5 Best Restaurant POS Systems In Australia

Square For Restaurants offers the following monthly pricing plans:

• Free: 0 AUD; includes unlimited devices and locations but does not include seat or course management, or floor customizations
• Plus: 129 AUD/month/location; includes unlimited POS devices per location as well as full-service restaurant features

Square also offers several paid add-ons, including:

• Square Online (Paid Version): 36 AUD/month (Plus plan); 99 AUD/month (Premium plan)
• Square KDS (Kitchen Display System): 25 AUD/month/device on Square For Restaurants free plan; unlimited devices for no additional cost on a paid plan
• Square Loyalty: 49 – 149 AUD/month/location (price dependent on the number of loyalty visits)

Many of Square’s best features are free for all users.  You can take orders with conversational modifiers, create combos and discounts, sell eGift cards, and take payments on any device you have lying around.

One of Square’s best free features is its online ordering page builder, which allows you to build out a homepage and menu, set ordering hours, schedule pickup and delivery, and create custom in-person and online ordering menus. You can sell retail items, such as merch, tickets to in-house events, and prepackaged ready-to-eat items.

Square For Restaurants online ordering platform builder.

You can connect your ordering page to your Google Business and social media profiles. On paid plans, you can offer tableside QR code ordering, with each code corresponding to a specific table number.

While Square’s inventory management is not as extensive as other POS systems, one of Square’s more special features is that inventory syncs between in-person and online orders so that when you run out of an item, the system will auto-86 it from the menu entirely until it’s restocked.

Plus, Square KDS kitchen display software is affordable, sleek, easy to use, and works with iPad and Android devices.

Square KDS screen on Android device.

Square For Restaurants KDS on iPad, online ordering platform on iPad, online ordering platform on smartphone, QR code ordering menu, Square Register, Square Terminal handheld POS system.

Square For Restaurants runs on iPads and Android tablets and can be converted from registers to kitchen display screens to self-ordering kiosks to customer-facing displays.

To take payments, you’ll need at least the 65 AUD Square contactless card reader. The Square Stand is an iPad stand with a built-in card reader that costs 149 AUD. The Square Terminal is a handheld POS system that costs 329 AUD. The Square Register, a full register with a customer-facing display, costs 1099 AUD and is a great POS setup for servers to take orders at a counter.

Square’s per-transaction payment processing rates are as follows:

• In-Person Payments: 1.6% on tapped/inserted cards on Square Terminal or Square Register; 1.9% on Square Reader or Square Stand
• Online Payments: 2.2% on website, apps, invoices, and payment links
• Manually Entered Payments: 2.2% on keyed-in card payments on virtual terminal payments and manually entered card numbers on in-person payments

Square has monthly software plans with no early termination fees, as well as great POS hardware warranties.

Note: You’ll get lower payment processing rates if you purchase a Square Terminal or Register. The initial investment is slightly higher, but worth it in the long run.

If you don’t use any integrations or add-ons, TouchBistro is 69 USD/month for one register, billed annually. The Dual plan includes two user licenses and costs 129 USD/month. The Team plan includes five user licenses at 249 USD/month, and the Unlimited plan includes unlimited user licenses at 399 USD/month.

Optional add-ons include:

• Online Ordering: 50 USD/month
• Reservations: 229 USD/month
• Gift Cards: 25 USD/month
• Loyalty Program: 99 USD/month
• Marketing: 99 USD/month

The reservations app can be used to accept catering orders and book events.

The company also charges a nonrefundable setup fee that starts at 200 USD and includes your hardware setup plus a software walkthrough.

TouchBistro’s most unique features are for full-service restaurants, both fine dining and family-style establishments. These features include:

• Reservation System: Customers can use TouchBistro’s built-in reservation system to make reservations from your web-based online ordering app, your Google Business Profile, and by calling. You can send reminder emails/phone messages about upcoming reservations, create floor plans specifically for managing reservations, charge large-party service fees, and assign different servers to reserved sections.
• Waitlist System: Allow customers to add themselves to your restaurant’s waitlist online when your restaurant is currently full. Send customers SMS notifications about their waitlist status and estimated wait time, with wait time updates. Enforce waitlist cutoff times so staff won’t get overwhelmed with customers past closing time.
• Table Management: Monitor seating times, courses, and table turnaround time for each table. Update floor plans quickly based on reservations and waitlists (e.g. pushing two tables together to accommodate a larger party.) Connect TouchBistro kitchen displays with individual seats to pace meals at tables.
• Liquid Inventory Monitoring: Restaurants with a bar section/drink menu can track liquid sales and wastage at your in-house bar or events featuring alcohol with TouchBistro’s Bevchek or Freepour integration.
• Customer Dining Preferences: You can ask for dining preferences/allergies when taking reservations. VIP diners can be flagged in customer reports, and their preferences can be saved for future orders to create a personalized dining experience.

TouchBistro restaurant POS waitlist/reservation settings.

TouchBistro’s loyalty program is an excellent revenue-generating software feature that allows you to offer points-based and item-based discounts, send marketing emails based on customer loyalty accounts, and have customers sign up on your restaurant’s online ordering site.

Caterers and mobile food service businesses will also appreciate the ability to:

• Create House Accounts: If you regularly cater to offices, schools, government organizations, or other businesses, it’s helpful to create customer house accounts. You can allow billing to customers’ house accounts with saved payment types and partial or full balance payoffs. You can allow customers to preload credits to an account.
• Take Catering Orders: Create a quote and take notes for future orders, require a deposit for future orders, and choose how far in advance someone can order. You can also set concrete event start and end times and set up catering order categories on kitchen displays.
• Customize Catering Order Parameters: Caterers can set different delivery zones and increase minimum order requirements and service fees depending on the delivery zone. If a customer tries to order online and inputs an address outside your delivery zone, an automated message will ask the customer to contact you to discuss a custom order.
• Accept Sales Off-Site: TouchBistro’s unique hybrid offline mode allows you to take orders at events or in a food truck. Sell prewrapped foods, bottles of alcohol, or retail items at events. You can also take future catering orders for new customers while at a job.

TouchBistro catering house accounts.

TouchBistro countertop iPad POS, iPad stand, handheld iPad POS, cash drawer, card reader, and receipt printer.

TouchBistro offers a wide variety of Apple products through its website, including custom bundles and individual pieces of equipment. Hardware prices are not listed, and the company encourages you to call for a quote.

When using TouchBistro, Square is supported for payments in Australia.

TouchBistro offers monthly and custom contracts, with the best per-month pricing on longer contracts. TouchBistro will charge an early termination fee for canceled accounts, though, so consider a short-term contract before committing to anything in the long run.

Hotel property owners will purchase the Lightspeed Restaurant K-series since this version of Lightspeed offers property management integrations. Fast-casual/quick-service restaurants will most likely purchase the L-series since this has more restaurant-centric integrations.

Both versions fall under these pricing plans (one register included):

• Starter: 79 AUD/month
• Essential: 179 AUD/month
• Premium: 359 AUD/month

Additional registers cost an extra 39 AUD/month.

Any third-party integrations you add will come at an additional fee from those software providers, not Lightspeed.

The following are popular products that you may add to any software plan:

• Gift Cards: 39 AUD/month
• Customer-Facing Display: 15 AUD/month
• Kitchen Display System: 29 AUD/month
• Order Pickup Screen: 15 AUD/month

Lightspeed’s best features for quick-service and fast-casual restaurants include:

• Order Types: Allow customers to order from anywhere via QR code, web-based app, third-party integration such as Doshii or DoorDash, self-service kiosk, or from servers at registers
• Display Screens: Integrate an order pickup screen with your POS and kitchen display software so that customers can see the status of their meal preparation; include a customer-facing display so that customers can ensure their order is right before pushing it through to the kitchen
• Kitchen Display Management: Lightspeed offers one of the best kitchen display systems; bump screen makes accepting online orders for delivery, pickup, or dine-in easy; break tickets up by single item, station, or employee
• Inventory & Wastage: A wastage tracking module is available on Lightspeed plans, as well as detailed product purchasing, item production, and stock-taking features
• Loyalty Program: Integrate your POS with a strong loyalty program that collects customer data for marketing campaigns

Lightspeed Restaurant order pickup settings on POS device (left) and customizable Apple TV order pickup display (right).

Hotels have several property management software available to integrate with Lightspeed, including Oracle, Preno, and Protel. Alternatively, on Lightspeed’s highest-level plan, you may integrate your current property management system with your POS software. With either solution, you can accept reservations, charge meals from different restaurants to an individual’s room, break up group meals into individual charges, and offer room service with one software.

Lightspeed Restaurant kitchen ticket printer, cash drawer, iPad POS and iPad stand, and receipt printer.

Business owners in Australia may purchase iPads for use as POS registers, self-serve kiosks, kitchen displays, order pickup screens, and more. Lightspeed’s iPads cost between 549 AUD and 1,899 AUD, depending on the models you purchase.

A cash drawer costs 109 AUD and tablet stands cost 104 AUD.

Receipt and kitchen printers cost between 260 AUD and 649 AUD, depending on the model.

Lightspeed uses Verifone products for payment processing. You must purchase your credit card terminals from Lightspeed.

Customer order pickup screens run on Apple TVs, which you may source on your own.

You are required to use Lightspeed Payments with a Lightspeed Restaurant software subscription. You’ll get a custom payment processing rate based on your restaurant size, time in business, and card mix.

Lightspeed requires every business owner to get a custom quote, which will detail the length of your contract, terms of payment, and conditions for hardware warranties. It also includes an early termination fee. We recommend you read your contract very carefully before signing anything.

Revel’s only advertised plan costs 99 USD/terminal/month. This plan requires a two-terminal minimum, three-year contract, and you must agree to use Revel Advantage International (powered by Adyen), Revel’s in-house payment processing solution.

However, most businesses will want to add on Revel products such as its delivery software, online ordering platform, highly customizable loyalty program, and multi-location management functions. A Revel representative will give you a custom quote for all these software add-ons.

The company also charges a one-time implementation fee starting at 674 USD, which includes a personalized hardware and software setup.

Revel offers one of the most comprehensive feature sets of any POS software on this list, mainly because you have access to both retail and restaurant management features. No matter what type of food service business you run, you’ll appreciate these unique Revel features:

• Loyalty Program: Includes custom rewards point setup, gift options, and automated loyalty points marketing for customers who haven’t stopped by in a while
• Online Ordering: Online ordering for local delivery with real-time driver monitoring via the Revel Driver XT app; online listings for things like cookbooks and specialty wine offerings with shipping tracking; third-party delivery platform integrations
• Purchase Ordering: Purchase order generation with set par levels, vendor management, and partial/full order receiving
• Employee Management: Includes scheduling, time clocks, employee roles, and payroll, all within the Revel dashboard
• Multi-Establishment Management: Create different parent and child establishments, and unique brands, charge royalty fees, and push changes across single, multiple, or all establishments
• Inventory: Revel offers inventory matrixing, custom attributes, stock unit conversions, waste management, loss reports, and automated perishable food/liquid inventory tracking

Revel POS system multi-establishment hierarchy settings.

All restaurant types can make good use of Revel’s kitchen display systems, which will also accept order types from third-party ordering platforms, takeaway orders, in-house delivery orders, catering orders, and any custom order type you specify. You can also designate expo screens for proper order checking before orders are sent onto the floor or to pickup/delivery drivers.

Quick-service restaurants will appreciate the Revel Kiosk XT app, customer display screens so customers can confirm their orders, digital menu integrations, omnichannel order management, and even drive-thru capabilities. Revel’s digital menu and drive-through hardware integrations make Revel one of the best drive-thru POS systems.

Revel POS kitchen display screen.

Like Lightspeed, Revel offers a customer order status screen that’s very helpful for takeout-heavy establishments like bubble tea shops, although it’s easier (and more expensive) to brand your order-ready screens with Revel.

Revel customer-facing order status screen.

Full-service restaurants will appreciate Revel’s table monitoring system, which allows servers to transfer customer orders to different sections (such as moving from the bar to a table), change a customer’s seat at the table, monitor table turnaround, manage order sharing and splitting, and charge items to house accounts.

Any business that provides services such as catering or venue rentals will appreciate Revel’s built-in appointment booking system and predefined service charges. Revel also has an open-ended item feature that allows you to charge a custom fee depending on how long you spent on a service, how long a person rented an item or venue, or any other cost parameter.

Revel POS appointment/reservation booking on POS.

Revel offers POS hardware and accessories for Revel users, which you’ll get a custom quote for.

Alternatively, with Revel’s written permission, you may purchase Revel-compatible hardware on your own. The company asks for written permission to ensure that you are spending your money on hardware that will work and can avoid having to return any equipment to third-party providers.

Revel Advantage International users can purchase the Verifone v400m or P400 Plus payment terminals.

Revel users can get a custom payment processing rate for Revel Advantage International, the company’s international built-in payment processing solution.

Alternatively, business owners can integrate their POS system with Windcave or Tyro for an added monthly fee.

Revel advertises that it will give the lowest rates and discounts on POS hardware if you opt into Revel Advantage, but we recommend getting additional quotes and bringing them to Revel to negotiate the best rates.

Revel’s standard contract is three years, with a substantial early termination fee depending on how far you’re into your contract before canceling.

While you’ll get the best prices with a longer contract, we recommend making extensive use of your demo, asking lots of questions to your Revel account representative, and even signing up for a month-to-month plan until you’re sure that Revel is the right fit for your growing business.

Revel typically offers a discount for users who bundle their software, hardware, and payment processing into one bill. We recommend that you get an estimate on hardware and payment processing rates from outside companies and bring that estimate to Revel to see if they’ll match it.

Abacus advertises two pricing plans for its POS software:

• Standard: 69 AUD/month; includes one POS device with POS, back-office management, online ordering, and the DoorDash Drive integration
• Professional: 189 AUD/month; includes four POS devices and all features of the Standard plan

The self-ordering kiosk product requires a custom quote. You will get proprietary kiosk hardware and software, so expect a higher upfront cost.

Note: While online ordering is included in both POS software plans, you will have to pay a small transaction fee with each online order.

Custom add-ons (at custom prices) for features such as the handheld POS system for servers, online reservation booking, stock management, tableside self-serve ordering on iPads, and more third-party delivery integrations are available.

The most unique feature of Abacus is the standing self-serve kiosks, which are a great addition to places like food court restaurants, fast food restaurants, and fast-casual takeaway places.

Abacus kiosks are sleek, allow customers to pay in several ways with built-in card readers embedded into the kiosks, and can be custom-branded to fit the look and feel of your restaurant. To get your kiosk set up, you have to send your brand assets, menu, and promotions to an Abacus representative, and they’ll configure the kiosk interface for you. Then, you’ll be trained on how to manipulate menu items and add new promotions from a representative.

Within the register, there are several options for servers managing several order types and situations. For example, servers can hold and fire orders, add funds to a house account or bar tab, look up online orders, and look up customers to add loyalty points.

Abacus restaurant POS system register interface.

Abacus also offers SMS and email marketing modules, which only Square rivals when it comes to creating easy marketing campaigns.

Abacus POS iPad stand and cash drawer.

Abacus POS software runs on iPads. The company sells accessories such as iPad cases, cash drawers, and receipt printers. You can source your credit card terminals from your chosen payment processor.

The real draw of this POS software option is the Abacus proprietary kiosk hardware, which is the most substantial, durable, and (most likely) expensive option on this list, but is worth the investment if you plan on leaning heavily on self-ordering kiosks.

Your entire self-serve kiosk is set up for you and includes an embedded card reader.

Abacus partners with several payment processors, including Tyro, EFTPOS, Stripe, LivenPay, Bolt Payments, Smartpay, and Square.

You are required to fill out a quote when signing up for Abacus. Within this quote, you will find your software fees, installation and training fees, hardware fees (due upfront in full or a deposit with subsequent installment payments), technical support service fees, and anything else detailed in your quote. So, while you may think you’re getting a very straightforward price, that may not be the case.

If you purchase hardware from Abacus and either do not receive it or receive a damaged item, you must inform the company of this within five business days of when you were supposed to receive the item, or you cannot get a refund. Abacus provides a 12-month warranty on qualifying hardware purchases.

You may cancel your subscription at any point by giving 30 days’ written notice to the company.

If you terminate your plan and have outstanding installment payments on hardware, you are expected to pay for it within 48 hours of cancellation, or Abacus representatives will be entitled to enter your restaurant and retrieve the hardware themselves.

You may be charged extra technical support services fees depending on how often and how long you use support services.

Finally, you are required to work with a payment processor. Be sure to read your merchant services agreement before signing on with a third-party payment processor.