Find the best Restaurant POS Systems
Software Advice offers objective, independent research and verified user reviews. When our advisors match you to a software provider, we may earn a referral fee.
How Software Advice ensures transparency
Software Advice lists all providers across its website—not just those that pay us—so that users can make informed purchase decisions. Users can talk to our advisors for free to receive software recommendations matching their needs. Software providers pay us for sponsored profiles to reach users interested in their products.
How Software Advice verifies reviews
Software Advice carefully verified over 2 million reviews to bring you authentic software experiences from real users. Our human moderators verify that reviewers are real people and that reviews are authentic. They use leading tech to analyze text quality and to detect plagiarism and generative AI.
Independent research methodology
Researchers at Software Advice use a mix of verified reviews, independent research, and objective methodologies to bring you selection and ranking information you can trust. While we may earn a referral fee when you visit a provider through our links or talk to an advisor, this has no influence on our research or methodology.
- Popular Comparisons
- FrontRunners
- Buyers Guide
- Related Software
Compare Products
Showing 1 - 25 of 229 products
Compare Products
Sort by
Reviews: Sorts listings by the number of user reviews we have published, greatest to least.
Average Rating: Sorts listings by overall star rating based on user reviews, highest to lowest.
Alphabetically (A-Z): Sorts listings by product name from A to Z.
Clover is a powerful all-in-one POS system designed to help small businesses streamline their operations. The system offers a range of features, including payment processing, inventory management, employee tracking, and more. Clover's hardware devices, suc...Read more about Clover
recommendations
Epos Now POS systems are an effective business management, sales, and payment solution for single-site, multi-site, and online businesses. Popular with retailers and hospitality businesses in many industries, Epos Now POS systems are perfect for cafes, bar...Read more about Epos Now
recommendations
LINGA is an enterprise-ready cloud-based business platform with 20+ applications in addition to Point of Sale (POS). With over 17 years in the restaurant markets, LINGA POS offers businesses hardware and software for restaurant industries. LINGA's Platform...Read more about Linga rOS System
recommendations
Rezku is the premier POS, used by successful restaurants, bars and pizzerias to compete at a higher level, earn new business and eliminate headaches. Rezku comes complete with everything modern food and beverage concepts need for amazing service, optimize...Read more about Rezku POS
recommendations
Toast POS is a comprehensive point-of-sale system designed specifically for the restaurant industry. It is more than just a tool to accept payments; it is the central nervous system of a restaurant's operations, integrating a suite of functionalities to ma...Read more about Toast POS
recommendations
CAKE provides a comprehensive and easy-to-use POS designed specifically for restaurants. The software benefits independent restaurant owners who want to replace their current POS or don’t have a cloud-based system, as well as small to mid-size chains looki...Read more about CAKE POS
recommendations
Maitre’D is a point-of-sale (POS) solution empowering 20,000 merchant operations worldwide, including fine dining and quick-service restaurants, hotels, cafes, bars, nightclubs, and more. It streamlines operations with tools such as cross-platform sal...Read more about Maitre'D
recommendations
Snappy is a cloud-based restaurant management solution that helps restaurants of all sizes access technology to seamlessly connect their online and offline customer experiences using one platform. It lets users manage online orders, handle waitlists, gener...Read more about Snappy
recommendations
HungerRush is your trusted partner in the restaurant industry, providing integrated solutions designed to simplify your operations and enhance the overall dining experience. Whether you're standing up your first restaurant or looking to grow your number of...Read more about HungerRush 360
recommendations
BrewPOS is a Windows IOT solution for restaurants designed to intuitively manage the daily functions for your restaurant. Open Tabs with EMV chip cards and close them without the customer present. Never keep a credit card behind the bar again. The system a...Read more about BrewPOS
recommendations
Infor® Point of Sale (POS) is designed for full- and quick-service restaurants chains, hotels, and managed food services in higher education, corporate, healthcare, and other hospitality settings. This stable and scalable solution helps unify operations an...Read more about Infor Point of Sale (POS)
recommendations
Revel Systems is the leading flexible cloud-based point-of-sale (POS) platform built for multi-location growth. The platform enables businesses to customize an ecosystem of technology that works best for their unique needs, allowing them to integrate indus...Read more about Revel Systems
recommendations
Self Ordering Kiosk is a cloud-based restaurant POS solution that lets users reduce labor costs, sell additional items, and improve customer experience using a unified platform. Key features include analytics, food ordering, self-service, and loyalty and e...Read more about Self Ordering Kiosk
recommendations
LS Central is a unified POS and ERP software solution built on Microsoft Dynamics technology. It brings together several functionalities in one application such as financials (the Microsoft Dynamics ERP), point of sale (POS), store operations, supply chain...Read more about LS Retail
recommendations
Loyverse POS is a cloud-based, mobile point-of-sale solution aimed at small retail, restaurant and salon establishments. With this software, users can manage inventory, visualize sales analytics and manage customer relationships. Loyverse POS allows u...Read more about Loyverse POS
Restroworks(formerly known as Posist) is a company dedicated to serving businesses, specifically partnering with worldwide restaurant chains to help them embrace digital advancements through its all-in-one restaurant technology platform. Our goal is to ens...Read more about Restroworks
Square Point of Sale is a mobile POS system available for iOS and Android devices. Key capabilities of the Square POS system include online payment processing, sales reports, inventory tracking, digital receipts, email and SMS marketing campaigns, eCommerc...Read more about Square Point of Sale
Poster is a cloud-based mobile point of sale (POS) and inventory management solution for food service industry. The inventory management application can alert users when they are running low on a menu item. It allows users build their menus by organizing t...Read more about Poster POS
PayPal Here is a mobile application that allows retailers and merchants to process transactions. The application uses a card reader device attached to a smartphone. This solution helps retailers and field sales staff to process transactions and send invoic...Read more about PayPal Zettle
MarketMan Restaurant Management is a cloud-based inventory management platform that assists small to large-sized restaurants with procurement, food delivery tracking, and accounting. Its key features include menu planning, budgeting, supplier management, a...Read more about Marketman
Flipdish is an all-in-one POS and restaurant management system powering thousands of restaurants and takeaways around the world. Make life easier by streamlining operations with an intuitive kitchen display system, inventory management, powerful reporting...Read more about Flipdish
SkyTab POS is designed for restaurants, the hospitality environments, and the food and beverage industry. Built to meet the unique needs of these industries, SkyTab is fast, reliable, secure, and user-friendly. SkyTab helps restaurateurs streamline operati...Read more about Skytab POS
Arryved is an all-in-one POS and hospitality management system. Built for dynamic bars, taprooms and restaurants, Arryved is remarkably easy to use. With online ordering, human-readable real-time reporting, QR code ordering & payments and loyalty program...Read more about Arryved
GloriaFood is an online ordering and food delivery platform that helps restaurant owners manage orders and streamline point-of-sale operations. It comes with an administration panel, which enables professionals to select multiple locations for deliveries, ...Read more about GloriaFood
Magestore POS is specifically designed for retailers who use the Magento platform. It syncs data in real-time, so you receive an up-to-the-minute view of your business’ performance across all sales channels. Magestore POS leads to better in-store efficienc...Read more about Magestore
Popular Comparisons
Your Guide to Top Restaurant POS Software, March 2023
Software Advice uses reviews from real software users to highlight the top-rated Restaurant POS products in North America.
Learn how products are chosenExplore FrontRunners
“Usability” includes user ratings for Functionality and Ease of Use.
“Customer Satisfaction” includes user ratings for Customer Support, Likelihood to Recommend and Value for Money.
Reviews analysis period: The reviews analysis period spans two years and ends the 15th of the month prior to publication.
Buyers Guide
This detailed guide will help you find and buy the right restaurant point of sale (pos) software for you and your business.
Last Updated on March 16, 2023As restaurant manager, bouncing back and forth between incoming inventory shipments, taking orders, tracking each order, and making sure each dish on each table is billed appropriately—among many other restaurant tasks—can be challenging.
Doing everything manually is essentially the equivalent of juggling dozens of playing pins at a time; you are bound to drop one, or even several.
Fortunately, there are tools like restaurant POS systems and other related POS software that can help automate restaurant tasks such as inventory management and online ordering for restaurant managers.
To help you understand how restaurant POS systems and software can help, and what features it provides, we have prepared this guide. Here’s what we'll cover:
What are restaurant POS systems?
Restaurant POS systems help restaurant owners enhance the customer experience and streamline business operations relating to sales, cash flow, food inventory, and bookkeeping. Additional features include payment gateway, order management, analytics, and table reservations.
Some restaurant POS systems also provide advanced features, such as food costing and a built-in marketing suite to help restaurant owners with budgeting, as well as creating and executing outreach campaigns. Most restaurant POS systems and software can also be used by other food and beverage businesses, such as cafes, food trucks, and bars.
Common features of restaurant POS systems
When comparing restaurant POS systems, it's important to understand the functionality included in each. Here are the most common features of restaurant POS systems:
Order entry | Ensures that orders, including any special modifiers, are easily, quickly and correctly entered and received by the bar and/or kitchen, while enabling split checks. |
Inventory management | Helps monitor inventory use and costs while tracking portioned items to determine food costs. Produces management reports to help detect theft and over-portioning while setting thresholds for minimum product counts and assigning automatic reordering. |
Recipe costing | Helps determine the monetary value of each batch and/or serving of a menu item to determine the actual costs and profitability for each dish. |
Customer management | Track customer purchase histories and follow up with targeted offers to valuable customers through email and text messages, while allowing for “opt outs” of future offers. Often supports a loyalty rewards program to build lucrative relationships with loyal customers. |
Tablet/iPad-based system | Provide an enhanced customer experience by reducing the amount of ordering and payment time. Servers have the ability to send an order directly to the kitchen while customers can input tips on the iPad and sign their names on the spot. |
A Restaurant POS reporting and analytics dashboard detailing orders, deliveries and sales (Source)
What type of buyer are you?
Whether you’re a pop-up or food trailer, single location or multiple location restaurant, there’s a type of restaurant POS system for every restaurant business.
Small restaurant business: If your operation consists of a single location, be it a fixed restaurant, a rotating pop-up, or a mobile food trailer, you'll be best served by a basic restaurant POS system. You'll be fine with limited hardware and fewer advanced features.
Midsize restaurant business: If you operate a high-volume, growing restaurant with one to five locations, you'll want a restaurant POS system that offers advanced features. These include reporting and analytics, inventory control and maybe even online ordering capabilities.
Large/enterprise restaurant business: Managers and operators of more than five locations should look for a restaurant POS option with advanced dashboards and analytics and multiple location management.
Pricing and purchasing options
POS systems for restaurants typically cost between $49 - $150 per month per terminal, while hardware costs can be as high as $1,000 for tablets, printers, network infrastructure, and cash drawers.
A big determinant of restaurant POS prices are the deployment options restaurant owners choose. The two primary options are:
Cloud-based POS software: These types of restaurant POS systems are typically charged on a subscription pricing structure, and priced on a per-terminal, per-month basis. Many vendors offer discounts to businesses that pay annually. Ideal for small or medium restaurants.
On-premise POS software: This is typically priced by the number of licenses and/or terminals required. Most of these systems require a large upfront fee for the right to use the software in perpetuity (rather than a monthly or annual subscription). This is better suited for restaurant businesses with five or more locations.
Market trends to understand
Increasing touchless payment methods: Several restaurant POS system providers are giving restaurant owners the ability to create a secure and touchless payment environment as a result of COVID-19. Options include using a fully PCI and EMV compliant pay-at-the-table device and/or the scanning of a QR code to launch a payment process that’s encrypted and touchless.
Growing gift cards as a revenue channel: As dining rooms across the U.S. are forced to close or operate at limited capacity, restaurants have had to turn to gift cards as one of their lifelines to generate revenue. The International Card Manufacturers Association predicts that the pandemic could see an increase in digital and contactless gift cards.