How much does a restaurant POS system cost in the UK?

A restaurant POS system in the UK costs money in five places: a monthly software subscription, the hardware, card processing fees on every payment, setup and training, and add-ons such as online ordering or marketing. The subscription and hardware are easy to compare between quotes. Processing fees are harder, because they grow with your takings and depend on which cards your guests use.

That makes the headline monthly price a poor guide on its own. As a reference point, Stripe's UK price list in September 2026 puts its card readers at £49 to £249 each before VAT, and Tiquo's Launch plan is £300 a month per sublocation. A fair comparison adds up every component over two or three years, using your own sales figures.

What are the costs of a restaurant POS system?

Vendors split these costs in different ways, so ask each one to price the same list. A quote with a low subscription and a per-order charge for online ordering can end up costing more than a higher flat fee once your online orders grow.

Setup costs depend on how much has to move across: menus with their modifiers and allergy information, customer records, gift card balances and future bookings. Ask who builds the menu, whether training happens on site or remotely, and how many sessions are included. Budget for staff hours spent in training as well as any fee.

How much does POS hardware cost?

In September 2026, Stripe's UK pricing page lists the Stripe Reader S700 and S710 at £229 each and the T600 at £249, excluding VAT, with the smaller BBPOS WisePad 3 at £49. Cellular connectivity on enabled readers is £7 per reader per month. Tiquo's hardware page lists the S700 and S710 at £229 plus VAT. In Tiquo the T600 works as a customer-facing display paired with a staff checkout, and the S700 or S710 is the terminal for staff who need the full POS workflow. A bar that wants one reader at the counter and one for the floor would spend £458 plus VAT on two S700s.

Around the terminals you may need tablets and stands, receipt and kitchen printers or kitchen screens, and a cash drawer. Tiquo's hardware page lists the printers, docks, scanners and cash drawers it supports. If you already own iPads or iPhones, check whether the software supports them before buying more.

Tap to Pay on iPhone can reduce how many readers you need, because a supported iPhone takes contactless payments itself. It carries its own fee for each authorisation, which is worth weighing against the price of another reader.

How much do card processing fees add?

Processing is the cost that scales with the business. Take a hypothetical restaurant that takes £50,000 a month on cards at an average of £40 a payment, which is 1,250 payments. On a rate of 1.5% plus 20p, the percentage part is £750 and the fixed part is £250, so £1,000 a month or £12,000 a year. Every 0.1 percentage point on the rate changes that by £50 a month.

Rates also vary by card. Premium, corporate and international cards generally cost more to accept than standard UK cards, refunds may not return the original fee, and disputes carry their own charges. Our guide to card processing fees explains interchange, scheme fees and the difference between blended and interchange plus plus pricing.

What does a Tiquo POS system cost?

Tiquo lists its plans on its pricing page. In September 2026 they are:

• Launch: £300 per product or service sublocation per month, with card rates from 1.7% + £0.22
• Scale: £400 per product or service sublocation per month, with card rates from 1.2% + £0.18
• Enterprise: custom pricing for high-volume operators

A sublocation is an operating area with its own product or service setup, such as a hotel's restaurant, spa or rooms. Launch and Scale share the same core platform: POS and orders, products and inventory, bookings, payments, CRM, memberships, forms and reporting. Both are month to month, and optional services such as marketing, messaging and hardware are priced separately.

The card rates are starting rates. What a payment costs depends on your card mix and volume, so ask for the rates that apply to in-person payments and to premium, business and international cards before you compare quotes.

How does POS pricing change as you add sites or tills?

The charging unit decides how the bill grows. Per-device pricing rises with every till and handheld you add, per-site pricing with every new location, and per-user pricing with every member of staff on the rota. Before signing, price the changes you can see coming: a second site, a terrace bar that opens in summer, or six more handhelds for a busy December.

Tiquo applies its plan price per configured product or service sublocation, and volume pricing is available for businesses with several locations. A group planning to grow should ask for that pricing at the start, along with the rates that apply once card volume increases.

How do you compare POS quotes?

• Total each quote over three years, including hardware, setup and the add-ons you expect to need in year two.
• Price processing on your real card mix: export three months of payments and apply each vendor's rates.
• Ask whether you must use the vendor's payment processing, and how rates change as your volume grows.
• Check contract length, notice periods and any early termination charges.
• Confirm who owns the hardware and what happens to it if you leave.
• Ask what is charged per order, per booking or per message, because those costs grow with the business.

Software that also covers bookings, memberships or marketing can replace separate subscriptions, so include any tools you would cancel when you compare totals. Our guide to what an EPOS system does covers the features to test before you ask for prices.