Best POS Systems For Restaurants

Additional Square fees include:

• Payment Processing: 2.6% + $0.10 for in-person payments; 2.9% + $0.30 for online payments
• POS Hardware: Ranging from $59 (Square card reader) to $1,089 (full Square Restaurant Station)
• Additional POS Devices: $40/device/month (only applicable on the Square Plus plan)
• Kitchen Display System: $20/device/month (only applicable on free plan; unlimited free KDS on paid plan)
• Gift Card Transaction Fee: 2.75% of gift card sale amount
• Delivery Fee: $0.50 for in-house delivery management; $1.50 for delivery through DoorDash Drive

Related: Read our Square POS hardware guide to learn more about the hardware and financing options Square offers.

Square earned a 4.9/5 feature score because it has almost every restaurant management feature built into the software and third-party integrations for niche restaurant needs.

Square’s best features include:

• Free customizable online ordering platform for pickup and delivery orders
• Link your Square site to your Google Business profile so customers can order when they find your restaurant in search results
• Delivery through your own fleet or Square partnership with DoorDash Drive
• Third-party delivery service integrations
• Kitchen display and expo software to manage orders
• Automated inventory tracking
• Auto-86 items/modifiers when an ingredient runs out
• Start a loyalty program with Square Loyalty (great for coffee shops)
• Free team management (up to five team members)

Related: Compare Square to our other choices for the best coffee shop POS systems.

TouchBistro earns a 4.0/5 pricing score, mostly because the company does not offer a free trial and charges an early termination fee for canceling contracts.

TouchBistro fees include:

• POS Software Plan: Ranging from $69/month (one software license) to $399/month (unlimited software licenses)
• Payment Processing: Custom; depends on your chosen payment processor
• Online Ordering: $50/month
• Reservations & Waitlist: $229/month
• Loyalty Program: $50/month
• Gift Cards: $25/month
• Marketing: $99/month
• Kitchen Display Systems: $19/device/month
• Setup Fee: $200

Expert Tip: While TouchBistro reservation and waitlist management is a high monthly fee, there are no per-cover fees like other third-party reservation and waitlist software charges, which may save you money in the long run.

TouchBistro’s standout features include:

• Accept reservations from a branded web app, your Google Business profile, and over the phone
• Send reminder emails and phone messages about upcoming reservations
• Floor plans made for managing reservations
• Custom reservation questions/requirements (list any allergies, whether children are coming, etc.)
• Customers can add themselves to your restaurant’s waitlist
• Send customers text updates about their waitlist status
• Customer accounts for charging one-time or recurring catering services
• Charge more depending on catering order delivery distance to account for gas usage
• Schedule catering orders in advance
• Create automated upselling prompts for servers
• Offline mode to sell food, drinks, or retail items on-location

Related: Compare TouchBistro to our other best food truck POS systems.

Additional Clover fees include:

• Payment Processing: Depends on your merchant services provider
• POS Hardware: Ranges from $599 (Clover Flex handheld restaurant POS) to $1,799 (Clover Station Duo)
• Kitchen Display System Software: $25/device/month
• Clover Integrations: $0-$400/month depending on integration from the Clover App Market

Clover earned a 4.0/5 pricing score overall. We awarded points because Clover charges no added fees for using a third-party payment processor. The system lost points because there is no free trial and Clover POS hardware is more expensive than many competitors.

Expert Tip: Many Clover resellers offer POS hardware leasing. You typically pay more over time with hardware leasing than if you purchase the hardware. We recommend getting a small business loan or line of credit to pay for your hardware if necessary.

Based on our research, Clover earned a 4.5/5 feature score. The best Clover features include:

• Integration with several third-party payment processors
• Free basic loyalty program
• Free online ordering module for pickup and delivery orders
• Integration with your Google Business profile
• Large app market for POS integrations
• Strong floor planning features
• Integration with third-party delivery platforms
• Scan-to-order and scan-to-pay QR code setup
• Shift management
• Cost tracking by item
• Kitchen display system software available

Related: Compare the free Clover ordering module with our other best online ordering platforms.

Additional Lightspeed Restaurant fees include:

• Payment Processing: 2.6% + $0.10 for in-person orders; 2.9% + $0.30 for online orders
• POS Hardware: $129-$519
• Third-Party Online Order Management: $119-$249+/month (Deliverect) or $89-$219+/month (Otter integration)
• Kitchen Display System Software: Custom pricing

We awarded Lightspeed Restaurant a 3.1/5 pricing score. The POS system earned points because you can use your own iPads as POS hardware, but lost points because the system has no free trial and an early termination fee.

Lightspeed Restaurant earns a perfect 5/5 feature score because the software offers several built-in features and integrations, including integrations for hotel management.

Lightspeed’s best fast casual restaurant features include:

• Free loyalty program on all plans
• Forced and optional modifiers and add-ons (free and paid options)
• Display nutritional information and allergens (or lack thereof) on every menu item
• Automated inventory management
• Alerts that trigger purchase orders when you run out of menu items
• Convert an iPad register to a standing kiosk or tableside ordering tablet
• Manage in-house deliveries and third-party delivery services
• Manage all order types on iPad kitchen display screens
• Order pickup screen to display takeout and delivery order status

Lightspeed’s best hotel management features include:

• StayNTouch, Mews, and WebRezPro hotel integrations
• Hotel bar management
• Guests can order from their room, the pool, or a table with QR codes
• Create different menus for dine-in, room service, and poolside service
• Hotel revenue management

Related: Compare Lightspeed Restaurant to our other best kitchen display systems.

The above plans are for Toast’s base POS software, menu, and inventory management features.

Additional Toast fees include:

• Digital Ordering: $75/month
• DoorDash, Grubhub, Uber Eats Integration Bundle: $75/month/location
• Toast-Powered Delivery Services: $7.49 per order ($9.49 in California)
• Kitchen Display System Software: $35/screen/month
• Loyalty: $50/month
• Gift Cards: $50/month
• Payment Processing Fees: 2.49%-3.69% + $0.15
• POS Hardware: Ranging from $799.20 (handheld restaurant POS) to $1,034.10 (Toast self-serve kiosk)

We only awarded Toast a 2.6/5 price score because software add-ons and payment processing fees are often more expensive than competitors. Toast also charges an early termination fee.

Expert Tip: You can get your POS, online ordering, third-party delivery management, gift card, and loyalty program builder for free if you agree to a higher per-order payment processing fee (3.39% + $0.15) and only need one or two POS terminals. However, the per-order fee may cost more than the monthly fees in the long run, so switch to at least the $69/month plan as soon as possible.

We awarded Toast a perfect 5/5 feature score because the company offers strong POS features and a suite of products that restaurant owners can use to build an all-in-one restaurant management solution.

Toast’s best multi-section restaurant features include:

• Floor plans for each section of your restaurant
• Move guests from a bar section to tables
• Split checks by item, seat, and dollar amount
• Kitchen display systems with routing to different kitchen stations and the bar section
• Expo screens for bar, indoor, and outdoor sections
• Tableside order hold, firing, and payments with Toast Go 2 handheld POS device

Related: Compare the Toast Go 2 with the rest of our best handheld restaurant POS systems.

Toast’s best general restaurant add-ons include a fantastic POS loyalty program, a customizable gift card program, multi-location management, and strong reporting/invoicing software.

Revel requires restaurant owners to get a custom quote. Revel is for larger businesses and larger businesses need to pay more than the average monthly bill. Some of Revel’s clients include Cinnabon, Auntie Anne’s, and Kung Fu Tea.

There’s also a one-time implementation fee starting at $674. This fee covers on-site hardware installation and an initial software setup.

Revel earned a 3.6/5 price score because while you can use any iPad for POS hardware, the lack of published pricing, long-term contracts, and early termination fees reduced the score.

We awarded Revel a 4.7/5 feature score, with an especially high rating for niche features like franchise and drive-thru management.

Revel’s best features include:

• Drive-thru headset, order confirmation display, and digital signage integration
• Kitchen display and expo screens to manage all order types, including drive-thru orders
• Order status display screens to update the status of takeout and delivery orders
• Third-party delivery service integrations
• Customizable self-ordering kiosk screens
• Royalty payment management
• Centralized and franchise location-specific reporting
• Smart reporting tools to figure out which menu items perform the best, what’s draining money, and forecast your business’s performance

Related: Read our post on the best drive-thru POS systems.

To use talech at your restaurant, you’ll need to sign up for at least the Starter plan, although most of the features that make talech a good full-service POS are available on the Premium plan.

Additional talech fees include:

• $200 onboarding fee (required for Standard and Premium plans)
• Tablets for POS hardware
• Custom payment processing rates
• $29/added device/month

talech offers top-tier inventory management features. You can send and receive purchase orders, create suppliers when you receive an item in the POS, perform stock takes, and get low-stock alerts when automated inventory monitoring is set up.

talech also offers these full-service features at a highly affordable price:

• Customer house accounts
• Table management and floor planning
• Menu coursing
• Ticket splitting and server tipping
• Service charges and automated gratuity

The POS system also has great employee management features, including the ability to pay by position, generate timesheets, create user permissions, and even create employee access cards.