# Apicbase vs Paddl Canonical: https://paddl-ai.co/compare/apicbase Last reviewed: 2026-11-07 by the Paddl team Apicbase is a Belgian back-of-house platform for multi-site restaurant groups, caterers and hotels: central recipe management with approval, allergens and nutrition, menu engineering, inventory, purchasing, production planning and HACCP task management, with 40+ POS integrations. It is sold on annual plans from five outlets. ## In one sentence Paddl is food safety, compliance and operations software for UK hospitality: digital SFBB, HACCP plans, allergens ready for Natasha's Law, temperature, cleaning and training records, and an EHO-ready audit pack. £69 per location per month with every feature included, a 30-day free trial and no contract. Apicbase: Annual plans from 5 outlets, on quote. ## Apicbase pricing Apicbase: Not published; Growth from 5 outlets, Professional and Enterprise on quote. Billed annually by card; monthly billing costs 15% more. Growth is capped at 30 locations. No trial mentioned (checked November 2026). Not published by the vendor. Checked 2026-11-07 against https://get.apicbase.com/pricing/. Paddl: £69 per location per month, every feature included, 30-day free trial. No tiers and no volume discount. 5 users per location included, £2.99 a month for each extra user. ## Where Apicbase and Paddl differ 46 features compared; 34 are in Paddl and not in Apicbase, checked against Apicbase's published feature list on 2026-11-07. **Food Safety & Compliance** Paddl has, Apicbase does not: Digital SFBB Packs, AI HACCP Generation, Risk Assessments, EHO Report Generation, One-Click Audit Packs, Fire Safety - Drills, Certificates & Expiry Alerts, COSHH Management. Apicbase covers in part: HACCP Plans. **Operations & Equipment** Paddl has, Apicbase does not: Equipment Tracking, AI Equipment Anomaly Detection, Temperature Monitoring, Maintenance Swimlanes. **Team & Training** Paddl has, Apicbase does not: Team Management, Rota Building & Publishing, Shift Swaps & Open Shifts, Holiday & Leave, Timesheets & Payroll Export, Training Tracking, Staff Inductions, GPS Check-in, Shift Handovers / EOD Reports, Staff Notifications, Team Chat & Direct Messages. **Documents & Knowledge** Paddl has, Apicbase does not: Knowledge Hub, Digital Signatures, Licence Management, Insurance Gap Detection, Lease & Property Management. Apicbase covers in part: Document Management. **Reporting & Incidents** Paddl has, Apicbase does not: Complaint Monitoring, Incident & Accident Reporting, EHO Visit Dashboard, AI Legal Guidance & Evidence Packs. **Platform & AI** Paddl has, Apicbase does not: Mobile Manager View, Offline Mode, AI Agent That Carries Out Tasks Once You Confirm. Apicbase covers in part: AI Assistant, Compliance Dashboard. **Groups & Head Office** Apicbase covers in part: Group Allergen Changes Reach Every Venue, Removals Confirmed per Venue. Not stated on Apicbase's site: Head Office Library Sent to Separate Businesses as Versioned Updates. Where Apicbase is stronger: Central recipe library with approval workflows before outlets get access; Inventory, purchasing and three-way matching of order, delivery and invoice; Menu engineering, costing and nutrition; Production planning and internal ordering for central kitchens, which Paddl does not have; 40+ POS integrations and 60+ supplier integrations, including UK wholesalers; HACCP task management with corrective actions. ## Choose Apicbase if - You run a central kitchen or commissary and need production planning and internal ordering - Food cost, purchasing and stock control are the problem to solve - You want recipes, allergens and inventory in one system tied to your POS ## Choose Paddl if - You need the compliance side: HACCP plan, SFBB, daily checks, training, COSHH and the EHO audit pack - Your venues are separate businesses or franchisees and each must confirm an allergen removal - You run fewer than five sites, or want monthly terms at £69 per location - You want an AI agent that carries out the work once you confirm, not only forecasts and analysis ## What matters most **What you are actually choosing between** Apicbase runs the back of house as a business: recipes, cost, stock, purchasing and production. Paddl runs it as a regulated food business: HACCP, SFBB, checks, allergens, training and the audit pack. Apicbase has HACCP task management; Paddl has no stock or purchasing. Some groups need both. **Central recipes and allergens** Apicbase lets central chefs build recipes and release them to outlets after approval, and allergens flow from ingredients to recipes and menus. In an organisation, head office keeps master dishes, prep items, the products in them and menus, and each business holds a linked copy. An allergen head office adds shows at every linked venue at once, on the allergen chart, menus, public allergen page, QR codes and website embed. An allergen it removes keeps showing at each venue until an owner or whole-business manager there confirms it, each business acknowledges the update, and head office sees in the master's history who has applied it, and can export the group allergen procedure for a Primary Authority or EHO. When a delivery at one venue brings a substitute for a group product, the venue gets a review there and chooses: same allergens, add the substitute's allergens locally, or a local variant. **AI** Apicbase uses AI to fill dietary data, import recipes and forecast sales, and offers an MCP server so outside assistants can query its data. Ask Paddy, the agent built into Paddl, can use over 200 tools to do the work, from building routines to drafting HACCP plans and importing allergens, and almost every change is a card a person confirms first. **What Paddl does not do** Paddl does not do nutrition analysis, recipe costing, stock counts or purchasing, and it does not sell label printers. Its Central kitchen module records transfers, batches, use-by dates and the label route between sites, but it has no production planning or internal ordering. ## Switching from Apicbase to Paddl - The full UK compliance file per site, not only HACCP tasks - Allergen removals confirmed at each venue before they come off the public page - Monthly terms at £69 per location from one site - An AI agent that does the setup, each step confirmed Groups leaving Apicbase for compliance can move the HACCP tasks and allergens across and keep stock and purchasing wherever they go next. ### How the switch works 1. Export HACCP task records and the allergen matrix 2. Set up sites and managers in Paddl 3. Let the AI draft the HACCP plan and SFBB pack from your menu 4. Upload the allergen matrix and supplier specs and review them 5. Decide where stock and purchasing will live What you keep: Allergens from ingredients up; HACCP checks with corrective actions; Multi-site oversight What you give up: Inventory, purchasing and invoice matching; Menu engineering and costing; Production planning and POS-linked sales mix ## Alternatives to Apicbase for UK hospitality | Product | Category | Pricing | | --- | --- | --- | | Paddl | Food safety, compliance and operations | £69 per location per month, every feature included, 30-day free trial. No tiers and no volume discount. | | Kitchen CUT (https://paddl-ai.co/compare/kitchen-cut) | Recipe, allergen and kitchen data | Ask Kitchen CUT; multi-site on quote | | Nutritics (https://paddl-ai.co/compare/nutritics) | Recipe, allergen and kitchen data | On quote, licences from 10 users | | Kafoodle (https://paddl-ai.co/compare/kafoodle) | Recipe, allergen and kitchen data | Not published; free trial, then quote | ## Questions **How much does Apicbase cost?** Apicbase does not publish prices (checked November 2026). Its Growth plan starts from five outlets and is capped at 30; Professional and Enterprise are quoted. Billing is annual, with monthly 15% more. Paddl is £69 a location a month with no minimum. **Is Paddl an Apicbase alternative?** Only partly. If you need stock, purchasing and food cost, Apicbase does that and Paddl does not. If you need the HACCP plan, SFBB, checks, training and the EHO audit pack, with allergens tied to them, Paddl does that and Apicbase covers only HACCP tasks. **Can Apicbase and Paddl run together?** Yes, side by side with separate logins; there is no connection between them. Groups that do this keep recipes and stock in Apicbase and the compliance file in Paddl, and need to keep allergens in step themselves. **How do group allergen changes reach every venue in Paddl?** In an organisation, head office keeps master dishes, prep items, the products in them and menus, and each business holds a linked copy. An allergen head office adds shows at every linked venue at once, on the allergen chart, menus, public allergen page, QR codes and website embed. An allergen it removes keeps showing at each venue until an owner or whole-business manager there confirms it, each business acknowledges the update, and head office sees in the master's history who has applied it, and can export the group allergen procedure for a Primary Authority or EHO.