Restaurant POS buying guide
What a restaurant point-of-sale system really costs, how the main systems compare, and what your kind of restaurant needs from one. Written for owners and managers who are choosing or switching.
Published by KwickPOS, a restaurant POS company. We include KwickPOS in comparisons and say so when we do. How we handle this.
Choose by restaurant type
What a POS has to handle for your kind of restaurant, and which systems fit.
- POS for a small restaurant What a restaurant under 50 seats needs from a POS, and where to save.
- POS for Chinese restaurants Bilingual tickets, dim sum, wok routing and banquets: what a Chinese restaurant needs from a POS.
- POS for Mexican restaurants and taquerias Combination plates, bilingual menus and counter speed: what a Mexican restaurant needs from a POS.
- POS for pizzerias Half-and-half pricing, delivery zones and phone orders: what a pizzeria needs from a POS.
- POS for bars and nightclubs Open tabs, happy-hour pricing and fast drink buttons: what a bar or nightclub needs from a POS.
- POS for coffee shops and cafés Drink modifiers, the morning rush and order-ahead: what a coffee shop needs from a POS.
- POS for food trucks Offline payments, cellular data and event menus: what a food truck needs from a POS.
- POS for fine-dining restaurants Coursing, seat positions, wine and tableside payment: what a fine-dining restaurant needs from a POS.
- POS for sushi and Japanese restaurants Sushi-bar routing, omakase, market-price fish and all-you-can-eat timers: what a Japanese restaurant needs from a POS.
- POS for drive-thrus Order confirmation, lane sequencing and speed timers: what a drive-thru needs from a POS.
- POS for catering Deposits, packages, headcounts and prep sheets: what catering needs from a POS.
Compare systems
Side-by-side comparisons built from each vendor's public pricing and feature pages.
- Restaurant POS systems compared Which restaurant POS fits which kind of restaurant, compared on the same six criteria.
- Toast vs Square vs Clover Toast, Square and Clover side by side, from each company's own pricing and feature pages.
What it costs
Software, hardware, card processing and contract terms, with the fees spelled out.
- What a restaurant POS really costs What a restaurant POS costs over three years: software, hardware, processing and the fees to ask about.
- Restaurant card processing fees explained How restaurant card processing fees are built, and how to compare flat-rate and interchange-plus offers.
- POS contract checklist What to look for in a POS contract, and how to ask for better terms.
How to buy and switch
Choosing a system, getting the contract right, and switching without a bad weekend.
- How to choose a restaurant POS A step-by-step way to choose a restaurant POS, with a decision matrix you can score yourself.
- Must-have restaurant POS features The POS features a restaurant actually needs, cloud versus hybrid, and what happens in an outage.
- Restaurant POS hardware Terminals, handhelds, printers, kitchen screens and networking: choosing restaurant POS hardware.
- Switching POS systems How to switch restaurant POS systems without losing data, balances or a busy weekend.
- POS rollout checklist A week-by-week checklist for setting up a restaurant POS and training staff.
Features explained
What each POS feature does, when it matters, and what to ask in a demo.
- Online ordering and delivery Your own online ordering versus delivery apps: costs, order flow and what to set up.
- QR code ordering QR menus versus QR order-and-pay, and when each fits a restaurant.
- Self-order kiosks Where self-order kiosks fit, what they cost, and what to check before you buy.
- Kitchen display systems Kitchen display screens versus printers: routing, expo and what they cost.
- Tip management Tip prompts, tip pooling and tip reporting: what a POS should handle and what the rules say.
- Table management Floor plans, seats, coursing and check splits: table management in a restaurant POS.
- Inventory, waste and food cost Recipe-based inventory, waste logs and food cost: what a POS can and can't do for you.
- Payment security and PCI PCI DSS, encryption and fraud basics for restaurants, from the standards themselves.
- Loyalty and gift cards Loyalty programs, gift cards and guest feedback: setup, rules and what they cost.
- Multi-location POS Central menus, local pricing and consolidated reports: running several locations on one POS.
- Reporting, labor and menu engineering The reports an owner actually reads, labor cost, scheduling and menu-mix analysis.
- Accounting integration Getting POS sales into your books: journal entries, deposit reconciliation and integrations.
How this guide works
Prices and features come from each vendor's own public pages, with the date we checked them. Every article lists its sources. KwickPOS appears in comparisons like any other system. See how we compare systems.