Best POS systems for restaurants in the US: top 6

Restaurants have a wide array of POS systems to pick from, each with different strengths that could appeal to a particular business.

Common to them all is that they are based in the cloud, with data and sales synced in real time so you can track business from any web browser. Cloud POS solutions have a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) business model, meaning you do not own or pay a one-off price for the software. Instead, you subscribe to them on a monthly or annual basis upfront.

Your ideal restaurant point of sale will depend a lot on your type of food business. A full-service restaurant, for instance, would benefit massively from detailed floor plans to coordinate orders accurately. If you’re just a small coffee shop, you may not need a table plan, but might like to track ingredients and integrate with online ordering.

A small food-and-drink business can narrow down the search to just a handful of the most affordable POS systems, all customisable to some extent. Let’s compare them.

Best for: Range of features and user-friendliness

Pricing: From $69/mo per iPad license

Compatibility: iPad only

Pros: Tableside ordering, intuitive features, fast software, good 24/7 customer support

Cons: 12-month commitment, customer loyalty tools extra cost, no Android compatibility

Photo: TouchBistro

TouchBistro suits a wide range of food-and-drink places including full service restaurants.

ShopKeep is a popular platform offering all-in-one POS systems with software, hardware and payments included. The software is user-friendly, not overly complicated, but still has good business management features in the backend to support restaurant operations.

ShopKeep Restaurant POS works on iPad and Clover terminals, but not Android devices. You don’t have to buy ShopKeep’s own bundles if you have compatible hardware already. The software works through the cloud, but continues to run if there’s an internet outage. It’s possible to take payments offline as well, but only on Clover devices.

Photo: ShopKeep

The ShopKeep Restaurant POS software still only works on iPad and Clover terminals.

POS features include standard restaurant functions like communications between checkouts and kitchen, menus, table plans and employee management, but also rarer tools like ingredient-tracking and advanced inventory management.

The price is not so straightforward, though. The only way to get a subscription cost is to contact ShopKeep through the website form with your hardware and feature requirements. There is no contractual commitment for the POS system.

The company recommends using its integrated ShopKeep Payments for card transactions, advertising a “lowest integrated processing rate” that can be negotiated. If preferred, you can order a free Poynt smart POS terminal with a ShopKeep processing rate of 2.5% + 10¢, no contractual commitment and next-day settlement. It is also possible to use other card processors, but different prices would then apply.

You can integrate with online ordering, ecommerce (BigCommerce), accounting and email marketing.

ShopKeep provides round-the-clock customer support via telephone, chat and text message.

Payment integrations: ShopKeep Payments, First Data (Clover), others

Can you try before subscribing? You can request a free demo of ShopKeep.

Lightspeed Restaurant is a full-fledged restaurant POS system. The breadth of features makes it very good for restaurants wanting all shop floor and management operations covered by one system. The EPOS system can also work offline.

It is relatively user-friendly, but setting up products and staff permissions can take longer than other POS systems because there are more settings and fewer in-app explanations for what each function refers to exactly. But once you get the hang of it, the system will prove easy and clearly built for fast-paced businesses at any scale.

Lightspeed Restaurant is a feature-rich POS system for iPad.

The features go way beyond just basics. For instance, the table plan with open orders has the most settings and functions we’ve seen in a hospitality app, and the list of all the different staff permissions is long. You can enter recipe ingredients in any units, track inventory levels, split bills in any way, customize the product menu in lots of different ways and set timed promotions. It also allows you to send orders to the kitchen or bar, accept takeaways and delivery orders.

Lightspeed can connect with different online ordering systems such as Lightspeed Delivery by Deliverect. There are therefore no limitations for those offering pickups, takeout and delivery services – provided you can pay the additional cost of the software.

There is no minimum contract, and you can choose to pay the subscription monthly, although annual plans are available for a lower price. The final pricing depends on your needs, as Lightspeed will be offering add-ons like customer loyalty features.

Customer service is included in the plans 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You get free onboarding to help set up the software and get your questions answered.

Payment integrations: Lightspeed Payments, TSYS, Vantiv, 2ACCEPT

Can you try before subscribing? Yes, there’s a 14-day free trial.

Best for: Restaurants preferring an all-in-one package with payments, software & hardware

Pricing: From $69/mo + hardware from $799

Compatibility: Android-based proprietary hardware

Pros: Wealth of features, offline mode, complete solution incl. card payments

Cons: Expensive upfront, no support if using own hardware, termination fee

Toast is a complete package with POS software, hardware, restaurant management software and a payment system. If you prefer one provider for all of these things, then Toast is ideal. If you wanted a different payment system or just some parts of Toast’s POS system, then this is not the right platform.

Photo: Toast

Toast can be adapted to any type of restaurant, but it can get expensive.

The payment system is Toast’s own with transaction fees fixed at 2.59% + $0.10 per Visa, Mastercard and Discover payment through the Toast card reader.

The monthly pricing is comparable with other restaurant POS systems, but the contractual lock-in can be up to three years. If you decide to end the contract early, you have to pay an early termination fee equivalent to the remaining software costs of the contract period.

Toast provides 24/7 customer support every day of the year.

Payment integration: Toast

Can you try before subscribing? A free demo is available on request.

Photo: Square

Square for Restaurants benefits from access to many Square features such as online payments. 

Clover offers their own-branded checkout hardware for any size business. Apart from general POS features, there’s a Clover Dining suite of point of sale features for restaurants specifically. It works only on Clover’s proprietary hardware – either the Clover Station bundle for full-service restaurants or Clover Mini for mid-sized restaurants with limited tables.

Photo: Clover

Clover Dining is a full-featured POS package by Clover.

Opting for Clover Mini gives enough features for small-to-medium restaurants. The Mini is basically a tablet with built-in card reader and receipt printer and Clover Dining preinstalled. However, larger food places will prefer Station with its larger screen, cash drawer, separate receipt printer and optional portable Flex terminal for table service.

POS features cover standard hospitality requirements like floor plans, order management, connection with kitchen printers, sales reports and much more. With Clover, you can add a lot of different tools through its Android-based app store, but these have separate costs. Online ordering is also included with Clover Dining, with options for contactless delivery.

What you can’t choose is the payment system. Clover always uses First Data for card payments, but third-party providers can get you different card rates at least. A nice thing about First Data is that you get a full-fledged merchant account for card processing, but many reviews have complained about its service. The cost of the proprietary hardware is also high, and Clover’s contract terms reveal extra charges. We recommend close-reading all the terms before committing to this.

24/7 customer support is included on all plans.

Payment integration: First Data/Clover

Can you try before subscribing? Yes, you can currently try Clover for free for 90 days (usually, it’s 30 days).

Summary