Best Kitchen Display Systems (KDS)

• Touch-screen navigation
  Quick access buttons on the top right corner of the screen allow you to Show All-Day View. You can also show fulfilled orders or recall fulfilled tickets. Accessing the overflow menu allows you to see device connectivity status, adjust text size, or switch users.
• All-day count view
  “All day” is restaurant-speak for “total” or “altogether.” Cooks say “all day” to refer to the total number of an item they need to prepare to fill all open orders. As in “how many burgers all day?” Toast’s All-Day count screen shows your all-day counts at a glance, so your kitchen team is never second-guessing what orders they have on deck.
• Auto-firing by prep time
  If you input cook times with your recipes in the Toast POS, you can configure your Toast KDS to organize newly-ordered items by their cook time to ensure all dishes on a ticket are ready at the same time. When an order is “fired” in the POS, your KDS will show a running timer on each ticket. This way, you always know how long a customer has waited for their order.
• Automated order-ready messages
  You can set your Toast KDS to send automated messages when you mark an order as complete on the KDS. Send SMS text messages to customers who ordered online, letting them know their takeout order is ready. Or, send an in-POS alert to your server staff to let them know their table’s order is up. These alerts help keep your kitchen flowing smoothly and keep cooked food from dying in the window.
• Rush button
  Toast recently added a Rush order button to the KDS that automatically shifts rush tickets to the front of the order queue, marked with a red RUSH label. So your expediters and cooks can quickly get on the same page when plans change.
• Epson integration
  Toast is one of the many POS systems that integrates with the Epson KDS system. If your kitchen prefers a bump bar configuration, you have the option via this integration.

Toast’s KDS software is currently offered at $25 per screen, per month. If you need multiple screens, however, Toast will likely work out a lower per-terminal price for you. To get the best pricing, reach out to the Toast sales team for a custom quote.

• Multiple screen views
  Revel Systems’ KDS offers several dynamic viewing options: Expedite, Expedite Tile, Kitchen Screen, Production View, and Order Display, so cooks and expeditors can choose their preferred view. Revel Systems also supports a customer-facing Order Ready screen to display orders by customer name to identify which orders are ready for pick up. Orders on this screen can be further color-coded to separate to-go, drive-thru, and curbside pickups, a massive timesaver for restaurants that rely on multiple third-party delivery platforms.
• Choose your hardware
  Like most systems on this list, Revel runs its KDS on iPads. But if you want more rugged hardware or a larger screen, you can opt for a ViewSonic VSD243 smart display instead. Like Toast, Revel users need to purchase their KDS hardware directly through Revel, even if they plan to use iPads. Revel does not support hardware that is purchased through third parties.
• All-day count
  Like Toast, Revel Systems’ KDS supports an All-Day view, so cooks know exactly how much of a menu item they have on deck. Revel Systems can also assign a color to each prep station, so you can see which cook is preparing an individual menu item at a glance.
• SMS text integration
  Revel integrates with the third-party messaging app Twilio to support automated text messaging from the KDS screen. You can create custom messages for in-house, takeout, curbside, or delivery orders. The system will automatically text customers when your cooks or expediter marks the order as “complete” in the KDS.
• Order Ready screen
  Revel’s built-in Order Ready screen is customer-facing and shows real-time order status. This is an excellent tool for communicating with delivery drivers or for keeping things organized in a high-volume, quick service environment. Orders can be flagged with order numbers and customer names and will be color-coded by order type.
• Drive-thru tools
  The Revel POS includes a detailed workflow for drive-thru restaurants it calls Drive Thru XT. This module condenses order and payment screens to reduce button presses and logs vehicle information to ensure the correct orders are given to the correct customers. You can also track drive-thru orders separately from in-house orders on the Revel KDS.

Revel does not publicly list the cost of its KDS hardware and software. Contact Revel for a full-price quote.

• Strong offline functionality
  Epson’s KDS is installed via hardwired ethernet connections. It does not need the Cloud to operate. If you lose internet connectivity, your KDS will still operate.
• Commercial-grade hardware
  Like Toast, Epson’s KDS operates on commercial-grade hardware. Epson monitors are rated IP-54, the exact same level of water and dust protection as Toast’s hardware. Commercial-grade hardware will likely function better than an iPad if your kitchen is particularly hot or steamy—like an Italian spot with a wood-burning oven and lots of boiling pasta water.
• Label printing
  Epson’s KDS screens are driven by the printers they are attached to. You can print paper tickets on demand, or even linerless sticker labels—which are ideal for labeling takeout and delivery orders.
• Touch-screen and bump bar options
  Epson’s black-and-white, grid-based user interface is a little old-school. Plus, some cooks find bump bar navigation a bit dated. However, others prefer bump bars because they are easier to operate with gloved hands or damp fingertips. Epson includes options for both bump bar enabled and touch-screen monitors.
• Recipe lookup from KDS
  Like Lightspeed and Toast, Epson allows your staff to access recipe information directly from the KDS screen so there are never any mistakes from the kitchen. You just need to be sure to attach a recipe to each dish.

You cannot purchase the Epson KDS directly from Epson; you’ll need to go through a third-party reseller. This might be one of the many POS brands that integrates with the Epson KDS, or it might be a standalone POS hardware seller like POS Guys. Pricing and terms will vary from seller to seller, but you can typically expect to pay between $1,400 and $2,500 upfront. There may be additional monthly service or software fees.

• Customizable colors
  As with Toast, Fresh KDS lets you customize virtually every color on the screen. Choose which colors you want to label your ticket status, order type, and order modifications. You can even choose a light or dark mode for the entire KDS screen.
• Customizable screen views
  You can choose to arrange your Fresh KDS tickets in neat, individual columns or squeeze tickets into all available screen space with the Tile view. Split View allows you to separate your screen into two order streams, helpful for separating eat-in orders from to-go or pickup orders from delivery orders.
• Custom text notifications
  Like Toast and Revel, Fresh KDS sends automated SMS text alerts when you mark orders as complete. With Fresh KDS, however, you have even more messaging options. You can set messages for when new orders are received and when your team begins preparing orders. You can also set custom messages for different order types—eat-in, curbside, pick-up, or delivery.
• Customer-facing order tracking screen
  Like Revel, Fresh KDS includes an optional customer-facing order tracking screen. This is ideal for counter-service restaurants or those that do a high volume of takeout orders. When your kitchen marks a KDS ticket as completed, the order status on the tracking screen automatically updates to show customers their food is ready.

Fresh KDS offers three subscription tiers: Basic, Advanced, and Enterprise. Basic starts at $19 per month, Advanced comes in at $35 per month, and Enterprise requires a custom quote. Each subscription includes software for two KDS screens, though the system can support up to 10 screens at a single location.

At the Advanced subscription level, Fresh KDS includes standout features like automated customer SMS text messaging (like Toast and Revel) and a customer-facing order tracking screen (like Revel). Though you’ll also need the Advanced level if you simply want to print tickets from the KDS screen; Basic subscriptions do not include ticket printing functions.

• All-Day View
  Like other systems on this list, Square supports an All-Day count view. Plus, Square goes the extra mile and adds color coding to the All-Day count, so your cooks and expediters only need to glance to see which tickets are waiting on popular dishes.
• Voids on tickets
  Every other KDS on this list processes voided items as separate tickets. These tickets will typically be marked with the same ticket or table number as the original ticket, but this can still lead to over-prepped food on a busy night. Square displays voided items in red directly on the original ticket. So, if table 25 cancels their soup order, your cooks will see it in real time.
• Customizable views
  On each Square KDS, you can individually adjust the text size, the number of tickets displayed per page, and notification settings for new orders. This way, your cooks can view orders the way they prefer.
• Free online ordering
  All of the systems on this list display online orders in the KDS. But Square for Restaurants is the only POS that includes a free online ordering site. In addition to receiving online orders directly in your KDS order stream, Square users have the comfort of knowing they aren’t paying any extra fees for those orders.

For Free Square for Restaurants users, the Square KDS costs $20 per tablet, per month. Plus and Premium subscribers can use the KDS for free on unlimited devices.

• Free trial
  Lightspeed offers a 14-day free trial of the underlying POS so you can test all of Lightspeed Restaurant’s POS functions before you commit to the system. Unfortunately, the KDS is not included in the free trial. Contact Lightspeed for a demo of the KDS.
• Color-coded order status
  Tickets in different stages of the preparation pipeline appear with pre-configured colors: gray for New or Archived, orange for Preparing, green for Done, and red for Voided. Unlike Toast, Revel, and Epson, however, you cannot customize these colors; they are programmed into the KDS.
• Filtered ticket views
  From the top left corner of the Lightspeed Kitchen screen, you can filter tickets by active, new, preparing, done, or archived status. Tickets can be moved from one order phase to the next with single or double taps.
• Order tags
  Lightspeed labels online orders with the name of the referring platform. And—via a Deliverect integration—Lightspeed integrates with virtually every third-party platform you can imagine. You can keep your third-party orders organized, even if you partner with several platforms.
• Show and Tell function
  Lightspeed Kitchen’s KDS includes a Show and Tell function that shows a detailed image and item description on the KDS screen when a cook clicks on the menu item. This stops short of the recipe look-up function supported by Epson and Toast, but ensures your cooks are reminded how to plate a dish and review a list of its ingredients.

Lightspeed Kitchen is a paid add-on to the Lightspeed Restaurant POS. The software is offered at a custom-quoted price from Lightspeed. Contact their sales department for full pricing.