POS and EPOS mean the same thing to a UK restaurant: the till, the software behind it and usually the card terminal wired to it. The buying decision is a monthly software cost per site or per till, plus hardware (the restaurant POS machine price), plus a card rate that may or may not be part of the same contract. Published tiers on this shelf start at zero and reach about 250 euros a month.
How much does a POS system cost for a restaurant?
Three lines: software monthly, hardware once, and the card rate. On the UK pages read for this index, Square for Restaurants prints 69 pounds a month for its paid plan beside a free tier, storekit prints 99 pounds a month and a 199 pound package for casual dining, and SumUp prints its POS Pro plan from 49 pounds a month. TouchBistro prints its bundle from 69 dollars a month. On hardware, Epos Now prints its Android POS system at 399 pounds plus VAT, with 59 pounds a month on top. Card acceptance is extra on most contracts and runs from 0.79% to 1.75% on the published shelf, so the POS system cost a restaurant actually pays is the software for every till plus the card rate on every cover.
Restaurant POS systems cost more at the second tier: where the boundary usually falls
Entry tiers cover ordering and payment. The next tier up almost always buys the things a busy service needs: multiple registers, kitchen routing, stock, and reporting that answers questions rather than listing sales. Lightspeed's own three tier structure is explicit about this, moving from taking orders to operations and insight to multi location management, and the price roughly doubles at each step. For a restaurant the POS system for restaurant price that matters is therefore usually the second tier, not the entry one, multiplied by the number of tills.
Read the currency on the page you are sent to
A UK restaurant searching for restaurant POS is routinely sent to a page on a UK path that prices in another currency. Lightspeed prints euros on its /uk/ restaurant pricing. TouchBistro prints dollars. Neither is a scandal and both make budgeting harder, because the figure a UK operator plans against then moves with the exchange rate rather than with the supplier's price list.
Ask what happens at renewal
Software priced monthly and rolling can be left. Software priced as a discounted bundle against a twelve or twenty four month subscription cannot, and the second year is where the advertised saving is repaid. Ask for the price after the initial term in writing before you sign, and ask whether the hardware is yours at the end of it.
Questions people ask about restaurant pos systems UK
What is the difference between POS and EPOS?
In UK usage, none that matters to a buyer. EPOS is the older British term for an electronic point of sale system; POS is the international one. Suppliers use them interchangeably, and the same product is often sold under both words on different pages of the same site.
Do restaurant POS systems include the card machine?
Often, and that is the question to ask first. An integrated terminal is faster at the table and ties your card rate to the software contract. A separate terminal keeps the two negotiations apart. Suppliers that bundle usually quote the software cheaply because the card rate carries the deal.
How many tills should I price for?
Price per register, not per site, because most suppliers do. Lightspeed prices an extra register separately, and bundle discounts are commonly quoted for a single till. A two till restaurant comparing single till prices will be surprised at contract stage.