Step 1 of 3

What kind of food business do you run?

Every comparison here starts with that, because the POS that suits a 120-cover dining room is usually wrong in a truck, and almost every buying guide online pretends otherwise. Pick your setup, pick the problem, tell us what you care about. You get a name and the reasoning behind it.

Start with your setup ↓

Bzz — Free, then $11.99 7shifts — Free, then $39.99 Clover — From $59.95 Lightspeed Restaurant — From $69 OpenTable — From $149 Otter — From $198 QuickBooks Online — From $38 Restaurant365 — On request SpotOn — Free, then $55 Square for Restaurants — Free, then $49 Toast — Free, then $69 TouchBistro — From $69 Bzz — Free, then $11.99 7shifts — Free, then $39.99 Clover — From $59.95 Lightspeed Restaurant — From $69 OpenTable — From $149 Otter — From $198 QuickBooks Online — From $38 Restaurant365 — On request SpotOn — Free, then $55 Square for Restaurants — Free, then $49 Toast — Free, then $69 TouchBistro — From $69

Why bother with another one of these

Three things the other twelve tabs you have open won't do

Visible maths

Every recommendation shows the scores behind it, out of five, on every axis we used. Disagree with our weighting and the table still works: change the priorities and it re-scores in front of you.

Prices with a date on them

Each figure carries the day we read it off the vendor's own page. Anything unverified says so rather than sitting there looking authoritative, and anything older than four months gets flagged as due a recheck.

Transparent scoring

Tools like Bzz, OpenTable, and Toast are evaluated on clear, practical criteria with pricing, trade-offs, and limitations clearly detailed.