What is Dutchie? Dutchie vs. Weedmaps & Other Menus

When you step up with a brand-new dispensary, you’ll have competition using all the latest technologies to support their growth. If you intend to keep up, an online dispensary menu is a ginormous deal. That being said, Dutchie is a cannabis company worth getting to know. So, what is Dutchie? We’ve pulled together all the details to catch you up below.

What is Dutchie?

Dutchie is a well-recognized name in cannabis among both consumers and dispensary owners. For customers shopping for cannabis, Dutchie offers an enormous directory of dispensaries from coast to coast. People on a search for weed can narrow down options by location and get immediate access to that dispensary’s online menu, hosted by Dutchie.

For dispensary owners, however, Dutchie is an even bigger partner to have in your corner. Dutchie offers:

• Point-of-sale systems for in-dispensary use
• Customizable e-commerce solutions, including a hosted online menu
• Digital payment solutions for cannabis
• Technology solutions to simplify business operations

Here’s an example of a website we created and implemented the Dutchie iFrame menu on:

View the live menu here.

Dutchie Plus

Dutchie Plus is the newest addition to the Dutchie e-commerce services lineup. With Dutchie Plus, brands can build their own unique menu experience without restrictions.

In other words, you get to use the Dutchie infrastructure to create your menu, but you also have total control over what that menu looks like and how it functions. The Dutchie Plus platform is intuitive, offers advanced integrations for rewards, and integrates with existing software.

Dutchie Plus also comes with huge SEO benefits as, rather than an iFrame menu that is uncrawlable by Google, your Dutchie Plus menu is fully indexable – including product pages, category pages, brand pages, and more. This gives your dispensary a major advantage in capturing users from organic search results whom are searching for specific products & brands for sale in their area.

Here’s an example of a website we created and implemented the Dutchie Plus menu ecosystem on:

View the live menu here.

Dutchie Cost

Dutchie’s services and solutions are offered via a monthly subscription basis, and you only have to pay for what you need. Dutchie Plus also requires the need for a developer to actually build out your online menu, which adds to the price. Learn more about Dutchie Plus.

Get Started: Talk To us About Getting a Dutchie Menu

Pros & Cons

Dutchie is exceptionally user-friendly for dispensary owners and shoppers. With their iFrame option, you can pull together a massive menu with very little developer skill. Likewise, the menu is super simple to adjust when needed. Dutchie Plus offers a fully customizable, headless ecommerce solution packed with SEO & reporting benefits where there are really no limits.

One of the few downfalls for Dutchie used to be the limited scope of customizability for dispensary menus. However, the latest addition of the more advanced Dutchie Plus has attempted to address this issue. The only other con for some brands is fewer advertising tools available right from the platform. Even though Dutchie does offer a few, the tools may not be as comprehensive as you find through other large menu platforms.

Dutchie Partners with New York State to “to Power Social Equity Cannabis Stores”

Also worth noting is that Dutchie has recently been named the exclusive provider of technology and point-of-sale (POS) hardware solutions for New York’s Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary (CAURD) licensees by the state’s Dormitory Authority. Through this collaboration, social equity licensees in New York will have access to cutting-edge tools for streamlining their businesses, better serving their consumers, and ensuring the widespread availability of legally produced cannabis.

You may also like: Podcast w/ Dutchie Co-Founder & CannaPlanners CEO, Ross Lipson [watch/listen]

Online Ordering Process – The Dutchie Customer Experience

Dutchie offers one of the most straightforward setups for customers accessing a menu, which is why so many dispensaries trust this platform. From sorting through the inventory to placing orders, every aspect of UX is seamless and logical for the end-user. Within the menu, you can sort by brand, category, potency, strain type & weights. You can also search for products in the search bar. Individuals that place orders on the menu must create an account with Dutchie, which automatically opts them in to receive email marketing from your dispensary.

How to get your dispensary on Dutchie – Integrating Dutchie to Your Website

Integrating Dutchie to your dispensary website is a simple process that doesn’t really require a lot of insight into coding or web design. The general process involves signing up for Dutchie, creating your menu, and then embedding the menu on your website. Even though your menu will be available on Dutchie, embedding Dutchie on your website keeps the user on the site instead of taking them to Dutchie to place an order.

• Step 1: Work with your Dutchie representative to acquire your embed code
• Step 2: Send Dutchie embed code to web developers to implement onsite

Brands that use Dutchie’s services are automatically included in the dispensary directory on Dutchie. Even though the Dutchie directory may list dispensaries that are not customers, site visitors cannot order products directly through the site.

Dutchie vs Other Menu Platforms

Dutchie vs Jane

Jane could be deemed as Dutchie’s main competitor. While Weedmaps and Leafly have been around for longer than both Dutchie and Jane, Dutchie and Jane get higher marks when it comes to their online menus’ ease of use, appearance, and cost. One of the main downfalls of Jane is that their website doesn’t attract nearly the same amount of web traffic as Dutchie. Dutchie seems to be more invested in acquiring software solutions that complement its online menu platform considering the c Dutchie POS and AlpineIQ.

• Pricing: Jane does not offer and pricing information online.
• Support: Both platforms have comparable customer support features. Learn about Jane’s.
• Loyalty/Rewards: Both Dutchie & Jane both integrate with nearly all of the leading dispensary software systems.
• Advertising/Marketing Capabilities: Both platforms garner high search volume and host product marketplaces. Dutchie Plus gives Dutchie the edge for its SEO value.
• SEO Value: Like base tier Dutchie, Jane’s menus are not indexable. Since Dutchie Plus menus are able to be crawled, Dutchie wins this one.

The bottom line is Dutchie & Jane are the leading menu providers for dispensaries across the US, however Dutchie owns many other dispensary softwares (like Greenbits & Leaflogix) that make it a more appealing option to scale with.

Dutchie vs Weedmaps

Weedmaps is one of the most-used dispensary directories and cannabis information sites. Therefore, it is a viable competitor compared to Dutchie in that regard. Basic listings start out on Weedmaps at around $400, but prices go up profoundly from here. And, Weedmaps is notorious for not syncing properly with POS systems in use at dispensaries.

• Pricing: Dutchie & Weedmaps have comparable base tier pricing, but Weedmaps plans grow to be more expensive.
• Support: Both platforms have support people who can be reached by phone, email & live chat. Here’s Weedmaps.
• Loyalty/Rewards: Weedmaps owns Sprout, an all-in-one CRM & marketing platform
• Advertising/Marketing Capabilities: In competitive locations, Weedmaps’ advertising opportunities it a competitive choice.
• SEO Value: Without Dutchie Plus, your menu will not be indexed so products aren’t searchable on Google. Weedmaps wins this one.

The bottom line is Dutchie is a better menu platform but Weedmaps boasts a large audience to advertise in clouded markets.

Dutchie vs Leafly

One of the main perks of Leafly is its huge user base. And, Leafly does offer a lot of marketing tools. However, while they excel in attracting users to their own site, Leafly’s embedded menu functionality falls short of the competition when it comes to iFrame and embedding capabilities & user experience. Plus, a lot of users complain about Leafly’s costs which can get pretty crazy—as much as $3,000+ per month. If you intend to make use of all the advertising tools on Leafly, this may be a worthy investment, but not when you primarily just need a good online menu.

• Pricing: As a menu provider, Leafly is very expensive in comparison to Dutchie.
• Support: Leafly has an in-depth FAQ page, but Dutchie looks to be more responsive to support needs.
• Loyalty/Rewards: Leafly will likely not integrate with reward & loyalty software as cleanly as Dutchie.
• Advertising/Marketing Capabilities: The sheer reach of Leafly make it a great platform to reach new cannabis consumers.
• SEO Value: Without Dutchie Plus, your menu will not be indexed so products aren’t searchable on Google. Weedmaps wins this one, again.

The bottom line is Dutchie is a better menu platform but like Weedmaps, has unique value for advertising products and strains.

Dutchie vs Blaze

Blaze offers a collection of e-commerce tools for cannabis dispensaries and delivery businesses, including point-of-sale and e-commerce. However, Blaze does not have an affiliated cannabis dispensary directory like Dutchie.

• Pricing: Blaze does not offer pricing information online.
• Support: Both Blaze & Dutchie have accessible support with online chat available.
• Loyalty/Rewards: Blaze started as a Point-of-Sale provider and has a number of built-in features, as well as integrations with leading loyalty software like SpringBig.
• Advertising/Marketing Capabilities: Blaze’s menus are crawlable, allowing product pages to rank in Google searches, something Dutchie’s standard iframe does not provide. However, it may be less customizable than Dutchie’s native Plus offering.
• SEO Value: Blaze’s menu provides comparable SEO value to Dutchie Plus, but is significantly better for SEO than an iframe menu.

The bottom line is with POS integration & SEO-juiced product pages, Blaze is a real competitor to Dutchie. Without pricing information for Blaze, it is difficult to say whether or not this solution is comparable to Dutchie Plus.

Dutchie vs Dispense

Dispense is a relatively new name but offers dispensary software that can be somewhat customized for dispensary brands. The software integrates with most POS systems and supports digital payments for online ordering. Unlike Dutchie, Dispense does not have its own directory for customers.

• Pricing: $500/mo/store
• Support: Dispense available integrations are impressive for a smaller company. However, Dutchie integrates with more dispensary-related softwares. Adding AlpineIQ & Blaze by end of July. Dispense is the only non-marketplace to integrate with LeafLogix.
• Loyalty/Rewards: Dispense integrates with Alpine and Springbig for loyalty.
• Advertising/Marketing Capabilities: Dutchie’s marketplace garners more web traffic & allows for greater reach. Neither platform has the same advertising benefits as Weedmaps or Leafly. Dispense does not have a marketplace but instead empowers retailers to rank on their own. They also have integrations Surfside, MediaJel and can support other programatic providers.
• SEO Value: Dispense menus are crawl-able, and therefore can rank in organic search results. Win for Dispense. Dispense also auto sets schema and structured data, allowing you to beef up your SEO strategy and provide in-depth GA4 + GTM integrations.

The bottom line is Dispense is an appealing menu platform because it allows you to track first-party consumer data (unlike Dutchie) & inherently has SEO value. However, Dispense struggles to compete with Dutchie with integrations and support. It’s a toss-up.

Let’s Talk

Need help with finding the best menu platform for your dispensary? CannaPlanners has the industry insight to ensure you get the most suitable choice. Let’s talk.