Abacus covers more of a cafe than most Australian hospitality vendors even attempt. One Melbourne company selling you a till, a kiosk, your own ordering page, stock and campaigns is a broad starting point, and it deserves to be taken seriously.
Two things on the page deserve a slower read. The first is a column headed Add-Ons. The second is the company itself: Abacus and Liven are merging into Nomni, and that work is in progress, so what you sign for today is a platform still being assembled around you. That is not a reason to walk away. It is a reason to ask which rung each thing you need is actually on.
The bottom rung: a till and an ordering page that agree with each other
Start with what arrives without adding anything. The base Abacus product is a capable hospitality till: table maps you lay out yourself with colour coded status, split and part payments, timed happy hour pricing and price levels, gift cards, refunds and voids, stock, kitchen dockets and end of day. Its own ordering page reads the same catalogue as the till, so a price typed once behind the counter shows up online. Say that plainly, because several tills in this comparison cannot. Ordering is currently promoted with no setup cost and no monthly fee, just a transaction fee: a different shape of bill, but an easy one to start on.
The next rung is called Add-Ons, and bookings is the whole of it
Now decide you want to take reservations. In Abacus that is not a setting inside the thing you already bought. It is the Online Reservation add-on, listed under Add-Ons on their own site, and Liven's own blog calls it the Abacus Reservations add-on. Almost everything an owner means by the words we take bookings sits on that one rung: the diary itself, the booking page guests reach from your website, the deposit you want on a table of twelve, the acknowledgement and acceptance emails, the walk-in and waitlist handling, and the sessions and blackout dates that decide when you are open to book at all. Six things you would call basic, arriving together as one paid line.
The bill is the smaller half of it. It is also a second setup, after you have already learned the till: an evening spent on session lengths, guest caps, blackout nights and deposit thresholds, and then explaining all of it to the casual who starts Thursday. If you sell set menus or ticketed events, ask before you buy, because their reservation material does not mention either.
The rungs that are not on this ladder
Rostering, clock in and out, timesheets and leave are not sold here at any tier. Neither is a website. So the venue that grows to eleven casuals finds a second company, learns a second product, and adds a bill that never shrinks. Allvio's one subscription also carries invoicing, payroll, GST and BAS figures, and that is the last mention of the back office you will get from us.
Tuesday, and the same fifteen minutes again
Menu changes are the good news, and worth conceding: one catalogue behind the till and the ordering page means a price rise is typed once.
Now change your trading hours for the Labour Day long weekend. The till knows. The ordering page knows. The reservation add-on does not, because availability there is its own set of sessions and its own blackout dates, so somebody opens that console and does it again. Your roster tool is another company entirely, so a third visit. Google is a fourth. The one you forget is the one that takes a booking for a day you are closed, and you hear about it from the guest at a locked door.
Then there is the regular. The base Abacus customer record holds a first name, an email and a phone number. Order history is documented through the optional loyalty marketing module rather than the plain record, and there is no field for an allergy, a preference or an occasion. So the coeliac who has eaten there fortnightly for two years is remembered by whoever happens to be on, and forgotten the night that person is rostered off.
Month one, month twelve, and the column on the right
Abacus does not publish full pricing, so you cannot cost your venue from the website. Hardware, the till and the add-ons are worked out on a call, and the answer moves with how many Add-Ons you tick, so month one is rarely month twelve.
Ours is on our site in Australian dollars. Allvio Complete is $399 per month ex GST for one location and $299 per month for each extra location, and that switches on every app, bookings included, with no per user charge. If you only want two or three of them, Build your own starts at $20 per month per app. The trial is 30 days and takes no card. Hardware is bought outright: $1,499 ex GST for the single station, $1,869 for the retail station, $2,499 for the restaurant station.
Abacus (Nomni) | Allvio | |
|---|---|---|
What you are actually buying | A broad hospitality till with kiosk, your own ordering page, stock and campaigns, with bookings sold separately under Add-Ons, from a group mid merger | One Australian subscription with the till, ordering, the booking diary, campaigns and rostering all switched on |
Getting it running | One setup for the till and ordering, then a second one for the reservation add-on: sessions, guest caps, blackout dates, deposits | One setup, one login, and the diary is already there when you want it |
Changing a price or a menu item | One catalogue behind the till and the ordering page, so this one is a single edit | A single edit, and it carries into set menus and functions in the diary too |
Changing your trading hours | The till and ordering page take it. The reservation add-on has its own sessions and blackout dates to change again | Changed once for the till, the ordering page and what guests can book |
Keeping a customer's details right | Name, email and phone on the till record. Order history comes through the optional loyalty module, and there is no field for allergies or preferences | One record with visits, spend, allergies, preferences and occasions, read by the till, the diary and campaigns |
What you pay before your first sale | Hardware and setup by quote, plus whichever add-ons you decide you need before opening night | Hardware outright from $1,499 ex GST, then one subscription, after 30 days free without a card |
Working out what it will cost you | Not published. You need a sales call, and the answer moves with the Add-Ons column | Published in Australian dollars on our own site: $399 per month ex GST for one location |
Adding bookings later | A paid add-on carrying the diary, the online booking page, deposits, reminders, waitlists and availability rules | Already inside the subscription you are paying for |
Best fit | A counter service cafe or quick service venue that wants a till, a kiosk and an ordering page from one Australian group and does not take table bookings | An owner who takes bookings, rosters staff, and does not want the bill to move every time the venue grows |
The birthday nobody at the till knows about
Friday, table nine. Four people, booked a fortnight ago through your reservation page, with a note that it is Anna's fortieth. The diary has that note. The till has nowhere to put it, so nobody carries a candle over, and the deposit taken at booking is news to the person cashing them out, who charges the full amount and then has to be talked through a refund while a queue builds. Anna just knows the place she chose for her birthday did not seem to know she was coming.
When Abacus is the one to buy
A counter service cafe or quick service shop that does not take bookings, wants a kiosk, and wants one Australian company behind the till and the ordering page will find Abacus a strong fit, and the promoted ordering deal makes it cheap to start. If bookings and rosters are part of your job, price the ladder at the top rather than the bottom, and count the evenings as well as the dollars.
This comparison reflects each product's general positioning as published by each vendor in August 2026. Features and pricing change: always check directly with each vendor before deciding.