Restaurant EPOS system: a UK buyer's guide for 2026
Updated 19 October 2026
A restaurant EPOS system takes orders, sends them to the kitchen, takes payment and reports your sales. In the UK, expect to pay £0 to £150+ a month in software per site, plus hardware and card fees. Square, SumUp, Toast and Tabology publish their prices. Epos Now shows bundle offers. For Lightspeed, ask for a quote. This guide compares them in pounds. It also shows when a small restaurant needs less: a commission-free ordering layer like Menuthere, next to a simple card machine.
What a restaurant EPOS system does
EPOS means electronic point of sale. "EPOS", "POS" and "till system" mean the same thing today. A restaurant POS system usually covers:
- Order taking at the till, or on handhelds at the table.
- Table plan and courses. Open tables, starters and mains fired separately, table moves.
- Kitchen routing. Tickets to a kitchen printer, or orders to a kitchen display system.
- Payments. A card machine linked to the bill, split bills, tips and service charge.
- Reports. Sales by hour, by dish, by staff member, cash-up and Z reads.
- Stock and staff. Stock counts, recipes, clock-in and permissions.
- Integrations. Bookings, delivery apps, online ordering and accounting software.
A 120-cover restaurant needs most of this. A 30-cover bistro may need half.
Types of restaurant POS system
| Type | What it is | Good for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Legacy terminal EPOS | Fixed touchscreen tills, often installed on site | Large, busy venues with complex menus | Higher upfront cost, longer contracts |
| Cloud / iPad EPOS | An app on iPads or Android tablets, data in the cloud | Most independent restaurants | Needs reliable Wi-Fi; check the offline mode |
| Free POS app + card reader | Free software, you pay card fees and buy hardware | New or small sites | Fewer restaurant tools on free plans |
| Ordering layer + POS-lite | Online, QR and WhatsApp ordering, with a light browser till (sometimes a paid add-on) | Small venues where orders come from phones | No linked card terminal, fewer back-office tools |
UK restaurant EPOS prices compared (October 2026)
Prices come from each provider's public UK pages on 11 October 2026. Most exclude VAT. Offers change often, so get a written quote before you sign.
| System | Software per month | Hardware | Card fees | Contract |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Square for Restaurants | Free plan £0. Plus £69 per location | Stand £99, Terminal £149, Register £699 (ex VAT; iPad not included) | 1.75% in person; 1.4% + 25p online (UK cards) | None |
| SumUp POS (Point of Sale Pro) | £49 + Hospitality module £19 (SumUp's main pricing page also lists a separate POS Plus at £39) | Card readers: Solo Lite £25, Solo £79, Terminal £135 | 1.69% pay as you go in person; 0.99% on Payments Plus (£19 a month) | "No long-term contracts" |
| Epos Now | From £54 (payments, care and support) | Bundles advertised from £299 (other offers £149–£349) | Quoted | 12-month subscription for discounted bundles |
| Toast (UK) | Starter from £80; Essentials £150 (includes KDS and Handheld POS); Custom by quote | First terminal included; extra devices cost more | Flat rate, not published | Not published |
| Lightspeed Restaurant | Ask Lightspeed for a quote | Ask | Ask | Ask |
| Tabology | EPOS Essentials £39; Pro £59 (adds bookings); Partner £99 | Extras: KDS £11 per screen | Integrated payments; rate not listed | Not stated on the pricing page |
| Zonal | All-in-one rental £229 plus £1,100 upfront (EPoS, iServe Plus handheld, Dojo payments) | Included in the rental | Through Dojo; rate quoted | 36-month minimum |
| Tevalis | Not published; ask for a quote | Quoted | Quoted | Not published |
| Menuthere (ordering layer; POS-lite is a paid add-on) | Free US$0; Lite US$17; Pro US$39; POS add-on US$10 (billed in US dollars; your bank converts it) | Any tablet, phone or laptop; optional thermal printer | Your own card machine in store; Stripe online (1.5% + 20p standard UK cards) | Month to month |
Want more detail on one brand? Read our Epos Now reviews and pricing, or see Square alternatives, Lightspeed alternatives and Toast alternatives.
What a restaurant EPOS really costs: a first-year example
A 50-cover neighbourhood restaurant takes £30,000 a month on cards. It needs two tablets and one kitchen screen. Here is year one, before VAT.
| Cost | Square for Restaurants Plus | Square Free + paper tickets |
|---|---|---|
| Software | £69 × 12 = £828 | £0 |
| Hardware | 2 × Stand £198 + Terminal £149 + kitchen screen £549 = £896 (iPads extra) | 2 × Stand £198 + Terminal £149 = £347 (iPads extra) |
| KDS software | Included in Plus (unlimited screens) | Paper tickets instead |
| Card fees at 1.75% | £525 a month = £6,300 | £6,300 |
| Year one | ≈ £8,024 + iPads | ≈ £6,647 + iPads + printer |
Two lessons:
- Card fees are the biggest line. Saving 0.3% on £30,000 a month is worth £1,080 a year. Negotiate the rate, or compare providers that publish theirs.
- Software is a small part of the bill. Pick on fit, contract and support, not on the monthly fee alone.
Must-have features for a UK restaurant
- 20% VAT on the bill, shown clearly. Food and drink eaten on your premises is standard-rated (HMRC VAT Notice 709/1).
- Service charge and tips handled properly. The Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act 2023 means all tips and service charges must go to staff in full. Your EPOS should report them separately.
- Split bills by item, seat or amount.
- No card surcharges. Charging consumers extra for paying by card has been banned since January 2018.
- Allergens. Staff must be able to tell guests about the 14 allergens. A POS that shows allergens per dish helps.
- Making Tax Digital. If you are VAT-registered, your records must link to MTD-compatible software. Check the EPOS exports to Xero, QuickBooks or Sage.
- An offline mode for when the broadband drops on a Saturday night.
Do you need a full EPOS? A quick decision guide
Choose a full restaurant EPOS if two or more of these are true:
- You have 40+ covers and run courses, table moves and split bills every night.
- You want card payments to post to the bill automatically.
- You need a kitchen display with timers, or several kitchen stations.
- You run several sites, or need stock costing and staff clock-in.
- Your booking system must talk to your till.
An ordering layer with POS-lite may be enough if:
- You are a small café-restaurant, bistro or takeaway-restaurant hybrid.
- Lots of orders already come from phones: online, QR table orders or WhatsApp.
- You are happy with a standalone card machine (SumUp, Dojo, Teya, Square or a bank terminal).
- You want no contract and no hardware bundle.
Many restaurants do both. They keep their EPOS and add a commission-free ordering layer for online, table and WhatsApp orders.
Where Menuthere fits (and where it doesn't)
Menuthere is not a full restaurant EPOS. It is a commission-free ordering platform, with a light browser till available as a paid add-on. Be clear on what that means before you choose.
What Menuthere does:
- Table ordering by QR code with no app. A second round from the same table joins the open bill. QR codes are on the Free plan.
- Online ordering for collection and delivery on your own website, with 0% commission.
- WhatsApp ordering on your own number (Pro).
- Kitchen tickets on any printer your PC or browser can print to, with food and drinks able to print to separate kitchen and bar printers, plus order alerts that ring on the Android, iPhone and Windows apps until someone presses Accept.
- POS-lite (paid add-on, US$10 a month): a browser till with bills that show UK VAT (20% or 0% per item), discounts, staff orders from the dashboard, cash and card payment records and sales reports.
- Sold-out marking that switches a dish off on your online and QR menus at once.
- Allergens and calories tagged on each dish, on every plan including Free. Guests see them when they open a dish.
What Menuthere does not do:
- No linked card terminal. Your card machine works separately, and staff mark the bill as "card".
- No dedicated kitchen display screen. Kitchen orders print as tickets.
- No split bills. Rounds join one open bill, and you split at the card machine.
- No floor plan or courses.
- No UK EPOS integrations with systems such as Epos Now or Square, and no API for building one.
- No staff clock-in or recipe costing.
So: a 120-cover restaurant should buy a full EPOS and can add Menuthere for direct orders. A 30-cover bistro with a card machine and a busy QR menu may not need more.
Try the ordering side first, with no contract.
10 questions to ask any EPOS seller
- What is the total first-year cost: hardware, software, card fees and add-ons?
- How long is the contract? Does it auto-renew? What does it cost to leave early?
- Is card processing tied to the EPOS, or can I use my own provider?
- Do I own or rent the hardware? If I rent a card terminal, what are the term and notice rules? For businesses with up to £10 million a year in card sales, the biggest card providers must cap terminal rental contracts at 18 months, then let you leave on one month's notice (Payment Systems Regulator rules).
- Is the kitchen display included, or charged per screen?
- Does it handle split bills, tips and service charge the way UK law needs?
- Is online ordering included? Is there a per-order fee?
- Does it work offline?
- What are the support hours on a Friday and Saturday night?
- Can I export my data if I leave?
Restaurant EPOS by venue type
- Takeaways need caller ID, delivery-app merging and fast counter entry. See EPOS for takeaways.
- Cafés and coffee shops need speed, modifiers and loyalty. See café EPOS.
- Pubs and bars need tabs, measures and wet/dry reports. See pub EPOS.
- Booking-led restaurants need a reservation system linked to the till. See our guide to restaurant booking systems. Menuthere offers table booking from US$17 a month on Lite, with a 7-day free trial (a card is needed to start, and nothing is charged until the trial ends).
FAQs
What is the best restaurant POS system in the UK?
There is no single best one. Square suits restaurants that want published prices and no contract. Toast, Lightspeed and Epos Now suit busier sites that want more tools and will take a quote. Small venues that mainly need phone ordering can start with an ordering layer like Menuthere.
How much does a restaurant EPOS system cost in the UK?
Software runs from £0 (Square Free) to about £150 a month per site for published plans, plus hardware and card fees. Card fees are usually the largest cost. At 1.75%, £30,000 a month in card sales costs £525 a month.
Is there a free restaurant POS system?
Yes. Square for Restaurants has a free plan, and you pay card fees and buy hardware. Menuthere's Free plan includes QR table ordering, an ordering website and kitchen tickets with 0% commission, but it is not a full EPOS.
What's the difference between EPOS and POS?
None in practice. EPOS means electronic point of sale. Almost every modern till is electronic, so the terms are used interchangeably.
Do I need a kitchen display screen?
Not always. Printed tickets work well for small kitchens. A KDS helps when you have several stations, many online orders or long ticket times. Read our kitchen display system guide.
Can Menuthere replace my restaurant EPOS?
For a small venue with a separate card machine, it can cover ordering, kitchen tickets and simple billing. It does not offer a linked card terminal, split bills, a floor plan, courses or staff clock-in, and its till is a paid add-on (US$10 a month). Busier restaurants should keep a full EPOS and use Menuthere for direct online, table and WhatsApp orders.
Can Menuthere connect to my EPOS?
Not today. Menuthere has no UK EPOS integrations. You can run it alongside your till. Its orders ring on the partner app and print their own kitchen ticket.
How long are restaurant EPOS contracts?
It varies. Square and SumUp say they have no long-term contracts. Epos Now's discounted bundles need a 12-month subscription. Zonal's all-in-one rental has a 36-month minimum. Always get the term, renewal rule and exit cost in writing.
Sources (16)
- Square for Restaurants UK pricing: squareup.com/gb/en/point-of-sale/restaurants/pricing (accessed 11 Oct 2026)
- SumUp Point of Sale Pro pricing: sumup.com/en-gb/pos/pricing (accessed 11 Oct 2026)
- SumUp restaurant payments page (1.69% pay-as-you-go): sumup.com/en-gb/business-types/restaurant (accessed 11 Oct 2026)
- SumUp UK pricing (1.69% in person; Payments Plus £19 at 0.99%; POS Plus £39 ex VAT): sumup.com/en-gb/pricing (accessed 11 Oct 2026)
- SumUp card readers (Solo Lite £25, Solo £79, Terminal £135 ex VAT): sumup.com/en-gb/card-readers (accessed 11 Oct 2026)
- Epos Now UK pricing: eposnow.com/uk/pricing (accessed 11 Oct 2026)
- Toast UK pricing (Starter from £80, Essentials £150, Custom; first terminal included): pos.toasttab.com/uk/pricing (read in a browser, accessed 11 Oct 2026)
- Zonal all-in-one POS rental (£229/month + £1,100 advance, ex VAT, 36-month minimum): zonal.co.uk/products/ppc-all-in-one-pos-rental (accessed 11 Oct 2026)
- Tabology pricing: tabology.com/pricing (accessed 11 Oct 2026)
- Lightspeed UK pricing page: blocked by a bot check, not read. Third-party figures conflict, so none are published here (accessed 11 Oct 2026)
- Stripe UK pricing: stripe.com/gb/pricing (accessed 11 Oct 2026)
- HMRC VAT Notice 709/1, Catering, takeaway food: gov.uk (accessed 11 Oct 2026)
- GOV.UK, Code of practice on fair and transparent distribution of tips: gov.uk/government/publications/distributing-tips-fairly-statutory-code-of-practice (accessed 11 Oct 2026)
- Payment Systems Regulator, PS22/2 card-acquiring market review remedies and Specific Direction 16 (POS terminal contracts, varied May 2024): psr.org.uk/publications/policy-statements/ps22-2-camr-final-decision (accessed 11 Oct 2026)
- Consumer Rights (Payment Surcharges) Regulations 2012, regulation 6A: legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2012/3110/regulation/6A (accessed 11 Oct 2026)
- Menuthere restaurant billing software, kitchen printing and pricing pages: menuthere.com (accessed 11 Oct 2026)