BlueCart is mostly wholesale software for suppliers. Restaurants use its free buyer app and its marketplace, called Endless Aisle, to find suppliers on BlueCart's network and order from them. RestaurantMate starts from the other end. It works with the vendors you already buy from, checks their prices on your own accounts every night, and reads every invoice after the food arrives.
If you want to find new suppliers, BlueCart is free and built for that. If you want to know which of your current vendors is cheaper before you order, and what each plate cost you afterward, RestaurantMate does that.
Every BlueCart fact below comes from BlueCart's own website or its App Store listing, as of October 2026. The links are at the end of the article.
What BlueCart is
BlueCart describes itself as "the wholesale business software that connects food and beverage distributors with the restaurants that buy from them." Most of its homepage speaks to distributors.
For restaurants, BlueCart offers these things.
- Endless Aisle, a marketplace. You browse suppliers on the platform, filter by your delivery area and compare their products and prices. It also lists next-day delivery options.
- 2% cash back. Eligible Endless Aisle purchases earn 2% back.
- Purchasing tools. Digital purchase orders are built from the supplier's catalog. BlueCart also advertises invoices matched to the purchase order (the order you sent) and par reorder alerts. Par is the amount of an item you want on the shelf, and the alert fires when stock drops below it.
- Inventory and food costing. BlueCart also sells bar inventory (BinWise), and its pages advertise inventory and food costing tools. We did not find prices or details for them.
What BlueCart costs
The App Store listing for "BlueCart for Buyers" says the app is "completely free to download" with "no in-app purchases, transaction fees or hidden costs." BlueCart's pricing page is a demo request form with no prices. Its inventory and food costing pages list no price either, so ask BlueCart what those tools would cost you.
What RestaurantMate is
RestaurantMate is a digital restaurant manager for restaurants and restaurant groups. It connects to the vendors you already use: the big distributor, the club store, and the local produce company that emails you a PDF price sheet.
Overnight, a small box in your restaurant (the RestaurantMate device) signs in to each vendor's website with your login and refreshes your prices. RestaurantMate puts the same item from different vendors on the same unit, per pound or per each, so you can see who is cheaper before you order. When you're ready, you send your order to every vendor's online cart from one place. RestaurantMate fills each cart and checks every line, so you can review and check out.
After the delivery, it reads the invoice. Counts and recipes are costed from the prices you paid. Sales come in from your point-of-sale system (Toast and SpotOn today; we add your POS on request), and labor from 7shifts or Homebase.
It is free for 60 days, then $99 a month per location. The device takes a $300 refundable deposit, and one device covers up to two locations. Setup is free and we do it with you.
BlueCart and RestaurantMate side by side
| BlueCart | RestaurantMate | |
|---|---|---|
| Built mainly for | Wholesale suppliers, with a free app and marketplace for buyers | Restaurants and restaurant groups |
| Which vendors you can compare | Suppliers selling on Endless Aisle in your delivery area | Every vendor you already buy from |
| Where the prices come from | Catalogs that suppliers publish on BlueCart | Your own account at each vendor, checked every night; invoices and price sheets for email-only vendors |
| Comparing prices | Products and prices side by side in the marketplace | The same item from each of your vendors, priced per pound, per each or per gallon |
| Ordering | Digital orders to suppliers on BlueCart | Fills each vendor's online cart and checks every line; you review and check out |
| Finding new suppliers | Yes, its main strength | Works only with vendors you choose |
| Cash back | 2% on eligible marketplace purchases | None |
| Pars and inventory | Par reorder alerts, bar inventory and food costing advertised | Counts, valued at the prices you paid; alerts for items below par after a count |
| Invoices | Supplier invoices matched to BlueCart purchase orders | Every invoice, receipt and bill from any vendor; mark items short, damaged or wrong |
| Recipe cost | Food costing tool advertised; details not listed | From the prices on your invoices |
| Sales and labor | Not described on the pages we checked | Toast and SpotOn sales; 7shifts and Homebase labor |
| Price | Buyer app free; inventory and costing prices not listed | Free for 60 days, then $99 a month per location; $300 refundable device deposit |
Where BlueCart is stronger
It is free to order. The buyer app costs nothing, according to its App Store listing. RestaurantMate is free for your first 60 days, then $99 a month per location.
Cash back. If you buy a lot through Endless Aisle, 2% back on eligible orders is real money. RestaurantMate doesn't pay cash back.
Finding suppliers. If you are opening a restaurant or your produce vendor just closed, a marketplace filtered by delivery area is a fast way to find someone who delivers to you. RestaurantMate only works with vendors you have chosen, so it won't introduce you to new ones.
Nothing to plug in. BlueCart runs on your phone. RestaurantMate needs its device in your restaurant, connected to your internet.
Size. BlueCart says over 48,000 restaurants and foodservice businesses buy through it. RestaurantMate is live in more than 10 restaurants.
How RestaurantMate is different
Most restaurant software records your costs after you have paid. BlueCart and RestaurantMate both show you prices before you order. If you are weighing RestaurantMate as a BlueCart alternative, the difference is whose prices you see and which vendors are in the comparison.
Your vendors don't have to join anything
BlueCart's marketplace compares suppliers that publish catalogs on BlueCart and deliver to your area. Its App Store listing says you can customize the app with all of your suppliers, but the pages we read don't explain how a supplier outside BlueCart shows up in price comparisons. If your main distributor, your club store or the farm that drops off eggs on Tuesday doesn't sell on Endless Aisle, their prices won't be in the marketplace comparison.
RestaurantMate starts from your own vendor list. Vendors with a website connect with your login. Vendors who only email you come in through your RestaurantMate inbox (an address like yourname@mail.rmate.ai) or a read-only Gmail or Outlook connection, which picks up the PDF invoices, price sheets and bills your vendor reps send. We connect to any vendor you buy from. If we haven't connected one yet, we build it for you, usually within days.
You see your own prices, on the same unit
Your account price is the price a vendor shows you when you log in, including any contract price your rep set up for you. Two restaurants can see different prices for the same case. RestaurantMate reads your price on each vendor's website every night. For email-only vendors, it uses your invoices and price sheets.
Then it puts every price on the same unit. Here is an example with made-up vendors and prices:
| Vendor | Pack | Price | Price per lb |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heartland Foodservice | 40 lb case | $98.00 | $2.45 |
| Prairie Meats | 4 x 10 lb case | $94.00 | $2.35 |
| Club Wholesale | 10 lb bag | $23.90 | $2.39 |
The lowest price tag is the $23.90 bag. The lowest price per pound is Prairie Meats, at $2.35. If you use 80 pounds of chicken thighs a week, the 10 cent gap between Heartland and Prairie is $8 a week, or $416 a year, on one item. RestaurantMate does this math across your vendors every night, so it's ready before you order.
It keeps working after you pay
BlueCart matches supplier invoices to its purchase orders. RestaurantMate reads every invoice, receipt and bill, from any vendor. Website vendor invoices are pulled in daily, and emailed ones arrive through your inbox. For paper receipts from a club store run, upload up to 20 photos or PDFs at a time. Our AI fills in the vendor, date, invoice number, total and category. If a case arrives damaged or short, you mark that item and RestaurantMate keeps track of the issue.
Counts are valued at the prices you paid, and recipes are costed from your invoice prices. Send recipes in any format (a photo, a PDF, a spreadsheet) to your agent or our team. RestaurantMate sets them up, clears the obvious ones and asks you only about the unclear ones. The AI never guesses a price.
A catalog price tells you what an item costs today. An invoice tells you what was delivered and what you were charged, and that can differ when an item is substituted or a price changes before delivery. RestaurantMate uses today's price to help you choose a vendor and the invoice price to cost your counts and recipes.
A device in your restaurant does the logins
Vendor websites block logins that come from cloud servers. The RestaurantMate device sits in your restaurant and signs in to your vendor accounts overnight from your own internet connection. Your logins are stored privately, used only to sign in to that vendor, and never shown back.
Nothing gets ordered until you check out. You, or someone you give full ordering access, review each cart and send the order.
Can you use both?
Yes. Keep using BlueCart to find new suppliers. When you start buying from a new vendor regularly, add it to RestaurantMate. RestaurantMate connects to that vendor directly, the same way it connects your other vendors, and its prices show up next to everyone else's.
Who should pick which
BlueCart fits you if:
- you are opening a restaurant and need suppliers who deliver to your area
- you want to try new vendors without calling around
- free ordering and 2% cash back matter more to you than comparing the vendors you already use
- your main suppliers already sell on Endless Aisle
RestaurantMate fits you if:
- you buy from several vendors, such as a distributor, a club store and local suppliers, and want to know who is cheaper per pound before you order
- some of your vendors will never join a marketplace
- you want invoices, counts and recipe costs in one place, priced from what you paid
- you want food cost, labor and sales on the same screen
Common questions
Is BlueCart free for restaurants? Its buyer app is listed as free on the App Store. BlueCart doesn't publish prices for its inventory and food costing tools, so ask BlueCart directly.
Do my vendors need to sign up for RestaurantMate? No. Website vendors connect with your own login. Email-only vendors keep emailing invoices, to your RestaurantMate inbox or to your connected Gmail or Outlook.
Does RestaurantMate place orders by itself? No. It fills each vendor's online cart and checks every line, and you check out. Orders are tracked from placed to delivered for vendors that share order status, and every purchase is tracked from the invoice on.
What one owner says
Miguel runs two restaurants in Los Angeles. RestaurantMate has cut his food purchases by about 10%, and by 20 to 30% on some items where he switched vendors, and his manager gets back 4 to 5 hours a week. When we asked him to wait three weeks for a new version before setting up his second location, he wrote: "No, it would be great if you could onboard me today. I cannot imagine running my second location without RestaurantMate anymore."
[Get started] Free for 60 days, then $99 a month per location. No card required. [Try the live demo]
Sources
All checked on October 9, 2026.
- BlueCart homepage
- BlueCart for restaurants
- BlueCart restaurant procurement software
- BlueCart food costing software
- BlueCart food and beverage inventory software
- BlueCart pricing
- BlueCart for Buyers on the App Store
Prices and features checked as of October 2026 from each company's public website. Product names are trademarks of their owners. RestaurantMate is not affiliated with BlueCart. If something here is out of date, email us and we will fix it.