Best restaurant POS systems in the UK (2026): an honest comparison
Seven systems UK venues actually shortlist, compared on the numbers that decide the bill: software, hardware, contracts and card fees. We build one of them, 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). Counter-led cafés already on Square kit should usually stay with Square. 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 — not for every venue — and we say plainly below where a competitor is the better choice. Every price is a published July 2026 figure or a marked estimate you can verify with the provider.
The comparison at a glance
| System | Software / month | Hardware | QR + kitchen display | Contract |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Servio | £79–£199 | None — your own devices | Included from Starter | Month-to-month |
| Square for Restaurants | £0–£69 | Register £699; typical stack ~£1,140 | Paid add-ons (~£99/mo) | Month-to-month |
| Zettle by PayPal | £0 | Kit ~£570 | Third-party apps (~£178/mo est.) | None |
| SumUp | £0–£29 | Kit ~£500 | Third-party apps (~£178/mo est.) | 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, July 2026; 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 ~£1,119 (Servio Growth), ~£1,223 (Square), ~£1,386 (Zettle) and ~£1,409 (SumUp) — the free-software routes end up dearest once ordering apps and their card rates are added. 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 £79 Starter plan; Growth (£199) 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 — 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 — and check the maths yourself on the comparison page.
2. Square for Restaurants — best if you're already in the Square ecosystem
Square's strengths are real: polished hardware, a free entry plan, month-to-month billing and a card rate (about 1.4% + 25p online) that's among the lowest published in the UK. The Restaurants Plus plan is £69/month and the ecosystem — loyalty, payroll, marketing — is deep. For a counter-led café that already owns a Square Register, switching away rarely pays.
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. Choose Square if you're counter-led, already own the kit, or lean on the wider Square ecosystem. See our detailed Square vs Servio breakdown.
3. Zettle by PayPal — best free starting point for simple counters
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's no native QR table ordering, kitchen display or inventory — bolting those on through third-party apps runs to roughly £178/month at typical published rates and pushes your effective card rate towards ~1.9% + 25p, which is how the "free" option becomes the second-most expensive in our worked example. Choose Zettle if you're a simple counter today and genuinely don't see table service, QR or kitchen screens in your next year.
4. SumUp — best 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's hard to beat on simplicity.
The catch mirrors Zettle's: restaurant features live in third-party apps (~£178/month to match an all-in-one set, at estimated published rates) and the app route raises the effective card rate, taking the worked-example total to ~£1,409 — the dearest of the four we can price publicly. Choose SumUp if you're mobile-first with a short menu, or already run your events business on its readers.
5. Epos Now — best if you want a supplied till and phone-led setup
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 — software, modules, hardware plan and card rate — in writing at your volumes. Choose Epos Now if a supplied, phone-supported till matters more to you than a month-to-month exit.
6. Lightspeed Restaurant — best for multi-site groups with complex inventory
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. Choose Lightspeed if you run three-plus sites with serious inventory needs; see how it compares for independents in Lightspeed vs Servio.
7. Toast — best for larger venues wanting a hardware-led bundle
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 a supplier to own the whole stack — hardware, software, payments — shortlist it for good reason.
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. Choose Toast if you're a high-volume venue that wants one accountable supplier end-to-end and is comfortable with the lock-in. 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.
The bottom line
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 £99/month for their first six paid months — 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–£199+/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 July 2026 range from roughly £1,119 to £1,409 per month across the main providers once features are matched like-for-like. The free-software options are usually the most expensive overall once you add ordering apps and their higher card rates.
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 — adding them through third-party apps typically costs ~£178/month and often raises your effective card rate, at which point a paid all-in-one plan is cheaper.
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 in July 2026 run from about 1.4% + 25p to roughly 1.9% + 25p per online transaction — the higher rates typically apply when orders route through a third-party ordering app. 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 (about 1.5% + 20p online) with no markup.