Choosing a restaurant point of sale is only half the job. The other half is choosing who sells it, installs it, programs the menu and answers the phone when a printer dies during service. This rating gathers POS resellers for restaurants: local value added resellers who drive to the venue, distributors who keep the spare terminals in stock, and dealer networks built around one platform.
Selection followed practical criteria. First, how much of the work the company actually takes on: hardware supply, software licence, installation, staff training, support hours. Second, specialisation, because a firm that lives on garden centres and gift shops reads a kitchen ticket flow differently than one that only serves restaurants. Third, commercial terms: outright purchase or monthly plan, length of the service contract, and whether the deal ties the venue to a single payment processor. Coverage area and speed of replacement parts were weighed as well, since a dead terminal on Friday evening costs more than any licence.
Positions here are decided by votes of the community, not by the editors and not by payment. Read the cards rather than the numbers: pros, minuses and reviews from operators who have already signed with these POS resellers for restaurants say more about a company than its position in any list.
Cervion Systems has handled restaurant point of sale since 1996 and does little else: no general IT contracts, no retail chains. The company works as a value added reseller with offices in New York, Pennsylvania, Florida and Arizona, supplies tablet based terminals, and offers subscription plans that spread hardware and software cost across monthly payments instead of one heavy invoice. Installation, menu build and training are handled by its own technicians.
A reasonable choice for independent venues and small groups on the East Coast that want a named account manager rather than an anonymous queue. Outside the states where Cervion keeps engineers the main argument for paying a VAR, fast onsite response, weakens. Operators who prefer to own hardware outright should price a multi year service plan in full before comparing it with a boxed system.
Tarrytown, New York, USA
POS Nation sells packaged systems out of Charlotte, North Carolina, and has been at it since 2001. The catalogue is arranged as bundles: terminal, cash drawer, receipt printer, kitchen printer and software in one order, with restaurant configurations kept separate from retail and liquor store ones. Hardware can be bought outright or taken on a monthly plan, and technical support is answered by a United States team.
Fits pizzerias, bars and single site restaurants that want a working till delivered in a box, with remote setup rather than a consultant in the dining room. Groups with complex menu logic or a long list of integrations will reach the ceiling of a packaged product fairly quickly. Before signing, check which payment processor the bundle assumes, because processing terms usually cost more over three years than the terminals do.
3021-B Griffith St, Charlotte, North Carolina, USA
Custom Business Solutions develops the NorthStar hospitality platform in Irvine, California, and sells it both directly and through authorised dealers, so a restaurant can buy from the developer or from a partner in its own city carrying the same software. The company states that it does not lock operators into one payment processor and keeps integrations open, which matters to groups already running their own delivery or accounting tools. Order entry, self service kiosks and online ordering sit inside the same product line.
Suited to table service restaurants and multi unit operators who want one platform and a dealer nearby for hardware swaps. The channel model has a known weakness: service standards differ by region, so it is worth asking who answers the call at nine on a Saturday evening. A small café with two terminals will probably find the system heavier than the task requires.
Irvine, California, USA
BlueStar is a distributor rather than a shop for restaurateurs: terminals, receipt printers, scanners, tablets, kitchen displays and mounts go to resellers and integrators, who then sell them on to venues. The company operates from Hebron, Kentucky, with facilities in Europe and Latin America, carries most recognised POS hardware brands, and adds configuration, imaging, kitting and financing for its channel partners.
For a restaurant the value is indirect but real: a dealer buying through a distributor of this size can usually get a replacement terminal in a day or two rather than a month. Direct sales to end users are not the model, so an operator calling in will be handed to a local partner. A chain with its own IT department can apply for a reseller account and buy on distribution terms, provided it is ready to handle configuration itself.
Hebron, Kentucky, USA
Sintel Systems puts together POS packages by trade: pizzeria, frozen yogurt shop, café, full service restaurant, each with matched hardware and pre configured software. The pitch is single source supply, meaning terminal, licence, installation and support arrive under one contract instead of three vendors pointing at each other when an order stops printing in the kitchen. Technical support is answered by a United States team and the line runs around the clock.
Works for owners of one or two venues who do not want to assemble a system from parts and value having one number to call. Trade specific packages narrow the choice, and an operation with unusual service flow may find the configuration rigid. Renewal terms of the support agreement deserve a careful reading, since with a single source arrangement the same company holds the hardware, the software and the help desk.
Total Touch reaches restaurants almost entirely through independent dealers, and the dealer programme is the visible half of the business: a local seller takes the software, adds hardware and payment processing, installs the system and supports it in its own city. On the product side the software covers table maps, split checks, bar tabs, staff permissions and remote reporting from a phone.
The arrangement suits venues that prefer a nearby specialist who programs the menu and returns when a kitchen printer fails, rather than a ticket in a queue. The trade off is predictable: two dealers of the same product can quote different prices and respond at different speeds, so references from other restaurants in the area are worth collecting before signing. Operators who want one national provider with published rates will not find that here.
Retail Control Systems has been selling and servicing point of sale across New England for more than thirty years from Lebanon, New Hampshire. Its core clientele sits in retail, garden centres, wine and liquor shops, museums and attractions, and the same engineers set up the cafés, bakery counters and food service corners that live inside those businesses. The firm supplies hardware, configures software, moves data between platforms and keeps a toll free support line.
The strongest case for this reseller is a hybrid operation: a farm shop with a kitchen, a museum with a restaurant, a bakery selling both loaves and lunch on one system. A busy table service restaurant should ask for references in that exact segment, because the depth here is on the retail side. Coverage is regional, an advantage in New England and a limitation for anyone outside it.
Lebanon, New Hampshire, USA
RapidPOS works out of San Diego as a value added reseller: it sells point of sale software from established vendors together with hardware, deployment and support, rather than writing its own platform. That independence is the selling point, since the firm can compare products instead of defending one. A project usually runs as system selection, data migration from the old till, configuration, staff training and a support agreement afterwards.
Makes sense for an operator who wants an adviser between several brands and a single contractor responsible for the result. A small venue with a simple menu may end up paying for consulting it will not use. Anyone shortlisting the company should confirm which restaurant platforms it currently carries, because a reseller line-up shifts whenever vendor agreements are renewed.
San Diego, California, USA
Focus POS is a restaurant platform from San Antonio, Texas, distributed through authorised resellers, which means no one buys it from a checkout page. The local dealer quotes the licence, supplies terminals, programs the menu, trains the staff and takes the first support call, while the developer keeps the software and the updates. The feature set is written for food service: check and tab management, labour scheduling, inventory counts, reporting across several venues.
The channel approach suits operators who want someone physically present during opening week and a product with a long service history in restaurants. It also means pricing is negotiated locally, so two quotes for the same configuration can differ noticeably and collecting three is sensible. Venues that expect a month to month cloud subscription with self service setup will find the whole procedure slow.
San Antonio, Texas, USA
POS USA keeps a directory of point of sale dealers sorted by city and by industry, restaurants among them, and that solves the first problem every operator meets: working out who actually services a given brand of till nearby. Listings describe the reseller, the platforms it carries and the territory it covers, and enquiries are routed to firms in the region instead of one national call centre.
Useful at the shortlist stage, particularly in areas where local resellers do not advertise beyond word of mouth. It is a routing service and not a seller: the contract, the price and every support commitment are agreed with the dealer, and the directory answers for none of them. Verify references, response times and processing terms independently, and treat an enquiry as an invitation to several sales calls.