Best restaurant POS systems in the UK (2026): cost, hardware and kitchen display
Seven systems UK venues actually shortlist, compared on the numbers that decide the bill: software, hardware, contracts and card fees. This is a buying comparison, not a product page. If you already want a restaurant POS system with till, QR ordering and kitchen display in one queue, start on the restaurant POS systems page. We build one of the systems below, so we've marked our bias and shown the maths so you can check every claim.
There's no single best POS. There's a best fit for how your venue runs. For most independent full-service venues, an all-in-one cloud system on your own devices gives the lowest all-in cost (that's Servio's lane, and we show the maths below; see the restaurant POS system for the product view). Counter-led cafés already on Square kit should usually stay with Square; coffee shops comparing EPOS options can also check the café EPOS page. Simple stalls do fine on free tiers. Multi-site groups lean Lightspeed. Whatever you pick, judge the all-in monthly figure at your card volume, not the software sticker price.
Full disclosure: Servio is our product. We've ranked it first for the venue type we built it for. Every price below is a published figure or a marked estimate you can verify directly with the provider.
The comparison at a glance
| System | Software / month | Hardware | QR + kitchen display | Contract |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Servio | £89-£219 | None, your own devices | Included from Starter | Month-to-month |
| Square for Restaurants | £0-£69 | Register Kit £1,139 + Terminal + kitchen display = £1,687 | Paid add-ons (~£99/mo) | Month-to-month |
| Zettle by PayPal | £0 | Kit £895 | Sourced QR + KDS stand-in (~£77/mo est.) + loyalty £25 | None |
| SumUp | £0-£39 | Kit £549 | POS Plus modules (~£95/mo) + Order & Pay | None |
| Epos Now | From ~£25 (offers vary) | Supplied till bundles | Paid modules | Often 12-36 months |
| Lightspeed Restaurant | From ~£69 (annual billing) | iPad-based | Higher tiers / add-ons | Typically annual |
| Toast | Quote-based | Proprietary, supplied | Bundled | Typically multi-year |
Based on publicly available UK pricing and typical configurations; estimates marked. Offerings vary by plan, hardware and region, so always confirm current details with each provider.
On a like-for-like feature set at £40,000 of monthly card sales, the all-in monthly totals work out at roughly ~£999 (Servio Growth), ~£1,092 (Square), ~£1,015 (Zettle) and ~£1,002 (SumUp). Servio is lowest on all-in at this ticket, though only just against SumUp, and is the only £0-hardware, one-bill stack. Square is dearest because of the till. The assumptions and arithmetic behind these figures are set out in how we compare POS costs. The full worked example, line by line, is in our UK POS cost guide, and you can rerun it at your own volumes with the calculator on the pricing page.
1. Servio: best all-in-one value for independents
Servio bundles the POS till, QR table ordering, kitchen display and owner analytics into one subscription that runs in the browser on tablets and phones you already own. QR ordering and a single-station kitchen display are included from the £89 Starter plan; Growth (£219) adds multi-station kitchen routing, table management, inventory and analytics. There's no hardware to buy, no setup fee and no contract. Payments go through Stripe at Stripe's published rates with no markup, and venues typically go live the same afternoon with the menu imported for them.
Where it isn't the pick: Servio is young, so it doesn't yet have the years of reviews the incumbents carry, and if you specifically want a supplier-provided till with an engineer visit, that isn't the model. If your venue is a till-only counter with no table service, QR or kitchen screens, a free tier below will be cheaper. Choose Servio if you're an independent café, restaurant, dessert lounge or food truck that wants the whole front- and back-of-house connected without buying kit. Check the maths yourself on the comparison page.
2. Square for Restaurants: polished hardware, add-ons priced separately
Square's strengths are real: polished hardware, a free entry plan, month-to-month billing and card rates (1.75% in person, about 1.4% + 25p online) that sit among the lowest published in the UK. The Restaurants Plus plan is £69/month and the ecosystem covering loyalty, payroll and marketing is deep. Where it adds up is the kit and the add-ons.
The catch is the hardware and the add-ons: a Register is £699 and a typical counter-plus-floor stack passes £1,100 one-off, while matching a full hospitality feature set (KDS, inventory, staff permissions) adds roughly £99/month. Where it lands: if you already own the hardware, the sunk cost is real. Starting fresh, a £699 Register plus roughly £99/month of add-ons is the gap to close against a system that includes them. See our detailed Square vs Servio breakdown.
3. Zettle by PayPal: a free app without table service or kitchen display
Zettle's POS app is genuinely free, the readers are cheap, and setup takes an afternoon. For a market stall, a coffee cart or a short-menu counter, it's a perfectly sensible first till, with PayPal's reliability behind it.
The catch: it's a payments product first and a hospitality system second. There is no native QR table ordering or kitchen display. A sourced stand-in for those two features is about £77/month, plus £25 loyalty (est.), and ~£895 of kit. All-in at the modelled venue is ~£1,015, close to Servio's £999, with Servio still opening at £0. Where it lands: fine for a simple counter today. The moment you add table service, QR ordering or a kitchen screen, you are bolting on apps and paying the higher card rate to do it.
4. SumUp: built for mobile traders and market stalls
SumUp owns the mobile-trader niche: the cheapest readers on the market, no monthly fee to start, and a POS Plus tier at £29/month when you outgrow the basics. For food trucks and events businesses that live on card readers, it is simple and cheap to start.
The catch mirrors Zettle's: restaurant features are first-party modules on POS Plus (Order & Pay, kitchen screens at £19 each, Hospitality, stock, loyalty). The matched Growth stack is about £134/month plus £549 of kit. All-in at the modelled venue is ~£1,002, which can beat Servio's £999 on the monthly line; Servio still opens at £0, on one bill, with unlimited kitchen screens. Where it lands: genuinely built for mobile traders and market stalls. For a fixed venue with a kitchen, the worked example above is the honest cost of stretching it that far.
5. Epos Now: a supplied till on a longer agreement
Epos Now is one of the UK's most visible POS suppliers, and its pitch is convenience: a bundled till shipped to you, phone onboarding, and headline software pricing from around £25/month on promotional bundles. For venues that want one supplier to send a box and set it up, that model has real appeal.
The catch: read the agreement before you sign. Promotional pricing typically steps up after the intro period, hospitality features (QR ordering, KDS, loyalty) are paid modules, and 12-36 month terms with early-exit charges are common in this segment. Get the all-in monthly figure for software, modules, hardware plan and card rate in writing at your volumes. Where it lands: you are trading a month-to-month exit for a supplied till. Price the agreement length, the module list and the step-up from promotional pricing before you sign.
6. Lightspeed Restaurant: enterprise depth priced for multi-site groups
Lightspeed is the strongest pure product on this list for complex operations: deep inventory and recipe costing, solid multi-site reporting, and a mature iPad POS trusted by large groups worldwide. Published UK pricing starts around £69/month on annual billing, scaling with locations and modules.
The catch: it's sized and priced for that complexity. Annual terms are the norm, the feature depth costs setup time an independent rarely has, and QR ordering and kitchen displays sit on higher tiers or as add-ons. Where it lands: the depth is real, and so is the setup time and tier pricing that come with it. For a single site or a small group, see how it compares in Lightspeed vs Servio.
7. Toast: a hardware-led bundle with quote-based UK pricing
Toast is the benchmark all-in-one in the US: purpose-built handhelds and kitchen screens, strong labour tools, and genuinely excellent restaurant workflows. Larger UK venues that want one supplier to own hardware, software and payments do shortlist it.
The catch: UK pricing is quote-based rather than published, the model is proprietary hardware with payments locked to Toast, and terms are typically multi-year, so comparing it on cost means getting a full written quote at your volumes. Its UK footprint is also younger than its US reputation suggests. Where it lands: one accountable supplier, paid for in proprietary hardware, locked payments and multi-year terms. Get a full written quote at your volumes before comparing. Full breakdown: Toast vs Servio.
How to actually choose: a five-question checklist
1. What's the all-in monthly figure at my card volume? Software + add-ons + hardware over 12 months + card fees. Make every provider give it to you in writing.
2. Do I need QR ordering or a kitchen display within a year? If yes, price them now. Retrofitting via apps is where free tiers turn expensive.
3. What hardware am I forced to buy? Every proprietary device is a purchase now and a replacement later.
4. What does leaving cost? Month-to-month means a bad fit costs you one month. A 36-month term means it costs you three years.
5. Who fixes it on a Saturday night? Check what support is included at your tier, not what's advertised on the homepage.
How to choose
Match the system to the venue: free tiers for simple counters, Square for Square-ecosystem cafés, Lightspeed for complex groups, hardware-led bundles if you want a supplied till and will accept the contract. And if you're an independent that wants POS, QR ordering, kitchen display and analytics connected out of the box on the devices you already own. That's exactly the venue we built Servio for. Founding venues currently get 30 days free, then Growth at £109/month for their first six paid months, which is enough time to run this comparison against your own numbers in service, not on paper.
Common questions
What is the best POS system for a UK restaurant in 2026?
It depends on how you operate. For most independent full-service venues, an all-in-one cloud system (POS, QR ordering, kitchen display and analytics in one subscription, on your own devices) gives the lowest all-in monthly cost and the least to manage. That's the gap Servio is built for. Counter-led cafés already using Square hardware often do best staying on Square. Multi-site groups with deep inventory needs tend towards Lightspeed. Compare the all-in monthly figure at your card volume, not the software sticker price.
What does a restaurant POS system cost in the UK?
Software runs £0-£219+/month, but the real bill includes add-ons, hardware and card fees. For a venue on £40,000 of monthly card sales, realistic all-in totals in 2026 range from roughly £1,002 to £1,092 per month across the main providers once features are matched like-for-like. Servio Growth is the lowest of the four at £999, though SumUp is only £3 behind, so the monthly line is effectively a tie. Servio wins cash to open outright. Square is dearest because of the till.
Do free POS systems work for restaurants?
Free tiers (Zettle, SumUp, Square's free plan) genuinely work for simple counters: one till, short menu, no table service. Restaurants outgrow them quickly because QR ordering, kitchen displays, table management and inventory are excluded, and matching them still means extra modules or a sourced stand-in, extra bills, and hardware cash up front.
Should I sign a long POS contract?
Avoid it if you can. Multi-year terms with early-exit charges are still common with hardware-led providers, and the discount rarely covers the cost of being stuck with a system that doesn't fit. Month-to-month plans exist across the market now, including on full hospitality feature sets, so a long lock-in is a choice, not a necessity.
What card fees should a UK restaurant expect?
Published UK rates run from about 1.4% + 10p to 1.75% in person, and from 1.4% + 25p to 2.50% on QR and online transactions, depending on whose ordering product takes the payment. On £40,000 of monthly card sales a 0.4-point difference is £160 a month, which outweighs most software price differences. Servio processes payments through Stripe at Stripe's published rates (1.4% + 10p in person, about 1.5% + 20p online) with no markup.