6 Best Quick Service POS Systems For Restaurants

The Essential plan offers great online ordering for in-store pickup and delivery plus advanced inventory management.

The best paid add-ons for fast-casual restaurants include kitchen display system software, self-ordering kiosks that you can station on stands or at tables, and customer order-status screens.

Order-status screens show customers when their orders are being prepared and when they are ready for pickup at a pickup counter. This is great for restaurants that offer online ordering for pickup and third-party platform ordering for pickup.

Lightspeed offers many useful features for quick service restaurants, including:

• Quick service single-screen ordering mode
• Manage all order types (takeout, delivery, sit-down, etc.) on a single screen
• Menu builder with quick combo builder
• Self-order kiosk option
• Customer loyalty app available on all plans
• Order and pay at table
• Social media marketing

Lightspeed Restaurant hardware is all iPad-based. You can use iPads as countertop POS screens, self-ordering screens (on a stand at a table), and kitchen display screens. You may connect your POS to a monitor or Apple TV to show customer order statuses.

Lightspeed’s hardware typically runs from $129 – $519.

It’s important to purchase your card reader (Lightspeed supports Verifone products) from Lightspeed to make sure your Lightspeed Payments account is configured correctly with the hardware.

We advise contacting Lightspeed to get a custom quote on a hardware bundle.

Lightspeed has its own processing program, Lightspeed Payments. Its fees are 2.6% + $0.10 for card-present transactions or 2.6% + $0.30 for card-not-present transactions for business owners on the Essential plan.

Those on the Premium plan can get a custom payment processing rate, which should be lower than the rate offered on lower-level plans.

Lightspeed lists monthly costs but will have you fill out a custom order form, which will dictate your payment period. You could be charged monthly or annually for a predefined amount of time.

However, Lightspeed does charge an early termination fee if you decide to cancel your subscription early, and hardware return windows are short, so start with a monthly plan until you’re sure Lightspeed is the POS for your restaurant.

Newer business owners should stick to the free plan until they have more complex menu and inventory management requirements, require full-service restaurant features like course management and floor planning, need more business reports, and/or want to use the Square mobile ordering kit. The relatively low inventory and menu management requirements and great price make Square one of the best coffee shop POS systems.

Square for Restaurants includes these best QSR POS software features:

• Free online ordering site for delivery & pickup
• Unlimited devices & locations
• Online gift cards
• Deliverect & Chowly third-party ordering and delivery integrations
• QR code payments
• Conversational modifiers
• Kitchen performance reports
• Auto-86-ing & item counts

You can use the Square For Restaurants POS app on most iPads.

To take payments, you’ll need at least a first-generation Square Card Reader. This will allow you to take chip and tap card payments, mobile wallet payments, and digital payment apps, such as Apple Pay and Google Pay.

Countertop POS options include the all-in-one Square Register with customer-facing display and Square Stand for iPad. Equipment costs range from $0 – 799.

All Square plans come with Square Payments, the company’s built-in flat-rate payment processor. You’ll be charged a payment processing fee of 2.6% + $0.10 for in-store payments and 2.9% + $0.30 for online payments.

Square has incredibly transparent monthly subscriptions with no early termination fees. The company also has a great hardware warranty. It will cover Square hardware from the company website and third-party companies.

The only downside is that because Square is a payment services provider, you won’t have the stability of a dedicated merchant account. This can potentially lead to issues like funding holds and even sudden account terminations for some merchants.

Most small businesses can manage without a merchant account, but once you hit a certain sales threshold, it can be more cost-effective to move on to a QSR POS provider that offers negotiable payment processing fees or the option to integrate with your own payment processor.

Revel used to advertise the above plan, which has a two-terminal minimum and a three-year contract with Revel. However, the company no longer advertises this and instead requires every business owner to get a custom quote.

Keep in mind that Revel is for larger businesses, and larger businesses will always have to pay more than the average monthly bill to get all the front-end and back-office POS features they need. Some of Revel’s clients include Cinnabon, Auntie Anne’s, and Kung Fu Tea.

There’s also a one-time implementation fee starting at $674. This fee covers on-site hardware installation and an initial software setup, which you can customize as needed with your Revel account representative.

Some of our favorite Revel Systems QSR POS features include:

• Advanced employee management
• Customizable loyalty program
• Mobile order takers
• Self-order iPad kiosks
• Full offline mode with offline credit card processing
• Native online ordering solution
• In-house delivery with driver tracking
• Direct DoorDash integration

Revel offers everything you need to get your business up and running, including individual iPads, stands, printers, and card readers. The website doesn’t list prices, but you can contact Revel directly for packages.

All of Revel’s hardware is iPad-based. Some choices include a countertop POS with an iPad customer display option, iPads for tableside ordering, and self-service kiosks.

Revel offers its own in-house payment processing system, Revel Advantage. You will have to contact Revel for a custom payment processing quote based on your business’s sales volume, average ticket size, and time in business, among other factors.

You also have the choice to integrate your POS with third-party payment processors, such as Adyen or FreedomPay. You will face an extra monthly fee if you choose a third-party provider over Revel Advantage, but the payment processing rates from a third-party provider may be worth this added cost.

You need to sign up for a three-year deal and agree to use Revel Advantage to get the best monthly subscription price, but this isn’t a requirement to use Revel’s services.

There is a substantial early termination fee, so consider negotiating a short-term plan over a longer contract until you’re sure Revel is the right QSR POS for your restaurant.

Toast offers a $0 down, pay-as-you-go Quick Start Bundle plan. While you pay $0/month in subscription fees, you will pay a lot in payment processing fees. You can also only have one free POS terminal on this plan, which is not ideal for mid-size restaurants.

We recommend starting with at least the Core plan, which does require you to pay for your Android-based hardware upfront but will save you a lot of money in payment processing fees.

Restaurants that are planning to scale fast but have no upfront capital to invest in hardware should consider signing up for the Quick Start Bundle plan, and then bumping up to a paid plan (with more POS systems) as quickly as possible. Alternatively, restaurant owners interested in Toast may consider getting one of these best small business loans to get hardware now and pay for it over time.

Toast offers a Restaurant Basics plan for new restaurants, which includes everything in the Standard package plus employee scheduling, payroll, 401(k)s, and business insurance.

The Growth plan includes the Toast digital ordering and delivery platform (you can get this as a paid add-on if you’re on the Core plan).

These are some of Toast’s quick service POS features:

• Direct integrations with DoorDash, UberEats, & Grubhub
• In-house delivery suite
• Digital menus
• Mobile order-and-pay
• Toast Takeout app
• Extensive employee management options
• XtraCHEF restaurant costing tools

Toast is one of the best Android POS systems, and the software is compatible only with Toast’s proprietary line of Android POS hardware. Android-based POS systems are generally more durable than iPad-based systems. Toast hardware is very spill-proof and heat-resistant.

Toast hardware ranges from $0+ if you agree to a higher processing rate.

On the pay-as-you-go Quick Start Bundle plan, you can get the countertop or handheld POS for no upfront cost and no monthly fees, as long as you agree to pay higher per-transaction payment processing fees.

In general, we do not recommend the pay-as-you-go plan because the higher per-order fees will cost you more than the original price of the hardware once you get in enough orders.

If you can, pay for your POS hardware upfront. Otherwise, look into equipment financing to help you cover the costs of the restaurant hardware you need in your establishment.

You must use Toast’s payment processor, and you’ll get a custom payment processing rate unless you purchase a Starter Kit, which includes hardware and fixed payment processing fees.

That fixed fee ranges from 2.49% + $0.15 If you add online ordering to the Starter plan, you’ll pay an extra 0.40% per transaction, whether the order is made online or in person.

Toast requires a two-year processing contract that includes an early termination fee. Toast also reserves the right to increase your price during the duration of your contract.

talech pricing ranges from $0 – $99/month. The Standard plan is recommended for QSRs. You can add online ordering to your Standard package or subscribe to the  “Premium” package, which includes online ordering, among other extra features, like a POS QuickBooks integration.

Some of the many QSR features you get with talech include:

• Custom order types (dine-in, takeout, third-party delivery service order, etc.)
• Commission-free online ordering website
• QR code generation for contactless ordering
• Supplier tracking
• Labor cost reporting
• Kiosk mode
• Customer-facing display
• Gift cards
• Curbside pickup management

talech offers bundles for restaurants and individual hardware items for sale, with both iPad and Android options. Some options include Elo PayPoint countertop POS systems, Poynt handheld ordering and payments devices, and handheld Ingenico MOBY devices. Call a talech rep to get complete pricing.

talech has its own in-house payment processing solution as well as an unintegrated solution that allows you to take payments with a separate card reader from your own merchant services provider (typically a Verifone or Ingenico card reader).

Since the company does not list its payment processing fees, restaurant owners will have to contact a representative for a quote if they want to use talech’s integrated payment processor.

talech offers monthly and annual plans, and you can deactivate at any time with no penalty.

The listed pricing is with Lavu’s cash discount program (the Dual Pay program), which requires you to pass payment processing fees onto your customers when they use a card to pay. You must sign a 36-month contract to use the cash discount program.

If you choose not to use the cash discount program but still use Lavu’s in-house payment processing, you’ll be charged an additional monthly fee.

If you decide not to use Lavu for payment processing and pay month-to-month, plans can range from $59/month – $388/month.

All plans come with one register. Extra registers cost $50/month/register.

The Starter plan includes the core POS, a loyalty program, a Bluetooth scale plugin, inventory management, and team management.

The Growth plan includes online ordering, QR code ordering, DoorDash delivery integration, and API access, so you can integrate Lavu with any other third-party software you want.

The Optimize plan includes tableside ordering, kitchen display system software, invoice management software, and QuickBooks integrations.

Lavu comes with a suite of quick service POS software features:

• Dedicated quick-serve mode for quick order entry
• Digital menu boards
• Self-order kiosks
• iPad KDS
• MenuDrive online ordering & delivery
• Direct DoorDash integration
• Cash discount program with dual pricing

Lavu offers numerous hardware options, including:

• iPad Device
• iPad Stand
• Kitchen Display Bundle includes Epson kitchen display screen, kitchen printer, and bump bar

The equipment ranges in price from $55 – $2,500. Lavu POS is compatible with PAX, Verifone, and Ingenico card readers. It is also compatible with Tor Rey L-EQ Bluetooth scales, RFID card readers and scanners from Epson, and receipt/kitchen printers from Epson and Star Micronics.

Lavu has its own processing program that you are incentivized to use but not locked into. You’ll need to contact Lavu directly to get your best rate.

The company has recently updated its pricing to the point where it probably isn’t worth it to find your own payment processor, but it may be worth it to get quotes from third-party payment processors and bring those numbers to Lavu to negotiate the best rates for your business.

Lavu does require a contract but doesn’t list contract length information on its website. Users of the service say they were required to sign a one to three-year contract.