFB puts your venue and menu in front of Untappd's users and can push menu updates to people subscribed to your venue. QR Beers has no consumer app: drinkers arrive by scanning your codes, from search, or through your own links.
• Check-ins. UTFB lives on Untappd check-ins. QR Beers links to your Untappd pages from each beer and counts those clicks, but it doesn't import check-ins or Untappd ratings; it collects its own votes and comments.
• Wine, spirits and food. UTFB Premium lists them from a beverage database. QR Beers is built for beer.
• The can. UTFB offers QR code menus for the venue. QR Beers puts a code on the can that opens that beer's page, and a code per canning run if you want one.
• Freshness. QR Beers shows the canned-on date and a freshness verdict for each batch, on the beer page and next to any tap line linked to a batch.
• Drinker contacts. UTFB reaches people through the Untappd app. QR Beers collects emails and WhatsApp numbers on your own pages; paid plans let you search and export that list and send announcements to it.
• More than one taproom. UTFB prices each additional location through its team. On QR Beers, the Free plan covers one tap list; separate menus for several locations use locations, which come with the paid plans.

Choose UTFB, or keep it, if:

• you run a bar or bottle shop with a long, rotating guest list, and typing in every guest beer would be a chore;
• your menu has to follow your POS, and you already use Toast, Square or GoTab;
• a real share of your customers find you through the Untappd app, and venue push notifications bring them in;
• you need wine, spirits, cocktails and food on the same menu;
• you want print menu templates and a website menu embed out of the box.

QR Beers is the better fit when the priority is your own beer out in the world: the page behind the can, freshness you can show, and a list of drinkers you can reach. Many breweries will reasonably use both: UTFB for a POS-driven taproom menu, QR Beers on the cans. QR Beers links to your Untappd page from every beer, so the two don't compete for the check-in.

1. Create your brewery on QR Beers and add your core beers with style, ABV, IBU and hops. There's no import from Untappd, but a core range takes minutes to type in.
2. Paste your Untappd links into each beer and into your brewery's social links, so drinkers can still check in from your pages.
3. Build the tap list: your beers from the catalog, guest taps by name and brewery, in pouring order, with sizes and prices.
4. Put it on the TV. Open the screen mode in the TV's browser once, answer the age check and the cookie question on the TV itself, and from then on it shows only the list.
5. Point people at it. Your brewery's own QR code, which never counts against your plan, opens your brewery page, and that page shows how many beers are on tap and links to the list. Print it on table tents and coasters. On paid plans, each location's menu gets its own code.
6. Print a beer code on your next can run, following our guide to QR codes on beer cans.
7. Run both for a full cycle before cancelling anything. Check your UTFB renewal date and notice period, then update the menu links on your website and your Google Business Profile.
8. Tell your regulars. The signup form on your pages collects emails and WhatsApp numbers from the first scan.