Types of POS systems, and who each one suits

A busy sandwich counter, a neighbourhood bistro, a cocktail bar and a tasting-menu restaurant all need a point of sale, and they need very different things from it. The counter needs speed above all. The bistro needs a table plan and a way to fire courses. The bar needs tabs and quick repeat rounds. The tasting menu needs discretion and careful pacing.

There is no single best point of sale, only the one that suits a particular kind of service. The types of POS systems on the market differ in their hardware, where their software runs and the kind of venue they were designed for, and choosing well starts with knowing which is which.

This guide compares the main types of POS systems: terminal, tablet, handheld and hybrid setups, cloud and legacy software, and the kinds of service each one suits. Every venue and figure in it is an example.

Point of sale systems can be sorted in two ways. The first is the hardware: what the staff actually touch. Fixed terminals, tablets, handheld devices or a mixture. The second is the software: where it runs and where the data lives. On a server in the venue, in the case of a legacy POS, or on the provider's servers over the internet, in the case of a cloud POS.

The two are related but separate. A cloud POS can run on fixed terminals, and a legacy POS can have handheld devices. Choosing well means deciding both: what hardware suits the floor, and what software suits the business.

A third question cuts across both: what kind of service the system was built for. That often matters most of all.

A fixed terminal is the traditional till: a sturdy touchscreen on a stand, often with a cash drawer, a receipt printer and a card terminal beside it. It sits in one place, usually at the bar, the counter or a server station.

Fixed terminals are robust, easy to find and hard to lose. They suit venues where orders are taken in one place: a counter, a bar, a café with a till by the door. They are less suited to large dining rooms, where servers walk back and forth to a terminal after every table.

They also tend to cost more than tablets, both to buy and to replace, especially when they come as dedicated hardware from one provider. The idea goes back to the cash register, and the shape has changed less than the software inside it.

A tablet POS runs on ordinary tablets, either fixed on a stand like a terminal or carried around the floor. Tablets cost less than dedicated terminals, are easy to replace and can be moved as the venue changes.

They suit small and medium venues, cafés, bistros and bars, and venues that want flexibility without a large upfront cost. They are less robust than dedicated terminals, and consumer tablets in a busy kitchen or bar need protective cases, secure stands and a plan for replacements.

Our guide to tablet POS: cheaper until it is not covers when tablets save money and when their hidden costs catch up.

A handheld POS lets servers take orders at the table on a small device, a phone-sized handheld or a small tablet, and send them straight to the kitchen. The server never walks to a terminal to ring in an order.

Handhelds suit large dining rooms, terraces, busy bars and venues where servers cover many tables. Orders reach the kitchen sooner, servers spend more time on the floor and fewer orders are misremembered on the walk back.

The trade-offs are cost per device, battery life, durability and the need for good wifi across the whole floor. Handhelds also need a fast, simple ordering screen, because a small screen makes slow software slower.

Many venues use a mixture: a fixed terminal or tablet at the bar, handhelds for the floor, screens in the kitchen and a computer in the office for reports. The same system runs on all of them, so a check opened on a handheld can be closed at the bar.

Hybrid setups suit most table-service venues once they grow beyond a few tables, because each part of the venue gets the device that suits it. The key is that the software works the same way on every device, so staff do not learn two systems.

Our guide to POS hardware: what a venue actually needs covers the hardware choices in detail.

A cloud POS keeps its software and data on the provider's servers, reached over the internet. Updates arrive automatically, owners can see the business from anywhere and several venues can share one system.

Its main risk is the connection: if the internet fails, the system may stop or work only partly, depending on whether it has an offline mode. A second connection and a paper fallback reduce that risk a great deal.

Our guide to cloud POS: what it fixes and what it risks covers the trade-offs in full.

A legacy POS runs on a server in the venue, with terminals connected to it, and often works without the internet. It can be reliable and familiar, especially in a venue that has used it for years.

Its costs grow with age: updates are rare or expensive, reports often need the back-office server, adding devices needs the reseller and a failed server can stop the whole system. Data lives in one building, which makes reporting across venues harder.

A legacy POS can still suit a single venue with a poor connection and a system that works well. For most others, the long-term costs deserve a careful comparison.

A quick service POS is built for speed at a counter: a sandwich shop, a coffee bar, a burger counter. Orders are taken and paid for at once, often with a customer display, and the kitchen receives them as soon as they are paid.

What matters most is the speed of each order: few taps, quick payment and a screen designed for one server serving a queue. Features such as table plans, course firing and split checks matter little.

A quick service POS used in a table-service restaurant will feel limited; a table-service POS used at a busy counter will feel slow. Choose the one built for your service.

A table-service POS is built around the table: a table plan on the screen, checks that stay open through the meal, courses held and fired, checks split and moved, and payment at the end.

It suits restaurants, bistros, brasseries and bars with table service. What matters most is how quickly a server can find a table, ring in an order with its changes, fire the mains and split the bill.

Most of the features a table-service venue needs are invisible at a counter, which is why it rarely makes sense to use a counter system in a dining room.

A fine dining POS is a table-service POS with more care for pacing and discretion. Orders are often taken by seat, so each plate reaches the right guest without asking. Courses are held and fired precisely, sometimes many courses for a tasting menu. Notes about the guests, their preferences and their allergies matter more.

Discretion matters too. Servers in fine dining often keep the device out of sight, entering orders away from the table, and the bill is presented quietly. A system with loud screens and visible devices can feel out of place.

What matters most is accuracy, pacing and the ability to handle many courses and seats without fuss.

A bar POS needs to handle tabs, repeat rounds and speed at a crowded counter. Bartenders open tabs for groups, add rounds quickly, move tabs to tables and close them at the end of the night.

What matters is the speed of repeat orders, how tabs are found and how they move when a group sits down for food. Many venues with both a bar and a dining room need one system that handles both, so a tab can follow the guest to their table.

Two other ways of taking orders sit alongside the types of POS systems: self-ordering kiosks and ordering from the guest's own phone by QR code. A kiosk is a screen where guests order and pay without a server, common in quick service. QR ordering lets guests at a table order from their phone, sending the order to the same kitchen as the server's till.

Neither replaces the POS; each adds a channel that feeds it. A kiosk suits a counter with queues; QR ordering suits table service where guests want to order at their own pace. If you plan to add either, check that the POS handles it as part of the same system, so orders, kitchen tickets and reports stay in one place.

Every type of POS has to reach the kitchen, either through printers or through kitchen screens. Fixed terminals and legacy systems have traditionally used printers; many cloud systems offer screens as well. The choice affects how orders appear to the cooks, how changes reach them and whether ticket times are measured.

Check how each system you consider sends orders to the kitchen, and look at a real ticket for a difficult order. Our guide to kitchen printers: what a screen does better covers the trade-offs.

Each type handles payments slightly differently. At a counter, payment usually happens at the till as the order is taken. At a table, it happens at the end, often with a card terminal brought to the table. A handheld setup may let the server take payment at the table on the same device or a terminal beside it.

Check how payments work with each type you consider, and how they are recorded against the check, so the end-of-night figures match what was taken.

Types of POS systems differ in how they cope without the internet. A legacy POS with a server in the building usually keeps working when the internet fails, as long as the local network is up. A cloud POS depends on its connection, and some offer an offline mode that keeps taking orders and sends them later, while others stop until the connection returns.

If your connection is unreliable, weigh this heavily, and plan a backup line and a paper fallback whatever you choose.

Start from your service, not the system. Write down how orders are taken, where, by whom and how they are paid for. A counter where guests order and pay at once needs a quick service POS. A dining room with servers needs a table-service POS, probably with handhelds once it passes a certain size. A tasting menu needs a system that handles seats and courses well.

Then choose the hardware for each part of the venue, and the software, cloud or legacy, that suits the business as a whole. Our guide to choosing a POS: twelve questions, in order sets out the questions to ask.

The best system for your venue is the one built for the service you actually run.

Costs differ by type. Fixed terminals cost the most per device, especially dedicated hardware, but last a long time. Tablets cost less and are easier to replace, but wear faster in a busy venue. Handhelds add a cost per server on the floor. Hybrid setups combine those costs.

Software costs differ too. A legacy POS usually means a large upfront licence and installation, with support fees each year. A cloud POS usually means a monthly subscription per venue or per device. Compare the total over three to five years, including hardware, software, support, replacements and the connection. Our guide to how much does a POS cost in the first year covers the first-year sum.

Ask what is included: some subscriptions include hardware, support and updates, while others charge for each separately. A low headline price can hide high costs for the parts you need.

Bars and kitchens are hard on devices: spills, heat, grease and drops. Dedicated terminals are usually built for it; consumer tablets and phones need cases, stands and screen protectors, and a few spares.

Count the cost of breakages in your choice. A tablet that costs little but breaks twice a year may end up costing more than a sturdier device.

Staff turnover means a POS is learned again and again. Simple layouts, clear buttons and familiar gestures make a system quicker to learn; crowded screens, deep menus and inconsistent behaviour across devices make it slower.

Tablets and phones often feel familiar to new staff, because they work like the devices people already use. Dedicated terminals can be just as easy if the software is well designed, so judge the software, not only the hardware.

Many venues mix services: a café that serves at the counter by day and at tables in the evening, a restaurant with a busy bar, a hotel with a restaurant, a bar and room service. Each part needs something different.

Look for a system that handles each service you run, on one set of data, so reports cover the whole venue. Be wary of using a system built for one service to run another; the compromises show in the busiest moments.

If no single system suits every part, decide which service matters most and choose for that, with the others handled as well as possible.

Venues change. A café that starts with one tablet at the counter may add table service and need handhelds; a restaurant that opens a second site needs reporting across both. A system that can grow with the venue saves a painful switch later.

Look for a system that runs on the devices you might add, handles the services you might offer and supports more than one venue if you might open another. You need not pay for those things now, but you should know whether the system can do them when the time comes. Ask the provider how other venues have grown on the system, and what it cost them.

The best way to know whether a type suits your service is to try it in your service. Ask for a trial on the hardware you plan to use, with your own menu, during a real shift. Watch how quickly staff ring in orders, how the kitchen receives them and how payments close.

A handheld that seemed perfect in the showroom may prove too small for your menu; a fixed terminal that seemed old-fashioned may suit your bar perfectly. Real service shows what a demo cannot.

An invented group runs a coffee counter, a bistro and a cocktail bar. All three use the same counter-style POS, chosen years ago for the coffee counter. The bistro's servers find it slow: no table plan, no way to hold mains and awkward split bills. The bar struggles with tabs.

The group reviews its needs by service. The coffee counter keeps a quick service setup. The bistro moves to a table-service system with handhelds for the floor. The bar uses the same table-service system, with tabs that can move to the bistro's tables. All three venues report in one place.

Service in the bistro speeds up, the bar's tabs stop going missing and the owner can compare the three venues each morning.

servearound is a cloud POS that runs in a browser, so the same system runs on a fixed screen at the bar, a tablet carried on the floor and a computer in the office. It is built for table service: every order on the till or from the table's QR code belongs to a seated table, so it suits restaurants, bistros, bars and cafés with table service rather than a counter that takes orders from a queue.

On the floor, checks open from the floor plan, dishes can be rung in by seat, rounds can be held and fired, a sent dish can be re-fired as a remake without charging the guest again, and checks can be split by moving items onto a new one, merged, handed to another member of staff or moved to another table with their kitchen tickets. Several venues sit under one business, with a network dashboard across them. See Order Fulfillment.

By hardware: fixed terminals, tablets, handhelds and hybrid setups. By software: cloud or legacy. And by service: quick service, table service, fine dining and bar.

A counter café needs a quick service setup; a café with table service needs a table-service system, often on tablets.

In large dining rooms, terraces and busy bars, where servers cover many tables, as long as the wifi covers the floor.

A cloud POS runs on the provider's servers over the internet; a legacy POS runs on a server in the venue.

Orders by seat, precise course firing, notes about guests and discretion at the table.

Often, if it handles tabs and tables well and lets a tab move to a table.

Rarely. It lacks table plans, course firing and split bills, which a dining room uses constantly.

Start from how your service works, then choose hardware for each part of the venue and software for the business as a whole.

The types of POS systems differ in hardware, fixed terminals, tablets, handhelds or a mixture, and in software, cloud or legacy, and above all in the kind of service they were built for. A quick service POS is built for speed at a counter; a table-service POS for tables, courses and split bills; a fine dining POS for seats, pacing and discretion; a bar POS for tabs and repeat rounds.

Start from your own service, choose the hardware for each part of the venue and the software for the business, and test the system in a real service before you commit.