How Much Does A Restaurant POS System Cost?

Your small business’s restaurant POS system costs will vary depending on the cost of restaurant POS system hardware, software features, number of restaurant POS software licenses, and payment processing fees. The best POS systems will also offer paid add-ons like a loyalty program and online ordering integrations.

Keep reading to find out how much a restaurant POS system costs and recommendations for how much you should spend on your own POS system.

How Much Does A Restaurant POS System Cost?

Restaurant POS systems cost $0-$400/month on average for the software alone.

Extra POS software licenses typically cost $9-$99/register/month. Restaurant POS hardware costs are a one-time fee between $400 and $5,000, depending on what hardware you already have and what you need.

Restaurant POS Software Costs

Your monthly restaurant POS software costs can be broken down into three parts: monthly base software plan, payment processing costs, and the cost of any add-ons you decide to include in your software subscription.

Here’s a rough estimate of what restaurant POS system software costs per month:

• Base Software Subscription: $0-$400+/location/month
• Additional Register Software Licenses: $9-$99/register/month
• Payment Processing Fees: 2.4%-3.49% per transaction (or custom)
• Online Ordering: $0-$75/month
• Loyalty Program: $15-$50/month
• Self-Serve Kiosk Software: $29-$90/month
• Kitchen Display Software: $35/month/device
• Third-Party Delivery Integration: $75-$199/month and/or a per-order fee
• Reservation/Waitlist Software: $39-$400/month and/or a per-order fee

Your basic restaurant software subscription includes things like in-person orders, menu management, employee user logins/permissions, and financial reports.

In general, the more locations, employees, and register licenses you have, the more you’ll pay per month.

Restaurant POS System Hardware Pricing

There are two POS hardware categories for restaurants: front-of-house equipment and back-of-house equipment.

Let’s look into pricing for both types of equipment.

Pricing For Front-Of-House Equipment

Square handheld POS system, Square Register, and Square iPad stand. (Source: Square)

Front-of-house equipment includes everything your customers can see: card readers, registers, receipt printers, customer-facing displays, handheld restaurant POS systems, self-serve kiosks, digital menu displays, etc.

Here’s a rough estimate of the overall cost of front-of-house restaurant POS hardware:

• Handheld POS System: $200-$650
• Countertop Register Bundle: $600-$1,959
• Cash Drawer: $130-$300
• Card Reader: $49-$600
• Receipt Printer: $100-$500
• Barcode Scanner: $100-$300
• Self-Serve Kiosk: $200-$850
• Customer-Facing Display: $130-$300

Pricing For Back-Of-House Equipment

Example of Lightspeed kitchen display system order screen with pickup/delivery order details. (Source: Lightspeed)

Back-of-house equipment includes everything your customers don’t see: hardware like kitchen display systems that help you manage orders with digital screens, kitchen ticket printers, and weight scales. Here’s a rough estimate of your back-of-house restaurant POS hardware pricing:

• Kitchen Display System: $200-$1,500
• Kitchen Ticket Printer: $200-$349
• Weight Scale: $500

We highly recommend these best kitchen display systems to help you minimize the recurring cost of kitchen ticket paper, minimize mistakes, and integrate orders from all third-party delivery service platforms.

How Much Should You Spend On A Restaurant POS System?

You should spend as much money as needed to help you easily manage your restaurant and offer customers online ordering and a loyalty program signup (if your budget allows).

Small restaurants and food trucks will likely only need one countertop POS system with basic inventory management, so we recommend a simple POS system setup that meets a smaller budget. These businesses can save money with a free restaurant POS system like Square For Restaurants and affordable Square POS hardware ($59-$799).

Larger restaurants with multiple sections or multilocation businesses need more POS registers, more thorough inventory management, and sales reports, and will benefit from using kitchen display systems in the kitchen and bar.

For these businesses, we typically recommend a POS system like Toast ($69-$165+/month), Lightspeed Restaurant ($69-$399+/month), or Revel Systems (custom pricing). You’ll pay for each register with these POS systems, so purchase only what you need.

Read our guide on how to choose a restaurant POS system to help you figure out what you need for your restaurant and how much it may cost. Then, look into our best restaurant POS systems to help you choose the right system for your business.