Best Kitchen Display Systems

Square KDS comes with one of two Square For Restaurants POS plans:

• Free: $0/month for Square POS plus $20/KDS device/month
• Plus: $60/location/month for Square POS Plus and unlimited KDS devices

Payment processing is also included:

• 2.6% plus $0.10 for card-present transactions
• 2.9% + $0.30 for online payments

Square’s best KDS features include:

• Kitchen & Expo Screens: Square’s KDS software has pre-designed kitchen and expo screens to help restaurant owners get set up with minimal effort. Kitchen staff can mark off individual items on a ticket as complete, while expeditors mark entire tickets as complete before they move into the completed tickets tab.
• 86ing: Staff can mark items as sold out (i.e. 86 items) from both prep and expo stations. As soon as a menu item runs out, servers cannot choose that item on the POS and online order platforms will not show those items as available.
• Order Prioritization: You can customize order prioritization settings by changing the amount of time before a ticket header turns from green to yellow to red, adding sound notifications, and manually bumping a ticket up in priority.
• Order Routing: Square KDS accepts orders from countertop POS systems, handheld restaurant POS systems, your free online ordering page, and self-serve kiosk integrations. Send orders to designated prep stations and expo screens.
• Order-Ready Texts: If you sign up for the paid Square For Restaurants plan, you can send automated order-ready texts to customers as soon as their order is marked complete on the KDS.
• KDS Insights: KDS reports will show you how quickly orders are completed, busy and slow hours, and top-performing menu items. This will help you figure out which items take the longest and whether they’re profitable enough to dedicate the time to.

Order ticket display on Square KDS Android screen. (Source: Square)

• KDS Screens: $599-$699
• KDS Wall Mount: $69
• POS Register: $799
• Handheld Restaurant POS Device: $259

Note: Since our last update, Square has moved from Apple to Android for KDS screens.

Read our guide to Square POS hardware to figure out exactly what you need for your restaurant.

TouchBistro KDS software starts at $19/month and must be used with the provider’s POS software, which costs $69-$399/month without any add-ons like online ordering or the loyalty program.

You may get a custom payment processing rate quote from TouchBistro’s in-house payment processor (powered by Chase) or a third-party payment processor.

TouchBistro’s KDS features include:

• Easy Navigation: Kitchen staff will find it easy to navigate TouchBistro’s KDS interface, with a simple ticket scroller to see all orders based on incoming order time, color-coded order urgency, and swipe motions to close out and reopen tickets. If a server voids an item at a POS, it will appear as a voided ticket right next to the order it’s associated with.
• Multilingual Mode: If you have a menu that appears in multiple languages or a menu that’s in English but a kitchen staff that speaks several languages, you can configure TouchBistro KDS to show several languages simultaneously.
• Offline Mode: With TouchBistro’s locally installed solution, you can accept orders, fire to the KDS, and fulfill orders without the internet.
• Multiple KDS Sync: Sync multiple KDS screens so everyone can track order bumps and bump orders to the next station screen to increase kitchen staff communication.
• Online Order Management: TouchBistro aggregates all online orders and routes them to the KDS with the name of the order and the ordering platform attached to the tickets. This makes it easier to finish online orders, look out for drivers, and pace takeout orders. You can also print out a kitchen ticket to add to the bag.

TouchBistro KDS on iPad. (Source: TouchBistro)

TouchBistro is an iPad POS system, so you may source your own iPads as KDS screens or purchase iPads from TouchBistro with a custom quote.

Toast KDS software costs $35/month and must be added to a Toast POS software plan, which ranges from $0-$165+/month.

You are also required to use Toast for payment processing. Payment processing rates range from 2.49%-3.69% + $0.15 unless you get a custom quote (which is included on higher-level plans).

Toast’s best KDS features include:

• Durable KDS Screens: Toast’s Android-based POS system and KDS screens are heat-proof and spill-proof.
• Highly Customizable Interface: You can customize text size, order alert colors, order type colors (online, in-person, etc.), add notifications for allergens, include photos and ingredient lists of menu items, change the language, and more.
• Order Aggregating: Toast KDS routes orders from countertop POS systems, handheld POS systems, self-serve restaurant kiosks, and delivery services to your designated KDS screens.
• Order Routing Capabilities: Route items to multiple prep stations, and allow stations to fulfill parts of a ticket without causing the entire ticket to disappear from all KDS screens (also called two-level fulfillment).
• Item Firing Rules: Set items to fire all at once, fire depending on individual item prep time, set automated firing rules, and choose whether courses are fired by servers, expeditors, or automatically. We especially like that servers can fire and hold items from handheld restaurant POS systems.
• Order-Status Notifications: Sync order completion with SMS text notifications so customers automatically know when their order is ready. Servers can also get notifications on the handheld POS about completed items for faster table service.
• Order Ready Board Sync: If you install an order ready board (screen or smart TV) at the front of your restaurant and sync it to your KDS, order statuses can automatically update to in-progress and ready, including estimated wait times, and order info like order type and customer name.

Toast online ordering on smartphone, Toast admin dashboard on PC, Toast KDS, Toast Go 2 handheld POS, Toast countertop POS. (Source: Toast)

• KDS Screens: $674.10
• Countertop POS Terminal: $719.10
• Toast Go 2 Handheld POS Terminal: $494.10
• Self-Ordering Kiosk: $1,034.10

Note: Full register kits will cost more than the individual hardware above.

Lightspeed Restaurant KDS is a custom-quoted add-on to a Lightspeed POS plan. Lightspeed POS plans range from $189-$399+/month. Third-party ordering platform integrations, and your own in-house delivery solution, are also custom add-ons.

You can use Lightspeed Payments for payment processing or integrate with a third-party provider for an additional monthly fee. Lightspeed Payments charges:

• 2.6% + $0.10 for in-person payments
• 2.9% + $0.30 for online payments

Note: If you sign up for the $399/month Premium plan, you can get a lower custom payment processing rate.

Lightspeed’s unique takeout and delivery order management capabilities include the ability to:

• Create individual menus and pricing for each online ordering platform (DoorDash, Uber Eats, etc.) to compensate for different delivery platform fees
• Show which delivery platform an order comes from, delivery order details, pickup time, and driver name
• Filter through takeout and delivery orders on the KDS and prioritize by pickup/delivery time
• Designate a specific KDS screen to focus solely on prepping takeout/delivery orders
• Manually or automatically accept online orders on the KDS
• Set up restricted ordering hours

Other unique Lightspeed KDS features include KDS interface customization to maximize screen space, “show and tell” mode that shows an item’s ingredients and prep instructions on-screen when that ticket item is clicked, manual and automated ticket prioritization, and integrations with kitchen bump bars and keyboards if staff do not want to use touchscreens to navigate tickets.

Like Revel and Toast, Lightspeed offers order display screen software you can install on a smart TV (specifically an Apple TV) to show customers their order progress.

• iPad: $329
• Card Reader: $359-$519 depending on model

Revel KDS is a custom-quoted add-on to a custom Revel POS plan and payment processing rates. Since Revel is for larger restaurants and multi-location businesses, you can expect Revel to have a higher price tag than the other providers on this list.

There is also a $674+ one-time installation fee. This covers a custom software setup and hardware installation at your location(s).

Note: You have the option to use Revel with a third-party payment processor, but you will most likely pay an added monthly fee to do so.

Revel’s best features for takeout-heavy establishments include customer order status screens, which you can sync to your KDS to automatically update customer orders from in-progress to ready for pickup. Order status screens are completely customizable, brandable, and easy to read, which is great for taking lots of small takeout orders.

Full-service restaurants can set only takeout orders to show up on screens placed near the front of your establishment. This will give customers a pickup place to wait and information on their order status without having to ask front-of-house employees.

Revel offers these unique pickup/drive-thru ordering features:

• Expeditor KDS screen that displays only drive-thru orders for drive-thru staff to check off orders before passing them off
• Show scheduled pickup orders as far in advance as you see fit
• Send order-ahead customers to drive-through windows or parking spaces for order pickup
• Dedicated drive-thru order queue that shows customer names, car models, and updates order statuses as kitchen staff update tickets
• Integration with Delphi Display Systems, which offers drive-thru headsets, speakers, order timers, digital menu boards, and more
• Offline mode so that you’ll receive orders from outside your WiFi range

Finally, we like Revel digital menu boards, which will automatically update depending on the time of day, whether you create limited-time combo deals, and whenever you add or remove items from your drive-thru/takeout menus.

Kitchen staff taking a new drive-thru order while packing an order listed on the KDS screen. (Source: Revel)

• MicroTouch KDS: Retails for $730
• KDS Wall Mount: Retails for $69-$100

You may contact Revel to purchase your POS and KDS hardware, or you may source hardware yourself with written permission from Revel. This requirement is in place to make sure your hardware choices are compatible with Revel software before making any purchases.