SpotOn: point of sale software platform

SpotOn is one of the few restaurant POS vendors that publishes a full rate card. Checked 16 October 2026: the All-In Plan at $0 per station per month with card present at 2.79% + $0.20, POS Essentials at $55 per station per month with card present at 2.45% + $0.15, and hardware priced on the page. Buy it if you will do the crossover maths.

Rajat GuptaEditorial LeadReviewed 16 October 2026Pricing checked 16 October 2026 against the SpotOn restaurant pricing page

SpotOn in brief

SpotOn is one of the few restaurant POS vendors that publishes a full rate card.

Price: $0 /station per month on All-In, $55 /station per month on POS Essentials · Per station per month, with published card processing rates
Best for: Restaurants modelling a software fee against a processing rate
Watch out for: You give up using your own hardware, and SpotOn does not soften it: asked directly whether you can bring your own POS hardware or tablets, the answer on its pricing page is no, because the restaurant POS is designed around its proprietary devices.

The short answer

Buy SpotOn if you run a restaurant, you know roughly what you process on cards each month, and you want to compare a software fee against a processing rate with real numbers instead of waiting on a quote. The published pair of plans makes that comparison possible: one trades a higher card rate for no upfront cost, the other charges per station and cuts the rate. Few vendors in this category let you do that sum before a sales call.

Skip it if you want to keep your own terminals or tablets, because SpotOn says plainly that its restaurant POS runs on its proprietary hardware only. Skip the All-In Plan if a slow season could put you under a monthly processing minimum, since it carries one plus a minimum 2 year term. And skip it if you need online ordering, loyalty, reservations, kiosks or a kitchen display priced before you talk to sales, because every one of those is quote-only.

Where SpotOn fits

SpotOn sells a restaurant platform and prices the point of sale two ways, which is the whole reason to look at it. The All-In Plan is $0 per station per month with hardware included, paid for through a card-present rate of 2.79% + $0.20. POS Essentials is $55 per station per month and drops the card-present rate to 2.45% + $0.15, with hardware bought separately. Both run the same core: ordering, payments, table layouts, menu management and reporting, with 24/7 support included. The product question is therefore settled quickly and the commercial question is where the work is.

The crossover depends entirely on your card volume, and it is a sum you can do yourself from published figures. At low volume the $0 plan's higher rate costs less than $55 per station per month. At higher volume the 0.34 point difference in the percentage plus the lower per-transaction fee overtakes the subscription. Run both rate structures against last year's card sales, station by station, and the answer falls out. Nobody needs to quote you for that, which is unusual in restaurant POS and worth taking advantage of.

Station count is the unit, so the room layout drives the price. Both priced plans are per station per month, and a counter-service site with one station is a different bill from a full-service room running eight stations plus handhelds on the same plan. SpotOn publishes hardware prices too: Station 15 at $995 discounted to $750, Station 10 at $550 discounted to $415, a handheld at $495 discounted to $297, a guest-facing display at $200 and a wireless router at $300, with financing offered. It also recommends a backup router in most cases, which is a line to add rather than argue with.

The Core Bundle is where SpotOn's wider platform sits, and it is priced on payment volume rather than seats: $50 per month per location plus 20bps of gross payment volume, capped at $200 per location. SpotOn states the calculation as monthly processing volume times 0.20% up to $200, plus $50. It covers Profit Assist for P&L analysis, SpotOn Order for commission-free online ordering, the GoTo Place guest app, Marketing Assist and third-party software integrations. That is a genuine piece of pricing transparency, and it also means the bundle grows with sales, so decide which of those tools you would actually switch on.

Where SpotOn stops is everything outside that bundle. Online ordering, profitability analysis, marketing, loyalty, websites, labor management, waitlist and reservations, experiences, kiosks and kitchen display are each listed with a Get a Quote action and no price. For a full-service operator who wants a kitchen display and reservations on day one, a large part of the monthly cost is therefore still unpublished, and the two plan figures understate the real bill. Build Your Own, the third tier, is custom priced for multi-unit and high-volume operations and comes with custom processing rates and a discounted software bundle.

SpotOn pricing

SpotOn publishes more than almost anyone else in restaurant POS: two plan prices, both card-present and keyed processing rates, hardware list and discounted prices, and the Core Bundle formula. What it does not publish is implementation, which it confirms is chargeable, and the individual software add-ons, which are all quote-only. So the honest summary is that you can model the till and the card rate yourself and you still need a quote for the rest of the platform.

What SpotOn publishes

All-In Plan: $0 /station per month (Monthly, per station, 2 year minimum term)$0 POS software and hardware, with card present at 2.79% + $0.20 and keyed at 3.79% + $0.20. Ordering, payments, table layouts, menu management, reporting and 24/7 support. Processing minimums apply.
POS Essentials: $55 /station per month (Monthly, per station, month to month)Card present at 2.45% + $0.15, Amex at 3.19% + $0.15 and keyed at 3.45% + $0.15. Same core software and 24/7 support. Hardware bought separately plus implementation costs, with financing available.
Build Your Own: Custom pricing (Custom contract)For multi-unit, enterprise and high-volume operations. Everything in POS Essentials, custom processing rates, a discounted custom software bundle and 24/7 support.
Core Bundle: $50 /month plus 20bps of GPV, capped at $200 (Monthly, per location, with a volume-based component)Profit Assist, SpotOn Order commission-free online ordering, the GoTo Place guest app, Marketing Assist and third-party software integrations. Priced per location.

As published on the SpotOn restaurant pricing page on 16 October 2026. Hardware and implementation are charged separately on POS Essentials and Build Your Own.

Four things decide what you actually pay.

Your card volume, because it decides which plan is cheaper and nothing else does. The choice between $0 per station at 2.79% + $0.20 and $55 per station at 2.45% + $0.15 is a straight trade between a fixed fee and a rate. Work it out on last year's card sales rather than on a projection, and do it per station, since the fee repeats and the rate does not.
Station count, including handhelds. Both priced plans are charged per station per month, so the floor plan is the pricing document. Count the stations you will actually run in year two rather than at opening, and ask what adding one mid-term costs.
Hardware and implementation on the paid plan. SpotOn publishes the device prices, with Station 15 at $995 discounted to $750 and a handheld at $495 discounted to $297, but it does not publish an implementation figure and confirms in its own FAQ that setup and implementation are chargeable, covering the custom menu build, installation and staff training. Get that quoted alongside the devices.
The software you add beyond the Core Bundle. Online ordering, loyalty, reservations, waitlist, labor management, kiosks and kitchen display are all quoted individually with no published price. A full-service restaurant switching several of them on is buying most of its monthly cost through a quote, so ask for each as its own line and drop anything that does not earn its keep.

What costs extra

The Core Bundle at $50 per month plus 20bps of gross payment volume per location, capped at $200 per location.
Hardware on POS Essentials and Build Your Own, priced on the page: Station 15 at $995 discounted to $750, Station 10 at $550 discounted to $415, a guest-facing display at $200, a handheld at $495 discounted to $297 and a wireless router at $300. SpotOn recommends a backup router in most cases.
Implementation, which SpotOn confirms applies and does not price. It covers the custom menu build, installation and personalized staff training.
Online ordering, profitability analysis, marketing, loyalty, websites, labor management, waitlist and reservations, experiences, kiosks and kitchen display, each listed with a Get a Quote action and no price.
Amex on POS Essentials, priced apart at 3.19% + $0.15 rather than the standard card-present rate.

Implementation and commercial terms

What the pricing page confirmed on 16 October 2026. The two rows that most often surprise a buyer are the All-In term and the hardware restriction.

All-In Plan term: Minimum 2 year term, with monthly processing minimums that are not published in dollars.
POS Essentials term: Month to month, per station.
Your own hardware: Not allowed. SpotOn says the restaurant POS uses its proprietary hardware only.
Implementation fee: Confirmed as chargeable, covering menu build, installation and training. No figure published.
Support: 24/7 technical support included on every plan at no extra cost.
Software updates: Included in the monthly software cost.
Financing: Offered for hardware and implementation, plus flat-fee capital loans.
Free trial: None listed. The entry point is a demo.

Budget SpotOn in three parts and get two of them from the page. First, the plan: pick between $0 per station at the higher rate and $55 per station at the lower one by running both against your own card volume. Second, hardware: take the published device prices, multiply by your station and handheld count, and add a backup router. Third, the part you have to ask for: implementation, and every add-on your service style needs. If the quote for that third part gets large, compare it against Square, which publishes kitchen display and kiosk software prices per device, and against TouchBistro, which publishes a starting price and quotes the same add-ons.

Source: the SpotOn restaurant pricing page, checked 16 October 2026. Confirm current prices with the vendor before you budget.

What SpotOn gives up

You give up using your own hardware, and SpotOn does not soften it: asked directly whether you can bring your own POS hardware or tablets, the answer on its pricing page is no, because the restaurant POS is designed around its proprietary devices. That rules out reusing the iPads or terminals you already own, and it means a switch away later is a hardware write-off as well as a software migration. Price the devices as part of the decision, not as an afterthought.

You give up flexibility on the All-In Plan in exchange for the $0 software and hardware. SpotOn is explicit that you pay for both over time through a higher processing rate, that a monthly processing minimum applies, and that the plan carries a minimum 2 year term. For a seasonal business, the minimum is the risk: ask what it is in dollars and what happens in a quiet month. POS Essentials at $55 per station per month is month to month by comparison.

You give up a published price for most of the platform. The two plan figures and the card rates are real, and then online ordering, loyalty, reservations, waitlist, labor management, kiosks and kitchen display are all Get a Quote. A full-service restaurant that needs a kitchen display and reservations is buying the larger half of its monthly bill blind, which is the same position every quote-only vendor puts you in, just arrived at later.

You give up a trial. There is no free trial listed: the entry point is a demo, and the All-In Plan's $0 upfront offer is the substitute for one. That is a reasonable trade if the plan genuinely has no upfront cost, but it comes attached to the 2 year term, so the thing that looks like a low-risk way to try SpotOn is in fact the longest commitment on the page. Evaluate it as a contract, not as a trial.

You give up the ability to check SpotOn's own savings claims. The pricing page carries a Core Bundle calculator whose outputs are the vendor's illustrative estimates from slider inputs, and which the page itself labels as not guaranteed. Nothing from it appears on this page as a fact, and nothing from it belongs in your business case either. The figures worth modelling are the ones SpotOn publishes as prices: the plan fees, the card rates, the hardware list and the bundle formula.

How SpotOn compares

Restaurant POS splits cleanly on what you can read before a sales call. SpotOn publishes two plan prices, both card rates and the hardware list. Square publishes software fees per location and every processing rate. TouchBistro publishes two starting prices and quotes everything else. Toast could not be accessed at all. Every price below comes from that vendor's own pricing page, checked on 16 October 2026, and anything unpublished or unreachable is recorded as such rather than estimated.

Tool	Best for	Price	Where it breaks
SpotOn	Restaurants that want to trade a software fee against a card rate using published figures	$0 or $55 /station per month, card present 2.79% + $0.20 or 2.45% + $0.15	Proprietary hardware only, a 2 year term on All-In, and most add-ons quote-only
Toast	Restaurants prepared to run a full sales process for a restaurant-specific platform	Could not be accessed on 16 October 2026	toasttab.com returned HTTP 403 to every request, so no figure could be verified
TouchBistro	Single sites wanting a low published entry price on iPad-based POS	From $69/month, or $119/month with hardware included	Both figures exclude hardware, processing and additional fees, and every add-on is quoted
Square	Counter service and smaller food businesses wanting a free tier and published rates	$0, $49 or $149/mo. per location	Kitchen display and kiosk software are charged per device on top of the plan

What to test in a SpotOn demo

SpotOn lists no free trial, so this is a demo plus a commercial interrogation. The good news is that half the commercial work can be done before you book it, because the plan fees, card rates and hardware prices are published. Use the demo for the things the page cannot answer.

Do the crossover sum before the call and bring it with you. Put your real monthly card volume against $0 per station at 2.79% + $0.20 and against $55 per station at 2.45% + $0.15, per station, and work out which side of the line you sit on. Then ask the representative to confirm your figure rather than letting them present a plan.
Get the All-In processing minimum in dollars and the exit position in writing. SpotOn says a minimum applies and that the plan carries a minimum 2 year term, without publishing either number. Ask what happens if a slow month falls short, what the early termination terms are, and what the rate does at renewal.
Make the demo run your actual service. Build a section of your real menu, set up the table layout of your busiest room, fire an order from a handheld and split a bill the way your servers do. The core software is the same on both priced plans, so this session is about whether the workflow fits your floor rather than which tier to buy.
Price the hardware and the implementation together. Take the published device figures, Station 15 at $995 discounted to $750, Station 10 at $550 discounted to $415, handheld at $495 discounted to $297, guest-facing display at $200 and wireless router at $300, and ask for the implementation quote covering menu build, installation and training beside them. Confirm whether a backup router is needed for your layout.
List the add-ons you need and get each quoted separately. Kitchen display, online ordering, reservations, waitlist, loyalty, labor management and kiosks are all unpriced, so ask for line items rather than a bundle, and ask how the Core Bundle at $50 per month plus 20bps of payment volume per location, capped at $200, changes what you still need to buy.

Frequently asked questions about SpotOn

How much does SpotOn cost?

As of 16 October 2026 SpotOn's restaurant pricing page lists the All-In Plan at $0 per station per month with card present at 2.79% + $0.20, and POS Essentials at $55 per station per month with card present at 2.45% + $0.15. Build Your Own is custom priced. Hardware and implementation are extra.

Is SpotOn's POS really free?

The All-In Plan has $0 POS software and hardware fees, but it is not free. SpotOn says you pay for both over time through a higher processing rate, with a monthly processing minimum and a minimum 2 year term. POS Essentials charges $55 per station per month and cuts the card rate instead.

What is SpotOn for restaurants?

It is a restaurant platform built around its own point of sale: ordering, payments, table layouts, menu management and reporting, with 24/7 support included on every plan. Online ordering, reservations, loyalty, labor management, kiosks and kitchen display sit around it as separately quoted products.

How much is SpotOn hardware?

On POS Essentials and Build Your Own it is a separate purchase, and SpotOn publishes the figures: Station 15 at $995 discounted to $750, Station 10 at $550 discounted to $415, a handheld at $495 discounted to $297, a guest-facing display at $200 and a wireless router at $300. Financing is available.

Which SpotOn plan is cheaper for my restaurant?

It comes down to card volume. All-In charges nothing per station but 2.79% + $0.20 card present. POS Essentials charges $55 per station per month and 2.45% + $0.15. Run both against last year's card sales, station by station, and take whichever lands lower. Neither answer is universal.

Does SpotOn charge setup or implementation fees?

Yes. SpotOn confirms on its pricing page that setup and implementation costs apply, covering the custom menu build, installation and personalized staff training, and points buyers to its hardware and implementation section for current rates. No implementation figure is published, so get it quoted with the hardware.

Can I use my own tablets or POS hardware with SpotOn?

No. SpotOn states that its restaurant POS runs on its own proprietary hardware only, so existing iPads and terminals cannot be reused. Budget the device list as part of the decision, and treat a later switch away as a hardware cost as well as a software migration.

What is the SpotOn Core Bundle and what does it cost?

It is the software layer around the POS: Profit Assist, SpotOn Order commission-free online ordering, the GoTo Place guest app, Marketing Assist and third-party integrations. SpotOn prices it at $50 per month plus 20bps of gross payment volume per location, capped at $200 per location, which it states as volume times 0.20% up to $200, plus $50.

Is there a free trial of SpotOn?

No free trial is listed. The entry point is a demo, and the All-In Plan's $0 upfront software and hardware stands in for a trial. Be aware that this plan carries a monthly processing minimum and a minimum 2 year term, so it is a contract rather than a risk-free test.

Is SpotOn better than Square for a restaurant?

SpotOn is the restaurant-specific option and publishes both plan fees and card rates, with proprietary hardware. Square publishes software fees per location plus every processing rate and charges kitchen display and kiosk software per device. Counter service often fits Square; full service with handhelds usually fits SpotOn better.