How much does a restaurant POS cost?

How much does a restaurant POS system cost?

A restaurant POS quote often fits in one line: 199 or 399 PLN net a month. In an email that looks like a yes-or-no decision. Then a second floor terminal, a kitchen screen, menu setup and a shift briefing show up. The monthly figure is still real. It just describes a narrower setup than the one the venue actually runs.

A quote that looks cheap until the second station appears

A 40-seat restaurant gets a quote for one station on the lowest plan. The floor already runs two terminals, the kitchen needs order status, and the owner wants orders from the restaurant's own site. The quote shows a low monthly fee. Service shows a missing till, a missing module and a queue of fixes after go-live.

That is not a reason to buy the widest package by default. It is a reason to read three things in every offer: the fee, the number of stations, and the included workflow. Public price lists from other vendors, such as POSbistro, GoPOS and Dotykacka, also show packages and subscriptions. They still cannot tell you what you will pay if your floor does not fit a one-till setup.

What usually sits beside the subscription

Before you compare two monthly figures, line up the same rows on both sides.

In practice, two systems with similar monthly fees split on these rows. One includes the second station and the menu build. The other leaves that as "we'll sort it later". Later means after you sign.

Watch the unit of the fee as well: one price for the venue versus a price per station. A one-till quote for two live terminals is not cheaper. It is incomplete. The same applies to a kitchen screen if the pass has to work on statuses, and the quote only has a printer or nothing.

If you want those rows against your own floor, not a generic table, that conversation happens in an OrderNow presentation. Know what to look for in the quote first.

A public price list shows a plan, not your invoice

OrderNow publishes three list prices:

• Start: from 199 PLN net / month,
• Pro: 399 PLN net / month,
• Enterprise: custom quote.

That still does not answer "what will I pay". Start does not include the direct online ordering channel. A venue that wants orders from its own website is comparing a different scope from a venue that only needs the floor, kitchen and reservations.

Match the fee to the feature map, then come back to pricing. The Start line only tells you where that plan begins. It does not tell you whether the plan covers the work the venue already does.

Enterprise stays on a custom quote because the scale is usually different: more than one site, a shared menu, different support. Do not plug a guessed Start or Pro figure into that line. It is a different conversation and a different scope.

When a lower fee only postpones the spend

Not every restaurant should buy a wider plan in advance. A cafe or a small site that mainly needs a till, a menu and the kitchen for the next few months can stay on a narrower scope. Paying for a channel nobody will launch is a bad calculation too.

The opposite mistake is just as common. The venue already runs the floor, kitchen and its own online orders together, then still picks the lowest tier because "we'll add the rest later". Adding it later is a second rollout: another briefing, more menu edits, often a different service rhythm. The 200 PLN net gap between Start and Pro does not disappear. It comes back as downtime in season.

A cheaper line is not always the better decision. It makes sense when the problem itself is smaller. If the workflow is already wider, the low fee only delays the same spend.

When one monthly figure is no longer enough

A price list answers the plan question. It does not answer what the decision will cost over 6 to 12 months once you add stations, launch work and the risk that the team bypasses the system.

That comparison lives in a separate worksheet: the restaurant POS TCO calculator. There the subscription is one row, not the whole answer.

Related articles:

• Restaurant POS cost: a practical TCO calculator
• POS system for a restaurant: choosing without overpaying
• How to change a POS system in a restaurant without chaos