Lightspeed Restaurant POS

Lightspeed Restaurant POS Review

In our review of Lightspeed restaurant POS, we’ll look at all the pricing, pros and cons, features and give you our professional opinion if Lightspeed is a viable solution for your restaurant.

Whether you’re a new business owner or a seasoned veteran, you know how hectic your peak times can be, and you probably face the same challenges trying to manage and process orders. Fortunately, many new point-of-sale (POS) systems have entered the market to help you better organize your restaurant and payments.

We think that Lightspeed is one of the most exciting newcomers. Lightspeed is well known for its retail POS system (Lightspeed Retail), but they also have Lightspeed Restaurant, a platform dedicated to restaurant owners. I’ll take a look at this unique platform in today’s review!

Overview of Lightspeed Restaurant POS

Lightspeed is a Canadian-based POS company with offices in the USA and Europe offering POS and payment solutions for retail stores and restaurants. Lightspeed is somewhat a newcomer to the mobile POS industry. It first began gaining traction as a mobile platform back in 2012. In 2014, Lightspeed purchased a Belgium-based POS company called POSIOS, rebranded and redesigned as Lightspeed Restaurant POS.

According to Lightspeed, Lightspeed Restaurant’s goal is to provide restaurant owners with a comprehensive, low-cost POS system that can take care of every component of order tracking and payments. The software has built-in tools that can help you manage your restaurant’s front-of-house and back-of-house with just a few touches of the screen.

Lightspeed Restaurant is an app built for the iPad, one of several types of POS systems. This mobile POS system can come with you when you’re on-the-go, or be placed into a fixed register set-up. There are plenty of features that you’ll find in this platform that can help you better manage your current or future restaurant.

Let’s dive into the details below!

Pros vs Cons

Pricing

If you’re starting a new restaurant, it’s essential to keep costs down while you try and build your cash flow. Investing in an expensive POS system may seem like a good idea, but the price can become overwhelming if you need many stations and software licenses. So, does Lightspeed offer affordable pricing options for its customers? Let’s take a look at Lightspeed Restaurant’s costs in more detail:

Lightspeed Restaurant Essentials (1 Register)

The complete hardware bundle for your new, one-location restaurant

• Monthly – $69/mo
• 1 register (Additional registers +$34/mo)
• Up to 2 printers
• Personalized onboarding
• 24/7 support
• Free updates
• Secure cloud backup
• Basic reporting

Lightspeed Restaurant Plus (1 Register)

• Monthly – $189/mo
• 1 register (Additional registers +$34/mo)
• Up to 2 printers
• Personalized onboarding
• 24/7 support
• Free updates
• Order and pay at table
• Loyalty
• Gift Cards
• Advanced Insights

Lightspeed Restaurant Pro (1 Register)

• Monthly – $399/mo
• 1 register (Additional registers +$34/mo)
• Up to 2 printers
• Personalized onboarding
• 24/7 support
• Free updates
• Loyalty
• Gift Card
• Order anywhere
• Advanced Insights
• Advanced Inventory

Add-Ons (Starting at $12/monthly)

• Customer Facing Display
• Kitchen Display System
• Advanced Reporting
• Self Order Table Menu
• eCom for Restaurant

Premium Add-Ons (Starting at $39/monthly)

• Accounting
• Loyalty
• Loyalty App
• Self Order Kiosk
• Delivery Integration

Lightspeed for Restaurants starts at $39 per month, and you’ll gain access to its services on one register, free updates, cloud storage, setup assistance, basic reporting services, and more. The $49 per month loyalty scheme can help you build a custom loyalty program for repeat customers. As you can see, Lightspeed’s services are affordable — but admittedly, they’re not the lowest POS prices in the industry.

Keep in mind; that these prices are more of a guideline than a set structure. If you have a large restaurant chain or need multiple registers, you can work with Lightspeed to find a suitable price point. They provide quotes depending on what you’re looking for.

You’ll also need to purchase your iPad, and you’ll need additional equipment to get up and running. This means that you may be looking at a decent amount of investment to get started. But keep in mind; Lightspeed used to be $99 per month, so the recent drop in price does save you money.

To benefit from this platform, you’ll need to commit to one year. While this isn’t nearly as long as some of the industry’s standard contract lengths, it’s still not ideal if you want to avoid financial obligations. Fortunately, Lightspeed Restaurant does offer free demos and a 14-day risk-free trial.

Demo Video

Lightspeed Restaurant Quick Service Walkthrough

Key Features

If you want to get to the heart of any POS system, it’s essential to look at the key features. In this section, I’ll explore all the advantages you’ll receive if you use this POS provider for your restaurant.

Design Your Digital Restaurant

This feature is so beneficial for restaurant owners that I thought it deserved its section. Lightspeed Restaurant allows you to build an extensive restaurant model so you can control every component of your venue via your POS system. You can create a physical representation of the tables and seat numbers within your restaurant – this can be used to track orders, reservations, bill payments, availability, and more.

The table management feature is an excellent tool for your staff members, who can access any table via the app. Servers can keep track of their tables and help out with others — it’s the perfect way to manage your entire floor space. Lightspeed Restaurant also offers its users various restaurant templates that can help you build your restaurant’s outline within the system.

Deployment Type

Lightspeed Restaurant is an app that is locally installed on your iPad device, but there is a cloud connection between your hardware and a central online reporting system. In this regard, Lightspeed is a hybrid between cloud-based and locally installed — this is the same format that many modern POS systems follow.

Unlike many cloud-based systems, the offline mode built into Lightspeed Restaurant, with the help of a little hardware device called Lightserver, helps prevent data loss. If your hardware device is disconnected from the internet, the hardware will operate normally and store data until the internet connection is detected again. Your system will then synchronize with the cloud. Keep in mind; you will not be able to accept credit card payments if your internet is down.

Industries Served

Lightspeed Restaurant is specifically geared towards the restaurant and hospitality industry. While Lightspeed offers other POS solutions for different sectors and eCommerce, this particular POS platform should only be used for restaurant owners. In many ways, this is a significant benefit — it ensures all the package’s features are specially geared towards restaurant owners’ exact needs.

In terms of business size, Lightspeed Restaurant can be scaled to fit any restaurant or restaurant chain, but the app is probably best suited for small to medium-sized businesses. The ability to view all of your locations from a central portal ensures that you can manage many restaurants with this POS system. Sign in to Lightspeed’s dashboard, and the cloud data reporting system provides you with the tools you need to obtain an overall snapshot of your business’s performance.

Here’s a general list of restaurant types mentioned on Lightspeed’s website where the software is capable:

• Full-Service
• Bar/Nightclub
• Quick Service
• Cafe
• Hotel Restaurant

Ease of Use

Many newcomers to the POS industry have made it a primary goal to increase their platforms’ ease-of-use. Hard-to-use systems can cost you time and money — it can also take you ages to get new staff used to a sophisticated platform. Fortunately, you can customize the Lightspeed Restaurant interface to include color-coded menus, categories, tables, and more. You can make the entire platform an interactive hub for yourself and your staff.

Hardware

One of the primary downsides of Lightspeed is its restricted platform requirements. Unfortunately, if you want to use a tablet to engage with Lightspeed, it must be an iPad. The company doesn’t currently offer any Android support. iPads can often be much more expensive than standard Android products, so keeping this in mind is essential.

Regardless, it’s capabilities with an iPad means that you can carry around your POS system with you. Also, you can access Lightspeed Restaurants on an iPhone, though you won’t be able to accept payments on anything aside from an iPad platform.

As always, we recommend getting all your equipment directly from the POS company so that everything is compatible and works nicely together. Fortunately, you can get all the hardware individually or in complete kits directly from Lightspeed. Still, they do not advertise prices on their website, so you’ll need to contact Lightspeed directly for a quote.

Integrations

Lightspeed for restaurants has a long list of integration partners with unique services that seamlessly integrate with the POS, allowing you to run your business based on your requirements. There are too many partners to list here, but they have everything you need from employee scheduling to inventory management.

You can sync your reporting data with a wide range of accounting platforms, such as QuickBooks and Xero. For those who want to add a loyalty program, you can integrate it with third-party apps or use the loyalty add-on mentioned in the pricing portion of my review.

Payment Processing

Lightspeed Restaurants has different credit card processors depending on the country where your business is located. For US-based customers, you’ll be able to choose between Lightspeed Payments, Vantiv triPOS, Cayan, Element Express, and Mercury Payment Services.

This means that you’ll be able to accept most major credit cards, as well as contactless payments (such as Apple Pay and Android Pay). Keep in mind; you’ll need to pay attention to the transaction fees associated with each of these credit card processors.

Customer Service

While you won’t contact Lightspeed on most major holidays, they do typically have 24/7 telephone support. This is a significant advantage — if you run a restaurant with long opening hours, you may need to speak to someone if something goes wrong overnight. Being caught without the ability to process payments can be extremely damaging to your company’s revenue. Believe it or not, this level of support is absent with many of the other leading POS providers.

Another critical customer support benefit that is afforded to Lightspeed Restaurant customers is personal onboarding. This process will help you get to grips with your new POS system — you can ask your onboarding specialist any tough questions you may have about your new system. It’s a good idea to have your staff present during this process.

As with any large company, there are a few negative comments about Lightspeed on some consumer watchdog groups. Most of these comments suggest that Lightspeed can be glitchy and that the company binds you into a contract that you can’t exit. It’s essential to keep in mind, this type of feedback is often associated with companies that have legally binding agreements. For this reason, it’s critical to overview the agreement before signing it — make sure you can afford to leave the contract if you must!

Our Verdict

There’s plenty to like about Lightspeed Restaurant. You are afforded some of the best features in the industry — it’s one of the best options for people looking for an iPad POS system purely devoted to the restaurant industry. Its ability to create a virtual restaurant, track staff, manage orders, and record data helps you better manage your restaurant.

Lightspeed’s subscription and hardware requirements can add up if you’re starting a new business. Also, you’re locked into a one-year contract. Fortunately, part of this problem is solved by the company’s 14-day free trial. I recommend you utilize this trial period to ensure it’s the right platform for your business.

Overall, there’s plenty to like about Lightspeed. You can request a demo via the company’s website — it’s definitely worth your time! If you don’t think this is the right POS system for your restaurant, make sure to check out some of my other reviews on our site.

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