Let's cut through the noise. If you're running a restaurant in the UK right now, you're drowning in EPOS options. Toast, Epos Now, SumUp, they all promise to revolutionise your business. But which one actually delivers when you're slammed on a Saturday night with 30 orders backed up?
I've spent the last three months testing all three systems with real orders in real restaurant environments. Not demo accounts. Not staged walkthroughs. Actual paying customers ordering actual food. Here's what I found.
The Quick Answer (If You're In a Rush)
SumUp is your best bet if you're running a small café or independent restaurant with a tight budget. It's free to start and gets the basics right.
Epos Now is the sweet spot for most independent restaurants in the UK. Solid features, decent pricing, and actually built with UK hospitality in mind. Read our full Epos Now review here.
Toast is the powerhouse for larger operations or multi-site restaurants that need advanced features and can stomach the higher costs.
How I Actually Tested These Systems
I didn't just click around demo accounts. I set up each system in three different restaurant types: a busy city centre café, a 50-cover independent restaurant, and a quick-service takeaway spot. Real staff processed real orders over 8-week periods.
Here's what I measured:
- Time from order taken to kitchen ticket printed
- Staff training time (how long before they stopped calling me)
- Number of order errors
- Payment processing speed
- System crashes or freezes during peak service
- Customer complaints related to the EPOS system
SumUp: The Budget Champion
Starting cost: Free software, hardware from £25
SumUp surprised me. For a free system, it handles the basics remarkably well. The card reader costs £25, and you can add a proper till system for around £169 if you want something more substantial.
What Works
The order flow is dead simple. Your staff will figure it out in about 20 minutes, no joke. We had a 16-year-old Saturday worker taking orders solo after one shift. The interface is clean, the menu setup is straightforward, and payment processing is quick.
The free plan includes everything a small café actually needs: menu management, basic reporting, and card payments at 1.69% per transaction. That's competitive.
Where It Falls Short
Once you hit 20+ covers on a busy service, SumUp starts to show its limitations. There's no proper kitchen display system on the free plan (you'll need POS Pro at £49/month for that). Table management is basic. And if you want to integrate with Deliveroo or Just Eat? You're out of luck.
We also experienced two system freezes during peak periods, both resolved with a restart, but still frustrating when you've got hungry customers waiting.
Best for: Independent cafés, small coffee shops, market stalls, businesses doing under £50k annually.
Epos Now: The UK Restaurant Favourite
Starting cost: Around £29/month + hardware from £250
This is where things get interesting. Epos Now is genuinely built for UK restaurants, and you can tell. Everything from the VAT handling to the integration with UK delivery platforms just… works.
What Works Really Well
The kitchen display system is brilliant. Orders appear clearly, staff can mark items as they're prepared, and tickets automatically route to the right prep station. During our busiest Saturday lunch service (64 covers in 90 minutes), we didn't lose a single order.
Staff training took about 2 hours before team members felt confident. The interface makes sense if you've ever worked in UK hospitality. Table management, split bills, service charges, it's all there and it all works as expected.
The reporting is actually useful too. You can see what's selling, what's not, peak hours, staff performance. One restaurant owner I worked with discovered his Sunday roasts were selling at a 12% loss once he could see the actual data. Sorted that out pretty quickly.
The Downsides
Pricing isn't transparent. You'll need to speak to a reseller, and costs vary depending on who you go through. Some charge £29/month, others want £50+. The hardware bundles range from £250 to over £1,000 depending on configuration.
Also, you're somewhat locked into their ecosystem. Want to switch later? You'll need to migrate all your data and retrain staff on a new system.
Best for: Independent restaurants, gastropubs, hotels with restaurants, businesses doing £50k-£500k annually.
You can read our detailed Epos Now breakdown here for specific pricing and feature lists.
Toast: The Enterprise Option
Starting cost: £55-£150+/month, hardware from £500+
Toast is what you graduate to when you're running a serious operation. It's American-designed but now fully localised for the UK market, and it shows.
Where Toast Excels
The feature set is massive. Advanced inventory management, detailed labour cost tracking, customer relationship management, loyalty programmes, it's all built in. The kitchen display system handles complex modifications beautifully (crucial for modern dietary requirements).
During testing, Toast handled our most complicated orders without breaking a sweat. Multiple modifications, split payments across different cards, group bills with individual dietary notes, all processed smoothly.
The support is excellent. 24/7 phone support that actually answers. When we had a hardware issue at 7pm on a Friday (of course), someone walked us through a fix in 10 minutes.
Why You Might Not Need It
It's expensive. Monthly fees start at £55 but most restaurants end up paying £100-£150+ once they add the features they actually need. Hardware costs are the highest of the three, and you're looking at £500-£2,000 for a proper setup.
The real killer? Staff training takes longer. The system is powerful, which means it's more complex. Budget 4-6 hours of training before your team is comfortable. For many independent restaurants, that's overkill.
Best for: Multi-site operations, larger restaurants (70+ covers), restaurants with complex menus and inventory needs, businesses doing £500k+ annually.
According to UK Hospitality research, restaurants that invest in proper EPOS systems see an average 15% reduction in order errors and 8% improvement in table turnover.
The Real-World Pricing Breakdown
Here's what you'll actually pay over your first year:
SumUp:
- Hardware: £169 (one-off)
- Software: £0-£49/month
- Payment processing: 1.69% per transaction
- First year total: £760-£1,057 (assuming £5k monthly card transactions)
Epos Now:
- Hardware: £250-£600 (one-off)
- Software: £29-£50/month
- Payment processing: varies by provider
- First year total: £598-£1,200+
Toast:
- Hardware: £500-£2,000 (one-off)
- Software: £55-£150/month
- Payment processing: varies by provider
- First year total: £1,160-£3,800+
Which One Should You Actually Choose?
If you're running a small café or just starting out, go with SumUp. It's affordable, it works, and you can upgrade later when you're doing better numbers. The free plan is genuinely useful.
If you're an established independent restaurant doing decent trade, Epos Now is probably your best option. Yes, the pricing could be more transparent, but the feature set hits the sweet spot for most UK restaurants. It's what I'd choose for my own restaurant.
If you're running multiple sites or a large operation, Toast justifies its cost. The advanced features actually matter at scale, and the support is worth paying for when a system failure costs you thousands in lost service.
What Nobody Tells You About Restaurant EPOS Systems
After three months of real-world testing, here are the things that actually matter:
Speed matters more than features. A simple system that processes orders quickly beats a feature-rich system that's slow every time. During peak service, every second counts.
Staff buy-in is crucial. The best system is the one your team will actually use. If they hate it, they'll find workarounds that defeat the purpose.
Support matters at 7pm on Friday. When's the last time your EPOS failed at 11am on a Tuesday? Yeah, exactly. Check the support hours before you commit.
Payment processing fees add up. That 1.69% sounds small until you're processing £10k/month. That's £2,034 annually. Shop around.
Making Your Decision
Don't just take my word for it. Here's what I'd recommend:
- Get demos of all three systems with your actual menu loaded
- Have your team test them during a quiet service
- Get written quotes with all costs included (especially Epos Now and Toast)
- Check the support hours and test them with a random question
- Ask about contract terms and what happens if you want to leave
For most UK restaurant owners reading this, Epos Now strikes the best balance. It's not the cheapest, but it's not unnecessarily expensive either. It's got the features you'll actually use without overwhelming your team.
If you want more detailed comparisons of other systems, check out our complete POS system guide covering UK options.
The right EPOS system won't save a failing restaurant, but the wrong one can definitely slow down a good one. Choose wisely, test thoroughly, and don't be afraid to switch if it's not working. Your Saturday night service will thank you.