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Lavu POS is a tablet-based POS system that’s ideal for quick-service businesses like cafes and bars. The POS offers lots of strong hospitality features – including perishable stock alerts – as well as a dedicated training mode to help new employees get to grips with the software, making it a reliable option for small to medium-sized restaurants.
But while Lavu POS is quite easy to use, the software design is a little dated, and the limited hardware options may be offputting to more established food and drink businesses. Compared to some of the best restaurant POS systems it’s a little pricey too, as its cheapest tier is $99 per month and there’s no free plan in sight.
This guide, which has been informed by our extensive research and user testing, explores Lavu POS’s features, hardware options, pricing model and more, to help you decide whether the POS is right for you. Read on to learn more about the provider, or jump to a specific section using the links underneath “In this review”.
Pros
- Very easy to onboard and train staff
- iPad and full terminal options are available
- 24/7 support on phone, live chat or email
Cons
- Hardware isn't included in main packages
- Lavu's pricing system is quite opaque
- Lavu doesn't offer a reliable offline mode
- From $99 per month for the Starter plan
- The Growth plan is $149 per month and Optimize is $279
Lavu POS will be a competitive option for quick service businesses, but there are so many other great point-of-sale systems on the market. To help you get the best deal possible we developed a price comparison tool that gives you personalized quotes based on your specific needs. It’s completely free to use too, and only takes a couple of minutes!
Lavu POS: At a Glance
Before we dive into the details, here are some key decision-making factors to help you work out if Lavu POS is a good match for you straight away:
- iPad-based: Lavu POS is a fully iPad-based system so if you want a physical terminal, we’d recommend opting for Clover or Toast instead.
- Pricing: Lavu POS’s pricing starts at $99 per month for its Starter package, and the provider doesn’t currently offer a free version.
- Transaction fees: Lavu POS charges businesses 2.6% + 10 cents for each card-based sale. These transaction fees are fairly consistent with charges across the industry but are slightly higher than Clover’s.
- POS features: Lavu POS’s hospitality features are extensive, and the system includes a built-in kitchen display system (KDS) making it a great option for food service businesses with a busy back of house.
- Customer support: Lavu POS has a robust help and support center, offering 24/7 support via phone and email. However, it lacks social media support and consumer forums.
- User experience: We found Lavu POS’s front end to be super intuitive and easy to navigate, but its software is slightly dated compared to lots of competitors.
Who should go for Lavu POS?
- Small quick service businesses that want a simple iPad setup
- Businesses that want an integrated kitchen display
- Businesses that require ultra-accurate stock tracking tools
Who shouldn’t go for Lavu POS?
- Businesses that want support in pricing products competitively
- Food trucks that depend on an automatic offline mode
- Table service businesses after mobile or QR ordering features
Test Summary (2024)
Carrying out basic tasks was pretty straightforward with Lavu POS. Most of the features were where I thought they would be so I was able to log orders without a hitch.
However, the design of the software is quite dated and clunky compared with other POS systems, specifically Square and Clover. The interface overloads you with a lot of features too, and with no convenient search bar to find tools straight away, it took me quite a long time to execute more complex tasks like splitting the bill by percentages or issuing refunds.
Due to Lavu POS’s limitations, I wouldn’t recommend it for businesses looking for a low learning curve, especially if they run a complex operation. Although, if you’re just going to use Lavu to handle basic processes, you should be fine.
Lavu POS Review: Core Features
Lavu POS offers a wide selection of general POS features as well as some advanced hospitality-focused features for larger food and drink businesses. Read on to learn more about its toolkit.
Payment and ordering
Lavu POS’s platform takes the fuss away from logging orders, by giving users a straightforward way to split orders, move and reassign bills, and add custom notes to orders and receipts. The system lets you split bills by entering specific amounts as well. However, if you think you’ll need to split bills by percentage you’ll have to choose a system that offers slightly more flexible bill-splitting options like Square or Lightspeed instead.
Lavu POS’s quick serve mode lets you log orders faster by only presenting your top sellers. Source: Tech.co testing
One thing that stood out when we tested Lavu POS was its Quick Serve Mode. The mode lets you present your most popular items on the screen, reducing the amount of time it takes for servers to log orders. This feature, combined with its ‘Quick Pay’ tool that streamlines the payment process, will likely be a lifesaver for busy counter-service businesses that need to serve customers as quickly as possible.
Inventory tracking
Lavu POS lets businesses manage their inventory levels with ease. The platform lets you manage inventory in real-time, manually update stock levels, and upload products in bulk to save time. The POS also sends out low-stock notifications when items are running low, to reduce potentially costly stockouts from occurring.
Lavu POS’s inventory dashboard also includes a “Use First Inventory” notification, so businesses can prioritize perishable items over goods with a longer shelf life. By improving visibility this capability helps businesses to reduce costly wastage and will be especially useful for food businesses that stock fresh produce, dairy products, and baked goods.
Lavu POS’s ‘Use First’ feature makes it simple for businesses to keep track of perishable inventory items. Source: Lavu
While Lavu POS’s stock tracking tools are strong across the board, we noticed that the system doesn’t currently give businesses a way to optimize profitability through inventory-focused profit management features. While this won’t be a dealbreaker for most businesses, it may be an issue if you are planning to use the system to price your products more competitively.
Customer loyalty
If growing your customer base is important to you, Lavu POS has you covered. Its in-house loyalty program, Lavu Loyalty, lets you assign loyalty points to specific menu items, offer discounts in exchange for points, and manage loyalty points for your customer base. You can also choose whether you want the customer’s rewards to be earned by the number of orders they place, or by the amount of dollars they spend.
Lavu POS lets you add customer information into the system in a couple of taps. Source: Tech.co testing
Lavu POS also makes saving customer data light work. Servers are able to create customer profiles and enter important information with a couple of taps. You’re also able to save the favorite orders of your customers and track their activity down the line to strengthen the relationship between you and your base.
Lavu POS’s basic loyalty features are free too, giving it a huge advantage over systems that charge extra for the perk like Square and Lightspeed. This being said, if you’re really serious about improving your customer retention, and want to unlock specialized features like birthday reminders and customizable rewards, we’d recommend using Clover instead as offers the best CRM features we’ve researched.
Learn more about the user-friendly POS in our Clover POS review.
Floor plan management
If your food business has table service options, you can use Lavu POS to create customizable floor plans that replicate the layout of your location. You’ll be able to customize their shape and size and add custom labels. The POS color-codes the tables based on their status too, so servers will be able to see which tables have an active order at a glance.
Lavu POS lets you manage tabs on different tables, and serve them faster if they don’t open a tab. Source: Tech.co testing
When we tested out Lavu’s floor plan management features we were able to create a floor plan pretty quickly. However, you weren’t able to make changes directly through POS like Epos Now and Clover, which meant we had to go into the back office to make quick edits.
Training mode
Lavu POS has a dedicated training mode that helps new starters familiarize themselves with the system without reports being impacted or company data being jeopardized. The feature gives employees a way to practice using it in an ultra-safe mode and will be especially useful to established food businesses that hire new staff regularly.
Since many POS systems don’t offer a training mode feature – including our top-rated systems Square and Clover – we definitely consider the capability to be one of Lavu POS’s biggest strengths.
See how the high-quality systems compare in our Square vs Clover POS review.
| Plan | Price | Best for | Ecommerce | Loyalty program | 24/7 live support | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | | | ||||
| Starter | Growth | Optimize | ||||
| $99/month | $149/month | $279/month | ||||
| Best for fast casual restaurants | Fast food and delivery businesses | Full-service restaurants | ||||
| | | | ||||
| Available for an extra $50/month | Included | Included | ||||
| | | |
Lavu POS Starter is designed for smaller hospitality businesses like cafes, market sellers, and food trucks. The tier includes core POS features including basic inventory management, gift card support, customer loyalty tools, and reporting and analytics. Lavu POS recently upped the price of this plan from $59 per month to $99 per month, making it slightly more expensive than entry-level plans from other POS providers.
Manage a mobile restaurant? See how Lavu POS compares to the competition in our guide to the best POS for food trucks.
Lavu’s Growth plan ($149 per month) provides businesses with everything in the Starter plan with additional MenuDrive online ordering and DoorDash delivery integrations. For this reason, the package is best suited to mid-size restaurants that manage take-out and delivery orders.
Lastly, Lavu POS Optimize costs $279 per month and was designed to be used by large, full-service restaurants. In addition to everything in the Growth plan, the premium tier gives users access to tableside ordering features, a kitchen display system, and accounting integrations with Xero and Quickbooks.
Unfortunately, Lavu’s software don’t include hardware, so businesses will have to purchase devices separately. .
Lavu POS doesn’t currently display its pricing on its website, but these are the last prices listed online. Reach out to a customer service representative for up-to-date estimates.
Does Lavu POS offer a free plan?
If you want to get started with Lavu POS for free you’re out of luck, as the provider does not currently offer a free plan. Lavu does let businesses test out its software at no cost with a free demo, however. There’s no obligation to move forward with Lavu POS after your demo period comes to an end, either.
Lavu POS doesn’t state how long the trial period is on its website, so we’d recommend reaching out to a member of its customer service team for details.
Is Lavu POS a good value?
Lavu POS’s value offering isn’t terrible, but when you compare it to POS providers like Clover that offer quick-serve hardware and software packages from $105 per month, we think the price of its software packages is quite steep. The fact that Lavu POS doesn’t offer a free plan, like the alternatives Square and SpotOn, will rule it out from smaller ventures that are looking to completely avoid monthly overheads.
Check out our SpotOn POS review to see if the free system is a better match for you.
Lavu POS Hardware
Lavu POS is a tablet-based POS system, so its hardware options aren’t as comprehensive as many of its rivals. However, Lavu does sell its own POS terminals – which are essentially tablets – and a range of third-party hardware accessories like cash drawers, Epson sales slip printers, and card terminals.
Lavu also offers an Epson-branded KDS to streamline the order-taking process for restaurants. The hardware components of the KDS include the POS tablet, back-of-house (BOH) screens, and a keyboard bump bar, which businesses are able to purchase as a bundle package.
Unfortunately Lavu POS isn’t forthcoming about the price of its hardware. As the provider doesn’t list its prices publicly, we’d recommend getting in touch with its customer service team to see how much its hardware could cost you.
Lavu POS lets you connect with a range of third-party hardware accessories. Source: Lavu
Lavu POS Customer Support
Lavu POS’s help center is open around-the-clock, making it a great system for food businesses with early start times or late finishes. Specifically, you’re able to reach out via phone or email 24/7, and the provider also has a live chatbot that lets you get in touch with a member of its customer support team.
The provider doesn’t currently offer support through social media channels like Instagram and Facebook. So if this is a dealbreaker for you we’d recommend using systems like Square or Zettle By PayPal instead.
Lavu POS performed quite well in our research and user testing, but there are better alternatives out there. Toast offers a greater selection of industry-specific features than Lavu – including a cost management calculator – and its physical POS terminal is better suited to established restaurants that require something more comprehensive than a tablet-based setup. Toast also has a completely free hardware and software package, which lets businesses sell without paying monthly fees.
Learn more about our POS restaurants frontrunner in our Toast POS review.
If you’re after an iPad-based system Square POS is another great alternative, with affordable hardware, a forever free plan, and industry-leading payment features like online ordering and QR payment features. While Square doesn’t have a training mode like Lavu POS, the system’s interface is a lot more modern, making it more suitable for businesses using a POS for the first time.
See how Lavu compares to the competition in our guide to the best restaurant POS systems.
| Best for Tech.co's verdict to help you identify the most suitable choice for your small business | Price from The typical lowest starting price. The lowest price available for your business will depend on your needs. | Additional costs Any additional costs you'll need to pay to get started | Transaction fees from The lowest possible fee that will be incurred with each transaction. | User limit | Get started | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SPONSORED  | BEST OVERALL  |  |  |  |  |  | |
| Best for onboarding new staff quickly | Small businesses aiming to expand | Best for high quality hardware | Businesses that need no upfront expenses | Fast growing restaurants | Online sales | Businesses with complex inventories | |
| Free (with transaction fees) | $0 + $14.95 (virtual terminal) | Free (with transaction fees) | $299 upfront (+$39/month) | ||||
| Additional terminals cost $50 per month | Marketing, customer loyalty, and employee management features all cost extra | Accounting integrations cost $19.95 per month | $3 per month per employee for restaurant plans | $29 per additional register per month | Shopify POS Pro is available for $89 per location, per month | Single training costs $175 or $35 per month for unlimited sessions | |
| 2.6% + 10 cents for each card-based sale |
| 2.3% +10 cents | Dependent on third-party payment processor |
| 2.2% + 20 ¢ | N/A | |
| Unlimited user limit | Unlimited — but each till requires a new license | Unlimited — but each till requires a new license | Unlimited user limit | User limit depends on plan | Single user per license across all plans | Single user per license across all plans | |
| Visit Lavu | Visit Square | Compare Prices | Visit SpotOn | Visit Lightspeed | Compare Prices | Compare prices |
How Do We Research The Best POS Systems?
POS systems serve as central hubs for small businesses, helping them do far more than just take payments. With so much to consider when buying a new system, our thorough research process aims to do a lot of the heavy lifting for you.
After shortlisting the best POS solutions on the market, we analyze them against the following criteria:
- Software features – We check what general POS features a provider offers – from stock controls to reporting and analytics – and also see whether they give access to industry-specific capabilities like SKU labels and food wastage reports.
- Hardware – We analyze a provider’s hardware selection and check for the presence of stand-alone POS terminals and tablet stands, as well as more specialized equipment like KDS systems and customer-facing displays.
- Price – We calculate the average price of POS packages, factor in its entry price and the price of transaction fees, and check for the presence of free plans.
- Help and support options – We research which customer support channels are available – from email to social media – measure how fast the response times are, and consider whether they’re open 24/7.
- Customer satisfaction – We take an aggregate score from customer review sites like Trustpilot and TrustRadius to understand what businesses actually make of the POS system.
- User experience – We test out the POS systems firsthand to gauge how easy to use they are, paying special attention to factors like error rates, intuitiveness, and loading times.
When we’ve carried out our desk-based research and user testing, we give each provider a score out of five in all six categories, in addition to an overall score. These scores help us to determine how the providers compare side-by-side, and how capable they will be at meeting the needs of specific types of businesses.
Learn more about our research process here.
We take our impartial research and analysis seriously, so you can have complete confidence that we're giving you the clearest, most useful recommendations. After identifying the most relevant, popular POS platforms on the market, we put them through their paces with hands-on testing to better understand their strengths and weaknesses.
In total, we put 16 POS systems to the test, with a vigorous research and testing methodology. We carried out 40 user testing sessions, which amounted to 720 hours of testing in total. In these sessions, participants were asked to carry out tasks on POS software and describe their user journey, to help us understand what it's like to use the systems first-hand. In addition to first-hand testing, we developed a detailed methodology that focuses on six categories of investigation, including criteria like software features and help and support centers.
These categories were broken down into a further 41 subcategories, so we were able to drill down further into certain topics, to make our insights as granular and useful as possible. Here’s an overview of our main testing categories for POS systems:
- Software features: The capabilities provided by the POS product. Includes general features like ordering and payment functionality, as well as industry-specific tools like KSU uploads, and inventory-level stock tracking KDS software.
- Hardware: The quality of a POS’s hardware selection. The presence of an own-brand terminal, as well as hardware accessories like kitchen display systems, receipt printers, and barcode scanners.
- Pricing: The cost associated with acquiring and using the POS system, such as the initial purchase cost, transaction fees, licensing fees, subscription plans, and any additional charges or ongoing costs.
- Ease of use: We test out the software to gauge how intuitive and easy to navigate it is. We also consider how easy the software is to navigate, and whether any errors took place during testing.
- Help & Support: The assistance and resources available to users when they encounter issues or need guidance while using the POS system, including documentation, tutorials, or knowledge bases.
- Customer satisfaction: The aggregate score from customer review sites like Trustpilot and TrustRadius, to understand how POS providers are viewed by their own customer bases.
When it comes to calculating a product's final score, not all testing areas are weighted evenly, as we know some aspects matter more to our readers than others, For example, we’ll prioritize certain industry-specific features for specific reviews, like an offline mode when reviewing POS systems for food trucks, or kitchen display systems (KDS) when reviewing restaurant POS systems.
At Tech.co, we have a number of full-time in-house researchers who re-run this testing process regularly to ensure our results remain reflective of the present day.
Verdict: Is Lavu POS Worth It?
Lavu POS performed fairly well in our research and testing, but all things considered, it’s not the strongest restaurant POS system on the market.
The POS’s portable tablet-based setup will be a huge selling point for quick-service food businesses and pop-up sellers, and its dedicated training mode makes the system a good choice for restaurants that regularly onboard new staff.
However, Lavu POS’s dated software won’t be to everyone’s taste, and since the provider doesn’t manufacture its own hardware, it will be less suitable for established businesses with specific hardware requirements. If you’re alright with Android hardware, we’d recommend using Toast instead, while Square offers the best free plan we researched.
Still undecided? Rest assured. You can take our quick and easy quiz to receive quotes from the leading POS providers, based on your business’s unique needs. It’s completely free too, so give it a spin today.
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