Most UK restaurants running delivery are paying 25-35% commission on every order placed through a third-party app – and handing over the customer relationship along with it.
On a £20 order, after commission, service fees and promotion charges, a restaurant is lucky to keep £14. With a food cost of £7 and £1 in packaging, that’s £1 of margin before rent, utilities, or wages.
That’s the real context for choosing a POS system in 2026. For a delivery-led restaurant or takeaway, the question isn’t which till has the cleanest interface. It’s which system lets you own your orders, own your customer data, and stop renting both from Deliveroo and Uber Eats.
Here’s how the leading systems compare on that basis.
The real question: a till, or a system?
A decade ago, “best POS” meant the most reliable till with the cleanest reporting. Today the question has changed. Most restaurants don’t just take orders at the counter – they take them through their website, an app, a QR code on the table, a self-service kiosk, and one or more delivery platforms. The best modern POS isn’t a standalone till at all. It’s the system that pulls every one of those channels into a single place so your kitchen, your stock and your numbers all stay in sync.
That reframes what you should actually be comparing. The criteria that matter most in 2026 are:
- Integrated online ordering – does your in-store POS and your online ordering run as one system, or are they bolted together?
- Ease of use – can a new staff member learn it during a shift?
- Total cost – software fee, transaction rate and hardware, read together rather than as three separate decisions.
- Table management and kitchen display – essential for full-service venues.
- Inventory and reporting – from simple sales reports to ingredient-level stock control.
- UK fit – automatic VAT, Making Tax Digital-ready reporting, and support in your timezone.
- Owning your customers – can you take direct orders commission-free and keep your own customer data, rather than renting both from a delivery app?
Judged on those, here’s how the leading systems stack up.
1. Flipdish – best for delivery-led restaurants going direct
Flipdish is purpose-built for the specific problem this article is about. Founded in Dublin and built for food businesses, it’s an all-in-one POS system that brings online ordering, branded apps and websites, self-service kiosks, loyalty, marketing, and the till itself into one platform – so every channel, counter, kiosk, website, app and QR code, flows into the same terminal and the same kitchen display. Menu changes, promotions and customer profiles are all managed from one dashboard, with a manager app for real-time visibility when you’re off-site.
The commercial case is direct ordering. Rather than paying 25-35% per order to a marketplace, Flipdish enables restaurants to take orders through their own branded app and website, commission-free, while retaining the customer data to market to diners directly. Rooster & Rice, a ten-outlet Thai chain in Dublin, generated $30,000–$40,000 in monthly sales exclusively through its Flipdish channels and saw 20% growth in online orders within the first month.
For a UK takeaway doing meaningful volume through Deliveroo or Uber Eats, that shift in where orders originate can restructure the margin on every transaction. The pragmatic approach isn’t to delete the apps overnight – they still drive discovery. It’s to build the direct channel in parallel, incentivise customers to order direct (a 10% discount for direct orders more than pays for itself against 30% commission), and watch the split change over 3-6 months.
Operators consistently flag ease of setup and the responsiveness of the support team – both meaningful when you don’t have an IT department. Pricing starts from around £49/month for online ordering; the full platform is custom-quoted.
Best for: takeaways, quick-service restaurants, delivery-led brands, and multi-site operators building a direct-order channel. Not right for: tiny independents with no delivery operation who don’t need the platform depth.
2. Square – best for independents keeping costs low
Square is the default starting point for small cafés and single-site operators, and for good reason. The software has a free plan, hardware starts under £20 for a card reader, and it deploys fast with an intuitive interface. For a counter-service café taking the majority of orders in person, it’s hard to beat on value.
The ceiling is real, though. Square starts to buckle under full-service complexity – menu modifier depth, course-by-course kitchen routing, and multi-revenue-centre reporting are limited compared to Toast and Lightspeed. Its online ordering (Square Online) is functional but not built for restaurants where delivery is a primary channel. If commissions are eating your margin and you want to build a direct-order habit with your customers, Square won’t give you the tools to do it.
Not right for: takeaways or delivery-led brands, full-service kitchens with complex menus, or any operator planning to scale past one site.
3. Toast – best for full-service kitchens
Toast positions itself as a complete restaurant platform rather than a standalone POS, combining front-of-house, online ordering, kitchen display, and back-office tools in one environment. The hardware is purpose-built for hospitality – heat and spill resistant – and the platform includes payroll, team management, and delivery integration.
Where it earns its premium is kitchen and table management. Its menu analytics and cost tracking help operators see which dishes drive margin and which drag it down. For a busy full-service restaurant where the kitchen is the constraint, that depth matters.
The trade-offs: Toast is the most expensive option and will be a barrier for small restaurants, it runs on Android rather than iPad, and contract terms deserve scrutiny before signing. It’s a heavier commitment than the platforms above.
Not right for: small independents, budget-conscious single sites, or any operator where online ordering is the primary revenue channel rather than dine-in.
4. Lightspeed – best for multi-site operators
Lightspeed combines powerful analytics with a sleek interface. Multi-branch restaurants can manage menus, staff, and inventory across all locations from one central view. If you run three or more sites and your biggest headache is visibility and consistency across them, Lightspeed is built for that job.
Monthly costs start from £79 + VAT and it’s recommended for multi-location scale-ups, restaurants with high SKU counts, and high-volume venues. That pricing reflects the platform depth – it’s not the right call for a single site that doesn’t need central reporting.
Not right for: single-site operators, early-stage restaurants, or anyone primarily focused on cutting delivery commission rather than multi-site operations.
5. Epos Now – best for complex stock control
Epos Now is a strong option for restaurants that need advanced stock control, real-time inventory updates, and external integrations. It’s one of the stronger options for managing complex ingredient-level inventory and connecting with delivery platforms and accounting tools via its app marketplace.
The trade-off is usability. Testing found a steep learning curve and it wasn’t as user-friendly as Square. For a kitchen that needs serious inventory management and has the patience to set it up properly, the depth is there. For most restaurants, it’s more system than necessary.
Not right for: operators who prioritise ease of use, or restaurants where delivery commission – not stock control – is the primary cost problem.
6. SumUp and Zettle – best for micro-businesses
For a coffee cart, market stall, or pop-up, the pay-as-you-go readers from SumUp or Zettle charge no monthly fee and take a small cut per transaction. Zero overhead to start. No features beyond the basics, which is the point.
Not right for: anyone running delivery, managing a kitchen, or operating more than one service channel.
At a glance
| System | Direct ordering | Monthly cost | Best for |
| Flipdish | Full ecosystem (app, web, kiosk) | From ~£49/mo | Delivery-led restaurants cutting commission |
| Square | Basic (Square Online) | Free + transaction fees | Cafés and independents |
| Toast | Strong | Custom (premium) | Full-service kitchens |
| Lightspeed | Via add-on | From ~£79/mo | Multi-site groups |
| Epos Now | Via app marketplace | From ~£54/mo | Complex inventory |
| SumUp/Zettle | Minimal | No monthly fee | Coffee carts, micro-businesses |
How to choose by restaurant type
The right system depends on where your orders come from and where your margin is leaking.
If commission is your biggest cost problem – you’re a takeaway or delivery-led brand running meaningful volume through Deliveroo or Uber Eats – the business case for building a direct channel is straightforward. Flipdish is built specifically for that transition.
If dine-in and the kitchen are everything and delivery is secondary, Toast gives you the depth of table management, kitchen display, and margin tracking that a busy full-service venue needs.
If you run multiple locations and central control is the priority, Lightspeed gives you the reporting and permissions structure to manage them as one operation.
If you’re a small independent watching every penny and taking most orders at the counter, Square gets you up and running without commitment.
The question in 2026 isn’t which POS has the best features. It’s which system matches how your revenue actually flows – and which one stops someone else taking 30% of it.
The verdict
There’s no single best POS for every restaurant.
Square owns value, Toast owns the full-service kitchen, Lightspeed owns multi-site analytics, and Epos Now owns deep stock control. But the question most restaurateurs are actually asking in 2026 isn’t “which till is best?” – it’s “which system runs my whole operation, online and in-store, without bleeding margin to the delivery apps?”
On that question, Flipdish is the strongest all-rounder: one platform for the till, the website, the app, the kiosk and the customer relationship, built for hospitality and priced for real businesses rather than enterprises. For most digital-first restaurants, that’s the best place to start.
