Whether you call your operation a pizzeria, pizza shop, or slice shop, your point-of-sale (POS) needs are vastly different from other food and beverage businesses. Any pizza POS system must handle a wide range of customer modifications, delivery expectations, and order combinations. The best pizza POS systems include delivery management with integrated GPS tracking and customer relationship management (CRM) features that track order history, include detailed delivery instructions, and reach customers directly with tailored deals.
Based on our evaluations, the best pizza POS systems are:
- Revel Systems: Best overall pizza POS System for Small Businesses
- HungerRush: Best Cloud Pizza POS for In-house Delivery
- Toast: Best POS for Full-service Pizzerias with Dining Rooms
- SpeedLine: Best High-volume, Traditional Pizza POS
- Square for Restaurants: Best Slice Shop Pizza POS
To find the POS that is best for your pizzeria, you can read our individual evaluations below. You can also start your search by taking this quick quiz. It is only four questions, takes less than a minute, and will provide a result without redirecting you to another page.
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How We Evaluated Pizza POS Systems
We compared dozens of the most popular POS systems based on functions that are vital to pizzerias, including cost, ease of use, underlying POS functions, and delivery management tools. We also considered our resident retail and restaurant experts’ personal experience with each system.
Our research and ranking determined Revel Systems to be the best overall pizza POS. According to our grading system for pizza shop software, this comprehensive restaurant software received the highest total score, a total of 4.03 out of 5. Adding our personal experience testing various restaurant POS software (and working in and with independent restaurants that use POS systems every day), Revel Systems also emerged as one of the top restaurant tools we recommended for small businesses.
Click through the tabs below for our full evaluation criteria:
20% of Overall Score
With their low menu prices and high sales volume, pizza shops tend to operate on incredibly tight margins. We looked at whether each POS offers a free plan and a plan under $75 a month as a jumping-off point. Secondly, we ranked for plans that include unlimited user log-ins, menu items, and transactions. Finally, we awarded points to systems with multiple payment processing options. When a large portion of your customers pay via credit cards, transaction rates can eat into your profits.
20% of Overall Score
Every pizza shop needs to track sales and stock levels and easily access reports like daily shift summaries, discounts, and transaction logs. We prioritized contactless payments options, online ordering, and order-ahead features because of current consumer trends. We also gave high marks to systems with robust marketing and CRM to support pizza-fans’ appetite for deals.
20% of Overall Score
Pizzerias have some of the largest, most complex menus in the food and beverage industry. They also have a customer base that wants to modify nearly every item. Consumers further expect pizza shops to offer crowd-catering combo coupons for pizzas, salads, appetizers, and sodas to please everyone at the table. So, any pizza POS needs menu modifiers and combo screens that don’t hurt your brain. Since delivery is a massive part of the pizza business, we gave high marks to systems that allow shops to control their costs by accepting card-present payments for online or phone orders.
20% of Overall Score
More than in any quick-service restaurant software, pizza POS systems need to be easy to use. Tools that draw your cashiers’ attention to ingredients, modifiers, and potential allergens are an absolute necessity to maintain service speed. There can be many moving pieces in a pizza POS, so we gave bonus points for systems that have 24/7 customer support, online training resources, and in-person training options.
20% of Overall Score
To round out the rating, we considered each system’s standout features and whether the overall POS offers a good value for the money you’d spend to use it. We considered each system’s popularity among pizza restaurants, and I also awarded points based on my personal experience using the software and interacting with the company’s customer support.
Revel Systems
PROS
- Built-in driver management with integrated GPS mapping
- Highly customizable
- 24/7 customer support and comprehensive online training resources
CONS
- Contract requires 3-year contract
- Navigating Revel’s many reports and functions can take time
- Full pricing requires a custom quote
RATING CRITERIA | Pricing | 2.88 | OUT OF | 5 |
General Features | 4 | OUT OF | 5 | |
Niche or article-specific features | 4 | OUT OF | 5 | |
Ease of Use | 5 | OUT OF | 5 | |
Expert Score | 4.25 | OUT OF | 5 |
Revel Systems is a hybrid iPad POS that operates on a locally installed server with a cloud backup, which gives it excellent offline functionality. In addition to basic features like multiple modification screens, Revel has built-in delivery driver management, with a full suite of navigational tools to track your team when they are out of the shop. Revel also offers a diverse suite of hardware, including self-order kiosks and kitchen display systems (KDSes), making it an excellent fit for high-volume, delivery-heavy pizzerias.
Revel earned a rating of 4.03 out of 5 in our ranking, mostly for the combination of its cloud-POS pricing and pizza shop-supporting features. This pizza POS has integrated online ordering and driver management features to manage in-house delivery, as well as integrations with third-party delivery aggregators if you prefer to use third-party drivers. Centralized reporting and inventory make Revel Systems an excellent pizza POS system for multi-location pizza brands.
Revel Systems Pricing
- Software subscription fee: Revel systems pricing starts at $99 per month for the POS software on a single terminal. This price puts Revel in the middle of the pack of the options on this list.
- Hardware costs: Revel operates on iPads. To ensure the best functionality, users must purchase these iPads directly from Revel, pre-configured with the Revel POS software. Revel also sells digital menu boards, KDSes, self-service kiosks, and mobile ordering tablets. Hardware pricing is based on your restaurant’s needs and is custom-quoted by the Revel sales department.
- Installation fees: Since Revel is a hybrid system, you may need a technician to install and network your system. Installation fees are custom quoted based on your restaurant configuration. We have been quoted one-time fees starting at $649.
- Processing fees: Revel Systems has a built-in payment processor, Revel Advantage. Rates are custom-quoted based on your card mix and sales volume. Revel also integrates directly with FreedomPay. Getting the best rates for an overall Revel Systems’ POS typically requires enrolling in Revel Advantage.
Revel Systems uses iPads to create dynamic POS terminal configurations.
(Image from Revel systems)
Revel Systems Standout Features
For an iPad POS, Revel Systems has massive functionality. The hybrid installation includes a locally-installed server that gives Revel much stronger offline functionality than competitors like Square for Restaurants. Operating via the cloud makes the back-office more accessible and Revel more affordable than a completely locally-installed solution like SpeedLine.
These qualities, combined with Revel’s incredibly customizable features, make the system an obvious choice for busy restaurants of all kinds. Several features are handy for pizza shops, in particular.
Revel Systems standout features include:
- Comprehensive Inventory: Revels’ inventory is semi-automated, allowing you to bulk import your raw ingredients, create purchase orders (POs) in the POS, and email orders directly to vendors. The inventory is centralized so your stock levels update in real time, whether customer orders are placed in person or online, ensuring that you never sell items you don’t have.
- Streamlined Combo and Modifier Screens: Revel supports multiple modifier screens and combo building. The system lets you set prices for various sizes of the same dish—as in a small, medium, or large pizza—and create prices for individual toppings.
- Online Ordering: Revel’s online ordering module creates a custom URL that syncs with your POS and management console. Your online ordering site can spotlight new dishes, seasonal items for holidays or special events, or featured combos. The online ordering login allows customers to log in via Facebook, so they don’t need to create a new username and password.
- Driver Management: Revel’s delivery management tools allow you to assign multiple orders to a single driver. The GPS integration generates the speediest route for your drivers based on order addresses and sends them via email to drivers’ smartphones, saving you the need to buy extra hardware. The system also estimates prep and delivery times and tracks your drivers’ delivery histories, giving you a massive amount of data to create reports. You can also assign cash tills to drivers to track their cash payments when they are out of the shop.
- Third-Party Delivery: Revel integrates with several aggregators—Chowly, ItsaCheckmate, and Deliverect are just a few—that feed third-party platform orders directly into your POS. The system also has a “passthrough fee” function that can pass on third-party fees to customers, so you can let customers order the way they want without destroying your bottom line.
- CRM and Marketing: You can prompt customers to enroll in your loyalty program at checkout or via email and SMS text messages. Creating customer groups lets you design offers specifically for friends and family or the staff of neighboring businesses. You can also create targeted email promotions for unique groups like “Customers with February Birthdays” or “Local Soccer Team Parents.”
HungerRush
PROS
- Driver dispatch integrates with Google Maps
- Multiple payment gateway options
- iOS card readers accept pay-at-the door card payments with lower, card-present processing fees
CONS
- Pricey monthly subscription fees
- System is still developing and may have bugs to work out
- Operates on proprietary hardware
RATING CRITERIA | Pricing | 2.48 | OUT OF | 5 |
General Features | 3.5 | OUT OF | 5 | |
Niche or article-specific features | 5 | OUT OF | 5 | |
Ease of Use | 5 | OUT OF | 5 | |
Expert Score | 3.38 | OUT OF | 5 |
HungerRush is a cloud-based POS that evolved out of the Revention legacy POS. The ancestral Revention POS is worth mentioning because that system was designed specifically to support pizza restaurants. In 2020, Revention rebranded as HungerRush, with the mission to develop a lighter, cloud-based POS to centralize ordering channels and simplify customer data analysis for small, independent restaurants.
In our pizza POS software ranking, HungerRush weighs in with a ranking of 3.87 out of 5, just a little bit ahead of restaurant stalwart Toast. This newcomer to the cloud POS ranks is a fascinating system for pizza shops that do a lot of delivery. This system even has one advantage over the top ranking Revel POS—HungerRush supports pay-at-the-door card payments, reducing your transaction fees.
HungerRush Pricing
- Monthly subscription fee: Monthly fees for the HungerRush POS system start at $199 per month and include both software and hardware for a single terminal.
- Installation fees: Installation fees are custom-quoted based on your restaurant configuration.
- Processing fees: HungerRush payments are hosted by Worldpay, which charges a flat interchange-plus transaction fee customized based on your card mix and sales volume. However, if you can get a better rate from a different processor, HungerRush has options to integrate.
The Hungerrush POS includes a wealth of information on a single screen.
(Image from HungerRush)
HungerRush Standout Features
With its legacy POS background and new focus on cloud-functionality, HungerRush combines a wealth of excellent pizza shop software tools in a pretty affordable package. Like Revel Systems, HungerRush is a hybrid POS; and like SpeedLine, the system was explicitly designed to support pizzerias, so it has lots of insightful fixes for common pizza pain points.
HungerRush’s standout features include:
- Pay-At-the-Door Payments: Like SpeedLine, HungerRush allows your drivers to accept card and mobile wallet payments when a delivery is completed. This function allows you to get the card-present transaction rate rather than the higher card-not-present transaction rate that usually comes with online payments.
- Driver Management: HungerRush’s driver management integrates with Google Maps, which provides real-time mapping updates. The system will also alert you if a driver is late returning from a delivery round, so you can get a head start on accidents or handling a disappointed customer.
- Loyalty: An integrated loyalty program gives you valuable insight into your customers and their spending habits. You can also save notes to a customer’s profile for future orders or to tag them for future promotions.
- Google Analytics: HungerRush comes with integrated Google Analytics, so you know how many people visit your ordering page, even if they don’t place an order.
- Pizza-Style Order Screens: HungerRush’s order screen highlights each pizza’s ingredients with red lights and green lights, so it is easy to make modifications at a glance. The system also allows your cashiers to edit items without deletions or re-entries.
Toast
PROS
- Highly reviewed 24/7 customer support
- Multiple modifier screen options
- Includes tools for in-house or third-party delivery
CONS
- Currently does not offer pay-at-the-door delivery functions
- Modifier menus may not be robust enough for very large build-your-own pizza operations
- Operates on proprietary hardware
RATING CRITERIA | Pricing | 2.45 | OUT OF | 5 |
General Features | 4 | OUT OF | 5 | |
Niche or article-specific features | 3.13 | OUT OF | 5 | |
Ease of Use | 4.63 | OUT OF | 5 | |
Expert Score | 4.63 | OUT OF | 5 |
Nowadays, it is impossible to have a restaurant POS conversation without mentioning Toast. This cloud-based tablet POS continually develops new tools to support every type of restaurant. Toast spent 2020 rapidly expanding its online ordering and delivery functions, which is good news for pizzeria owners. The customer support and personal attention make this POS the best fit for tech-phobic restaurant owners or anyone looking for an all-in-one POS solution.
On our pizza POS rating, Toast earns a 3.77 out of 5. This put it behind HungerRush and Revel, mostly because of niche pizza functions. However, Toast outperformed the others on this list for ease of use and value for money. Pricing for Toast’s entry-level POS starts at $69 per month. The accessible pricing, combined with Toast’s ease of use, makes this system a great pizza shop POS.
Toast Pricing
- Software subscription fee: Pricing for Toast’s “Starter” software subscription begins at $69 per month for a single terminal. Online ordering and delivery are custom-quoted add-on fees, though they are included as part of the next subscription tier, the “Essentials” level ($99 per month).
- Hardware costs: Toast operates on proprietary touch-screen tablets and handheld devices. These must be purchased, pre-configured, directly from Toast at a custom-quoted price.
- Installation fees: Historically, Toast has charged a one-time installation fee of around $1,500, though this figure seems to be much more negotiable in the aftermath of COVID-19.
- Processing fees: Using the Toast POS requires enrollment in Toast Payments. Rates are custom-quoted based on your sales volume and card mix and typically start around 2.49% + 15 cents for swiped transactions and 3.5% + 15 cents for manually-keyed payments.*
*Based on received quotes; individual rates vary based on card type and Toast’s discretion. For exact processing fees, contact Toast.
Toast’s baseline POS offers a wide variety of hardware.
(Image from Toast)
Toast Standout Features
Pizzerias that operate more like a traditional full-service restaurant will appreciate Toast’s comprehensive features that support their overall business’s health. Unlike Square for Restaurants, Toast includes driver management tools. They are not quite as robust as Revel, HungerRush, and SpeedLine, but they provide excellent support for pizza shops that offer delivery in addition to in-house dining. Unlike the others on this list, Toast offers pizza shops multiple options for third-party delivery.
Toast’s standout features include:
- Ease of Use: Toast is hands down one of the most comfortable POS systems for pizza shops to use. The modification screens are easy to navigate. Multiple modifier-nesting variations mimic your order process, so your staff can adjust crust type, extra toppings, and other customizations the way your customers are most likely to order them.
- Training and Support: Toast’s customer hub, Toast Central, contains a wealth of resources to train your managers and staff. The searchable Knowledge database can answer any question you have about your system. Toast users give Toast’s customer support glowing reviews.
- Baseline POS Functions: Of the pizza POS software on this list, Toast offers the most streamlined, all-in-one restaurant POS functions. Toast has tools for workforce management, built-in employee scheduling, comprehensive inventory, payroll processing, and many more general restaurant-supporting tasks.
- Driver Management: The Toast POS supports in-house driver management. You can set a delivery area, assign delivery fees, and assign orders to drivers directly in the POS. Drivers can also operate with a tracked cash bank to receive cash payments upon delivery, and you can print shift summaries for drivers just like you do for servers.
- Third-Party Driver Integration: Toast offers Toast Delivery Services, allowing pizza shops to dispatch independent local drivers on-demand through a partnership with DoorDash. Toast also integrates directly with Grubhub to send orders directly to your pizzeria’s POS. Other third-party apps are supported via aggregators ItsaCheckmate and Chowly.
SpeedLine
PROS
- Locally installed system works without the internet
- Massive mapping tools support driver dispatch and targeted marketing campaigns
- Choose your own processor and accept pay-at-the door card payments for lower, card-present processing fees
CONS
- High up-front cost
- Operates on industry-specific terminal
RATING CRITERIA | Pricing | 2.4 | OUT OF | 5 |
General Features | 4 | OUT OF | 5 | |
Niche or article-specific features | 5 | OUT OF | 5 | |
Ease of Use | 2.75 | OUT OF | 5 | |
Expert Score | 3.5 | OUT OF | 5 |
SpeedLine POS is an all-inclusive POS tool that includes delivery management and online ordering features with live driver mapping and targeting promotions. The basic SpeedLine system includes detailed driver dispatch functions, customer loyalty, at-a-glance menu modifications, and dynamic build-your-own-pie and combo building features. These functions make SpeedLine an excellent fit for traditional pizzerias that offer multiple, simultaneous coupons to showcase pizza, wing, sandwich, and soda deals.
On our scale, SpeedLine earns an overall rating of 3.53 out of 5. This middling rating is not a reflection of the functionality so much as the price. As an entirely locally installed POS, SpeedLine’s upfront cost is much higher than cloud-based systems like Toast and Square for Restaurants. When it comes to functions, however, no other POS has as many insightful, pizzeria-specific tools (as you’ll see in the list below).
SpeedLine Pricing
SpeedLine is an all-in-one system, priced per restaurant, based on your unique hardware and software needs, so pricing can vary widely.
- Software and hardware: A single pizzeria should expect to pay anywhere from $10,000 to $15,000 to install SpeedLine’s software and hardware. This price includes in-person installation and staff training.
- Subscription fees: SpeedLine does not offer its software on a monthly service contract. The only way to get SpeedLine’s POS functions to go all-in on a complete, locally installed POS system.
- Processing fees: SpeedLine supports a wide range of payment processors, including First Data, Heartland, Global Payments, and Worldpay. Choosing your own processor and using pay-at-the-door card readers to reduce processing fees can help offset SpeedLine’s higher up-front cost.
Speedline POS is a workhorse for high-volume pizza shops.
(Image from POSQUOTE)
SpeedLine Standout Features
Founded in 1990, SpeedLine has been in the pizza POS business for a long time—and it has stuck around for a reason. SpeedLine customers swear by this streamlined, all-in-one pizza POS software with robust delivery management. It is different from others on this list, as it operates on a closed internal network that stores all of your pizza shop’s data at your location. This setup is frequently called a “traditional” or “legacy” POS. Because SpeedLine doesn’t rely on the internet to operate, it is an excellent system for pizzerias that lack a reliable internet signal.
Some of SpeedLine’s standout Pizza POS features include:
- Pay-At-the-Door Functionality: Its “SpeedLine Pay” app allows your drivers to accept card payments at your customers’ doorsteps. Customers feel more secure keeping their card in hand, and your pizza shop can avoid higher card-not-present transaction fees. SpeedLine Pay card readers are EMV-compliant, which means you’ll have fewer chargeback disputes.
- Pizza-Focused Order Screens: SpeedLine’s order screens show nutritional information, allergens, and recipes at the touch of a button. So, your cashiers can answer any question a customer asks without slowing your operation down. SpeedLine’s Directed Order Entry walks servers through modifier prompts to ensure things like salad dressings or crust choices are never forgotten. You can also add pop-up screens for item-specific upsells and lists of currently running coupons, so anyone ringing in an order has all the information at their fingertips.
- Heatmap Reporting: One of SpeedLine’s most impressive functions is how the system combines navigational tools with sales tools. For example, you can pull sales reports that show what specific items are selling (or not) in specific areas of your city. This shows you immediately where a game day promotion or discounted delivery offer will have the most impact.
- Kitchen-Oriented Tickets: No matter what order a customer states their preferred modifiers in, SpeedLine will organize the information to display the way your kitchen team prefers to see it. This saves a lot of headaches and potential miscommunications, plus it keeps your cooks happy.
- Integrated Caller ID: When customers call your pizzeria, SpeedLine displays their customer profiles on the POS, including any active orders. Your staff never has to leave the POS to give customers updates or make changes to existing orders.
- Driver Management: You can organize your delivery assignments from a map view, allowing you to see which deliveries can be most efficiently grouped together. The dispatch screen displays estimated driver return times, so you know when to have the next rounds of orders ready. SpeedLine sends delivery information to driver smartphones and allows drivers to use their preferred navigation app. You can also set the SpeedLine POS to calculate driver reimbursement fees based on the most efficient route distance rather than their self-reported odometer readings.
- Inventory: SpeedLine’s Inventory contains a dynamic “topping matrix” to streamline recipe creation. This tool also easily tracks tiny amounts of every topping used for build-your-own pizzas.
- Online Ordering: SpeedLine’s online ordering module, SpeedDine, allows customers to order from any internet-enabled device or via your branded mobile app. Both the app and your online ordering site are tied directly to your POS, so prices, combos, promotional offers, and tax rates are uniform. You aren’t locked into SpeedDine as your only option; SpeedLine’s open software architecture allows you to integrate with any online ordering platform you like.
Square for Restaurants
PROS
- Operates on iPads
- Baseline POS software is free. After that, pricing starts at $60 per month
- Tons of delivery integrations, including Slice, the pizza-only online ordering platform
CONS
- No driver dispatch functions
- Reporting is limited
- No pay-at-the-door functions
RATING CRITERIA | Pricing | 3.8 | OUT OF | 5 |
General Features | 2.5 | OUT OF | 5 | |
Niche or article-specific features | 1.13 | OUT OF | 5 | |
Ease of Use | 3.5 | OUT OF | 5 | |
Expert Score | 4.25 | OUT OF | 5 |
Square’s cloud-based restaurant POS, Square for Restaurants, is more affordable than most other pizza POS options. It also has payment processing built-in, so it’s a terrific choice for shop owners on a budget. The entry-level Square for Restaurants subscription is free and requires no long-term contract. Modifications and inventory tracking are limited, but these hurdles won’t hold back an operation where modifications are uncommon.
Square for Restaurants earns a 3.04 out of 5 rating on our pizza POS ranking. That might sound like a low score to still be considered a Top five contender, but Square for Restaurants has a few unique features that make it the best fit for a particular pizzeria type: the slice shop.
Square for Restaurants Pricing
- Software subscription fee: The baseline Square for Restaurants subscription is free. Online ordering and delivery, Marketing, Loyalty, and Payroll Modules are available at additional monthly costs.
- Hardware costs: Square for Restaurants operates on iPads, so if you have a couple laying around, you can get started with Square for very little upfront cost. However, you can also buy full Square hardware bundles that include a cash drawer, receipt printer, and kitchen printer for around $1,000 without an iPad; $1,500 with an iPad.
- Installation fees: Set up of a Square for Restaurant’s POS is a do-it-yourself affair, so there are no installation fees. Your only cost for installation is the time you put in to create your menu and create a payment profile.
- Processing fees: Square lists its payment processing fees transparently on its website. As of this writing, they are 2.6% + $0.10 for in-person payments and 2.9% + $0.30 for online payments.* Custom rates are available for restaurants that process more than $250,000 in annual payments.
*Square for Restaurants payment processing rates may change at any time, based on Square’s discretion.
Square for Restaurants POs is incredibly user-friendly.
(Image from Square)
Square for Restaurants Standout Features
Pizza shops are a tight-margin business, and slice shops are especially so. With a starting monthly price of free, Square for Restaurants is the lowest cost pizza POS software on this list. An iPad, a Square account, and a Square credit card reader is all you need to start taking your first orders with Square for Restaurants.
Square for Restaurants’s standout features include:
- Popularity: Square is one of the most familiar software ecosystems for both staff and customers. In major cities, you can buy a Square card reader from an office supply or drug store and start taking payments in a few minutes.
- Month-to-Month Plans: Square for Restaurants users are not locked into long-term contracts, making the system an excellent fit for seasonal pizza shops in vacation destinations.
- Integrations: Square for Restaurants integrates with some of the most popular restaurant-industry software like Slice (pizza-specific online ordering and delivery), QuickBooks (accounting), MarketMan (inventory), Chowly (third-party ordering), and Homebase (employee scheduling).
- Conversational Ordering: Conversational ordering reflects the way customers speak when they place orders, allowing servers to modify items on the fly easily.
- Online Ordering: As a Square for Restaurants customer, you can build an online ordering website that ties directly to your pizzeria’s POS, and your online ordering site will sync with Facebook and Instagram. Online orders can be pick-up only or use online orders to develop an in-house delivery team.
- Marketing: Square for Restaurants POS plugs directly into high functioning Square tools like Square’s Marketing software. For an additional monthly fee ($15 to $35 per month; available 30-day free trial), you can create customized marketing campaigns to reach your guests with deals that appeal to them. Real-time reporting lets you measure the success of each promotion so that you can drive more sales.
Bottom Line
No matter how you serve your pizzas or what budget you have to work with, there are great pizza POS software options available to support your business. Small slice shops will love Square for Restaurant’s low cost, where POS pizzerias with more dine-in than carryout orders will enjoy Toast’s wide range of features. If your shop is primarily just a high volume traditional pizza delivery operation, SpeedLine will help you crush your order stream. For delivery-heavy shops that love to work in the cloud, HungerRush will have you covered.
Our top-rated pizza POS, Revel Systems, combines robust with the best of all these systems. It is a multi-featured POS with built-in options to manage in-house or third-party drivers. And, as an iPad-based system with robust offline functionality, Revel is both accessible and reliable for pizza shops of any kind. Visit Revel Systems for a demo.
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