How much does a restaurant POS actually cost in 2026?

Ask a POS vendor what their system costs and you’ll get a number. Ask an owner who’s been running it for a year and you’ll get a different, bigger number. This is the full math, so you can compare any system, including ours, honestly.

The five costs that stack up

1. The monthly software fee. The advertised number. For mainstream restaurant POS systems this typically runs $70 to $400 a month per location depending on tier, often per terminal.

2. The per-order cut. The quiet one. Many platforms take a percentage of every order placed through their online ordering or marketplace, commonly 2 to 15 percent. On $30,000 a month of online sales, a 5 percent cut is $1,500. Every month. That is usually more than the software fee.

3. Hardware. Proprietary terminals, stands, card readers and kitchen screens are often leased. A two-terminal setup with a kitchen display can add $50 to $150 a month, or a four-figure upfront bill.

4. Add-ons. Loyalty, gift cards, reservations, advanced reporting and marketing tools are frequently separate line items at $20 to $100 each per month. The advertised price rarely includes the features you actually wanted.

5. Exit costs. Termination fees, non-returnable hardware and data you can’t export. The cost you only learn about when you try to leave.

A realistic annual total

For a single-location independent on a mainstream system: roughly $1,200 to $4,800 a year in software, plus hardware, plus add-ons, plus whatever percentage of sales flows through online ordering. For many restaurants the true annual cost lands between $3,000 and $15,000. That’s a lot of covers just to pay for the till.

What “free” should mean (and usually doesn’t)

Plenty of systems advertise a free tier that is really a demo: one register, no kitchen display, ordering locked behind an upgrade, and a per-order cut on everything. A free plan only matters if the things you need daily are actually in it.

Dinify’s free plan includes dine-in QR ordering, the order queue, floor plan, the kitchen display, and an AI Waiter on every table, at $0 a month, forever, running on the phones and tablets you already own. We never take a cut of your sales on any plan. Card processing by Stripe applies to online payments, and that’s it. We make money only if you later choose a focused product, such as Loyalty at $59 a month, Online Delivery, Kiosk or POS, with Dinify Suite available when you want them together.

The comparison checklist

Whatever system you’re evaluating, ask these seven questions:

1. What is the real monthly total with the features I need?
2. Do you take a percentage of my orders? Which ones?
3. Do I need your hardware, or does it run on mine?
4. Is the kitchen display included?
5. What does loyalty cost? Gift cards? Reporting?
6. What happens to my data if I leave?
7. Is there a contract or termination fee?

If a vendor is vague on any of these, that vagueness is the price.

See exactly what Dinify’s free plan includes, or compare plans. Signing up takes about a minute and doesn’t ask for a card.