5 Best Hospitality POS Systems To Succeed In 2023

Best for affordable, month-to-month pricing.

Square is an all-around favorite at Merchant Maverick, and for good reason.

Square is a maverick in the true sense of the word: they are an unconventional leader when it comes to all things payment processing. Square has not only remade payment processing in its image -- a growing number POS systems now offer a month-to-month software plan with in-house flat-rate payment processing -- but they also offer a number of business management features to fit several different industries, including hospitality.

Even though Square wasn't built for hospitality per se, there are multiple different ways a hospitality business can use Square. You can use the basic free Square POS app for its straightforward POS and payment processing. Or, you can use Square's free POS system with whichever paid or free Square add-ons and integrations your business needs, like team management, marketing, and loyalty.

Yet another option is to use one of Square's industry-specific POS's, such as Square for Restaurants or Square Appointments, both of which have free and paid plans, depending on how deep of a feature set you need. As you can see, Square is all about options!

Some specific hospitality POS features Square offers include: employee scheduling, labor reporting, online appointment booking, kitchen display system, kitchen performance reports, customizable floor plans, online ordering, and QR code payments. But honestly, the easiest way to see all the functionality Square offers is to go to Square's website to see the feature lists the associated costs---all of which are outlined very clearly on the site.

Best for reservation management.

TouchBistro is one of the most popular iPad POS systems for restaurants on the App Store. At $69/month, the POS is affordable for small food establishments like food trucks and smoothie carts, but can also be used for full-service restaurants and bars, with all of your iPads syncing to a local Mac Mini.

TouchBistro includes in-house payment processing via TouchBistro Payments powered by Chase, which has a transparent cost-plus pricing model, and also integrates with various other payment processors, such as Square, Worldpay, and TSYS.

All plans include menu management, table management, restaurant reporting, app integrations, staff management, and QR code menus. There are also various monthly add-ons you can purchase, including gift cards, online ordering, loyalty, self-service kiosks, digital menu boards, a KDS, and reservations. Though TouchBistro's core POS functionality is somewhat basic, TouchBistro Reservations is a highly useful add-on for sit-down restaurants. With this add-on enabled, TouchBistro lets you accept reservations through your restaurant's website, TouchBistro's mobile app, or Google Reservations. TouchBistro Reservations also includes guest records, which can be useful for small business contact tracing.

Best for hotel restaurant management.

Lightspeed is another powerhouse in the mobile POS and payment processing worlds, combining the two to provide an affordable restaurant point of sale for iPad with integrated flat-rate processing at 2.6% + $0.10 (the same rate Square charges) unless you're on the Pro plan and can get a custom payment processing rate.

The company also offers Lightspeed Retail and Lightspeed Golf, but Lightspeed Restaurant is geared toward hospitality. In particular, Lightspeed advertises that its POS works well for restaurants located in a hotel, though any type of restaurant can use Lightspeed POS. One reason why Lightspeed is the best POS for restaurants is because of its excellent POS inventory management programs.

Lightspeed Restaurant can plug right into your hotel Property Management System software thanks to its numerous PMS integrations, including StayNTouch, Mews, Cloudbeds, Oracle, and ResNexus. The system has tabs that let you track guest charges from your restaurant to your hotel bar and room service.

And with Lightspeed's Self Order Menu, your guests can place orders from their room or table in your restaurant. For a starting price of $90/month ($69/month billed annually), that's not too shabby! However, add-ons such as self-order kiosks can drive up the monthly cost.

Best for restaurant-grade POS hardware.

Like Lightspeed Restaurant and TouchBistro, Toast POS is designed specifically for food and drink businesses and can be used by any type of eatery.

Unlike the other choices on our list, Toast uses Android POS devices instead of iPads. Since Toast's POS hardware, is purpose-built for the restaurant industry, it can survive spills and drops. Using Toast Go handheld devices, servers can use to accept orders and payments at the table.

Toast is incredibly feature-rich and in addition to core POS functionality, the system also has numerous high-tech features that businesses can use to create a fully modern restaurant ordering system. These functions include QR code payments that let guests pay from their table, mobile ordering from the Toast Takeout app, eGift cards, and others. Toast can get expensive if you include all the bells and whistles, but it does offer a free plan that includes all the core POS functionality, as well as a $75/month digital-only plan for takeout and delivery-only businesses (aka "ghost kitchens") that don't need a traditional POS.

Toast includes in-house flat-rate payment processing, with a rate of 2.49% + $0.15 for in-person transactions. Similar to Revel, Toast is sold with a multi-year payment processing agreement, so it does require at least a 2-year commitment (even on the free plan).

Best for enterprise-capable functionality.

Revel is an advanced iPad POS system that can be made to fit almost any industry, including hospitality businesses such as restaurants. During setup, Revel will customize the POS for your specific business needs. In addition to Revel's inherent customizability, some other things we like about Revel include its rock-solid offline mode to keep your business going even during an internet outage, and its constant feature additions and improvements.

Some of Revel's numerous hospitality features include online appointment bookings, table reservations, CRM, delivery management, customer display, employee scheduling, restaurant reporting, tableside ordering, and many others.

As for pricing, that's where things get a little hairy. Pricing starts at $99/month/terminal with a three-year processing agreement with Revel Advantage, and a 2-terminal minimum--and that's without add-ons such as a self-order kiosk, KDS, or digital menu board. Still, when compared to legacy POS systems such as Aloha or Micros, Revel is considerably cheaper, and may provide equally strong or even greater functionality, thanks to the power of The Cloud.