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Why Your POS Choice Matters
Your POS system touches every part of restaurant operations: order taking, kitchen communication, payments, inventory, staff scheduling, and reporting. A bad POS costs you in slow service, lost orders, and hours of manual reconciliation.
Top Restaurant POS Systems
| POS | Best For | Monthly Cost | Hardware From |
|---|---|---|---|
| Toast | Full-service restaurants | $0-$165/mo | $0 (with plan) |
| Square for Restaurants | Small/casual dining | $0-$60/mo | $0 (reader) |
| Clover | Quick service | $14.95/mo | $599+ |
| Lightspeed Restaurant | Multi-location | $69/mo | iPad-based |
| Revel Systems | Enterprise/franchise | $99/mo | Custom quote |
| TouchBistro | iPad-based dining | $69/mo | iPad required |
| SpotOn | Full-service + marketing | $0-$135/mo | $0 (with plan) |
Toast Best Overall
Purpose-built for restaurants. Handles dine-in, takeout, delivery, and online ordering from a single system. The hardware is restaurant-grade (spill-proof, grease-resistant) and the free tier is genuinely usable for small operations.
- Kitchen display system included
- Online ordering and delivery integration
- Payroll and team management add-ons
- Menu engineering analytics
Pricing: Free (Starter), $69/mo (Essentials), $165/mo (Growth)
Square for Restaurants Best for Small Restaurants
The easiest setup for restaurants that want to start taking orders and payments today. The free plan handles basic table management, coursing, and menu customization. Upgrade for advanced features.
- Free plan with basic restaurant features
- Square KDS (Kitchen Display) available
- Seamless integration with Square ecosystem
- No long-term contracts
Pricing: Free (basic), $60/mo (Plus with advanced features)
Key Features to Evaluate
- Order management - Table mapping, coursing, split checks, modifiers
- Kitchen display - Replace paper tickets with digital screens
- Online ordering - Built-in or third-party delivery integration
- Inventory tracking - Ingredient-level tracking with waste reporting
- Staff management - Scheduling, tip pooling, labor cost percentage
- Payment processing - Rates, hardware compatibility, offline mode
Our Recommendation
Small/casual (1-2 locations): Square Free or Toast Starter. Zero upfront cost, grow into paid features.
Full-service (2-5 locations): Toast Essentials or Lightspeed. Purpose-built restaurant features with multi-location management.
Enterprise/franchise: Revel or SpotOn. Enterprise reporting, custom integrations, dedicated support.