Order guides and customer pricing.
Each customer sees their own guide, contract prices, specials and quantity breaks.
Foodservice ecommerce
Foodservice ecommerce platforms: Pepper, Choco, Cut+Dry or a store built into your ERP
Pepper, Choco, Cut+Dry
- Ordering layers on your existing ERP
- Two systems to keep in sync
- Inventory, lots and ledger stay in the ERP
- Each priced on its own
Foodline AI
- AI-native ERP built for food distributors
- Catch weight, lots and FSMA 204 included
- B2B store on the ERP record
- General ledger, financial statements and bill pay
Short answer: A foodservice ecommerce platform lets a food distributor's restaurant, healthcare and retail customers order online from their own order guides and prices, usually with AI capture for orders sent by text, email or voicemail, and online invoice payments. Pepper, Choco and Cut+Dry add that ordering layer on top of the ERP you already run, so stock, lots and the general ledger stay in a second system. Foodline AI is the alternative that builds the store into the ERP itself: the branded store, AI order intake, catch weight, lots, routes, the general ledger, financial statements and bill pay run on one record, replacing the ERP, the ordering app and QuickBooks together.
Pepper, Choco, Cut+Dry and Foodline AI side by side
Last reviewed: October 2026. Vendor facts come from the pages linked in each row, checked October 3 to 7, 2026. Products and pricing change, so confirm each point with the vendor.
| Pepper | Choco | Cut+Dry | Foodline AI | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Category | "An AI-first platform that helps independent distributors compete, scale, and win" (usepepper.com) | "AI-powered growth platform for food wholesalers and distributors" (choco.com/us/llms.txt) | "The only customer-facing eCommerce and sales enablement — built for foodservice" (cutanddry.com) | AI-native ERP with B2B ecommerce in one system (homepage) |
| Relationship to your ERP | "Integrated with 70+ ERP systems" (usepepper.com) | "Connects… to more than 200 ERP, CRM, and logistics systems" (Choco ERP integrations) | "Middleware that adapts to your ERP and pricing structure" (Cut+Dry for distributors) | Is the ERP, and replaces QuickBooks (pricing) |
| AI order capture | Order Agent reads voice, text, email, photos, PDFs and handwriting (Pepper Order Agent) | OrderAgent reads voicemail, WhatsApp, email, text, photos and handwritten notes, plus a VoiceAgent (choco.com/us/orderagent) | AI Order Desk: "Transcribe texts, emails, voicemails, and calls into orders in minutes" (Cut+Dry for distributors) | Order Agent turns email, text and call-note orders into sales orders for approval, created directly in the ERP (ecommerce-erp) |
| Customer storefront | Storefront lets customers "select from customized order guides, peruse new products, and check out all in one seamless flow" (Pepper Storefront) | White-label mobile and web storefront (choco.com/us/ecommerce) | "Amazon-Like Ecommerce" with recommendations, smart search and checkout (Cut+Dry for distributors) | A branded store on your own domain, with stock, credit and delivery cutoff checked live against the ERP record (ecommerce-erp) |
| Payments and A/R | Card, ACH and terminal payments, autopay, pay-by-link and payment plans (Pepper finance) | CheckOut payment links from your invoices, with payment status updated in the ERP (choco.com/us/checkout) | "ACH + card payments," "Autopay & saved methods" and "Integrated invoicing" (Cut+Dry cash flow) | Invoicing, collections and A/R plus the general ledger, financial statements and bill pay, with a person approving anything that moves money (finance-hub) |
| Inventory, lots and catch weight | Live in your ERP (Pepper ERP integrations) | Live in your ERP; Choco says its integrations handle catch-weight products (Choco ERP integrations) | Live in your ERP (Cut+Dry for distributors) | Ordered, shipped and invoiced weight tracked as three numbers, with FEFO and FIFO lots and recall drills on the same record (platform) |
| Go-live | "Launch in just a few weeks instead of months" (Pepper services) | First order in as little as 2 days, median full parity around 2 weeks (Choco ERP integrations) | "Average time to launch ranges between 45 – 100 days" (Cut+Dry pricing) | Migration and cutover take 3 to 4 business days on clean data; guided implementation runs 35 or 75 days (pricing) |
| Pricing model | "Pay-for-performance pricing," by custom quote (Pepper pricing) | "We charge a monthly fee depending on your usage of Choco" (choco.com/us/pricing) | "A flat SaaS model" with "no percentage-based order fees or per-user fees" (Cut+Dry pricing) | Not published. Scoped to revenue band, modules and migrated history; every customer gets the full ERP, month to month (pricing) |
For the full one-to-one comparisons, see the Pepper alternative, the Choco alternative and the Cut+Dry alternative.
What a foodservice ecommerce platform has to do
Restaurant and institutional buyers order the same items most weeks, at prices that are different for every account, and they expect to order at night, by phone, or with a text to their rep. Whatever platform you pick, check that it handles:
Live stock, credit and cutoffs.
An order is checked against available stock, the customer's credit and the delivery cutoff before it is accepted.
Catch-weight items.
Cases ordered, priced and invoiced by the pound, with an estimated price before the actual weight is known.
Shorts and substitutions.
Customers see what was shorted and what was offered instead.
Orders that arrive by text, email and voicemail.
AI order capture turns them into orders a person reviews.
Payments and invoices.
Customers pay invoices online, and the payment reaches A/R without re-keying.
Clean product data.
Names, pack sizes, images, allergens and categories that make search work.
Two ways to sell online
An ordering layer on top of your ERP.
Pepper, Choco and Cut+Dry give your customers and reps a digital ordering channel and sync orders, prices and payments with the ERP you already run. That works when your ERP is staying and handles inventory, lots and accounting well. You run two systems and keep their prices, stock and catalogs in step.
Ecommerce built into the ERP.
Foodline AI's store, order intake, inventory, lots, routes and general ledger are one record, so there is nothing to sync and nothing to re-key. It fits when you are replacing QuickBooks, NECS entrée or an aging ERP anyway. See B2B ecommerce and ERP in one system.
Which one fits
Keep your ERP and add Pepper, Choco or Cut+Dry
if the back office works and the only problem is ordering, reps or collecting payments.
Choose Foodline AI
if you would rather replace the ERP and the ordering app with one system: the branded B2B storefront, AI order entry, catch weight, lots, routes and the general ledger, with data migration and product data cleanup included.
Questions to ask any foodservice ecommerce vendor
- 01Is the store the ERP record, or a separate system that syncs with it? How often does it sync, and what happens when the sync fails?
- 02Are stock, credit and delivery cutoff checked live before an order is accepted?
- 03Can customers order catch-weight items and see an estimated price before the actual weight is known?
- 04Who reviews an AI-captured order before it goes to the warehouse?
- 05Where do payments post: to your ERP's A/R and general ledger, or to a separate ledger you reconcile?
- 06How is the price set: a share of sales, a usage-based monthly fee, or a flat subscription?
- 07How long does launch take, and who cleans your product data?
Related guides
- Pepper vs Choco vs Foodline AI
- B2B ecommerce and ERP in one system
- AI order entry for food distributors
- All comparisons
Book a walkthrough on your own data: send an item export and 90 days of order history.
Pepper is a product of Pomegranate Technologies, Inc. Choco, Cut+Dry and other names are trademarks of their respective owners. Foodline AI is not affiliated with or endorsed by them. Competitor information comes from the public sources linked above as of the review date. Corrections: hello@foodlineai.com.
Frequently asked questions
What is a foodservice ecommerce platform?
Software that lets a food distributor's customers, such as restaurants, healthcare kitchens and independent retailers, order online from their own order guides and prices, usually with AI capture for orders sent by text, email or voicemail, and online invoice payments. It either sits on top of the distributor's ERP or is built into it.
What is the difference between Pepper, Choco and Cut+Dry?
All three add digital ordering, AI order capture, sales tools and payments on top of the ERP you already run. Pepper describes pay-for-performance pricing, Choco charges a monthly fee based on usage, and Cut+Dry describes a flat SaaS model. Each vendor's own pages, linked in the comparison table, have the details.
Do I need a separate ordering platform if my ERP has ecommerce built in?
No. When the ERP includes the online store, customers order against the same record that holds stock, pricing, credit and lots, so there is no second system to sync. Foodline AI is built that way: the branded store, AI order intake, catch weight, lots, routes and the general ledger run in one system.
Which foodservice ecommerce platform handles catch weight?
On an ordering layer, catch weights and lots live in the ERP underneath; Choco, for example, says its integrations handle catch-weight products. Foodline AI tracks ordered, shipped and invoiced weight as three numbers on the same record as the online order, the lot and the invoice.
How much does a foodservice ecommerce platform cost?
Pricing models differ. Pepper describes pay-for-performance pricing by custom quote, Choco charges a monthly fee depending on usage, and Cut+Dry says it runs a flat SaaS model with no percentage-based order fees or per-user fees. Foodline AI does not publish prices: it is scoped to revenue band, modules and migrated history, every customer gets the full ERP, and it is month to month.
See it run on your own numbers.
Thirty minutes. We load a slice of your catalogue and show you the routines firing against your real order history, not a canned demo.
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