Burcu runs "Café Bulvar" on the banks of the Tunca River in Edirne, Turkey's border city with Bulgaria and Greece. Sixty percent of her weekend traffic comes from Bulgarian and Romanian tourists. After trialing UpMenu, the Krakow-based European SaaS, she switched to thMenu both as a customer and as an affiliate.
UpMenu's Europe-focused structure and its blind spots
UpMenu launched in 2014 in Krakow and serves Poland, Czech Republic, Germany and the Netherlands strongly. Their affiliate program offers 15-25% commission, but payouts settle in EUR via Wise, costing Turkish affiliates a 1.5-3% TRY conversion loss on every payout.
In Burcu's first test, the UpMenu admin panel offered Polish, English and German — no Turkish. The customer-facing menu had 9 languages including Turkish, but the missing dashboard Turkish forced her to translate monthly reports manually for her accountant. The 9-language list also excluded Romanian, a critical gap for an Edirne border venue.
thMenu's TRY billing + EN/TR dual marketing advantage
thMenu is built by Synaltix LLC but intentionally targets the Turkish market. Stripe shows TRY-equivalent pricing for the $29 and $59 USD plans, and affiliate commissions disburse via Wise in either TRY or USD. Burcu used the affiliate dashboard in Turkish and downloaded marketing assets in Turkish + English bundles.
The customer-facing menu supports 20 languages — Turkish, Bulgarian, Romanian, English included. Burcu's Bulgarian customers see the menu in Bulgarian, write order notes in Bulgarian, and the waiter tablet displays a Turkish translation alongside. UpMenu's Romanian absence had been a real revenue blocker on summer weekends.
Burcu's 22-month affiliate-customer journey
She started as both affiliate and user. The first six months she used only the free Starter plan for her own cafe. In month seven, she recommended thMenu to three cafe-owner friends across Edirne and Kırklareli; all three moved to the $29 Pro plan. Burcu now earned $5.80/month commission (20% lifetime) per referral.
- Months 1-6: 0 referrals, 0 commission — own restaurant setup phase
- Months 7-12: 3 active referrals, ~$17.4/month commission, $104 cumulative
- Months 13-22: 11 active referrals, ~$64/month commission, $640 cumulative
In month 19 she upgraded her own cafe to the $39 Pro+ plan to enable table ordering. She never went back to UpMenu — UpMenu's Pro tier starts at 79 EUR/month and there's no Turkish reseller or support.
FAQ
Is migrating from UpMenu to thMenu hard? Menu CSV export/import takes 1-2 hours, category remapping required. Image URLs must be re-uploaded. Domain transfer completes in 24h via DNS change.
Which languages matter for a border-region restaurant? For Edirne: Bulgarian + Romanian + English + German cover the European tourist mix. thMenu carries all 20; UpMenu has 9 with Romanian missing.
How do affiliate payouts work? thMenu disburses via Wise Business API in USD or TRY with a $50 minimum. UpMenu only pays EUR, which costs Turkish affiliates a 1.5-3% TRY conversion fee.
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