The Best Restaurant POS Systems in Australia

The best way to get your restaurant running smoothly, cut down on delays and wastage, and offer a great experience to your guests is by investing in a restaurant POS system. It’ll help you manage orders, give you a Birdseye view of your floorplan, and provide you with unique insights into how you can optimise your operations.

Here at Expert Market, we’ve been reviewing POS systems for years, and in our latest round of research and testing, Square came out on top as the best POS system for restaurants in Australia. It’s a versatile platform, suitable for establishments of varying sizes, at a price point that won’t break the bank.

However, no matter how versatile Square is, no POS system is truly one-size-fits-all. So if it’s not for you, one of the four other in our list probably is.

If you want to skip ahead and get matched with a POS provider, you can use our free comparison tool. Just answer a few questions about your business, and get contacted by providers who’ll offer you no-obligation quotes.

1. Square: Best for Scaling and Growing Your Restaurant

What we like about Square

With Square’s free POS system, you’ll be able to do the basics, such as set up your menu and table plan, and manage orders, from both the front and back end, and track which dishes have run out. You can also create a free website for taking orders, through which you can accept payments. It’s one of Square’s biggest perks, allowing you to minimise monthly overheads and focus on growing your businesses.

Square’s paid plans (Plus and Custom)give you access to more advanced features, such customised table and floor plans, closed bills redos, and in-depth reporting tools. You’ll be able to assess how your establishment is performing during different service hours, for example, and advanced employee management functions, such as sales reporting by team members. These types of insights are invaluable for narrowing in on what’s working and what’s not, and making quick changes to improve.

What Square could improve

We wouldn’t recommend it for restaurants with over three locations, because Square’s hardware can get expensive if you need to purchase sets for several locations (there’s no possibility to rent equipment), and its inventory management features aren’t equipped to handle a large number of establishments.

For example, it’s missing cost vs profit management, and ingredient tracking tools, both of which are available from rivals Lightspeed and Epos Now, which are better for large establishments.

Square’s transaction fees are also on the expensive side, starting at 1.6%, but you can get lower ones if you opt for the Premium plan. This plan has custom pricing and is available for restaurateurs that process over $250,000 a year.

2. Clover: Best Professional Restaurant Hardware

What we like about Clover

Clover’s POS system includes all the basics and more. You can create custom table plans that perfectly match your restaurant’s layout, create customised orders for guests, and even transfer orders from one table to another if customers switch seats.

You’ll also be able to see the status of each table in real-time, track and transfer bar tabs, send orders straight to the kitchen, split bills, manage staff, take bookings and track your sales.

When it comes to employee and inventory management, Clover offers a customised approach, which means you can pick the features you want. Additional features include stock alerts and profit tracking, and advanced employee scheduling.

What Clover could improve

Clover isn’t a cheap option, with prices ranging from $165 per month for 36 months to $325 per month for 36 months for software and hardware packages. Businesses such as food stalls or cafes, who don’t necessarily need the most advanced hardware on the market, will get a better deal with a supplier like Square.

Transaction fees are also higher than Square’s, at 2.3% + 10¢, and these don’t get cheaper if you’re on a more expensive plan.

3. Lightspeed Restaurant: Best for Driving Customer Loyalty

What we like about Lightspeed

Besides its marketing and loyalty tools, Lightspeed Restaurant also has a robust array of restaurant management features.

For example, you can customise your floor plan, menu, and screen, which is especially useful for customer-facing screens and KDSs. This can help create a unique brand image for custoners, and avoid confusion among staff. Other top features include ingredient usage tracking, cost vs profit breakdowns for menu items, and automated resupply orders. These aren’t available on all POS systems, such as Square.

Lightspeed’s POS system also has an offline function, which means it’ll log data even if you get disconnected from the wifi, and sync everything automatically when the connection returns.

There’s also an optional Order Anywhere feature, which allows you to give your customers more ways to order, such as online, or via a QR code. These tools can help create a loyal customer base and contribute to growth.

What Lightspeed could improve

One major downside to Lightspeed is that it doesn’t provide you with the tablets its app-based system runs on. Buying them separately, if you don’t already have them, can get expensive very quickly. The same goes for the KDS, which can really drive up costs if you need to buy tablets for multiple locations.

A lot of restaurants prefer these types of systems because they offer mobility to staff, but if you want dedicated KDS of customer display hardware, you can get them through providers like Clover, Square, or Epos Now. We would recommend Clover overall, since it has the best hardware of all the POS systems we tested.

4. TouchBistro: Easiest POS System to Operate

What we like about TouchBistro

TouchBistro comes with all the features you need to successfully run a restaurant. Its table planning tools are particularly good, since floor plans can be edited from the front or back end, and you can even create and remove walls between tables so that your floor plan exactly matches your restaurant.

When it comes to preparing orders, TouchBistro has a separate software for KDSs, but it seamlessly integrates with the POS system. Your kitchen staff will be able to see tickets appear instantly on screen when an order is put through, and they’ll be able to clear completed orders in just two taps, thanks to the touch screen.

For an extra fee, you can get access to marketing and loyalty tools, which allow you to, for example, create a customer app and rewards system. Marketing and loyalty tools cost an extra $99 per month, respectively. If you don’t feel like paying that much for loyalty tools, you could try Lightspeed instead, which has them built-in.

What TouchBistro could improve

On the downside, a lot of TouchBistro’s best features come as pricey add-ons, with features such as loyalty tools coming in at around $99 per month, and online ordering at $50 per month. This can drive up monthly overheads. Square’s loyalty tools also come as paid add-ons, but they cost much less than TouchBistro’s, so it’s a more affordable option.

TouchBistro also doesn’t disclose the cost of its hardware, nor is any hardware included along with its POS software packages, which is a little frustrating. For clear hardware pricing, look to Square, and for software and hardware packages, go to Epos Now.

5. Epos Now: Best for Managing Complex Inventories

What we like about Epos Now

Epos Now’s inventory management tools are its standout features, allowing you to track ingredient usage in real-time, across multiple locations. This is invaluable for chain restaurants looking to minimise wastage.

When it comes to more essential restaurant features, Epos Now lets you customise and change table plans, so there’s no disconnect between what your staff members see on screen and what they see in reality. The KDS syncs quickly with the POS system, so that last-minute order changes don’t get overlooked.

Quite uniquely, Epos Now takes a hybrid approach when it comes to how its software is accessed. It can be used on a traditional POS terminal and also accessed via an app on an iPad or Android tablet, or even via desktop, giving restaurant owners a lot of flexibility as to when and where they can use their system.

What Epos Now could improve

Epos Now’s advanced features are great, but unfortunately, they do mean that Epos Now isn’t the easiest EPOS system to use. There’s also no training mode, so it’s not a system we’d recommend to restaurants that have inexperienced teams. For a more beginner-friendly option, we’d recommend TouchBistro or Clover.

Lastly, Epos Now’s $599 upfront fee isn’t something all small businesses have on hand, so if you’d prefer to pay nothing upfront, or pay monthly, we’d suggest Square or Lightspeed. Bear in mind, that to get Epos Now’s hardware and software for $599 instead the standard of $1,199, you also need to pay a $78 per month subscription fee, which isn’t cheap.

Buying Guide: How to Choose a Restaurant POS System

When choosing a restaurant POS system, you should first define your specific needs, which will vary depending on the size of your restaurant, how you serve your food (for example, counter ordering, table service, or QR code), and the number of locations you have.

Here’s what to consider when evaluating your choices:

Pricing

Consider upfront costs and monthly fees, as well as what’s included in them. Is it both software and hardware, or one and not the other? Make sure to include the added cost of integration, training, and transaction fees in your budgeting.

Realistically plan for any projected growth as well. Choosing a system that can accommodate your expected future needs will prevent you from having to switch systems later down the line.

Software

Make a list of must-have and nice-to-have features based on your restaurant’s operations to get a clear picture of what kind of system you genuinely need.

These could include:

• Inventory management: To help you keep on top of your ingredients and prevent you from running out of something unexpectedly
• Reservation management: To help you book out tables in advance and gather customer data
• Staff management: So you can reward your best employees and identify those that need further training
• Online ordering functionality: So you can offer your food to takeaway customers or accept online pre-orders
• Analytics: So you can learn which meals are most popular, which staff members are processing the most transactions, and more
• Customer loyalty programs: So you can offer benefits that entice customers back to your restaurant as repeat visitors

It’s worth being aware that if you prioritise features that help automate your workflows and prevent manual work, you may be able to reduce your labour costs.

Hardware

Think about the important pieces of hardware that your business needs, and how many of them you need – from POS terminals and card machines to receipt printers, kitchen printers, and cash drawers.

Not all providers automatically supply you with card machines, for example. They’re sometimes replaced with a tablet or terminal that can take payments. However, if you need your staff to do table service, you’ll need an POS provider that can supply you with mobile card readers.

If you have existing hardware, and want to save yourself having to buy everything new, find an POS system that’s compatible with your existing equipment. Most POS providers appreciate that you might be switching to them from another supplier, and that you won’t necessarily want a complete overhaul of all your hardware.

Add-ons and integrations

You should also pay attention to the software that your chosen POS system can integrate with.

If you already use software, such as accounting software, make sure the POS system you choose has a ready-made integration for it, as this will help you streamline operations.

It’s also a good idea to check what other add-ons or apps are available via an POS system. Some providers offer advanced marketing or reporting features as add-ons, usually for an extra fee – but if these seem particularly valuable to your business, they could be worth the extra spend.

Customer support

Make sure you check how available the POS provider’s customer support team is, and how easily reachable they are.

An POS provider should have a customer support phone line that’s open on weekdays, at the very least. Live chat support and community forums you can go to in a pinch are a welcome addition.

You should also check the training resources, onboarding support, and post-implementation support terms provided by the POS provider to ensure your team will get the support they need to learn the new system.

How We Test POS Systems for Restaurants