Best Restaurant POS Systems Australia (2026 Comparison)

The best restaurant POS systems in Australia in 2026 are the ones that ring up orders fast, handle GST and split bills correctly, and connect the till to your back office so you're not re-keying sales every BAS quarter. For cafes and smaller venues that want point of sale plus the whole back office in one Australian app, OneBookPlus is the one we build, and what it is best at is putting the till and the back office in one place: POS, table bookings, daily sales tracking, supplier invoices and BAS-ready accounting together, flat-priced, with a $0 free plan. It does not take the card at the till yet, so a venue that wants one device for the order and the payment should start with a dedicated hospitality till. If you need a dedicated, hospitality-grade till, the strongest alternatives are Lightspeed Restaurant (deep table, menu and kitchen management), Square for Restaurants (easiest low-cost entry), Tyro (Australian integrated EFTPOS), and Impos / OrderMate (Australian-built hospitality POS).

Where OneBookPlus fits. One flat-priced Australian app that combines restaurant POS software with table bookings, daily sales, supplier invoices, CRM and BAS-ready accounting, and you can start on the $0 free plan. It is our own product, and it does not take the card at the till yet, so keep your EFTPOS terminal beside it. See the OneBookPlus restaurant POS features for the full point-of-sale, table and menu toolkit.

Here's the full comparison, what each system is genuinely best for, and how to choose based on your venue type and size.

Best restaurant POS systems in Australia at a glance

• OneBookPlus: best all-in-one POS system for cafes and small venues. POS plus table bookings, daily sales, supplier invoices, CRM and BAS-ready accounting in one flat-priced Australian app (GST/ABN-native), with a $0 free plan. You're not paying for, or syncing, a separate accounting tool.
• Lightspeed Restaurant: best dedicated hospitality POS. The deepest table management, menu engineering and kitchen display, on a Starter, Essential and Premium ladder charged per location per month on Lightspeed's published AU pricing, with add-ons on top. Best for full-service and multi-venue restaurants.
• Square for Restaurants: best low-cost, easy entry. A genuine $0 plan and pay-as-you-go card fees, with Square for Restaurants charging per location per month above the free tier on Square's AU pricing. Best for cafes and takeaways wanting the simplest setup.
• Tyro: best Australian integrated EFTPOS. Not a full POS itself but an Australian payments provider that integrates with 450+ POS systems, with hospitality features like split bills and tipping, on a merchant fee Tyro quotes per transaction on its own rate card. Best as the payments layer under a separate till.
• Impos / OrderMate: best Australian-built hospitality POS. Long-established local hospitality systems with strong support; roughly $50 to $150/month depending on terminals and modules (quote-based, confirm current). Best for established Australian venues wanting local hands-on support.

What to look for in a restaurant POS system

A restaurant till has to do far more than a retail one. The features that actually matter:

• GST handling: every sale and receipt calculates 10% GST correctly, with clean reporting for your BAS.
• Table management: a visual floor plan showing which tables are seated, ordering, ready to bill or free.
• Split bills and tipping: divide a bill by item, evenly or by custom amount, and take a tip, without holding up the queue.
• Menu modifiers: extra shot, no onion, gluten-free, plus instantly 86-ing a sold-out item.
• Kitchen routing: send orders to the right station via a printer or a kitchen display system (KDS).
• Integrated payments: tap-and-go built into the POS rather than a separate terminal you re-key totals into.
• Reporting: daily sales, best-sellers, peak hours and staff performance.
• Back-office connection: sales, supplier costs and GST flowing into your accounting so you're not double-entering every quarter.

OneBookPlus runs quoting, invoicing, bookings, jobs and GST-ready accounting in one Australian app. See what that looks like for restaurants.

Restaurant POS comparison table

Pricing is indicative for 2026, drawn from each provider's published Australian pricing. Confirm current plans and card rates with each provider before you commit.

The best restaurant POS systems in detail

1OneBookPlus: the all-in-one for cafes and small venues

OneBookPlus is the best fit for cafes, takeaways and smaller venues that want a till and the back office in one Australian app. You ring up orders and record the sale at point of sale (card acceptance at the till is not available yet, so pair it with your existing EFTPOS terminal or Tyro), take table bookings in the same system, watch daily sales in real time, record supplier invoices, and have it all flow into GST and BAS-ready accounting, without paying for (or syncing) a separate accounting subscription.

What makes it stand out for food businesses:

• Genuinely all-in-one: POS, bookings, invoicing, CRM, customer marketing and accounting together, so there's no second subscription and no integration to break on a busy Friday night.
• Australian-built and GST/ABN-native: automatic 10% GST on sales, ABN-valid tax invoices for suppliers and accounts, and BAS-ready reporting. Built and hosted in Australia (AWS Sydney).
• Flat, predictable pricing with a $0 free plan: start free, and paid plans are a flat monthly price rather than per-seat, so adding staff or a second register doesn't blow out the cost.
• Back office, not just a till: track repeat customers, send promotions, manage supplier costs and see your margins, all from the same place you take the order.

The honest trade-off: a dedicated hospitality POS like Lightspeed goes deeper on kitchen display, complex table management and menu engineering. OneBookPlus is built for cafes and smaller venues that value a POS system plus the whole back office in one place over a maximal kitchen-floor feature set.

Explore the OneBookPlus restaurant POS features, see OneBookPlus for restaurants or OneBookPlus for cafes, or start free.

2Lightspeed Restaurant: best dedicated hospitality POS

Lightspeed (which absorbed the much-loved Australian-born Kounta) is the gold standard for serious hospitality. Its strengths are deep: visual floor plans, menu engineering to spotlight your most profitable dishes, kitchen display systems, table-side ordering on handhelds, delivery-platform integrations and multi-venue management. Lightspeed publishes AU pricing on a Starter, Essential and Premium ladder, charged per location per month, with add-ons such as reservations and extra registers on top. It connects to Xero and MYOB for accounting rather than including it. Choose Lightspeed if you run a full-service or multi-location restaurant where kitchen-floor depth justifies a premium per-month spend.

3Square for Restaurants: best low-cost, easy entry

Square is the easiest, lowest-commitment way to get restaurant POS software running. The free plan has no monthly fee, you only pay the card-processing fee (around 1.6% per tap on Square's AU rates, confirm current), and the Plus plan (~$129/month per location) adds course management, live sales reporting, auto-86ing and 24/7 support. The catch is you're locked into Square's own payment processing, and accounting lives in a separate tool like Xero. See our OneBookPlus vs Square comparison. Choose Square if you're a cafe or takeaway that wants the simplest possible setup with minimal upfront cost.

4Tyro: best Australian integrated EFTPOS

Tyro isn't a full POS system, it's an Australian payments provider that plugs into 450+ POS systems, including most of the hospitality names here. It offers hospitality-friendly features like integrated tipping, bill splitting and table payments, on a merchant fee Tyro quotes per transaction, plus optional terminal rental. Note the RBA's card-surcharge changes coming into effect: work out your numbers with our card surcharge calculator. Choose Tyro as the payments layer underneath a separate POS when you want an Australian EFTPOS provider with strong hospitality integrations.

5Impos / OrderMate: best Australian-built hospitality POS

Impos and OrderMate are long-established, Australian-built hospitality systems used across thousands of local cafes, pubs and restaurants. They offer mature table management, kitchen displays, rostering integrations and multi-site support, with hands-on Australian support teams. Pricing is quote-based on both and depends on terminals, venue size and modules, so ask each of them for a written quote. Like Lightspeed, they integrate with accounting rather than including it. Choose Impos or OrderMate if you want a proven, locally supported hospitality POS and value an Australian team you can call.

How to choose the best POS system for your venue

• Small cafe or takeaway: start free with OneBookPlus (POS plus the back office in one) or Square (simplest till). Choose OneBookPlus if you also want bookings, accounting and customer marketing in the same app; Square if you only need a till.
• Busy full-service restaurant: Lightspeed Restaurant for the deepest table, menu and kitchen features, or Impos / OrderMate for an Australian-built equivalent with local support.
• Multi-venue group: Lightspeed's multi-location management, or Impos / OrderMate for multi-site with Australian support.
• You already have a POS you like: keep it and add Tyro as the Australian EFTPOS layer, or move to OneBookPlus if you'd rather consolidate the till and the back office into one flat-priced app.

Whatever the till, work your GST out cleanly with our GST calculator and raise compliant supplier invoices with the free invoice generator.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best restaurant POS system in Australia? For cafes and smaller venues that want point of sale plus the whole back office in one Australian app, OneBookPlus is the best all-in-one pick: POS, table bookings, daily sales, supplier invoices and BAS-ready accounting together, flat-priced, with a $0 free plan. For a dedicated hospitality till, Lightspeed Restaurant is best for deep table, menu and kitchen management; Square for Restaurants is best for the easiest low-cost entry; Tyro is best as Australian integrated EFTPOS; and Impos or OrderMate are strong Australian-built hospitality options.

How much does a restaurant POS system cost in Australia? You can start from $0: OneBookPlus has a free plan and Square's basic POS has no monthly fee (you pay ~1.6% per tap). Dedicated hospitality POS subscriptions typically run from around $79/month (Lightspeed Starter) up to $359/month (Lightspeed Premium), with Impos and OrderMate roughly $50 to $150/month depending on terminals and modules. Remember a standalone POS usually needs a separate accounting subscription on top, so an all-in-one can work out cheaper overall. Pricing is indicative for 2026; confirm current rates with each provider.

Is restaurant POS software GST-compliant in Australia? Reputable Australian POS systems calculate 10% GST on sales and produce compliant receipts. With OneBookPlus, GST is applied automatically and flows straight into BAS-ready accounting, and supplier invoices carry valid ABN tax-invoice details, so you're not re-keying sales into a separate tool every quarter.

Do I need a separate POS and accounting system? Not necessarily. Most dedicated hospitality tills (Lightspeed, Impos, OrderMate, Square) connect to a separate accounting platform like Xero or MYOB. An all-in-one like OneBookPlus combines the POS, bookings and accounting in one app, so there's no second subscription to pay for or keep in sync.

The bottom line

If you run a cafe or smaller venue and want one Australian app for the till and the back office (bookings, daily sales, supplier invoices and BAS-ready accounting), OneBookPlus is the one to look at first, and you can start on the free plan. The one thing to plan around: it does not take the card at the till yet, so keep your existing EFTPOS terminal and record the card sale in the POS. If you need a maximal, kitchen-floor hospitality POS, Lightspeed, Square, Tyro, Impos and OrderMate each do their slice well. Explore the OneBookPlus restaurant POS features or see OneBookPlus for restaurants.