6 Best Quick Serve POS Systems To Keep Up With Your Busy Restaurant

Why We Chose Lightspeed Restaurant Quick Serve POS

Lightspeed Restaurant is a growing POS company that offers a thoughtfully designed iPad POS designed specifically for restaurants, with a dedicated quick-serve mode. As its name implies, Lightspeed's restaurant POS system is very fast, which is essential in the quick-serve business.

In addition to its quick serve software features, which include built-in online ordering and delivery, Lightspeed also integrates with numerous other restaurant software and third-party delivery apps to expand your system even further. Lightspeed also boasts some of the best POS inventory management available. For all these reasons, Lightspeed is our favorite all-around quick serve POS.

Lightspeed Quick Serve POS Pricing

Lightspeed Restaurant pricing starts at $69/month. However, to get this price, you'll need to commit to an annual contract. Month-to-month pricing starts at $90/month. Optional paid add-ons include online ordering, kitchen display system, customer display system, self-order table menu, delivery integration, advanced inventory management, multi-location management, QR code ordering, and others.

Lightspeed Quick Serve POS Features

Lightspeed offers many useful features for quick-serve:

• Quick serve 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-facing loyalty app
• Order and pay at table
• Social media marketing

Hardware Cost

Lightspeed hardware kits are quote-based, but the system uses standard iPad POS hardware, which you can source yourself if desired.

Payment Processing

Lightspeed Payments charges 2.6% + $0.10 for in-person payments and 2.9% + $0.30 for online orders. You also have the option to integrate a non-Lightspeed payment processor.

Contract Requirements/Warnings

As mentioned, Lightspeed requires a one-year contract in order to get the best price. However, you do still have the option to pay month-to-month (at a higher price),

Why We Chose Square Quick Serve POS

Square For Restaurants is probably the easiest quick serve POS system to set up and start selling with, making this free POS a great choice for a new quick-service restaurant that doesn't have a merchant account yet (or doesn't want to go through the hassle of setting one up). Being a third-party payment processor, Square eliminates most of the underwriting involved in setting up a merchant account and gets you up and going in just a day or two.

Square Quick Serve POS Pricing

There is a free version of Square for Restaurants that many quick serve restaurants will find suitable, but if you need more advanced restaurant functionality, such as kitchen display system devices, floor plan customization, and shift reports, you should opt for the $60/month "Plus" plan.

Square Quick Serve POS Features

Square for Restaurants includes these and other quick serve restaurant software features:

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

Hardware Cost

You can use Square to sell on any mobile device, though they also have their own affordable POS equipment, such as Square Register ($799 without peripherals like cash drawer) and Square Stand for iPad ($149, plus cost of iPad), both of which work great for quick-serve restaurants.

Payment Processing

All Square plans come with built-in flat-rate payment processing at 2.6% + $0.10 (2.9% + $0.30 for online payments/CNP) and no chargeback fees.

Contract Requirements/Warnings

Square is month-to-month with no contract. The only downside is that because Square is a third-party payment processor, 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.

Why We Chose Revel Quick Serve POS

Revel Systems' iPad POS is known for its advanced feature set that makes it suitable even for national franchises such as Cinnabon. Revel couples robust back-office features with excellent front-end quick service software to reliably keep sales moving fast, even if the internet goes out. Revel is powerful, customizable, and scaleable, with numerous hardware and software options, including features for specific QSR types such as drive-thrus and pizzerias.

Revel Quick Serve POS Pricing

Revel is not the cheapest quick serve POS system, with pricing starting at $99/month/terminal with a two-terminal minimum. However, many restaurants, especially those switching from an expensive PC-based system, may find Revel's POS system cost worth it when considering the advanced, modern feature set.

Revel Quick Serve POS Features

Some of our favorite Revel Systems quick-serve 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

Hardware Cost

Revel hardware kits are quote-based. But similar to Lightspeed, Revel hardware is all iPad-based, with the option for you to purchase your equipment on your own.

Payment Processing

Revel offers straightforward flat-rate processing at 2.49% + $0.15 for in-person transactions.

Contract Requirements/Warnings

Revel requires a three-year processing contract with its in-house processor, Revel Advantage. This is a longer commitment compared to most other cloud POS systems.

Why We Chose Toast Quick Serve POS

Toast is a tech-forward restaurant POS with numerous QSR features, including its options for takeout, pickup, and delivery orders. These options allow customers to order and pay online and either pick up at your eatery or request contactless delivery from Toast's suite of delivery drivers. You can also choose to integrate third-party delivery apps if you don't want to miss out on business from those users.

Toast Quick Serve POS Pricing

Toast can get expensive depending on how many add-ons you select, but it does offer a free starter plan for one or two registers that might include everything a QSR needs.

Toast Quick Serve POS Features

As follows are some of Toast's quick serve restaurant 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

Hardware Cost

Toast has various purpose-built Android POS hardware options to fit your style of restaurant, with countertop kits starting at $799. Toast Go 2 handheld ordering devices ($409 + $50/month) are also useful for line-busting. The hardware is all restaurant-grade, meaning it's pretty much immune to spills and drops.

Payment Processing

Toast includes in-house, flat-rate processing priced at 2.49% + $0.15, though your fee will be higher if you select the free plan or you choose to pay for your hardware kit as a percentage of sales.

Contract Requirements/Warnings

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

Why We Chose talech Quick Serve POS

With a free mobile plan and $29/month starter plan, talech is a budget-friendly quick serve POS system that offers you a lot of bang for your buck. Even its most expensive "Premium"plan is only $99/month. As you might notice, talech's prices are a lot cheaper than those of competing POS systems, most of which offer only basic functionality for under $100/month.

With that being said, you might find talech's features a little basic if you have specific needs, such as specific software integrations. Also, talech does not integrate with third-party delivery apps, so you'll need to enter those orders manually.

talech Quick Serve POS Pricing

talech pricing ranges from $0 to $99/month. The $69/month Standard plan is recommended for QSRs. You can add online ordering to your Standard package for $49/month or subscribe to the $99/month "Premium" package, which includes online ordering, among other extra features, like a POS QuickBooks integration.

talech Quick Serve POS Features

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

Hardware Cost

talech offers some cool hardware options, which include portable Poynt smart terminals, as well as iPad registers, Android-based Ingenico MOBY registers, and mobile credit card readers you can attach to an iPad or smartphone.

You will need to contact talech for hardware pricing.

Payment Processing

talech gives you many choices for payment processing, including Elavon, Global Payments, Bank of America Merchant Services, Vantiv, Chase, and others. Alternatively, talech’s USAePay gateway allows you to connect to all major credit card processors in the US.

Contract Requirements/Warnings

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

Why We Chose Lavu Quick Serve POS

Lavu is an affordable, flexible, and feature-packed QSR POS with dedicated features for quick-serve. Lavu sets itself apart from most other budget-friendly POS systems with its plethora of software integrations, particularly for online ordering and beverage inventory management. (I counted 99 integrations listed on Lavu's website). Lavu additionally integrates with various payment processors. Interestingly, Lavu also offers a cash discount processing option.

Lavu Quick Serve POS Pricing

Lavu pricing starts at $59/month on the LavuPay cash discount plan, or $69/month if you use LavuPay with traditional processing. Should you use an outside payment processor, you'll pay at least $79/month.

Lavu Quick Serve POS Features

Lavu comes with a suite of quick serve 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

Hardware Cost

Lavu offers POS terminal leases with a long-term contract, which we do not recommend even though you might save on initial costs. Fortunately, Lavu also sells the POS hardware outright, allowing you to source it yourself. Pricing isn't listed on the website, though, so you'll have to contact Lavu for a hardware quote.

Payment Processing

Lavu's payment processing integrations include LavuPay, PayPal, Square, BridgePay, Heartland, and others. As mentioned, Lavu also has a cash discount processing option, which lets you pass on hour credit card processing fees to customers. Lavu doesn't mention how much it charges for traditional processing on its website, so you'll have to contact them for a quote.

Contract Requirements/Warnings

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 1-3 year contract.