First Merchant vs Ovation
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
First Merchant
Streamline your restaurant's order management process. This application helps you efficiently handle both incoming customer orders and outgoing deliveries. It's designed to simplify your daily operations.
- Inbound order management
- Outbound order management
- Workflow streamlining
- Restaurant operations simplification
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Manage your restaurant's inbound and outbound order workflow with First Delivery's merchant app.
Ovation
This platform streamlines guest feedback for restaurants using a quick SMS survey. It integrates with ordering systems to help resolve issues in real-time, encourage positive reviews, and uncover insights for business improvement.
- SMS-based guest surveys
- Digital Table Touch™
- Frictionless integrations
- Real-time issue resolution
- Drive 5-star reviews
- Gain business insights
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Voted the #1 guest feedback platform in a nationwide RestaurantOwner.com survey, Ovation uses a 2-question SMS-based survey as a Digital Table Touch™ that has redefined guest feedback. Through frictionless integrations with online ordering platforms and other tools, Ovation allows restaurants to easily resolve guest concerns in real-time, get more 5-star reviews, discover insights to improve, and drive revenue.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Ovation at 100% against First Merchant's 0%. Ovation also leads on rating (4.6 vs 3.7) and ratings volume (11 vs 3). First Merchant's advantage is iOS requirement (12.4 vs 15.1). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Ovation holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 3.7. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 3 and 11 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 0% of First Merchant's written reviews are positive against 100% of Ovation's.
First Merchant ships an update every 3 weeks, Ovation every 5 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 23, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | First Merchant | Ovation |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.7 (3 ratings) | 4.6 (11 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 0.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 3 | 11 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks — better | Every 5 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 12.4 — better | 15.1 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 17 MB | 42 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Habitat LLC | Ovation Up, LLC |
Customer experience
First Merchant
Ovation
In-app purchases
First Merchant
No in-app purchases
Ovation
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is First Merchant free?
Is Ovation free?
Which has better reviews, First Merchant or Ovation?
Do First Merchant or Ovation have ads?
Which is updated more often, First Merchant or Ovation?
Other comparisons
