Comparison
An honest look at how TenantVolt compares with the restaurant systems most operators are already on — using each vendor's own published pricing, and saying plainly where we are the wrong choice. Software from $49 per month per location, free for 14 days.
Subscription cost only. Every vendor here quotes hardware, payment processing and add-ons separately, and most publish "starting at" prices that rise with the features you switch on. Figures below are taken from each vendor's own pricing page and linked so you can check them.
| System | Published software price | Pricing model | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| TenantVolt | $49 – $299 / month per location Software only. We do not process card payments — you keep your existing processor. | Per location, no per-terminal fee | tenantvolt.com/pricing |
| Toast | Starter Kit $0 · Point of Sale from $69 / month Payment processing is bundled with the platform; higher tiers are custom quoted. | Per location, plus hardware and Toast payment processing | pos.toasttab.com/pricing |
| Square for Restaurants | Free $0 · Plus $49 · Premium from $149 / month per location Card rates vary by plan; Premium is quoted for higher-volume venues. | Per location, processing charged per transaction | squareup.com — Restaurants pricing |
| Lightspeed Restaurant | Starter from $69 · Essential from $189 · Premium from $399 / month Rates shown are US list prices with an annual commitment; add-ons are extra. | Per location, KDS screens priced separately | lightspeedhq.com — Restaurant pricing |
| Clover | Plan pricing published per hardware bundle What you pay depends heavily on the reseller you sign with. | Per device bundle, sold through Fiserv and resellers | clover.com — Restaurant POS |
Prices in USD as published by each vendor in August 2026. Toast, Square, Lightspeed and Clover are trademarks of their respective owners and are not affiliated with TenantVolt. Confirm current pricing with each vendor before you decide.
TenantVolt bills one subscription per location — $49/month on Starter, $99 on Growth, $299 on Scale. Add a second till, a handheld or three kitchen display screens and the bill does not move. Several restaurant platforms price KDS screens or extra terminals as separate line items, so the quoted headline price is rarely the price you pay.
If your group also runs a hotel, a café, a retail shop or a gym, those run inside the same TenantVolt tenant with their own engines and shared team, roles and reporting. Restaurant-only platforms need a second vendor for each non-restaurant site.
Toast, Square and Clover make most of their money on card processing and price the software accordingly. TenantVolt charges for software only and takes nothing from your card volume — you keep whichever processor you already use. That also means we cannot give you a bundled all-in rate, and you will still have a processor contract to manage.
Role-based access enforced in the database, per-location stock and menus, group-level reporting and an append-only audit log of comps, voids and refunds are in every plan rather than reserved for an enterprise tier.
A comparison page is worthless if it only lists wins. These are the cases where one of the systems above will serve you better.
Create a workspace, pick Restaurant, and add your locations. No card required for 14 days.
Bring your menu across as a catalog CSV, set modifiers and course numbers, and lay out each dining area.
Fire real tickets to the KDS during a quiet shift while your current POS still takes payment. Nothing is committed.
Invite your team, assign roles per location, and switch. If it is not right, the trial simply ends.
You can export your data at any time, and closing an account keeps a 30-day grace period before anything is purged.
It depends on how you count. TenantVolt's software starts at $49/month per location and covers unlimited terminals and KDS screens. Toast publishes Point of Sale from $69/month and Lightspeed Restaurant from $69/month, but both add hardware, and Toast bundles card processing. If you are happy with your current processor, TenantVolt is usually the lower software line item; if you want one bundled bill including payments, compare total cost rather than subscription price.
Yes. TenantVolt does not process card payments and takes no percentage of your sales. You record payments against tickets and settle through whichever processor you already have.
No. TenantVolt runs in the browser on the tablets, laptops and screens you already own, including your existing kitchen display screens.
It stays with your current provider. TenantVolt starts its own append-only record from your first ticket, and your menu can be imported as a CSV before you go live.
Every competitor figure here is the vendor's own published list price, linked to its source, and reflects those pages as of August 2026. Vendors change pricing and quote custom rates for larger venues — always confirm on their site before deciding.
Run one service in parallel before you commit. Free for 14 days, no card required.