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Before you dive in, here’s the single most useful thing to know: some restaurant POS vendors publish their prices openly, and others make you call a salesperson first. Toast, Square, Lightspeed, and UpMenu all show real numbers on their pricing pages — so you can budget before you ever talk to anyone. That transparency is a genuine advantage when you’re comparing options, and it’s reflected throughout this guide.
One housekeeping note: none of the four tools in this guide had usable third-party review data at the time of our research, so we’re not citing scores, ratings, or complaint themes for any of them. What you’ll find instead is a straight read of each tool’s captured features and published pricing.
Pricing at a Glance
| Tool | Entry Price | Mid Tier | Upper Tier | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Toast | $0/mo (Starter Kit) | $69/mo (Point of Sale) | Custom quote | Hardware + software + payments bundle |
| Square | $0/mo (Free) | $49/mo (Plus) | $149/mo (Premium) | Per-location pricing; add-ons billed separately |
| Lightspeed | $69/mo (Starter) | $189/mo (Essential) | $399/mo (Premium) | Enterprise tier is quote-only |
| UpMenu | $49/mo (Basic) | $89/mo (Standard) | $169/mo (Premium) | Online/digital ordering focus |
All prices billed monthly unless noted.
Toast
What It Does & Who It’s Best For
Toast bundles hardware, software, and payment processing into one platform purpose-built for restaurants. The feature list spans a wide range of restaurant types — quick service, full service, fast casual, bar and lounge, cafe and bakery, casual dining, food truck, fine dining, hotel restaurant, catering and events, drive-thru, sports and entertainment, bottle shop, butcher shop, and restaurant-and-retail hybrids. That breadth is notable.
On the software side, the platform includes point of sale, online ordering, Toast Mobile Order & Pay, Toast Tables (reservations), a guest CRM, email marketing, gift cards, tips management, a branded mobile app, Toast Delivery Services, and integrations with Grubhub, Uber Eats, and DoorDash. For back-of-house and management, it covers inventory management, xtraCHEF cost analytics, multilocation management, and the Toast Now management app. The platform also includes retail inventory management for hybrid concepts, a payroll suite, team management, and financial tools including capital loans and instant deposit. Hardware options include handheld POS, self-ordering kiosks, and kitchen display systems — all restaurant-grade. Toast is also available in North America, Europe, and Australia.
The free Starter Kit entry point makes Toast approachable for operators who want to start lean, while the breadth of features across operations, marketing, delivery, and finance makes it a natural fit for restaurants that expect to grow or already run multiple locations.
Pricing
- Starter Kit: $0/mo billed monthly
- Point of Sale: $69/mo billed monthly
- Custom quotes available for more complex configurations
Square for Restaurants
What It Does & Who It’s Best For
Square for Restaurants positions itself as an all-in-one system to manage a restaurant efficiently, with a free entry tier that’s genuinely functional. The platform covers coffee shops, quick service, full service, bars and breweries, and food trucks. Core capabilities include taking payments, managing orders from one place, scheduling and paying your team, managing cash flow, tracking inventory, adding revenue streams, tracking performance, and keeping customers coming back.
Add-ons give the platform more depth: a Kitchen Display System app ($30/device on Plus, $20/device on Premium), a Kiosk app ($50/device on Plus, $30/device on Premium), and restaurant inventory powered by MarketMan ($99/mo on Plus or Premium). Payment options include tap/dip/swipe, online, manual entry, ACH, Afterpay, Bitcoin payments, physical and eGift cards, and international card transactions — though the specific rates for those methods weren’t captured in our research, so check Square’s site directly for that detail.
The $0 Free tier makes Square particularly well-suited to smaller or newer operations that want a real POS without an upfront software commitment. The tiered structure also means you can scale up as your volume justifies it.
Pricing
- Free (per location): $0/mo billed monthly
- Plus (per location): $49/mo billed monthly
- Premium (per location): $149/mo billed monthly
- KDS app: $30/device (Plus), $20/device (Premium)
- Kiosk app: $50/device (Plus), $30/device (Premium)
- Restaurant Inventory by MarketMan: $99/mo billed monthly (Plus or Premium)
Lightspeed Restaurant
What It Does & Who It’s Best For
Lightspeed describes itself as a flexible, customizable restaurant point of sale, payments, and restaurant management platform with “industry-leading insights” — and the feature list reflects a platform aimed at operators who want serious data and customization alongside their POS. It covers bars, breweries, cafes, fine dining, full service, hotel restaurants, and quick service.
Feature highlights include point of sale, tableside ordering (Lightspeed Tableside), online ordering, QR code ordering, a kitchen display system, order anywhere, reservations, payment processing, inventory management, workforce and payroll, and delivery. On the analytics side, the platform includes Lightspeed Insights, Advanced Insights, Lightspeed Pulse, and Benchmarks & Trends — tools for menu optimization, tracking customer behavior, and identifying top-performing staff. Lightspeed AI is also listed as a newer addition. The platform supports multiple locations and connects to third-party tools. It’s available in over 100 countries.
The pricing steps — $69, $189, $399 per month — signal a platform built for operators willing to invest in more capability. The Enterprise tier is quote-only, which makes sense for larger groups. The $399 Premium tier is a meaningful commitment, so Lightspeed is most naturally a fit for ambitious hospitality operators who want deep reporting and management features alongside their POS.
Pricing
- Starter: $69/mo billed monthly
- Essential: $189/mo billed monthly
- Premium: $399/mo billed monthly
- Enterprise: Quote-only — contact Lightspeed’s sales team
UpMenu
What It Does & Who It’s Best For
UpMenu takes a different angle: it positions itself primarily as a platform for restaurants to succeed online, with a restaurant POS as one component of a broader digital toolkit. The feature set reflects that — alongside a restaurant POS and order management, you get a food ordering system, a website builder with 40+ templates, a branded iOS and Android mobile app, a QR code menu, tableside ordering, a reservation system, restaurant delivery software with a delivery dispatcher, order aggregation, catering software, a loyalty program, marketing tools, a restaurant CRM, and ecommerce capabilities for restaurants.
If the core problem you’re solving is owning your digital ordering channel — rather than depending on third-party delivery apps — UpMenu is built squarely around that. The $49/mo Basic entry point is accessible, and the feature set at all three tiers is oriented toward restaurants that want their own branded ordering experience online and via mobile app.
Pricing
- Basic: $49/mo billed monthly
- Standard: $89/mo billed monthly
- Premium: $169/mo billed monthly
Best For… Recommendations
Best for restaurants that want everything in one place (hardware through payroll): Toast. The combination of restaurant-grade hardware, software, integrated payment processing, delivery integrations, payroll, and a free entry tier gives it the broadest operational footprint in this group. The free Starter Kit removes the barrier to starting, and the platform scales with you.
Best for smaller or newer operations that need a real POS without upfront software cost: Square for Restaurants. The free tier is genuinely functional, pricing is transparent per location, and you add capability (KDS, kiosks, inventory) only when you need it.
Best for ambitious operators who want deep analytics and management tools: Lightspeed. The Insights, Advanced Insights, Pulse, and Benchmarks & Trends features — alongside menu optimization, staff performance tracking, and multilocation support — make this a fit for operators who run their restaurant on data. Just go in knowing the price steps are steeper.
Best for restaurants prioritizing their own branded online ordering channel: UpMenu. If owning your online presence — website, mobile app, QR ordering, delivery management, loyalty program — matters as much as the in-person POS, UpMenu is built around exactly that problem. The pricing is competitive for the digital feature depth you get.
Thinking about Lightspeed for your restaurant? Get a free personalized quote — takes a minute, no obligation.