Vendors / QSR & drive-thru
SoundHound
SoundHound (Restaurant AI / SYNQ3)
Voice-AI order-taking layer across drive-thru (Dynamic Drive-Thru), phone/SMS/app (Smart Ordering), kiosk (Dynamic Kiosk) and in-car — it sits in front of a POS rather than being one, and the restaurants page names no POS integrations and publishes no pricing (claims: 85% faster service, 93% accuracy).
scored live legacy rubric
- Claims in scope
- 296
- Scored
- 44
- Assessed
- 33
- Unknown
- 263
- Not applicable
- 18
- Cells challenged
- 2
unknown, never as no.Identity
- Owner
- SoundHound AI, Inc. (publicly traded; SYNQ3 Restaurant Solutions is the restaurant business the brief names as folded in — acquisition details not re-verified in this check)
- Parent
- SoundHound AI
- Who it is for
- QSR and pizza chains automating drive-thru, phone/SMS and in-app voice ordering, plus kiosk and in-car voice channels
- Site
- https://www.soundhound.com/restaurants/
Pricing
transparency: quote-only · unit: unknown (not published) · processor lock-in: unknown
- Software
- No pricing published; the site routes to a specialist and an ROI calculator. Quote only.
Capabilities
Every claim is binary and checkable. Grades: A primary documentation · B product documentation · C pricing or feature page · D marketing claim · E third-party reporting · F inference with no source. A yes on a differentiator claim requires A or B.
Order capture & FOH workflow
order-capture-floor-plan-editor
Not scored by this record.
order-capture-split-merge
Voice ordering front end; check splitting belongs to the POS behind it.
order-capture-native-handheld
Not scored by this record.
order-capture-offline-order-entry
Cloud voice AI; requires connectivity.
order-capture-kiosk-first-party differentiator
Not scored by this record.
order-capture-drive-thru
Not scored by this record.
order-capture-drive-thru-timers
Not scored by this record.
order-capture-voice-ai differentiator
Not scored by this record.
order-capture-throttling differentiator
Not scored by this record.
order-capture-scheduled-orders
Help centre (BMW in-car food ordering) documents future-dated capture: 'Can I schedule an order for later? Yes, you can mention the desired time for the order pickup, otherwise it is placed asap.' The shortfall is everything the claim asks beyond that - the time is whatever the guest says, 'The estimated pickup time cannot be changed' once confirmed, no per-channel lead time is configurable and no computed fire time into a make queue is described; nothing equivalent is documented for the phone/Smart Ordering or drive-thru channels, where the only ahead-of-time language is Smart Lane's marketing line 'Lock-in customers in the face of long lines with advance pre-order'. https://support.soundhound.com/hc/en-us/articles/53052980420115-Placing-Changing-and-Canceling-Your-Order · retrieved 2026-08-08
order-capture-catering
Not scored by this record.
order-capture-order-ready-signal differentiator
Not scored by this record.
order-capture-void-comp-controls
Not scored by this record.
Menu, modifiers & pricing engine
menu-pricing-nested-modifiers
Must interpret modifiers to take orders, but the menu record and pricing engine live in the POS.
menu-pricing-modifier-price-by-parent-size
2026-08-04: SoundHound does not author the menu — its Smart Ordering page describes implementation as 'menu ingestion' and names Square, Toast and Oracle as the POS integrations, so item/size/modifier prices originate in the integrated POS. Whether the ingested voice-menu model can natively carry a per-parent-item, per-size modifier price matrix is documented nowhere public: checked soundhound.com/restaurants/, the Smart Ordering and Dynamic Drive-Thru product pages (no menu-configuration detail anywhere), and no admin guide exists — the restaurant operator portal (food.houndify.com) is login-gated and docs.houndify.com 301s to the marketing site.
menu-pricing-topping-quantity-tiers
2026-08-04: quantity tiers (light/regular/extra/double with per-tier multipliers) are a menu-model property, and SoundHound ingests its menu from the integrated POS (Square, Toast, Oracle per the Smart Ordering page) rather than authoring it. Whether the voice ordering engine can represent and price tiered topping quantities is not published: checked the restaurants overview, Smart Ordering and Dynamic Drive-Thru pages — no menu or modifier documentation at all — and no public admin guide or menu spec exists; food.houndify.com (the restaurant login) is gated.
menu-pricing-size-style-matrix differentiator
Not scored by this record.
menu-pricing-included-allowance differentiator
Not scored by this record.
menu-pricing-combos
Not scored by this record.
menu-pricing-upsell-prompts differentiator
Not scored by this record.
menu-pricing-86-propagation
Not scored by this record.
menu-pricing-countdown-auto-86 differentiator
Not scored by this record.
menu-pricing-dayparting
Not scored by this record.
menu-pricing-channel-price-books
Not scored by this record.
menu-pricing-dual-pricing differentiator
Not scored by this record.
menu-pricing-versioning-effective-dates differentiator
Not scored by this record.
menu-pricing-franchise-hierarchy differentiator
Not scored by this record.
menu-pricing-allergen-nutrition
Not scored by this record.
menu-pricing-recipe-linkage differentiator
Not scored by this record.
menu-pricing-3p-menu-push
Not scored by this record.
menu-pricing-dynamic-pricing
Not scored by this record.
Payments & money movement
payments-processor-choice differentiator
Not scored by this record.
payments-published-rates differentiator
Not scored by this record.
payments-dual-pricing differentiator
Not scored by this record.
payments-surcharge-guardrails differentiator
Not scored by this record.
payments-emv-nfc
Not a payments vendor; no first-party terminals.
payments-softpos-tap-to-pay differentiator
Not scored by this record.
payments-qr-guest-pay differentiator
Not scored by this record.
payments-tip-pooling differentiator
Not scored by this record.
payments-offline-store-and-forward differentiator
Not scored by this record.
payments-offline-decline-liability differentiator
Not scored by this record.
payments-gift-cards
Migrated from the 2026-08-01 research pass; no source URL was recorded.
payments-house-accounts
Not scored by this record.
payments-split-tender
Not scored by this record.
payments-refund-void-controls
Migrated from the 2026-08-01 research pass; no source URL was recorded.
payments-chargeback-tooling differentiator
Not scored by this record.
payments-card-on-file differentiator
Not scored by this record.
payments-payout-timing differentiator
Not scored by this record.
payments-multi-entity-routing differentiator
Not scored by this record.
payments-p2pe-pci4
Not scored by this record.
Kitchen & production
kitchen-station-routing
Migrated from the 2026-08-01 research pass; no source URL was recorded.
kitchen-expo-consolidation
Migrated from the 2026-08-01 research pass; no source URL was recorded.
kitchen-course-firing differentiator
Not scored by this record.
kitchen-prep-time-pacing differentiator
Not scored by this record.
kitchen-order-throttling differentiator
Not scored by this record.
kitchen-channel-pause-propagation differentiator
Not scored by this record.
kitchen-order-ready-callback differentiator
Not scored by this record.
kitchen-bump-bar-hardware
Migrated from the 2026-08-01 research pass; no source URL was recorded.
kitchen-all-day-counts
Not scored by this record.
kitchen-sla-alerts
Not scored by this record.
kitchen-printer-fallback differentiator
Not scored by this record.
kitchen-offline-operation differentiator
Not scored by this record.
kitchen-item-build-screens differentiator
Not scored by this record.
kitchen-recall-refire
Not scored by this record.
kitchen-order-modification-alerts differentiator
Not scored by this record.
kitchen-guest-ready-notification differentiator
Not scored by this record.
kitchen-waste-logging
Not scored by this record.
kitchen-speed-of-service-reporting
Not scored by this record.
kitchen-prep-forecasting
Not scored by this record.
Delivery, dispatch & third-party channels
delivery-driver-roster
Migrated from the 2026-08-01 research pass; no source URL was recorded.
delivery-dispatch-board
Migrated from the 2026-08-01 research pass; no source URL was recorded.
delivery-route-map differentiator
Not scored by this record.
delivery-driver-tracking differentiator
Not scored by this record.
delivery-address-validation
Not scored by this record.
delivery-driver-comp differentiator
Not scored by this record.
delivery-daas-dispatch
Not scored by this record.
delivery-daas-fallback differentiator
Not scored by this record.
delivery-3p-direct-integration differentiator
Not scored by this record.
delivery-3p-injection
Not scored by this record.
delivery-menu-push
Not scored by this record.
delivery-86-sync
Not scored by this record.
delivery-store-pause
Not scored by this record.
delivery-3p-reconciliation differentiator
Not scored by this record.
delivery-injection-error-visibility differentiator
Not scored by this record.
delivery-tracking-page
Not scored by this record.
delivery-promise-time differentiator
Not scored by this record.
delivery-offline-behavior
Not scored by this record.
Digital ordering & guest-facing channels
digital-first-party-web
Voice/app channels only; no first-party branded web ordering site product.
digital-menu-single-source
Help centre, Menu Management: 'Nope! For restaurants using Square, once you create a SoundHound for Restaurant account and connect your POS system, the voice assistant will synchronize with your existing menus' — the voice ordering channel is fed from the POS menu record with no separate menu build. Two shortfalls: synchronization is documented only for the Square integration, and the companion article 'What happens if I make changes to my menu?' (23680243280531) says menu changes are made by emailing accountmanagement@soundhound.com or your account manager 'and we will take necessary action' — an item edit does not propagate to the ordering channel automatically. https://support.soundhound.com/hc/en-us/articles/23680310417811-Do-I-have-to-create-a-separate-menu-for-voice-ordering · retrieved 2026-08-04
digital-native-app differentiator
Not scored by this record.
digital-account-saved-payment
The vendor's own help centre enumerates the guest payment flow for every first-party channel and none includes a guest account: in-car ordering — 'Do I need an account to place an order? No, an account is not required. We need only your payment method and your name', captured via a Stripe-hosted QR code, with payment methods updated, deleted or set as default 'on the Stripe-hosted page'; phone ordering — Square customers get a per-order SMS pay link and Toast orders 'will be set to pay in-store' with optional SH Wallet pay-ahead, also an SMS link ('How do my customers pay?', 23680557565843); and 'Do you have an ordering app?' (23681820301203) answers that customers are not asked to download an app. The only saved-payment mechanism documented is Stripe Link on Stripe's hosted checkout ('your payment method is saved securely for faster checkout next time', 53910762918803) — no vendor guest account, no saved addresses, no one-tap reorder in any first-party channel. https://support.soundhound.com/hc/en-us/articles/53020109939987-Account-Payment-Availability · retrieved 2026-08-04
digital-upsell-engine differentiator
Not scored by this record.
digital-scheduled-pacing
Not scored by this record.
digital-fulfillment-modes
Not scored by this record.
digital-qr-table
Not scored by this record.
digital-kiosk differentiator
Not scored by this record.
digital-group-ordering
Not scored by this record.
digital-catering-portal differentiator
Not scored by this record.
digital-voice-ai-phone differentiator
Not scored by this record.
digital-drivethru-ai
Not scored by this record.
digital-sms-ordering
Not scored by this record.
digital-google-order differentiator
Not scored by this record.
digital-apple-business-connect
Not scored by this record.
digital-loyalty-attach
Not scored by this record.
digital-subscriptions
Not scored by this record.
digital-promo-parity
Not scored by this record.
digital-guest-data-ownership differentiator
Not scored by this record.
digital-checkout-pci-sca
Not scored by this record.
digital-surcharge-transparency differentiator
Not scored by this record.
Guest data, loyalty & marketing
guest-loyalty-unified-profile
2026-08-04: enumerated all 114 articles in the vendor help centre (support.soundhound.com — 403s a plain fetch but serves normally with a browser user agent; listed via the public Zendesk API) across the SoundHound for Restaurants, Smart Answering and BMW/LG in-car food ordering categories: no article mentions loyalty, guest profiles, CRM or guest identity, and the restaurants solutions page, Smart Ordering page and the June 2026 omnichannel-platform press release are equally silent. What is documented cuts both ways: guest ordering is account-less ('an account is not required') with Stripe-hosted payment, and transactions post to the integrated POS (Square, Toast, Oracle), where any unified guest profile would normally live — but no vendor statement affirms or denies a cross-channel profile with dedup/merge behavior, so unresolved.
guest-loyalty-thirdparty-identity-attach differentiator
Not scored by this record.
guest-loyalty-accrual-models
Migrated from the 2026-08-01 research pass; no source URL was recorded.
guest-loyalty-tiers differentiator
Not scored by this record.
guest-loyalty-offline-behavior differentiator
Not scored by this record.
guest-loyalty-offer-stacking-rules differentiator
Not scored by this record.
guest-loyalty-targeted-offers differentiator
Not scored by this record.
guest-loyalty-rfm-segmentation differentiator
Not scored by this record.
guest-loyalty-lifecycle-automation
Migrated from the 2026-08-01 research pass; no source URL was recorded.
guest-loyalty-native-email-sms differentiator
Not scored by this record.
guest-loyalty-consent-management
Not scored by this record.
guest-loyalty-10dlc-registration
Not scored by this record.
guest-loyalty-campaign-attribution differentiator
Not scored by this record.
guest-loyalty-data-export-portability differentiator
Not scored by this record.
guest-loyalty-cdp-event-api differentiator
Not scored by this record.
guest-loyalty-review-capture-routing differentiator
Not scored by this record.
guest-loyalty-referral-program
Not scored by this record.
guest-loyalty-wallet-pass differentiator
Not scored by this record.
guest-loyalty-privacy-rights-tooling
Not scored by this record.
guest-loyalty-redemption-fraud-controls
Not scored by this record.
guest-loyalty-ai-offer-recommendation differentiator
Not scored by this record.
guest-loyalty-stored-value-gift
Not scored by this record.
Labor & workforce
labor-clock-in-at-pos
'Employee Assist' is voice-based training/handbook access, not timekeeping.
labor-photo-punch-verification differentiator
Not scored by this record.
labor-geofenced-mobile-punch
Not scored by this record.
labor-offline-time-punch differentiator
Not scored by this record.
labor-granular-rbac
SoundHound's complete restaurant catalogue — Dynamic Drive-Thru, Smart Lane, Smart Ordering, Dynamic Kiosk, Employee Assist, Voice Insights, In-Car Ordering — is guest-facing voice order capture plus a staff Q&A assistant; it contains no staff-facing transactional workflow on which void, comp, discount, refund, drawer-open or price-change permissions could be granted per action. Those actions execute on the chain's integrated POS (Square, Toast and Oracle are the platforms its Smart Ordering page names). Resolved 2026-08-04.
labor-manager-override-audit
Manager overrides of voids, comps, discounts and refunds are POS transactional controls, and SoundHound ships no product in which such an approval could occur or be logged — its catalogue (Dynamic Drive-Thru, Smart Ordering, Dynamic Kiosk, Employee Assist, Voice Insights) has no staff transactional surface; it captures orders by voice and posts them to the chain's integrated POS (Square, Toast, Oracle per its own Smart Ordering page), where approver attribution and audit would live. Resolved 2026-08-04.
labor-native-scheduling differentiator
Not scored by this record.
labor-demand-labor-forecast differentiator
Not scored by this record.
labor-realtime-labor-percent differentiator
Not scored by this record.
labor-overtime-prevention differentiator
Not scored by this record.
labor-break-compliance-by-state differentiator
Not scored by this record.
labor-fair-workweek-support
Not scored by this record.
labor-minor-labor-rules
Not scored by this record.
labor-tip-pooling-rules
Not scored by this record.
labor-tip-distribution-audit-trail
Not scored by this record.
labor-qualified-tips-w2-reporting differentiator
Not scored by this record.
labor-native-payroll differentiator
Not scored by this record.
labor-payroll-export-formats
Not scored by this record.
labor-shift-swap-workflow differentiator
Not scored by this record.
labor-digital-onboarding-i9
Not scored by this record.
labor-server-performance-metrics differentiator
Not scored by this record.
Inventory, purchasing & cost control
inventory-recipe-bom-costing
Migrated from the 2026-08-01 research pass; no source URL was recorded.
inventory-unit-conversion-yields
Migrated from the 2026-08-01 research pass; no source URL was recorded.
inventory-theoretical-vs-actual differentiator
Not scored by this record.
inventory-realtime-depletion differentiator
Not scored by this record.
inventory-86-auto-sync differentiator
Not scored by this record.
inventory-count-modes
Migrated from the 2026-08-01 research pass; no source URL was recorded.
inventory-mobile-count-offline
Not scored by this record.
inventory-vendor-catalogs-edi differentiator
Not scored by this record.
inventory-invoice-ocr differentiator
Not scored by this record.
inventory-price-change-alerts differentiator
Not scored by this record.
inventory-par-auto-suggest differentiator
Not scored by this record.
inventory-waste-logging
Not scored by this record.
inventory-transfers
Not scored by this record.
inventory-commissary
Not scored by this record.
inventory-lot-traceability
Not scored by this record.
inventory-shelf-life-expiry
Not scored by this record.
inventory-cogs-gl-export
Not scored by this record.
inventory-native-not-partner differentiator
Not scored by this record.
inventory-menu-margin-linkage differentiator
Not scored by this record.
Reporting, BI & data access
reporting-realtime-dashboard
2026-08-04: the closest surface is Voice Insights — 'Gain real-time insights from employee and customer interactions' on the restaurants solutions page — which is conversation intelligence, not a sales dashboard, and no product page, screenshot or doc describes what it displays, its latency, or browser/mobile access. The claim needs a live sales dashboard reflecting transactions within minutes; sales of record post to the integrated POS (Square, Toast, Oracle). Checked the restaurants overview, Dynamic Drive-Thru and Smart Ordering pages (no reporting detail); no help centre exists for the restaurant line and support.soundhound.com returned HTTP 403.
reporting-eod-closeout
Migrated from the 2026-08-01 research pass; no source URL was recorded.
reporting-pmix-modifier-level
2026-08-04: no PMIX or sales-mix reporting is documented anywhere public — the restaurants overview, Dynamic Drive-Thru and Smart Ordering pages describe ordering automation and Voice Insights conversation analytics, never an item- or modifier-level sales report with daypart or revenue-centre filters. Orders post to the integrated POS (Square, Toast, Oracle), whose reporting would normally carry PMIX, but whether SoundHound offers any mix report of its own cannot be determined: no admin guide or help centre is public and food.houndify.com is login-gated.
reporting-comps-voids-audit
Not scored by this record.
reporting-cash-over-short
Not scored by this record.
reporting-labor-productivity
Not scored by this record.
reporting-channel-profitability differentiator
Not scored by this record.
reporting-multiloc-drilldown differentiator
Not scored by this record.
reporting-custom-report-builder differentiator
Not scored by this record.
reporting-scheduled-delivery
Not scored by this record.
reporting-raw-warehouse-export differentiator
Not scored by this record.
reporting-public-api differentiator
Not scored by this record.
reporting-webhooks differentiator
Not scored by this record.
reporting-api-not-upcharged differentiator
Not scored by this record.
reporting-tier-paywall differentiator
Not scored by this record.
reporting-history-retention differentiator
Not scored by this record.
reporting-anomaly-alerts differentiator
Not scored by this record.
reporting-nl-query
Not scored by this record.
reporting-guest-cohorts differentiator
Not scored by this record.
reporting-sales-forecast differentiator
Not scored by this record.
reporting-tip-tax-compliance
Not scored by this record.
Multi-location, franchise & enterprise governance
multi-location-org-hierarchy
2026-08-04: the only public admin-surface description is the help-centre article 'How do I manage my account and make updates to my voice assistant?' (support.soundhound.com article 23188749367187), which describes the account dashboard as managing 'your business name, billing information, as well as the users that are part of the organization' plus per-location settings in a left-pane Settings section — a two-level organization > locations model with no named region/group tier and no statement that reporting or permissions can be scoped to intermediate groupings. That article covers the self-serve Smart Answering/Smart Ordering dashboard; whether enterprise drive-thru chains get a deeper hierarchy is published nowhere — checked the restaurants overview, Smart Ordering and Dynamic Drive-Thru pages and all 114 help-centre articles, and the food.houndify.com operator portal is login-gated — so a three-level hierarchy can be neither confirmed nor denied.
multi-location-central-menu-publish
SoundHound has no merchant-facing menu authoring or publishing at all. The help centre's Menu Management section is two articles that together enumerate the entire menu workflow: menus are synchronized from the connected POS ('the voice assistant will synchronize with your existing menus', 23680310417811), and menu changes are made by emailing accountmanagement@soundhound.com or your account manager 'to notify them of changes and we will take necessary action'. There is no author-once corporate menu, no publish-to-locations action and no publish/version history; the menu record lives in the chain's POS, and enterprise Smart Ordering implementation is likewise described as SoundHound-performed 'menu ingestion', not merchant publishing. https://support.soundhound.com/hc/en-us/articles/23680243280531-What-happens-if-I-make-changes-to-my-menu · retrieved 2026-08-04
multi-location-local-override-policy differentiator
Not scored by this record.
multi-location-price-zones
2026-08-04: SoundHound carries no item or price records of its own — the help centre's Menu Management section documents menus as synchronized from the connected POS with changes applied by account management on request, and the Smart Ordering page describes implementation as 'menu ingestion' from Square, Toast or Oracle — so per-location-group, per-channel or per-daypart prices on one item would be a property of the ingested POS menu. Whether the ingestion pipeline can represent location-group price tiers in the voice channel without duplicating item records is documented nowhere public (no menu spec or admin guide exists; the food.houndify.com operator portal is login-gated), matching the record's treatment of the other menu-model cells (nested modifiers, size-based modifier pricing). Unresolved.
multi-location-scheduled-publish differentiator
Not scored by this record.
multi-location-new-store-template differentiator
Not scored by this record.
multi-location-corp-vs-franchisee-roles differentiator
Not scored by this record.
multi-location-royalty-calculation differentiator
Not scored by this record.
multi-location-royalty-collection
Not scored by this record.
multi-location-consolidated-reporting
Not scored by this record.
multi-location-normalized-item-rollup differentiator
Not scored by this record.
multi-location-cross-location-giftcard
Not scored by this record.
multi-location-cross-location-loyalty
Not scored by this record.
multi-location-multi-brand differentiator
Not scored by this record.
multi-location-multi-tax-jurisdiction
Not scored by this record.
multi-location-multi-currency-locale
Not scored by this record.
multi-location-config-audit-log differentiator
Not scored by this record.
multi-location-enterprise-sso differentiator
Not scored by this record.
multi-location-enterprise-api differentiator
Not scored by this record.
multi-location-central-labor-policy
Not scored by this record.
Hardware & physical footprint
hardware-commodity-devices differentiator
Not scored by this record.
hardware-os-platforms
Dynamic Kiosk and drive-thru deployments imply hardware, but no client OS list or specs published.
hardware-handheld-purpose-built
Not scored by this record.
hardware-handheld-battery-swap differentiator
Not scored by this record.
hardware-offline-mode
Migrated from the 2026-08-01 research pass; no source URL was recorded.
hardware-kds
Migrated from the 2026-08-01 research pass; no source URL was recorded.
hardware-kiosk differentiator
Not scored by this record.
hardware-drive-thru
Not scored by this record.
hardware-printer-compatibility
Not scored by this record.
hardware-peripherals
Not scored by this record.
hardware-p2pe-terminal
Not scored by this record.
hardware-tap-to-phone differentiator
Not scored by this record.
hardware-pricing-transparency differentiator
Not scored by this record.
hardware-ownership-vs-lease differentiator
Not scored by this record.
hardware-usable-after-churn differentiator
Not scored by this record.
hardware-rma-sla differentiator
Not scored by this record.
hardware-byod
Not scored by this record.
hardware-remote-device-management differentiator
Not scored by this record.
Integrations, API & extensibility
extensibility-public-api-docs
SoundHound publishes developer material for its wider voice platform; nothing restaurant-specific verified in this check.
extensibility-api-access-cost differentiator
Not scored by this record.
extensibility-partner-revshare
Not scored by this record.
extensibility-free-sandbox differentiator
Not scored by this record.
extensibility-oauth-partner-apps
SoundHound's only developer surface is the Houndify platform — the same infrastructure its restaurant operator login (food.houndify.com) runs on — and the Houndify API License Terms define authentication as an API Key: 'a unique alpha-numeric code, issued by SoundHound, specific to the Houndify Cloud Service when calling a Houndify API', monitored and revocable by SoundHound. No OAuth 2.0 flow, scope, or operator-granted, individually revocable permission appears anywhere in the terms, and no partner-app marketplace exists for the restaurant product. Vendor-issued static keys are precisely the pattern this claim excludes. https://www.houndify.com/terms · retrieved 2026-08-04
extensibility-webhooks-push
2026-08-04: cannot be enumerated from public material. The Houndify developer platform (which food.houndify.com, the restaurant login, runs on) is a request/response voice API authenticated by API keys; its full reference sits behind account signup — docs.houndify.com 301s to the marketing site — and no public spec of the restaurant order flow exists, so whether order lifecycle events are pushed to partners or must be polled is undisclosed. Checked houndify.com/terms (API-key language only, no webhook or callback provisions), the restaurants overview, Smart Ordering and Dynamic Drive-Thru pages; support.soundhound.com returned HTTP 403.
extensibility-webhook-reliability differentiator
Not scored by this record.
extensibility-order-injection-api
Not scored by this record.
extensibility-menu-write-api differentiator
Not scored by this record.
extensibility-data-symmetry differentiator
Not scored by this record.
extensibility-published-rate-limits
Not scored by this record.
extensibility-doordash-preferred differentiator
Not scored by this record.
extensibility-first-party-delivery-integrations differentiator
Not scored by this record.
extensibility-middleware-compatibility
Not scored by this record.
extensibility-accounting-connectors
Not scored by this record.
extensibility-payroll-export
Not scored by this record.
extensibility-bi-data-warehouse differentiator
Not scored by this record.
extensibility-app-marketplace
Not scored by this record.
extensibility-custom-fields-scripting
Not scored by this record.
extensibility-headless-embedded
Not scored by this record.
extensibility-api-versioning-deprecation
Not scored by this record.
extensibility-data-portability-exit differentiator
Not scored by this record.
Reliability, offline & operations
reliability-offline-order-entry
Migrated from the 2026-08-01 research pass; no source URL was recorded.
reliability-offline-card-auth differentiator
Not scored by this record.
reliability-offline-decline-liability differentiator
Not scored by this record.
reliability-lan-degraded-multi-terminal differentiator
Not scored by this record.
reliability-local-transaction-engine differentiator
Not scored by this record.
reliability-offline-kds-printing
Migrated from the 2026-08-01 research pass; no source URL was recorded.
reliability-printer-fallback
Migrated from the 2026-08-01 research pass; no source URL was recorded.
reliability-sync-conflict-handling
Not scored by this record.
reliability-offline-feature-matrix
Not scored by this record.
reliability-public-status-page
Not scored by this record.
reliability-contractual-uptime-sla differentiator
Not scored by this record.
reliability-incident-postmortems
Not scored by this record.
reliability-247-live-support
Not scored by this record.
reliability-onsite-install differentiator
Not scored by this record.
reliability-menu-build-service differentiator
Not scored by this record.
reliability-hardware-replacement-sla
Not scored by this record.
reliability-backup-restore
Not scored by this record.
reliability-pci-dss-4-attestation
Not scored by this record.
reliability-mfa-role-based-access
Not scored by this record.
reliability-self-serve-training
Not scored by this record.
reliability-failover-terminal-role differentiator
Not scored by this record.
reliability-cellular-backup
Not scored by this record.
Commercial, compliance & data ownership
commercial-month-to-month-contract differentiator
Not scored by this record.
commercial-no-early-termination-fee differentiator
Not scored by this record.
commercial-autorenew-terms-published
Enterprise contracts; no public contract terms surfaced.
commercial-processing-not-bundled differentiator
Not scored by this record.
commercial-interchange-plus-published differentiator
Not scored by this record.
commercial-rate-increase-clause differentiator
Not scored by this record.
commercial-pricing-published
The restaurant solutions page publishes no price of any kind - no per-location, per-terminal or per-channel figure, no tier table. Every commercial path is a hand-off: 'Talk to a Restaurant AI Specialist', 'Talk to an Expert', and a Discovery Call / Platform Demo / Proof of Concepts sequence; the only calculator asks the operator for its own basket size and order volume and returns a revenue lift, not a cost. (The page's one dollar figure, '$11,000 annually', is a customer's claimed savings.) https://www.soundhound.com/pricing/ returns 404, and the help centre's Houndify entry offers only 'Access a full pricing grid by creating a free Houndify account' - i.e. gated even for the developer platform. https://www.soundhound.com/voice-ai-solutions/restaurants/ · retrieved 2026-08-08
commercial-module-unbundling differentiator
Not scored by this record.
commercial-hardware-purchase-outright
SoundHound sells no terminals, KDS screens or printers to purchase: Dynamic Drive-Thru is positioned as 'created with integration in mind, working seamlessly with your existing hardware and software', the restaurant catalogue (Dynamic Drive-Thru, Smart Ordering, Dynamic Kiosk software, Employee Assist, Voice Insights) contains no hardware product, and the site publishes no price for anything — every page routes to a specialist call or demo. The terminals, KDS and printers this claim covers belong to the chain's existing POS stack, and nothing SoundHound requires is purchasable outright at a published price. https://www.soundhound.com/voice-ai-products/dynamic-drive-thru/ · retrieved 2026-08-04
commercial-hardware-not-locked differentiator
Not scored by this record.
commercial-implementation-fee-published
Not scored by this record.
commercial-data-export-self-serve
Not scored by this record.
commercial-export-customer-and-loyalty differentiator
Not scored by this record.
commercial-post-termination-export-window differentiator
Not scored by this record.
commercial-data-ownership-clause differentiator
Not scored by this record.
commercial-source-available-selfhost
Not scored by this record.
commercial-pci-p2pe-tokenization
Not scored by this record.
commercial-pci-dss-4-controls
Not scored by this record.
commercial-soc2-attestation
Not scored by this record.
commercial-privacy-dsar-tooling
Not scored by this record.
commercial-wcag-kiosk-accessibility differentiator
Not scored by this record.
commercial-dual-pricing-compliant differentiator
Not scored by this record.
Adversarial verification
An independent pass was instructed to refute this record, defaulting to downgrade when uncertain. It challenged 9 values — 2 upheld, 0 downgraded, 0 upgraded. This is published in full because a reader who can see which values were contested, on what evidence, and which way they moved has something no affiliate-funded comparison offers.
Capability claims
| Claim | As first scored | Verdict | What the verifier found |
|---|---|---|---|
| labor-granular-rbac | unknown / F, placeholder: "No public documentation located during the 2026-08-01 research pass." | resolve-to-no | The claim's discrete actions (void, comp, discount, refund, drawer open, price change, report access) are staff actions executed on a POS. SoundHound's complete restaurant catalogue — Dynamic Drive-Thru, Smart Lane, Smart Ordering, Dynamic Kiosk, Employee Assist, Voice Insights, In-Car Ordering — is guest-facing voice order capture plus a staff Q&A assistant; no staff-facing transactional workflow exists for per-action permissions to govern. Its Smart Ordering page names Square, Toast and Oracle as the POS platforms orders post into. Same pattern as the acrelec record's resolution of this cell. source |
| labor-manager-override-audit | unknown / F, placeholder: "No public documentation located during the 2026-08-01 research pass." | resolve-to-no | Manager overrides and approvals of voids/comps/refunds happen on the chain's POS; SoundHound is a voice order-capture layer in front of it and ships no product in which such an approval could occur or be written to an audit trail. Consistent with the record's identity ('it sits in front of a POS rather than being one') and the resolve-to-no on labor-granular-rbac. source |
| extensibility-oauth-partner-apps | unknown / F, placeholder: "No public documentation located during the 2026-08-01 research pass." | resolve-to-no | Read the Houndify API License Terms — the developer platform the restaurant login (food.houndify.com) runs on. Authentication is defined as a vendor-issued API Key ('a unique alpha-numeric code, issued by SoundHound, specific to the Houndify Cloud Service when calling a Houndify API'), monitored and revocable by SoundHound; no OAuth 2.0 flow, scope or operator-granted permission appears anywhere in the terms, and no partner-app marketplace exists for the restaurant product. The vendor's own primary document enumerates the auth mechanism and it is exactly the static-key pattern the claim excludes. Upgraded F to B. source |
| commercial-hardware-purchase-outright | unknown / F, placeholder: "No public documentation located during the 2026-08-01 research pass." | resolve-to-no | SoundHound sells software services, not terminals, KDS screens or printers: the Dynamic Drive-Thru page states the product is 'created with integration in mind, working seamlessly with your existing hardware and software', no hardware product appears in the catalogue, and no price of any kind is published (the record already scores commercial-pricing-published no at grade B). Nothing the product requires is purchasable outright at a published price. Mirrors the conversenow record's grade-C resolve-to-no on this cell. source |
| digital-menu-single-source | unknown / F, placeholder: "No public documentation located during the 2026-08-01 research pass." | resolve-to-partial | The help centre — which earlier passes recorded as HTTP 403 but serves normally with a browser user agent — has a Menu Management section: the voice ordering menu is synchronized from the connected POS menu record ('the voice assistant will synchronize with your existing menus'), so there is no separate digital menu build. But synchronization is documented only for the Square integration, and the companion article says menu changes are made by emailing account management 'and we will take necessary action' — an item edit does not propagate automatically. Present with named shortfalls: partial at grade B. source |
| digital-account-saved-payment | unknown / F, placeholder: "No public documentation located during the 2026-08-01 research pass." | resolve-to-no | The vendor's own help centre enumerates the guest payment flow in every first-party channel and none involves a vendor guest account: in-car — 'an account is not required', payment captured via Stripe-hosted QR code and managed on the Stripe-hosted page; phone — per-order SMS pay link (Square) or pay in-store / optional SH Wallet SMS pay-ahead (Toast); and no ordering app exists by design ('we don't require customers to download an app'). The only saved payment is Stripe Link on Stripe's hosted checkout. No guest account, saved addresses or one-tap reorder anywhere — the docs enumerate the alternatives and this is not among them: no at grade B. source |
| multi-location-central-menu-publish | unknown / F, placeholder: "No public documentation located during the 2026-08-01 research pass." | resolve-to-no | The help centre's Menu Management section enumerates the entire menu workflow and merchant menu authoring is not in it: menus synchronize from the connected POS, and changes are made by emailing accountmanagement@soundhound.com or an account manager. No author-once corporate menu, no publish-to-locations action, no publish/version history — the menu record lives in the chain's POS, and enterprise Smart Ordering implementation is SoundHound-performed 'menu ingestion'. Positive enumeration of the alternative: no at grade B. source |
| order-capture-scheduled-orders | partial / D, "'Smart Lane' is marketed as advance pre-ordering ahead of the line; no lead-time-per-cha" | upheld | The cited https://www.soundhound.com/restaurants/ now 301s to /voice-ai-solutions/restaurants/. I fetched the destination: the Smart Lane sentence survives verbatim, so the citation is re-pointable, but it is marketing about pre-ordering while standing in line and cannot carry a timing claim. I then enumerated the Zendesk help centre via the public search API and found article 53052980420115, which states scheduled pickup outright for the in-car channel, plus 'Can I change my pickup time after placing an order? The estimated pickup time cannot be changed.' Partial stands with a named shortfall; the withdrawn leg is the marketing sentence, and the grade moves D -> B on the help-centre article. source |
| commercial-pricing-published | no / B, "Page offers an ROI calculator and a specialist call; no dollar figures at all." | upheld | The cited URL 301s to /voice-ai-solutions/restaurants/; I fetched the destination in full and confirmed the substance - CTAs are 'Talk to a Restaurant AI Specialist' and 'Talk to an Expert', the ROI calculator takes operator inputs and outputs revenue lift, and no software price appears. I also probed /pricing/ (404) and searched the Zendesk help centre for pricing/cost/price/subscription/fee: the only pricing hits are the free music app and Houndify's 'Access a full pricing grid by creating a free Houndify account'. Value unchanged, but the grade drops B -> C because a vendor solutions page is a feature page, not documentation, and the note's 'no dollar figures at all' is withdrawn - the page does print a $11,000 savings figure. source |
Sources
Every URL this record cites. 14 in total.
- https://www.soundhound.com/restaurants/
- https://www.soundhound.com/voice-ai-solutions/restaurants/
- https://www.soundhound.com/voice-ai-products/smart-ordering/
- https://www.soundhound.com/voice-ai-products/dynamic-drive-thru/
- https://www.houndify.com/terms
- https://support.soundhound.com/hc/en-us
- https://support.soundhound.com/hc/en-us/articles/23680310417811-Do-I-have-to-create-a-separate-menu-for-voice-ordering
- https://support.soundhound.com/hc/en-us/articles/23680243280531-What-happens-if-I-make-changes-to-my-menu
- https://support.soundhound.com/hc/en-us/articles/53020109939987-Account-Payment-Availability
- https://support.soundhound.com/hc/en-us/articles/23680557565843-How-do-my-customers-pay
- https://support.soundhound.com/hc/en-us/articles/23188749367187-How-do-I-manage-my-account-and-make-updates-to-my-voice-assistant
- https://support.soundhound.com/hc/en-us/articles/53052980420115-Placing-Changing-and-Canceling-Your-Order
- https://support.soundhound.com/hc/en-us/articles/53053017234963-Pickup-and-Tracking
- https://support.soundhound.com/hc/en-us/articles/23435230960659-FAQs-and-Support