As noted in our June 2016 Retail & Foodservice Technology DataTrac report, Chick-fil-A and Dunkin’ Donuts launched new mobile apps this month. The companies look to join the ranks of Quick Serve Restaurant (QSR) app stalwarts like Starbucks by offering users the ability to effortlessly pre-order and pre-pay for one’s chicken sandwich and donut, thereby skipping long lines filled with the technology disinclined.

Reality proved to be a slightly messier proposition, as often happens when backend challenges rise to the surface, but the rollout has largely been a success for Chick-fil-A. Results for Dunkin’ Donuts were decidedly more mixed.

Spurred on by the promise of free food, the Chick-fil-A One app rang up a million iStore downloads within the first three days of launch to go along with its 450K Google Play downloads.  Reviews for the app have been largely positive. Issues that do arise with the app tend to center on an inability to pick up food via the drive thru at some locations.

Dunkin’ Donuts didn’t fare as well out of the gate. Reviews shade towards the negative with long load times and store locations not displaying (thereby making the on-the-go ordering function unusable) being most common.

The following table captures the current state of app offerings for the top US QSR chains.