How we score restaurant POS systems

Principles

• The score sets the order. The weights, the model version and every change to them are public on this page. Nobody moves up or down by hand.
• The same rules for every vendor. The same template, the same contract template and the same scoring rules, with no special treatment for or against anyone.
• Fixed thresholds. Each criterion is scored against fixed thresholds, not against the other products. A product's score doesn't change just because another product joins the list.
• An unpublished price is missing data. It counts as missing, never as zero: it lowers completeness, and with too little data the POS isn't ranked.
• The 36-month cost is what your restaurant pays. Dual pricing, cash discount programs and surcharges move the card processing cost to your customers. When a vendor officially publishes one of these programs, card processing costs your restaurant nothing in our estimate, and what your customers pay is shown in its own column. It's never added to your cost or to the score, and it isn't free: your customers pay it.
• Money stays out. Our scoring engine has no access to commissions, partnerships or any payment data. Here's how we make money.

What we measure

We use the same template for every vendor and group the data into pillars:

• Total cost over 36 months for a reference restaurant: software, hardware, card processing and fixed fees.
• Contract and exit: term, automatic renewal, notice period, early termination fee, processing exclusivity and the right to raise prices.
• Hardware: who owns it, whether it works with another processor, how long the main terminal is covered against defects, what that coverage leaves out and costs to keep, and what it costs to replace the main terminal.
• Features for each type of restaurant: from kitchen displays and handhelds to online ordering, offline mode and reporting.
• Reputation, support and reliability.
• Spanish, in the Spanish edition of this site: screens, kitchen, receipts, support and the contract itself. In this English edition these are facts on each review, not part of the score.
• Vendor stability and ecosystem.

What counts toward the score today

This version only scores objective criteria we can research for most vendors from public data: what it costs to get started, the switching or signing bonus our reference restaurant qualifies for, the 36-month cost, how long the hardware warranty lasts, online ordering, round-the-clock support and contract terms. Whether the POS screen and the website are in Spanish counts only on the Spanish version of this site. Editorial criteria, third-party ratings and features we only have for a few vendors (like a back office or kitchen display in Spanish) are shown where we have enough data, but they don't count toward the score. A data point we couldn't verify for a vendor counts as missing and lowers its completeness, and the score page says what we could verify. Vendor promotions count only through the switching bonus, and only for our reference restaurant, as explained below.

The table on this page lists every criterion that counts in the current version, its weight and the data point it reads.

What weighs the most, and what weighs the least

Since version 0.5, what weighs the most is what you face first when you switch POS: the cash it takes to get started and the switching or signing bonus. The 36-month cost comes next. The contract terms, together with the trial or money-back period, are the block with the lowest weight in the model: an owner doesn't switch POS every month, and some vendors let you try it first. Every contract term is still shown in full on each review and on the contract pages, with the same template for every vendor. The table on this page has the exact weights, and the changelog explains each one.

Cost to get started

The cash your restaurant puts in before it opens on the new POS, in our reference scenario: the equipment the 36-month cost chooses, at its upfront price, plus one-time setup or installation fees. Loaned or rented equipment with a published upfront price of zero counts as nothing up front. Monthly and yearly charges, like rent or software, belong to the 36-month cost. Optional fees, like on-site installation you can skip, aren't added. A price the vendor doesn't publish leaves this criterion missing; we never count it as zero.

Switching or signing bonus

Our reference restaurant is an established restaurant switching from another company's POS that owes nothing to leave it. A vendor's promotion counts only while it's current, with a fixed amount the vendor publishes and machine-readable conditions the reference restaurant meets, like a minimum of monthly card sales or a clawback if you leave early. "Up to" amounts, buyouts of your current contract and amounts the vendor doesn't publish don't count. When there's no promotion, it ended or the reference restaurant doesn't qualify, the bonus counts as nothing, and that's a fact, not missing data. Promotions end and change, so this part of the score can move from one month to the next; each review shows the conditions and the end date. The 36-month cost never subtracts promotions.

Trial or money-back period

Each review shows whether the vendor publishes a period to try the POS and leave, how long it is, whether charges run during it and its conditions. It counts inside the contract block: full points when the trial has no software charges or you get your money back, half when you can cancel without the early termination fee but the charges during the trial are yours.

Hardware warranty: what we score and what we don't

We score only how long the main terminal is covered against defects when you get it a standard way: buying, leasing, renting, a subscription or a loan. Coverage counts when it comes with that way of getting the terminal or with charges every customer on it pays, such as rent, a hardware subscription, yearly fees per device or a plan billed by default. A protection plan you choose to buy separately doesn't count.

• Lifetime, while your agreement is active (the top score) means coverage with no set end date for as long as you keep the contract, rental or subscription that carries it, renewals included, and pay its charges. We use the same label for every vendor whose coverage works that way, whatever the vendor calls it.
• Coverage the vendor ends after the contract's first term, or after a fixed number of years, scores by that length.

What the coverage leaves out (accidental damage, theft, loss, liquid damage), what you must do to use it and what keeping it costs are in the conditions on each review, with the same template for every vendor. They don't change the score yet: a vendor whose coverage includes accidents and theft and one that only covers defects score the same if both last as long. Each review shows the difference.

How we score

1. Each criterion becomes a partial score from 0 to 1, using a fixed rule: a threshold (for example, the lower the cost, the higher the score, within set limits), steps (for example, shorter terms score higher), yes or no, or a map of categories.
2. We combine the partial scores with the weights of the current version. Only criteria with data count toward this average.
3. We apply a completeness factor. Completeness is the share of the total weight we have data for. A product with complete data keeps its score. A product with gaps loses part of it, in proportion to what's missing.
4. The result is a score from 0 to 10, with one decimal.

Every score shows its three strongest criteria and its weakest one, so you can see why a product lands where it does.

Dual pricing, surcharges and cash discounts

Since version 0.4, the 36-month cost measures what your restaurant pays. When a vendor officially publishes a dual pricing, surcharge or cash discount program for US restaurants, we cost it with that program, with the same rule for every vendor:

• Card processing costs your restaurant nothing on the sales the program covers. Software, yearly or per-device fees, hardware and every other charge to the restaurant still count.
• Your customers pay the difference. We show what they pay in a separate "paid by your customers" column, using the percentage the vendor publishes. When the vendor doesn't publish the percentage, that column says "Not published", and processing still costs your restaurant nothing.
• The vendor's card rates aren't needed for that cost, so card rates it doesn't publish don't count as missing data there. Everything else that's missing still does.
• We only count programs the vendor publishes on its own website, help center or contracts, never claims from resellers.

Since version 0.5, a program that only lets you surcharge credit cards no longer counts debit sales as costing your restaurant nothing: card network rules don't allow surcharging debit, so your restaurant pays the vendor's published card rate on them. We estimate the debit share of card sales from public US payments data (see the assumptions on this page). If the vendor doesn't publish that rate, the 36-month cost is missing. Dual pricing and cash discount programs cover every card, so they stay at zero. When a vendor publishes both kinds of program, we use the one that covers every card.

The cost calculator lets you turn this off to see the regular card rates. Card network rules and state laws apply: surcharges usually apply only to credit cards, they have a cap, and some states limit or ban them. Check what's allowed where you are before you sign.

Missing data

Missing data lowers the score. We don't fill gaps with averages or guesses. A price marked "Not published" or "Quote only" counts as missing.

Not enough data

If we have data for too little of the total weight, we don't score the product. It shows as "Not enough data to score" and stays out of the rankings until we can verify more. The minimum is part of each version of the model, and it's always checked with the base weights, so a ranking by type of restaurant never includes a POS the overall ranking leaves out.

Rankings by type of restaurant

Each type of restaurant can have its own weight profile. For example, the food truck ranking gives more weight to cost and contract terms, because a long commitment hurts a seasonal business. A ranking by type of restaurant only includes the POS systems that serve it. The overall ranking uses the default weights, and we always show it next to the ranking for your type of restaurant.

When two products tie, the one with more complete data goes first. After that, the order is alphabetical.

Badges

Some products show a badge, like the longest trial at no charge or the largest fixed switching bonus. A badge is not part of the score and never changes the order. We compute each one from the same published data as the tables, with the same rules for every product:

• The value has to come from the provider's own published page or contract, and be inside its verification window.
• At least four products need a comparable value.
• If more than half of the products with a comparable value tie for the best one, nobody gets the badge.
• If the best value isn't backed by a public source, nobody gets the badge.
• A badge tied to a promotion comes down the day after the promotion ends.
• We never assign a badge by hand.

Model version

This is version 0.5 of the model, and its weights are final for this version. If we change a weight or a rule, it becomes a new version. Each version is logged with its date and what changed.

Suggest a correction

If you think a data point is wrong or out of date, tell us which one and why, and send us a public source or document. Vendors can do the same, and they can't pay to speed up the review or change the outcome. Our editorial policy explains how we review corrections.