Zilos vs Haddock: which AI restaurant OS fits a Spain-first operation?
Last updated: 2026-05-05
TL;DR. Haddock and Zilos share an audience (Spanish restaurant operators who want margin and cost control with fewer spreadsheets) but solve different problems. Haddock is a cost-control product with dynamic recipe costing (escandallos): upload invoices, see margins, adjust prices. Zilos is a full operating system that also covers marketing, social media, review management, HR, and an AI-agent team with reviewable approvals. If you only need to see your margins tomorrow, Haddock works. If you want one platform that detects the margin leak and fixes it with your team, Zilos is the choice.
At a glance
| Zilos | Haddock | |
|---|---|---|
| Core claim | AI Operating System (truth → intelligence → action) | Margin and profitability control for restaurants |
| Dynamic recipe costing (escandallos) | ✓ | ✓ (their flagship) |
| Invoice digitisation | ✓ | ✓ (core of their product) |
| Margin dashboard | ✓ | ✓ |
| Marketing, social, content | ✓ | ✗ |
| Review management (Google, TripAdvisor) | ✓ | ✗ |
| AI agents with human approval | ✓ (Tier-3, in production) | ✓ (newly launched, limited public scope) |
| Languages supported | Spanish, English, Arabic | Spanish, English, Portuguese |
| Geography focus | Spain + UAE + global | Spain + LATAM |
| Pricing model | Per account, unlimited docs, per-plan locations | Per account, with monthly document limits |
| Lowest tier | €89/mo (Visibility, 3 users, 1–2 locations) | €85/mo (Growth, 4 users, 200 docs/mo) |
| Mid tier | €169/mo (Intelligence, 10 users, 1–5 locations) | €120/mo (Premium, unlimited users, 400 docs/mo) |
| Top tier | €299/mo (Action, unlimited users, 1–20 locations) | Enterprise (custom pricing) |
| Free trial | 14 days | 10 days |
| Implementation included | Yes | Yes |
What's different (and why it matters)
1. One platform vs a finance module
Haddock does one thing very well: digitises invoices, keeps recipe costing current, and gives you a margin dashboard. If your biggest problem is "I don't know which dish is losing money," Haddock solves it.
Zilos starts at the same point (dynamic recipe costing, invoice digitisation, margin control) and adds three layers Haddock doesn't cover: marketing and content (Zi generates Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok posts, writes menu copy, manages Google Business Profile, and keeps your website current with your real menu); review management (Zi replies to Google, TripAdvisor, and other platform reviews in your brand voice); and a cross-domain execution loop (when the dashboard detects a margin leak, Zi proposes the corrective action for your manager to approve or modify before execution).
When this matters most: If you already have a finance team but not a marketing team, the gap is the social and reviews layer Haddock doesn't cover.
2. Human approval before every action
Both Haddock and Zilos talk about "AI agents." The difference is the maturity of the safety architecture.
Haddock recently launched haddock agents and describes it as an AI team that "works for you." The public scope of that system and its safeguards isn't documented on their site.
Zilos runs the Tier-3 architecture (Propose, Guardrail, Approve, Execute) in production and documented. Every action Zi wants to execute first goes through a reasoned proposal, a guardrail layer, and the manager's approval or modification.
When this matters most: If you run a franchise, a chain with regulated brand identity, or any business where "an automated reply gone wrong" can be a serious problem, the human approval gate is non-negotiable.
3. Pricing comparison with numbers
Both models are per-account (not per-location), which already puts both ahead of US competitors (MarginEdge charges $350/loc/mo). The difference is in how they scale.
Haddock caps by digitised documents per month (200 in Growth, 400 in Premium). Zilos caps by number of locations and users.
| Your situation | Haddock | Zilos | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single restaurant, 4 users, 150 invoices/mo | €85/mo (Growth) — Technical tie | €89/mo (Visibility) | |
| Single restaurant, 8 users, 350 invoices/mo | €120/mo (Premium) — Haddock cheaper | €169/mo (Intelligence) | |
| Group of 5 locations, 20 users, high volume | Enterprise (custom) — Zilos, clearly | €169/mo (Intelligence) | |
| Group of 10 locations, 30+ users | Enterprise — Zilos, clearly | €299/mo (Action) |
When this matters most: If you plan to grow from 1 to 5 locations in the next 12 months, Zilos's Action plan covers that whole trajectory without renegotiating price.
4. Languages and geography
Haddock dominates Spain and works in LATAM with strong traction. The interface, support team, and documentation are built by and for Spanish-speaking operators. It shows.
Zilos is also natively built in Spanish, with the difference that it also supports Arabic and has an active pipeline in the UAE. If your business plans to open in the Middle East or already operates there, Zilos covers that market and Haddock does not.
When this matters most: If you're only in Spain, the difference is essentially zero. If your expansion plan includes UAE or other Arabic markets, Zilos saves you switching systems.
5. What Haddock does better than Zilos
Three honest ones:
- Brand depth in the Spanish market. Haddock is already in the minds of many Spanish restaurateurs. If your team already knows their product, inertia plays in their favour.
- More mature financial product. They have polished invoice digitisation and recipe costing for more years. Their specific cost-control workflow is highly refined.
- Implementation included with personalised onboarding. Their model of implementation with assigned experts is clear and proven. Zilos also includes implementation, but the model is more recent.
If your only need is cost control and you don't want to buy additional capabilities, Haddock is a defensible choice and we'd say so on a sales call.
Who Zilos is best for
- Operators with 2–20 locations who want to consolidate multiple systems (POS, accounting, marketing, reviews, HR) into a single platform.
- Restaurants that have outgrown spreadsheets and want their management numbers to match their accountant's at month-end.
- Brands actively expanding inside or outside Spain, especially toward UAE or other Arabic-speaking markets.
- Brand-conscious teams who prefer agents with human approval over full automation.
Who Haddock is best for
- Single restaurants or small groups whose main pain is margin and cost control.
- Operators who prefer a focused product and don't want to pay for marketing, social, or review-management capabilities they won't use.
- Purely Spanish or Latin American teams without plans to expand into the Middle East.
Migration: switching from Haddock to Zilos
If you're already on Haddock and considering Zilos:
- What transfers: POS connection, historical digitised invoice data (assisted CSV import), current recipe costing, vendor data.
- What needs reconfiguration: Price-variation alerts, report templates, custom dashboard. A few hours per location, not days.
- What you get extra from day one: Zi managing reviews, social media dashboard, content generation for Google Business Profile. Capabilities that don't exist in Haddock and that activate in week one.
If what you most enjoyed about Haddock was the digitisation flow, don't worry: Zilos covers that flow and keeps the dynamic recipe-costing logic you already know. You're not changing philosophy; you're adding layers.
What our customers say
“The system that lets restaurant owners finally take control.”
“Restaurants run on disconnected systems. Zilos turns them into one AI brain.”
Try Zilos free for 14 days
No card. Connect your POS in under 30 minutes. Day 1: Zi delivers your first daily briefing and surfaces your first margin leak. If it doesn't earn its place, you stay on what you had at no cost.