9 Best POS Systems for Restaurants of 2026

Square for Restaurants is the easiest way into a capable restaurant POS because the Free plan costs nothing a month and the paid tiers are published down to each device. Square Plus at $49 per location a month adds the restaurant tools most dining rooms need: split and reopened checks, preauthorized bar tabs, order-ready texts and live section reports that show covers and sales by bar, dining room or patio. The Square KDS app routes tickets with timers and reports average ticket times, and two kiosk options handle self-ordering. Staff tools cover timecards with breaks and overtime, badge clock-ins and tip pooling. The trade-off is that the kitchen display and kiosks are paid per device and are not part of Square Free, so a kitchen with several screens adds up quickly. Larger operators processing over $250,000 a year can ask for custom pricing.

Toast ranks first because it covers the whole restaurant from one account. The core POS handles table and order management, digital menus, mobile payments and offline mode, and Toast KDS fires tickets from the POS to kitchen screens built to handle heat, grease and spills. Around that core, Toast sells suites for online ordering and delivery, marketing and loyalty, scheduling and tips, payroll with tax filing, and xtraCHEF for invoices, recipe costing and inventory. Pricing has three doors: a Starter Kit at $0 a month for a single location with one or two terminals, a Point of Sale plan from $69 a month where you choose your own hardware, and a quoted Build Your Own plan. The catch is that the full picture costs more than the headline. Most of the modules that set Toast apart are add-ons with their own fees, so price the suites you will really use before you sign.

SpotOn suits operators who want a full restaurant system and clear processing rates. The POS covers ordering, payments, table layouts and menu management, and SpotOn adds handhelds, a kitchen display, kiosks, commission-free online ordering, reservations, waitlist, loyalty and team scheduling. Pricing is published on two main plans. The All-In plan puts software and hardware in place for $0 per station a month, with a card-present rate of 2.79% + $0.20, a 2 year term and processing minimums. POS Essentials costs $55 per station a month on month-to-month terms with a lower 2.45% + $0.15 rate, but you buy the hardware, with stations listed at $750 and handhelds at $297 on the current offer. The Core Bundle adds Profit Assist, SpotOn Order and Marketing Assist for $50 a month plus 20 basis points of volume, capped at $200. Multi-unit groups move to quoted Build Your Own pricing.

Lightspeed Restaurant is built for operators who care about pacing and numbers. Every plan includes the customizable POS with coursing, modifiers and floor plans, plus Lightspeed Tempo to pace service, Lightspeed AI to answer performance questions, advanced inventory to track, order, receive and prep stock, and multi-location management. Online ordering, order and pay at table with QR codes, pre-auth bar tabs and single-view reconciliation of payments and deposits round out the front of house. Starter costs $69 a month, Essential $189 and Premium $399, with an Enterprise tier on quote. The kitchen display is the main extra, at $30 per screen a month, and reservations and the Tasks checklist app are add-ons too. With no free plan and paid kitchen screens, Lightspeed costs more than Square for a small cafe, but its inventory and reporting depth suit restaurants with large menus or several sites.

TouchBistro keeps its core simple: the Point of Sale plan from $69 a month includes the full POS feature set, with tableside ordering, floor plan and table management, menu and staff management, and reporting. No POS features are held back for higher tiers. The Essentials Bundle from $119 a month adds integrated payments and restaurant hardware, and a custom setup brings front of house, back of house and guest tools together. The add-on catalog is where cost grows. A kitchen display, inventory, labor and profit management, online ordering, reservations, loyalty, marketing and gift cards are each sold separately, and all of them are priced by quote rather than on the page. Support runs 24/7 by phone and email, including holidays, and software updates carry no extra charge. TouchBistro does not take commission on its own online orders.

Heartland Genius is the value pick among the full-featured systems. The Global Payments POS covers ordering on premise, off premise and online, a self-ordering kiosk and kitchen display system, staff tools for tipouts, scheduling and attendance, and guest loyalty and marketing. It is pitched at a wide range of formats, from coffee shops and pizzerias with half and half ordering to fine dining coursing and stadium concourses with digital menu boards. Pricing is published in three tiers: Essentials from $0 a month, Advanced from $42 a month and Complete from $129 a month, each with an in-person card rate of 2.6% + $0.10. Those prices cover one station on a standard setup, and online or keyed transactions carry different rates. The page does not spell out which features sit in which tier, so ask for that list before you compare it against Toast or Square.

Clover is a hardware-led choice. Restaurants pick from Station Solo and Station Duo counters, the compact Mini, Flex and Flex Pocket handhelds for tableside ordering, a self-ordering kiosk and a kitchen display that connects front of house, online orders and the kitchen. Commission-free online ordering, delivery management and third-party delivery app integrations cover takeout. Clover is sold through Clover.com and through banks and retailers, which suits owners who already have a merchant relationship. The weak point for comparison shopping is price clarity. Clover's restaurant plans bundle software with a hardware package, and the plan prices did not load as readable text from our location, so we have left the USD price pending. Check rental terms closely, since a subscription term rolls on at the same monthly charge if you do not choose an option at the end.

Shift4 Dine, the product formerly sold as SkyTab, bundles more guest tools into the base system than most rivals. Shift4 lists marketing and loyalty, reservations and waitlist, a QR code order and pay solution and a website builder as free, alongside online and mobile ordering. Hardware covers a workstation, handheld, tablet, customer display, kitchen display and kiosk, all with a lifetime warranty, and a nationwide technician network handles onsite installation. Third-party delivery orders from DoorDash and Uber Eats can be managed from the POS without extra tablets, and multi-location tools centralize menus and pricing. Shift4 also runs an Advantage Program designed to offset card processing fees. The page invites you to get started for $0 but does not publish a monthly plan price, so our USD price is pending. Shift4 has also folded Revel Systems into its restaurant business, so expect product changes.

Oracle Simphony is the enterprise option on this list. It is a cloud POS that connects ordering, payments, kitchen operations, inventory, reporting and guest engagement for quick service, table service, cafes, bars and global restaurant brands. Kitchen display systems, self-service kiosks with central control of images, prices and allergens, mobile order and pay, Oracle Payments and labor management are all part of the platform, and CrowdTwist loyalty comes integrated. The open API framework lists more than 200 integration partners, and updates to specials, menus and promotions can be pushed centrally to every touchpoint. That depth comes with enterprise buying: pricing is only available from Oracle sales, and rollout usually involves partners and configuration work that a single cafe will not need. We scored ease of use and value lower for that reason, not because the features fall short.