• Cost: $99-$289
• Best for: Shopping and dining, all-inclusive
  
• Compatibility: iPad, mobile applications
  
• Link: https://www.lightspeedhq.com/
  

Lightspeed enhances all of TouchBistro's features for use in both retail and restaurants. So, for the food industry, you get cool features like food management systems and interactive menus. The menu functionality in Lightspeed is extremely slick, with HD photographs, descriptions, and prices for each menu item. You may also set up loyalty programs to reward loyal customers and a full-fledged CRM to keep track of who comes in and out.

Meanwhile, Lightspeed offers a variety of hardware solutions for stores, such as scanners, printers, and electronic cash drawers, to help them increase efficiency and sales. Sales reporting, merchant services, and an e-commerce platform are all included in the POS system. Furthermore, Lightspeed's inventory management is in real-time, allowing you to advise customers right away whether or not an item is still available.

Pros

• There are numerous additional hardware alternatives available
• A basic plan has advanced features
• A visual interface that is simple to use and learn

Cons

• Calculating profit margins can be difficult
• When sending email orders, no confirmation was received

• Cost: At $79
• Best for: Services for the food industry of all sizes
• Compatibility: Android-based mobile devices
• Link: https://pos.toasttab.com/

Toast is a cloud-based POS solution for restaurants with all the bells and whistles you could want. Toast has thought of everything, from an online ordering system to a loyalty rewards program, gift card generator, and sophisticated inventory management system. Splitting checks, easy order voiding, and closeout day features are just icing on the cake.

Toast, unlike most POS systems, runs on the Android platform. For a business owner, this means that the hardware is substantially less expensive to buy and more versatile in terms of integration. The mobile hardware alternative, Toast Go, enables wait staff to manage their tables, orders, payments, and tabs at the table, allowing for faster and more efficient ordering. Toast is a sleeker, smoother, and easier to use POS system than most.

Pros

• Extensive restaurant-specific functionality
• Neat Hardware is the way to go when it comes to tableside management
• Customer service that is second to none

Cons

• To acquire the great features, you'll have to spend more
• Fee for installation

• Cost: From at $14.
  
• Best for: Expanding a retail or service-based business
• Compatibility: Hardware that is not compatible with iOS
• Link: https://www.clover.com/

Clover will be a recognizable name if you've ever worked with a point-of-sale system. This is because other POS software suppliers use this hardware, which should tell you something about the system. Clover POS has all of the standard POS functions, such as built-in payment processing, order administration, and customer management. Marketing campaigns, loyalty programs, and birthday promotions are all available to help you expand your consumer base. Clover also has other features such as shift management, scheduling, and register activity records.

Clover offers both permanent and portable hardware devices, allowing you to choose the best option for your business's needs and layout. Clover POS is also completely customizable, with scalable plans, add-ons, and accessories to help you expand your reach as your company expands. Clover, on the other hand, provides some fascinating features like customer feedback, guest management, and a gift card generator if you really want to go all out.

Pros

• There are a lot of integrations to let you enhance your capabilities
• Software and hardware that is simple to use
• The base package comes with a lot of features

Cons

• The Android operating system isn't as slick as Apple's iOS
• You are unable to utilize your own payment processor

• Cost: From $59 to $359
• Best for: Services in the restaurant and food business
• Compatibility: A tablet, a mobile app, and a tabletop (Android OS)
• Link: https://resources.upserve.com/
  

Upserve, unlike many other companies that claim to be all-in-one, truly delivers on that promise. Upserve covers the gamut with a variety of valuable tools and services for any restaurant owner. To help raise sales and streamline all of your business procedures, you can have a fully functional POS system, as well as a payment processor, reservations system, inventory management, staff management, and analytics.

Upserve is similar to TouchBistro in that it focuses on the restaurant business. As a result, it includes a digital guest book, daily digest, and menu management, among other features that restaurant owners would appreciate. Upserve also has a helpful shift preparation tool and digs deep into its analytics to provide you with server performance statistics. Reputation management and marketing tools for maximizing consumer reach and retention are two distinct capabilities you won't find anywhere else.

Pros

• Access to useful, free tools for business owners
• It's a true all-in-one solution
  
• Features that are useful in a certain niche

Cons

• There are no preset happy hour discounts
• Offline mode is a little slow

• Cost: Bundles start at $105
• Best for: Designed for all businesses in the food industry
• Compatibility: iPhone, iPad, and web-based
• Link: https://www.touchbistro.com/
  

TouchBistro is another excellent option for food-related enterprises of all sizes. TouchBistro is the POS software that was specifically created for your business, whether you own a food truck or run a full-service restaurant, brewery, or nightclub. That is, it has features that are tailored to your requirements, pressure spots, and customers. Self-ordering for speedier service, a kitchen display system for faster and better communication between wait and kitchen employees, and a digital menu board for instant menu updates are all features that food managers will love.

These POS systems include capabilities like tableside ordering, restaurant table management, and menu management, in addition to the usual advantages like reporting, analytics, and inventory control. The scheduling tools supplied with TouchBistro hardware will also be appreciated by managers because they make staff management much easier.

Pros

• Pricing and fees that are transparent
• Designed specifically for the demands of the food industry
• Online ordering, loyalty, bookings, and more are all available at no cost to you
  

Cons

• For retail or garment markets, this isn't as important
• Partially based on a network

• Cost: From $99
• Best for: Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and large corporations (enterprises) in the retail and food
• Compatibility: Mobile and IPad
• Link: https://page.revelsystems.com/

Revel combines all of the features of a reliable and effective point-of-sale system into one. Revel provides a true omnichannel platform for retail establishments and the food sector, allowing you to manage all elements of your business, including E-commerce, mobile sales, custom branded apps, and, of course, in-store purchases.

Revel also features a fantastic inventory management system. Revel excels at keeping track of inventory in real-time, and you can automate your orders so that the system automatically reorders things when you run out. You can even go down to the level of ingredient inventory management.

Revel's userbase is another feature that sets it apart. While most POS systems cater to small businesses, Revel offers both a small business and an enterprise-level solution. So, no matter how big or little your business is now or in the future, our POS system can handle it all.

Pros

• Inventory management that is comprehensive
• Back-office productivity tools that aren't too shabby
• Small and medium-sized business (SMB) and enterprise-level solutions

Cons

• A pricing structure that is perplexing
• Access to the API is only available for a fee

• Cost: From 2.5%
• Best for: SMBs with low-volume sales on a monthly basis
• Compatibility: iPad and mobile devices
• Link: https://squareup.com/

Unless you've been living under a rock, Square is a name you're already familiar with. It's without a doubt the most well-known POS system on the market today, which is unsurprising. Square is a popular choice for low-volume businesses trying to save money because it has no monthly fees and offers extremely low rates. For swiped transactions, you can pay a flat rate of 2.6 percent +$.10, and for keyed transactions, you can pay a flat rate of 3.5 percent +$.15. Those are excellent rates, in case you weren't aware.

Square isn't just a low-cost dining option. An e-commerce platform, inventory management, and virtual payment terminals are all included in the iPad POS system. Square is also mobile-friendly, has a developer API, and a large number of third-party integrations. Square is a wonderful alternative for just about any other type of business, including at-home services, food industries, and shops. While it isn't a viable solution for high-risk industries, it is ideal for just about any other type of business.

Pros

• Quality and affordability are well-known
• Pricing is simple and flat-rate
• There are no monthly costs, and chip readers are free

Cons

• For high-volume merchants, this isn't ideal
• Doesn't work in industries with a high level of risk