Takeaway EPOS system cost: what the full stack adds up to (2026 guide)
A takeaway buys a till, a way of answering the phone, a way of getting orders to the fryer, a way of taking Just Eat orders without retyping them and a way of paying drivers. Here is what each costs, with a worked budget for 60 deliveries a night.
- Every line of a takeaway stack priced
- A worked monthly budget shown as arithmetic
- Complete takeaway systems from £499 + VAT
Written by the Posso team in Leicester · Reviewed by Paul Robinson, Managing Director · Last reviewed
Short answer
A takeaway EPOS system in the UK typically costs £300–£1,500 one-off for the till and £25–£70 a month for cloud software, but that is the smallest part of the bill. The takeaway-specific layers are what move the total: kitchen printers or a kitchen screen (£300–£800 per screen elsewhere), delivery-platform integration (£0–£60 a month per platform elsewhere), online ordering (0–15% commission or £20–£60 a month elsewhere) and card fees at 1–1.75%. A shop doing 60 deliveries a night should budget the stack as a monthly figure, because the usage-based lines scale with volume. Posso's complete takeaway system starts at £499 + VAT.
Key takeaways
- The till is the cheapest part of a takeaway EPOS; the ordering channels and kitchen routing cost more over a year.
- Price the stack monthly, because delivery, driver and phone-ordering costs scale with order volume.
- Marketplace commission at 14–30% is the largest avoidable cost for most takeaways.
- Posso's takeaway system is £499 + VAT upfront, with usage-based add-ons priced per order or per delivery.
Takeaway: Budget a takeaway EPOS as a monthly running cost across five layers, then compare that figure with what the marketplaces take from you today.
Why takeaway EPOS costs are different
Most EPOS price lists are written for a counter that takes an order, takes a card and prints a receipt. A takeaway's till does that for perhaps a third of its orders. The rest arrive by phone, by its own website and by the marketplaces, and each channel has its own cost.
The mistake owners make is to compare quotes on the hardware figure. Add the second kitchen printer one quote needs, the per-platform integration fee another charges and the online ordering commission a third takes on every order, and the cheaper till is the dearer system within three months.
The other mistake is to price only the fixed costs. Driver apps, AI phone answering and marketplace integrations are charged per order, per delivery or per month, so the right question is what the system costs at your volume. This guide prices each layer, then works a budget for a 60-delivery night. For the wider picture of what tills cost across hospitality, start at the EPOS system cost hub.
The six layers of a takeaway stack, and how to price each one
Price the till as a bundle, not a screen
A takeaway till needs a terminal, a receipt printer, a cash drawer and at least one kitchen printer. UK bundles typically run £300–£1,500 one-off depending on what is included. Ask for the line items, then ask what the menu build costs, because a kebab menu with 40 items and 120 modifiers takes a day to build and some providers charge for it. Our hardware bundle guide lists what a complete bundle must contain.
Count the kitchen printers before you count the till
A fish and chip shop can run one printer at the range. A Chinese takeaway with a wok, a fryer and a starters bench needs three, or a kitchen screen that routes each item to its station. Elsewhere, kitchen displays typically cost £300–£800 per screen plus £0–£30 a month in licences. Decide this before you sign, and ask how the system splits one order across stations: the chow mein should print at the wok and the spring rolls at the fryer.
Treat caller ID as an ordering tool, not a gadget
Caller ID on the till brings up the customer's name, address and last three orders as the phone rings. On a Friday night that saves roughly 30 seconds an order on the address alone, and it stops the wrong-postcode delivery that costs you a meal and a driver's half hour. Ask whether it is included or an add-on and whether it works with a VoIP line, because many shops have moved off analogue phones and some caller ID units have not.
Pay for delivery integration once, not per platform
A tablet per platform means staff retyping every marketplace order into the till, and every retype is a chance for the wrong sauce. Elsewhere, integration typically costs £0–£60 a month per platform, so three platforms can be £180 a month before you have sold anything. Ask for one price covering every platform you use, and whether menu changes on the till push to the platforms or have to be made three times. See delivery integrations for how the routing works.
Price your own drivers per delivery, then compare it with commission
If you deliver with your own drivers, a dispatch app assigns the order, routes the driver and tells the shop when the food has landed. Compare it per delivery. At 30p a delivery, 1,200 deliveries a month is 1,200 × 30p = £360. The same 1,200 orders at a £22 average through a marketplace at 14% is £26,400 × 14% = £3,696 in commission. That gap is why busy takeaways keep their own drivers for regulars and use the platforms for new customers.
Let the phone be answered when nobody can answer it
Between 6pm and 8pm on a Friday the phone rings while the counter has a queue. Unanswered calls are orders that go to the shop that picked up. AI phone ordering answers every call at once, takes the order into the till and texts a payment link. It is typically charged per order taken, so it costs nothing on a quiet Tuesday. Multiply the orders you think you miss in a week by the per-order fee and compare that with the value of those orders. Read more on missed phone orders.
Takeaway EPOS costs: typical UK ranges and Posso's published prices
Each line is one layer of the stack. The ranges are what UK providers typically charge; the Posso column is what we publish.
| Layer | Typical UK range | Posso |
|---|---|---|
| Till hardware bundle (terminal, receipt printer, kitchen printer, drawer) | £300–£1,500 one-off | £499 + VAT, includes menu build and training |
| Software licence | £25–£70 a month; £100+ for enterprise tiers | From £25 + VAT a month |
| Extra kitchen printer | Priced per unit, often left out of bundles | £99 each |
| Kitchen display screen | £300–£800 per screen, plus £0–£30 a month licences elsewhere | £399 + VAT per 21-inch screen |
| Delivery-platform integration | £0–£60 a month per platform elsewhere | £45 a month for Just Eat, Uber Eats and Deliveroo, unlimited orders |
| Own-driver dispatch app | Usually per delivery or a monthly licence | 30p per delivery |
| AI phone ordering | Per order or monthly where offered | £1 per order taken |
| Online ordering (own website) | 0–15% commission or £20–£60 a month elsewhere | Hosting free; 60p service fee per order paid by the customer |
| Marketplace commission (Just Eat, Uber Eats, Deliveroo) | Typically 14–30% of order value | Not an EPOS cost; the integration reduces the labour, not the commission |
| Card processing | Payment-led readers 1.5–1.75% flat; merchant accounts around 1–1.5% plus pence | Posso Pay from 1% + 10p, quoted on card turnover |
| Warranty and support | 1–2 years typical | 2-year warranty; UK support Monday to Friday, 9am–9:30pm |
Ranges are typical UK figures at October 2026; Posso prices are published on EPOS pricing. Marketplace commission is paid to the platform, not to the EPOS provider.
A worked monthly budget: 60 deliveries a night
Take a takeaway doing 60 deliveries a night across 30 trading nights: 60 × 30 = 1,800 deliveries a month. Say 1,200 go out with the shop's own drivers and 600 through the marketplaces, plus 250 phone orders a month that would otherwise be missed and 400 orders through its own website. Average order value £22.
On Posso's published prices the monthly stack is: software £25 + VAT; delivery integration £45 for all three platforms; driver app 1,200 × 30p = £360; AI phone ordering 250 × £1 = £250. Online ordering hosting is free and the 60p service fee is paid by the customer, so the shop pays only card processing on those 400 orders. That is £25 + £45 + £360 + £250 = £680 a month before card fees, on top of the £499 + VAT paid once for the hardware.
Now the comparison that matters. The 600 marketplace orders at £22 are £13,200 of sales; at 14% that is £1,848 a month in commission, and at 30% it is £3,960. Had the 1,200 own-driver orders (£26,400) gone through a marketplace at 14%, the commission would be £3,696. The whole EPOS stack costs less than a fifth of that.
Replace 1,200, 600, 250 and 400 with your own counts and the arithmetic holds. The fixed lines are small and the usage lines only rise when orders rise, so the bill tracks the business rather than sitting there in a quiet January.
What to ask a provider before you sign
What does the delivery integration cost per platform, and who maintains the menu?
Some providers quote one integration fee that turns out to be per platform, so three platforms become three charges. Ask for the total for every platform you use and whether a price change on the till pushes to the platforms. If the answer is no, you are paying for half an integration.
What happens to phone orders when the line is busy?
A takeaway's phone line is engaged for most of the Friday peak. Ask whether the system offers AI or overflow answering, what it costs per order, whether it can take payment by text link and whether the order lands in the same kitchen queue as everything else. A separate tablet with a separate login is a second system, and the kitchen will miss tickets from it.
Which parts of the quote are usage-based, and at what volume?
Ask the provider to re-quote the system at double your current order volume. A flat monthly integration fee behaves very differently from a per-order one when you grow, and a per-delivery driver fee should be checked at 120 deliveries a night as well as 40. If they cannot show you the bill at two volumes, they do not understand how takeaways grow.
The Posso approach to takeaway EPOS costs
Posso is a hospitality-only EPOS supported from Leicester. The complete system is £499 + VAT and includes a touchscreen Windows 11 Pro terminal, an 80mm kitchen printer, a receipt printer, a cash drawer, the menu build and staff training. Software is from £25 + VAT a month. You own the hardware outright; software is from £25 + VAT a month.
Just Eat, Uber Eats and Deliveroo integration is £45 a month for all three with unlimited orders, so a price change on the till is made once. Posso Dispatch, the driver app, is 30p per delivery. AI phone ordering answers 24/7 with unlimited simultaneous calls, takes the order into the till and texts a Posso Pay payment link, at £1 per order taken. Your online ordering website is hosted free; the customer pays a 60p service fee per order and the store pays only card processing.
Card processing runs through Posso Pay, Posso's own merchant service, from 1% + 10p quoted on your card turnover, with the same rate in store and online. Teya and Dojo terminals are also supported if you would rather keep your current acquirer.
A 2-year warranty is standard, with UK remote support Monday to Friday, 9am–9:30pm and an urgent out-of-hours line for till-down issues. Setup (menu build + configuration) is free; on-site installation for larger sites is priced on application. Systems are preconfigured and shipped plug-and-play. See takeaway EPOS and the best EPOS for a takeaway.
Where to look elsewhere
If you take fewer than ten phone orders a night, deliver nothing yourself and sell only through one marketplace, the marketplace's own tablet and a card reader on a flat rate is a defensible answer; a full till is solving a problem you do not have yet.
If the shop is also a convenience store with a few thousand barcoded lines, you need retail stock control with supplier ordering. Posso is built for menus, not shelves, and a retail-first platform will serve the shop side better.
Related guides
Related guides
Best EPOS system for a takeaway
How to shortlist a takeaway till on phone, delivery and kitchen routing rather than on the screen.
Read the guideHow much does an EPOS system cost in the UK?
The wider cost picture across hospitality, with hardware, software and card fee ranges.
Read the guideEPOS system hidden costs
The lines that appear after you sign: integrations, licences, menu changes and support tiers.
Read the guideReduce Just Eat commission
Moving repeat customers from marketplaces to your own ordering without losing the new ones.
Read the guideOpening a takeaway: EPOS checklist
What to order, build and test in the weeks before a new takeaway opens its doors.
Read the guideThis is one part of the Posso EPOS system — the same till, kitchen display, ordering and card payments, set up for your type of venue. Every one-off and monthly cost is on the EPOS pricing page.
Takeaway EPOS system cost — frequently asked questions
How much does a takeaway EPOS system cost in the UK?
Till hardware typically costs £300–£1,500 one-off and cloud software £25–£70 a month, before the takeaway layers: kitchen printers or a screen, delivery integration at £0–£60 a month per platform elsewhere, and online ordering at 0–15% commission or £20–£60 a month elsewhere. Posso's complete takeaway system is £499 + VAT including the terminal, kitchen printer, receipt printer, cash drawer, menu build and training, with software from £25 + VAT a month.
What does Just Eat integration with an EPOS cost?
Elsewhere, delivery-platform integration typically costs £0–£60 a month per platform, so connecting Just Eat, Uber Eats and Deliveroo can run to three separate charges. Posso charges £45 a month for all three platforms with unlimited orders. Integration does not change the platform's commission; it removes the retyping, the tablet stack and the wrong-order risk.
Is a kitchen printer or a kitchen screen cheaper for a takeaway?
A printer is cheaper to buy: Posso's extra printers are £99 each against £399 + VAT for a 21-inch kitchen display. A screen earns its price when the kitchen has several stations and orders arrive from five channels at once, because it routes each item to its station and lets the cook mark items done. A single-station fryer shop is fine with a printer; a three-station kitchen doing 60 deliveries a night usually is not.
How much does a driver app cost per delivery?
Posso Dispatch is 30p per delivery, so 1,200 own-driver deliveries a month cost 1,200 × 30p = £360. The same 1,200 orders at a £22 average through a marketplace at 14% would cost £3,696 in commission.
What does AI phone ordering cost for a takeaway?
Posso's AI phone ordering is £1 per order taken, with nothing to pay on calls that do not become orders. It answers 24/7, handles unlimited simultaneous calls, puts the order into the till and texts the customer a Posso Pay payment link.
Does online ordering for a takeaway cost commission?
Elsewhere, typically 0–15% commission or £20–£60 a month. Posso hosts your online ordering website free; the customer pays a 60p service fee per order and the store pays only card processing. Orders land in the same till and kitchen queue as phone and counter orders.
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