November 5, 2024
Written by: The POS Exchange Team
Imagine this: it's the morning rush at your coffee shop. Customers line up, caffeine-deprived and impatient, while your baristas scramble to enter orders into the antiquated POS system. Meanwhile, you try to keep a calm demeanor as you glance over at the long queue of customers who are not-so-patiently waiting for their orders. The Best POS System for Restaurant would make all the difference in elevating your coffee shop's efficiency and improving the customer experience. If you want to discover the best POS system for coffee shop operations, you are in the right place. This article will explore how the right POS system can seamlessly integrate with your operations to help your coffee shop run smoother with less stress.
The POS Exchange helps coffee shops like yours discover the best POS systems for their business needs. With our simple process, you’ll quickly find a system to help you better serve your customers.
A cafe is busy, and no matter how much Java you've had, keeping track of orders and customer data is challenging. Historically, baristas and owners relied on clunky analog management tools to meet their business needs, limiting capacity and profit. With today's intuitive POS hardware, though, everyday kitchen practices like:
The right POS system is your cafe's secret ingredient for achieving consistent revenue and encouraging customer loyalty. Modern POS hardware options are designed for business owners demanding efficiency and a strong bottom line. These tools have many customizable features and add-integrations that benefit multi-location-full-service chains and small businesses.
Effective inventory management is essential for cafes to ensure that ingredients and products are always available. A robust cafe POS system offers features like real-time tracking, automated reordering, and low-stock alerts.
Detailed sales reporting and analytics help cafe owners make informed business decisions. A good POS system provides insights into sales trends, peak times, and product performance.
Building strong customer relationships is key to repeat business. Integrated CRM features in a POS system allow cafes to manage customer data, track purchase history, and create loyalty programs.
A versatile payment processing system is vital for a cafe. The best POS systems support various payment methods, including credit and debit cards, contactless payments, and mobile wallets.
Managing staff effectively is crucial for smooth cafe operations. POS systems with employee management features can track hours, manage schedules, and monitor performance.
Security is paramount in handling financial transactions and customer data. Look for POS systems with robust security features, such as data encryption, secure user authentication, and compliance with industry standards.
Cafes often need to weigh ingredients and scan products. Integrating scales and
barcode scanners with the POS system streamline operations and improve accuracy.
A user-friendly and customizable interface is essential for minimizing training time and maximizing productivity. The best POS systems allow customization of layout, hotkeys, and functionalities.
For cafe chains, managing multiple locations from a single platform is vital. A centralized POS system allows you to oversee all your cafes, track inventory, and standardize operations.
Effective marketing tools integrated into the POS system can boost sales and customer engagement. Features like loyalty programs, gift cards, and targeted promotions help attract and retain customers.
A POS system boosts efficiency by automating routine tasks and streamlining operations. Staff can focus on customer service and other high-value activities, reducing errors and speeding up checkout.
Key Efficiency Benefits:
A seamless and quick checkout experience enhances customer satisfaction. Supporting various payment methods and integrating loyalty programs provide a superior shopping experience, encouraging repeat business.
Enhancing Customer Experience:
Real-time inventory tracking and automated reordering prevent stockouts and overstocking. This ensures you always have the right products, reducing losses and maximizing sales opportunities.
Inventory Management Advantages:
Access to detailed analytics and reports empowers you to make informed decisions. Understanding sales trends, customer preferences, and employee performance helps optimize operations and strategies.
Benefits of Data Analytics:
Integrating all aspects of cafe management into a single system simplifies operations. From handling transactions to managing employees and inventory, a comprehensive POS system ensures all your business functions run smoothly.
Streamlining Benefits:
While the initial investment in a POS system can be significant, the long-term cost savings are substantial. Reducing manual errors, optimizing inventory, and improving staff productivity can achieve significant operational savings.
Cost-Saving Benefits:
The POS Exchange brings over 20 years of restaurant expertise, serving 200,000+ merchants and processing billions annually. Our tailored POS system solutions help businesses speed up checkouts by 30%, implement dynamic pricing, and manage customer reviews while reducing overhead. Perfect for:
We offer end-to-end service, from smart consultation and interactive demos to local installation and 24/7 support.
Our mobile iPad POS systems streamline operations with features like order management, bill splitting, and inventory control. With integrations for business management tools and advanced security measures, we ensure your POS system grows with your business.
Trust our expertise to help you avoid the common pitfall that affects 38% of new business owners who choose the wrong POS system. Whether managing a busy restaurant, a local café, or operating a multi-location business, The POS Exchange delivers customized POS system solutions that tell your unique business story.
Toast is great for any café owner but shines with smaller shops poised to grow. It is an industry-leading POS system used throughout different food businesses. Affordable subscription options, industry-grade hardware, and niche café features make Toast perfectly suited for cafés.
Online ordering is a key feature that suits cafés, as takeout orders are super popular for coffee shops and similar food businesses. Toast’s industry-grade hardware can withstand splashes of coffee and steam from milk frothers. Its Pay-as-You-Go Starter plan enables smaller businesses to get off the ground, its hardware is built to engage your customer base, and its tools give you all you need to be effective with your business over the long term.
Standout features:
Almost 50% of coffee purchases are made through a drive-thru. Toast’s POS has a drive-thru workflow to organize drive-thru orders on your POS and kitchen display system (KDS).
Toast can be a simple time clock to lock employee hours or support full-scale digital onboarding for your employees. Digital onboarding makes it a breeze to integrate new employees into your payroll and training systems.
Optional built-in scheduling controls your labor budget and sends schedules to employee smartphones. Lastly, Toast has an HR On-Demand feature for HR guidance and suggestions from the pros.
Toast has every tool a café or coffee shop could need, from ingredient-level inventory with vendor management to online ordering, payroll management, and tip-pooling tools. If you hope to grow your two-terminal coffee shop to a multi-location chain, Toast has you covered.
Toast users can add integrated online ordering to their POS for an additional custom-quoted fee. Essentials subscribers automatically receive three months of free online ordering; after that, the fees are around $75 per month. Driver management features are included if you want to manage a team of in-house drivers.
You can hail third-party delivery drivers on-demand using Toast Delivery Services. You’ll pay a flat rate per-delivery fee that varies based on the distance and the driver’s service. But, you can pass these fees on to customers as a service charge.
Toast consistently updates its software, which is a testament to its dedication to a great product. Its newer order screens emphasize efficiency, requiring fewer taps for quicker transactions. This is very important in cafés and coffee shops, where speed is key.
This Toast tool allows you to create future orders in your POS and generate an invoice to use as an estimate and final bill. You can email the invoice directly from your POS screen and send reminders if payment lags. Customers can pay the invoice in person or by credit card over the Internet.
Small coffee shops and those that serve only drinks will find the best use of Square’s services. Square for Restaurants’ POS systems are popular among coffee shops due to their ease of use for staff and customers. The free level of Square’s subscription does not include table management, making it ideal for coffee shops that serve drinks only. Its higher tiers offer great features for a relatively affordable monthly rate. Month-to-month contracts make it a flexible POS software option over others in our guide.
Square’s online store functionality is a great asset to cafés with many pickup orders, and the supporting software makes order-taking easy on staff. A lack of key, niche features like drive-thru management landed Square behind Toast, but it is still a formidable POS system for small coffee shops.
Standout Features:
On the customer end, Square’s iconic touch-to-pay and phone magstripe payment processors are very approachable and easy to understand in-store and online. It has an integrated online store with loyalty program capabilities and basic employee management software, including punching in and out of work.
It is optional to purchase any new equipment to run Square. This POS will run on any iPad. As needed, you can bulk up your existing hardware with iPad stands, various card readers, cash drawers, barcode scanners, and KDS screens. This makes Square one of the most versatile POS systems on our list.
Square is easy to join and easy to leave. There are no long-term contracts with Square, making it one of the most flexible POSes on our list.
In addition to free POS software, Square offers many other free tools that all work together, including Square Online store and Online Checkout for pickup and delivery orders, customer feedback tools, and reporting dashboards.
Square for Restaurants POS users also gain access to the full suite of Square’s small business tools. In addition to the Square Online store, you can get their easy-to-use marketing, payroll, and appointment booking.
Square offers many paid add-ons in addition to its ecosystem of free tools, including:
Businesses can add and remove any of these features at any time.
Busy cafés with complex inventories, those needing to track their ingredients, or those preferring a different payment processor would do well to use Lightspeed Restaurant. Lightspeed Restaurant raised its base subscription price this year, which may cost some cafés from using this service.
Due to the nature of larger menu varieties, cafés with larger inventories will be pleased with Lightspeed’s inventory management tools. Along with multiple payment processor options, Lightspeed is a worthy choice for the right café despite a higher price point. It also offers user-friendly inventory and dual cash drawers and is super easy to self-install. We docked points for Lightspeed’s lack of drive-thru management, limited offline mode, and pricing.
Standout features:
Lightspeed’s inventory tool includes low-stock alerts and automated suggested orders. It is in-depth and easy for different users to learn. The one positive to its pricing consolidation is that advanced inventory is now offered in the $189 tier; previously, it was offered at $399.
Lightspeed is quick to set up and easy to install yourself. You can purchase iPads from Lightspeed or bring your own and use Lightspeed cases and stands. You can download the POS software directly from the Apple App Store and start taking orders in a single afternoon.
Contactless service is popular with customers. Lightspeed’s built-in Order Ahead feature lets customers place pickup orders from any web-enabled device. It’s perfect for curbside pickup. While this is notably not the same as a drive-thru feature, it allows on-the-go customers to place orders and pay without going indoors.
Lightspeed allows owners to shop around for the best payment processors for their needs while still offering the convenience of built-in payments. Other café POS systems (Square and Toast) only support built-in processing, locking you into their in-house rates.
High-volume counter-service businesses know the headache of balancing cash among multiple people, across breaks, and between shifts. It’s nearly impossible. The dual cash drawer feature allows managers and staff to easily track individual cash drawers, regardless of meal and shift breaks. In a fast-paced café, this is vital.
SpotOn is perfect for cafés new to POS systems, as its customer support can help get a business on its feet. Coffee shops with large amounts of staff or delivery orders will find use in its robust tools. SpotOn is an easy-to-use POS system with drive-thru functionality at an added fee. The robust installation process, customer support, and online learning resources make it accessible for new cafés. This software also delivers excellent workforce and delivery tools, making it a breeze to manage for expanding coffee shop businesses.
It locks you into SpotOn’s payment processing, losing some cost flexibility. One key feature is the customizability of order screens on the POS, allowing your business to maneuver the software how you see fit. SpotOn’s staff is super friendly, and it genuinely feels like they are there to support you. Some key features, such as inventory management, leave room to be desired.
Standout features:
A key factor for success with cafés is growing a customer base with many repeat visits. SpotOn’s suite of customer loyalty features reward points, automated messaging, and analytics on how your rewards drive sales.
An online website and branded menu are important features that help a new brand establish its business online and drive sales. These key marketing features allow for a seamless brand identity in person and online.
SpotOn allows you to ask for tips from customers or to include no tips at all as a setting. Their one-tap payment capability is fast, and they tout their payment processing as super efficient and speedy for customers. This slight edge can bring many benefits to cafés trying to get customers in and out the door.
You can customize your POS's buttons, commands, and other aspects to your liking. This can be very helpful to new cafés, as they can reset buttons and map commands to suit their staff.
SpotOn’s customer service is accessible 24/7. They also offer one-on-one support, robust resources, and an overall ecosystem where new users can learn and make the most of what they are paying for. This alone can be a deciding factor for new business owners.
Cafes that find savings through different payment processors should use KORONA POS. Cafes that want the ability to add on features when needed and that are affordable are a good fit for this software. KORONA POS offers flexible payment processing, a big deal for cafes with many orders. Choosing your payment processor can lead to a lot of savings over time and maybe a deciding factor for some. KORONA still needs some of the other niche cafe features, like drive-thru management, which others have provided in this guide.
Standout Features
KORONA POS users choose a baseline POS subscription, KORONA POS Core, or KORONA POS Retail for $59 to $69 monthly. The main difference between the two subscriptions is that the Retail POS ($69 per month) includes inventory tracking and customer management tools. Then, you can add various modules at a la carte prices (from $10 to $45 per month).
KORONA offers food-business-supporting tools like item modifiers and check splitting as an a la carte add-on to the baseline POS subscription for $10 per terminal per month. If your cafe operates with table service, the food functions include table and course management as well.
KORONA’s Plus add-on extends your KORONA POS reporting and multi-location management functions. With Plus, you can centralize multi-location reporting, rank stores, and get advanced stock management tools like product movement reports. These tools are great for growing coffee shops and cafes in multiple locations.
KORONA integrates with every major credit card processor. Users can shop for the best processing rates and use whichever processor they like. You can also change processors later if you find a better rate after a couple of years in business. For busy cafes with check averages below $10, this feature can greatly impact the bottom line.
Users can cancel their service without penalties, so updating your POS plan as your business grows or your needs change is easy. This is unusual for POS systems in general, though Square for Restaurants and Loyverse also require no long-term commitment on this list.
One perk we enjoy with this service is the free 24/7 support in case your system ever goes down. That access is key for bakeries, where most work is done outside the normal 9-to-5 workday.
Coffee shop startups looking for a full-featured POS designed for counter sales and seamless
online order-ahead. Clover is an excellent all-in-one POS system for coffee shops because of its:
Clover can help you offer your coffee shop customers convenient options like online ordering and perks like loyalty programs and gift cards. However, Clover’s pricing can be confusing because its offerings vary by industry and business type.
The “Quick Services” plan includes one Mini touchscreen device, which would likely work well for a small coffee shop. A cafe serving food may benefit from one of Clover’s higher-tier plans (see the chart below). Discuss your needs with a Clover representative to design the best solution for your coffee shop. You can’t use a third-party credit card processor when you opt for a Clover POS system. You must use Clover to process your payment. Clover offers competitive, flat-rate credit card processing fees your coffee shop can easily handle. You can pay for your Clover POS system monthly or annually, and you’ll enjoy a full warranty on your hardware if you sign up for the monthly payment plan.
Pricing Clover doesn’t have a free quick-service plan for a coffee shop POS, but its monthly paid plans are a good value and include payment plans for startup hardware. There is no free trial, but you can set up a demo account to see if Clover is the best POS for your coffee shop needs.
Coffee shop owners who want a free POS with a robust loyalty and promotions program with no added fees. The free SumUp POS + Loyalty restaurant plan offers the Fivestars loyalty platform with promotional marketing pushes. This is a paid feature in most coffee shop POS systems. Beyond that nifty perk, SumUp POS offers solid restaurant POS tools for:
The paid Pro plan adds staff tracking, monthly promotions, and lower payment processing fees. Online ordering isn’t a built-in feature, but you can connect SumUp to Wix and WooCommerce to process payments for online orders. SumUp POS software and card readers work with iOS and Android devices for in-store sales. You can get pricing for all-in-one touchscreen terminals and tablet stand checkouts when you book a demo. SumUp POS offers 20/7 phone support plus an online knowledge base with tutorials.
Payment processing rates are 2.75% for in-person sales, 3.25% plus 15 cents for remote sales, and 2.90% plus 15 cents for invoicing. You can’t use your payment provider with SumUp. Pricing SumUp POS + Loyalty for restaurants has a free and paid plan, and each has setup fees. SumUp offers demos on both plans and a 30-day money-back guarantee on the paid plan.
POS tablet stands, and all-in-one terminals are priced based on the plan. Hardware has a 30-day money-back guarantee
Coffee shop owners who want a feature-packed POS system ready to run two registers or checkout stations with minimal monthly fees. For the money, you get more with eHopper than many competitors, making it our top value pick. The OmniChannel version of eHopper POS delivers many features for very low monthly fees. The eHopper POS also gives you payment processing flexibility and many hardware options. Built-in features include:
The eHopper POS also powers self-service kiosks, which can be built using Android tablets, Windows computers, or the eHopper all-in-one register.
Along with 24/7 phone support, eHopper offers free data migration from other POS systems. You can use your payment service or 0% card processing, which adds a “convenience fee” to card sales. Pricing It has two plans:
Which has the features you need in a coffee shop POS. The OmniChannel plan requires one license for each register or tablet you operate. It doesn’t have a free trial, but you can set up a demo to see if eHopper meets your coffee shop POS needs and there is a 30-day money-back guarantee:
Otter POS is an all-in-one point-of-sale platform that strengthens your entire restaurant brand's speed, efficiency, and profitability. Built for small businesses and multi-location chains, Otter isn’t just a payment processor. It’s a full-featured tool with built-in apps for inventory management, menu management, real-time data collection, and more. Otter’s cloud-based POS technology is currently used by over 275,000 restaurants worldwide (including large and small cafes) to increase revenue on every order served.
Unique Features:
Recommendation: Otter is ideal for any cafe or coffee shop seeking digitally-focused POS features. The platform’s built-in tools for:
This POS system simplifies the service process for baristas and business owners, strengthening long-term productivity and revenue. It is excellent for restaurant owners seeking efficiency, functionality, and enhanced revenue without redundant hardware or external software packages.
Pricing
POS features range from $19/mo (with 3.19% + 15¢ per order) to $59/mo (with 2.99% + 30¢ per order). Various add-ons are available from $10/ to $99/month.
TouchBistro is an ideal POS system for cafes, especially if you’re already familiar with and like iPad POS systems. TouchBistro includes numerous restaurant-specific features, including online ordering for pickup and delivery, drag-and-drop table-management tools for floor plan creation, and staff efficiency evaluation functions. We like that its software is intuitive and easy to use and that you can customize the system’s features to fit the specific needs of your cafe.
While TouchBistro doesn’t offer as many integrations as some competitors, we found that the third-party apps it works with are very helpful. For example, its 7shifts integration enhances the system’s built-in scheduling and staff management tools, which we found ideal for a coffee shop with a rotating staff. We appreciate that when you choose TouchBistro, you pay only for the features you need. The POS system costs $69 monthly; you can add additional features as required. For example, once your cafe grows, you can pay for online ordering, loyalty programs, and custom marketing campaigns.
Lavu is a cloud-based POS system for restaurants that runs on iPads and additional hardware you can buy through Lavu or elsewhere. Lavu POS includes features catering to food businesses, such as:
Lavu says it is “payment processor agnostic,” meaning you shouldn’t have software compatibility issues with third-party payment processors. The monthly price for Lavu software increases dramatically if you use a third-party processor, plus the company charges an additional undisclosed fee for the option to use an outside processor. If you want to streamline things and likely keep costs down, you can process payment through Lavu Pay, but you’ll need to contact the company for a pricing quote. Lavu also operates two other notable platforms:
This online ordering platform includes a marketing system so businesses can create a website for:
This bill-pay and invoicing tool allows businesses to store invoices, track inventory purchases, and pay invoices. It integrates with:
Lavu is best for businesses that want a single POS provider and payment processor. If you use Lavu Pay for payment processing, Lavu’s monthly software fees are fairly reasonable (although still higher than those of many competitors, including Toast and TouchBistro).
Monthly fees reach upward of $300 to $500, depending on your plan, plus you’ll pay an additional undisclosed fee to use a third-party processor. They are looking to customize their POS system. Lavu offers an editable API, which you can access for an additional monthly fee, that enables you to customize the POS system to suit your business needs best. However, unlike other providers (for example, Stripe) with similar open-access offerings, Lavu does not appear to offer a robust help library or developer community. So you’ll want to be sure you or your team knows how to take full advantage of this offering without much assistance.
The POS system that is right for your cafe or coffee shop will depend on your service style, budget, and menu size. Cafe and coffee shop POS systems have many features to support your business.
As mentioned above, a cafe POS can have many features. But the only features that matter are the ones you will use. You probably don’t need tip pool management and drive-thru functions if you are a small shop with two full-time employees. Make a list of all the functions you’ll use. Then, look for a coffee shop or cafe POS systems that have those tools built into them.
Coffee shop and cafe POS systems have three main costs:
Ongoing monthly software fees (from $0 to $300+), and ongoing payment processing fees (usually around 3% to 5% of credit card sales).
As with most things, the more tools you need, the pricier your cafe or coffee shop POS will be. You need to balance the system you want with your budget. Look at your monthly sales (actual sales if your shop is open, projected sales if you aren’t open yet). How much of your profit can you spend on a POS system?
Many coffee shop and cafe POS systems run on iPads and consumer-grade tablets. This makes them easy to replace if they are lost or damaged. But in a high-volume cafe, you might want something more robust to withstand spills and steam. If you need industry-grade hardware, you’ll immediately narrow your field of choices.
Once you have answered your questions, it’s time to schedule some POS demonstrations. Contact the sales teams of your top contenders and prepare a list of questions to ask the sales representative. You should know exactly what functions your cafe POS needs to perform, so make sure you know if each system can do what you need. Most POS sales reps follow a specific script and workflow.
They’ll typically show you how the system rings in order, then show you back-end reporting. If you don’t ask specific questions, you’ll only see the surface-level functions of each system. Ask your questions as you go through the demo.
The POS Exchange brings over 20 years of restaurant expertise, serving 200,000+ merchants and processing billions annually. Our tailored POS system solutions help businesses speed up checkouts by 30%, implement dynamic pricing, and manage customer reviews while reducing overhead. Perfect for:
We offer end-to-end service, from smart consultation and interactive demos to local installation and 24/7 support. Our mobile iPad POS systems streamline operations with features like:
With integrations for business management tools and advanced security measures, we ensure your POS system grows with your business. Trust our expertise to help you avoid the common pitfall that affects 38% of new business owners who choose the wrong POS system. The POS Exchange delivers customized POS system solutions that tell your unique business story whether you're managing:
Book a free demo with POS exchange to learn about our customized POS system solutions today.
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