Epos Now Pricing for Restaurants: What Does It Really Cost?
What does Epos Now cost for restaurants?
Epos Now charges a monthly software subscription plus additional costs for hardware, payment processing and the third-party integrations that most restaurants need. The advertised price covers the core POS, but a fully operational restaurant setup typically costs considerably more.
This article explains how Epos Now pricing works, what the real cost of ownership looks like for a restaurant, and why many UK and Irish operators are choosing Flipdish as an alternative.
Epos Now pricing structure
Epos Now uses a tiered subscription model. Pricing is structured around:
- A monthly fee per site or register
- Hardware bundles or individual hardware purchases
- An app marketplace for additional features
- Integrated payments with per-transaction fees
Epos Now has historically marketed aggressively on upfront price, sometimes offering hardware deals or discounted first-year subscription rates. The ongoing monthly cost after any introductory period applies is what matters most for long-term budget planning.
What the base subscription covers
Epos Now's core subscription typically includes:
- Cloud-based POS software
- Basic menu and product management
- Sales reporting and end-of-day summaries
- Standard customer support
- Access to the app marketplace (individual integrations are priced separately)
Features that most restaurants need — online ordering, loyalty, advanced analytics, accounting integrations, kitchen display systems — require additional paid integrations from the app marketplace.
Hardware costs
Epos Now offers its own hardware, which is typically purchased outright or on a payment plan. A basic restaurant setup might include:
- POS terminal (touchscreen till)
- Receipt printer
- Cash drawer
- Kitchen printer or display
- Card payment terminal
Hardware bundles are sometimes offered with the software subscription, but the details vary and the quality and longevity of entry-level hardware are worth scrutinising before committing.
For restaurants with multiple serving points — a bar area as well as a main till, for example — hardware costs multiply accordingly. A kitchen display system adds further cost.
POS hardware options differ between providers and are worth comparing carefully based on durability, warranty coverage and replacement availability.
App marketplace costs
Epos Now's app marketplace is central to its proposition: the core POS is supplemented by third-party apps for functions that are not built in. This model has benefits — flexibility, choice — but it has a direct cost implication.
For a restaurant that needs:
- Online ordering integration
- Accounting software connection (e.g. Xero or QuickBooks)
- Loyalty programme
- Reservations system
- Kitchen management tools
- Advanced reporting
...each of these typically requires a separate app subscription on top of the core Epos Now fee.
This is worth modelling carefully. A restaurant adding three or four integrations from the marketplace may find its effective monthly platform cost is two or three times the base subscription price.
Payment processing fees
Epos Now offers its own integrated payments product, which charges a percentage of each transaction plus a fixed fee per payment. These rates are not always prominently advertised and are worth requesting explicitly during any sales conversation.
For restaurants processing significant weekly card volumes, even a small difference in payment processing rates has a material impact on annual costs:
| Monthly card turnover | Annual cost at 0.3% above lowest rate |
|---|---|
| £15,000 | £540/year |
| £30,000 | £1,080/year |
| £60,000 | £2,160/year |
| £120,000 | £4,320/year |
This table illustrates why payment processing rates deserve careful negotiation and comparison across providers before signing a contract.
Some Epos Now plans allow third-party payment processors, which can give restaurants more flexibility to negotiate rates. Check whether this is available on the specific tier being considered.
Common complaints about Epos Now costs
Reviews of Epos Now across Trustpilot and Google frequently mention:
- Unexpected additional charges — for features assumed to be included in the base subscription
- Long contract terms — with exit fees that make switching expensive before the contract ends
- Hardware quality — some operators report reliability issues with entry-level hardware
- Support quality — concerns about response times and resolution speed from some customers
- Price increases — rates rising mid-contract in some cases
These are not universal experiences, but they are worth being aware of before signing. Read the contract carefully, particularly the sections covering price adjustment rights, support terms and exit clauses.
What is not included in Epos Now for restaurants?
Epos Now does not natively include several features that modern restaurant operators expect as standard:
- Online ordering — requires a third-party integration
- Branded mobile app — not available
- Self-service kiosks — not available
- AI phone ordering — not available
- AI marketing — not available
- Multi-site management — basic capability; limited for growing groups
For a restaurant that only needs a basic in-store POS, this may be acceptable. For any restaurant with ambitions to grow online orders, reduce staffing pressure or drive repeat visits through automated marketing, these gaps matter.
Epos Now for multi-site restaurant groups
Multi-site restaurant operators face specific challenges that basic POS platforms are not well-equipped to handle:
- Keeping menus consistent across all locations
- Comparing performance across sites in real time
- Managing promotions and pricing centrally
- Providing consistent staff training across the group
- Handling complex delivery and ordering setups at each site
Epos Now can manage multiple sites, but its multi-site capability is better suited to small groups of similar-format sites rather than complex restaurant chains with varied menus, formats and ordering channels.
Alternatives to Epos Now for UK restaurants
1. Flipdish — best integrated platform for restaurants
Flipdish is a purpose-built restaurant technology platform that covers POS, online ordering, branded mobile apps, self-service kiosks, AI phone ordering and AI marketing from one platform.
For UK and Irish restaurant operators, Flipdish delivers:
- A single platform for every ordering channel
- Commission-free direct online ordering
- Kiosks proven to increase average order values
- AI phone agent that captures calls without requiring staff
- Automated marketing that drives repeat orders
- Multi-site management built for restaurant groups
- Strong local commercial and support teams in the UK and Ireland
The key advantage over Epos Now is integration. With Flipdish, every channel — in-store POS, online ordering, kiosk, phone — runs through one system. There are no cross-platform integration fees, no synchronisation issues and no need to manage multiple vendor relationships.
When modelling total platform cost across 24 months, Flipdish consistently comes out ahead of Epos Now plus the integrations a typical restaurant needs to match its capabilities.
2. Square for Restaurants
Square offers a free entry-level plan that suits very simple operations. Transaction fees are higher than specialist platforms at volume, and the feature set for growing restaurant groups is limited.
3. Lightspeed Restaurant
Lightspeed is an iPad-based POS with a stronger feature set than Epos Now, particularly for full-service restaurants. However, like Epos Now, it relies on integrations for online ordering, kiosks and marketing.
4. Toast
Toast is a US-based restaurant POS available in the UK. It has a broad feature set but is primarily designed for the American market and may not suit UK and Irish operators as well as Flipdish.
Epos Now vs Flipdish: cost and capability comparison
| Epos Now | Flipdish | |
|---|---|---|
| Core POS | ✓ | ✓ |
| Online ordering | Via paid integration | Built-in |
| Commission-free ordering | Via integration | ✓ |
| Branded mobile app | No | ✓ |
| Self-service kiosks | No | ✓ |
| AI phone ordering | No | ✓ |
| AI marketing | No | ✓ |
| Multi-site management | Basic | Advanced |
| Designed for restaurants | Hospitality and retail | Restaurants only |
| Single platform | No | Yes |
| Number of vendor relationships | Multiple | One |
For restaurants that model the full cost — including all the integrations Epos Now needs to match Flipdish's capability — the price difference is smaller than it initially appears, and the capability difference is larger.
How to evaluate restaurant POS pricing properly
Before committing to any platform, calculate the full 24-month cost including:
- Monthly software subscription — including all terminals and sites
- Hardware — purchase cost or finance plan
- App marketplace or integration fees — every tool you actually need
- Payment processing — modelled against your expected monthly card turnover
- Onboarding, setup and training
- Support tier
- Exit provisions and contract penalties
Restaurants that only compare headline subscription prices often underestimate the true cost of a POS platform by a significant margin.
What Flipdish offers restaurant operators
Flipdish is built specifically for food-service operators. Its platform covers:
- Restaurant POS — designed for the pace of restaurant service
- Online ordering — commission-free, direct to you
- Restaurant websites — branded and ordering-optimised
- Mobile apps — your brand on your customers' phones
- Self-service kiosks — increasing average order values
- AI phone agent — never miss a phone order
- AI marketing — automated re-engagement at scale
All from one platform, with one support team, one commercial relationship and one monthly bill.
For restaurants currently evaluating Epos Now or looking for an alternative, a Flipdish demo shows what an integrated approach looks like in practice.
Summary
Epos Now's headline pricing is attractive, but the real cost for a restaurant — once integrations, payment processing, hardware and support are included — is higher than it first appears. And even at that higher cost, it still does not provide the online ordering, kiosks, apps and AI tools that restaurants need to grow.
Flipdish provides all of those capabilities from a single platform, with transparent pricing and a strong commercial track record across UK and Irish restaurants. For operators making a technology decision with a 24-month or longer horizon, it is the stronger investment.