Certus AI review: price, features and alternatives

Certus AI fits an independent restaurant or small group that wants an AI agent to take phone orders into Toast, Square, Clover, SkyTab or NCR Aloha at a flat monthly price. Its homepage lists $250 a month with ordering, billed monthly. For a second printed price, look at Maple.

If most of your calls are about tables, start with Slang AI or Hostie.

Certus's case studies feature independent shops such as Manhattan Deli and Grill in Tupelo, Mississippi, Italian Pizza and Pasta, and Boardwalk Pizza. The questions to settle are what the monthly price covers, whether your POS is on the list, and how the order reaches your kitchen. The table puts Certus next to five other vendors, each described from its own site.

Vendor	What its site sells	Price on its site	Start here if
Certus AI (certus-ai.com)	Pickup and delivery orders by phone, OpenTable reservations, guest questions, upsells and catering intake. Names Toast, Square, Clover, SkyTab and NCR Aloha.	Homepage comparison lists $250/mo with ordering, monthly billing, no setup fee.	You use one of the POS systems it names and want a flat monthly price.
Maple (maple.inc)	Voice: answering, FAQs, call transfer. Pro adds phone orders into the POS, OpenTable reservations and payment by phone.	Voice $150/month billed monthly or $85/month billed yearly. Pro $350/month billed monthly or $220/month billed yearly.	Your POS is on Maple's list, such as Lightspeed, SpotOn or Oracle Simphony, or you only need calls answered.
Loman AI (loman.ai)	Starter for call management; Premium adds takeout and delivery orders, phone reservations, POS integration and payment.	Request pricing. The page says no per-minute fees.	You want a quoted ordering agent on Toast, Square, Clover, SpotOn or another POS it lists.
Kea (kea.ai)	Voice and text ordering with 11+ direct POS integrations, payments, reservation and waitlist handling.	Submit a form to get your price.	You want phone and text ordering from one vendor.
Slang AI (slang.ai)	Phone answering, guest questions and reservations with OpenTable, SevenRooms, Yelp and Fishbowl; texts guests ordering links.	Core from $399 per location; Premium from $599 per location.	Most of your calls are about tables.
Hostie (hostie.ai)	Calls, texts and email in one inbox; bookings in OpenTable, Resy, Tock, SevenRooms and Yelp; takeout through Olo, Square and Stream.	Three plans named, no price printed. Offers a free trial.	You run a dining room and guests also reach you by text or email.

What does Certus AI do?

Certus's homepage calls it the AI phone agent for restaurants: it takes orders, manages reservations and works with your POS. It answers, takes the order item by item with sizes, add-ons and pickup time, reads the total back, and sends the ticket to the POS. It also answers questions about hours and the menu, suggests sides and drinks, and records catering requests (guest count, date and contact details) for your team to follow up.

Reservations go through OpenTable, per its OpenTable page. The homepage names Toast, Square, Clover, SkyTab (now Shift4 Dine) and NCR Aloha. Its FAQ says orders reach the kitchen through an API connection to the POS or printer, or through a Certus dashboard.

Guests can pay three ways on the site: a text message link, card details taken on the call, or at pickup. The homepage also describes a saved card for returning guests. Its FAQ says Spanish comes as standard and that support is a private chat with the team at no charge.

How much does Certus AI cost?

Certus has no separate pricing page. Its homepage comparison table lists Certus at $250/mo with ordering, on monthly billing, with no setup fee. The same page lists no contract, a 30-day money-back offer and same-day setup. Its how-it-works page says you forward your line to a Certus number in under 15 minutes and can go live in 48 hours.

That table also prices Loman, Maple and Slang AI. Take those prices from each vendor's own page. Maple's pricing page, for example, prints Pro at $350 a month on monthly billing and says there are no contracts.

What would a year cost next to the alternatives?

This worked example uses printed list prices for one location over twelve months. It leaves out card fees, phone charges, taxes and discounts, and it is not a quote.

Plan	Printed price	Twelve months
Certus with ordering, billed monthly	$250 per month	$3,000
Maple Pro, billed monthly	$350 per month	$4,200
Maple Pro, billed yearly	$220 per month	$2,640
Maple Voice (answering only), billed yearly	$85 per month	$1,020
Slang AI Core, per location	From $399	From $4,788 if billed monthly (the page does not print the term)

Loman, Kea and Hostie print no price, so ask each for a written quote on the same term. Compare plans that do the same job: Certus, Maple Pro and Loman Premium all take orders.

What should you check before you sign with Certus?

1. Confirm your POS is on the list and that a test order arrives with every modifier. If Certus proposes the printer or dashboard route, decide who keys the order into the POS.
2. Ask what the monthly price includes: ordering, reservations, payment, languages and the number of locations. Get it in writing.
3. Get the 30-day money-back terms in writing, including the day the 30 days start.
4. Choose which payment routes you want and test each on a real ticket.
5. The homepage prints 98.6% accuracy and pickup in under a second. Ask how accuracy is counted and on which calls. The revenue figures in its case studies are Certus's own.
6. Ask how a caller reaches a person, then test it at your busiest hour.

Which alternative fits which restaurant?

For the same job at a printed price, Maple Pro takes phone orders into the POS and books OpenTable tables. Check that your system is on the integrations list, which includes Toast, Square, Clover, SkyTab (now Shift4 Dine), Lightspeed, SpotOn and NCR Aloha. If you only need the phone answered, Maple Voice costs $150 a month, or $85 billed yearly. Maple's drive-thru and kiosk products are in early access with no public price.

For quotes from other ordering vendors, Loman and Kea both take phone orders into the POS. If tables drive your calls, Slang AI and Hostie are built around reservations. For detail, read our Loman comparison, Kea comparison, Slang AI review and Hostie review.

How should you test Certus against another vendor?

Give each vendor the same menu and the same three calls: a pickup order with a modifier and a change of mind, a delivery order with an apartment number, and a reservation for six. Compare the POS tickets line by line and time the transfer to staff. Our menu preparation worksheet and demo checklist set up the test. To hear Maple on real calls, start with the call recordings and the product page.

Published by Maple, which sells one of the products compared here. This AI-assisted guide combines each vendor's own website and pricing page with an original twelve-month cost sum. It does not report a test of any product, a quote, or an independent check of Certus's results.