Running a restaurant means juggling speed, accuracy, inventory, and guest experience — and the right Point-of-Sale (POS) app pulls all of that together. Whether you run a quick-service café or a multi-location full-service restaurant, modern POS apps do far more than process payments: they handle tableside ordering, kitchen displays, inventory, staff management, reporting, and integrated online ordering. This guide compares leading Restaurant POS apps so you can pick the best fit for your operation
What to look for in a restaurant POS
Choose a system that matches your service style and budget. Key features to prioritize: stable offline mode, easy menu edits, kitchen display system (KDS), integrated payments, inventory and recipes management, multi-location reporting, and 3rd-party delivery/channel integrations. Also evaluate hardware compatibility (iPad, terminals, printers) and local support
Top Restaurant POS apps (with official links)
- Toast POS — All-in-one restaurant platform covering POS, online ordering, delivery integrations, loyalty and payroll
- Square for Restaurants — Intuitive, modular POS that scales from cafes to multi-location restaurants with strong
- Lightspeed Restaurant (including Upserve) — Robust restaurant management, inventory, and advanced insights for busy restaurantspayments and reporting.
- TouchBistro — iPad-first POS tailored for front-of-house speed, tableside ordering, and integrated marketing tool
- Clover — Flexible, app-driven POS platform good for small to medium restaurants and food trucks
- Revel Systems — Enterprise-grade iPad POS for multi-site restaurants, strong in reporting and custom workflows. https://revelsystems.com/
- Posist — Cloud restaurant management widely used in Asia; strong in operations, online ordering, and multi-outlet control
Choosing the right fit
Start with a trial or demo and test core flows: table management, order to KDS, payment processing, and closing out with reporting. Ask about contract length, PCI compliance, hardware costs, and onboarding/training. Small cafés often choose Square or Clover for low friction; full-service or multi-unit restaurants may prefer Toast, Lightspeed, or Revel for deeper restaurant features
Final take
There’s no one-size-fits-all POS. Map your daily operations, volume, and growth plan first — then test 2–3 shortlisted apps to see which improves speed, reduces mistakes, and gives actionable reporting. The right POS is an investment that pays back in fewer order errors, faster turn times, and clearer financial insights
