The 7 Best POS Systems for Restaurants in 2026

Square offers the best restaurant POS system, beating 10 of the best POS systems in our research and testing. It’s got a functional free plan perfect for new ventures and more advanced paid plans that can support budding chains, while still being priced cheaper than most competitor systems.

Square won’t be the perfect fit for all restaurants; however, established, large sit-down eateries will fare better with Toast or Clover, since they offer tools for managing expenses and limiting wastage, like cost versus profit and ingredient tracking.

If you don’t have time to read our in-depth reviews of each platform, you can use our quote-finding tool to find the best value service for your business in under a minute.

Here’s an at-a-glance table comparison between our top POS systems for restaurants before we dive into the individual provider reviews.

Working in the Food & Beverage Industry? Don’t miss Expert Market’s exclusive industry report exploring today’s challenges and future predictions.

1. Square: Best for small-to-medium hospitality venues

• Price: From $0/month
• Free plan: Yes
• Transaction fees: From 2.4% + $0.15 per transaction

Square is best for small-to-medium hospitality businesses as it operates on a pay-as-you-go model with no monthly subscription fees or mandatory multi-year contracts under its free plan. This is especially beneficial for new or independent venues with low profit margins or those experiencing fluctuating demand, as they only have to pay transaction fees for each sale they make.

In terms of features, it supports new restaurants with tools like bill splitting by amount, items or percentage, and has a native kitchen display system (KDS) that you can customize and view reports on. On top of that, it supports table and floor-plan management, menu modifiers, course management, order routing and real-time reporting – giving both front and back-of-house teams better visibility over service.

On Square’s free POS plan, you can also create an online ordering website for free and accept payments through it. This is great for establishments looking to increase their sales, allowing them to serve more customers than their restaurant seats.

How much does Square cost?

Square is available at $0 per month under its free plan; you only have to pay 2.6% + $0.15 in transaction fees. Beyond payments, it also comes with discounts and refunds, age verification prompts, sales insights, reconciliation reports, catalog reporting, and digital receipts through SMS and email.

That said, Square’s free plan lacks inventory reporting, staff management and more advanced hospitality tools like custom floor plans and bulk edit items. For this, you’d need to upgrade to Square Plus for $49 per month, which also comes with slightly lower transaction fees at 2.5% + $0.15.

You can also upgrade to the Square Premium plan for $149 per month, which comes with everything in the free and Plus plans, as well as bookings reporting, seat/course management and reservation integrations. It also comes with the lowest transaction fees at 2.4% + $0.15.

Square also offers a range of hardware equipment – from lightweight card readers to full hardware kits:

Our experience with Square

We found Square generally very easy to use. The backend was quite intuitive, and we had no trouble creating menus or listing items. We also appreciated the search function, which helped us find tools quickly.

We did run into a few annoying glitches, however, such as the table plan not appearing in the backend, and we found the process of cancelling orders and adding staff accounts overly complicated.

When it comes to hardware, we tested the Square Terminal, its portable POS device and card machine. While it was easy to access inventory and process payments from the device, we did have issues with the physical design. The card machine was quite wide so it wasn’t easy to hold in one hand, making it better suited to countertops than table service.

2. Toast: Best for full-service restaurants

• Price: From $0/month
• Free plan: Yes
• Transaction fees: From 2.49% + $0.15 per transaction

Toast is the top choice for full-service restaurants that require robust management tools, thanks to its strong combination of kitchen, payment, menu, and reservation features.

Toast integrates directly with its Kitchen Display System (KDS) to streamline workflows across multiple kitchen stations so that items are routed to the right prep areas and completed in the correct order, especially during busy periods. It also handles complex bill-splitting (such as by seat, item, or percentage) and tipping prompts directly on handheld screens during payment, helping to speed up the checkout process.

Another major plus is that it allows you to create different menus for different times of day (a feature missing from rival Clover) and create menu item variations. Meanwhile, Toast’s native reservation management tools allow businesses not only to accept reservations but also to automatically assign seating based on guest count and allow the host to keep track of service progression.

How much does Toast cost?

Like Square, Toast starts at $0 per month for its Starter Kit plan, which comes with a terminal or handheld kit and covers one location only. With this, you get 24/7 support, table/order management, basic scheduling, digital menus, integrated PCI-compliant payments, and more. Additional features like third-party delivery integrations can be purchased as add-ons.

Meanwhile, Toast’s Point of Sale plan costs $69 per month and includes everything in the Starter Kit, plus extra paid add-ons such as Toast Mobile Order & Pay®, team management, payroll and supplier/accounting suite. There’s also the Build Your Own plan, which comes with custom pricing tailored specifically for your business.

Toast also charges transaction fees for each sale, which vary depending on the plan you choose. These are 3.09% to 3.69% + $0.15 on the Starter Kit and 2.49% + $0.15 on the Point of Sale plan.

For its hardware, Toast doesn’t publicly list the prices. However, its most popular hardware equipment includes:

• Countertop Terminal: Features an interactive full HD LCD touch panel made for fast order entry, visual modifier selections, and floor plan navigation.
• Guest Display Terminal: An 8-inch secondary customer-facing screen designed to pair directly with the main Countertop Terminal.
• Toast Go 3 Handheld: Toast’s third-generation handheld POS system designed specifically for mobile tableside ordering, outdoor patio service, and line-busting.
• Self-Ordering Kiosk: A self-ordering station that helps to offset front-of-house labor constraints and keeps lines moving during busy periods.

Our experience with Toast

Toast is easy to use. We found the backend particularly intuitive and easy to navigate, and the setup tutorial offered a clear step-by-step guide that helped us find our way around the platform.

The only task we struggled with a little was setting up a discount on an order, which is something we had trouble with on a lot of other POS platforms we tested. In this case, we found Toast’s wording a little confusing, since you have to click on an “update” button to find the discount button. Lightspeed and Square both clearly label this option on the checkout screen.

Another aspect we like is that Toast’s customer service line is open 24/7, 365 days a year (that’s right, even on holidays) – this includes a phone line and a web messaging service.

3. Clover: Best for high-volume counter-service venues

• Price: From $0/month
• Free plan: Yes
• Transaction fees: From 2.3% + $0.10 per transaction

Clover is the best POS system for high-volume counter-service venues, providing intuitive hardware and fast-ordering workflows to help businesses serve customers during peak hours.

Specifically, Clover’s front-of-house terminals are designed to keep service moving quickly, with an intuitive interface that reduces the number of steps needed to take orders and process payments. Staff can quickly find menu items, add modifiers, and complete transactions – helping reduce lines during busy service periods. Menu modifiers are also shown as large, color-coded visual tiles on the primary ordering screen, so counter staff can customize drink or meal orders without searching through multiple sub-menus.

The dual-screen setup includes a dedicated customer-facing display, allowing guests to review their order, confirm items, add tips and complete contactless payments while staff continue entering orders on the main screen. Meanwhile, built-in fingerprint scanners allow staff to switch profiles or log in between orders in less than a second, so that they can start shifts quickly.

How much does Clover cost?

While Clover offers a free starter plan at $0 per month (Starter), its features are quite limited, as it only offers the ability to take payments, basic reports, and physical and digital gift cards. Its other plans are:

• Basic point-of-sale setup ($29.95/month): Everything in Starter, plus stock-tracking by item, modifiers, item variants, detailed sales reports, loyalty programs, and real-time sales tracking and tax reports.
• Restaurant management ($89.95/month): Adds open tabs, ordering firing to KDS or printer, QR code ordering, and delivery integrations (Grubhub, Doordash, Uber Eats, and Order with Google).

For quick-service venues specifically, Clover offers specialized subscription plans, which costs from $135 per month for 36 months under the Starter plan (or $849 + $89.95/month). You can find more details below:

Note: Processing fees are 2.3% + $0.10 for tapped, swiped or inserted transactions, and 3.5% + $0.10 for typed-in sales across all plans.

For hardware, Clover’s most popular equipment includes:

• Clover Go ($199): A portable card reader that connects with smartphones via Bluetooth or the Clover Go App.
• Compact ($349 or $16/month for 36 months): A standalone payment terminal for both swipe/chip and contactless payments, with a built-in receipt printer, and 3.6-inch color touchscreen.
• Flex ($749 or $40/month for 36 months): A handheld device with an 8-hour battery life, built-in receipt printer, card payment acceptance (swipe/chip and contactless), WiFi and LTE connectivity, and the ability to fire orders to a KDS or kitchen printer.
• Mini ($849 or $45/month for 36 months): A countertop device for swipe/chip and contactless payments, with a built-in receipt printer, 8-inch LCD color touchscreen and connectivity through WiFi, Ethernet, and LTE.
• Station Solo ($1,799 or $89/month for 36 months): Comes with WiFi/Ethernet/LTE connectivity, fingerprint login, swipe/chip payments, cash drawer and high-speed printer, and a backup battery that lasts up to four hours.
• Station Duo ($1,899 or $95/month for 36 months): Comes with swipe/chip and contactless payments, an 8-inch customer-facing touchscreen, WiFi and Ethernet connectivity, and a cash drawer and high-speed printer.

Our experience with Clover

Clover has remained consistently easy to use in our testing, despite offering advanced features. We particularly like Clover’s frontend, which is highly intuitive and makes great use of color to highlight features. The drag-and-drop design of Clover’s table planner is also a nice touch for hospitality businesses.

That said, it wasn’t quite smooth sailing when it came to certain backend features. For example, we had trouble finding where to set up discounts and loyalty programs, and real-time syncing issues disrupted the overall smoothness of the experience.

When it comes to hardware, we were particularly impressed by how light the Clover Flex, Clover’s handheld POS device/card machine, was. Despite its size, it fit easily in our hand and didn’t feel awkward to hold, making it great for table service.

4. Lightspeed Restaurant: Best for multi-site restaurant groups

• Price: From $69/month
• Free plan: No
• Transaction fees: 2.6% + $0.10 per transaction

Lightspeed Restaurant is a good fit for restaurants with multiple venues because it gives operators the tools they need to manage inventory, menus and perfromance across locations from one central platform.

Unlike basic POS systems that only track inventory at the menu-item level, Lightspeed provides more detailed ingredient-level tracking (down to grams, ounces, or pour counts), giving multi-location operators better visibility into stock levels, which helps to reduce food waste, prevent shrinkage and improve inventory control across sites.

Lightspeed also offers centralized menu management, allowing businesses to update menus, change modifier rules, adjust prices, or push promotional campaigns across all restaurant locations from a single administrative dashboard. Central managers can also get a view of financial reports across different locations to compare site performance, identify high-performing venues and improve margins.

How much does Lightspeed Restaurant cost?

Lightspeed Restaurant’s pricing starts at $69 per month under the Starter plan, which gives you a customizable POS (to set up your menu, product options, modifiers, etc.), menu manager, floor plans, insights, takeout/delivery, and more.

However, for multi-location management specifically, you will need to upgrade to the Essential plan for $189 per month. This also offers online, contactless and tableside ordering, as well as advanced inventory management. You can also get the Premium plan for $399 per month, but the only notable features it adds are multiple revenue center support for hotels and raw API access.

As for its transaction fees, Lightspeed Restaurant charges a standard flat rate of 2.6% + $0.10 per transaction for all card-present payments and 3.5% + $0.15 for online orders and delivery channels.

Like Toast, Lightspeed also doesn’t publicize its pricing for its hardware, meaning the final price for its equipment depends on your business size, layout, and operational needs. Its most notable hardware includes:

• Verifone e285: A handheld device with a compact touchscreen, letting servers take payments anywhere in the restaurant.
• Kitchen Printer: Prints tickets at high speed and resists heat and grease.
• Kitchen Display System (KDS): Resistant to steam, heat and water, and comes with a clear display for easy order and item identification.
• Lightspeed Stand for iPad: Houses iPad devices and features a magnetic swivel, allowing both servers and customers to view orders on the screen.
• iPad hardware kit: Hardware bundle that comes with a receipt printer, cash drawer, Lightspeed iPad stand, and kitchen printer.

Our experience with Lightspeed Restaurant

Lightspeed Restaurant remains a slightly difficult-to-use platform. We had a lot of difficulty creating a discount, mainly because the process was overly complex, with too many options for offer time limits.

Bulk importing products also took a lot of time, and we didn’t like that we weren’t alerted clearly when an import had failed. We also didn’t love that the menu featured a lot of unlabelled icons that required hovering to interpret.

However, it wasn’t all bad. The frontend was much more intuitive than the backend, and we didn’t have much trouble processing payments or creating customer profiles during a sale. We also appreciated the depth and flexibility of features, like the loyalty system and product categorisation, particularly for businesses with complex inventories or advanced needs.

5. SpotOn: Best for mid-to-large full-service restaurants and bars

• Price: From $0/month
• Free plan: Yes
• Transaction fees: From 2.45% + $0.15 per transaction

SpotOn is a great POS system for mid-to-large full-service restaurants and bars as it is built to handle complex service environments, such as multi-area dining rooms and busy bars.

SpotOn offers flexible table management and order pacing tools, allowing staff to manage seat-based ordering, control the timing of multi-course meals, and easily transfer tabs between areas like the bar and dining room without losing order details. It also includes fast tab pre-authorization, bar tab creation and built-in drink modifiers so that bartenders can take orders faster, reduce manual entry, and keep service moving during high-volume evening periods.

Additionally, SpotOn provides dedicated onboarding support to help configure the system around each operation. Local account specialists can help with building menu structures, setting up KDS workflows, and providing hands-on staff training to ensure teams are ready before launch. Its round-the-clock direct support is also beneficial for venues operating late-night bar trade or high-volume weekend dinner shifts, giving operators access to help whenever issues arise.

How much does SpotOn cost?

You can get SpotOn for $0 per month with its All-In plan, which includes POS software and hardware, ordering, table layouts, menu management, reporting, and 24/7 support. Transaction fees are 2.79% + $0.20 for card-present sales, and 3.79% + $0.20 for keyed transactions. However, a two-year minimum term is required, and processing minimums apply.

If you don’t want to be tied to a contract, the POS Essentials plan costs $55 per station, per month. This gives you everything in the All-In plan, plus cheaper transaction fees (2.45% + $0.15 for card present (excluding Amex) and 3.45% + $0.15 for keyed-in. You can also get the Station 15 and Handheld hardware for a discounted price (plus implementation costs), with financing options available.

Finally, the Build Your Own plan comes with everything in POS Essentials, as well as tailored pricing, custom processing fees, and a discounted custom software bundle tailored specifically for your business needs.

As for the hardware itself, here’s what you can expect to get in your package:

• Station 10 ($415): A compact POS touchscreen made specifically for hospitality businesses with limited counter space (such as food trucks).
• Station 15 ($750): A black, 15.6-inch countertop terminal with a touchscreen and built-in customer display screen that can take tap, dip or swipe payments.
• Guest-facing display ($200): A digital screen connected to the main POS terminal that lets customers see their order details in real-time.
• Handheld ($297): A handheld mini POS device that doubles as a card reader (tap or dip) for tableside service.

Our experience with SpotOn

During testing, we found SpotOn to be one of the most intuitive POS systems to navigate. We didn’t have much trouble setting up discounts or creating menu items with variations.

However, the backend was easier to use than the frontend, mainly because the frontend required a few extra clicks to add items to an order, compared with how quickly we could do this using other POS systems like Lightspeed.

We also didn’t like the floor plan functionality, since it’s not drag and drop. To change the size of the tables, you have to click a bar chart button rather than drag them to make them bigger, something restaurants with large floor plans might want to consider.

6. Epos Now: Best for hybrid hospitality-retail venues

• Price: From $39/month
• Free plan: No
• Transaction fees: 2.6% + $0.10 per transaction

Epos Now is uniquely suited to hybrid hospitality-retail venues – such as a brewery taproom with a retail shop – because it allows operators to run both food and retail operations from the same system without needing separate tools.

Epos Now brings retail and hospitality inventory management together in one central back office, allowing businesses to track products alognisde menu ingredients and modifiers. Managers can manage stock levels across packaged goods, drinks and kitchen ingredients through unified inventory reporting and stock-take tools.

Cashiers can also easily switch between table-service ticketing (assigning orders to floor tables) and barcode scanning retail items without logging out or changing user profiles. Additionally, its custom barcode and label generation includes barcode printing capabilities for packaged kitchen items, retail merch, or locally produced bottled goods directly from the terminal system.

How much does Epos Now cost?

Epos Now’s pricing starts at $39 per month per terminal for its Standard software tier. This covers core cloud register functionality, basic inventory management, back-office reporting, and standard software updates.

A step up from this is the Premium tier, which is $69 per month per terminal – adding 24/7 priority telephone support, automated cloud backups, and dedicated onboarding assistance. There’s also the option for an annual contract, which is $449 per year per terminal, offering a modest discount compared to its monthly software billing.

Epos Now uses its own payment processing service – Epos Now Payments – which charges processing fees of 2.6% + $0.10 for in-person sales and 3.5% + $0.15 for keyed-in card transactions or online orders.

Epos Now also has its own proprietary hardware equipment, such as:

• Countertop Duo ($349): A dual-screen stationary register terminal with a 15.6-inch full HD touchscreen and a rear-facing 10-inch HD touchscreen mounted directly behind the main terminal. Comes with the complete POS system, card reader, built-in printer, App Store access, and more.
• Pro+ (from $185): A handheld portable card reader with a built-in printer that accepts both chip & PIN and contactless payments.
• Hospitality POS Complete Solution ($349): Epos Now’s all-in-one bundled hardware and software system, featuring a 15.6-inch water-resistant HD touchscreen till, a heavy-duty metal cash drawer, an 80mm high-speed thermal receipt printer and Epos Now Air/Smart Pay card reader.

Our experience with Epos Now

Epos Now’s frontend is clear and intuitive. We particularly liked how easy it was to find items, with each product category listed in large, color-coded blocks.

Another strong point was its bill-splitting and discounts function. Splitting the check by item proved to be seamless, as we were able to create separate bills for each guest, then assign individual items to each one in just a few taps. For discounts, this option is visible on the payment screen and gave us the option to discount an item either by percentage or amount, or set a new price entirely.

That said, we found it difficult to add modifiers to items, as attempts to do this led to them being added as separate products. Backend navigation was also difficult, particularly as selecting “Back Office” when leaving the till took us to a home screen with another “Go to Back Office” option. The different dashboards also have their own menus, so it was hard to tell which interface to use or where to find specific features (like support and marketing tools).

7. SumUp: Best for small restaurants seeking speed and efficiency

• Price: From $0/month
• Free plan: No
• Transaction fees: 2.6% + $0.10 per transaction

SumUp is a good option for small and fast-paced food-and-beverage businesses, offering a simple and user-friendly POS experience with quick setup, easy menu management, and streamlined payment processing.

SumUp’s front-end register interface is designed around an intuitive and Apple-like visual layout, meaning staff need minimal to no initial onboarding when navigating the screen, selecting products, and completing checkout. Tasks like editing open orders, cancelling mis-tapped items, or processing payments are completed in fewer steps than on traditional POS software – allowing small operators to complete transactions quickly.

Moreover, adding new items, menu categories, team members, or customer records only requires essential information fields. This means managers can make real-time updates directly on the terminal screen during service without going through complex administrative setups.

How much does SumUp cost?

SumUp offers a free plan for $0 per month – you only have to pay processing fees of 2.6% + $0.10 for in-person transactions and 3.5% + $0.15 for online sales. The core features on this plan include full POS software access, order and table management, item catalog and category building, payment processing integration, and digital receipts/customer records.

However, if you want customer loyalty, the POS with Connect Plus costs $199 per month, which comes with everything the POS offers, plus customer rewards, automated marketing (two SMS and email promotions per month), a customer database, and dedicated installation and training.

Meanwhile, the POS with Connect Pro costs $289 per month, which comes with the POS and loyalty features, as well as unlimited marketing promotions. It also includes daily AI-enhanced SMS and email promotions and a Google review boost.

SumUp doesn’t offer a massive range of hardware, unlike Square, but the hardware it does offer is sleek, lightweight and professional-looking. Here’s what’s available:

• SumUp Plus ($43): A lightweight card reader that can be connected to smartphone devices or tablets to accept swipe, chip and tap payments.
• SumUp Solo ($79): A standalone credit card terminal featuring a dedicated touchscreen display and built-in cellular connectivity.
• SumUp Solo Printer Bundle ($135): Includes the Solo touchscreen terminal alongside a desktop charging dock and thermal receipt printer.
• Terminal ($199): A handheld card reader with a built-in receipt printer and large HD touchscreen to take payments on the go.
• POS Lite and Solo Bundle ($399): Includes pre-installed software, POS Lite touchscreen tablet, SumUp Solo card reader, and a charging station.

Our experience with SumUp

The frontend of SumUp’s POS system is very user-friendly, allowing for speedy service, but the backend remains hard to navigate.

SumUp’s frontend has a simple, clear, and responsive interface, with a minimalist design making finding features such as table management and order cancellation and editing, easy. We especially like the “park order” function, which allowed us to quickly adjust items mid-transaction.

However, the backend consistently frustrated us, since its design was much clunkier, and we ran into a lot of slow loading when trying to access reports, bulk imports or user settings. The sidebar menu would also often cover up other navigation elements, which made completing tasks difficult.

Buying Guide: How to Choose a Restaurant POS System

It’s a good idea to define the specific needs of your restaurant before you choose one of these POS systems for restaurants. Aspects you should take into account include the size of your restaurant, how you serve your food (for example, counter ordering, table service or QR code) and the number of locations you have.

Here’s what else to consider when evaluating your choices:

Costs and pricing structures

Consider upfront costs and monthly fees, as well as what’s included in them. Is it both software and hardware, or one and not the other? For example, SpotOn offers “free” software and hardware, but its transaction fees are high and you’ll need to pay extra to get access to its best features.

Don’t forget to include the added cost of integration and training in your budgeting, and to plan for any projected growth by choosing a system that can accommodate your future needs. Switching systems is expensive, so it’s easier to stick with the same provider in the future if you can.

Software

Make a list of must-have and nice-to-have software features based on your restaurant’s operational model.

These could include:

• Inventory management: To help you keep on top of your ingredients and prevent you from running out of something unexpectedly.
• Reservation management: To help you book out tables in advance and gather customer data.
• Staff management: So you can reward your best employees and identify those that need further training.
• Online ordering functionality: So you can offer your food to takeout customers or accept online pre-orders.
• Analytics: So you can learn which meals are most popular, which staff members are processing the most transactions and more.
• Customer loyalty programs: So you can offer benefits that entice customers back to your restaurant as repeat visitors.
• AI capabilities: So you can streamline processes, and automate time-consuming tasks like updating menus, predicting inventory needs, and personalizing marketing campaigns.

If you prioritize features that help you automate workflows and prevent manual work, you might be able to reduce your labor costs.

Hardware

Think about what pieces of hardware are vital for your restaurant and how many of them you need – from POS terminals and card machines to receipt printers, kitchen printers and cash drawers.

Not all providers automatically provide you with portable card machines, for example. They’re sometimes replaced with a tablet or terminal that can take payments. But if you need your staff to do table service, you should choose a provider that includes portable card machines in their packages.

If you have existing hardware, make sure to find a POS system that’s compatible with your existing equipment. This will save you from having to buy everything new. Most POS providers appreciate that you might be switching to them from another supplier, and that you won’t necessarily want a complete overhaul of all your hardware.

Add-ons and integrations

You should also pay attention to what software or apps your chosen POS system can integrate with. If you already use software, such as accounting software, make sure the POS system you choose has a ready-made integration for it, as this will help you streamline operations.

It’s also a good idea to check what other add-ons or apps are available via a POS system. Some providers offer advanced marketing or reporting features as add-ons, usually for an extra fee – but if these seem particularly valuable to your business, they could be worth the extra price.

Customer support

Make sure you check how available the POS provider’s customer support team is, and how easily reachable they are.

A POS provider should have a customer support phone line that’s open on weekdays, at the very least. Live chat support and community forums you can go to in a pinch are a welcome addition.

You should also check the training resources, onboarding support and post-implementation support terms provided by the POS provider, to ensure your team will get the support they need to learn the new system.

How Much Does a Restaurant POS System Cost?

On average, monthly fees for POS systems start at around $60-80 per month. This sometimes includes one set of hardware (a terminal, card reader, and receipt printer), but if you need a more comprehensive setup, you’ll need to pay extra.

If your chosen package omits features you need, like loyalty programs, online ordering, or payroll tools, you’ll have to pay extra for software add-ons. Costs will vary depending on your software needs and provider, but for example of how much you can expect to spend, Toast charges $185 per month for a loyalty program and $75 per month for an online ordering platform.

Hardware fees can be much costlier, especially if you’re purchasing equipment for several locations. The average cost is $1,000+ for one restaurant if you include a terminal, customer display, portable card machines, and receipt printer.

However, this is an initial cost, and once you’re set up, you’re unlikely to need to purchase new hardware for a long time.

You can read more about POS system costs in our complete guide.

Our Methodology: How We Tested Restaurant POS Systems

The Expert Market team rigorously assessed and tested 10 different POS systems to bring you this list. In total, we spent around 160 hours researching POS platforms and over 20 hours testing them.

During that time, we used our learnings to evaluate how each POS system fared in six categories that are important to hospitality businesses, broken down into up to 12 subcategories, in order to award an impartial ranking. Here’s what we looked at:

• Software (30%): The breadth of features included in the POS software and how valuable they are to the average business, including inventory management, menu/product creation, customer engagement tools and table management.
• Usability (20%): How easy each system is to use, based on feedback from several average users who were assigned basic tasks to complete on each system, such as menu/item creation, accessing reports or applying a discount.
• Hardware (15%): The variety of equipment available to purchase or rent, with special importance given to key items, such as physical terminals, customer displays and accessories.
• Help & Support (15%): How effective and reachable the customer support teams are, with bonus points given to POS systems with help centers and training modes.
• Pricing (10%): The price of the system, how it compares with competitors and whether it’s good value for money.
• Repuation (10%): A provider’s overall market standing, long-term operational stability, client trust, and independent public sentiment.