Coffee shop and café EPOS system for UK venues on their own tablets
Fast counter orders and clean modifier handling, without the queue backing up. Servio gives independent coffee shops and cafés a full cloud EPOS with till, QR ordering and prep screens, from £89/month, with no hardware and no contract. For the wider buying criteria behind any UK EPOS system, see the EPOS systems guide.
What café venues get
Built for the rush
Two-tap orders with modifiers for milks, syrups and sizes, so the queue keeps moving when there are twelve people before the door closes.
QR ordering for tables
Weekend brunch service without hiring: guests scan, order and pay from the table. Included on every plan.
Prep screen
Flat whites on one screen, food on another. Orders route to the right station and paper tickets disappear.
Free menu import
Upload your menu as a file or URL and Servio rebuilds categories, items and modifiers for you. Switching takes an afternoon.
Know your numbers
Real-time sales, busiest hours and top sellers show you whether the new pastry line actually pays for itself.
From £89/month
Starter covers smaller cafés and food trucks; Growth (£219) adds inventory, analytics and priority support for busy operations.
Why cafés outgrow app-tier tills
Most cafés start on a free or cheap app till, and it works, right up until the menu grows modifiers and weekends bring table service. Sooner or later you also want to know which hours actually make money. Then the add-ons begin: a QR ordering app here, an inventory app there, each with its own subscription and often a higher card rate for orders that route through it. Our UK POS cost guide works the numbers: matching a full feature set with add-ons typically costs more per month than an all-in-one plan, before counting the juggling. Servio’s answer is one connected system: counter POS, QR ordering, prep screens and owner analytics at one published price, on the tablet already sitting by your grinder. And because it’s browser-based, the same system runs a food truck, dessert lounge or multi-site café without new kit.
Switching without closing
You don’t switch POS mid-service, and you shouldn’t have to close to do it either. Import your menu (file or URL, free on every plan), set up in an afternoon, and run your first live shift with the old till standing by as a fallback. The FAQ covers the details, and our menu-migration guide walks through the tidy-up worth doing while you move. Starter has a 14-day no-card trial. The founding Growth pilot is 30 days free. Month-to-month billing either way, so the risk of trying it is one quiet Tuesday.
How a café morning actually runs on Servio
The first hour is almost all modifiers. Flat white, oat, extra shot, takeaway. The till has to take that in two taps, not a nested menu hunt, and the prep screen has to show the milk and size without anyone shouting it. Counter orders, a couple of table QR scans from the window seats, and a regular who always wants the same pastry, all land in one queue. Loyalty is included on Starter, so the stamp card is not a second app.
Starter, Growth, or add-ons
Starter at £89/month is the right default for a single-counter café or food truck: till, QR, one kitchen or prep screen, menu import, loyalty, Stripe. Growth at £219/month is for seated brunch, more than one prep station, inventory and the owner dashboard you actually open on a Sunday. If you only want extra kitchen routing and stock, add them to Starter: routing is £35 and inventory £29, so £153 rather than a full-service plan. Every figure is on the pricing page.
Cash to open, then the monthly blend
Café tickets are where Stripe's 10p in-person fee can lose. Below about £24 average order, some published in-person rates beat Servio's blend. We will not pretend otherwise. Cash to open, counting first-party kits only and not adding iPads to the rivals, is Square £1,687, Zettle £895, SumUp £549, Servio £0. On the default Growth venue we use everywhere (£40,000 of monthly card sales, £25 ticket, 70% in person / 30% QR, verified 23 August 2026) the all-in monthly totals are SumUp about £1,002, Zettle about £1,015, Servio Growth £999, Square about £1,092. Servio is lowest on that monthly total, though SumUp is within a few pounds of it, and Servio is £0 to open with QR, kitchen, inventory, loyalty and staff in one plan. Put your own ticket in the calculator. The working is on the methodology page.
Two ways in, then a quiet Tuesday
Starter is a 14-day trial, no card. The founding Growth pilot is 30 days free, no application, then £109/month for six paid months in exchange for a case study, then £219. After you start, a 20-minute setup call is available if you want guided import. It is not a quote gate. Walk the rebuilt menu on a phone, print one QR, run one quiet service beside the old till. The steps are in Set up your venue in an afternoon, import a menu and connect Stripe. On Growth, Square readers you already own can stay as a switch aid.
A food truck and a two-site brunch room are the same platform
Starter is built for a counter: one tablet, one prep screen, loyalty included, QR available if you put a couple of window seats out. A food truck uses that plan. A two-site brunch room that wants inventory, a second station and an owner dashboard on Sunday is Growth, or Enterprise if you need multi-site reporting. You are not buying a café SKU and a truck SKU. You are configuring the same cloud POS. Unlimited staff on both. No per-device fee.
Pastries 86, oat milk as a modifier, not a new item
Import the menu from a file or URL, then tidy the bits a spreadsheet lies about. Oat, syrups and sizes should be modifiers on the drink, not twelve separate SKUs. A pastry that sells out at 10:12 should be 86'd once and disappear on QR as well as the till. Walk that on a phone before you trust a Saturday. The import article is Import a menu.
Loyalty without a second app, inventory without pretending SumUp includes it twice
Loyalty is included on Starter. We do not double-count SumUp loyalty in the all-in model. Inventory is Growth, or a £29 add-on on Starter, and Square's like-for-like inventory in our stack is MarketMan at £79. If you only need routing and stock, Starter plus those two add-ons is £153. If you also want tables, reservations, gift cards and owner analytics, Growth at £219 is the cheaper assembly. That is on Pricing.
The honest café verdict on the month
We will not claim Servio is cheapest for every coffee shop. Stripe's 10p in person loses below about £29 AOV. Servio edges the default-venue month and is £0 to open, with QR, kitchen, loyalty and staff in one plan. If you already bought a Square reader, keep it on Growth as a switch aid. The next till is a tablet, not another Register.
Common questions
What's the best EPOS system for a UK coffee shop or café?
For most independent coffee shops and cafés the deciding factors are counter speed, modifier handling (milks, syrups, sizes), price and not having to buy hardware. Servio Starter at £89/month covers the full platform for smaller cafés and food trucks and runs on a tablet you already own; Growth at £219/month adds capacity for busy, table-service operations with inventory and analytics. Starter has a 14-day free trial with no card. The founding Growth pilot is 30 days free, no application, then £109/month for six paid months, then £219. Test either through a real morning rush.
What's the best POS system for a small UK café?
A small café that is mostly counter, one prep board and a short menu should start on Starter at £89/month: till, QR, one kitchen screen, loyalty and Stripe, on a tablet you already own. Move to Growth at £219 when you add seated brunch, a second station, inventory or the owner analytics you actually open. If you only need routing and stock, add those to Starter for £153. Starter has a 14-day trial. The founding Growth pilot is 30 days free, no application.
Do I need to buy a till or card machine?
No till. Servio runs in the browser on your existing tablet or phone. Card payments process through Stripe and settle directly to your bank at Stripe's published UK rates; Servio never touches card data and adds no markup.
Can Servio handle modifiers like oat milk, syrups and sizes?
Yes. Menu items carry modifiers, and the free menu import rebuilds your categories, items and modifiers from a file or URL when you switch. Orders carry the modifiers through to the kitchen or prep screen exactly as entered.
Is an EPOS system different from a POS system?
They're the same thing: EPOS (electronic point of sale) is simply the common UK term, while POS is the international one. Servio is a cloud EPOS, so the till, QR ordering, kitchen screen and reporting all run in the browser on your own tablets, so there's no proprietary EPOS terminal to buy or maintain.
Does QR table ordering make sense for a café?
For brunch-style and seated cafés, yes: guests order and pay from the table without flagging staff, and orders land in the same queue as the counter. It's included on every Servio plan, so you can turn it on for weekend table service and off for weekday counter-only trade.
Will Stripe's 10p fee lose at café tickets?
It can. Below about £24 average order, some published in-person rates beat Servio's blend. We say so on Pricing and the methodology page. Put your own ticket in the calculator rather than assuming Servio is cheapest on the month.
Is loyalty a paid add-on on Starter?
No. Loyalty is included on Starter. Inventory, multi-station routing, table management and owner analytics are Growth, or routing and inventory can be added to Starter at £35 and £29.
Read the best UK restaurant POS systems 2026 comparison, the restaurant POS cost guide, and how we calculate every figure.