Puree vs Flex Catering: Which Software Is Right for Your Catering Business?

If you're researching catering software, Flex Catering will almost certainly come up. It's well-marketed, feature-rich on paper, and has a growing following in the Australian market. But when you dig into pricing, mobile experience, and what it's actually like day-to-day, the picture looks quite different — especially compared to Puree.

This article gives you an honest, detailed comparison of both platforms so you can make the right call for your business.

Who Are They Built For?

Both Puree and Flex Catering are purpose-built for catering businesses — they're not adapted from generic business software. But their focus differs in important ways.

Flex originated in Melbourne in 2018, developed by software engineers who were approached by catering businesses that couldn't find a good fit. Their primary strength is corporate drop-off catering, and they've built their product around that use case — production forecasting, driver dispatch, B2B online ordering. They've since expanded to serve restaurants with catering programs, bakeries, grocery food businesses, and enterprise multi-location chains.

Puree was built by someone who actually ran a catering business. Not just advising one, not building software for one — running one. That difference matters. Every feature in Puree exists because a real caterer needed it: the way packages are structured, how dietary requirements flow through to kitchen dockets, the way driver run sheets are generated. The product reflects the actual shape of catering work, not a software developer's interpretation of it.

Puree serves event caterers, corporate delivery operations, staffed functions, and drop-off catering — across New Zealand, Australia, the UK, Canada, Europe, and beyond. The focus stays on independent and growing catering businesses, not grocery chains or restaurant empires.

Pricing: A Significant Difference

This is where the gap becomes hard to ignore. Flex Catering's entry-level plan starts at approximately $250 per month, with their main all-in-one plan sitting around $450 per month. Enterprise pricing requires a custom quote. To put that in context, that's $3,000–$5,400 per year before you've spoken to anyone from their team.

Puree's pricing is a fraction of that. There's a free plan to get started, with paid plans scaled for growing and professional operations — no per-seat fees, no hidden setup costs, and no long-term contracts. You can try it properly before spending a cent.

There's another issue worth noting: Flex doesn't publish its pricing clearly on its website. Prospective customers often have to dig through third-party review sites or contact the sales team to find out what they'll actually pay. That's a red flag for any business trying to do straightforward cost comparisons. Puree's pricing is publicly available — no sales call required.

Mobile Experience: A Real Gap in Flex

One of the most frequently cited complaints about Flex Catering from real users is the mobile experience — or lack of it. Flex has no native mobile app. The platform runs entirely in a browser, and users consistently report that the mobile web experience is subpar. This isn't a minor gripe — it directly affects your drivers, your kitchen team, and anyone who needs to check something on the go.

Flex has acknowledged this is on their roadmap, but it remains an outstanding gap.

Puree includes a dedicated mobile driver interface at puree.app/driver. Drivers can view their full run sheet, capture delivery photos, and log equipment on a mobile-optimised interface without needing a desktop. For a catering operation, that's not a nice-to-have — it's core infrastructure.

Feature Comparison

Both platforms cover the full catering workflow. Here's how the key areas stack up:

Quotes & Orders

Puree supports both itemised and package-based quoting on the same order, with flexible choice items that let customers make selections within packages. Customers receive professional quotes with accept/decline buttons, and accepted orders flow straight into the operations pipeline. Flex also handles proposals and e-signatures, though users have flagged that it's easy to accidentally create duplicate products in the system — something that requires internal discipline to manage.

Online Ordering

Both platforms offer customer-facing online ordering. Puree's order forms are customisable, branded to your business, and designed to work seamlessly on mobile devices. Customers can browse your menu, build their order, and check out — all without picking up the phone. Flex also has a solid online storefront, with strong B2B features for recurring corporate orders.

Kitchen & Production

Puree generates chef dockets, consolidated item views across all orders for a given period, and kitchen reports by section or department. Your kitchen team can see exactly what needs to be prepared and in what quantities, without needing to cross-reference multiple orders manually.

Flex has strong production forecasting and prep sheet automation — it's one of their flagship features. This is an area where both platforms are genuinely capable.

Delivery Management

Puree includes driver run sheets, delivery dockets, a mobile driver interface with photo capture, and automated equipment collection tasks for items left at a venue. The whole delivery workflow is integrated — from the order through to the driver's phone.

Flex has delivery and dispatch features including Google Maps routing and vehicle assignment. However, as noted above, drivers are working from a browser rather than a native app — which is a real limitation in the field.

Venue Management

Puree includes a venue booking calendar, double-booking prevention, Google Calendar sync, and venue hire charges within quotes. If you're managing multiple venues, everything is tracked in one place.

Integrations

Puree integrates with Xero and QuickBooks for accounting, Stripe for credit card payments and deposits, and Google Calendar for scheduling. These integrations are built in — not bolt-ons that require a third-party connector.

Flex has a wider integration list including MYOB, Square, PayPal, Deputy, Mailchimp, and Zapier. If your accounting stack is MYOB or you need Deputy for staff rostering, Flex has a slight edge in breadth. For most caterers using Xero, QuickBooks, or Stripe, Puree covers everything you need.

Enquiry Forms

Puree includes branded, customisable enquiry forms that walk prospective customers through questions about their event before the quote even starts. Enquiries arrive in Puree organised and ready to action. This is a feature that saves a significant amount of back-and-forth in the quoting process.

Onboarding & Day-to-Day Reliability

Several Flex users have noted that getting started required overhauling internal workflows to fit the platform's model — which created friction with staff and, in some cases, customer dissatisfaction during the transition. A number of users also report that new feature releases occasionally ship with bugs that cause errors in production.

Puree's onboarding is personal and fast. We'll bulk upload your existing item catalogue from a spreadsheet, walk you through the setup, and make sure everything looks right before you go live. Most caterers are fully operational within a day or two. The platform is actively maintained and improved based directly on feedback from the caterers who use it every day.

Side-by-Side Summary

So Which Should You Choose?

If you're running a catering business and want software that fits the way caterers actually work — without a steep price tag, without a painful onboarding process, and without sending your drivers into the field with a substandard mobile experience — Puree is the straightforward choice.

Flex is a capable platform, particularly for high-volume corporate drop-off operations with complex production needs. If you're a large-scale enterprise operation and MYOB integration is critical, it's worth evaluating. But for the vast majority of catering businesses — growing independents, event caterers, drop-off and staffed function specialists — Puree delivers the full feature set at a price point that makes sense, with a team that's genuinely invested in your success.

We're also actively building. New features land in Puree regularly, driven entirely by feedback from the caterers using it every day. When you're on Puree, you're not waiting on an enterprise roadmap — you're on a platform that moves quickly because the people building it are talking directly to the people using it.

Try Puree Free

Puree offers a free 30-day trial with no credit card required. Get your items set up, send your first quote, and see how it feels before spending a cent. If you'd like help getting started or want us to bulk upload your existing item catalogue, reach out to us at email@puree.app.