Managing a restaurant requires wearing many different hats. From handling counter sales, keeping a watchful eye over inventory, ensuring finances are handled accurately, it’s a lot to juggle. And of course, throughout it all, there must also be a constant focus on improving and enhancing the customer experience alongside the other responsibilities.
Without a system in place, it’s often a challenge for restaurants to increase profitability while still having oversight into every part of the business and create the best customer experience possible. One part of the business always tends to struggle, and owners cannot be everywhere at once.
Managing a restaurant requires wearing many different hats. From handling counter sales, keeping a watchful eye over inventory, ensuring finances are handled accurately, it’s a lot to juggle. And of course, throughout it all, there must also be a constant focus on improving and enhancing the customer experience alongside the other responsibilities.
Without a system in place, it’s often a challenge for restaurants to increase profitability while still having oversight into every part of the business and create the best customer experience possible. One part of the business always tends to struggle, and owners cannot be everywhere at once.
For restaurants looking to manage all of these different aspects in a single, streamlined way, a restaurant point of sale (POS) system can make a huge impact. With one solution in place, restaurants can have more control and oversight into every aspect of the business and provide customers with a seamless and unique experience. And research shows that doing so makes a difference – businesses that can provide a seamless and personalized customer experience see a 47% uplift in buying activity.
Best Restaurant Point of Sale Systems
- Toast POS
- Oracle
- ShopKeep
- Square for Restaurants
- PayPal Zettle
- Epos Now
- Clover POS
- TouchBistro POS
- Revel POS
- Upserve POS
What are the main features restaurant point of sale systems offer?
Restaurant point of sale systems includes key features to help manage each aspect of the business, including:
Order entry and tracking: All orders are entered through the system using custom menu design features and allow for tracking to ensure that customers receive their orders on time.
Cloud integration: Cloud integration makes it easier to access and store data since everything is saved to remote servers and can be accessed on any device with an internet connection.
Employee scheduling and timekeeping: Managing shifts, designing schedules, and keeping track of time can be incredibly challenging, but POS systems can help you streamline all of these different elements into one place.
Data reporting and analytics: The best way to grow your business is through using the accurate data and analytics that your POS provides across different areas such as ordering trends, delivery time, customer satisfaction, and more.
Online ordering: POS systems offer easy and customizable menu options so that customers can order on a phone or computer device, and it comes through straight to your POS – reducing chances of manual errors and miscommunications.
Other features can also include:
- Menu creation
- Table management
- Inventory management
- Payment processing
- Gift and loyalty card management
- Customer relationship management
This is by no means an exhaustive list, but these are some of the common features to look out for when evaluating point of sales systems. A POS can give you a more holistic view of the business while also offering more flexibility. All of this not only helps your restaurant grow but also provides customers with a consistently great experience. That, coupled with increased functions for personalization, allows your restaurant to stand out in a crowded market and capture and retain customer attention.
To help you find the best POS for your restaurant, we’ve compiled a list of the best restaurant point of sale systems and key features that make them a great fit for restaurant businesses.
Toast POS
Order entry and tracking – Yes
Cloud integration – Yes
Employee scheduling and timekeeping – Yes
Data reporting and analytics – Yes
Having the right hardware – Yes
Pricing – Available on request
Free trial – Yes
With over 40,000 restaurants using Toast POS, it’s clearly designed to help make restaurant businesses better. Toast POS is consistently ranked as one of the best restaurant POS currently available on the market and offers a lot of valuable features.
Restaurants have access to 24/7 support and Toast POS’s site also claims they see stronger business performance overall by at least 10-30% compared to peers. Furthermore, restaurants can also reduce delivery costs through low-cost delivery features and save up to 80% on third-party delivery commissions.
With Toast POS, restaurants can manage on-premise and off-premise order sources in a single system and use restaurant-grade POS hardware to improve the customer experience. Their hardware offerings include a standard POS, handheld POS ordering system for table service, and self-service kiosks. Plus, it also includes features to help manage inventory, table turnover, employee timekeeping, and payroll seamlessly and within minutes.
Their platform also includes marketing tools such as email marketing, loyalty programs, and gift cards to provide additional value to customers while creating new avenues for growth. And as the business grows, Toast point of sales systems offers a variety of packages to help scale the business on the platform, with additional features added as needed.
Features are also available to manage deliveries and takeout that restaurants can do on their own and integrate with third-party delivery services as well.
The Toast POS can be used for both single kitchen and multiple kitchen management and is suitable for a variety of restaurant types. For example, their full technology suite can be used for fine dining or simplifying bar and nightclub operations through fast payroll and payment processing. Additionally, casual dining, fast-casual restaurants, food trucks, and bakeries can all use Toast POS features to help increase revenue and use their analytics and data features to identify opportunities for further growth.
Oracle
Order entry and tracking – Yes
Cloud integration – Yes
Employee scheduling and timekeeping – Yes
Data reporting and analytics – Yes
Having the right hardware – Yes
Pricing – Available on request
Free trial – Yes
Oracle is one of the leading technology providers out there and has consistently been seen as a leader amongst restaurant POS, and it’s easy to see why. Oracle is one of the best options if you’re looking for a system to help you align guest experience and back-of-house operations to create the best experience possible for customers.
Oracle’s platform is built to help you strengthen customer relationships with its innovative features. Using the Oracle restaurant point of sales system, you can accept different types of payments to offer more flexibility to customers.
Their platform also includes features for more oversight into business performance. This includes optimizing the delivery experience to ensure that online orders are connected to the kitchen and order accuracy for drive-thru, curbside, and deliveries. Having features like this ensure that back-of-house operations are operating their best and that customers have the best experience by providing accurate delivery times.
In addition, using the data and analytics features available, restaurants are better positioned to retain new customers and encourage more direct deliveries over third-party delivery partners. While third-party deliveries are a vital revenue stream, restaurant point of sale systems such as Oracle can help with diversifying revenue sources.
The Oracle restaurant POS is used in over 180 countries, with more than 300,000 locations using the system. Every minute, 25,000 transactions are processed in the system, highlighting its sheer use. And every year, there is an estimated $140B worth of transactions taking place in the system.
All of these features combined can help you scale your restaurant business without compromising on quality or performance. The usage statistics above demonstrate the sheer volume of food and beverage businesses using the system and how customers can benefit from the system.
Using a restaurant POS, customer satisfaction rates remain consistently high, and businesses can run a profitable, lean kitchen that operates at its best capacity. These features also help boost employee satisfaction and retention rates, which is also a massive benefit for restaurants.
ShopKeep
Order entry and tracking – Yes
Cloud integration – Yes
Employee scheduling and timekeeping – Yes
Data reporting and analytics – Yes
Having the right hardware – Yes
Pricing – Available on request
Free trial – No, free demos available
The ShopKeep point of sale system offers tools to manage your business and its current-day operations, as well as tools to help it grow for the future. ShopKeep offers its own hardware and comes with 24/7 support to make it as easy as possible to use for your restaurant. In addition, their payment systems offer lower processing fees, as well as e-commerce solutions for restaurants looking to create omnichannel experiences.
ShopKeep also offers contactless features, including digital menus and phone payment options to reduce the need for cumbersome hardware and create a smooth customer experience. Not only does this help improve turnover rates, but it also keeps the restaurant running efficiently even with less staff on hand.
The ShopKeep point of sale systems include features that span across all aspects of the business, including delivery and order ahead integrations, customer loyalty, gift cards programs, bookkeeping and accounting, and self-order menus.
Coupled with easy-to-use display systems for the customer-facing side and the kitchen, the ShopKeep system is designed for ultimate ease while making operations seamless. For example, customers can see their orders using the customer-facing display, enabling better transparency and accuracy for kitchen staff while improving customer satisfaction. Plus, restaurants can customize the customer-facing display with restaurant branding and provide a pricing breakdown and simple visual imagery. These features ensure that customers can order smoothly and easily, while staying consistent with branding and marketing efforts.
The point of sale system also offers features for online reservation booking, floor planning, and shift scheduling, making it easier to plan resource and employee time based on customer demand and peak times. For businesses that also sell merchandise alongside, the ShopKeep point of sale system also features eCommerce capabilities to create additional revenue streams for your business.
Square for restaurants
Order entry and tracking – Yes
Cloud integration – Yes
Employee scheduling and timekeeping – Yes
Data reporting and analytics – Yes
Having the right hardware – Yes
Pricing – Free for one location, $60 and upwards for multiple locations
Free trial – Yes
Managing lunch and dinner rush time can be incredibly difficult for restaurants and can have a negative impact on the customer experience. Square for Restaurants ensures that businesses can manage peak hours better across different restaurant types, including quick service, full-service, fast-casual, bars and breweries, and ghost kitchens.
They offer a comprehensive point of sale system for restaurants that includes some great features. Square is one of the most commonly used POS systems across retail, and it’s effective for flexible payment options.
Their system also allows for mobile payments tableside or in line, making it easier for customers to pay for orders without unnecessarily waiting. Their system also offers other features such as accurate ticketing to help kitchen staff get through orders efficiently with fewer errors and a free online site to accept takeaway and delivery orders. Their kitchen display system is one of their core offerings for restaurants looking to boost efficiency and order accuracy – all incredibly important for increasing profitability in both the long-term and short-term.
Orders are synced between the front and back of the house with a direct link, ensuring little room for error. Their kitchen display system also allows for customization, so restaurants can set up ticket layouts, timers, and notifications to match their own style and reduce any confusion for staff. And alongside all of these features, the system also offers reports with insights on prep times and more to help boost operations further.
Square for Restaurants makes it easy to update menus, streamline the ordering process altogether, and provide detailed analytics to help businesses grow. Square is also known for its easy setup process, so training employees to use the POS will be simple, and they also offer 24/7 technical support for users.
PayPal Zettle
Order entry and tracking – Yes
Cloud integration – Yes
Employee scheduling and timekeeping – Yes
Data reporting and analytics – Yes
Having the right hardware – Yes
Pricing – Available on request
Free trial – Yes
PayPal has always been one of the best options for payment processing, and they have now extended their features to create a restaurant POS app that goes alongside their payment hardware.
Using PayPal Zettle’s mobile card reader, you can accept card and contactless payments with ease. The reader can process about 100 transactions before the battery needs to be charged, allowing for some flexibility.
In addition, restaurants can pair the PayPal Zettle card reader with the PayPal point of sale app to utilize additional features to help your restaurant run smoothly. Reports also include analytics on staff productivity, transaction overviews, identifying refunds, and top-selling products.
The PayPal Zettle point of sale system for restaurants can be used to gain more control and oversight into operations. The system logs all orders and can send automatic reports in real-time so that constant information and data is coming through around what is working and where improvements are needed.
It also features inventory management as a key part of the system to ensure that restaurants do not overstock items and ingredients. Furthermore, these features are all incredibly valuable in providing a consistent and satisfactory customer experience while providing flexibility for payments.
Managing inventory can often be challenging for operations looking to increase profitability, and the Paypal Zettle system can be incredibly beneficial for that. The inventory management aspect of the POS is one of the mainstays, and it includes the ability to bulk import products, label them correctly, update stock levels, and add and scan bar codes.
Epos Now
Order entry and tracking – Yes
Cloud integration – Yes
Employee scheduling and timekeeping – Yes
Data reporting and analytics – Yes
Having the right hardware – Yes
Pricing – Available on request
Free trial – Yes
EPOS prides itself on being an all-inclusive point of sale system for restaurants that encompasses all the features needed for successful management.
The EPOS system consists of features that help restaurants adapt to customer changes, gain and retain customers while increasing profits. On the staff and employee side, the system contains features to help make set up, onboarding, and training staff a faster process. It can also help manage online delivery and connect orders across multiple channels, streamlining the process while giving you full visibility.
The EPOS system also offers further oversight via analytics and reports on staff, customers, sales, profit margins, and stocks for a more holistic view of operations. It is an all-inclusive solution that’s suitable for small, medium, and multi-location restaurants looking for a streamlined restaurant management solution.
The EPOS system also has some flexibility when it comes to payment processing. For example, restaurants can use standalone apps or connect to other apps for payment systems, accounting software, and more, depending on needs. This gives businesses the option to migrate existing payment apps so that no data is lost, or customers can start to use the standalone features to start managing payments quickly.
Along with the payment hardware, the EPOS system also features more specific measures designed for restaurants. That includes the ability to link orders between the front and back of the house to help increase sales, manage table turnover, and improve order accuracy. In addition, businesses can integrate the EPOS restaurant point of sale system with third-party delivery apps to reach more customers and manage orders from one solution.
As it’s cloud-based, restaurants can access data anywhere. The system also has a CRM to help manage promotions and improve customer loyalty rates to improve marketing efforts and drive value.
Clover POS
Order entry and tracking – Only for delivery
Cloud integration – Yes
Employee scheduling and timekeeping – No
Data reporting and analytics – No
Having the right hardware – Yes
Pricing – Available on request
Free trial – Yes
Clover point of sale systems for restaurants are designed to help businesses hit the ground running. Businesses can avail of their fast and free overnight shipping offer so that payments can be accepted within one business day using their hardware. Clover also offers consistently low rates for all credit cards, including AMEX, making it appealing for restaurants that want to increase profits.
There are four Clover POS devices available depending on business needs. Small restaurants can use the Clover Mini to accept payments, while the Go device can accept contactless and mobile payments. The Flex device is available for behind-the-counter payments, and the Station Duo is a more powerful option for front and back counter payment processing.
Using the Clover mobile app, businesses can also accept delivery orders to add additional revenue streams. It has a simple setup and process so that businesses can prepare their menu, hours and add additional information as needed within minutes.
As Clover is cloud-based, changes are automatically synced, making it easier to add new items and options. Additionally, restaurants can receive and fulfill online orders through the app, reducing some of the dependence on third-party apps. For restaurants looking to grow their business, this is a great feature that can help with diversifying revenue streams.
Additionally, the Clover app also offers rewards and loyalty capabilities, including promos, discounts, and feedback programs to get more insight from customers.
TouchBistro POS
Order entry and tracking – Yes
Cloud integration – Yes
Employee scheduling and timekeeping – Yes
Data reporting and analytics – Yes
Having the right hardware – Yes
Pricing – Starting at $69 per month
Free trial – No
Ranked as one of the best points of sale systems for restaurants, Touchbisto has a lot to offer. An all-in-one platform, Touchbistro is fast, reliable, and simple to use for all kinds of restaurants. Furthermore, Touchbistro offers features for both customer engagement and restaurant operations, with add-ons available depending on needs.
On the customer engagement side, Touchbistro has features to manage reservations on the customer engagement side, making it easy for customers to book tables and giving management tools to manage capacity better.
Touchbistro also includes delivery capabilities, allowing restaurants to manage and deliver orders themselves ratehr than relying on third-party providers. Although processing and delivery fees apply when using Touchbistro, restaurants still enjoy increased profits while using their system.
Touchbistro also has options for restaurants looking to improve customer engagement and retention, including physical and digital gift card offerings and customer loyalty schemes. With all of these features, Touchbistro aims to deliver maximum value for restaurants. Using their restaurant point of sale system, users can increase sales through on and off-premise orders, encourage repeat business, and turn tables faster. And with all of this in mind, using these features can also help increase the average check size per table through the increased efficiency and oversight.
Touchbistro also aims to create a fantastic guest experience that restaurants can pride themselves on. Through their features, restaurants can have better order accuracy, reduce wait times and offer more flexibility where customers order food and through what method.
The system also includes analytics and data to help restaurants gain a deeper understanding of financials and operations, including identifying cost-saving measures, inventory management, staff performance monitoring, and much more.
Revel POS
Order entry and tracking – Yes
Cloud integration – Yes
Employee scheduling and timekeeping – Yes
Data reporting and analytics – Yes
Having the right hardware – Yes
Pricing – Available on request
Free trial – Yes
Revel Systems has designed its point of sale to balance business management and immediate day-to-day needs. The Revel point of sale system enables a better customer experience that restaurants can take pride in while diversifying revenue streams and scaling as needed. The Revel POS can help restaurants expand and grow while still delivering the best experience possible for customers.
Revel Systems restaurant point of sale system includes features such as tableside ordering, floor plan and general table management, and employee management and scheduling. Revel’s POS can help make front-of-house and back-of-house operations more seamless, thereby improving order accuracy and the guest experience. For employees, the POS can help make turning tables efficient and easy while providing ample flexibility for shift scheduling and managing resources.
Cloud-based restaurants can use the Revel platform on iPads and other devices, making it easy to deploy and rapidly scale as the business grows. It’s easy to use and is updated regularly to ensure that restaurants always have the features they need to operate successfully. The platform also has extensive data and analytics capabilities, which is crucial for restaurants that are looking to rapidly expand while still having oversight over each aspect of the business.
Upserve POS
Order entry and tracking – Yes
Cloud integration – Yes
Employee scheduling and timekeeping – Yes
Data reporting and analytics – Yes
Having the right hardware – Yes
Pricing – Starts at $59
Free trial – Yes
Upserve has now been acquired by restaurant point of sale giant Lightspeed but still retains its best-in-class features, making it one of the best POS available. An all-in-one solution, restaurants can use Upserve for payment processing, point of sale and gain valuable insight to understand operations better.
Upserve also includes features to help restaurants boost their profit margins, such as inventory management, flexible payment processing, bill splitting, and contactless payments, reservation systems, and more. There are also free resources available for restaurant owners seeking advice and insight into improving operations and increasing profitability available on their website.
Combined with their deep insight and analytic tools, Upserve allows restaurants more control and oversight into operations, helping them spot opportunities for growth and improvement. The platform also has a menu intelligence feature to help restaurants identify best-selling items and low performers to adjust menus accordingly.
Upserve also has features to help track and manage employee shifts, productivity, and table turnover to boost efficiency for operations while saving time and money. The platform is also known for its easy implementation and use. Upserve users also have access to 24/7 support as needed.