Best POS System for Restaurant Owners: Six Systems Compared by Price

The best POS system for a restaurant is the one whose total monthly cost fits your sales volume and whose features match how you serve: counter or table, one location or five, your own delivery or none. This guide compares six restaurant POS systems on the numbers they publish themselves (Toast, Square for Restaurants, Clover, Lightspeed, SpotOn and TouchBistro), explains how card processing changes the real price, and gives a short checklist for choosing.

Every price below was read on the vendor's own pricing page on November 3, 2026. Vendors change plans often, and several put part of the price behind a quote, so treat these figures as a starting point for your own call with sales.

What a restaurant POS costs: the four parts of the bill

Comparing POS systems by the headline monthly fee misses most of the cost. A restaurant POS bill usually has four parts:

1. Software subscription. A monthly fee per location, per terminal (station) or both. Add-ons such as a kitchen display, online ordering, loyalty or payroll are often priced separately.
2. Card processing. A percentage of each card payment plus a fixed amount per transaction, usually different for in-person, online and keyed-in payments.
3. Hardware. Terminals, handhelds, kitchen screens, printers, card readers. Bought upfront, financed or bundled into a higher monthly fee.
4. Contract terms. Minimum terms, processing minimums and early termination fees. A $0 plan with a two-year minimum is a different deal from a $0 plan you can leave any month.

Card processing deserves the most attention, because it grows with every sale. For a restaurant with $50,000 a month in card sales, a difference of 0.2 percentage points in the in-person rate is $100 a month, about twice the $49 monthly fee of Square's Plus plan. Before you compare anything else, estimate your monthly card volume and average ticket, because the fixed per-transaction cents weigh much more on a small ticket: on Square's in-person rate, 15¢ is about 1.7% of a $9 coffee order and about 0.17% of a $90 dinner check.

Restaurant POS pricing compared

Sources for each row are in the sections below.

Toast

Toast's pricing page (marked as last updated on August 20, 2026) lists four options:

• Starter Kit: starting at $0 per month, for single-location restaurants that need one or two terminals, with a hardware kit and no upfront cost.
• Point of Sale: starting at $69 per month, a software subscription where you choose your own hardware.
• Build Your Own: custom pricing through a quote.
• POS plus Payroll: starting at $69 per month plus $9 per employee per month.

The page notes that pricing includes the first hardware terminal subscription, that additional devices cost extra, and that the prices apply to new customers and single locations only. It does not print a card processing rate; it describes a “simple, flat rate” and leaves the number to the quote. The FAQ says upfront costs cover hardware and implementation, which vary, and that 0% interest financing is available by application.

Fits: single-location restaurants that want to start on a $0 hardware kit, or that want POS and payroll from one vendor, and are comfortable getting the processing rate in a quote.

Square for Restaurants

Square's restaurant pricing page is the most complete of the six. The monthly fee is $0 on Free, $49 per location on Plus and $149 per location on Premium.

Card rates fall as the plan rises:

Add-ons are priced per device: a kitchen display costs $30 per month on Plus and $20 on Premium, and a kiosk $99 per month per device. Hardware starts at $59. Sellers processing over $250,000 a year can ask for custom pricing through Square Pro.

On $40,000 a month of in-person card sales, the drop from 2.6% on Free to 2.5% on Plus saves $40 a month in percentage fees, less than the $49 Plus fee. The case for Plus rests on its features, or on volume high enough for the rate to pay for it.

Fits: cafés, counter-service spots and smaller restaurants that want to start at $0 a month and see every rate before signing.

Clover

Clover's full-service restaurant pricing bundles hardware with the Restaurant Growth software plan in three tiers:

• Starter: $179 per month for 36 months, or $1,799 upfront plus $89.95 per month.
• Standard: $239 per month for 36 months, or $2,548 upfront plus $109.90 per month.
• Advanced: $354 per month for 36 months, or $4,447 upfront plus $129.85 per month.

Processing on all three tiers is 2.3% plus 10¢ for cards tapped, swiped or inserted, and 3.5% plus 10¢ for card details typed in. Clover prices quick-service restaurants on a separate page.

Fits: restaurants that prefer one predictable payment covering hardware and software, and that are ready to commit for three years.

Lightspeed Restaurant

Lightspeed's restaurant pricing page shows three plans at $69, $189 and $399 (Starter, Essential and Premium) without a billing period next to the figures, plus an Enterprise plan by quote. Integrated payments are the default on Starter and custom on the higher plans, and the page does not print processing rates. A kitchen display is $30 per screen per month. The page adds that prices may vary with the nature of the business and the industry, so ask sales which billing period and payment terms the listed prices assume.

Fits: restaurants ready to get a quote for processing, and groups large enough to ask for the Enterprise plan.

SpotOn

SpotOn's pricing page offers two published plans and a custom one:

• All-In Plan: $0 per station per month, card-present payments at 2.79% plus 20¢, keyed-in at 3.79% plus 20¢, hardware included, with a two-year minimum term and processing minimums.
• POS Essentials: $55 per station per month, card-present payments at 2.45% plus 15¢ (American Express 3.19% plus 15¢), keyed-in at 3.45% plus 15¢, month to month, with hardware and implementation charged separately.
• Build Your Own: custom rates and pricing.

The two published plans trade a lower monthly fee against a higher rate. On $50,000 a month of card-present sales, the 0.34-point gap between 2.79% and 2.45% comes to $170 a month before the per-transaction cents, which is more than three stations on POS Essentials at $55 each.

Fits: restaurants and bars that want hardware without an upfront payment, or high-volume venues that can make the lower-rate plan pay off.

TouchBistro

TouchBistro's pricing page lists the Point of Sale plan starting at $69 per month, with a footnote that hardware, payment processing and additional fees apply. The Essentials Bundle starts at $119 per month and includes restaurant-grade hardware. A Custom Setup is available through a quote. The page does not state processing rates or whether the price is per terminal, and offers hardware financing for venues with two or more terminals.

Fits: restaurants that want hardware and software in one monthly price on the Essentials Bundle, and are fine with processing quoted separately.

How to choose a POS system for your restaurant

Use the table for a shortlist, then run these steps on your own numbers, in order.

1. Estimate your monthly card volume and average ticket. Multiply each vendor's rate by your volume and add the per-transaction cents times your number of transactions. This line usually decides the ranking.
2. Count every device you need, from terminals and server handhelds to kitchen screens and a kiosk. Per-station and per-device pricing adds up quickly in a large dining room.
3. Read the term. Note the minimum term, any processing minimums and the cost of leaving early. A plan with no monthly fee and a two-year term ties you to its rate for two years.
4. List the add-ons you will really use, such as online ordering, delivery integrations, loyalty, payroll or inventory, and price them on the vendor's page or ask for them in the quote.
5. Check the service model. Table service needs coursing, seat numbers, split checks and handhelds. Counter service needs speed and a clear kitchen display.
6. Ask about data export. Your menu, sales history and guest list should leave with you if you switch.
7. Test it at the pass. A demo in a quiet office is different from a Friday night. Ask for a trial or a reference restaurant of your size.

Some restaurants split the job: a POS for payments at the counter, and a separate layer for guests who order and pay from the table. inite.food, for example, covers QR ordering, a kitchen display, table management, split bills and tips, which matters if most of your orders already come from guests' phones.

Types of restaurant POS systems

Toast's own blog describes five types of POS systems for restaurants: cloud-based, on-premise, hybrid, mobile, and self-service or kiosk.

The 30/30/30 rule and your POS budget

CHEF'STORE, a restaurant supply retailer, describes the 30/30/30 rule as a budgeting guideline, sometimes called 30/30/30/10: about 30% of revenue to food, 30% to labor, 30% to overhead and 10% left as profit. Your POS subscription, hardware and card processing all sit in the overhead share, which is one more reason to calculate processing on your real volume instead of comparing monthly fees.

Summary

On published prices, Square prints its rates on the page (custom pricing exists above $250,000 a year) and starts at $0, Toast and SpotOn offer $0 starting plans with conditions, Clover bundles hardware into a 36-month payment, and Lightspeed and TouchBistro start around $69 per month with processing quoted separately. Price your own card volume against each published rate, count your devices, read the term, and test the system on a busy service before you sign.