Link Mahal alternative for restaurants: no item caps, real orders, Arabic without a paywall
Link Mahal is a Lebanese catalogue with a WhatsApp checkout, and it is genuinely good at being that. The catch is the shape of it: 5 products and 3 categories on the free tier, 50 on Basic, and a storefront in more than one language only on their top tier. A real menu blows through those caps on day one. Here there is no per-plan cap on items or categories, Arabic is a base language on the free plan, and an order is an order with a status rather than a WhatsApp text.
Where the two actually differ
No per-plan item or category caps
Their free tier stops at 5 products and 3 categories, and Basic at 50 products. Here no plan caps how much menu you have, and a 200-item menu fits on the free plan.
Arabic on the free plan
Publish the whole menu in Arabic, with full native right-to-left rendering. Their multi-language storefront is a top-tier feature. A diner-facing language switcher across 21 languages is Plus here.
An order with a status
On Plus, a website order arrives with a status, a receipt and a live order board, and the diner gets their own tracking page. A WhatsApp checkout ends in a message, and everything after it is you retyping.
Card and Whish capture where the rails exist
Whish Pay works as a real gateway in Lebanon, and cards run through CyberSource with the NetCommerce acquirer. Cash and manual transfer with the Whish, OMT and bank presets work everywhere.
One thing they have that we do not
Their top tier does abandoned-cart recovery. We have no cart-recovery feature in any channel. If that is the feature you are buying, buy theirs.
Both of us take 0%
Zero commission on every plan on both sides. That is not the argument, and pretending it is would be dishonest.
Moving over
1. Send the catalogue
A PDF, a photo, or a screenshot of what you have. The AI builder rebuilds it, free, with no item cap waiting.
2. Keep your WhatsApp flow
WhatsApp ordering is free here too, and it is the same habit for you and your staff.
3. Add the real checkout when you want it
Delivery zones, order board, tracking page, receipts. On Plus, still 0% per order.
Link Mahal and ala.menu
| Link Mahal | ala.menu | |
|---|---|---|
| Items on the free tier | 5 products, 3 categories | No per-plan cap |
| Items on the cheapest paid tier | 50 products, 10 categories | No per-plan cap |
| Arabic storefront | Multi-language is their top tier | Arabic free as your base language |
| What the order is | A WhatsApp checkout | A real order with a status and a receipt, on Plus |
| Payment in-product | Whish Pay, cash, transfer and OMT | Whish Pay, cash, transfer and OMT, or cards through your own gateway |
| Abandoned cart | Yes, on their top tier | No, we do not have this |
| Commission per order | 0% | 0% |
Link Mahal compared, answered
Should I stay on Link Mahal?
If your whole menu is five items and a WhatsApp checkout is all you need, yes. It is a tidy Lebanese catalogue, it takes no commission, and its pricing is public and cheap. The question is what happens on the day the menu outgrows the caps.
What are their limits exactly?
As published on their pricing page on 2026-09-17: Free is 5 products, 3 categories and one image each; Basic at $5 a month or $50 a year is 50 products, 10 categories, variants and coupons; Pro at $9 a month is 250 products, 30 categories, advanced analytics, abandoned-cart tracking, a custom domain and a multi-language storefront.
Do I have to pay to have my menu in Arabic?
Not here. Publishing your menu in Arabic, with full native right-to-left rendering, is on the free plan. What is on Plus is offering the diner a switcher between languages, with AI translation into 21 of them.
What is the difference between a WhatsApp message and an order?
A message is text you read and retype. An order on Plus has a status your kitchen moves through, a receipt, a total the system computed, a delivery zone it validated, and a tracking page for the diner. WhatsApp ordering is here too, and it is free. The point is that it does not have to be the ceiling.
Is anything they have missing here?
Yes. Their top tier does abandoned-cart recovery and we have nothing of the kind, in any channel. We would rather say so on our own page than have you find out.
Your whole menu, not the first five items
Send us the catalogue you already have and see it without a cap.
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