Best POS Systems for Food Trucks of March 2023

Our picks for best food truck POS systems

TouchBistro: Best for overall functionality

Software cost: Starts at $69 monthly with add-on features available for an additional fee.

Hardware cost: An iPad is required to use as your portable POS terminal. Quote-based pricing is used for packages that may include hardware such as cash drawers, receipt printers, kitchen display systems and customer facing displays.

Payment processing cost: Quote-based pricing through payment partners like Square, TSYS and Worldpay.

Why we like it: As a POS system created by people from the restaurant industry, TouchBistro offers robust functionality for all kinds of food-service businesses, including food trucks. With its variety of features, flexible system and custom-built plans, TouchBistro can be a great option for food trucks of all shapes and sizes. Read our full TouchBistro review.

Notable features include:

• Ordering: The TouchBistro mobile payments terminals let you take orders from inside or outside your food truck. You can add, edit and search order items and cash customers out with quick register buttons.

• Payment processing: TouchBistro offers direct payment processing integrations from top providers like Square and Worldpay. Additionally, TouchBistro accepts the full range of payments including cash, credit and debit cards and digital wallets such as Apple Pay.

• Menu: You can easily build a menu by adding or cloning items, sync it with other menus and schedule the introduction of specials based on time of day and season.

• Staff: The system includes built-in features to track all of your employee activity, monitor employee hours and performance and enable clocking-in and out functionality.

• Customer engagement: Add-ons are available for online-ordering, customer loyalty, marketing, gift cards and reservations for an additional monthly cost.

• Inventory: The system allows you to track your ingredient inventory, update inventory after new shipments come in and manage stock levels.

• Reporting and analytics: You can access your sales data anywhere. The system includes over 50 detailed reports such as daily sales and staff insights.

• Support: Customer support via phone, chat and email is offered 24/7/365 as well as self-service resources on its website.

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Toast: Best for startup food trucks

Software cost: From $0 to $165 per month, plus custom pricing option.

Hardware cost: A terminal or handheld kit is included with the free plan at no cost. Printers, kiosks, cash drawers, barcode scanners and other accessories offered for a fee.

Payment processing cost: Quote-based pricing.

Why we like it: Toast POS is mobile, affordable and easy to use. You can start out with the free plan and then upgrade as needed by moving to a more advanced plan or selecting add-ons that are important to your operation. Read our full Toast POS review.

Notable features include:

• Menu management: This cloud-based system lets you access and update your menus from any device and manage availability of menu items.

• Inventory management: This add-on lets you monitor inventory, determine recipe costs, schedule recurring orders and send orders directly to your suppliers.

• Payments: Toast handles credit and debit card processing in-house, but doesn’t provide rates. Instead, processing rates are quote-based for each business.

• Reporting and analytics: The system lets access key reports and sales performance through a cloud-based system. You can view net sales, labor costs and monitor performance over a set period of time.

• Training: Toast has online lessons, videos and articles that can be used for training, plus live Toast classroom sessions and a test mode that can be used to become familiar with the system.

• Add-ons: For an additional fee, you can get features such as mobile ordering with QR code scanning capabilities, scheduling and team communication, marketing, customer loyalty programs and gift cards.

Clover: Best mobile option

Hardware and software cost: Starting at a flat $49 for the Go plan, which includes a card reader and virtual terminal. The Flex handheld POS system starts at $35 monthly or $499 to pay in full. The Mini system starts at $90 monthly or an upfront payment of $799 can be made to reduce the monthly fee to $44.95. With each of these systems, your credit card terminal is included, but other accessories must be purchased separately.

Payment processing cost: Fees vary by plan. Starting at 2.3% plus 10 cents per in-person transaction.

Why we like it: The Clover POS system was built to accommodate a variety of businesses. With mobile hardware choices and solid features, you may find that Clover is the best POS system for your food truck.

Compared to TouchBistro, the Clover POS software may be simpler; however, it still offers the capabilities you need to start your food truck and manage daily operations. Read our full Clover POS review.

Notable features include:

• Menus: The POS system lets you create menu items, select categories and add color-coding to help with order accuracy.

• Ordering: The system accepts all major payment types including contactless and allows you to preset tip amounts.

• Inventory management: To keep inventory current, you can assign categories, labels, modifiers and variants.

• Team performance: The system lets you manage schedules and timesheets, set permissions and run reports to see how employees are performing.

• Analytics: You can track sales from any computer or mobile device and filter reports to show your busiest times and best-selling items.

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Square POS: Best free option

Software cost: Free plan offered. Advanced features are offered in the Plus plan at $60 per month and custom pricing is available in the Premium plan.

Hardware cost: A free mobile card reader that enables you to take swiped payments is available and a Square reader for chip and contactless payments can be purchased for $49. Square terminal, a mobile POS system, starts at $299.

Payment processing cost: 2.6% plus 10 cents per in-person transaction.

Why we like it: Perhaps one of the most well-known POS providers on the market is Square. Square POS offers an intuitive, simple system with a variety of mobile hardware options. Plus, the pricing is transparent and it offers free software. Square POS can be accessed as an app on both iOS and Android devices. Read our full Square POS review.

Notable features include:

• Orders: Square POS allows you to customize your menus from anywhere and take orders with QR codes.

• Payments: Square serves as your payment processor with its POS system. You can accept credit and debit cards, cash, checks and gift cards — both online and offline.

• Inventory: Square POS allows you to manage and track your inventory from anywhere. You can edit items, update quantities, receive low stock alerts and import or export inventory items.

• Dashboard: The Square Dashboard gives you the ability to manage your back-office operations in one place, with tools for inventory, managing customer profiles and viewing sales data.

• Team management: Set employee permissions, track employee time and optimize labor costs and staffing with employee reports and analytics.

• Directory: This free feature lets you add customer profiles with contact information, view purchase history and save credit cards on file.

• Analytics: Real-time analytics and sales reporting — giving you the ability to track sales, compare data based on timeframes and see what customers spend and return — at no additional cost.

• Square tools: In addition to the third-party integration options Square offers in its marketplace, you can also buy add-on tools such as Square payroll, marketing and customer loyalty.

• Support: Square provides customer assistance for its free plan Monday to Friday from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. If you upgrade to the Plus plan, you’ll have support 24/7. Help articles, videos and FAQ are also offered.

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How to choose a food truck POS system

As a mobile, fast-paced business, you’ll want a POS system that’s affordable, flexible and easy to use. While a number of POS systems could work, it’s probably best to consider systems that offer capabilities specific to your type of business.