7+ Best Restaurant Management Software – 2022 Review

A restaurant software allows operators to oversee all aspects of their operations from a single point of contact. Choosing the right tool based on specific areas can be helpful for first-time users. 

To choose an effective tool, key features should include billing, CRM, stock maintenance, inventory management, and reports and analytics. Automating these tasks increases sales and enhances customer experience while easing management burdens. 

Working with restaurant brands for more than ten years, I have learned the best qualities to look out for in the restaurant management system.

Below, I have listed the best 7+ restaurant management software to help you run your business smoothly. Keep reading to find out what makes them unique. You’ll be able find the perfect restaurant software that can fulfill your business needs.

Let’s dive right in.

What Is The Best Restaurant Management Software?

Have a quick look at my top 3 picks: Toast POS, MarketMan, and Upserve.

4.9	4.6	4.2
Best overall. Excellent for POS and team management features. Starts at $165/month.	Best for flexibility. Includes multiple integrations with other platforms. Starts at $127/month.	Best value for money. Provides automation and offline functionality. Starts at $59/month.
Try Toast POS	Try MarketMan	Try Upserve

Keep reading for a more detailed review of the 7+ best commission management tools. 

1. Toast POS – Top Pick 

Best Restaurant POS System For Effective Management [Free Version | $165/Month]

Toasted POS is a tool aimed specifically at restaurants, bars, and coffee shops. This management system allows workers to become more efficient and customers to experience better service. In addition, the software is capable of managing menu pricing, customizing, and preparing the entire menu for online and offline clients. 

In addition to the ability to split items and customer bills, the ordering feature also allows management to generate a notification once an order has been completed.

Android-based POS hardware (i.e., tablet computer) is used to take orders, eliminating the need to move between the kitchen, terminals, and tables to complete orders. Stocks can also be monitored, and menu items can be added or removed using the system. 

Further, for signing receipts, paying, and giving tips, customers can use the interface for payment processing (whether they are mobile payments or contactless payments). Staff can be alerted about their performance daily with this tool, which automates loyalty and discount workflows.

In addition, working from a tablet makes it easy for servers to take orders and receive payments tableside by using the Quick Order feature. Restaurant clients can also view tip percentages that are reasonable through the application. Remote monitoring in real-time is possible for all of these transactions.

Toast POS offers the following features:

• Gift and Loyalty Programs: In addition to digital gift cards, Toast POS can also provide physical gift cards, allowing restaurants to sell gift cards online and in-store. Additionally, it integrates a loyalty program that can be linked to a credit card, a card from a customer, or a telephone number. As a result, more customers sign up for loyalty and CRM programs when the POS screen feeds them.
• Online Ordering: This feature allows orders to be routed directly from the client to the system, eliminating the need to enter the data into the point-of-sale system manually.

Pros And Cons Of Toast POS

Pros	Cons
Has an easy-to-navigate dashboard	Runs only on Android
Provides real-time updates
Supports guest management
Has an intuitive loyalty program

Toast POS Pricing Plan

Toast offers three pricing plans:

• Starter Kit ($0/month): You’ll get a free POS system for 1-2 terminals. This is perfect for small one-location restaurants.
• Essentials ($165/month): With the essentials plan, you’ll get Toast takeout, delivery food services, online ordering, and custom hardware configuration.
• Custom: This plan is great for restaurants with higher revenues. You can give loyalty rewards, manage teams and their invoices, integrate more than 100 tools, and custom hardware configurations.

I recommend using the Starter Kit plan to get an idea about the POS software before committing to it.

You can monitor important alerts and metrics by receiving daily summary emails using Toast POS. The system also generates valuable reports that can be used to improve your management and overall operations.

Burkhard Berger

2. MarketMan – Best Restaurant-Focused Point Of Sale System

Ideal Restaurant Management Solution For Recipe Management [$127/Location/Month]

With MarketMan, restaurants can manage inventories and vendors in a cloud-based environment. MarketMan integrates with multiple POS systems as well. Further, an account manager is assigned to each member’s account and receives one-on-one training sessions.

Thanks to its cloud-based nature, it is compatible with Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS devices. MarketMan can be integrated with QuickBooks, Sage, or Xero accounting software to streamline your restaurant operations.

MarketMan connects you with a dedicated account representative when you sign up. During your account setup, your representative will assist with data entry to get your account up and running as soon as possible.

In addition, MarketMan allows your restaurant to compile all the recipes into an easily navigable cookbook (i.e., menu management). You can enter things into MarketMan, such as:  

• Ingredients
• Instructions
• Photographs
• Portion sizes

You can access a cookbook via computers, mobile phones, and internet-connected tablets, or you can print it from a copy for your staff. Additionally, you can achieve consistency across multiple locations with the cookbook.

MarketMan’s unique features include:

• Food Cost Limit: Each recipe in MarketMan can be set at a maximum food cost threshold that will limit its cost. You will be notified if the price of ingredients rises in your MarketMan dashboard. 
• Purchase Order Management: Orders sent to MarketMan sales reps are sent directly by email. MarketMan’s team will enter your invoices within 24 hours if you enter them manually or scan them using a smartphone.
• Delegate tasks: MarketMan’s dashboard allows employees to assign access levels, allowing them to help with enormous tasks like weekly physical counts. The software will challenge any incorrect numbers, and if they override these prompts, you will be notified via email.

Pros And Cons Of MarketMan

Pros	Cons
Has a robust POS system	Invoices need to be manually entered
Monthly and annual memberships are available
Has an ability to scan invoices

MarketMan Pricing Plan

MarketMan provides the following pricing plans:

• Operator ($127/location/month): You’ll get 20 invoice scans monthly, POS integrations, COGS and purchases reporting capabilities, and more.
• Professional ($169/location/month): You’ll get 50 invoice scans monthly, advanced profitability reporting, a digital cookbook, recipe costing, and more.
• Ultimate ($339/location/month): You’ll get everything mentioned in the previous plans as well as 300 monthly invoice scans and 2 vendor integrations.

If advanced reporting features are important to you, the Professional plan provides the best value for money.

3. Upserve – Most Cost-Effective Restaurant POS Solution

Best Restaurant Software For Automated Ordering [ $59/Month]

As far as built-in POS inventory software goes, Upserve by Lightspeed offers the most automation. It is a great idea to control restaurant software costs using your POS system’s built-in inventory tools. 

For small to midsize restaurants looking to automate administrative tasks, including ordering and receiving supplies, Upserve’s POS and inventory management features are the perfect fit.

Upserve’s strong performance is also attributed to its underlying POS. Having said that, Upserve would be better if it didn’t demand a three-year contract commitment.

With Upserve, restaurant supplies are ordered and tracked more efficiently with a powerful, restaurant-specific POS and insightful automation. Using Upserve’s restaurant software to its full potential will save you hours of administrative work.

Here are some special features that Upserve offers:

• Simple Reordering: Upserve depletes your inventory count as you sell items throughout the day. It sends low stock alerts as supplies dwindle and your suppliers generate recommended orders. With a single click in your Upserve back-office dashboard, you can review these orders and submit them all simultaneously.
• Smartphone Scanning: Your smartphone camera can be turned into a barcode scanner with the Upserve Inventory App, which you can download on the App Store or Google Play.
• Color-coded Alerts: Colors change on your inventory dashboard as orders are submitted, received, delivered, and completed. As the supplier processes your order, they will read and update your email and text messages in real-time as they process your order.
• Offline functionality: Walking into the walk-in cooler means you don’t have access to the internet. In order to enable mobile inventory counts, Upserve relies on the robust offline functionality of the POS system.

Pros And Cons Of Upserve

Pros	Cons
Provides POS inventory management	Pricey baseline POS
Has one-click ordering for multiple places
Exceptional order tracking alerts

Upserve Pricing Plan

Upserve offers the following three pricing plans:

• Core ($59/month): With this plan, you’ll receive the ability to analyze guest trends, training mode, offline mode, and more.
• Pro ($199/month): Includes everything in the previous plan. Additionally, you’ll receive menu optimization, server performance, in-depth reporting features, and more.
• Pro Plus ($359/month): Includes everything in the previous plans. Additionally, you’ll receive Data API and enterprise account management.

The offline functionality that Upserve offers comes in handy. Your changes are synced to the cloud after regaining internet access. As soon as the “Changes Saved” banner appears at the top of the screen, you’ll be notified that your data has been updated.

Burkhard Berger

4. CrunchTime – Most Feature-Rich Restaurant Operation Management Platform

Best Restaurant Solution for Multi Location Management [Demo Available | Custom Pricing]

CrunchTime has professionals with decades of experience in the restaurant industry, so you never have to wait to explain your pain points or process to them. 

This robust software includes three smartphone apps: 

• Inventory Count App 
• Order Receiving App
• Daily Food Prep App

A labor cost tracking tool and auto-scheduling are also available in CrunchTime.

Besides offering many extras, CrunchTime hasn’t overlooked inventory features. However, a small restaurant could find this system too big for their needs. CrunchTime is an excellent choice for restaurants with multiple locations and franchises. 

It’s probably best to use inventory software built into your point-of-sale if you have fewer staff members or if you don’t have multiple locations to manage.

Here are the features of CrunchTime:

• Custom Alerts: You can view up to 50 key performance indicator (KPI) metrics using the mobile app. An integrated dashboard lets you watch data from multiple locations and set custom alerts. Aside from iOS and Android devices, it is also compatible with Apple Watches.
• Physical Inventory Counting: By logging into the CrunchTime website, your employees can count inventory remotely. It is also possible to process your physical inventory count using the Counter app, which is available from the Apple App Store and Google Play store.
• Task-specific Apps: Your restaurant’s efficiency can be increased with apps for its various areas. Line Check is an app that helps your kitchen and management team perform quality control inspections in addition to CrunchTime’s traditional counting app.

Pros And Cons Of CrunchTime

Pros	Cons
Provides labor cost management	Custom-quoted pricing
Supports over 1000 integrations	Not suitable for small restaurants
Generates recipes based on nutritional information

CrunchTime Pricing Plan

CrunchTime has a custom pricing model. Schedule a demo or get a quote. 

5. Revel: Fastest Restaurant POS Tool

Best Restaurant Software for Security Features [Demo Available | $99/Month/Terminal |]

In the restaurant point-of-sale industry, Revel Systems has been a pioneer. With an impressive number of features packed into a streamlined package, this cloud-based iPad POS was the first of its kind for restaurants. 

This POS system consistently ranks among the best for small businesses. The inventory tools included in Revel’s POS are also extremely functional. There is no limit to how many ingredients, recipes, or vendors you can add.

Individual team members can also be given precise access levels by adding customized roles and user permissions. Even the inventory counters on your smartphone can be configured to see what you want. For example, the expected count number can be blocked to prevent copying and pasting numbers.

Revel provides the following features:

• Customizable Permissions: Permissions for users can be highly customized in Revel Systems. Rather than giving users access to every report or management function, you can give them access to specific functions like inventory counting. 
• High Security:  Avoids compromising the overall security of your information by assigning weekly liquor counts to bartenders and weekly dry goods counts to line cooks. Your information stays with the people who you allow.
• Block Information: Prevents copying and pasting old counts by blocking the “expected count” column on inventory counting worksheets. Additionally, this function prevents theft and breakage by fiddling with numbers.

Pros And Cons Of Revel

Pros	Cons
Provides labor cost management	Custom-quoted pricing
Supports over 1000 integrations	Not suitable for small restaurants
Generates recipes based on nutritional information

Revel Pricing Plan

Revel offers three pricing plans:

• POS Software Costs ($99/month/terminal): You’ll receive employee management, an intuitive POS, inventory management, and more.
• Transparent (Quote-based): You’ll receive online statements & reporting, an in-house dedicated support team, Apple pay ready, and more.
• Implementation (Starting from $674): You’ll receive menu consultation, management console training, software onboarding, and more.

My recommendation is to pick the Implementation plan if you have to manage a larger multi location restaurant.

6. Epos Now – User-Friendly Restaurant POS Solution

Best Restaurant POS Software For Cafes & Coffee Shops [$39/Month]

Epos Now’s restaurant software is well suited to be used by small shops such as cafes, bakeries, and coffee shops. In order to increase customer loyalty, restaurants can use marketing tactics, promotions, and rewards programs. 

Users can track inventory and sales reports, manage and train their employees, and manage their training options through the app. Further, you can also use useful tools that would add value to your overall operations. 

Because of its cloud-based nature, users are able to access the platform from anywhere at any time. A user can clock in and out from different devices, monitor customer service, update the menu, and assign POS restrictions from multiple devices. 

Additionally, Epos Now provides reporting tools that allow users to analyze data such as sales, margins, employees, and inventories. 

Epos Now provides the following features:

• Inventory Tracking: Your business can be run more efficiently with Epos Now’s comprehensive reporting capabilities. Adding and editing products is easy with the back-office functions, and the management system is accessible from anywhere at any time.
• Security: Your staff members can set certain allowances with Epos Now, while others can have restricted access to certain information. Employees can use the system to conduct transactions and certain business information can be kept private. Refunds or voids can only be authorized by certain employees to handle security concerns and to focus on customer satisfaction.

Pros And Cons Of Epos Now

Pros	Cons
Good customer support	Lacks quality POS integrations
Easy-to-use interface
Provides reporting and insights

Epos Now Pricing Plan

Epos Now offers a one-time payment of $449 (after a 50% discount), or you can pay $39/month. You’ll receive the whole package, including:

• Multiple integrations
• Multi-channel ready​ 
• Real-time reporting on KPIs
• Complete onboarding for staff training
• Reports and insights available on all devices

7. Yellow Dog – Full Featured Restaurant Management Tool

Best Restaurant Software For Commissary Kitchens [Demo Available | Custom Price]

In large catering operations relying on a central commissary kitchen, Yellow Dog‘s labeling and distribution functions will make it an excellent choice, especially for food truck fleets. It could also be used by ghost and cloud kitchens to track inventory.

This tool helps back-of-house employees to communicate smoothly with front-of-house employees. Employees can quickly access images and recipes to make coffee, smoothies, and other drinks. In addition to speeding up the ordering process, one-touch ordering ensures that customer lines are not stuck.

Yellow Dog provides the following features:

• Payroll and Staff: By using the POS system, you can track your employees’ hours easily and make payroll easier. In particular, this is helpful if you do not have an existing payroll service you are happy with. You can track which employees require additional training within the POS system, as well as who your top performers are.
• Business Visibility: It is easy for users to monitor their businesses’ operations in real-time, thanks to the app’s support for mobile devices. Reports on sales, labor, and menu items can be accessed.

Pros And Cons Of Yellow Dog

Pros	Cons
Monthly subscription available	Custom-quoted pricing
Automated email reports
Supports bar management

Yellow Dog Pricing Plan

Yellow Dog doesn’t provide a pricing plan. Instead, it works on a custom-quoting model. Contact sales to get a quotation based on your business needs.

8. Orca – Most Intelligent Restaurant Management Software

Best Software For Restaurant Cost Control [Demo Available | $129/month]

Orca is an all-in-one browser-based application built especially for restaurant inventory management. The cost-tracking tools offered by Orca are excellent, despite the costs. 

Using Orca, you can generate accurate sales forecasts and budgets based on your daily sales and orders for upcoming weeks and months. It even allows you to plan your business decisions based on rainy versus sunny days since it considers the weather.

This software can count material, manage budgets, purchase, optimize orders, determine food costs, and manage vendors. 

Orca contains the following features:

• Inventory: It is possible to track food inventory, suppliers, units, and prices from the comfort of your computer or mobile device. Reordering what you need at the right time is possible with this capability. Orca also lets you download food costs, inventory, and menu reports.
• Detailed Analytics: With Orca, you can customize the data you see on the dashboard and the alerts. Integrating POS systems allows you to monitor profits and losses in real-time, making strategic decisions against your bottom line as soon as possible.

Pros And Cons Of Orca

Pros	Cons
Monthly subscription available	Lacks quality POS integrations
Forecasting tools available	Costly vendor and POS integrations
Can perform automated orders

Orca Pricing Plan

Orca offers a simple pricing plan:

• Orca charges $129/monthly or $399 for one-time licensing and optional integrations (POS and Vendor).
• POS integration costs $199, which is a one-time fee per store. 
• Vendor integrations cost $199 per vendor per store.

Wrapping Up

Restaurant management software allows you to take advantage of recent trends in running a restaurant. Whether you’re a small restaurant owner or a multi-location restaurant business owner, you can find the right tool for your needs.

To recap, I recommend Toast POS for overall restaurant management. You’ll get features like online ordering and customer loyalty programs which can help improve your sales. 

Further, I recommend MarketMan for inventory management. You can improve your order management systems as well with this POS software. 

Finally, I recommend Upserve to improve the cost-effectiveness of your restaurant. Cost saving is essential in any business, Upserve makes it easier to decrease excessive costs linked with your restaurant. 

To read more reviews, check out our blog. You’ll learn about different useful software for your restaurant business.