Epos Now vs Flipdish: Which POS Is Better for Restaurants?
Epos Now vs Flipdish: the short answer
For restaurants that want integrated POS, online ordering, kiosks, loyalty and AI tools in one system, Flipdish is the stronger platform. Epos Now provides an accessible entry-level POS for general hospitality use but relies on third-party marketplace apps for most restaurant-specific functions.
This comparison covers features, pricing, online ordering, kiosk capability, multi-location support and which type of operator each platform is built for.
What is Epos Now?
Epos Now is a UK-based cloud POS provider founded in 2011 and headquartered in Norwich. It serves retail and hospitality businesses including restaurants, cafés, pubs and bars.
Epos Now's headline selling point is an accessible entry price and a large marketplace of third-party app integrations. It is not a restaurant-specific platform — the core product is built to handle transactions and reporting for general retail and hospitality use cases equally.
What is Flipdish?
Flipdish is a restaurant technology platform founded in Dublin and used by restaurants, takeaways, cafés, QSRs and multi-location restaurant groups across the UK, Ireland and Europe.
Flipdish is built exclusively for food businesses. The platform provides:
- Restaurant POS
- Online ordering (website, branded app, direct ordering)
- Self-service kiosks
- Loyalty and customer engagement
- AI phone ordering
- AI marketing
- Payments and kitchen display systems
All of this is built on one platform. In-store and online orders flow through the same system without integrations or middleware.
Feature comparison
| Feature | Epos Now | Flipdish |
|---|---|---|
| Cloud POS | ✓ | ✓ |
| Restaurant-specific workflows | Partial | ✓ |
| Online ordering (own channel) | Via third-party | Built-in |
| Branded mobile app | ✗ | ✓ |
| Self-service kiosks | ✗ | ✓ |
| Kitchen Display System | Via marketplace | ✓ |
| Loyalty programme | Via marketplace | Built-in |
| AI phone ordering | ✗ | ✓ |
| AI marketing automation | ✗ | ✓ |
| Multi-location management | Available | Built-in |
| Open hardware | Partially | Yes |
| UK/Ireland support | ✓ | ✓ |
The most significant gaps are in online ordering, kiosks and AI tools. In 2025, these are not peripheral — they are core revenue channels for most restaurants. Epos Now delivers all of them via third-party integrations. Flipdish builds them natively.
Pricing comparison
Epos Now pricing
Epos Now advertises software from around £25–£39/month for new customers. The realistic cost of running Epos Now for a restaurant is higher once you account for all components:
Hardware: Terminals, printers, cash drawers and kitchen displays are sold separately. A complete counter setup typically runs to several hundred pounds. Hardware bundles are sometimes offered at promotional prices that require a multi-year contract.
Marketplace apps: Epos Now's core product does not include online ordering, reservations, loyalty or table management. Each requires a third-party app from the Epos Now marketplace, with its own monthly fee. A restaurant integrating online ordering, loyalty and a booking system adds three separate subscriptions.
Payment processing: Epos Now does not process payments directly — you arrange a payment processor separately. Processing fees are charged per transaction and typically range from 1.2% to 2.5%+ depending on provider and volume.
Support tiers: Premium support — faster response times, dedicated account management — costs extra.
When you account for all of these, a single restaurant running Epos Now with online ordering, loyalty and premium support can easily reach £100–£200+/month in platform costs, before payment processing.
Flipdish pricing
Flipdish pricing is structured around the platform. Online ordering pricing is available on the Flipdish website. Full platform pricing including POS is available from the sales team.
The key difference is that Flipdish does not require separate marketplace subscriptions for core restaurant functions. Online ordering, loyalty and kitchen display are part of the same platform.
Online ordering: the defining difference
For restaurants, online ordering is a primary revenue channel. How well your POS handles online orders determines both your sales potential and your operational efficiency.
Epos Now: Epos Now has no native online ordering product. To take direct online orders, you must integrate a third-party platform. This adds an additional monthly fee, an integration layer and a dependency on two systems staying in sync. Menu changes made in Epos Now may not automatically update your ordering channel. You manage two systems instead of one.
Flipdish: Flipdish online ordering is built into the same system as the POS. An online order lands in the same kitchen queue as an in-store order. A menu update in the POS applies to the online ordering channel automatically. There is no integration layer and no separate subscription.
For a restaurant handling dozens of online orders daily alongside in-store service, running two separate systems creates real operational friction and error risk every day. A unified system eliminates it.
Self-service kiosks
Epos Now does not offer a self-service kiosk product. Adding kiosks to an Epos Now restaurant means sourcing a third-party kiosk solution and building the integration with the POS separately.
Flipdish kiosks are native to the platform. A kiosk order appears on the same kitchen queue as a counter order or online order. Menu updates apply everywhere at once. Kiosk management uses the same admin tools as POS and online ordering — not a separate interface.
Self-service kiosks consistently increase average order values by enabling customers to browse the menu at their own pace, see upsell prompts and add items they might not have requested verbally. Running kiosks through a native platform integration rather than a bolt-on third-party system makes this significantly more reliable.
AI tools: an emerging but real capability gap
Epos Now does not currently offer AI-native restaurant tools. Integrating AI phone ordering or AI marketing into an Epos Now restaurant requires finding, evaluating and integrating third-party solutions separately.
Flipdish's AI platform includes:
- AI Phone Agent: Takes phone orders automatically without human staff involvement. The agent has real-time access to your menu and availability because it runs on the same platform as your POS.
- AI Marketing: Automated customer communications based on order history, frequency and behaviour — all driven by the same customer data the loyalty and ordering system holds.
For restaurants with high phone order volume, an AI phone agent can remove a meaningful staff overhead while maintaining consistent ordering accuracy.
Multi-location restaurant groups
For groups operating two or more sites, the architecture question matters considerably.
Epos Now can be deployed across multiple sites, but each site tends to operate as a relatively independent POS instance. Centralised menu management, cross-site loyalty and consolidated reporting require additional configuration.
Flipdish is designed for multi-location operation. Menu management, pricing, loyalty and reporting all work across sites from a single admin interface. A menu change pushes to all sites simultaneously. Cross-site loyalty is native. Group-level reporting is available without separate data exports.
This is particularly relevant for franchise operators and restaurant chains that need central control over brand consistency and operational standards.
Which type of operator suits each platform?
Epos Now may suit:
- A single-site café or pub needing basic POS only
- An operator comfortable managing multiple vendor integrations
- A business where the lowest possible entry price is the primary decision factor
Flipdish is the right choice for:
- Restaurants wanting POS and online ordering on one integrated system
- Operators wanting to grow direct order revenue through branded apps and websites
- Multi-location groups needing central management
- Operators deploying or planning to deploy self-service kiosks
- Restaurants wanting AI phone ordering and AI marketing tools
- Any restaurant where POS and digital ordering working seamlessly together matters operationally
The verdict
Epos Now is an accessible UK POS platform intended for general hospitality. For simple single-site use cases where basic POS is the primary need, it works adequately.
Flipdish is purpose-built for restaurants and delivers integrated POS, online ordering, kiosks, apps, loyalty and AI tools in one system. For operators who want their point-of-sale system to work with their digital ordering channels — rather than separately from them — Flipdish is the materially stronger platform.
The additional cost of building out Epos Now with a separate online ordering platform, kiosk solution and loyalty programme often closes the gap with Flipdish's all-in pricing, while delivering a less integrated result with more ongoing maintenance complexity.