Square for Restaurants scores highest for quick-service and counter businesses when total monthly cost including processing is the thing you care about most. The default answer for anyone who wants to be selling this afternoon.
This page is the cheapest to run cut of our full pos and payments comparison for quick-service and counter businesses. Same data, weighted differently. Change the weighting below and it re-scores in front of you.
Step 3
Pick one or two. Everything below re-scores instantly, and we show you the maths.
Winner on cheapest to run
The default answer for anyone who wants to be selling this afternoon.
The trade-off
Offline mode takes the card without knowing if it will clear, so a declined payment surfaces after the customer has gone.
| # | Product | From | Contract | Card rate | Score | Price checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Square for Restaurants The default answer for anyone who wants to be selling this afternoon. | Free, then $49 | none | 2.6% + 10¢ in person on the free plan, 2.5% + 15¢ on Plus | 0 | Pricing checked 10 Aug 2026 |
| 02 | SpotOn The one people actually praise for picking up the phone. | Free, then $55 | 2-year minimum on the $0 plan, month to month on Essentials | 2.79% + 20¢ on the $0 plan, 2.45% + 15¢ on Essentials | 0 | Pricing checked 10 Aug 2026 |
| 03 | Toast The one built for restaurants only, with the lock-in that implies. | Free, then $69 | multi-year is typical | 2.99% + 15¢ on the free Starter Kit, 2.49% + 15¢ on the $69 plan | 0 | Pricing checked 10 Aug 2026 |
| 04 | Lightspeed Restaurant Strong reporting and stock control, priced for somewhere above the small independent. | From $69 | month to month available | 2.6% + 10¢ on Starter, negotiable on higher tiers | 0 | Pricing checked 10 Aug 2026 |
| 05 | TouchBistro iPad-based, runs on a local network, keeps working when the internet does not. | From $69 | annual | through TouchBistro Payments, required for new customers | 0 | Pricing checked 10 Aug 2026 |
| 06 | Clover Sold through resellers, which is the single most important thing to know about it. | From $59.95 | 36 months is common when hardware is bundled | roughly 2.3% to 2.6% + 10¢ in person, varies by who sold it to you | 0 | Pricing checked 10 Aug 2026 |
Counter service lives or dies on throughput. A system that takes three seconds longer per order costs you real covers across a lunch rush, and no amount of reporting depth makes that back. When you demo, do not let the salesperson walk you through the reporting; make them ring up your five most common orders while you time it.
The second thing that separates these systems is modifier handling. A burrito with four choices, a coffee with three, a sandwich with a swap. If modifiers take an extra screen, that cost lands on every single order you take, forever.
Card processing rates matter more here than in most categories because your average ticket is small and your transaction count is high. Fixed per-transaction fees, the flat 10¢ or 15¢ bit, hit a $6 coffee much harder than a $60 dinner. Read the fixed component, not just the percentage.