Best Restaurant POS Picks by Type
Each pick below is grouped by the moment it earns its place on your floor. When you take an order at the counter, modifiers like no sauce have to land on the till, not travel to the kitchen from memory.
On a Saturday evening your waiter is stuck at the till splitting a bill by seat while the queue builds behind them, and that is the test each system has to pass.
These picks are organised by the operational context most likely to drive the decision. Each comes with an explicit condition for when it is the wrong choice.
Best restaurant POS overall
Square POS. The free plan includes table management, open tabs, modifiers, split bills, and a kitchen display option without a monthly software fee.
Most independent restaurants taking fewer than £8,000/month in card sales will pay less on Square’s 1.75% flat rate than on any plan-based alternative, once the subscription is factored back in.
Not right if: you run more than 80 covers or need native delivery app integration without third-party middleware. At that point, Lightspeed or TouchBistro’s deeper hospitality feature set starts to matter.
Visit SquareBest restaurant POS for multi-site operators
Lightspeed Restaurant K-Series. The Lite plan at £49/month gives a full floor plan, integrated kitchen display, and native connections to Deliveroo, Uber Eats, and Just Eat.
The 1.49% + 20p transaction rate on Lightspeed Payments is lower than Square’s flat 1.75% above around £6,000/month in card volume.
Not right if: you are a single-site independent with straightforward service flow. The licencing cost and onboarding complexity are justified by multi-terminal operations, not a café with four tables.
Visit LightspeedBest restaurant POS for payment flexibility
TouchBistro. The processor-agnostic model means you bring your own acquirer, Barclaycard, Worldpay, Stripe, whoever already gives you the best card rate.
At £59/month per iPad licence, it is the only system in this guide where the POS cost and the payment cost are genuinely independent. Useful for operators who already have a negotiated rate.
Not right if: you are starting from scratch with no existing acquirer relationship. You will spend time shopping for card rates before the POS is even live.
Visit TouchBistroBest restaurant POS for delivery-first operations
YumaPOS. Native integrations with Deliveroo, Uber Eats, and Just Eat, plus a kitchen display and self-service kiosk option, at a starting price of £40/month.
The processor-agnostic model applies here too: YumaPOS charges 0% commission on transactions, so your payment costs are entirely down to the acquirer you choose. The strongest fit for dark kitchens and delivery-heavy independents.
Not right if: you need a table-service floor plan as your primary workflow. YumaPOS is built around counter service and delivery, not a full sit-down restaurant floor layout.
Visit YumaPOSBest budget restaurant POS
SumUp POS Lite. £0/month, 1.69% per transaction, and basic order management for a counter-service operation that needs to track sales without paying for hospitality features it will not use.
The ceiling is low, no table layout, no kitchen display, no delivery integration, but for a small café or food stall, that ceiling is not the problem.
Not right if: you have table service, split bills, or modifiers. SumUp POS Lite is not designed for sit-down hospitality.
Visit SumUpBest Restaurant POS Providers
Square ReaderTop Pick
SumUp AirBest for Startups
Lightspeed Payments
TouchBistro POS
Epos Now
YumaPOS
How to Choose the Best Restaurant POS System
Start with how you serve, not the spec sheet. When you reconcile your takings at closing time, a system that splits card, cash and delivery cleanly saves you an hour.
On a Friday evening your manager is reconciling two order queues by hand because the delivery apps do not talk to the till, and that friction is what you are choosing to avoid.
The right restaurant POS is the one that fits how you actually serve, not the one with the longest spec sheet. Five things decide the fit, and most independents only need the first two to be right.
Table and course management. A table plan lets staff assign orders to seats, track which tables are occupied or need clearing, and split a bill by seat or item. Square, Lightspeed, TouchBistro, Epos Now and YumaPOS include it; SumUp POS Lite does not.
Modifiers at the point of order. “No sauce” or “extra cheese” has to be captured on the till, not carried to the kitchen from memory, which is where mistakes start. Every table-service system here handles modifiers at order entry.
Kitchen display. A kitchen display system (KDS) swaps paper tickets for a screen that shows each order and flags how long it has waited. Lightspeed and TouchBistro include it or offer it as an add-on; Square and Epos Now sell optional KDS hardware; SumUp does not.
Delivery app integration. When Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Just Eat orders arrive separately from the till, staff reconcile two queues by hand. Native integrations on Lightspeed, TouchBistro and YumaPOS route them straight into the kitchen queue.
If more than a third of your covers come through delivery, treat this as the deciding factor.
Split billing and open tabs. Splitting a bill by item, by seat or evenly is basic hospitality that a card reader on its own cannot do. Square handles it in the free POS app, and so does every table-service system here.
Restaurant POS Costs and Fees
Read the three cost layers together, and read them against your own trading pattern. When you settle up at year end, your accountant wants one clean set of takings, not two systems to reconcile before your VAT return.
At closing time your team is still waiting on the card settlement to land before they can cash up the till, so reliability at service counts as much as the monthly fee.
The honest cost of a restaurant POS has three layers: the software fee, the transaction rate if you take integrated payments, and the hardware. Read them together, because a free plan with pricey hardware can cost more than a paid plan that bundles it.
Software fee. Square and SumUp charge nothing at the free tier. Lightspeed starts at £49/month, TouchBistro at £59/month, Epos Now at £54/month, YumaPOS at £40/month. On £10,000/month in card sales, a £49 fee is a 0.49% overhead that only pays off if the features earn it.
Transaction rate. Square and SumUp charge a flat rate per sale; Lightspeed and Epos Now offer integrated processing at published rates. TouchBistro and YumaPOS are processor-agnostic, so your rate is whatever acquirer you bring.
That is lower if you have the volume to negotiate, higher if you accept a bundled deal without checking it.
Hardware. Square sells a Reader for £19 and a standalone Terminal for £149; SumUp’s Air reader is £15. Lightspeed and Epos Now usually need a tablet, stand and receipt printer, with bundles from £300 upward. TouchBistro runs on your own iPad; YumaPOS supports Android terminals.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best free restaurant POS system in the UK?
Square POS on the free plan is the strongest option at no monthly cost. It handles tables, modifiers, open tabs, and split bills without a subscription. SumUp POS Lite is also free but lacks table management and is better suited to counter service than sit-down restaurants.
Do I need a separate card reader if I have a restaurant POS?
It depends on the POS. Square’s POS uses a Square Reader (£19) connected via Bluetooth. Lightspeed Payments uses integrated terminal hardware. TouchBistro and YumaPOS require a separate card terminal from your chosen acquirer. Epos Now offers its own payments integration or accepts third-party terminals.
What does a restaurant POS cost per month in the UK?
Between £0 (Square free plan, SumUp Lite) and £199/month (Lightspeed Restaurant Pro). The midpoint for a single-site independent is roughly £49–£59/month for a hospitality-grade system with table management and kitchen display. Hardware is an additional upfront cost.
Can I use my own payment processor with a restaurant POS?
Yes, if you choose a processor-agnostic system. TouchBistro and YumaPOS both allow you to bring your own acquirer. Square and SumUp require you to use their own payment processing. Lightspeed and Epos Now offer proprietary integrated payments but can sometimes accommodate third-party processors at enterprise tier.
Does a restaurant POS handle Deliveroo, Uber Eats, and Just Eat orders?
Lightspeed, TouchBistro, and YumaPOS all offer native delivery aggregator integrations. Square supports third-party middleware (e.g., Deliverect, Uber Eats Manager) but does not have a native aggregator integration at the free plan tier. SumUp POS Lite has no delivery integration.
What about the Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act 2023?
The Act, in force from October 2024, requires employers to pass 100% of tips to workers and maintain a written tips policy. Your POS system does not enforce compliance, but a system with tip reporting, Square, Lightspeed, TouchBistro, will give you the audit trail you need. Keep the POS report as evidence of how tips were collected and distributed. We checked tip-reporting functionality across all providers in this roundup.
How we reviewed Best POS Systems for Restaurants in the UK
Ranking criteria. We ranked on what a restaurant lives with nightly: table and course management, how fast the tills handle a rush, kitchen-display and integration options, and the true monthly cost of hardware plus software. Reliability at service outweighs feature counts.
Data sources. We set up each system, ran test covers through table service and takeaway, sent orders to the kitchen, and checked pricing against the providers’ own pages in May 2026. Where hardware is quoted per site, we say so rather than estimate.
Update cadence. We re-verify every provider on this page at least monthly, and whenever a provider changes pricing, eligibility, or terms. The verification date on the page reflects the most recent full review. Some links on this page are affiliate links, see our editorial policy.