Lightspeed POS Review: Is It Right For Your Business?

We tested Lightspeed’s hospitality EPOS system, Lightspeed Restaurant, and its retail EPOS system, Lightspeed Retail. Both are great options for busy businesses managing large inventories or multiple locations, since they come with advanced profit and stock management tools.

Businesses will also get access to excellent built-in marketing and loyalty tools, with both Lightspeed Restaurant and Lightspeed Retail. This makes Lightspeed a useful tool for businesses focused on growing their customer base.

That said, Lightspeed’s high price point – plans range from £69 to £219 per month – means it’s not the best option for businesses on a budget, such as small hospitality establishments or new or local stores. Additionally, since Lightspeed is a tablet-based EPOS system, it doesn’t offer physical registers, which won’t suit all businesses.

In this review, we’ll go over our experience testing and using Lightspeed, explain its pricing structure and EPOS features, and compare it to alternatives.

Our Experience Testing Lightspeed EPOS

We tested both Lightspeed Restaurant and Lightspeed Retail.

Both EPOS systems offered great features for managing sales, inventory and customer data, but they weren’t the easiest EPOS systems to use, owing to unclear signposting and system glitches. Our top systems for usability, based on our recent testing, are Square and Toast.

Starting off with the positives, we found using Lightspeed’s frontend quite intuitive. Whether we were using the Restaurant or Retail system, 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 programme builder and product categorisation, particularly for businesses with complex inventories or advanced needs.

However, we ran into issues when creating discounts. We found the process was overly complex, with too many options for offer time limits. Additionally, we had trouble locating and applying discounts when making a sale.

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. This meant that we were never sure where features were located.

How Much Does Lightspeed Cost?

Lightspeed costs between £69 and £219 per month. How much you pay depends on your plan, and whether you’re using Lightspeed Restaurant or Lightspeed Retail:

The prices above cover the cost of both a software subscription and basic hardware rental. We’ll discuss what hardware Lightspeed offers in the next section.

However, renting additional equipment not included in the basic package will increase monthly costs. Lightspeed specifies that extra registers on a Restaurant EPOS plan cost an extra £39 per month, but doesn’t specify how much these cost on a Retail EPOS plan, or how much accessories cost.

Additionally, on Lightspeed Restaurant, certain software features are only available as paid add-ons but, unfortunately, Lightspeed doesn’t specify their cost. Paid add-ons include:

• Reservation management
• Click and collect delivery
• Delivery app integrations
• Marketing automation

Is Lightspeed good value for money?

Lightspeed can be good value for money for larger businesses that need to manage multiple stores or restaurants, or have complex needs.

However, with a price range of £69 to £219, it’s one of the most expensive options on the market. For context, competitors Square and Shopify charge a maximum of £69 per month for their EPOS software, Lightspeed’s starting price.

Small businesses looking for cheap retail EPOS software might prefer Square or Shopify for this reason. Square is also an affordable EPOS system for restaurants, since it offers hospitality software.

What Is Lightspeed’s Hardware Like?

Lightspeed is a tablet-based EPOS system, so it doesn’t offer physical countertop terminals or registers. However, it does sell a range of accessories that pair with its software.

Here’s what’s available:

• iPad stand: A black, Lightspeed-branded stand for the counter.
• Card machines: Three models (Castles S1F2, Verifone V400m, Adyen Smart Terminal), including one with a built-in receipt printer, and a Tableside charging case for iPhones.
• Cash drawer: Available in large or small sizes, and connects to the iPad stand.
• Printers: A variety of receipt, kitchen and label printers. Epson, Star Micronics and Zebra models are available (some designs are slightly clunky).
• Kitchen display system screen: 21.5-inch ELO KDS screen with heat-resistant touchscreen display.
• Barcode scanners: Two models – Socket Mobile S700/S740 and Honeywell USB.

Lightspeed doesn’t disclose the price of any of its hardware or accessories, which can be frustrating if you’re trying to budget.

What Features Does Lightspeed Offer?

Some of Lightspeed’s best EPOS features include its advanced inventory management tools and its built-in marketing and loyalty features.

Features differ depending on whether you’re using Lightspeed Retail or Lightspeed Restaurant, but there’s a lot of overlap between the two systems.

We’ll explore both Lightspeed systems in tandem, specifying when a feature is only available on one of Lightspeed’s two systems:

Order management

Like many modern EPOS systems, Lightspeed offers its own payment processing service, Lightspeed Payments, which means businesses don’t need to rely on a third-party provider when using the Lightspeed EPOS system. This reduces the risk of integration or connection problems when processing orders.

Since processing orders is relatively straightforward for retail stores (most transactions happen at the till), we’ll be focusing on Lightspeed Restaurant features that enhance the order experience for both staff and customers.

One such aspect is order and table management. Lightspeed Restaurant allows for full table plan customisation and makes it easy for servers to assign orders not just to specific tables, but even specific seats. This ensures a high quality of service, which is especially vital for high-end restaurants.

That said, table plans can only be changed in the backend, not in both the backend and frontend, like with rival Toast. This means Lightspeed might not be the best option for businesses with constantly evolving floor plans.

Like most hospitality EPOS systems, Lightspeed Restaurant also offers a built-in KDS system (software and screens). Its KDS software syncs with the main EPOS system, so orders are relayed straight to the kitchen. It updates in real time and clearly displays order modifications or special requests to kitchen staff.

Finally, Lightspeed Restaurant simplifies bill splitting at the end of the meal. Staff have the option to split by percentage, amount or even menu item, allowing customers the flexibility to pay how they want.

However, Lightspeed Restaurant doesn’t offer automated tip sharing, unlike competitors Square and Toast. This means it’s not the best option for businesses with strict tip pooling policies.

Ecommerce and mobile ordering

Lightspeed Retail offers ecommerce integration to help businesses manage in-store and online purchases, while Lightspeed Restaurant comes with an ‘Order Anywhere’ feature, which enables takeaway ordering.

Looking at Lightspeed Retail first, businesses that sell both in-person and online have two options: use Lightspeed eCom to build a website with Lightspeed, or integrate Lightspeed’s EPOS system into their existing website. Lightspeed offers integrations with a variety of ecommerce platforms, including WordPress and Wix.

Since Lightspeed doesn’t specialise in ecommerce, we don’t recommend its website builder to businesses that experience a high volume of online sales. If you like the idea of a unified dashboard for managing all sales channels, Shopify is a better alternative, since it specialises in omnichannel sales management.

With Lightspeed Restaurant, enabling online orders is simple. Businesses can use Lightspeed EPOS to manage their own deliveries, connect with third-party delivery apps and create an online ordering website for customers, which can be accessed via QR codes.

Inventory management

Lightspeed shines when it comes to its inventory management tools.

For Lightspeed Retail, this includes being able to track items across multiple locations, built-in supplier cataloguing and cross-site stock reordering, which can help avoid shrinkage. Businesses can also get access to B2B categorisation, where products uploaded from suppliers are automatically categorised in the Lightspeed Retail POS system.

In Lightspeed Restaurant, top inventory management features include ingredient usage tracking, cost versus profit breakdowns for menu items, and automated resupply orders. Rivals such as Square don’t offer the first two features, cementing Lightspeed Restaurant as a great option for larger businesses with more stock to keep track of.

Marketing and loyalty tools

Some of Lightspeed’s best features are its marketing and loyalty tools. These are included at no extra cost on the two most expensive Lightspeed Retail plans, but are a paid add-on on all Lightspeed Restaurant plans.

Businesses will get access to email and SMS marketing tools, loyalty programmes, automated marketing campaigns, gift card creation and customer tabs, so you have a history of all previous orders. Not all EPOS systems come with built-in tools like these, with rivals Clover and Epos Now requiring integration with third-party marketing software.

During testing, we especially liked that Lightspeed’s customer retention tools were built into the sales process. When finalising an order, we were prompted to either assign an order to a customer in the directory or create a new customer profile.

This encourages staff to gather data, such as phone numbers and emails, from customers for marketing purposes, and makes it easy for customers to be rewarded for their loyalty, as all their purchase history is saved in the Lightspeed system.

Does Lightspeed Offer Good Customer Support?

Lightspeed offers excellent customer support, whether you use its Retail or Restaurant EPOS system.

The support team can be contacted via several channels, including phone, email and live chat, and is available 24 hours a day on weekdays, and for a few hours on the weekend. By contrast, competitor Square only offers live support on weekdays.

There’s also an extensive knowledge forum for DIY troubleshooting.

Finally, Lightspeed offers a training mode for both managers and staff, which makes it easy for businesses to fully train staff before sending them out onto the restaurant or shop floor. Rivals Square, Shopify and Zettle don’t offer a training mode.

How Does Lightspeed Compare With Competitors?

Here’s a quick side-by-side comparison of the best EPOS systems and Lightspeed competitors:

Lightspeed pricing vs competitors

Lightspeed is an expensive EPOS system, with only Toast having a higher starting price. At £69 per month, Lightspeed’s cheapest plan costs around the same as Square’s most expensive plans.

It doesn’t help that Lightspeed doesn’t advertise its full pricing, with the price of add-on features, processing fees and most hardware not available without a quote. Clover is even worse than Lightspeed for this, with all pricing being quote-based, but many rivals, such as Square, Shopify and SumUp, offer highly transparent pricing.

Lightspeed software features vs competitors

Lightspeed offers advanced features, especially when it comes to its inventory, profit and marketing management tools. It’s on the same level as competitors Toast, Clover and Shopify, who we generally also recommend to established, large or fast-growing businesses.

That said, if you’re looking for a relatively advanced EPOS system that doesn’t come with Lightspeed’s hefty price tag, Square is a great option, while SumUp works best for small establishments.

Lightspeed hardware range vs competitors

Hardware is a weak point for Lightspeed, since it’s a tablet-based POS system and doesn’t have physical registers. It’s not the only provider to do this, with Shopify also only offering a tablet-based system.

Lightspeed also doesn’t offer its own-brand accessories, nor does it advertise the price of any hardware it does sell, unlike competitors such as Square or Clover.

Clover offers a wide range of their own-brand POS hardware and accessories, although pricing is quote-based, while Square offers a wide range of hardware and is transparent on price.

How We Reviewed Lightspeed EPOS