Beacons is built for creators. DineRoute is built for restaurants.
Beacons does serious work for creators and small Shopify storefronts. DineRoute is the tool the restaurant on the other side of that creator's recommendation actually needs.
Beacons started as a Linktree alternative and has matured into a strong creator-commerce platform. If you sell digital products, run a small Shopify store, or monetize an audience with email and SMS, the team behind Beacons has built genuinely useful tools — AI page generation, integrated checkout, list capture, even a media kit builder.
A restaurant ad clicks differently. Someone tapping your Meta carousel ad does not want to subscribe to your newsletter or buy a digital course. They want pickup or delivery on whichever app they already have signed in, and your Meta campaign needs a real conversion event back to optimize toward the diners that actually convert. Beacons fires basic browser-side pixel events; DineRoute runs the full server-side pipeline that restaurant ads need.
Feature by feature
Both products route clicks. Only one of them was designed for paid restaurant ads.
| Capability | Beacons | DineRoute |
|---|---|---|
| Made for restaurants | ||
| Branded landing page | Creator storefront | Restaurant landing page |
| Restaurant-aware design | — | |
| Multi-platform routing (DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grubhub, etc.) | — | |
| Auto-populate from a single ordering URL | — | |
| Per-location pages and analytics | — | |
| Ad tracking that attributes | ||
| Meta Pixel installed | Yes, basic | Yes, every plan |
| Meta Conversions API (server-side) | — | |
| Google Ads conversion tag | — | |
| GA4 events | Basic page view | Built in, server-side |
| TikTok Pixel + Events API | Pixel only | Pixel + Events API |
| Click ID + UTM forwarding to the ordering platform | — | |
| Where each tool wins | ||
| Creator commerce + Shopify pull-through | — | |
| Email + SMS list capture from bio | Strong | Roadmap |
| Custom domain | Pro plan | Pro plan |
| Free trial price | Free tier (limited) | 14 days, no card |
| Agency multi-client management | Not first-class | Built for agencies |
"Beacons was great for the influencer who shouted us out. It was never going to be the right tool for our own Meta budget."
Honestly, sometimes Beacons wins
If your restaurant's marketing is mostly organic — Instagram, TikTok, word-of-mouth — and you are not spending real money on paid ads, Beacons or even Linktree are perfectly reasonable. The cost of a tool like DineRoute is only worth it when there is a paid-ad budget that needs better attribution, or you are running multiple locations, or you are an agency managing several restaurant clients.
We also do not try to be a Shopify pull-through tool, a coach-checkout platform, or an email-list builder. Beacons is better at all three. If those are central to how your restaurant makes money, Beacons may earn its place in your stack alongside DineRoute, not instead of it.
Five steps, usually under an hour
If you are already on Beacons Pro with a custom domain, the switch is mostly DNS. If you are on Beacons Free, it is even faster.
Paste your existing ordering URL
Drop your Beacons URL or your DoorDash URL into DineRoute onboarding. We resolve every ordering platform we can find without scraping.
Confirm and add what we missed
Auto-populate covers the big networks. Add any platform we did not detect, set first-party reservation links, hours, and pickup notes.
Paste your Pixel ID and Conversion ID
Meta Pixel ID, Meta CAPI access token, Google Ads Conversion ID, GA4 Measurement ID, TikTok Pixel ID. Optional but recommended.
Swap the link in your ads and bio
Replace your Beacons URL with your DineRoute URL in Meta Ads, Google Ads, TikTok Ads, Instagram bio, Google Business Profile, and email signatures.
Keep Beacons for what it is good at
If you still use Beacons for email capture or a Shopify storefront, keep it. DineRoute owns the ordering-link slot, Beacons can own the merch slot.
Questions restaurants actually ask us
Is Beacons a bad product?
Beacons is a great product for the people it was built for. The team has done strong work on creator commerce, AI tools, and email/SMS list capture. If you are a creator monetizing an audience, a coach selling digital products, or a small shop running a Shopify storefront, Beacons is a defensible choice. It just was not designed for the moment a hungry person clicks a restaurant ad.
Where does Beacons stop and DineRoute pick up?
Beacons focuses on creator monetization — digital products, paid subscriptions, link-in-bio storefronts, Shopify pull-through. DineRoute focuses on restaurant ads — multi-platform ordering, location picking, and full server-side attribution back to Meta, Google, GA4 and TikTok. Both tools route clicks. The difference is what happens after the click: Beacons assumes you are selling a digital good, DineRoute assumes you are routing to DoorDash or Uber Eats and needs to tell Meta the click happened.
Can I just install a Meta Pixel on Beacons?
Yes, you can paste a Pixel ID and Beacons will fire a PageView and some standard events on the link-in-bio side. That is enough for retargeting, not enough to optimize a paid ad campaign. Meta needs a Conversions API event with click ID matching and event deduplication to give you a meaningful Match Quality score, and Beacons does not run server-side CAPI for restaurant ad clicks.
Does DineRoute handle DoorDash, Uber Eats and Grubhub on one page?
Yes. DineRoute is purpose-built for this. Paste your existing DoorDash URL and we auto-populate every platform we can resolve — DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grubhub, ChowNow, Caviar, Postmates, Seamless, Slice, Toast, and Favor in Texas. Every click fires a tracked event. Beacons treats those URLs the same as any other link in a creator's bio.
What about email and SMS capture on a DineRoute page?
Beacons does this better today — it is a core part of their creator-commerce playbook. DineRoute has reservation links and first-party order links, and email capture is on our roadmap. If list capture is the single most important thing for your restaurant right now, run a Klaviyo or Squarespace form alongside DineRoute and use DineRoute purely for paid-ad routing.
Pricing for a single restaurant?
Beacons Free is $0/mo with usage limits, Pro is around $10/mo, and the higher tiers add commerce features. DineRoute Solo is $29/mo and includes Meta Pixel + CAPI, Google Ads tag, GA4, TikTok Pixel + Events API, and all 10 ordering platforms. If you do not run paid ads, Beacons Free is cheaper. If you spend $300+/mo on Meta or Google, DineRoute usually pays for itself in better attribution within a week.
How long does a switch from Beacons take?
Most single-location switches finish inside an hour. Paste your Beacons URL or your DoorDash URL into DineRoute onboarding, we auto-populate every platform we can resolve, add your Pixel ID and Google Ads Conversion ID, swap the link in your ad accounts and Instagram bio, done.
Can my agency manage multiple restaurants under one login?
Yes. The Agency plan is $199/mo for up to 10 client accounts, with per-client billing or white-label, bulk onboarding, and cross-client analytics. Beacons does not have a first-class agency tier today.
See a real DineRoute page before you switch.
Malai Kitchen's Southlake landing page is live, branded, and firing Meta CAPI on every click.
No credit card. 14-day trial. Cancel any time.