An EPOS system is a till driven by software. What separates a good one from a cheap one is not the screen but where the tier boundaries fall: how many registers the price covers, whether stock and staff control are included, and whether the card terminal is part of the same contract. UK published tiers run from nothing to about 200 pounds a month per site.
What every tier includes, and what it usually does not
Every tier takes a payment, holds a product list and prints a receipt. Almost none includes multi register use, kitchen printing, full stock control or multi site reporting at the entry level. Lightspeed's own tier names describe the ladder plainly: take orders and get paid, then operations and insight, then multi location management, with the price roughly doubling each step.
UK systems and global systems on UK pages
Some suppliers here are British and price in pounds throughout. Others serve the UK from a global product and price in another currency even on a UK path: Lightspeed prints euros on its /uk/ restaurant pricing, TouchBistro prints dollars on the page a UK restaurant lands on. The software may be excellent; the budget you set from that page is not in your own currency.
How to judge a cheap EPOS system fairly
Total the add-ons before comparing. Loyverse's till is free and its sales history, employee management and advanced inventory are each priced monthly, per store or per employee. A three staff shop that needs all three is not on a free system. Conversely, a single operator who needs none of them genuinely is, and paying a monthly tier for unused features is the commoner mistake.
Questions people ask about what is an epos system
What is the best EPOS system in the UK?
There is no single answer, because the tiers are drawn differently. For a single site restaurant the question is which tier includes kitchen routing; for a shop it is which includes stock. Compare on the tier that contains what you need, not on the entry price.
How much should a small business pay for EPOS?
Published UK tiers put a working single till system between zero and about 100 pounds a month, with the higher figures buying multi channel or multi site features. Anything quoted well above that should come with a written list of what the extra covers.
Are UK EPOS systems different from POS systems sold elsewhere?
The software is usually identical. What differs is the pricing page you are sent to, the currency it prints and whether the card terminal integration is available in the UK. Ask specifically whether your chosen terminal is supported here.