POS System Cost Calculator

Sections

Compare the true monthly cost of leading US point-of-sale systems: software fees plus card processing.

Monthly card sales through the POS ($)

Average ticket size ($)

- Cheapest option at your volume

$0 Estimated monthly cost

Provider	Monthly cost	Effective rate	First-year total

Monthly cost combines card processing at each system's published or typical rate plus the base software subscription for one location and one terminal. First-year total adds 12 months of costs plus a typical entry hardware outlay. Add-ons such as online ordering, loyalty, payroll, and extra terminals cost more on every platform. TouchBistro processing is negotiated through its payment partner, so its rate here is an estimate.

How the POS System Cost Calculator works

The sticker price of a POS system is the least important number on the quote. A full point-of-sale setup has three cost layers: hardware (a one-time purchase or financed bundle), software (the monthly subscription), and payment processing (a percentage plus a fixed fee on every card sale). For almost every business, processing is by far the biggest of the three. A restaurant putting $30,000 a month through its POS will typically pay $700 to $950 a month in processing alone, which dwarfs a $69 software fee. That is also why "free" plans such as the Toast Starter Kit are not really free: the $0 software fee is recovered through a higher processing rate of 3.09% + $0.15 instead of 2.49% + $0.15.

This calculator estimates your transaction count from your monthly card volume and average ticket, then costs out each system using its published or typical US in-person rate plus its base software subscription for a single location. Systems are ranked by total monthly cost, and the first-year column adds a typical entry hardware outlay. Notice how the ranking changes as your volume grows: at low volume, $0-software options win, while at higher volume, SpotOn's lower 1.99% rate can beat systems with cheaper subscriptions, and interchange-plus processing becomes worth a look.

Assumptions used in this calculator

Rates and fees are published US pricing as of mid-2026: Toast $69 per month at 2.49% + $0.15 (or $0 per month at 3.09% + $0.15), Square free plan at 2.6% + $0.15, SpotOn from $99 per month at 1.99% + $0.25, Shopify POS Pro $89 per month at 2.6% + $0.10, Lightspeed from $69 per month, and Clover from $59.95 per month.
TouchBistro ($69 per month) does not publish processing rates; its payment partner negotiates per merchant, so a Toast-level rate is used as a placeholder.
Figures cover one location and one terminal; extra terminals, kitchen displays, handhelds, online ordering, loyalty, reservations, and payroll all add cost, commonly taking real-world spend to $150 to $500 or more per month.
Hardware is modeled as a one-time purchase; free-hardware bundles (Toast Starter, some Clover resellers) usually carry two- to three-year contracts with early termination fees.
Online and keyed orders cost more on every system (Toast charges 3.50% + $0.15 on online orders) and are not included.