Looking for a point of sale system for your restaurant, but don't know how much it should cost? Read our guide to find out everything you need to know about POS costs.
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Restaurant POS system costs will vary depending on the cost of restaurant POS system hardware, software features, number of restaurant POS software licenses, and payment processing fees. There are also costs associated with add-ons like a loyalty program and online ordering integrations. Keep reading to find out how much a restaurant POS system costs and how to choose the POS system that’s right for your business.
How Much Does A Restaurant POS System Cost?
Restaurant POS systems cost $49-$400 per month on average for the software. Extra POS software licenses typically cost $9-$99 per register per month. Restaurant POS hardware costs are a one-time fee between $400 and $5,000 or more depending on what hardware you already have and what you need.
Restaurant POS System Subscription Prices
Your monthly restaurant POS system costs can be broken down into three parts: monthly base software plan, payment processing costs, and the cost of any add-ons you decide to include in your software subscription. Here’s a rough estimate of what restaurant POS system software costs per month:
- Base Software Subscription: $0-$400+/month depending on the number of locations you own and software licenses you need
- Payment Processing Fees: 2.4%-3.49% on average if you use a flat-rate payment processor, which is the case with most popular restaurant POS software providers including Square and Lightspeed Restaurant
- Online Ordering: $0-$75/month depending on whether online ordering is included in your base subscription or a required add-on
- Loyalty Program: $15/month-$50/month
- Self-Serve Kiosk Software: $29/month-$90/month
- Kitchen Display Software: $25/month/device or free depending on your subscription plan
- Third-Party Delivery Integration: $75/month-$199/month and/or a per-order fee
- Reservation/Waitlist Software: $39/month-$400/month and/or a per-order fee
Your basic restaurant software subscription includes things like in-person orders, menu management, employee user logins/permissions, and financial reports. In general, the more locations, employees, and register licenses you have, the more you’ll pay per month.
Your payment processing fees will range from 2.4% to 3.49% on average if you use a flat-rate payment processor, which is typically the case with most popular restaurant POS software providers including Square POS, Lightspeed Restaurant, and Toast POS. A few restaurant POS systems, like Revel Systems and Helcim POS, allow for a more flexible and cost-effective payment processing model that works well for larger volume cafes and restaurants.
Popular restaurant add-on software includes things like a loyalty program, starting your own online ordering platform, third-party delivery platform integrations, kitchen display systems (KDS), self-serve kiosk software, and reservations/waitlist management software. Some POS providers, like TouchBistro, offer their own add-ons, while others, like Shopify POS, offer third-party apps that connect to your POS.
Restaurant POS System Hardware Pricing
There are two POS hardware categories for restaurants: front of house equipment and back of house equipment. Let’s look into pricing for both types of equipment.
Pricing For Front Of House Equipment

Square handheld POS system, Square Register, and Square iPad stand.
Front of house equipment includes everything your customers can see: payment devices, registers, receipt printers, customer-facing displays, self-serve kiosks, menu displays, etc. Here’s a rough estimate of the overall cost of front of house restaurant POS hardware:
- Handheld POS System: $200-$650 depending on which of these best handheld POS systems for restaurants you choose
- Countertop Register Bundle: $600-$1,700 for a register, chip/tap card reader, and receipt printer
- Cash Drawer: $130-$300
- Card Reader: $49-$600 depending on your payment processor
- Receipt Printer: $100-$500
- Barcode Scanner: $100-$300
- Self-Serve Kiosk: $200-$850 depending on whether you use an iPad or proprietary kiosk hardware
- Customer-Facing Display: $130-$200 depending on whether you use proprietary hardware or add a dedicated iPad customer-facing display to your setup
Some handheld restaurant POS hardware, such as the proprietary Clover Flex, Square Terminal, and Toast Go 2, are built so that you can take orders, accept payments, and print receipts from one device. Proprietary handheld POS hardware costs more towards $650, while general hardware like a refurbished older iPad model costs at least $200 and newer iPad models being more expensive.
Restaurant POS pricing for card readers costs between $49 and $600. Pricing depends on whether you have to purchase your card reader from a provider like Square or Clover POS, or if you get to choose from a list of card readers from a compatible payment processor, which you can do with POS software like Revel Systems and talech POS.
Register bundles such as the Square Register, which include a register screen (usually an iPad), receipt printer, cash drawer, and card reader, usually cost around $700. You can pay to add other hardware, such as a customer-facing display, to your register package, or get a register bundle like the $1,800 Clover Station Duo that includes all register parts.
To offer self-serve kiosks, you can either purchase designated kiosks or add self-serve software to an iPad. Some POS providers, such as Square and talech, allow you to convert iPads to kiosks, while Toast, which offers one of the best self-serve kiosks, costs $809.
Pricing For Back Of House Equipment

Clover kitchen display screens.
Back of house equipment includes everything your customers don’t see. Here’s a rough estimate of your back of house restaurant POS hardware pricing:
- Kitchen Display System: $200-$800 depending on whether you use an iPad or proprietary kitchen display hardware
- Kitchen Ticket Printer: $200-$349
- Weight Scale: $500
We highly recommend these best kitchen display systems to help you minimize the recurring cost of kitchen ticket paper, minimize mistakes, and integrate orders from all ordering platforms (DoorDash, online orders from your own website, phone orders, etc.) to one unified place in the kitchen.
How To Choose Your Restaurant POS System
Don’t know what factors could go into your POS cost? Here is the best way to choose a point of sale system for your restaurant that meets your needs.
Visualize Your Restaurant's Future
Are you planning to expand in any way? Are you thinking about more staff, more locations, or building out a catering or retail component of your business? Think about the changes you plan to make in the next year or two and make sure the POS you want can accommodate your vision.
Budget accordingly if those changes will mean upgrading to a higher plan tier. It’s generally much easier to upgrade to a more feature-rich plan than to switch POS systems entirely; if you know you’ll need more features down the line, plan to accommodate that now.
Consider Your Restaurant Hardware Needs
Consider the following when deciding what hardware (and accompanying software) you want to include in your POS ecosystem:
- How reliable is your internet connection?
- Do you need a POS that can take payments offline?
- Do you want a backup local server?
- Would you like handhelds for ordering at the table?
- Would your restaurant benefit from kiosk-style self-ordering?
- Are your employees very tech-savvy?
- Do you want a system that works with the POS hardware you already have?
Your hardware needs will depend on your restaurant type and size.
For example, food trucks and catering businesses will benefit from a POS with a strong offline mode, but will not need much physical hardware.
Upscale sit-down restaurants won’t need self-serve kiosks, but quick-serve restaurants could use them as a line-busting tactic.
Small establishments can probably get by with one or two countertop terminals, but large restaurants will benefit from mobile POS systems that servers can carry with them.
Read User Reviews
Search online blogs, forums, and other social channels for user reviews of POS systems. See what others say. What are the pain points and most common complaints? What’s not mentioned? What do happy customers say is the best thing about that POS system? Is updating the system a pain? Are there complaints or kudos about customer support?
Also, see if customer complaints have been addressed by the company. If the company is actively working to improve its software offering and customer relationship, that’s a really good sign.
Take Advantage Of Free Restaurant POS Trials
Most restaurant POS system providers offer a free trial. Take advantage of that opportunity to see how easy the software is to set up and edit. Try out all of the features and run every alternative scenario you can imagine.
Include employees who will be using the software in the trial run, too. Ask them what the learning experience and real-world usage are like. This will help you estimate how long it will take to train someone on the new system and whether it’s effective during a rush.
Make no long-term commitments until you can get a feel for how easy the software is to use and whether it can adapt to fit your growing business’s needs.
Read Contracts Thoroughly Before Making Any Decisions
There are restaurant POS system providers, such as Square and Clover, that require you to use an in-house payment processor. Revel Systems and TouchBistro, on the other hand, do not require you to use their own in-house payment processors but may charge you a monthly premium if you decide to use a third-party payment processor.
Some providers, such as Revel and Toast, require you to sign a long-term contract and pay annually for the best prices.
Make sure to negotiate a good merchant agreement so you understand what to expect with your software subscription and exactly how much you can expect to pay per month (or year).
Is The Cost Of A Restaurant POS System Worth It?
The best POS systems are easy to use, have good inventory management capabilities, and offer features like online ordering and a loyalty program. The best restaurant POS systems offer many restaurant-specific features, but depending on your restaurant size and service offerings, your specific needs and restaurant POS system costs will vary.
For example, if you have a small quick-serve restaurant or food truck, you probably won’t need floor planning, reservation management, or advanced inventory tracking.
Larger restaurants and establishments like drive-thrus, on the other hand, will find that the cost of a restaurant KDS system is very worth it.
Read up on our best restaurant POS systems for an in-depth understanding of the best systems and pricing options. Also, check out our list of the best free restaurant POS systems if you don’t have much of a budget and don’t have many restaurant-specific needs.
FAQs: Restaurant POS System Cost
How much does a restaurant POS system cost?
A restaurant POS system costs between $0 and $399+/month for software and between $450 and $1,000 for POS hardware.
The exact cost of your restaurant POS system will vary depending on the number and type of restaurant POS hardware you want to add to your business as well as added features like online ordering and a loyalty program.
How much does Square KDS cost per month?
Square KDS costs $20/device/month if you’re on the Square free plan. If you’re on the $60/month/location Square Plus plan, you get an unlimited number of KDS device licenses for no extra cost.
How much does the Toast handheld POS cost?
The Toast Go 2 handheld POS system costs $627, but Toast offers discounts if you purchase more than one at a time.
How much does Square For Restaurants cost per month?
Square For Restaurants costs $0-$60/location/month for software and card readers start at $49.
What is the cheapest restaurant POS system?
The cheapest restaurant POS system is the Square POS app. It costs $0 per month and you can take payments with just an iPhone or tablet paired with the Square contactless card reader.
What is the best restaurant POS system?
Square, Lightspeed Restaurant, Toast, TouchBistro, and Clover are some of the best restaurant POS systems. Read our post on the best restaurant POS systems to help you decide which one to choose for your business.