The headline monthly price rarely tells you the full cost of a café POS system. Two EPOS providers can advertise very different subscriptions but end up closer together once card processing, hardware, order commission and the contract are included. The same applies if you only want QR ordering rather than a full till.
Compare the same five cost lines for every quote.
1. Monthly software subscription
This is the fixed charge for using the POS software. Check whether it is priced per café, till, device, table or sales channel, and how many staff logins it includes.
Also check which plan actually includes what you need. An entry-level plan may cover the counter till while table service, tabs or stock control sit in a higher package, and some free plans cover a digital menu or takeaway only.
2. Payment-processing charge
Card, Apple Pay and Google Pay transactions are normally processed by a payment provider. Ask for the percentage and fixed charge that apply to the cards your guests use.
Do not treat payment processing and the software provider’s platform fee as the same thing. They may be separate charges from separate businesses.
3. Platform or order commission
Some POS and ordering providers add a percentage to every order taken through their online or QR channels. Others charge a fixed subscription with no additional platform percentage. Delivery apps usually take a percentage too, and keep the customer relationship as well; we compare the two in QR ordering vs delivery apps.
For a useful comparison, calculate the percentage charge against a realistic month of orders through those channels rather than the café’s total turnover.
The basic calculation is:
Monthly software charge + platform charges on online and QR orders + payment-processing charges + any rented hardware.
4. Setup, hardware and integration
Ask whether the quote includes:
- The till itself: a touchscreen terminal, or software for a tablet you already own.
- A card reader, and whether it is bought or rented.
- A receipt printer, kitchen printer or kitchen display screen.
- A cash drawer, and whether the till can open it.
- Menu setup, installation and staff training.
- Links to accounting software or delivery apps.
- Replacement hardware and support.
Rented hardware on a long contract can cost more over a few years than buying it, and hardware locked to one provider makes it harder to leave. A café that can run its POS in a browser on an existing tablet may need very little new kit. Another café may value a single EPOS package with hardware included. Compare what your operation needs, not the longest feature list.
5. Contract and exit cost
Check the minimum term, notice period and what happens to menu data or customer contacts when the service ends. A lower monthly figure tied to a long commitment is not directly comparable with a rolling subscription.
Café QR’s published cost
Café QR is a cloud POS with QR ordering built in. It is priced per venue, per month, and you pick your plan yourself when you sign up:
- Order & Pay, £9.99: table and counter QR ordering, kitchen screen and printers, menu, allergens and modifiers, reports and loyalty contacts. Includes 2 staff logins.
- Order & Pay + Delivery, £14.99: adds your own online page for collection and delivery, with delivery zones and riders. Includes 2 staff logins.
- POS, £39: everything above plus the till (cash and card readers), waiter app, tabs, floor plan, table bookings, self-order kiosk, gift cards and automatic deals, kitchen stations, time clock and cash-up. Includes 5 staff logins per venue.
- Multi-site, £59 for the first venue plus £29 for each extra venue: everything, plus several venues, stock and recipes, insights, Xero or QuickBooks export, delivery app orders through the order API and an activity log. Unlimited staff logins.
Add-ons can be bought individually on any plan, and an extra staff login is £3 a month. The first month is free with no card needed. There is no setup fee and Café QR adds a 0% platform fee. Paying yearly gives you 12 months for the price of 10, so Order & Pay works out at £99.90 a year instead of £119.88 (£9.99 × 10 rather than £9.99 × 12).
Stripe’s payment-processing charges are separate; see Stripe’s pricing for the current rates. Each café connects its own Stripe account and remains the merchant, so Café QR does not hold or touch guest funds. In the UK the till works with Stripe card readers, or you can take card on a machine you already have and record it on the till as a card payment.
Café QR runs in a browser on an iPad, Android tablet, phone or laptop, and prints to supported Star and Epson network printers. It does not open a cash drawer. If the internet drops, the till keeps taking cash (and your own payment types) and uploads those sales when it's back, but card payments, tabs and table QR ordering wait for the connection, so factor in a backup connection if your Wi-Fi is unreliable.
Questions to put to every provider
- Which plan includes the till, table service and ordering channels you need?
- What percentage is charged on each order?
- Which payment-processing rate applies?
- Are setup, hardware, card readers or integration charged separately?
- Is there a minimum contract term?
- Who is the merchant and who sends the payout?
- Can the café export its menu and customer information?
Published packages change, so verify the current quote directly. Our dated UK POS comparison links to each provider’s official source, and the Café QR pricing page lists what is included in each plan, with a builder for add-ons. For what the till does, see the café POS page and the till feature page.