While Toast has proprietary hardware and others work with iPads, Square lets you work on tablets or use industry-hardened screens that can take the heat and humidity of a busy kitchen or a food truck on a summer’s day.

Not only do you get an excellent restaurant POS software with ingredient-level tracking, but can also expand to appointments, marketing, payroll, and even banking. Square for Restaurants is one of our top-rated restaurant POS systems because of its price and functionality, but also because of the Square ecosystem. Top-notch restaurant system, sales, and HR ecosystem.There are no long-term contracts at any level. Free has no monthly software fees, Plus costs $60 per month for a single terminal (additional terminals are $40 each, monthly), and Premium requires a custom quote. The underlying Square for Restaurants POS is available at three subscription levels: Free, Plus, and Premium. If you’re on Square for Restaurants Plus or Premium, KDS software for unlimited devices is included for free. If you’re using the Free version of Square for Restaurants, the KDS is just $20 per device. As such, your expediters and cooks can quickly get on the same page when plans change. Toast’s Rush order button automatically shifts rush tickets to the front of the order queue, marked with a red RUSH label. These alerts help keep your kitchen flowing smoothly and keep cooked food from dying in the window. Your Toast KDS can send automated messages to customers or servers when you mark an order as complete on the KDS. Your Toast KDS can organize newly ordered items by their cook time to ensure all dishes on a ticket are ready at the same time.

This is great for quick-service restaurants with small orders and large volumes. Toast’s All-Day count screen shows your all-day counts at a glance, so your kitchen team is never second-guessing what orders they have on deck. You can also route dishes with complex components to multiple prep stations. Text size and colors are also customizable. You can customize alert colors for ticket status, item modifiers, and allergens. (Epson also has industry-grade hardware.) Rather than relying on iPads, Toast offers touch screens that are designed for the heat and humidity of a large kitchen, with an IP54 durability rating, meaning it’s protected from dust and water sprays, making them more durable than others on our list. However, it requires a two-year commitment. The underlying POS ranges from $0 to $165+ per month, with pay-as-you-go options for terminal hardware. To get the best pricing, reach out to the Toast sales team for a custom quote. If you need multiple screens, however, Toast will likely work out a lower per-terminal kitchen display system price for you. Toast’s KDS software is currently offered at $25 per screen monthly.

Vox kitchen order online