Best Restaurant POS Systems for 2023

If you want handheld tablets for tableside ordering, dynamic kitchen display system (KDS) screens, and self-service kiosks in your POS package, Toast has you covered. Toast’s self-service kiosk and KDS are our top recommendations for those restaurant tools.

Countertop Terminal Starter Kit	Self-service Kiosk	Handheld Terminal Starter Kit
Pay upfront: $799 + $69 per month Or Pay-As-You-Go: $0 and 2.99% + 15 cents per in person transaction	Pay upfront: $999 + $99 per month Or Pay-as-you-Go: $0 and 2.99% + 15 cents per in-person transaction	Pay upfront: $609 + $69 per month Or Pay-as-You-Go: $0 and 2.99% + 15 cents per in-person transaction
Countertop Terminal, Toast Tap card reader, Router	Touch-screen kiosk with router and card reader	Toast Go 2 order and payment device, Wireless Access Point, Router
Purchase from Toast

• Online Ordering and Delivery
  Toast offers built-in online ordering as part of the Core and Growth packages (Starter Kit and Point of Sale users can add it for $75 per month). This module fully integrates with your loyalty program, and the menu syncs with your inventory. Delivery tools track driver locations and send status updates to customers. Toast is among our top picks for online ordering systems.
• Marketing and Loyalty
  Create email messages to target specific customer types and send them directly from the POS. Toast supports points-based rewards and includes built-in customer feedback tools, so you’ll catch disappointed guests before they complain on Yelp.
• Workforce Management
  Build staff schedules and block early clock-ins. Onboard new employees entirely digitally, keep their new hire paperwork in a central location and sync that information immediately with your payroll system. Toast can also manage tip pooling arrangements. Set your tip pool configurations in the back office dashboard, and Toast will automatically figure out required tip-outs for your team.
• Reservations
  Toast recently added Toast Tables, a fully integrated, comprehensive reservation system that operates on iOS and Android tablets. Customers can add themselves to your waitlist via your Google listing. Plus, you’ll get detailed guest profiles with two-way messaging, order status synced with your POS, and an automated server roster that ensures fair section seating.

• QSR-ready Kiosks and KDS
  Lightspeed Restaurant supports one of our favorite KDS screens. The dynamic color codes and touch-screen interface are easy to read at a glance and navigate with intuitive taps and swipes. Combined with integrated self-ordering kiosks, QSRs can quickly expand their operations without increasing staff. Toggling on Quick-Service mode further streamlines your POS order screens, so your team can ring in orders faster.
• Quick Order Mode
  Lightspeed Restaurant has a quick order setting that combines ordering and payment options on a single screen. This speeds orders in a quick service environment.
• Automated Vendor Management
  Lightspeed’s built-in Advanced Inventory tracks your inventory at the ingredient level. A smartphone counting app turns any smartphone camera into a barcode scanner to check in deliveries and count inventory quickly. Reports calculate recipe costs and track price fluctuations from your vendors. The “1-click” reordering function allows you to place orders with multiple vendors with the click of a single button.
• Flexible Payments
  You can choose to use the fully built-in Lightspeed Payments (which will increase your POS system’s reporting power), or shop for processing rates. Lightspeed also integrates with Cayan, BridgePay, and Worldpay. Lightspeed may charge a higher monthly fee for using a third-party processor, though, so be sure to contact them for a custom quote.

• Strong Offline Functionality
  Your Revel Systems terminals are networked together onsite. So, if you lose your internet connection, the system still sends orders to your kitchen and processes payments.
• Comprehensive Baseline Features
  The baseline Revel Systems POS includes functions for employee scheduling, customer management, and inventory management. As with Toast, you can preauthorize bar tabs, and create custom floorplans and menu screens.
• Built-in Online Ordering and Delivery
  Like Toast, Revel Systems has a fully integrated online ordering and delivery module—it made our ranking of top food delivery software. Revel’s tools are slightly more robust than Toast’s, featuring much more detailed driver management reports alongside the maps-based driver dispatch tools. Online ordering screens are easy for customers to navigate.
• Multilocation Tools
  Revel hosts centralized reporting and menu controls. At the enterprise level, you can also leverage open application programming interface (API) to build custom integrations through all of your restaurant locations.

• Cash Discount Option
  Lavu’s Cash Discount feature enables restaurants to charge different prices for customers that pay with cash vs credit cards. This offsets the cost of credit and debit card transaction fees, while handily side-stepping laws in 11 states that prohibit passing processing fees onto customers.
• Comprehensive Baseline POS
  Lavu’s baseline POS includes all the basic check splitting, payment splitting, and employee permission features that you’d expect in a restaurant POS. Ingredient-level inventory is included in the entry-level POS as are insightful touches like tip pool tracking and built-in employee scheduling tools.
• Nutritional Information Display
  Lavu prompts you to add nutritional information to your menu items in the POS. This enables the system to display this information seamlessly to customers on the Lavu self-order kiosk, saving time and customer questions. You can also add high-resolution menu images to guide your employees and customers quickly through order screens.
• Robust Integrations
  If you need a software tool that the Lavu POS lacks, you can likely find an integration for it. Lavu integrates with more than 100 third-party tools, covering everything from accounting to specialized inventory and third-party delivery aggregators. For payments, Lavu integrates with Worldpay, BridgePay, Heartland, PayPal, and Square.

• Payment Flexibility
  Like Revel, Lightspeed, and TouchBistro, MICROS Simphony offers built-in payment processing and integrates with several payment processors. With Simphony, the built-in option is Oracle Payments Cloud Service, which, unlike most competitors, has absolutely no long-term contract.
• Workforce Management
  Like Toast, Simphony includes detailed team management, including employee scheduling and onboarding. It also manages time-off requests with a self-serve employee app.
• Offline Functionality
  Simphony’s offline functionality is stronger than any system on this list. Simphony is locally networked and backed up to the cloud. If you lose internet access, your workstations communicate with one another, storing payment and timekeeping information in a central, offline cache. If a workstation disconnects from other workstations, then payment and timekeeping data is stored in the terminal itself until a connection is restored.
• Customized Speed Screens
  Simphony is the king of conversational ordering. Customized speed screens for servers, cocktail servers, bartenders, and cashiers list the most relevant modifiers on a single screen, reducing button presses and screen switching.

• Free Baseline POS
  Square for Restaurants’ baseline POS is free to use. It is best suited to counter service operations that don’t need to ring in orders by course or seat number. But these restaurants are frequently overlooked by higher-priced restaurant POS brands, so the free Square for Restaurants POS plan can be a lifesaver.
• Transparent Pricing
  Square for Restaurants clearly lists subscription prices, transaction fees, and hardware costs on its website. If you have a large-scale restaurant business and think your costs to use Square for Restaurants will be high, reach out to the Square sales team for a custom quote for software and payment processing.
• No Long-term Contract
  You can start with Square for Restaurants and cancel without penalties if it isn’t a fit for your business.
• Integrated Square Ecosystem
  You can add integrated online ordering via the free Square Online store and sync your employee time and tip data directly with Square Payroll. If you offer catering or sell foods to businesses that pay monthly, Square Invoices has the tools you need. All of these small business tools working together can save you hours of administrative time; especially if you are an owner-manager.

• Incredible Ease of Use
  TouchBistro uses the familiar iOS layout to intuitively guide you and your team—including managers—through all the POS features.
• Transparent Software Pricing
  TouchBistro lists nearly all of its software pricing publicly. So, while it is a good idea to get a custom quote, you won’t have to worry if you are getting a good deal; you can just check the TouchBistro website. Prices range from $25 per month for gift card functions up to $299 per month for built-in reservations.
• Streamlined All-in-one POS
  You can create custom floor plans and start tabs with a credit card swipe. TouchBistro tracks your employee’s hours and tips for payroll, supports image-based menus, and includes ingredient-level inventory in the baseline system.
• Templatized Reporting
  If report analysis is not your strong suit, you’ll love TouchBistro’s easy-to-read, visually dynamic reports. Most reports are formatted to include bar graphs and pie charts that show your restaurant’s performance at a glance, so you always know if your numbers tell you to increase your staff levels or drop a costly dish from your menu.

• Mobile Ordering
  Your customers can place group orders and split the bill multiple ways directly from their smartphones. SpotOn also integrates with Ordr, an app that allows event attendees to order food to be delivered to their seats in arenas and stadiums. An integrated order-ready display screen shows takeout customers and delivery drivers exactly when their order is ready.
• Contactless Payments
  SpotOn users can accept NFC and mobile wallet payments onsite and online through SpotOn’s integrated mobile ordering system. Processing rates are lower than competitors’ published rates (starting at 1.99% + 20 cents for in-person payments), and custom-rate quotes are available. Handheld terminals operate via Wi-Fi and 4G connections, so you’ll never go offline.
• Automated Upsells and Discounts
  Your mobile and on-site ordering modules can automatically suggest items that are popular pairings or apply discounts when an order meets the promotional criteria.
• Reservations and Bookings
  SpotOn’s built-in reservation module is the most complex of the systems on this list. Beyond simple reservations and waitlists, it includes “experience” bookings for special events like themed parties or add-ons like to-go meals. The system can also accept deposits, so you can easily sell ticket-style events with little administrative hassle.