What is a cloud POS system — and does your venue need one?
A plain-English guide to cloud POS for UK hospitality: how it differs from a traditional till, what it costs, the internet question everyone asks, and how to tell a genuine cloud platform from a legacy system with a web page.
The short version
A cloud POS moves the brains of your till off the counter and into the cloud. The software runs in a browser, the data lives on secure servers, and any device you own — iPad, Android tablet, phone, laptop — becomes a till, a kitchen display or a live sales dashboard. Change a price once and it changes everywhere; check takings from your sofa; add a device for the weekend without buying anything. Servio is built this way from the ground up: one cloud platform running the till, QR table ordering, kitchen screens and owner analytics in perfect sync.
No till hardware
The £699-a-register economics of traditional EPOS disappear — your existing tablets are the hardware, and replacements are whatever the shop sells.
Always current
Updates ship continuously to every venue at once. No engineer visits, no version numbers, no 'that till is on the old software'.
Data that survives
Orders and reports live off-site and backed up. A dropped tablet loses a screen, not your trading history — and card data never touches the system at all, because payments run through Stripe.
Any device, any role
The same platform is a till at the counter, a prep screen in the kitchen and a dashboard on the owner's phone — one login, live everywhere.
Built for real connections
Short internet drops don't stop service — Servio re-syncs automatically when you're back online, and a phone hotspot covers longer outages.
Priced like software
A subscription you can leave beats hardware you have to amortise. Servio publishes every price: £79–£199/month, whole platform included.
How to judge any cloud POS (including ours)
Three tests separate genuine cloud platforms from legacy tills with a web login. One: can you run it entirely on devices you already own? If the answer involves a proprietary terminal, you’re still paying hardware economics — our cost guide shows what that adds per month. Two: is everything one system? QR ordering and kitchen displays bolted on as separate apps mean separate subscriptions, separate logins and orders hopping between systems — the connected-versus-bolted difference is why order errors collapse on one platform. Three: is the price public? Cloud software has no site-survey excuse for quote-only pricing. Servio passes its own tests by design — see how it compares to Square, Toast and others, or start the live demo in your browser right now: the demo itself is the product, which is rather the point of cloud software.
Common questions
What is a cloud POS system?
A cloud POS (point of sale) runs in the browser or an app and stores its data on remote servers rather than on a till in your venue. Orders, menus, prices and reports live in the cloud, so any device with a browser becomes a till, a kitchen screen or a live dashboard — and everything stays in sync across them in real time.
What's the difference between cloud POS and traditional EPOS?
A traditional EPOS is a physical till: software installed on proprietary hardware, data stored locally, updates and repairs done on site. A cloud POS separates software from hardware — you use your own devices, updates arrive automatically, data is backed up off-site, and you can check sales from anywhere. The cost model changes too: subscription instead of hardware purchase plus maintenance.
What happens to a cloud POS if the internet goes down?
It's the first question to ask any provider. Servio keeps working through short drops and re-syncs automatically when the connection returns, so service keeps moving — details are on the security page. For longer outages, a phone hotspot keeps a browser-based system alive, which is harder to improvise with a proprietary till.
How much does a cloud POS cost in the UK?
UK cloud POS software runs from £0 app tiers to £199+/month for full platforms in 2026; the real comparison is the all-in bill including add-ons, hardware and card fees. Because cloud systems can run on devices you already own, the hardware line can be £0 — Servio's plans (£79–£199/month, everything included) are published on the pricing page, and our cost guide works the full market comparison.