What you are actually comparing.
Most point-of-sale companies sell a till and then charge for each piece you bolt on. The fair comparison is not the headline tier — it is the bill once everything you need is switched on.
Where the money goes.
Competitor columns are from each vendor's own published pricing and feature pages. Where a vendor does not publish something, the cell is blank rather than guessed — and no row says a competitor cannot do something unless their own material says they do not sell it.
Feature by feature18 rows
| What you need | DineHopper | Typical AU POS | Enterprise POS | Ordering-only apps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Point of sale | Included | Included | Included | Included |
| Lock-in contract | None | — | — | — |
| Uber Eats orders straight into the till | Included | — | — | — |
| Kitchen display | Included | Add-on · $25/mo | Add-on | Add-on |
| Online ordering, no commission | Included | Add-on · $300 setup | Add-on | Add-on |
| Table bookings | Included | Add-on · $39/mo | Add-on | Not sold |
| Loyalty | Included | Add-on · $7/mo | Add-on | Add-on |
| Inventory, recipe-linked | Included | Add-on · $15/mo | Integrates out | Add-on |
| Rosters and timesheets | Included | Not sold | Not sold | Not sold |
| Wage cost against sales | Included | Not sold | Not sold | Not sold |
| Supplier bills against sales | Included | Not sold | Not sold | Not sold |
| Supplier ordering | Included | — | Some | — |
| AI Calls for bookings | Included | Not sold | Not sold | Not sold |
| Your own branded ordering app | Included | Not sold | Not sold | Yes (CloudWaitress) |
| AI that answers sales and wage questions | Included | Partly (Lightspeed) | Not sold | Not sold |
| Forecast, menu engineering, daily to-do | Included | — | — | — |
| Your own website builder | Included | Not sold | Not sold | Not sold |
| Takes a cut of takings on your own terminal | No | — | — | — |
Swipe the table sideways to see every column.
Add-on prices shown are published monthly figures from an Australian POS vendor's own price list, as at September 2026. The AI-analytics and branded-app rows reflect Lightspeed's, Square's and CloudWaitress's own published pages, checked 4 October 2026.
Named vendors, our own scoring.
Two scorecards, because these are two different products and nobody sells both well. A till is scored against one checklist and a booking/CRM platform against another; rolling them into one number would flatter everyone, us included. Each table lists only the vendors that actually compete in it.
Point of sale and till
Scores, point of sale15 vendors
| Vendor | Score | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| DineHopper | 93%127.5 of 137 rows assessed | Till, kitchen screen, QR and voice ordering, terminal payments, cash out, bar tabs, offline mode, a shop till, wholesale and web shop sync, reports, AI control and wallet loyalty |
| Toast | 80%26.5 of 33 rows assessedDineHopper on these same rows: 92% | US giant, selling in Australia since 2025. Real AI on labour cost ("Toast IQ") and a genuine app-store app, but proprietary hardware only and no published pricing. DineHopper scores 30.5 of 33 on the same rows. |
| NUA POS | 72%33 of 46 rows assessedDineHopper on these same rows: 97% | AI-led till with an approval feed, rostering and wallet loyalty, from its own pages. DineHopper scores 44.5 of 46 on the same rows. |
| Square for Restaurants | 69%22 of 32 rows assessedDineHopper on these same rows: 92% | Strong till, easy start. Takes a percentage of every card payment. DineHopper scores 29.5 of 32 on the same rows. |
| Clover | 68%23 of 34 rows assessedDineHopper on these same rows: 93% | Selling in Australia since March 2025. Delivery-marketplace sync and a branded ordering app only via third-party add-ons, not native. DineHopper scores 31.5 of 34 on the same rows. |
| Lightspeed Restaurant | 67%22 of 33 rows assessedDineHopper on these same rows: 92% | Strong till. Bookings and CRM are a separate product. DineHopper scores 30.5 of 33 on the same rows. |
Show 9 more vendors
| Vendor | Score | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Jensen / IdealPOS | 65%23.5 of 36 rows assessedDineHopper on these same rows: 90% | IdealPOS reseller (Oolio group). RFID staff clock-in confirmed; a dated, dense till screen. DineHopper scores 32.5 of 36 on the same rows. |
| TouchBistro | 65%21.5 of 33 rows assessedDineHopper on these same rows: 92% | iPad-only, cheapest published entry price here from $69/mo, but no QR table ordering, no retail-only till, no AI. DineHopper scores 30.5 of 33 on the same rows. |
| NexPOS (StackNex) | 61%21.5 of 35 rows assessedDineHopper on these same rows: 94% | Scored only on the rows assessed. DineHopper scores 33 of 35 on the same rows. |
| KPOS | 50%15.5 of 31 rows assessedDineHopper on these same rows: 94% | Scored only on the rows assessed. DineHopper scores 29 of 31 on the same rows. |
| Impos | 47%15 of 32 rows assessedDineHopper on these same rows: 92% | Scored only on the rows assessed. DineHopper scores 29.5 of 32 on the same rows. |
| CloudWaitress | 27%8.5 of 32 rows assessedDineHopper on these same rows: 92% | Ordering site with a light till behind it, with a real branded app-store app. DineHopper scores 29.5 of 32 on the same rows. |
| Assessed on fewer than half the checklist, so shown as a fraction and not ranked | ||
| Oolio (incl. Bepoz) | 20.5 of 24rows assessed (of 137)DineHopper on these same rows: 92% | Five tills, payments and merchant finance under one owner, 22,000+ venues. No bookings, rosters or wage costing published. DineHopper scores 22 of 24 on the same rows. |
| Nomni | 11 of 16rows assessed (of 137)DineHopper on these same rows: 94% | Published modules only. Pricing is quote-only, so a gap here usually means unpublished. DineHopper scores 15 of 16 on the same rows. |
| me&u / Mr Yum | 7 of 15rows assessed (of 137)DineHopper on these same rows: 97% | Ordering and payment at the table, from its own pages. DineHopper scores 14.5 of 15 on the same rows. |
Swipe the table sideways to see every column.
Bookings and guest CRM
Scores, bookings and CRM14 vendors
| Vendor | Score | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| DineHopper | 95%93.5 of 98 rows assessed | Floor plan, deposits, guest history and marketing on the same database as the till. Discover marketplace, push offers, tracked ad links and AI tools are built in. |
| SevenRooms | 75%63 of 84 rows assessedDineHopper on these same rows: 95% | Deep guest CRM. No till: it integrates with someone else’s. DineHopper scores 80 of 84 on the same rows. |
| OpenTable | 67%55 of 82 rows assessedDineHopper on these same rows: 96% | Strong network and inbound covers. Per-cover fees, and no till. DineHopper scores 78.5 of 82 on the same rows. |
| TheFork | 63%51 of 81 rows assessedDineHopper on these same rows: 96% | Scored only on the rows assessed. DineHopper scores 77.5 of 81 on the same rows. |
| Zenchef | 62%50.5 of 81 rows assessedDineHopper on these same rows: 96% | Scored only on the rows assessed. DineHopper scores 77.5 of 81 on the same rows. |
| Resy | 54%43.5 of 81 rows assessedDineHopper on these same rows: 96% | Scored only on the rows assessed. DineHopper scores 77.5 of 81 on the same rows. |
Show 8 more vendors
| Vendor | Score | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| ResDiary | 48%39 of 82 rows assessedDineHopper on these same rows: 96% | Scored only on the rows assessed. DineHopper scores 78.5 of 82 on the same rows. |
| Collins / DesignMyNight | 46%37 of 81 rows assessedDineHopper on these same rows: 96% | Scored only on the rows assessed. DineHopper scores 77.5 of 81 on the same rows. |
| WOWAPPS | 46%37 of 81 rows assessedDineHopper on these same rows: 96% | Scored only on the rows assessed. DineHopper scores 77.5 of 81 on the same rows. |
| Tock | 41%33 of 81 rows assessedDineHopper on these same rows: 96% | Scored only on the rows assessed. DineHopper scores 77.5 of 81 on the same rows. |
| CloudWaitress | 20%16.5 of 81 rows assessedDineHopper on these same rows: 96% | Bookings are a thin add-on to the ordering site. DineHopper scores 77.5 of 81 on the same rows. |
| Foodhub for Business | 20%16 of 81 rows assessedDineHopper on these same rows: 96% | Scored only on the rows assessed. DineHopper scores 77.5 of 81 on the same rows. |
| Loaded | 13%10.5 of 81 rows assessedDineHopper on these same rows: 95% | Scored only on the rows assessed. DineHopper scores 77 of 81 on the same rows. |
| Assessed on fewer than half the checklist, so shown as a fraction and not ranked | ||
| me&u / Mr Yum | 12 of 12rows assessed (of 98)DineHopper on these same rows: 96% | Ordering and payment at the table, from its own pages. DineHopper scores 11.5 of 12 on the same rows. |
Swipe the table sideways to see every column.
Scored against a fixed checklist: 137 rows for the till, 98 for bookings and guest CRM, re-scored 20 October 2026. The newest rows (shop till, self-checkout, smart helpers, cash out, bar tabs, Alipay and WeChat Pay, wholesale and web shop sync, reports, venue credit, card-linked points, wallet loyalty and catering) are scored for DineHopper only, so other vendors are compared on the rows assessed. Other vendors are scored from their own published feature and pricing pages, read in September and October 2026. The figure under each score is the rows assessed, with DineHopper's score on those same rows for a like-for-like comparison.
Not features. Shapes.
A venue that wants bookings, loyalty, stock and a kitchen screen usually ends up paying a base plan plus four or five line items. Ours is one number, and the things you did not ask for are in it anyway.
Rosters, timesheets, wage cost and supplier bills are not add-ons here, they are the other half of the system. That is why we can show you what a Saturday cost and a POS with attachments cannot.
Bring your own terminal and we take no percentage of your card volume, and no commission on your own online orders. Your merchant rate stays yours. DineHopper Payments is optional, at 0.30% on top of processing.
Where we actually stand.
4 comparisons, each against a price read off somebody’s own published page on 21 September 2026. Every figure is in the sourced table further down, with the page it came from. Where a number is not published anywhere, it is not on a chart.
Software against software, with nobody taking a percentage.
The comparison that is actually like for like: their software-only plan, plus the add-ons their own list charges for the modules we include, against our one price. Neither side takes a cut of your takings on your own terminal, so there is no volume at which this flips — just a gap that widens every month.
- DineHopper$173.80/mo, nothing up frontOne price, till included, all 17 modules. The 5 their list does not sell at all are in it too.
- A typical AU POS, software-only entry plan$182.60/mo + $300 up front$88 for the plan, then Kitchen display $25, Table bookings $39, Loyalty $7, Inventory $15, plus $300 one-off to switch online ordering on.
- A typical AU POS, software-only top plan$259.60/mo + $300 up front$165 for the plan, then Kitchen display $25, Table bookings $39, Loyalty $7, Inventory $15, plus $300 one-off to switch online ordering on.
Carrying the same modules, we are $8.80 a month under their entry plan and $85.80 under their top one, before the 5 modules they do not sell. Over two years that is $511 and $2,359. Nobody takes a percentage on either side, so nothing here changes when you grow.
Plan prices are named and sourced in the table below. The $86/mo of add-ons and the $300 one-off come from the feature table above, off an Australian POS vendor’s published price list at 21 September 2026.
What your own online orders cost you.
Orders from people who already know you, through your own page. This is the one where the difference is not a few dollars a month.
- DineHopper, flat$53.90/mo at any volumeYour own domain and ordering page, no setup fee, and nothing extra on Complete.
- An ordering-only app, monthly plan$80/moAn unlimited-orders plan, on top of the site and setup fees — see the next tab.
- The same app, 5% per order5% of every orderOffered instead of the monthly plan, so it is one or the other, not both.
- Delivery platform, ~30%~30% of every orderIndicative, and not a like-for-like swap — see the note below.
At $10,000 a month through your own page: $53.90 with us, $80 on their monthly plan, $500 on their 5% per-order deal, and about $3,000 through a delivery app. Ours is the only line on the chart that does not move when the volume does.
The delivery-platform line is the one figure here not read off a published pricing page, so it is drawn dashed — it is the rate commonly reported for the Australian platforms. It is also not a like-for-like swap: a delivery app brings you people who have never heard of you. This chart is about the orders you already own.
What an ordering page costs to get, and then to keep.
Like for like: their hosted ordering page against ours. The gap on day one is the part a monthly price hides — theirs starts with a site fee and a setup fee before a single order comes through.
- DineHopper$53.90/mo, nothing up frontNo build fee and no setup fee. Nothing extra on Complete.
- An ordering-only app, hosted page$575 up front, then $80/mo$400 for the site and $150–200 to set it up (midpoint used here), then $80/mo. The vendor is named in the sourced table below.
- The same app, plus its own apps$575 up front, then $140/moThe same again, plus $60/mo for its phone apps.
They are $575 ahead before the first order, and by month twelve the gap is $888. Neither of ours takes a cut of an order either way.
What ours is not: a designed website. No brand work, no photography, no custom layout, and you do not own the code. A hospitality web studio publishes its own tiers at $999 to $4,990, which is a different product — we are not holding the two up against each other and calling the gap a saving.
What the software takes out of your card takings.
Not what accepting a card costs — you pay that either way. This is the slice above it, which is the software being paid for out of your turnover.
- Bundled POS, on a good acceptance rate0.7% of takingsA bundled 1.6% where accepting the card itself costs 0.9%.
- Bundled POS, mid case0.35% of takingsA bundled 1.5% where accepting the card costs 1.15%.
- DineHopper, your own terminal — 0%0%, at any turnoverBring your own terminal and there is no rate of ours to take a slice out of.
- DineHopper Payments — 0.30%0.30% of takingsOptional. 0.30% on top of the processing cost, with one provider for everything.
On $20,000 a month in card takings, somewhere between $70 and $140 a month of your turnover is paying for the software. With us it is nothing on your own terminal, or $60 with DineHopper Payments — your merchant rate stays between you and whoever you pick.
The bundled spread is 1.4–1.6% from the published plans in the table below; what accepting a card actually costs a small merchant is 0.9–1.4% per RBA Review of Merchant Card Payment Costs, conclusions paper, March 2026. The slice between them is the software. This chart does not claim our total is lower than theirs — that depends on the rate you can get, and on 1 October 2026 the interchange caps fall, so check your own before treating any of it as settled.
The card fee is no longer your customer’s problem.
Three separate things change on the same day, and they get run together constantly. They are not the same thing.
Read the full explanation
eftpos, Mastercard, Visa and American Express all prohibit a card surcharge, effective 1 October 2026. If you were adding one at the terminal, you can no longer add it.
The 1.4–1.6% a bundled POS takes out of your takings is a merchant service fee, not a surcharge. Nothing about 1 October 2026 reduces it. This is the part people miss.
So your rate should fall — one Australian vendor has already told its customers to expect about 0.50% off from October. Should, not will: it only falls if it is passed on to you.
Same fee. Different pocket.
If you surcharged before 1 October 2026, that 1.4–1.6% is recovered from the guest and costs you close to nothing. Since 1 October 2026 you absorb all of it. The fee did not change — who pays it did, and for a venue taking $30k a month in cards that is about $450 a month arriving on your P&L that was not there before.
Two things worth doing in the next few weeks, neither of which involves buying anything from us: check your menu prices still work once you are wearing the card fee, and check your merchant rate, because the caps came down on the same date and there is no guarantee anyone passed it on.
The Reserve Bank says shop around. A free POS is the thing that stops you.
This is the argument, and it is not about who is cheaper. It is about whether you are allowed to go and fix your rate at all.
A $0/month POS is funded by the percentage its own provider takes off your card takings. It means the till and the rate are one product: you cannot keep the software and go and get a better rate somewhere else.
The Reserve Bank’s own advice to businesses since 1 October 2026 is to review their plan and shop around for a different provider. On a bundled deal you cannot act on it. Leaving the rate means losing the till, re-training your staff and rebuilding your menu.
On your own terminal we take 0% of your card takings. Your merchant rate is between you and whoever you choose. Change provider on a Tuesday and nothing on your counter notices. DineHopper Payments is optional, and the till works the same without it.
That claim does not depend on the rate being 1.5%. It is the same claim at 0.9%, which matters, because the interchange cuts should push everyone’s rate down and it would make a cost comparison stale within weeks.
The percentage, in dollars: what accepting a card actually costs
What accepting a card actually costs.
A point of sale that costs nothing is funded out of your card takings — usually 1.4% to 1.6% of everything you ring up. Before comparing anyone’s rate, here is the yardstick: what accepting a card costs in Australia on average, from the Reserve Bank’s own quarterly figures, with no software bundled into it.
- 0.42%eftpos debit
- 0.55%Visa debit
- 0.58%Mastercard debit
- 0.96%Visa credit
- 0.97%Mastercard credit
- 1.33%American Express
RBA Retail Payments statistics, December quarter 2025 — average total merchant fees as a share of transaction value, across all merchants; a small business typically pays more than these averages. A bundled rate of 1.45% + GST is about 1.6%, and the distance between that and what a card actually costs to accept is the software. We take none of it.
And then there is the website.
Everything above is about the till. The ordering website is the part that gets left off the comparison, and it is rarely free. One Australian ordering platform publishes $400 for a hosted site, $150–200 to set it up, and then $80/mo for unlimited orders — or 5% commission per order instead of the monthly. Apps are another $60/mo. Call it six hundred dollars before the first order, then eighty a month.
Ours is $49/mo, or nothing extra on Complete: your own domain, your menu, your prices, and no commission on any of it.
It is a menu and ordering site on your own domain. For a fully custom design, a hospitality web studio is the right tool.
Every figure above, and the page we read it from
| Plan | Per month | Their cut | As they word it | Read from |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zeller POS | $0 | 1.4% | POS software free, no monthly fee; 1.4% for all cards including American Express rate inclusive of GST | myzeller.com/au/pricing |
| Square for Restaurants, Free | $0 | 1.6% | $0/month; 1.6% per tap or insert as published | squareup.com/au/en/point-of-sale/restaurants/pricing |
| Pratham Easy Pay, bundled conditions apply | $0 | 1.45% + GST | $0/month only while you take over $20,000 in-store or $5,000 online a month, otherwise $88; from 1.45% + GST in-person plus GST | onboarding.prathampos.com/pricing |
| Square for Restaurants, Plus | $129 | 1.6% | $129/month per location; 1.6% per tap or insert as published | squareup.com/au/en/point-of-sale/restaurants/pricing |
| Pratham Boost Pay, bundled | $140 | 1.45% + GST | $140/month; from 1.45% + GST in-person plus GST | onboarding.prathampos.com/pricing |
| Pratham Easy Pay, software only | $88 | 0% | $88/month, software only — you keep your own payment provider price includes GST | onboarding.prathampos.com/pricing |
| Pratham Boost Pay, software only | $165 | 0% | $165/month, software only — you keep your own payment provider price includes GST | onboarding.prathampos.com/pricing |
| DineHopper | $98 | 0% | $89/month ex GST, shown here inc GST to match the rows above; no percentage of card takings on your own terminal (0.30% if you choose DineHopper Payments) and no commission on your own online orders | dinehopper.com/pricing |
| DineHopper + POS Terminal what the chart plots | $174 | 0% | $158/month ex GST: the entry plan plus the till add-on, which is the like-for-like against a free POS. The till is included from our second tier up | dinehopper.com/pricing |
| Order Eats, ordering website | $80/mo | 5% commission | $400 for a customised hosted website, $150–200 setup, then $80/mo unlimited orders or 5% commission per order; apps $60/mo their page notes prices may change | ordereats.com.au/pricing |
| an Australian hospitality web agency | $999 to $4,990 | — | Its own published tiers for a hand-built hospitality site; it puts a full-service agency build at $8,000–25,000+ a designed site, not an ordering page | webstallion.com.au |
| DineHopper Website | $49 | 0% | Your own domain and ordering page, no setup fee, included at no extra charge on Complete | dinehopper.com/pricing |
Swipe the table sideways to see every column.
Read from each vendor’s own published pricing page on 21 September 2026. Vendors word GST differently; the column says how each one puts it. Rates shown as “from” are the vendor’s floor, which is the most favourable reading for them. One vendor states that its rates are expected to fall by about 0.50% from October 2026.
Try it against what you have.
Run it alongside your current system for a fortnight. That is a better comparison than any table on a website, including this one.