6 Best Cafe POS Systems for 2021

Toast Standout Features

As our top choice for cafes, Toast offers a suite of key restaurant functions for an overall cafe-friendly software. It provides a high level of customization for its robust features, so the system can grow alongside your business. Toast’s standout features include:

• Flexible set-up: With options for online and digital ordering, contactless in-store ordering, mobile POS, pickup and delivery features, kiosks, and traditional countertop POS, Toast can be customized to fit the needs of any cafe.
• Feature inclusive: In addition to traditional POS, Toast also has software for online ordering, takeout, loyalty, email marketing, payroll and team management, inventory, and more, so you don’t need to add on other software programs.
• Easy to learn: The cloud-based, touch-screen POS is intuitive to use. Toast’s website has a robust training program called Toast University that walks employees through different features. The POS also has a demo or test mode to train new employees.
• Customer-friendly features: Cafe customers can order and pay online or from their smartphones with a QR code and link their card purchases to loyalty programs to automatically accrue and redeem rewards.
• Menu analysis reporting: Toast has best-in-class menu and inventory reporting, so cafes can see at a glance what items should be removed and which ones offer the highest profit margins. Cafes can also track payroll and performance data.
• Quick service tools: Speed up turnaround times for breakfast sandwiches and coffee orders with kitchen display systems that are synced with mobile and online ordering. Text guests when orders are ready for pickup right from the kitchen display.

Square Standout Features

Square has all the tools and features required to operate a cafe or coffee shop including ring up and process sales, accept payments, create menu items, track employee hours, and view sales reports. Here are some of the exceptional features that make Square one of the best cafe POS systems:

• Intuitive system: One of the biggest benefits of Square is that it’s incredibly easy to use. It works on a variety of hardware so you can choose the setup you’re most comfortable with. And, the touch-screen software and web-based Dashboard are easy to navigate and require no training to operate. Square’s built-in payments means you can create a free account and start selling on the same day.
• Flexible ecosystem: In addition to free POS software, Square offers a number of other free tools that all work together including Square Online Store and Online Checkout for pickup and delivery orders, customer feedback tools, and reporting dashboards.
• Modular add-ons: Square offers plenty of paid add-ons in addition to the ecosystem of free tools, including payroll and team management, loyalty programs, marketing, gift cards, and upgraded POS systems. Businesses can add and remove any of these features at any time.

Read Square POS Review

Want more out of Square? Check out Square for Restaurants for more restaurant-specific features, including table mapping and kitchen displays. It offers both free and paid plans that work well for small coffee shops and high-volume cafes.

Upserve by Lightspeed Standout Features

Upserve has all the tools you need to run a cafe or coffee shop. However, Upserve also has some exceptional front-of-house, marketing, and reporting features that set it apart from other POS systems, including:

• CRM tools: Upserve has a built-in loyalty program, a guest book that creates a profile of each guest based on their payment method, and it collects data to show lifetime customer values and average tips. You can easily view repeat customers’ favorites menu items, and employees can add notes. Build marketing campaigns based on customer data and track ROI right from the Upserve dashboard.
• Reputation management: Upserve gathers all online reviews in one place so you can easily view, manage, and respond to online reviews.
• Online ordering: Upserve Online Ordering is integrated with the POS, so you don’t need to connect third-party solutions. Online ordering connects with your existing menu and loyalty programs so you can identify and reward customers and orders are sent directly to the POS or kitchen. Upserve Online Ordering has features for customers to schedule orders in advance.
• Team management: Upserve has server performance tracking and insights, a full-features training mode, a logbook so staff can add notes and insights at the end of each shift and/or fill out customized questionnaires and checklists. Upserve is also the only POS on this list that has a built-in employee scheduling system. Track labor costs, predict cafe traffic, build schedules, and send them to your employees right from the Upserve dashboard.
• Restaurant analytics: Reporting dashboard shows labor costs, productivity, sales trends, and offers tips and insights on what menu items to keep, what’s underselling, average tips, and more. Discount and void reports let you spot trends. The Shift Prep tool predicts how many guests will arrive each day based on historical data and other factors like the weather so you can adequately prepare.
• Easy to use: Upserve has an intuitive interface, 24/7 US-based customer support, an offline mode, and plenty of instructional content on its website. When you are getting started, Upserve provides personalized onboarding, professional installation and training, and a dedicated support manager.

TouchBistro Standout Features

TouchBistro is one of the most intuitive and user-friendly POS systems for restaurants, so it’s easy for busy cafe staff to learn how to use the system. It also supports a number of outstanding features including:

• Table management: Automate, design, and update your cafe’s floor plan easily to adjust for peak hours and busy seasons. Integrate with third-party online floor editors for a more customized design.
• Tableside ordering system: Add menu items with a single tap to an already existing order. Customize, reorder, or void items or an entire table easily with a few swipes or taps. You can also create pop-up modifiers to signal servers for available upsell options.
• Check management: You can split bills for a single table or join bills for multiple tables and even set up warnings before closing a bill with unsent items. TouchBistro POS can also set tax inclusions or exclusions, apply customized taxes or discounts per item, order, or bill.
• Loyalty and customer relationship management: Create and manage customer accounts, set categories for regulars and recent visitors, and add notes such as customer interests and allergies. Use different filters to view your customer list such as birthdays by month and average spend to send tailored email promotions with in-app messaging. You can also set customized rewards for each customer.
• Online ordering: Use TouchBistro’s in-house online ordering or through third-party integrations. Accept or decline orders in real time and send cancellation messages. Receive online payments through TouchBistro’s in-house payment processor and send online orders directly to your kitchen display system.
• Reservation management: TouchBistro allows you to accept reservations through your website or TouchBistro’s web and mobile discovery apps. You can also use Google Reservations and Waitlist integrations. Set a cancellation policy and reduce no-shows by sending confirmations, reminders, and cancellations via email or SMS.

ORO POS Standout Features

ORO provides key features to support restaurant functions such as menu and inventory management, loyalty programs, and kitchen item stickers and labels. ORO POS’ stand-out features include:

• Inventory management: This is a plugin that lets you keep an inventory of both raw ingredients and menu items. Create recipes and estimate cost of sale that includes labor cost. You can also configure inventory to track and automatically update stock by food item and by ingredient. Set reorder levels, create purchase orders, and automatically update inventory.
• Register and checkout: Accepts cash and card transactions, gift card payments, and application of loyalty rewards. It also supports seat-based ordering, merging or splitting tickets, voiding, refunding, bill splitting, and assigning gratuities, discounts, and taxes.
• Floor plan design: Use its drag-and-drop functionality to create unlimited floor plans, save table layouts, and identify tables by name, type, and capacity. The floor plan plugin also lets you monitor ticket operations, manage dine-in reservations, and create time analysis records for each table.
• Home delivery and pickup: Use this plug-in for cafes that offer delivery and pickup services. Accept orders by phone, manage delivery from the moment you assign a driver, and keep track of order history and late deliveries. You can also create a customer database, set charges by zone or ZIP codes, allow for tips, and establish a delivery route plan.
• Menu management: Create your menu with a visual menu designer that shows you what your menu will look like on multiple pages. You can create groups and categories, assign unique variants and attributes, and create dynamic combo items that allow for modified price rules.
• Employee management: ORO POS lets you set an unlimited number of users, with multiple roles and permissions. It has a timeclock feature that lets you track attendance, monitor overtime, and prepare weekly payroll summary and detailed payroll reports.

Loyverse Standout Features

As a cloud-based solution, Loyverse allows its users to take orders from any iOS and Android device. While it’s in its loyalty features where this provider shines above its competitors, it also carries more tools that cafe owners will want to see in their POS system. Loyverse’s outstanding features include:

• Loyalty management: Loyverse’s loyalty program comes free with the software where you can customize your reward percentage. You can enroll your customers into your loyalty program upon checkout, award them points on their first purchase, and convert their points into discounts on their next visit.
• Inventory management: The built-in basic inventory management lets you import items by bulk and track their quantities. Advanced Inventory add-on features let you make products out of ingredients, perform inventory counts, stock adjustments, print barcodes, manage purchase orders, and run inventory reports.
• Restaurant Features: You can customize menus and add notes on preparations. You can also assign tickets to tables, with options to split, move, or merge items between tickets. Process orders accurately with the built-in kitchen display system.
• Employee management: The employee management add-on ($5 per month, per employee) allows you to track employee clocked hours, manage staff permissions, and monitor cash discrepancy after every shift. You can also run reports for sales performance and workload per hour.
• Reporting tools: Includes basic reports such as sales by item or category, daily and weekly sales trends, tax reports, and receipts history.