A restaurant POS system costs $0–$399 per month in published software fees, $59–$995 per piece of hardware, and — the number that actually decides your bill — 2.4%–3.09% plus 15–20¢ on every card transaction. On $50,000 a month in card sales, that processing line runs about $17,250 a year, next to roughly $588 a year for a mid-tier software plan. The sticker price is a rounding error; the rate is the cost.
Most cost guides for this question are written by companies selling you their own POS, so the numbers stay conveniently vague. We did it the RestroScout way instead: on July 29, 2026 we pulled the published prices straight from the vendor pricing pages for Square, Lightspeed, TouchBistro, and SpotOn, folded in our July 25 in-browser verification of Toast's pricing grid, and then ran the math those pages don't show. (Clover doesn't publish prices on a page we could verify, so it's not in the tables — we don't print numbers we can't source.)
If you're still deciding which system fits your service model, start with our guide to the best restaurant POS systems, then come back here to price it.
The four cost buckets
Every POS quote is some mix of four buckets. Vendors tend to lead with whichever one looks smallest.
- Software — the monthly subscription, usually per location or per station.
- Hardware — terminals, handhelds, printers, routers. One-time, or bundled into the monthly fee.
- Payment processing — a percentage plus a fixed fee on every card transaction. The largest ongoing line for almost every restaurant.
- Setup — implementation, menu build, and training. Sometimes bundled, sometimes billed, rarely volunteered.
A "$69/month" quote and a "$0/month" quote can describe the same total cost of ownership. The only way to compare them is to price all four buckets at your volume.
What the software actually costs
The comparison table above holds the verified per-plan numbers. Two things jump out. First, "starting at" prices are per station or per location — a three-station dining room on SpotOn Essentials is $165/month, not $55. Second, three of the six vendors offer a $0/month plan, which should immediately make you ask where the money went. It went to bucket three.
Hardware: the prices vendors publish (and the ones they don't)
Only some vendors put hardware prices in writing:
- SpotOn: Station 15 $750 (list $995), Station 10 $415, handheld $375, guest-facing display $200, wireless router $300, plus implementation costs. Financing available.
- Square: hardware "starting at $59" (the card reader); full terminals and registers cost more and are sold separately.
- TouchBistro: hardware is folded into the $119/month Essentials bundle, with financing for venues with two or more terminals.
- Toast: the $0/month Starter Kit is described as a "hardware kit with no upfront costs"; beyond that, hardware is quote-only — and you must use Toast's hardware.
As a planning figure, a single-terminal setup with a printer and cash drawer generally lands in the low four figures, and each extra station adds roughly a terminal's price again — SpotOn's published list is a useful proxy even if you buy elsewhere.
Processing fees: the real bill
Published card-present rates from the pricing pages we pulled: Square 2.6% / 2.5% / 2.4% + 15¢ on Free / Plus / Premium; SpotOn 2.45% + 15¢ on Essentials (Amex 3.19%) or 2.79% + 20¢ on All-In; Toast 3.09% flat on Pay-as-you-Go. Lightspeed and TouchBistro set rates in your quote. Keyed-in and online rates run higher everywhere (Square online: 2.9–3.3% + 30¢; SpotOn keyed: 3.45–3.79% + 20¢).
Now the math. Take a restaurant doing $50,000/month in card sales at a $40 average check — 1,250 transactions:
- At 2.5% + 15¢, processing costs $1,437.50/month ≈ $17,250/year.
- Square Plus software for that location: $588/year.
- Processing outspends software roughly 29 to 1.
This is why a 0.1-point rate difference matters more than a $20/month software difference. It's the same margin logic we apply to food cost: small percentages on big volume beat big percentages on small line items.
When a paid plan beats a free one
Because Square discounts its rate as the plan tier rises, each tier has a break-even card volume (per location, card-present, from the published rates above):
- Plus ($49/mo) beats Free above $49,000/month in card sales.
- Premium ($149/mo) beats Free above $74,500/month.
- Premium beats Plus above $100,000/month.
Below those volumes, the free plan's higher rate is cheaper than the subscription. Above them, you're donating margin.
The same logic applies to SpotOn's two plans. At $50,000/month and a $40 check, All-In's higher rate costs about $232.50/month more in processing than Essentials — roughly $2,790/year — against Essentials' $55/month software and $750 station. "Free" hardware pays for itself only if your volume is low or your cash flow genuinely can't absorb the upfront cost.
What "$0 per month" really means
Every $0 plan is a financing structure, not a discount:
- Square Free recovers it through the highest rate tier (2.6% + 15¢) and by locking KDS and kiosk apps behind paid plans.
- SpotOn All-In recovers it through 2.79% + 20¢, a 2-year minimum term, and processing minimums.
- Toast's Pay-as-you-Go is the most explicit of all: per Toast's pricing page, "customers who purchase with Pay-as-you-Go do not pay anything for their basic hardware, and do not pay a monthly fee" — instead they pay 3.09% on every transaction. You're amortizing the terminal through your card sales.
None of that makes these plans bad. A new opening with uncertain volume and tight cash may rationally prefer $0 upfront. Just price the crossover before you sign, not after.
Year-one totals: three worked examples
Using only published prices and stated assumptions:
Cafe — 1 terminal, Square Free, $18,000/month card sales, $12 average check. Software $0. Hardware from $59 (reader) to a few hundred with a stand and printer. Processing: 2.6% + 15¢ × 1,500 transactions ≈ $693/month, ~$8,316/year. Year-one total: ≈ $8,600–$9,000, almost all of it processing.
Full-service restaurant — 3 stations, 2 handhelds, SpotOn Essentials. Hardware: 3 × $750 + 2 × $375 + $300 router = $3,300 plus implementation (quoted). Software: 3 × $55 × 12 = $1,980/year. Fixed year-one subtotal: $5,280 + implementation, before processing at 2.45% + 15¢ on your volume.
Growing multi-station spot — Lightspeed Essential + 2 KDS screens. Software: ($189 + $60) × 12 = $2,988/year. Hardware and processing by quote. Add-ons are where this one grows: KDS is $30/screen/month on every Lightspeed plan.
Your number will differ, but the shape won't: hardware is a one-time four-figure event, software a low four-figure annual line, and processing scales with every cover you serve.
The costs nobody puts on the quote
Ask about each of these before signing — they're real line items on real invoices:
- Implementation and menu build. SpotOn lists it as a separate cost; Toast includes it in "upfront costs." Third-party guides put menu setup at $100–$500 for a simple menu.
- Add-on creep. Square KDS: $30/device/month (Plus) or $20 (Premium); kiosk $50/$30. Lightspeed KDS: $30/screen. Square's MarketMan-powered inventory: $99/month/location. A "$49/month" plan with two KDS screens, a kiosk, and inventory is a $250+/month plan.
- Hardware lock-in. Toast and SpotOn both require their own hardware — no bringing your own iPads. TouchBistro is compatible with a range of payment processors.
- Terms and minimums. SpotOn All-In carries a 2-year minimum and processing minimums; ask every vendor what cancellation actually costs.
- Integrations. If your inventory tool needs to talk to your POS — and it should — check our guide to inventory software by POS integration before you commit to a platform.
How to compare quotes without getting played
- Demand all four buckets in writing — software, hardware, processing rate, setup — at your station count.
- Convert everything to a year-one and year-two total at your real card volume. Two quotes, one spreadsheet.
- Negotiate the rate, not the subscription. A 0.1-point rate cut on $50k/month is worth $600/year — more than most software discounts.
- Price the add-ons you'll actually run (KDS, online ordering, loyalty) on day one, not month six.
- Check the exit. Term length, hardware ownership, and data export decide what switching costs later — a bigger deal than any launch discount, as anyone who's read our Toast vs Square comparison knows.
POS pricing rewards the operator who does twenty minutes of arithmetic. It's the same discipline as inventory software pricing: the platforms aren't hiding the numbers, they're just betting you won't add them up.
Prices verified July 29, 2026 from vendor pricing pages: Square, Toast, Lightspeed, TouchBistro, SpotOn. Toast's plan and Pay-as-you-Go figures were read from Toast's fully rendered pricing page on July 25, 2026. Pricing changes; confirm with vendors before purchasing. RestroScout has no pay-to-play rankings — see our editorial policy.
