What a restaurant POS system really costs
There are four costs and most quotes show you one. Software is the small bill. Card processing is the one that arrives every month for as long as you are open, and it is the number owners compare last.
Judd Alsup and the Equip Payment Solutions team, who install and support restaurant POS systems nationwide and sell Shift4 Dine and Clover.Updated August 9, 2026. Sources and dates cited on every figure.
The short answer
A restaurant POS has four costs, and processing dwarfs the rest:
- Card processing the largest by far and permanent: published and reported card present rates run 2.3% to 3.69% plus 10 to 20 cents across the major systems.
- Software $0 to $399 a month; the unit matters more than the number, since Square prices per location while Toast and Shift4 price per terminal.
- Hardware a few hundred dollars per terminal to several thousand per room, sometimes free in exchange for a term and a higher rate.
- Installation and training free from the vendors worth choosing, a fee or a spreadsheet from the rest.
The rest of this page is the case for each line, with sources.
The four costs, in the order they actually matter
Card processing, by far the largest
On $48,000 a month in card sales, the difference between 2.4% and 3.39% is about $475 a month, every month, forever. That is larger than every other cost on this page combined. It is also the one most quotes bury, because it is quoted as a percentage rather than a dollar figure.
Software, per terminal or per location
Square charges per location, so a four terminal dining room pays once. Toast and Shift4 charge per terminal, so the same room pays four times. Published software runs from $0 to $149 a month, and the unit matters more than the number.
Hardware, bought or leased
Reported terminal pricing runs from a few hundred dollars to $999, with handhelds around $494 to $627 and kitchen displays around $674 plus a monthly fee. Leases are where owners get trapped: the lease is often a separate agreement from the POS contract and does not end when the POS contract does.
Installation, training and the fees nobody mentions
Ask specifically about annual program fees, regulatory fees and yearly escalators. Shift4 carries a $250 annual program fee per device and an annual regulatory fee, and we say so in our own quotes. Ask every vendor the same question and see who answers it.
What the major systems charge
| System | Software | Card present rate | Contract | The part they lead with least |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Toast | $0 to $69per terminal, reported | 2.49% to 3.69%+ 15c, reported | 1 to 3 years | The rate climbs with add-ons. Online ordering and delivery move Starter Kit from 3.09% to 3.39%, and gift cards and loyalty take it to 3.69%. That higher rate then applies to every order, not just the online ones. Processing is mandatory and hardware is locked to Toast. |
| Square | $0 / $49 / $149per location, published | 2.6% / 2.5% / 2.4%+ 15c, published | None | The free plan carries the highest rate. Above roughly $25,000 a month in card volume it costs more than the paid one. Kitchen display and kiosk are excluded from free. |
| Clover | $89.95 to $129.85plus $849 to $4,447 hardware, reported | 2.3% + 10crestaurant plans, reported. The reseller sets your final rate | 36 months | Your rate depends entirely on who sold it to you, and identical hardware carries very different pricing from different sellers. Read who owns the equipment before signing. |
| Geniuswas Vital | $0 / $42 / $129published | 2.6% + 10cpublished | 3 years | Their own footnote requires a three year term, 4% cash discounting and $250,000 a year in volume, and mentions an early termination fee. Their pricing page asks about termination fees and then does not answer it. |
| Shift4 DineWe install this | $29.99per terminal, published | Interchange plusmarkup shown in writing | 36 months | What a rep will not lead with: there is a $250 annual program fee per device, an annual regulatory fee, and a yearly escalator on a 36 month agreement. We put all of it in the quote. What you get is a rate where the processor's margin is visible instead of blended into one number. |
| Lightspeed | $69 / $189 / $399published | 2.4% to 2.6% + 10creported, sources disagree | Month to month or annual | A reported $400 a month penalty applies for using a payment processor other than Lightspeed Payments, which makes their processing effectively mandatory. The published software page never states whether prices are per terminal or per location. |
| TouchBistro | $69 or $119published | Not publishedquote based, partner processors | Sources conflict | One reviewer reports month to month, another reports multi year auto renewing contracts that cannot be terminated early. The add-on stack is where the bill grows: reported $25 to $229 a month per module, and a reported $200 setup fee. |
| SpotOn | $0 or $55per station, published | 2.79% + 20c or 2.45% + 15cpublished | 2 years or monthly | The most published rate card in the category after Square. The fine print: a reported $995 conversion fee plus doubled software cost if you switch processors, and cancelling All-In inside a year claws back the hardware discount. |
Square, Genius, SpotOn, Shift4 and Lightspeed software figures are published by those vendors and were read on their own pages on 8 August 2026. Toast, Clover and TouchBistro figures are reported by Merchant Maverick, Expert Market, POSUSA, NerdWallet, business.com and KORONA POS, cross checked against at least two independent sources where possible and labelled where sources disagree. Software units differ: Square prices per location, Toast and Shift4 per terminal, Clover per device, SpotOn per station. Rates change without notice. General guidance, not legal, tax or accounting advice.
The only number worth comparing between two offers
Effective rate is total processing cost divided by total card volume. It is the only figure that lets you compare two offers honestly, because it folds the percentage, the per swipe fee and every monthly charge into one number.
Ask any rep, including us, to put your effective rate in writing. Whether they will is most of what you need to know about them. Our fee calculator works it out from published rates, and we will do it against your actual statement for free.
Worked examples, three very different rooms
The coffee shop: $28,000 a month at a $5.50 ticket
Roughly 5,100 transactions. At 2.6% plus 15 cents the month costs $728 in percentage and $765 in fixed fees, an effective 5.3%. The fixed fee is the bigger line, which is why the ticket slider in the calculator reorders the winners at small ticket sizes. Full math on the coffee shop page.
The full service room: $70,000 a month at a $42 ticket
About 1,670 transactions. The fixed fees fade to roughly $250 and the percentage dominates: each tenth of a point is $70 a month. Here the negotiation is the rate, and per terminal software multiplied across a five terminal floor is the second lever.
The steakhouse: $110,000 a month at a $95 ticket
Around 1,160 transactions carrying the heaviest premium card mix in the industry. Fixed fees are noise, rate structure is everything, and flat rate pricing is at its most expensive exactly here. The steakhouse page works the card mix argument through.
The same lesson three ways
No single system wins all three rooms, which is why every 'best POS' listicle is selling something. Know your volume, your ticket and your transaction count, and the winner computes itself.
Installation, the cost that predicts the relationship
Installation is the smallest line on this page and the best predictor of how the vendor treats you after signatures, because it is the first promise that costs them labor. Ask three questions: who programs the menu, who is physically present on go live night, and what does each cost. The answers range from we do it all at no charge, which is our answer and stated on the about page, through a reported $200 setup fee at TouchBistro, to a spreadsheet template and a support queue. A vendor who hands you the menu build has told you what the support experience will be.
Menu programming is the piece owners underestimate: every item, modifier, combo and tax group, entered and tested. Done badly it poisons everything downstream, because wrong menu data means wrong kitchen tickets, wrong taxes and wrong reports, and staff blame the system for the build's sins. Whoever does yours, review it live on a screen share before the first real ticket runs, item by item on your busiest menu section at minimum.
Questions owners ask
Which is cheaper, Toast or Square?
It depends on your average ticket and your volume, and the honest answer is that it flips. Square's flat 15 cent fee hurts small tickets, so a coffee shop at a $6 average pays a much higher effective rate than the headline suggests. Toast's rate climbs as you add modules. Run both through the calculator with your own numbers.
Is dual pricing or cash discounting worth it?
It can move most of the cost of accepting cards off your books, and it is legal in all fifty states when implemented correctly with proper signage and receipt disclosure. Surcharging is different, is capped by the card networks, and is not legal everywhere. Debit surcharging is prohibited federally. Ask for the specific mechanism in writing before you agree to it.
How much should installation cost?
We do not charge for menu programming or installation, and we think anyone who does should explain what you are getting for it. What matters more than the fee is whether a person is physically in your restaurant on go live night.
Why do so many of these figures say reported instead of published?
Because much of this category refuses to publish its prices, so the honest options are silence or clearly labelled independent reporting, cross checked between at least two sources. Every figure on this page carries its label, and the sources and read dates sit under the table above. Where sources conflict, the vendor pages print both numbers rather than averaging them into fiction.
What is the single most expensive mistake owners make on POS cost?
Signing a processing agreement without an effective rate in writing, then never reading a statement again. Rates drift up through escalators and annual fees while attention drifts away, and the gap between the deal you remember and the deal you are on widens every quarter. The fix costs fifteen minutes a quarter: the statement guide shows exactly where to look.
Have your own numbers checked
Send last month's statement. We read it with you, free, and tell you straight whether we are the ones to fix it.
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It reaches the Equip team. A person calls you back, and if we do not have a crew near you, the team routes it to whoever serves you best. We never ask for card or bank details on this site.