TouchBistro Review: Is It Right for My Business?

TouchBistro offers a tablet-based restaurant POS system, with software subscriptions costing from $69 per month. It’s a good option for established hospitality businesses looking for customizable software, since TouchBistro allows businesses to pick and choose their features, instead of offering ready-made packages.

TouchBistro’s best features include its advanced cost management tools, seamless kitchen display system (KDS) integrations, and add-on marketing and loyalty tools, all of which can help growing restaurants effectively juggle orders, customers and costs.

However, TouchBistro is an expensive option, with add-ons beyond the basic POS software quickly bringing your monthly total over $200 per month. This makes it a less attractive option for new or small businesses on a budget.

Our Experience With TouchBistro

We tested TouchBistro’s POS software ourselves, putting it through various everyday hospitality tasks, to see how easy it was to use.

Overall, we found TouchBistro’s POS system to be relatively user-friendly, although we found the frontend much easier to deal with than the backend.

We particularly liked TouchBistro’s table plan management feature, since it allowed us to edit our table plan from both the frontend and the backend of the POS system, a rarity in the industry. It was also very easy to create a table plan using TouchBistro’s drag-and-drop tool.

We also really enjoyed processing orders with TouchBistro, since we were able to do this quickly, in just a few taps, and every action was laid out clearly in the POS frontend menu.

That said, we did find the dashboard menu titles to be a little vague at first, especially when compared with competitor Square. But, unlike Square, TouchBistro has a training mode, which can speed up the learning process, especially if you have a large staff.

We also encountered difficulties when editing menus and adding new items and ingredients, since we had to go to a lot of different submenus to do this, instead of all food-related edits being housed in the same section of the backend.

Creating discounts and adding them to orders was also quite tricky. We had to use the search bar to locate this tool since we couldn’t see an obvious spot for it in the menu, and we couldn’t always add prescheduled discounts to individual order items.

How Much Does TouchBistro Cost?

TouchBistro’s basic POS software package starts at $69 per month. However, you’ll likely pay more than this for extra features, many of which are vital for hospitality businesses.

Here’s a breakdown of TouchBistro’s core costs:

• Basic POS software: From $69 per month
• Card processing fees: Quote-based
• Hardware: Quote-based (based on individual requirements)

Unfortunately, TouchBistro is no longer transparent about the cost of its optional features, requiring businesses to contact them for a quote. It did publish pricing until quite recently, so we’ll include them to give you an idea of TouchBistro’s total cost.

Here’s a list of TouchBistro’s optional software features:

• Inventory management: Quote-based (used to be advertised as $195 per month)
• KDS: Quote-based (used to be advertised as $19 per month)
• Labor management: Quote-based
• Profit management: Quote-based (used to be advertised as $330 per month)
• Online ordering: Quote-based (used to be advertised as $50 per month)
• Marketing: Quote-based (used to be advertised as $99 per month)
• Loyalty: Quote-based (used to be advertised as $99 per month)
• Gift cards: Quote-based
• Reservations: Quote-based (used to be advertised as $229 per month)

As you can see, TouchBistro can quickly become an expensive option, with vital add-on tools, such as inventory management and profit management, quickly skyrocketing costs to almost $600 per month.

Is TouchBistro good value for money?

TouchBistro can be good value for money for established restaurants or hospitality venues that need advanced tools and want to only pay for the features they need.

That said, it remains an expensive option, and businesses that require a less tailored approach to features can find providers that offer similar features for less. With competitor Square, for example, the most you’ll pay for restaurant POS software is $165 per month, but this includes a KDS and inventory management at no extra cost, both of which are paid add-ons with TouchBistro.

What Hardware Does TouchBistro Offer?

Since TouchBistro is a tablet-based POS system, its hardware offering is quite limited.

TouchBistro doesn’t advertise any of its hardware on its website, but we know from our research that the following devices are available:

• Customer-facing display
• KDS screen
• Receipt printer
• Card machine
• Cash drawer
• Stands, docks, and cases

What TouchBistro is missing is a physical countertop terminal, since its POS software is designed to be tablet-based, and accessed either via iPad or Android. TouchBistro also doesn’t advertise the price of any hardware it does offer.

If you’re looking for a provider that offers a wide range of hardware and advertises its price, we recommend Square for affordable countertop terminals and Clover for top-of-the-range restaurant hardware.

Order processing

Like many modern POS system providers, TouchBistro offers its own payment processing service, TouchBistro Payments, as well as integration with third-party payment processing providers.

However, it doesn’t advertise card processing fees for using TouchBistro Payments, requiring businesses to reach out for a quote. Many competitors now advertise their card processing fees, including Clover (2.3% + $0.10) and Square (2.6% + $0.10).

If you do counter-service, you can add a customer-facing display to your TouchBistro kit to make it easy for customers to check that everything is correct. However, this costs extra. With Square, Clover and Toast, you can buy terminals with built-in dual-facing displays.

For table service establishments, TouchBistro’s table planner is very intuitive to use and easily customizable, so your virtual layout can perfectly match your restaurant floor.

Plus, TouchBistro offers its own KDS system, which integrates seamlessly with its POS software. Kitchen staff will see tickets appear on screen and receive audible alerts as orders are processed. They’ll also be able to easily clear tickets in a few taps. Competitors such as Square also offer native KDS systems, but TouchBistro’s is particularly user-friendly.

Online ordering is also an option with TouchBistro, although it’s an expensive add-on that used to be advertised as $50 per month (pricing is now quote-based). Competitors Square and SumUp, on the other hand, offer online ordering at no extra cost, since they have free ecommerce software.

Inventory management

Although TouchBistro’s inventory management tool is expensive (it was previously advertised at $195 per month), it’s a highly sophisticated feature that can help restaurants cut down on waste and increase profits.

TouchBistro’s inventory management add-on includes features such as ingredient tracking and recipe costing, low stock alerts, and resupply order suggestions. It also features reporting and analysis to identify waste areas, narrow in on profitable recipes and menu items, and forecast food prep needs based on day-to-day activity.

Competitors such as Square and SumUp are cheaper but don’t offer such advanced inventory management tools. However, Toast and Clover offer similar features.

Reservation management

TouchBistro also offers native reservation management software, one of the few POS system providers that does, although most competitors integrate with third-party reservation tools (also an option with TouchBistro).

Originally advertised as costing $229 per month (pricing is now quote-based), it’s the most expensive software add-on TouchBistro offers. This price might be justified for high-end restaurants looking to create individualised custom experiences, since TouchBistro’s reservation management software is more than a simple booking system.

You’ll be able to view customized reservation notes, allergies, dining preferences and special occasions. Plus, you’ll get access to two-way SMS and email communication with guests and be able to track live table statuses to better manage waitlists.

Loyalty and marketing tools

Like most modern POS systems, TouchBistro offers built-in marketing and loyalty tools, although these are paid add-ons that used to be advertised as costing $99 per month each.

TouchBistro’s loyalty add-on is essentially a CRM (customer relationship management) platform, which explains its higher-than-average price for a loyalty add-on. It allows restaurants to store customer profiles and track data on the number of visits, average spend, order history and birthdays. All this data can be used as part of a loyalty program points system, and in targeted promotions using TouchBistro’s separate marketing add-on.

The marketing add-on can be used to create customized email marketing campaigns, post dining reviews and surveys, and even a branded app for your restaurant. This last feature isn’t offered by most competitors, and somewhat justifies the $99 per month price tag of the marketing add-on.

If you have simpler marketing and loyalty program needs, you can get access to much cheaper tools with Square. It offers email marketing for between $15 and $40 per month, and a loyalty program tool that starts at $45 per month.

Customer support

TouchBistro offers a good level of customer support. Its support team can be contacted via phone, chat and email, and is available 24/7, including weekends. This is great for the average hospitality business, since it means if things go wrong at your busiest time, you’ll be able to access live support immediately.

Not all providers offer this level of availability, with Square’s support team only available Monday to Friday, 9am-5pm, and Clover’s 9am-6pm, also only Monday to Friday.

That said, TouchBistro is missing social media support channels and doesn’t have a customer forum where users can troubleshoot together. Its knowledge center also isn’t quite as extensive as the Square or Toast equivalents, which is bad news for businesses that prefer DIY support.

How Does TouchBistro Compare With Its Competitors?

Here’s a quick side-by-side comparison of the top TouchBistro competitors:

TouchBistro price vs competitors

TouchBistro is an expensive POS system, with prices in line with Toast, Clover and Lightspeed Restaurant. Its starting price of $69 per month is mid-range, but this quickly increases to over $500 per month with add-on products, many of which, such as inventory management, are vital for established restaurants.

It doesn’t help that TouchBistro no longer advertises its full pricing, whereas most competitors do. This means you’ll need to request a quote for exact figures.

If you want a cheaper option or just want to know how much you can expect to spend upfront, we recommend Square, SpotOn or SumUp. All offer free POS software plans and paid plans with transparent pricing for when you decide to upgrade.

TouchBistro features vs competitors

TouchBistro offers a customized approach to features, with its starting price of $69 per month only including basic front-of-house POS software. Most competitors, such as Square and Clover, offered tiered pricing plans, with more expensive plans containing more advanced features.

This means that TouchBistro offers a lot of add-on features, many of which are the most advanced versions of these features. This is the case for its inventory management, marketing and loyalty tools, which outpace tools offered by Square, SumUp and SpotOn. However, these providers are also more affordable than TouchBistro.

Competitors Toast, Clover and Lightspeed Restaurant offer similarly high-level inventory, profit and marketing management tools to TouchBistro, and are POS systems designed for established and growing businesses.

TouchBistro hardware range vs competitors

Hardware is a weak point for TouchBistro, since it’s a tablet-based POS system, and doesn’t advertise any of the hardware it does provide. It’s not the only provider to do this, with Lightspeed Restaurant also only offering a tablet-based system with limited accessories.

Conversely, competitors such as Square and Clover offer wide ranges of their own-brand POS hardware and accessories. Toast and SpotOn also offer a decent range of terminals, custom displays and handheld devices, although their offerings aren’t quite as extensive as Square or Clover’s.

How We Reviewed TouchBistro