The Best Restaurant POS Systems 2023

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 testing categories too — outperforming most brands on price, features, customer score, help, and support.

No vendor enjoys forking out on new technology. But investing in a sector-specific POS system can be one of the most financially worthwhile decisions restaurants can make. 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, but if you're in a hurry you can skip straight to our free restaurant POS comparison tool to get custom matches and quotes.

In This Guide:

• Best POS System for Restaurants: Table
• 9 Best Restaurant POS Systems: Reviews
• Restaurant POS Systems: Pricing
• Restaurant POS: Complete Buyer's Guide
• Our Research and Methodology
• Frequently Asked Questions

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 to rank and review software, jump to our research section.

1. Square POS – Best Restaurant POS System Overall

• Tech.co rating: 4.7/5
  
• Software integrations: Yes
• Price: Free

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 star 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. This is because the system offers advanced tools like floor plan customization and automatic restock scheduling that major providers like Epos Now, Lightspeed, and Talech lack. With a generous free version available, and affordable accompanying hardware, unlike its rival Toast, Square received a perfect 5/5 value score too.

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.

Highlights:

• No monthly fees
• Per-item sales tracking
• 24/7 support

Square POS restaurant features

Standout features:

• Strong table management features
• Customizable layouts and Item grouping
• Bulk menu additions
• Customizable menus
• Strong kitchen management: prep time tracking, customer ticket timers, and more
• Strong 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. What's more, in our 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.

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 absolutely 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 which 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 find that your kitchen display becomes more useful with ticket routing and real-time order updates.

See our full guide to Square POS pricing for more.

2. Clover POS – Best for Customer Retention

• Tech.co rating: 4.5/5
  
• Software integrations: Yes
• Price: Depends on plan

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.

However, in addition to this base price, just like with Square, certain capabilities, like payroll and ecommerce, do come at an extra cost, which can bump up the price of the system overall.

Highlights:

• Online order and delivery
• Built-in customer loyalty app
• Good third-party integrations

Clover POS restaurant features

Standout features:

• Strong 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 out Clover, our researchers gave it a score of 4.6/5 for restaurant features, which while being a great score falls slightly short of Square and NCR Aloha. Yet, with affordable monthly plans, our research positions Clover's POS system eye-to-eye with Square's 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 in part 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 more meaningful relationships with their clientele. The app makes it simple to create offers and automate personalized perks for customers too, which is a great way to improve the customer experience.

Bluetooth detection can also remind mobile app customers of relevant promos, when they're nearby, which was a feature our team especially 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 — a Starter, Standard, and Advanced Quick Service Dining package, and a Starter, Standard, and Advanced Full Service Dining package.

Clover's Quick Service 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 include 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 table-service 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 tiers include the Table Service Restaurant software package.

Clover's packages are costlier than most others on this list. However, since all its packages include software and hardware options, it saves vendors from buying pricey hardware elsewhere, somewhat justifying the provider's price tag. Clover also offers a free 30 day trial too, which allows businesses to trial the system before they sign any contracts.

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

3. NCR Aloha – Best Restaurant Features

• Tech.co rating: 4.5/5
  
• Software integrations: Yes
• Price: Free (transaction fees apply)

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 more advanced tools like fraud prevention and allergen control. 

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

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

NCR Aloha highlights:

• Advanced fraud-prevention 
• Detailed reporting tools
• Compatible hardware options

NCR Aloha POS features 

Standout features:

• Advanced stock reporting
• Menu updates
• QR and text payments
• Curb-side 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 score in business management and till features — a feat that even our frontrunner Square wasn’t able to achieve. 

Our insights team was impressed with Aloha's inventory tools too. They awarded them a perfect 5/5 score in the category because they go above and beyond, providing real-time data on inventory levels and movement, and letting vendors set automatic purchases when their stock starts running out. Aloha even lets businesses 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 especially 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 it's tailored quotes you’re after, our unique comparison tool narrows down prices from the leading POS systems on the market, and it's completely free to use.

4. Zettle by PayPal – Best POS for Food Trucks

• Tech.co rating: 4.4/5
  
• Software integrations: No
• Price: Free (transaction fees apply)

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

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

If you, like many other hospitality businesses, deal with razor-thin margins, Zettle should definitely 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, unlike providers like Square, Clover, and Shopify, Zettle doesn't offer any add-on features so what you see is basically what you get. This makes the system less suited to large and expanding restaurants in need of advanced tools like CRM.

Highlights:

• VAT-friendly order features
• Great employee management tools
• Powerful data analytics

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 then automatically assigns the correct amount of tax to items, eliminating the need for workers to do this manually — which is a huge help when your restaurant staff are rushed off their feet.

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 explain additional hardware costs in our guide to Zettle's pricing.

5. Epos Now – Best POS for Restaurant Chains

• Tech.co rating: 4.2/5
  
• Software integrations: Yes
• Price: $39 per month

Epos Now isn't quite as well-rounded as Square's offering, 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 and ranking highly for hardware options, making it ideal for businesses that haven't yet invested in a setup. Finding the time to train up new employees alongside your regular duties can be tough. But fortunately, Epos Now's simple interface and comprehensive training mode help to ease up this burden, which is a particular win if you onboard regularly.

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.

Highlights:

• Simple set up process
• Individual staff permissions
• Strong hardware options

Epos Now restaurant POS features

Standout features:

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

Epos Now's POS system is feature-rich, but thankfully, in comparison to other POS providers, Epos Now likes to keep 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, thanks to its solid till features and excellent till-based products. However, it's no one-trick pony and can easily match Square punch-for-punch when it comes to a range of other features.

Despite this, securing a lackluster 3.4/5 for business management features (dropping 1 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.

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.

6. TouchBistro POS – Best POS for Scaling Restaurants

• Tech.co rating: 4.2/5
  
• Software integrations: Yes
• Price: $69 per month

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

 In comparison to POS systems like Zettle, TouchBistro has extremely promising reporting and stock control features, and is also a system that lends itself to a range of other hospitality businesses — especially larger vendors handling extensive or complicated inventories.

Unfortunately, TouchBistro doesn't sell its own line of hardware, and it's 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.

Highlights:

• Real-time stock level reports
• 24/7 support
• VIP Community Network

TouchBistro restaurant POS features

Standout features:

• Choice of 50+ daily customizable reports
• Strong 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 TouchBistro offered a range of apps to suit the specific needs of different restaurant businesses, earning it an impressive feature score of 4.8/5 in our research testing.

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, which is 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. However, TouchBistro's till and business development features are pretty basic, and when it comes to hardware items such as 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 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 offers 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.

TouchBistro doesn't include all its features in the main plans, however. 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.

This can make TouchBistro slightly more expensive than some rivals, so it's worth seeing how it compare to other restaurant POS providers. You can use our online POS comparison too to get a free personalized quote for your business.

7. Talech – Most User-Friendly Restaurant POS

• Tech.co rating: 4.1/5
• Software integrations: Yes
• Price: $29 per month

Talech is a great, all-around POS solution for restaurants, that can be used in hospitality, service, and retail businesses alike. In our testing, our researchers found Talech to be affordable and offer a good range of restaurant-specific features designed to help restaurants grow, making it ideal for expanding businesses.

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

Highlights:

• Strong employee management tools
• Customer loyalty features
• Powerful data analytics

Talech restaurant POS features

Standout features:

• Strong 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 analytic 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 POSs like Clover and Zettle, and it one of the products 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 slightly more 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 slightly more 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 call Talech's sales team to find out more.

8. Lightspeed Restaurant – Best Restaurant POS for Delivery

• Tech.co rating: 4.1/5
  
• Software integrations: Yes
• Price: $69 per month

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. Still, it performed exceptionally well in our testing thanks to its inventory warnings for long-shelf items, scoring a 4.9/5 for restaurant features, proving 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.

Highlights:

• Strong business development features
• Integrated customer rewards system
• Omnichannel selling options

Lightspeed Restaurant POS features

Standout features:

• Strong floor management
• 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 to maintain consistency across their 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. All told, though, Lightspeed performs better for businesses with large barcoded items, so it might suit cafes better 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 to 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.

9. Toast – Best Restaurant POS for Onboarding

• Tech.co rating: 4/5
  
• Software integrations: Yes
• Price from: $69 per month

Toast is a POS system “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 and our research team was especially impressed with its training and onboarding capabilities, too. For this reason, Toast POS is particularly suited to small-to-medium restaurants with Android-compatible hardware and restaurants who are interested in training and upskilling their team.

Highlights:

• Android hardware
• Delivery service features
• Deep menu customization

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:

• Strongest 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 Toast POS system is that it lets your servers accept tableside orders from customers and will relay them 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.

Its customer loyalty system lags behind POSs like Clover, however. 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.

Restaurant POS System Prices

Typical POS prices start between $69 – $99 per month for a single terminal.

However, the restaurant POS system industry charges 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 – some companies, such as Square, have this built-in. But if your provider doesn't, it'll have to be an extra cost.

Your hardware costs can quickly rack up if you're not careful. iPads aren't cheap, and neither are cash drawers and 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 so much, 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. But 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 track which orders were placed from which table. 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 their future schedules
• Log data from past weeks or months in order 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 on what’s working and fix what’s not. 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 in order to attract repeat customers
• Customer Engagement — collects and securely manages approved contact lists, such as email addresses or phone numbers, for customer marketing
• 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. And 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 their available 24/7. 
• Customer score – Ultimately, if a product is popular among its customers, it's more likely to satisfy your business too. 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 POSs are best suited to different types of businesses.

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