10 Best Restaurant POS Systems 2024: Pros, Cons and Features

Square POS is the best POS system for restaurants, thanks to its dedicated solutions for table service, coffee shops, bakeries, food trucks, and bars. The system provides powerful restaurant-specific features to track inventory, sales, and produce reports, with slick hardware, at a remarkably low price point. Square performed well in nearly all of our POS for small business testing categories too — outperforming most brands on price, features, customer score, and help & support.

That said, Square isn't the only option on the market; we'd highly recommend comparing the features, costs, and transaction fees of a few systems before committing. To make this easier, we've created a 🔎 free POS comparison tool that will help you find the best option for your business based on a few easy questions (it only takes two minutes to fill out).

Or, take a look at the list of our top picks below for a better idea of the best option for your hospitality business.

While it may cost you to fork out on new technology, investing in a sector-specific POS system can be one of the most financially worthwhile decisions a restaurant can make. As inflation rates continue to hike up the price of suppliers, our goal at Tech.co is to make your dollar stretch as far as possible by matching you to a POS that suits your needs.

We've compared the best restaurant POS systems head-to-head below.

In This Guide:

• Best POS System for Restaurants: Table
• 10 Best Restaurant POS Systems: Reviews
• What Is a Restaurant POS?
• Restaurant POS Systems: Pricing
• Restaurant POS: Complete Buyer's Guide
• Our Research and Methodology
• Restaurant POS FAQs

As all of our research is completely independent, we wanted to make sure we tested every factor that could impact the success of your food business, especially with rising living costs. To learn more about how we rank and review software, jump to our research section.

1. Square POS – Best Restaurant POS System Overall

• Price from: Free
• Tech.co rating: 4.7/5
  
• Software integrations: Inventory, accounting, security, analytics, websites, marketing, online ordering

Square POS is a common name in the world of quick-service restaurants due to its strong industry standing and reasonable price tag. The system provides dedicated solutions for table service, counter service, bars & lounges, coffee shops, bakeries, and food trucks. Our researchers were so impressed by its offering they gave it an overall rating of 4.7/5, making it the best all-round POS system we tested.

Second only to NCR's Aloha, Square's POS offers the most restaurant-specific features, earning a near-perfect score of 4.8/5 in our research. The system offers advanced tools like floor plan customization and automatic restock scheduling that major providers like Epos Now, Lightspeed, and Talech lack. Square also received a perfect 5/5 value score, offering a generous free version and affordable accompanying hardware, unlike its rival, Toast.

Square has a bountiful app store with thousands of useful integrations to choose from, making up for any feature the POS may be lacking. This could include online ordering to reservation apps. As of March 2023, Square users can update directly through their system with PosterMyWall.

Square's payment features are only getting more expansive over time, too. Businesses using Square can now accurately identify customers by using their iOS camera to scan a ‘reference ID' via QR code or barcode. This benefits businesses by allowing them to personalize interactions with their buyers, and reducing wait times at the checkout line.

If your business is new to POS technology or requires regular support, Square offers support through live chat, phone, and social media channels 24/7, making it the best provider on this list to depend on when you're in a pinch. It also performed well in our wider research, which also found it to be the best POS system for small businesses and the best mobile POS system.

Who should use Square?

• Businesses with complex back-of-house needs 
• Mobile vendors, like food trucks and stalls
• Delivery and takeout businesses 

Square POS restaurant features

Standout features:

• Robust table management features
• Customizable layouts and item grouping
• Bulk menu additions
• Customizable menus
• Extensive kitchen management: prep time tracking, customer ticket timers, and more
• Vast third-party integrations for pickup and delivery, employee time tracking, and customer reservations
• Self-serve QR code order functionality
• Flexible payments: all major credit cards, Apple and Google Pay

Layout, inventory, and menu management are included in the basic restaurant software package, though add-ons are also available. During testing, Square stood out most for its ease of use, feature rich software, and a good support team – which our research team found to be especially helpful.

What we liked most about Square POS is that it offers a great range of restaurant-specific features. In comparison to other providers, Square offers a really strong menu management feature, equipped with customizable layouts and item grouping, which ultimately helps make top sellers available faster.

If Square does lack a feature you require, you'll be able to unlock extra capabilities through its bountiful app marketplace. The provider offers hundreds of restaurant-focused add-ons, including a recently launched integration with OpenTable  — a restaurant reservation service that gives servers better visibility of table turnaround times and reservation details.

Square POS pricing plans

If, like most food businesses, inflation and rising food costs are currently your top concerns, you'd be pleased to know that Square is available for free.

However, while Square’s service has no monthly charge, you will have to pay the following transaction fees:

• 2.6% + 10 cents of each card-based sale
• 3.5% + 15 cents for each keyed-in transaction
• 2.9% + 30 cents for online sales

All the features we've mentioned above are included in Square's transaction fee-only plan. However, Square does also offer a Restaurant Plus plan that gives you extra features for $60 per month, per location.

Transaction fees will be reduced to 2.5% plus 10 cents for in-person sales and 2.9% plus 30 cents for online sales. You'll also get advanced discounting tools, cash management features, and open check features. You'll also find that your kitchen display becomes more useful with ticket routing and real-time order updates.

Square supports a wide range of hardware options when it comes to POS, including printers, cash drawers, and barcode scanners, but their pricing is customized on a business-by-business basis.

See our full guide to Square POS pricing for more.

2. Lavu POS – Best Help and Support Center

• Price from: $59/month
• Tech.co rating: 4.5/5
  
• Software integrations: Bar inventory, loyalty, marketing, accounting, delivery, payment processing

Lavu is a versatile POS system that was specifically designed with restaurants and food businesses in mind. Since our last round of testing in 2021, Lavu has improved in leaps and bounds. The POS now offers a training mode, inter-store functionalities, and more advanced hospitality-focused features, including a table management system and tipping options.

With an improved feature set, our researchers bumped its restaurant features score up to an impressive 4.5/5, putting it up there with our frontrunners Square and Clover.

It's good to know that Lavu's strengths aren't just limited to its features. The POS also offers the best help center we've researched. Help is available in 65 countries in the form of a robust knowledge center and 24/7 phone lines. Lavu even offers live chat options, making it a more favorable option than Square for businesses that need quick answers to queries. 

Who should use Lavu?

• Businesses new to POS software
• Multi-location restaurants
• Businesses that onboard regularly 

Lavu POS restaurant Features

Standout features 

• Staff training mode
• Detailed reports
• Staff performance tracking
• 24/7 phone support
• Real-time inventory updates

After testing the POS, our team of researchers was impressed by Lavu's hospitality toolkit. In addition to basic stock management and CRM features, the system offers a number of advanced capabilities like inter-store transaction and receipt customization. Lavu also offers tailored packages to a wide range of food businesses, from ice cream shops to delis.

Due to Lavu's enhanced restaurant capabilities and custom business profiles, our researchers gave Lavu a commendable score of 4.5/5 for restaurant features – placing it above competitors Zettle and Shopify in this category. 

Unlike most providers on this list (Including Square), Lavu offers a dedicated training mode to help new staffers get accustomed to the software. This makes Lavu a standout choice for restaurants that regularly onboard new staff.

Thanks to a recent upgrade, Lavu now offers an inter-store functionality, allowing vendors to request stock from other locations to fulfill customer orders. This makes Lavu a strong choice for multi-location food businesses because this feature is not currently available on other leading systems, like TouchBistro and Clover.

Another recently added ‘Auto-Clock Out' feature automatically clocks out employees who are already clocked into a customer location at a certain time. This employee management feature automates a key part of the work tracking process, freeing up even more time for managers.

However, Lavu lacks sales forecasting tools, which is a feature available on every other provider on this list. This means that if you’re looking to predict revenue growth and create financial plans, Lavu is not the best fit for your business. 

Lavu POS pricing

Lavu's pricing structure is pretty complex, but the POS offers three basic plans: Starter, Growth, and Optimize.

Lavu's Starter package starts at $59 per month for a single terminal and includes a spectrum of basic POS features like loyalty, inventory, and reporting tools. It's a solid plan for beginners, but due to its lack of ecommerce and delivery features, the package is best suited to small fast-casual vendors that don't take online orders.

Lavu Growth comes in at $129 per month. This plan includes everything in Starter, with additional gift card, online ordering, API access, and QR code ordering. This makes it a great option for fast food and delivery businesses.

Finally, Lavu Optimize ($279 per month) is the provider's comprehensive package, offering everything in the Growth tier with additional tableside ordering features, a kitchen display system, accounting integrations with Quickbooks and Xero, and sourcery AP automation. Due to this plan's advanced toolkit, it's intended to be used by larger, full-service food businesses.

With all Lavu plans, each additional terminal will cost $50 per month, and prices of the packages will increase if you use Lavu Pay Traditional Processing, or opt out of Lavu Pay altogether.

Information about transaction fees is not publicly available from Lavu.

3. Clover POS – Best for Customer Retention

• Price from: $100/month  
• Tech.co rating: 4.5/5
  
• Software integrations: Workforce management, marketing, accounting, staff scheduling, food & restaurant, loyalty

If your restaurant relies on online orders or is looking to expand into this area in the future, Clover might be a very good fit – provided you've already built your own functioning business website.

After testing Clover, our researchers gave it a commendable score of 4.8/5 for restaurant features, because of its versatile tool kit that offers everything from menu editing to delivery options. Somewhat justifying its steep entry price of $90 per month, it offers hardware and software packages, which allows businesses to get started without fronting the cost of additional devices.

In addition to that, just like with Square, certain capabilities, like payroll and ecommerce, also come at an extra cost, which can bump up the price of the system overall.

Who should use Clover?

• Businesses looking to grow 
• Take-out and delivery businesses 
• Table service businesses 

Clover POS restaurant features

Standout features:

• In-depth online ordering and delivery features
• Table service restaurant planning
• Swipe or dip payments from all major credit cards
• App options for sharing promos, awards and collecting feedback
• Powerful third-party customer retention integrations: Mailchimp and bLoyal
• Fraud protection for payments of up to $100,000

After testing Clover, our researchers gave it a score of 4.6/5 for restaurant features, seeing it fall behind Square and NCR Aloha. Yet, because of its affordable monthly plans, our research found that Clover's POS system is eye to eye with Square when it comes to value for money.

In addition, Clover's inventory tools — which received a perfect 5/5 score — have come forward leaps and bounds since our last round of testing, thanks to its seamless integration with Shopventory, a user-friendly app with advanced features like discount reporting and ingredient level tracking. 

With the average customer retention rate for US restaurants currently sitting at 30%, attracting loyal customers is one of the biggest hurdles facing food vendors. Fortunately, Clover's unique CRM app, Clover Rewards, allows you to build contact lists, share promos and rewards, or collect private feedback, helping businesses forge meaningful relationships with their clientele. The app also makes it simple to create offers and automate personalized perks for customers, which is a great way to improve the customer experience.

Clover's new integration with Stream (Spring 2023) removes the need to enter data manually, makes it easier than ever for restaurants to manage orders with delivery partners like GrubHub and Uber Eats. This, and the in-house delivery options, give it a leg up over competitors like Zettle by PayPal for take out and delivery businesses.

Bluetooth detection can also remind mobile app customers of relevant promos when they're nearby, which is a feature our team really liked.

Clover POS pricing plans

In comparison to POS systems like Square, Clover's POS pricing is quite complex.

Clover offers six hospitality-focused hardware and software plans in total: Starter, Standard, and Advanced Quick Service Dining packages; and Starter, Standard, and Advanced Full Service Dining packages.

Clover's Quick Service Dining Starter plan costs $100 per month and includes a mini 8″ POS, and the Counter Service Restaurant and the Quick Service Standard plan retails at $140 per month and includes Clover's Station Duo, a receipt printer, and a cash drawer. The Quick Service Advanced plan costs $190 per month and includes the same hardware as the Standard tier with an additional handheld Flex POS.

All Quick Service plans include the Counter Service Restaurant software package.

Clover also offers full service dining packages for restaurants. Its Full-Service Starter plan is $160 per month and includes a Station Solo POS, and its Full-Service Advanced plan costs $210 per month and includes a Station Solo POS and Flex POS. Finally, Clover's most robust hospitality package ‘Clover Full-Service Advanced' costs $310 per month, and includes a Station Solo POS, Flex POS, and Station Duo POS.

All Full Service Dining packages include the Table Service Restaurant software package.

POS devices are quite expensive, with Clover hardware costing between $799 and $1,399 for a full kit, so make sure you can afford that if that's the way you decide to go.

Clover's packages are pricier than most of the other providers on this list, but all of its packages include software and hardware options. This saves you from buying pricey hardware elsewhere, which somewhat justifies the provider's price tag. Clover also offers a free 30-day trial, which allows you to trial the system before you sign any contracts.

Check out our Square vs Clover guide for a simple breakdown of Clover's pricing in comparison to Square's, or use our free POS price comparison tool to see how Clover compares with other POS systems.

4. NCR Aloha – Best Restaurant Features

• Price from: Free (transaction fees apply)
• Tech.co rating: 4.5/5
  
• Software integrations: Delivery, workforce management, payments, food & restaurant

If it's a feature-rich hospitality point of sale you’re after, you needn't look further than Aloha. While many features are only available as add-ons, like gift cards, labor scheduling, and advanced reporting, the POS secured a perfect 5/5 for restaurant features, topping every other restaurant system we’ve reviewed. This is because Aloha’s toolkit has it all, from food vendor basics, like stock control and CRM, to advanced tools like fraud prevention and allergen control. 

However, after trying out the POS's help center, our researchers only gave it a customer support score of 2/5 because the options were fairly stripped back. So, if you’re in need of advanced features like live chat and a dedicated knowledge center, we would recommend opting for POS systems with better technical support, like Square or Zettle.

Aloha has a lot going for it, though, and it is currently being used by some of the biggest hospitality companies in the game, including Wendy’s, Chuck E Cheese, and Cafe Rio. 

For hardware, NCR Aloha offers a wide range of devices, including POS terminals, mobile POS systems, payment devices, and more. However, like Square, pricing is not publicly available, so you'll have to reach out.

Who should use NCR Aloha?

• Businesses focused on expanding profits
• Takeout and delivery businesses
• Businesses focused on tackling fraud

NCR Aloha POS features

Standout features:

• Advanced stock reporting
• Menu updates
• QR and text payments
• Curbside delivery and takeaway options
• Allergen control
• Customer loyalty programs
• Cloud storage
• Real-time alerts
• Online ordering options

Aloha’s restaurant features are strong across the board, and the POS also secured a perfect 5/5 for business management and till features — a feat that even our frontrunner, Square, didn't achieve.

Our insights team was impressed with Aloha's inventory tools, awarding the provider with a perfect 5/5 score in the category. Aloha goes above and beyond, providing real-time data on inventory levels and movement, and lets vendors set automatic purchases when their stock begins to run out. It even allows businesses to monitor scrap and missing items, and record the daily gross profit of their inventory. At a time when the average restaurant wastes 4-10% of the food they purchase, these stock management features are great for restaurants watching their bottom line. 

Unlike most other point of sale systems we’ve researched, NCR’s Aloha also has a dedicated fraud prevention software, ‘Aloha Restaurant Guard’, which reports and analyses suspicious activity at the terminal. With restaurants and bars losing around 20% of their revenue to shrinkage, this feature is a major way to safeguard profits, while protecting customer data at the same time.

If you're maximizing your revenue streams with curbside pickup options, you'll also be able to benefit from Aloha’s mobile pay features that help customers choose from a variety of contactless methods, including through QR codes and text messages. Aside from being more convenient to customers, this slicker form of payment benefits businesses too by improving service times.

NCR Aloha Pricing 

NCR Aloha offers two distinct plans: Starter and Premium.

Aloha's Starter doesn't impose monthly fees, but vendors are required to pay 2.99% + 15 cents per transaction. This tier includes basic POS features like stock management and loyalty tools, 24/7 customer support, and access to Aloha's restaurant-grade hardware.

Aloha's paid Premium plan, on the other hand, costs $175 per month and charges vendors a slightly lower transaction fee of 2.25% + 15 cents per sale. Aloha Premium includes all the features in the free tier, with additional mobile analytics and online ordering functions.

Optional add-ons like advanced reporting, gift cards, and labor scheduling are available with both plans too, but at a premium.

Aloha's pricing is fairly straightforward, but if you're after tailored quotes, use our unique comparison tool to narrow down prices from the leading POS systems on the market – and it's completely free to use.

5. Zettle by PayPal – Best POS for Food Trucks

• Price from: Free (transaction fees apply)
• Tech.co rating: 4.4/5
  
• Software integrations: None

Entering the POS market in 2010, Zettle by Paypal hasn't been around for as long as some of its competitors, but that hasn't stopped it from making an impact.

In our testing, our researchers found it to be an extremely user-friendly POS system for restaurants, and really liked its variety of food and drink-based features.

If you, like many others in the hospitality businesses, deal with razor-thin margins, Zettle should be on your radar. The POS is free to set up and offers pretty affordable transaction fees, making it one of the most wallet-friendly POS options out there with a perfect price score of 5/5. Like Square, this makes PayPal Zettle an ideal solution for smaller vendors like food trucks, kiosks, and stalls.

However, Zettle doesn't offer any add-on features (unlike Square, Clover, and Shopify), so what you see is what you get. This makes the system less suited to large and expanding restaurants in need of advanced tools like CRM.

Who should use Zettle by PayPal?

• Budget-conscious businesses 
• Businesses with small turnovers
• Smaller vendors like food trucks and stalls

PayPal Zettle POS restaurant features

Standout features:

• Free POS software subscription
• Easy Shopify integrations
• Flexible payments: all major debit, credit card, Apple Pay, Android, and Google Pay
• Venmo and PayPal QR code payments 
• Accepts remote payments through unique payment links
• Customized reports and tracking
• Streamlined checkout process
• Custom gift cards

What we like most about Paypal Zettle's restaurant POS features is that it's really designed to make taking orders and processing payments simple and fuss-free. Zettle's range of food and drink-focused features are perfect for a variety of restaurants, regardless of size, whether you're running a café or multi-venue restaurant.

If you're looking for help handling VAT payments, Zettle's ‘Sit in' or ‘Take out' feature lets members of staff label items depending on how they're being served. The system automatically assigns the correct amount of tax to the items, eliminating the need for workers to do this manually — which is a huge help when your restaurant staff are in a rush.

While Zettle's customer support isn't available round the clock, its help center is renowned for going the extra mile. In fact, our researchers gave Zettle a score of 4/5 for help and support after trying its options out, tying with both Square and TouchBistro.

Think Zettle POS sounds right for your business? Our quick POS comparison tool will find you the best deal

PayPal Zettle pricing plans

Zettle’s point of sale app is currently free to set up. However, the system remains profitable by charging per transaction.

Below we break down Zettle by PayPal's transaction fees:

• 2.29% + 9 cents for each card-based sale
• 2.29 %+ 9 cents for every QR code transaction
• 3.49% + 9 cents for each manual card entry transaction
• 3.49 % + 49 cents for invoicing transaction

Zettle also offers card readers at $29, with the price increasing to $79 for each additional reader. We look at the full list of additional hardware costs in our guide to Zettle's pricing.

6. Epos Now – Best POS for Restaurant Chains

• Price from: $39 per month
• Tech.co rating: 4.2/5
  
• Software integrations: Accounting, scheduling, CRM, data import, ecommerce, inventory, loyalty, marketing, payments, promotions, security, staff management, support

Epos Now's offering isn't as comprehensive as that of Square, but it's still a very compelling option for food businesses, especially for larger vendors and restaurant chains.

It performed very well in our last round of testing, scoring an impressive 4.6/5 for restaurant-specific features. It also ranks highly for hardware options, making it ideal for businesses that haven't yet invested in a setup. If you regularly onboard new employees, Epos Now's simple interface and comprehensive training mode will help ease the amount of time spent on this process.

However, despite its solid toolkit, Epos Now's hardware packages start at $449, and its lack of CRM features and limited reporting functions make it less suitable for restaurants intent on maximizing performance.

Who should use Epos Now?

• Businesses that onboard regularly
• Larger vendors and franchises 

Epos Now restaurant POS features

Standout features:

• Extensive employee management toolkit
• Full staff clock-in and out functionality
• Comprehensive training sessions
• Robust inventory and stock management
• 80+ third-party integrations including Xero, Nettl, and Mailchimp

Epos Now's POS system is feature-rich but, thankfully, when compared with other POS providers, it keeps things simple. What we like most about Epos Now is that its start-up process is straightforward and fuss-free, meaning restaurants using the POS can have the system up and running within minutes. This is especially useful for busy businesses or those investing in this type of software for the first time.

Our product research also suggests that Epos Now could make a great fit for larger restaurants or chains because it offers solid till features and excellent till-based products. It can also easily match Square when it comes to a range of other features.

Despite this, it only secures a lackluster 3.4/5 for business management features (dropping a full point since our last round of testing). The system has poorer reporting and analytic features than its rivals Clover and Lightspeed. Unfortunately, this makes the POS less suitable for businesses looking to exceed performance targets.

Epos Now POS pricing plans

Epos Now offers three pricing plans, but prefers to keep the specifics of those plans close to its chest — you'll need to speak to a sales rep to get details for your company. However, we do know that a free plan is not currently available.

Epos Now's Standard plan costs $39 per month, and the provider's Premium plan is $69 per month. Enterprise tiers are also available for larger businesses, and Epos Now sells hardware bundles that you can buy directly from its website, too.

Epos Now's hardware options are quite straightforward, with a $449 one-time payment for the standard all-in-one system. You can also get printers for $250, barcode readers for $73, and other accessories for as little as $58.

Transaction fee information is not publicly available with Epos Now.

In comparison to other POS pricing plans, Epos Now's lack of transparency didn't sit well with our team. Still, there are plenty of restaurant POS options to choose from. If you're interested in comparing providers, you can use our free POS comparison tool to find the best POS system for your business.

7. TouchBistro POS – Best POS for Scaling Restaurants

• Price from: $69 per month
• Tech.co rating: 4.2/5
  
• Software integrations: Staff management, accounting, loyalty, regional tax, bar inventory, analytics

TouchBistro was designed for restaurants from the very start, so it should come as no surprise that our researchers were impressed with its restaurant features, giving it a near-perfect score of 4.8/5. 

When compared with a POS system like Zettle, TouchBistro has extremely promising reporting and stock control features. It also lends itself to a range of other hospitality businesses, especially larger vendors that handle extensive or complicated inventories.

Unfortunately, TouchBistro doesn't sell its own line of hardware, and its limited till and business development features prevent it from beating our industry heroes like Square and Clover. Read our TouchBistro vs Square guide to see how these providers compare in full.

Who should use TouchBistro?

• Full-service restaurants 
• Businesses with large or complex inventories
• Businesses with pre-existing hardware

TouchBistro restaurant POS features

Standout features:

• Choice of 50+ daily customizable reports
• Plenty of tableside order management feature
• Delivery management
• Employee management
• Customer management
• Popular third-party integrations
• Tips and reservation management
• Loyalty programs
• Inventory management

When we tested TouchBistro against other restaurant POS providers, we found that it offered a range of apps to suit the specific needs of different restaurant businesses, earning it an impressive feature score of 4.8/5.

For example, its Full-Service app is designed for traditional restaurants, but it also offers Quick Service, Bars and Clubs, Food Truck, and Brewery apps. The POS system offers 5/5 help and support tools and delivers daily reports to senior staff members using the data collected by the platform – a massive asset for restaurants looking to scale.

TouchBistro runs on all iPads after the first four generations, which can be used by servers or as the central hub of your operation. From menu management to delivery features, the POS offers all the features restaurants need to run smoothly. As of August 1, businesses can filter menu items by groups, making it easier for servers to add or edit items.

However, TouchBistro's till and business development features are pretty basic, and when it comes to hardware items (like receipt printers), you'll have to find those yourself as TouchBistro doesn't sell any hardware.

While this may not be an issue for restaurants with existing hardware, TouchBistro's lack of devices may be an obstacle for food businesses that are after a simple, all-in-one solution.

Check out our TouchBistro POS review to learn about the system's full feature offering.

TouchBistro POS pricing plans

TouchBistro operates its pricing slightly differently to most other POS providers. Instead of using a per user, per month system, TouchBistro places a cap on the number of monthly users with each of its plans.

The Solo plan, naturally, gives you one user license for $69 per month. The Dual plan costs $129 per month and gives you two licenses, the Team plan costs $249 per month and gives you five licenses. It also offers the Unlimited plan, which gives your business an unlimited number of licenses for $399 per month.

However, TouchBistro doesn't include all of its features in the main plans. For example, you'll need to pay $229 per month for its Reservations add-on, or $50 per month for its Online Ordering add-on.

There is no publicly available information about TouchBistro transaction fees.

This can make TouchBistro slightly more expensive than some rivals. You can use our online POS comparison tool to see how TouchBistro compares with other restaurant POS providers and get free quotes for your business.

8. Talech – Most User-Friendly Restaurant POS

• Price from: $29 per month
• Tech.co rating: 4.1/5
• Software integrations: Workforce management, accounting, KDS

Talech is a great, all-around POS solution for restaurants that can easily find a home in hospitality, service, and retail businesses. During testing, our researchers found that Talech is affordable and offers a good range of restaurant-specific features that are designed to help restaurants grow. This makes it an ideal choice for expanding businesses.

Talech's POS also proved to be the most user-friendly point-of-sale solution as its tablet-based functionality made it easily accessible. However, Talech lacks basic features like ecommerce integrations and it has an above average price score of 2.8/5. This means Talech will provide you with slightly less bang for your buck than our frontrunners Square and Clover.

Who should use Talech?

• Growing businesses
• Vendors with large teams 
• Businesses new to POS software

Talech restaurant POS features

Standout features:

• Extensive table management features
• Specialist loyalty features
• Integrated gift cards
• Contactless dining with printable QR codes
• Automatic gratuity
• Automatic discounts
• Customer order types (eg. door dash)
• Guest and offline mode
• Multiple payment options including chip, contactless, Apple and Android Pay

If you're looking to implement data-informed decisions to help grow your business, Talech's reporting and analytics tools will serve you well. Its software is equipped to help managers keep tabs on every area of their restaurant, including top-selling dishes, the number of returns, and the most requested table. This goes far and beyond other POS systems like Clover and Zettle, and it is one of the product's main selling points.

Talech POS pricing plans

Talech's point of sale system is available at four different price points.

Talech's Starter plan costs $29 per month for the first device, and a further $29 per month for each extra device. This plan has no cap on employees or access to additional devices. However, users aren't able to upload more than 500 products. Talech's starter package includes basic features, including order management, inventory tracking, and CRM tools.

Costing slightly more, Talech's Standard plan is ideal for casual dining establishments and quick service restaurants. Clocking in at $69 per month, with an additional $29 for each additional device, the plan includes everything in the Starter package with additional store credit, kitchen printing, and bundle features.

If you're looking for a comprehensive package, Talech Premium is available for $99 per month for the first device, with additional devices costing an extra $29 per month. This pricing tier gives users access to its advanced table management features, making the plan a no-brainer for business owners running full-service restaurants or multi-location franchises.

If you run a large restaurant or have complex POS needs, Talech's Enterprise plan might suit you the best. Prices are available on request, so you need to contact Talech's sales team to find out more.

Talech is compatible with hardware like printers, cash drawers, and barcode scanners, but their pricing is based on custom quotes, so you'll have to contact the company to find out how much your ideal hardware package will cost for you.

No transaction fee information is available publicly for Talech POS.

9. Lightspeed Restaurant – Best Restaurant POS for Delivery

• Price from: $69 per month
• Tech.co rating: 4.1/5
  
• Software integrations: Accounting, analytics, customer service, employee scheduling, reservations, reporting

Lightspeed is a huge name in the world of POS providers but, due to its focus on barcoded products, it isn't the very best solution for restaurant businesses. It still performed exceptionally well in our testing, scoring a 4.9/5 for restaurant features. This is thanks to its inventory warnings for items with a long shelf life, and proved to have better functionality than Shopify.

With great delivery features and a low cost for adding terminals and omnichannel loyalty tools, Lightspeed could be a strong asset to large restaurants or groups of franchises. However, the system isn't able to integrate with weighing scales, making it unsuitable for self-service food businesses.

Who should use Lightspeed?

• Delivery and takeout businesses 
• Full-scale restaurants and franchises 
• Businesses with large or complex inventories

Lightspeed Restaurant POS features

Standout features:

• Efficient floor management features
• Customer management: profiles, promos and discount codes
• Seamless kitchen to floor integration
• Customer tracking
• Inventory tracking
• Delivery and contactless online ordering
• Contactless QR code orders
• Credit, debit and mobile payments
• Offline mode
• 24/7 customer support

If your restaurant handles a large or complex inventory, chances are you'll benefit from Lightspeed's advanced stock control tools. This feature specifically allows businesses to track inventory across multiple locations, helping maintain consistency across a brand, especially if it's a chain.  Data backup and software updates are also available for free, and live onboarding and 24/7 support options are packaged with all plans. Lightspeed does perform better for businesses with large barcoded items, so it might be a better fit for cafes than restaurants.

Lightspeed POS wasn't our top pick for restaurants, but it might be one that's better suited to your business' needs. To learn more, use our time-saving POS comparison tool to see how Lightspeed POS compares with other popular providers.

Lightspeed POS pricing plans

Lightspeed's pricing plans start from $69 per month with the Essentials plan. You won't get access to ecommerce, accounting, loyalty, or sales analysis features, but you will get access to the core of the Lightspeed POS system and its payment processing service.

Lightspeed's next paid tier, Plus, costs $189 per month and offers everything in the Essentials package with additional reporting, insights, ordering, and CRM tools. Finally, for food businesses looking to unlock Lightspeed Restaurants' full potential, the provider's Pro plan offers even more advanced features and charges vendors custom rates for $399 per month.

Lightspeed is also compatible with printers, barcode scanners, and cash drawers, but again, their pricing isn't publicly available, so reaching out to Lightspeed is your best bet for an accurate quote.

10. Toast – Best Restaurant POS for Onboarding

• Price from: $69 per month
• Tech.co rating: 4/5
  
• Software integrations: Reservations, inventory, accounting, security, analytics, marketing, CRM, online ordering, payroll

Toast is a POS system that is designed from the ground up for the restaurant industry. While most POS systems prioritize running on iPads, Toast has opted for Android-based software, which can be run on your existing Android tablets or, for the best experience, on Toast's own POS hardware.

In our testing, Toast performed especially well in our restaurant features category, achieving a near-perfect score of 4.9/5 thanks to its waste tracking and menu engineering tools. Our research team was especially impressed with its training and onboarding capabilities. For this reason, Toast POS is particularly suited to small to medium-sized restaurants with Android-compatible hardware and restaurants that are interested in training and upskilling their team.

Who should use Toast?

• Vendors with seasonal and special menus 
• Businesses with Android hardware
• Businesses that onboard regularly

However, while Toast has a user-friendly interface and is a cost-saver for businesses with Android hardware, the POS doesn't have any integrated payment processors, its CRM tools are only available through integrations, and our research positions it last for help and support. Moreover, the Android-only POS is inaccessible to iOS businesses, which blocks it off from the majority of US restaurants.

You can see how Toast compares to the top POS providers with our guide to Toast vs Square vs Clover.

Toast POS restaurant features

Standout features:

• Best POS till features in Tech.co testing
• Solid tableside orders, payment and management
• Good analytics and reporting
• Flat-rate delivery
• Commission-free curbside pickup or contactless delivery
• Supports online ordering
• Real-time menu updates
• Virtual POS (Toast Now) supports online ordering, takeout, and contactless delivery
• Toast Now is completely free for the first three months

One feature we liked about the Toast POS system is that it lets your servers accept tableside orders from customers and will relay these to your kitchen and bar staff. With 29% of customers citing long wait times as their reason for being dissatisfied at restaurants, this communicative tool is a useful way to ensure guests are served as quickly as possible.

Servers can also take payments via a card reader with EMV cards and Samsung Pay. A dedicated cost management feature lets managers easily study the costs of labor and dishes, factoring in fixed overhead costs for a simple, unified view of total revenue. This means you can get an in-depth understanding of where your restaurant is making and losing money.

However, its customer loyalty system lags behind POSs like Clover. Read our Toast vs Clover guide to see how the systems compare in granular detail.

Toast POS pricing plans

Toast POS offers three pricing plans: Starter, Essential, and Growth. The Starter plan costs $69 per month. It offers table and order management features, reporting and analytics, menu management, flat-rate credit card processing, and guest feedback features. You can also opt for Toast's proprietary restaurant hardware package, which starts at $799.

The $165 per month Essentials plan offers online ordering and delivery features and adds the Toast TakeOut app, which lets you save payment and account information and automate push notifications, and is available across Android and iOS.

Toast starts its restaurant POS software subscription service at $69 per month per terminal. Remote or in-person installations are an additional cost, and they start at $499. Toast recommends that businesses use their devices (they offer a splash-proof, dust-proof range of handheld, desktop-mountable Toast Go hardware), with their most popular hardware packages starting at around $799.

On top of all that, Toast charges a flat fee for its payment processing (while the fee is flat across all of a specific business's payments, the initial fee is determined based on that business's industry, and can vary depending on what that industry is).

The virtual “Toast Now” service offers digital ordering abilities for a cost of $50 per month (plus payment processing fees on top of that), with gift card support costing an additional $25 per month.

What Is a Restaurant POS System?

A restaurant POS system is a point-of-sale tool designed to help manage your restaurant. The best POS system for restaurants will accept different forms of payment, track inventory, manage menus, table layouts, and be able to send orders to the kitchen.

The average restaurant POS system will simply monitor revenue, as well as capture transaction data and inventory. An advanced system with additional hardware will allow you to do much more.

What does a restaurant POS do?

A restaurant POS will manage all of your business' operations, integrating all of the different functions you need to run your restaurant into one platform. You'll be able to take orders, send them to the kitchen, receive payments, track expenses, and even manage staff and shifts.

Check out our POS data analysis guide for more information

Restaurant POS System Prices

The cost of POS systems typically ranges between $69 – $99 per month for a single terminal.

However, the restaurant POS system industry has per month costs that vary depending on the number of terminals and locations, and whether you’re only using software or need hardware as well. You'll also have to consider payment processing, but some companies, such as Square, have this built-in. If your provider doesn't, it'll be an extra cost.

Your hardware costs can rack up quickly if you're not careful. iPads aren't cheap, and neither are cash drawers or receipt printers. Some companies will sell you the hardware you need as you go, while others will sell it on a monthly installment basis.

Given that costs can vary, how do you know which POS is right for your restaurant? First, consider how your business relates to the following variables:

• Quick service venue, mid-size business, or large layout?
• Number of POS terminals needed?
• Number of locations?
• Unique features needed?

Next, you’ll need to reach out to the right POS vendors for a customized quote so you can compare the prices.

Restaurant POS Buyer's Guide

A good POS system will help any business thrive and grow, providing accurate and important data to base decisions on. A restaurant will especially benefit from an industry-focused POS System.

Every business records its sales, but a restaurant must also be able to accept reservations and link an order to the table is was placed at. Every business tracks inventory, but a restaurant must track the amount and cost of the ingredients used in each dish, in addition to the amount and cost of the orders that are placed.

In addition, a high-quality restaurant system can:

• Help the kitchen interact with the servers quickly and easily
• Help a manager track employees’ work hours and plan future schedules
• Log data from past weeks (or months) to create detailed reports about the restaurant’s long-term growth
• Streamline the order process from start to finish, including accepting online orders and sending email receipts

The bottom line: A good POS centralizes all the processes of a restaurant, bar, or cafe, allowing the manager to improve upon – and fix – its processes. It will pay for itself and then some.

With a few key bits of information from you, our dedicated comparison tool will filter through the available POS systems and obtain a quote specifically designed for your restaurant business.

What are the top restaurant POS system features to look for?

While the best systems might include a handful of unique traits, they should also provide a selection of the following top features.

• Inventory Management – tracks orders and ingredients used
• Inventory Alerts – sends automatic personalized notifications when specific ingredients need to be restocked
• Employee Tracking – records which employee was operating which station, and at what time
• Table Service – tracks which tables will receive which orders
• Billing – accepts cash, card, and contactless payment
• Loyalty Programs – offers deals and gift cards to attract repeat customers
• Customer Engagement – collects and securely manages approved contact lists for customer marketing, including email addresses and/or phone numbers 
• Reservations – allows workers to track meal reservations weeks or months in advance
• Online ordering – allows quick-service restaurants to let customers place orders online

Learn more about restaurant-specific capabilities in our POS features guide.

Do I need to buy restaurant POS hardware accessories?

While the software powering a restaurant POS system is the main element of a POS system, hardware is important as well. Here are some of the best physical POS accessories that will make your daily chores more manageable.

• Touchscreen display — Quicker and more portable than a desktop computer for running software. iPads are most common, though other tablets or smartphones can be used as well.
• Card readers for iPad — Cash tills aren’t enough any more. Tiny card readers the size of a quarter can be plugged into an iPad’s headphone jack. They’re often sold by POS vendors and might be included in a POS package. Larger countertop versions come as “cubes” rather than portable readers.
• iPad stands and docks — A stand, typically designed to swivel so that customers can easily sign their bill, is a must. These are also usually sold by specific vendors.
• Self-service kiosk — A larger stand, a receipt printer, and a large card reader can all serve as a kiosk for customers to check their orders out by themselves, cutting down on employee busywork.
• Power supply — Don’t expect your iPad battery to outlast your customers: invest in compact portable chargers.

Our Research and Methodology

When ranking the best POS systems for restaurants, our research team considered systems specifically equipped to cater to the food service industry. Since the POS needs of restaurants differ from that of retail stores, we used a research process to match, paying close attention to four main metrics:

• Restaurant features – To assess how suitable a POS will be for food businesses, we look for the presence and quality of notable restaurant features like floorplan customization, booking capabilities, and kitchen-focused stock management.
• Price – When researching this metric, we calculate the average price of a system, and note whether any free plans or trials are available. 
• Help and support – Most hospitality businesses don't have tons of spare time to resolve queries, so when measuring a POS's support tools we take into account the number of channels open, and whether they're available 24/7. 
• Customer score – Ultimately, if a product is popular among its customers, it's more likely to satisfy your business. So, we also scour customer review sites like TrustRadius and Trustpilot to see what POS users think of the system.

After researching each restaurant POS against these four metrics — as well as considering a range of wider factors to help us understand how the system fairs overall — we create our research scores. These five-star ratings allow us to rank the systems in order of their overall potential and determine which POS system is best suited to a particular type of business.

Read more about our research process here, and if a product you're interested in hasn't made our list, you can use our free comparison tool to compare the top POS brands.

Frequently Asked Questions