HandyCafe Blog
Practical guides for running an internet cafe or gaming center: how each part of HandyCafe works and when to reach for it.
Starting a cafe
Advice for opening a PlayStation cafe
A PlayStation cafe is not a small internet cafe. Different room, different crowd, different economics. Here is what actually matters when you open one and the counter tool built for consoles rather than gaming PCs.
Starting a cafe
How to open an internet cafe without the mistakes that sink most of them
Most internet cafes that fail do not fail from bad luck. They fail from decisions made before the doors ever opened. Here is how to open one, in the order the decisions actually matter.
Billing
Pricing that fits how your cafe actually runs
Flat hourly rates leave money on the table on a Saturday night and scare people off on a slow Tuesday. Here is how HandyCafe charges sessions: prepaid or postpaid, rates that move with the clock and different prices for PCs, consoles and members.
Cloud
The morning a cafe lost everything: why cloud backup exists
A cafe owner called us the day his disk died. Years of members, balances and session history, gone. He asked how to get it back. The honest answer was we could not. Here is the feature that would have made that a ten-minute problem.
Members
Turn walk-ins into regulars with member accounts and QR login
An anonymous walk-in pays once and you never see the money again. A member has a balance, a history and a reason to come back. Here is how HandyCafe member accounts, prepaid wallets and QR login work and why they change who fills your seats.
Remote management
Remote Management: run every computer in your cafe from one screen
See any station live, take over the mouse and keyboard, add time, send a message or shut a machine down without leaving the counter. Here is how HandyCafe Remote Management works and when you actually reach for it.
Choosing software
Which software should I choose for an eSports venue?
An eSports venue is not just an internet cafe with better chairs. A tournament room puts demands on your software that a basic timer never has to handle. Here is what actually matters when you choose.
Billing
How do I track hourly usage in a billiards, PlayStation or game hall?
In a table and console venue the money leaks quietly: a few untracked minutes and a forgotten drink at a time, every table, every night. Here is what proper time tracking looks like and the tool built for it.
Industry
Why is internet cafe software no longer free?
For twenty years the cafe program was free because ads on the screens paid for it. That deal is ending and the reason is not greed. It is that the internet cannot count the people sitting in an internet cafe.