Running a café in the UK isn't just about serving great coffee anymore. You need a reliable POS system that can handle everything from morning rush orders to inventory tracking, and ideally, one that won't cost you an arm and a leg. With so many options on the market, it's easy to feel overwhelmed.
We've put together this comprehensive comparison of three popular systems: SumUp, Shopify POS, and EPOS Now: to help you make the right choice for your café in 2026. Whether you're just starting out or looking to upgrade your current setup, we'll break down what each system offers and who they're actually best suited for.
Understanding What Your Café Actually Needs
Before diving into the specifics, it's worth thinking about what you actually need from a POS system. For most UK cafés, you're looking at quick service transactions, some level of inventory management, and ideally integration with accounting software. You might also want staff management features, customer loyalty programmes, and detailed reporting to understand your busiest times and best-selling products.
The three systems we're comparing today take quite different approaches, and honestly, they're not all designed with cafés in mind. Let's get into it.
SumUp: The Budget-Friendly Starter Option
SumUp has made quite a name for itself as the go-to option for small businesses just getting started. The appeal is obvious: you can get up and running with minimal upfront investment, and there's no monthly subscription fee eating into your margins.
What Makes SumUp Attractive
The entry cost is incredibly low. You'll pay for a card reader (usually around £30-50), and that's essentially it. From there, you operate on a pay-as-you-go model with transaction fees. For a brand new café testing the waters, this can feel like a safer bet than committing to expensive monthly subscriptions.
The system is genuinely simple to use. You can literally be taking payments within minutes of unboxing your card reader. There's a basic app that handles your sales, and it does what it says on the tin without any fuss.
Where SumUp Falls Short for Cafés
Here's the thing: SumUp is really designed for very basic operations. If you're planning to run a proper café with multiple staff members, complex menu items, or any real volume of transactions, you'll quickly hit its limitations.
The inventory management is pretty basic. You won't get the kind of detailed stock tracking that helps you understand when you're running low on oat milk or how many almond croissants you're selling per week. For a busy café, this becomes a real problem.
There's also no multi-terminal support, which means you're stuck with a single till setup. During rush hour when you've got a queue out the door, that's not ideal. And as your transaction volume increases, those per-transaction fees start adding up in a way that makes monthly subscription models look more appealing.
If you're curious about how much SumUp actually charges per transaction, we've covered that in detail in another article.
Shopify POS: When Your Café Isn't Really Just a Café
Shopify POS is a bit of an odd one for this comparison, because it's not really built with cafés in mind. It's designed for retailers who have an online presence and want to add physical locations to their business model.
Shopify's Strengths
If you're planning to sell coffee beans, branded merchandise, or run an online shop alongside your physical café, Shopify POS starts to make sense. The integration between your online store and physical sales is genuinely seamless: probably the best in the business, actually.
The system itself is quite robust, with good inventory tracking, decent reporting, and a professional feel. You'll have access to all of Shopify's ecommerce tools, which can be brilliant if that's part of your business plan.
Why Most Cafés Should Look Elsewhere
The main issue with Shopify POS for a typical café is the cost. You're looking at significant monthly fees: the full-featured version costs an additional £69 per month on top of your base Shopify subscription. For a café focused primarily on serving coffee and food on-site, that's a lot of money for features you probably won't use.
It's also a bit like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. The system is built for multichannel retail, not hospitality. You'll find yourself navigating through features you don't need while potentially missing some café-specific functionality that would actually help your day-to-day operations.
EPOS Now: Purpose-Built for Hospitality
This is where things get interesting. EPOS Now has been specifically designed for hospitality and retail businesses, and you can really tell the difference when you're using it in a café setting.
Why EPOS Now Works for UK Cafés
The system offers proper, full-featured POS functionality that's actually relevant to running a café. You get detailed inventory management that helps you track ingredients and finished products, staff management features that let you see who's working when and their sales performance, and reporting that gives you genuine insights into your business.
The hardware options are reasonably priced, and you can scale from a single terminal to multiple stations as you grow. This is crucial for cafés that start small but have ambitions to expand. You're not going to outgrow the system after six months.
Customer service is another area where EPOS Now has earned solid reviews. When your till system goes down during the Saturday morning rush, responsive support isn't a nice-to-have: it's essential. EPOS Now's UK-based support team understands the urgency.
The pricing structure sits in a sweet spot: it's not as cheap as SumUp's initial outlay, but it's far more reasonable than Shopify POS for what you're actually getting. You're paying for features you'll use, not subsidising an ecommerce platform you don't need.
Considerations with EPOS Now
It's worth noting that EPOS Now is very much focused on in-person operations. If you're planning to build a significant online presence with home delivery and a fancy website, you might need additional tools. That said, for most independent cafés, the core POS functionality is what actually matters day-to-day.
You can read our detailed EPOS Now till system review to get a fuller picture of what the system offers and whether it's right for your specific situation.
Side-by-Side: What Actually Matters
Let's break down the practical differences in a way that relates to running your café:
Startup Costs: SumUp wins here with minimal upfront investment. EPOS Now sits in the middle with hardware and software costs, while Shopify POS requires the highest initial commitment.
Monthly Running Costs: SumUp has no monthly fee but higher transaction costs. EPOS Now has reasonable monthly subscriptions. Shopify POS has the highest ongoing costs at around £69+ per month for full features.
Handling Rush Hour: SumUp struggles with single terminal limitations. Both EPOS Now and Shopify POS can handle multiple terminals, though EPOS Now's hospitality focus makes it more intuitive during busy periods.
Inventory Management: SumUp is basic at best. Shopify POS and EPOS Now both offer robust tracking, but EPOS Now's hospitality-specific features (like ingredient-level tracking) give it an edge for cafés.
Staff Management: SumUp doesn't really do this. Both Shopify POS and EPOS Now offer staff tracking and permissions, with EPOS Now providing more detailed hospitality-relevant insights.
Scalability: SumUp doesn't scale well beyond a single location. Shopify POS scales brilliantly for multichannel retail. EPOS Now scales well for hospitality businesses adding locations or expanding services.
Making Your Decision
So, which system should you actually choose? It really depends on where you are and where you're going.
If you're running a weekend pop-up or tiny kiosk with minimal transactions, SumUp's low barrier to entry makes sense. You're not investing heavily, and the simplicity means you can focus on actually making coffee rather than learning complex software. Just know that you'll likely need to upgrade as you grow.
For cafés with serious online ambitions: selling subscriptions, shipping products nationally, building a proper ecommerce presence: Shopify POS could justify its higher cost. But be honest with yourself about whether you'll actually use those features. Most traditional cafés won't.
For the majority of independent UK cafés, EPOS Now offers the best balance of features, cost, and hospitality-specific functionality. It's built for businesses like yours, scales as you grow, and won't leave you paying for features you never use. The system just makes sense for café operations in a way that the other two don't quite match.
Getting Started
Whatever you decide, it's definitely worth getting demos of any system before committing. Most providers offer trial periods or money-back guarantees, so take advantage of that. Test the system during your actual opening hours to see how it performs under real conditions.
If you're still weighing up your options and want to understand more about what makes a good EPOS system, we've got plenty of resources to help. The key is choosing something that supports your business rather than constraining it.
Running a café in 2026 comes with enough challenges without your POS system adding to them. Take the time to choose wisely, and you'll set yourself up for smoother operations and better insights into what's actually working in your business. Your future self will thank you when you're effortlessly managing the morning rush instead of battling with inadequate technology.