# What a restaurant POS costs: software, hardware, card fees and exit

> Canonical: https://maple.inc/blog/restaurant-pos-cost

*By Maple Team · Published 2026-09-25*

The cost lines of a restaurant POS, with first-year and three-year totals for a café and a full-service restaurant from vendors' printed US prices.

A restaurant POS costs a software fee, hardware, a fee on every card payment, paid add-ons, and a charge if you leave a contract early. Card fees are the biggest line. In the two worked examples below, built from prices Square, Clover and SpotOn print on their US sites, card fees make up more than 80% of every three-year total.

So the card rate deserves the hardest look. On $30,000 a month in card sales, a gap of 0.1 percentage points costs $30 a month, or $1,080 over three years. To compare features plan by plan, start with our [guide to choosing a restaurant POS](https://maple.inc/blog/best-pos-system-for-restaurants).

## What are the cost lines of a restaurant POS?

    Cost line What it covers Printed examples Ask the vendor
  Software A monthly fee per location, per station or per device Square Plus is $49/mo. per location. SpotOn POS Essentials is $55/station per month. Toast Point of Sale starts at $69/month. Is the fee per location, per station or per device?
  Hardware Stations, handhelds, printers, cash drawers and kitchen screens, bought, financed or rented A Square Register is $899. SpotOn prints its Station 15 at $750 each on POS Essentials. Clover's restaurant bundles start at $135/mo for 36 months. Do I own it at the end?
  Card processing A percentage plus a fixed fee on each payment, higher when a card is typed in For a card tapped or dipped: 2.3% + 10¢ on Clover.com restaurant bundles, 2.5% + 15¢ on Square Plus, 2.79% + $0.20 on SpotOn's All-In Plan. What is my rate for each card brand and each way a guest pays?
  Add-ons Kitchen screens, kiosks, online ordering, payroll, marketing The Square KDS app is $30/mo. per device on Plus. Lightspeed's KDS is $30/screen per month. SpotOn's Core Bundle is $50/month + 20bps of GPV, capped at $200. Which add-ons did the demo use?
  Setup Installation, network, menu build and training SpotOn lists implementation costs on top of hardware without a figure. Toast names hardware and implementation as its upfront costs. Is setup a fixed figure in the written quote?
  Contract exit What you owe if you close, sell or switch Toast charges the software fees left in the term. A Clover subscription cannot be cancelled. What do I owe if I leave in month 12?

## What does a counter-service café pay?

This example is hypothetical. The café has one counter station with a cash drawer and receipt printer. It takes $30,000 a month in card sales across 2,000 payments, a $15 average, all Visa, Mastercard or Discover cards tapped or dipped at the counter. It leaves out tax, shipping, a kitchen screen, online orders and payroll.

Prices come from [Square's restaurant pricing page](https://squareup.com/us/en/pricing?filter=restaurants), its [hardware page](https://squareup.com/us/en/hardware) and [accessories shop](https://squareup.com/shop/hardware/v2/us/en/products/accessories), Clover's [quick-service](https://www.clover.com/pricing/quick-service-restaurant) and [full-service](https://www.clover.com/pricing/restaurant) pricing pages, which say the prices are only available on Clover.com, and [SpotOn's restaurant pricing page](https://www.spoton.com/pricing/).

    Option Hardware up front Each month First year Three years
  Square Plus (advanced modifiers need Plus or Premium) $1,317: Register $899, receipt printer $319, cash drawer $99 $1,099: $49 plan, $1,050 card fees $14,505 $40,881
  Clover quick-service Standard, subscription None; the Station Duo, drawer and printer are in the subscription $1,075: $185 subscription, $890 card fees $12,900 $38,700
  Clover quick-service Standard, bought $1,899 $979.95: $89.95 fee, $890 card fees $13,658.40 $37,177.20
  SpotOn POS Essentials $750 for one Station 15, plus implementation, drawer and printer, which the page does not price $1,090: $55 station fee, $1,035 card fees $13,830 plus unpriced items $39,990 plus unpriced items
  SpotOn All-In Plan None; hardware is included $1,237 in card fees, before any processing minimum $14,844 $44,532

Three years is the length of Clover's subscription. The cheapest and dearest options here differ by $7,354.80. Card fees drive the gap, and with small payments the fixed fee on each one is the larger part. At 2,000 payments a month, every 5¢ adds $100 a month. Of the $160 monthly gap between Square's and Clover's card fees, $100 comes from the 5¢ difference per payment and $60 from the 0.2-point difference in the percentage.

A café that wants a kitchen screen on Square adds the 15.6-inch KDS touchscreen at $749 and the KDS app at $30/mo. per device on Plus. Our [Square pricing guide](https://maple.inc/blog/square-pos-pricing) prices online and typed-in phone payments too.

## What does a full-service restaurant pay?

This example is also hypothetical. The restaurant has two stations, one handheld, a cash drawer and a receipt printer. It takes $80,000 a month in card sales across 1,600 payments, a $50 average, all Visa, Mastercard or Discover in person.

    Option Hardware up front Each month First year Three years
  Square Plus (split checks, floor plans, tableside ordering) $2,615: two Registers $1,798, Handheld $399, receipt printer $319, cash drawer $99 $2,289: $49 plan, $2,240 card fees $30,083 $85,019
  Clover full-service Advanced, subscription None; Station Solo, Station Duo, Flex, drawer and printer are in the subscription $2,354: $354 subscription, $2,000 card fees $28,248 $84,744
  Clover full-service Advanced, bought $4,447 $2,129.85: $129.85 fee, $2,000 card fees $30,005.20 $81,121.60
  SpotOn POS Essentials $1,797: two Station 15 at $750, one handheld at $297, plus implementation, drawer and printer $2,310: $110 for two stations, $2,200 card fees $29,517 plus unpriced items $84,957 plus unpriced items
  SpotOn All-In Plan None; hardware is included $2,552 in card fees, before any processing minimum $30,624 $91,872

At a $50 average payment, the percentage does more of the work. Square Premium adds course management for $149/mo. per location and cuts the in-person rate to 2.4% + 15¢, so card fees fall to $2,160 and the month costs $2,309, which is $20 more than Plus. SpotOn prices POS Essentials per station and its pricing page does not say whether a handheld counts as one; if it does, add $55 a month, or $1,980 over three years.

If you buy Clover through a bank or reseller, the rates and terms can differ from Clover.com. Our [Clover pricing guide](https://maple.inc/blog/clover-pos-pricing) covers what to ask.

## What about Toast, Lightspeed and TouchBistro?

These three print a starting software price, shown in the price table of our [POS buying guide](https://maple.inc/blog/best-pos-system-for-restaurants), but no Visa, Mastercard or Discover card rate on their pricing pages. You cannot finish the sum without a quote. The [Toast pricing page](https://pos.toasttab.com/pricing) says its prices apply to new customers and single locations only. The [TouchBistro pricing page](https://www.touchbistro.com/pricing/) puts hardware, payment processing and other fees on top of its Point of Sale plan starting at $69/month. Lightspeed prints its plan figures with no billing period beside them, so ask whether they are monthly.

Ask each for a written quote with every line in the first table, priced at your card sales and payment count.

## What does it cost to leave early?

    Vendor Exit terms as printed Leaving 12 months in
  Square Square's pricing page says: "No hidden fees or locked-in contracts. Cancel or switch anytime." No contract fee. Any hardware installments you took on are still owed.
  Clover (subscription on Clover.com; a bank or reseller sets its own terms) Clover's pricing FAQ says subscriptions are non-cancelable and ineligible for refunds, though you can pay one off or upgrade. At the end you buy or return the equipment, or it carries on at the same monthly charge unless you give 30 days' notice. Café: 24 payments of $185 left, $4,440. Full-service: 24 payments of $354 left, $8,496.
  Toast Toast's merchant agreement sets an early termination fee equal to the software subscription fees left in the term, or $150 for each month left on a Pay-as-you-go subscription. Terms renew for one-year periods unless either side gives 30 days' notice. Pay-as-you-go with 12 months left: $1,800.
  SpotOn The All-In Plan has a 2yr minimum term. SpotOn's merchant terms say a client who leaves owes the subscription months left in the term, must return or buy loaned or rented hardware, and may owe the gap between list and discounted hardware prices where the fee summary sets it out. On printed prices that gap is $245 per Station 15 ($995 list, $750 paid) and $198 per handheld ($495 list, $297 paid).

## How do you get a real number from each vendor?

1. Take your last three processor statements. Write down monthly card sales and the number of card payments, then divide for your average payment.
2. Split the sales by how guests pay: tapped or dipped, typed in for phone orders, online, and American Express.
3. List every device: stations, handhelds, kitchen screens, printers, cash drawers and kiosks.
4. Send the same list to each vendor and ask for a written quote in five lines: software, hardware, card rates by type, add-ons and setup.
5. Ask two exit questions: what do I owe if I leave in month 12 or month 24, and can the rate change during the term? Toast's agreement lets it change card processing rates with 30 days' written notice, and SpotOn's terms let it change fees with 30 days' notice.
6. Enter each quote in a table like the ones above and compare three-year totals.

If you take phone orders, count that tool as one more add-on line. [Maple Pro](https://maple.inc/pricing) takes phone orders into supported POS systems for $350/month billed monthly, or $220/month billed yearly. Its [integrations page](https://maple.inc/integrations) lists Toast, Square, Clover, Lightspeed, SpotOn and SkyTab (now Shift4 Dine), among others.

*Published by Maple. This AI-assisted guide combines the prices, rates and contract terms that Square, Clover, SpotOn, Toast, Lightspeed and TouchBistro print on their own US pages with original worked examples using hypothetical sales. It does not include a quote from any vendor or report hands-on testing, and it does not name a best system.*

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