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After putting Square vs TouchBistro to the test, we found that Square will be the better choice for most businesses. While both systems offer state-of-the-art restaurant features and custom business options, Square is much more affordable and offers its own line of custom hardware, which makes it the perfect fit for small eateries.
TouchBistro was the easiest POS system to use in our research, though, largely due to the fact that it is entirely tablet-based. This provides simple functionality for even the most novice of users — as long as you’re happy with the entry price of $69 per month.
In this guide, you’ll learn about the features, pricing, and competitors of Square and TouchBistro, to help you decide which restaurant POS system is best for you. And if you’re committed to finding the best deal possible, you can also receive direct quotes from the leading providers by filling in our free POS comparison tool.
| Tech.co rating for restaurants Score out of 5 for general restaurant suitability, based on Tech.co's independent market research. | Best Restaurant POS for: Tech.co's verdict to help you identify the most suitable choice for your restaurant | Price from The typical lowest starting price. The lowest price available for your business will depend on your needs. | Key benefits | Get started | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| 4.9 | 4.2 | |||||
| Cafes and pop-up vendors | Full-service restaurants | |||||
| Free (but transaction fees apply) | ||||||
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| Try Square | Try TouchBistro |
TouchBistro vs Square: Quick Fact File
Before we get into the nitty gritty details of TouchBistro vs Square, there are some important distinctions to make about these two POS systems. Here are some of the key differences and similarities between Square and TouchBistro to help you get started on our in-depth comparison.
- Square offers a free plan, while TouchBistro pricing starts at $69 per month.
- TouchBistro was one of the easiest to use POS systems in our research, while Square wasn’t nearly as intuitive for users.
- Square offers a wide range of hardware options, while TouchBistro is exclusively a tablet-based system.
- TouchBistro is exclusively for restaurants, Square has both restaurant and retail functionality.
- Square offers mobile ordering, TouchBistro doesn’t.
- Both TouchBistro and Square offer excellent marketing tools and loyalty programs to attract new and repeat customers.
Check out our in-depth research guide to learn more about how we evaluated POS systems like TouchBistro and Square to find the best options for your restaurant.
Test Summary (2024)
Square’s software was tailor-made for small businesses with relatively straightforward needs. After testing the system out, I was impressed at how easy it was to add items to orders and customize my floor plan. The software had a lot of negative space too, which made it simpler to navigate than TouchBistro which is a lot more cluttered in comparison.
However, this isn’t to say my experience using Square was perfect. Compared to its Retail system I actually found the software quite clunky. It was also a lot less intuitive than competitors like Clover and Toast. For this reason, I think the system is better suited to smaller vendors like food trucks and pop-up sellers.
TouchBistro overview
We found TouchBistro to be the easiest to use POS in our research, with our testers seamlessly navigating both the front and back end of the system. Simply integration with kitchen display systems and robust customizability throughout makes it easy to navigate, while also offering good marketing tools and loyalty program functionality, making it perfect for larger businesses that want to get even larger.
Check out the pros and cons for TouchBistro below, along with some screenshots of the interface to see how easy it really is. Plus, you can always check out TouchBistro’s full breakdown for more insight into its features and price.
Pros
- Versatile and intuitive interface that isn't difficult for beginners
- Strong staff and inventory management
- 24/7 support to solve problems at any hour
Cons
- Limited information about pricing
- TouchBistro does not sell POS hardware
- No mobile ordering functionality
- Starts at $69/month
- Kitchen display system: $19/month
- 7-day free trial
Square overview
Our research suggests that Square is one of the best POS systems for small businesses. It is more affordable, ranks better for help and support options, and the overall customer experience. With its own line of custom hardware, it’s a clear choice for businesses of all sizes that have growth aspirations.
Below, you’ll find some pros and cons about Square, as well as screenshots of the interface in action. To learn more about the provider’s plans, check out our Square Pricing Review.
Pros
- Free to get started
- Slick and stylish hardware that impresses customers
- Affordable restaurant package for small businesses
- Strong analytics, inventory, and third-party integrations
Cons
- No dedicated training mode to teach staff
- 3.5% + 15¢ charge for keyed-in transactions
- No floor plan edits from the front end
- Free to install
- Plus Restaurant Plan only $69 per month
- 2.6% + 10c fees for card transactions
TouchBistro Pricing vs Square Pricing
The biggest difference between TouchBistro and Square when it comes to pricing is the fact that Square offers a free plan and TouchBistro doesn’t. This makes Square a better option for small businesses, as they can get started on making sells at their restaurant with no upfront cost, just transaction fees.
Beyond that, though, TouchBistro and Square are a bit similar, both offering a $69 per month starting paid plan that can get you set up. Square’s option comes with hardware, though, while TouchBistro is entirely tablet-based.
See how TouchBistro compares to other tablet-based systems in our guide to the best iPad POS systems
Below, we’ll go into detail about each POS system’s pricing options, so you can get an idea of how much you’ll have to spend to get started.
TouchBistro pricing
TouchBistro used to be a bit more forthcoming with its pricing, providing in-depth information about plans and features. Now, however, you’ll have to contact the sales team to get super accurate information about your needs. However, we do know that TouchBistro POS starts at $69 per month.
On top of that, there are a wide range of paid add-ons that can impact the cost of your platform for your business, including:
- Kitchen Display System – (From $19 per month) KDSs streamline back-of-house processes by automatically sending front of house orders to kitchens.
- Profit Management platform – (From $330 per month) This back office software helps restaurants manage their costs, inventory, invoices, and accounting processes.
- Online Ordering – (From $50 per month) This add-on allows restaurants to accept and manage online orders, directly through their company website.
- Reservations – (From $229 per month) This integrated reservation system gives restaurants a way to manage bookings, create digital wishlists, and much more.
- Loyalty – (From $99 per month) This loyalty program combines a customer relationship management (CRM) platform and a rewards platform to help businesses establish and grow their base.
- Marketing – (From $99 per month) TouchBistro’s restaurant marketing integration lets you connect with diners who have enrolled in your promotional program, or created an account with your Online Ordering site.
- Gift Cards – (From $25 per month) – This add-on lets you create physical, digital, or Worldpay gift cards for customers, to encourage repeat business and convert first-time diners into regulars.
| Plan | Price | Users | Loyalty program | Inventory | Marketing | Online ordering | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | | | | ||||
| Solo | Dual | Team | Unlimited | ||||
| $69 per month | $129 per month | $249 per month | $399 per month | ||||
| 1 | 2 | 5 | Unlimited | ||||
| $99/month | $99/month | $99/month | $99/month | ||||
| Included | Included | Included | Included | ||||
| $99/month | $99/month | $99/month | $99/month | ||||
| $50/month | $50/month | $50/month | $50/month |
Square POS pricing
As a robust POS offering, Square offers a lot of different pricing plans, but if you’re comparing it to TouchBistro, you likely want to stick with the restaurant POS pricing from Square. This service offers two pricing plans, as well as the free Square plan that can get you started at no cost.
The Plus plan is the first paid plan, costing $69 per month, an identical starting point as TouchBistro. With this, you get a kitchen display included with your package, as well as unlocking 24/7 customer support and more advanced analytics.
The Pro plan is next, coming in at $165 per month, doesn’t add much more, although you do get access to Square Mobile POS, so you can take orders directly on your smartphone, and Square Kiosk, a self-service software that can help to free up your team with customers that do most of the work themselves.
Check out our guide to Square pricing to learn more
| Plan | Price | Best for | Transaction fees | Benefits | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | | | |||
| Free | Plus | Premium | |||
| Free | $69 per month | $165 per month | |||
| Small, mobile food and beverage vendors | Growing businesses | Business with more than five locations | |||
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TouchBistro vs. Square: Which has the best free plan?
Compared with Square, which offers a generous complimentary plan ‘Square Free’, TouchBistro does not offer a free version. This means that if you’re looking to pay flat-rate pricing as you earn over costly monthly fees, Square is a better option.
Square’s free plan is pretty expansive as well. From basic ordering and payment features to advanced stock management and sales analytics tools, the package includes everything a small food business would need to get up and running. Square even chucks in a Square Reader for no charge, allowing users to take contactless and chip and pin payments.
While TouchBistro doesn’t provide a free plan, it does offer a seven-day free trial with custom restaurant layouts, custom menus, and tableside ordering — allowing users to test out the software before they invest.
Best for Restaurant Features: Square
Both Square and TouchBistro offer a lot when it comes to restaurant features, netting high scores in the software category of our research. Still, Square took the edge by a hair, due to the fact that Square offers more complete tip management functionality, allowing automatic tip sharing and gratuity reports, unlike TouchBistro.
Square is also our top pick when it comes to mobile POS functionality, offering the ability to customize mobile ordering and QR code menus and SMS text alerts for collection.
It was easy for us to create my floor plan with TouchBistro, even color-coding the tables and edit their size and shape. Source: Tech.co testing
TouchBistro is nothing to scoff at either, though, particularly if you are in need of comprehensive floor plan management services. The platform allows you to color coordinate and label tables in the system, and you can change the floor plan directly on the POS. Square, on the other hand, doesn’t offer any of that functionality.
Additionally, TouchBistro beats out Square when it comes to reservations and waitlist features, offering a built in system that can integrate with Reserve With Google. Square, on the other hand, requires a third-party integration for reservations, and only integrates with OpenTable, Tables Ready, WOWAPPS, and ResDiary Lite.
Square’s simple interface made it easy for us to log customer orders quickly. Source: Tech.co testing
AI Kitchen Display System (KDS)
As part of Square’s recent efforts to improve its AI offering, the POS has introduced a new AI KDS feature that lets users auto-assign menu items to kitchen categories and station screens. The streamlined capability also gives back-of-house managers a way to save and edit catalogs in just a few clicks, saving them the time it would take to handle the process manually.
TouchBistro’s Restaurant Features
- Menu management
- Table management
- Custom floor plans
- Employee management tools
- Real-time reporting
- Reservations
- Tableside ordering
- Bill-splitting options
- Online ordering
- Kitchen and customer-facing displays
Square’s Restaurant Features
- Fast order entry
- Menu management
- Table management
- Cash management
- Auto gratuity
- Order manager
- Advanced discounts
- Seat management
- Floor plan customization
- AI menu generator
- AI kitchen display system (KDS)
Best for Help and Support: Square
Choosing a POS with solid customer support features is a must for food businesses. According to our research, Square offers better help and support options than TouchBistro. Still, for businesses in a pinch, both TouchBistro and Square offer comprehensive support via live chat, email, and phone, although Square offers a knowledge center for self-service tools, while TouchBistro doesn’t.
While TouchBistro’s phone lines are open 24/7, Square’s services are only accessible from Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm, making them less useful for food businesses that operate outside of traditional working hours. This shouldn’t pose too much of an issue because Square customers can always use the provider’s Knowledge Center and Seller Community, which contains useful, easily accessible guides and queries from fellow Square users.
Despite that, we still believe Square deserves to win this round, largely because of how customers feel about its support. After taking an aggregate of customer ratings from software review websites like TrustPilot and TrustRadius, we found that customers are more satisfied with Square’s help and support channels, as well as the system as a whole.
Square POS interface offers help and support options directly in the platform. Image: Tech.co testing
Best for Hardware: Square
POS software only makes up one side of the coin. If you’re looking to invest in accompanying hardware, Square is your safest bet. Unlike TouchBistro, which requires vendors to rely on external hardware, Square offers its own line of custom hardware, which ranges from card readers and accessories to large-scale terminals and hardware kits.
Square hardware is incredibly user-friendly, and free devices like the Square card reader are available as well, making it best for smaller food businesses. Just like TouchBistro, Square’s software is also compatible with a range of third-party devices too, meaning that businesses are able to integrate it alongside their existing set up.
Square’s POS Terminal lets you take payments and print receipts on the go. Source: Tech.co user testing
How Do TouchBistro & Square Compare With Other Providers?
Square and TouchBistro are both credible POS providers, but they aren’t the only great options out there.
For large businesses put off by TouchBistro’s large price tag, Toast is an Android-first POS with a lower price point and Clover is another capable point-of-sale system with prices starting from as little as $4.95 per month.
Alternatively, if you’re looking to cut back costs, and Square’s features aren’t cutting your mustard, Zettle is another promising free alternative with slightly more competitive card processing rates than Square.
Learn more about the provider in our Zettle POS review
The industry is rife with great solutions though, so check out our table to see how the top players compare:
| Tech.co rating for restaurants Score out of 5 for general restaurant suitability, based on Tech.co's independent market research. | Best Restaurant POS for: Tech.co's verdict to help you identify the most suitable choice for your restaurant | Price from The typical lowest starting price. The lowest price available for your business will depend on your needs. | iPad app Is there a version of the software made specifically for iPad use? | Android app Is there a version of the software made specifically for Android tablet use? | 24/7 support | Hardware packages | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | BEST VALUE FOR MONEY  |  |  |  |  |  | ||
| 4.8 | 4.4 | 4.2 | 4.1 | 4.4 | 4.9 | 3.8 | ||
| Professional hardware | Best POS system for food trucks | Managing complex inventory | Most user-friendly restaurant POS system | Retaining loyal customers | Complex restaurant operations | Best for ecommerce | ||
| $0 + $14.95 (virtual terminal) | Free (but transaction fees apply) | $39 per month | $29/user/month | $89/user/month for Retail, $69 for Restaurant (as per most recently available figures) | ||||
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| Sells a range of proprietary hardware devices from handheld tableside tablets to full POS terminals. | First carder reader is $29 and the price of ready-made store kits ranges from $249 to $699. | Offers a wide selection of hardware from handheld tablets to industry-specific terminals | Offers lots of compatible hardware including a tablet, cash drawer, receipt printer, and kitchen printer | Offers kits for iPads, MacOS devices, Windows PCs but all are $POA. | Offers a full hardware suite for $799 but custom pricing is available on more expensive software tiers | Sells a range of third-party hardware options from card readers to barcode scanners and hardware bundles. |
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.
TouchBistro vs Square: Which is Better?
Both Square and TouchBistro have a lot to offer, but our research suggests that Square is the stronger POS overall. With its low starting price of free, top tier help and support options, and top-of-the-line hardware solutions, the POS system simply checks more boxes for the average restaurant.
TouchBistro does have an excellent array of restaurant-specific features, and the provider also offers a number of tools that Square lacks, including advanced reporting tools and recipe logging, making it more suitable for larger eateries and expanding businesses.
Ultimately, with both tools bringing something unique to the table, the ideal POS for you will depend on your business’s budget, size, and specific needs. If neither of the solutions is right for you, use our free quotes tool to receive tailored prices from leading POS providers.
If you click on, sign up to a service through, or make a purchase through the links on our site, or use our quotes tool to receive custom pricing for your business needs, we may earn a referral fee from the supplier(s) of the technology you’re interested in. This helps Tech.co to provide free information and reviews, and carries no additional cost to you. Most importantly, it doesn’t affect our editorial impartiality. Ratings and rankings on Tech.co cannot be bought. Our reviews are based on objective research analysis. Rare exceptions to this will be marked clearly as a ‘sponsored’ table column, or explained by a full advertising disclosure on the page, in place of this one. Click to return to top of page