Epos Now Pricing for Restaurants: What Does It Really Cost?
What does Epos Now actually cost a restaurant?
Epos Now advertises software from around £25–£39/month for new customers. For a restaurant, the realistic total cost — once you include hardware, the marketplace apps needed for restaurant-specific functions and payment processing fees — is substantially higher.
This article breaks down every cost component so UK and Irish restaurant operators can make an accurate comparison.
Epos Now's advertised software price
Epos Now's published software price typically sits in the range of £25–£39/month for a single-site subscription, often as part of a promotional offer for new customers.
This price usually covers basic POS software only. It does not include:
- Hardware (terminals, printers, kitchen displays)
- The marketplace apps needed for online ordering, loyalty, reservations and table management
- Payment processing fees
- Premium support
Some promotional prices require a multi-year contract. The headline monthly number is a starting point, not a total cost.
Hardware costs
A working restaurant counter setup requires hardware. Epos Now sells hardware separately from the software subscription.
Typical hardware costs for a single-site restaurant:
| Hardware item | Approximate cost |
|---|---|
| POS terminal (touchscreen) | £200–£500+ |
| Receipt printer | £100–£200 |
| Cash drawer | £50–£100 |
| Kitchen Display System or printer | £150–£400+ |
| Card payment terminal | Varies by provider |
| Additional terminals | £200–£500+ each |
A complete single-site setup — one counter terminal, receipt printer, cash drawer and kitchen display — typically costs £500–£1,200+ before any software or payment fees. A multi-terminal restaurant with multiple service points and a bar will spend more.
Hardware is usually amortised over several years. On a 3-year basis, even a £900 hardware investment adds £300/year or £25/month to the actual cost.
Marketplace app costs
Epos Now's core software is a general hospitality POS. Many features that restaurant operators expect as standard — online ordering, loyalty programmes, table management, staff scheduling — are not built into the product. They are available through the Epos Now App Market as third-party subscriptions.
Common restaurant add-ons and typical costs:
| App category | Monthly cost range |
|---|---|
| Online ordering integration | £30–£75+/month |
| Loyalty programme | £20–£50+/month |
| Table management / reservations | £20–£50+/month |
| Accounting integration | £10–£30+/month |
| Delivery management | Variable |
A restaurant using three marketplace apps to cover online ordering, loyalty and reservations adds £70–£175+/month on top of the Epos Now base subscription. Over a year, that is £840–£2,100+ in add-on fees for features a restaurant-specific platform might include as standard.
Payment processing
Epos Now does not process payments directly. You must arrange a separate payment processor — Epos Now has partnerships with providers including Dojo, Stripe and others.
Payment processing fees are charged as a percentage of each transaction. UK rates vary by provider and volume:
| Monthly card volume | Typical processing rate |
|---|---|
| Under £20,000/month | 1.8– 2.5% |
| £20,000–£100,000/month | 1.3– 1.8% |
| Over £100,000/month | Negotiable |
For a restaurant processing £50,000/month in card payments at 1.5%:
- Monthly processing cost: £750
- Annual processing cost: £9,000
Payment processing is almost always the largest single ongoing technology cost for a restaurant operating at any meaningful volume. A £39/month software subscription represents less than 5% of total annual technology cost at this level.
Support tiers
Epos Now's standard plan includes basic support. Faster response times, dedicated account management and priority support are available at additional cost, typically £15–£30+/month.
For a restaurant where the POS going down during service is a serious operational problem, premium support becomes a practical necessity rather than an optional extra.
Realistic total cost model: single UK restaurant site
Here is a realistic cost estimate for a single UK restaurant site with £50,000/month in card revenue:
| Cost item | Annual total |
|---|---|
| Epos Now software (£39/month) | £468 |
| Online ordering app (~£50/month) | £600 |
| Loyalty app (~£25/month) | £300 |
| Hardware (amortised over 3 years) | ~£350–£500 |
| Payment processing (1.5% × £600k) | £9,000 |
| Premium support (£25/month) | £300 |
| Year one total | ~£11,000–£12,000 |
The software subscription is about 4% of the total annual cost. Anyone evaluating Epos Now against alternatives on the monthly software fee alone is not comparing accurately.
What Epos Now cannot do for restaurants
Beyond cost, there are capabilities that restaurants increasingly need that are not available through Epos Now even with marketplace integrations:
Branded mobile app: Epos Now does not offer a native branded ordering app for your restaurant. If you want your customers ordering via your own app, you need a different platform.
Self-service kiosks: Epos Now has no kiosk product. Kiosks require a third-party solution with a separate integration.
AI phone ordering: No AI call handling capability. High-volume phone ordering restaurants cannot automate this function through Epos Now.
AI marketing: No AI-powered customer communications. Automated, personalised marketing based on order history is not available natively.
These are not edge-case features. For restaurants investing in technology to grow revenue and reduce cost, each of these represents a meaningful capability.
Contract terms and lock-in
Epos Now's promotional pricing often comes attached to a multi-year contract. If you want to leave before the term ends, early termination fees may apply.
Before signing:
- Ask for the full contract term in writing
- Ask what the monthly cost is without a promotional offer or after the promotional period ends
- Ask what the early termination clause is
- Ask whether hardware is covered under the subscription or purchased separately
- Ask what happens to your data if you switch
Lock-in through hardware or multi-year contracts is a meaningful consideration when evaluating any POS. The real cost of switching mid-contract is often higher than the headline numbers suggest.
Epos Now vs Flipdish: what the cost comparison actually looks like
A fair cost comparison between Epos Now and a restaurant-specific platform like Flipdish must account for what you actually need to run a restaurant properly.
| Capability | Epos Now approach | Flipdish approach |
|---|---|---|
| POS | Core product | Core product |
| Online ordering | Third-party app (£30–£75+/month) | Included |
| Loyalty | Third-party app (£20–£50+/month) | Included |
| Branded mobile app | Not available | Available |
| Self-service kiosks | Not available | Available |
| AI phone ordering | Not available | Available |
| AI marketing | Not available | Available |
For a restaurant that needs POS, online ordering and loyalty, the add-on cost of building those through Epos Now's marketplace often closes the price gap with Flipdish — while delivering a less integrated result with more complexity to manage.
For restaurants wanting kiosks, a branded app or AI tools, Epos Now is not a viable path regardless of price.
Is Epos Now the right choice for your restaurant?
Epos Now works for operators who:
- Need a basic POS and are not planning to add online ordering, kiosks or loyalty in the near term
- Are comfortable managing multiple vendor relationships and integrations
- Prioritise the lowest possible entry price above all other factors
Flipdish is the better choice for restaurants that:
- Want POS and online ordering on one integrated platform
- Are planning to grow direct orders through branded apps and websites
- Want to add kiosks or AI tools without sourcing a separate vendor
- Need loyalty that works across all ordering channels natively
- Want to run their entire restaurant technology stack through one platform and one support relationship
The bottom line on Epos Now pricing
Epos Now's headline software price is not the cost of running Epos Now for a restaurant. The realistic annual cost — accounting for hardware, marketplace add-ons and payment processing — typically exceeds £10,000 per year for a single active site.
The software subscription is a small component of that total. Evaluating restaurant technology on monthly software fee alone misleads operators into choices that cost more over time than a more integrated platform.
For restaurants in the UK and Ireland looking for a platform that covers the full stack, Flipdish provides POS, online ordering, kiosks, loyalty and AI tools without the add-on subscription model that inflates Epos Now's real cost.