How much does an EPOS system cost in the UK? (2026 guide)
The headline price of a till is the smallest number in the deal. This guide breaks the cost into its components, puts UK market ranges against each one, and works two three-year totals so you can see where the money actually goes.
- Cost by component with typical UK ranges
- Two worked three-year totals, arithmetic shown
- Posso EPOS systems from £499 + VAT
Written by the Posso team in Leicester · Reviewed by Paul Robinson, Managing Director · Last reviewed
Short answer
A complete single-till EPOS system in the UK typically costs £300–£1,500 one-off for hardware, plus £25–£70 a month for cloud software, plus card processing at roughly 1–1.75% of every card sale. Over three years the card fees are usually the largest line: a takeaway taking £60,000 a year on card pays around £3,000 in fees at a mid-range rate, several times what the till itself cost. Add a kitchen display (£300–£800 a screen), delivery integration (£0–£60 a month per platform elsewhere) or a kiosk (£700–£3,000+) only if the business needs them. Posso systems start from £499 + VAT for the hardware, with software from £25 + VAT a month.
Key takeaways
- Till hardware is a one-off £300–£1,500; software is £25–£70 a month; card fees run 1–1.75% of card sales.
- Over three years card processing usually costs more than the hardware and software combined.
- Work every quote out at your real average ticket, because percentage-plus-pence rates bite harder on £6 orders than £30 ones.
- Buy the till, kitchen printing and card processing first; add kiosks and integrations when the queue or the order volume justifies them.
Takeaway: Price an EPOS system as a three-year total of hardware, software and card fees, not as the sticker price on the till.
Why the sticker price misleads
Most people searching for the cost of an EPOS system are comparing hardware prices: a £299 bundle against a £1,200 one. That is the least useful comparison, because hardware is a one-off and everything else recurs.
A till is bought once. Software is paid every month for as long as you trade. Card fees are paid on every sale and scale with turnover, not with your choice of till. A business doing £5,000 a week on card pays roughly £50–£90 a week in processing, £2,600–£4,550 a year, against a till that cost perhaps £500.
The second mistake is pricing by the headline rate rather than your own ticket size. A rate of 1.5% plus 5p beats 1.75% flat on a £30 bill (50p against 52.5p) and loses on a £3 coffee (9.5p against 5.25p). Every figure in this guide, and on the wider EPOS cost hub, should be re-run against your own numbers before you sign.
The six principles for costing an EPOS system
These apply whichever supplier you end up with. They are the difference between a quote you understand and a quote you discover later.
Cost the system over three years, not at checkout
Three years is a realistic life for a touchscreen terminal in a kitchen and the term most finance and support agreements run to. Add the hardware once, the software thirty-six times and the card fees on three years of projected turnover. A takeaway doing £60,000 a year on card at a mid-range rate pays £1,000 a year in fees; 36 × £25 of software is £900. Over three years the fees (£3,000) are more than three times the software and six times a £499 till.
Price the card rate on your real ticket, not the brochure's
Take a week of receipts and work out your average card transaction and how many you take. A fish and chip shop at £14 average and 350 card sales a week pays £85.75 under 1.75% flat and £49 + £35 = £84 under 1% + 10p; a restaurant at £32 average and 150 sales pays £84 flat against £48 + £15 = £63. The pence matter below about £10 a ticket; the percentage matters above it. Ask every provider to quote on your figures and write the effective rate down as one percentage of turnover.
Separate what you must buy from what you might
A counter business needs a terminal, a receipt printer, a kitchen printer, a cash drawer and card processing. That is the whole list. A kitchen display, handheld order pads, a customer-facing screen, a kiosk and delivery integration each solve a specific problem: wrong orders, slow tables, queues, re-keying. Price the must-haves as one number and each optional item as its own line with the problem it fixes beside it, so you are not paying £800 for a screen to fix a Tuesday lunchtime problem you do not have.
Count every recurring line, including the ones outside the EPOS invoice
Software is one subscription. Online ordering commission, delivery integration per platform, loyalty add-ons, extra user licences, a support plan and card terminal rental can each be separate direct debits from separate companies. Put them in one column and total it monthly. A system advertised at £30 a month that needs £40 of integration, £20 of support and £15 of terminal rental is a £105-a-month system. The hidden costs guide lists each in detail.
Treat a cheap bundle as a loan against the card rate
Free or heavily discounted hardware is paid for somewhere, usually through a higher processing rate or a longer minimum term. A £300 discount recovered through an extra 0.25% on £80,000 a year of card sales is £200 a year, so the discount is gone inside eighteen months and the uplift continues. That can still be a fair trade for a new business with no cash, but make the decision with the arithmetic in front of you, not from the pricing page.
Value the warranty and support hours in pounds
A till that dies at 6:30pm on a Saturday costs you the evening's takings, not a repair bill. Warranties of one to two years are typical; support that answers at that hour is not. Ask how a replacement reaches you and how long it takes. Then put a number on a lost Saturday service: for a 40-cover restaurant turning £2,500 that night, a two-year warranty and an out-of-hours line are worth far more than a £100 difference in hardware price.
EPOS system cost by component (UK, 2026)
Typical UK ranges for each component, with Posso's published figure in the last column.
| Component | Typical UK range | Posso |
|---|---|---|
| Till hardware (terminal, printers, drawer) | £300–£1,500 one-off | £499 + VAT, including terminal, kitchen printer, receipt printer, cash drawer, menu build and training |
| EPOS software | £25–£70 a month; £100+ for enterprise tiers | From £25 + VAT a month |
| 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 |
| Kitchen display screen | £300–£800 per screen, plus £0–£30 a month licences elsewhere | £399 + VAT per screen |
| Handheld order pad | Varies with device | £259 + VAT each |
| Self-order kiosk | £700–£3,000+ per unit | From £699 + VAT; Fast Lane kiosk £399 + VAT |
| Online ordering | 0–15% commission or £20–£60 a month elsewhere | Hosting free; 60p service fee per order paid by the customer; store pays card processing only |
| Delivery platform integration | £0–£60 a month per platform elsewhere | £45 a month, unlimited orders |
| Installation and setup | £0–£300 elsewhere | Setup free; on-site installation for larger sites priced on application |
| Warranty | 1–2 years | two-year warranty standard |
Ranges are typical UK figures at October 2026; Posso prices are published on EPOS pricing. Posso Pay is quoted on card turnover; the rate shown is the published from-rate.
Two worked three-year totals
Worked example one: a 40-cover restaurant, table service, two floors. Hardware: one till, one kitchen display screen, two handheld order pads and an extra printer for the bar. Using Posso's published prices that is £499 + £399 + (2 × £259) + £99 = £1,515 + VAT, paid once. Software: 36 × £25 = £900 + VAT over three years. Card processing on £96,000 a year of card sales at a £30 average ticket (3,200 transactions): at the published from-rate of 1% + 10p that is £960 + £320 = £1,280 a year, or £3,840 over three years. Three-year total: £1,515 + £900 + £3,840 = £6,255. Card fees are 61% of the total; the hardware is 24%.
Worked example two: a counter takeaway, one till, kitchen printer, no table service. Hardware: £499 + VAT. Software: £900 + VAT over three years. Card processing on £60,000 a year at a £15 average ticket (4,000 transactions): £600 + £400 = £1,000 a year, £3,000 over three years. Total without delivery platforms: £499 + £900 + £3,000 = £4,399. If the shop takes Just Eat and Uber Eats and wants those orders on the till rather than re-keyed from a tablet, add 36 × £45 = £1,620, for £6,019. Even here, the card fees are six times the price of the till.
Run both examples at a flat 1.75% reader rate and the card lines become £5,040 and £3,150. For the restaurant the difference is £1,200 over three years, more than twice the price of the till. For a fuller table-service build, see the restaurant POS cost guide.
What to ask a provider before you sign
What is my effective card rate on my own transactions?
Give the provider a week of your actual receipts: card turnover and number of card transactions. Ask for the fee on that week as a pound figure and as a percentage of turnover. A 1% + 10p rate on 350 transactions averaging £14 works out at 1.71%; on 150 averaging £32 it is 1.31%. Whoever will not answer in pounds on your numbers is hiding the pence component.
What is the full monthly figure with everything I will actually use?
List what you will switch on in month one: software, delivery integration per platform, online ordering, kitchen display licences, extra users, support. Ask for the sum as one monthly number plus VAT, and whether any line is billed by a third party. Then ask what each costs with a second till or site, because multi-till pricing is where £25 a month becomes £75.
What happens when the terminal fails at 7pm on a Saturday?
You want three answers: the hours the support line is staffed, whether there is an out-of-hours route for a till that is down, and how a replacement unit reaches you. A warranty that posts a repair in ten working days is worth less than one that talks you through a fix tonight. Ask for the answer in writing.
The Posso approach to EPOS pricing
Posso prices the components separately and publishes them. The POS system is £499 + VAT and includes the touchscreen terminal running Windows 11 Pro, a kitchen printer, a receipt printer, a cash drawer, the menu build and staff training. You own the hardware outright. Software and support are from £25 + VAT a month, and a two-year warranty is standard. If you would rather spread the cost, finance is available from £24.92 a week.
Add-ons are priced per item, not per tier: a kitchen display screen is £399 + VAT, a handheld waiter pad £259 + VAT, a customer-facing twin screen £150 + VAT, a self-order kiosk from £699 + VAT. Just Eat, Uber Eats and Deliveroo integration is £45 a month with unlimited orders rather than a fee per platform. Online ordering is hosted free, with a 60p service fee per web or app order paid by the customer; the store pays only the card processing. The complete list is on the EPOS pricing page.
Card processing runs through Posso Pay, Posso's own merchant service, from 1% + 10p and quoted on your card turnover, with the same rate in store and online. Teya and Dojo terminals are also supported. Support is UK-based from Leicester, Monday to Friday, 9am–9:30pm, with 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.
Where to look elsewhere
If your business is primarily retail, with a large stock file, barcode purchasing and supplier management, a retail-first platform will cost less over three years than adapting a hospitality system and will do the stock job properly. Our retail POS guide explains the difference.
A sole trader doing thirty transactions a day with no kitchen is better served by a card reader and its free app tier. At that volume the card rate is the only line that matters; a full EPOS is a cost without a corresponding problem.
Related guides
Related guides
EPOS system hidden costs
The fees that appear after signing, and how to read a quote line by line.
Read the guideCheap EPOS system UK
Where a cheap setup is fine, where it costs more, and what £499 should buy.
Read the guideEPOS system with no monthly fee
What bought-outright software really means and what you give up.
Read the guideCard machine fees explained
Percentage, pence and flat rates worked through on real ticket sizes.
Read the guideHow much does a POS system cost for a restaurant?
A fuller build for table service: kitchen screens, order pads and bookings.
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.
EPOS system cost — frequently asked questions
How much does an EPOS system cost in the UK?
Typically £300–£1,500 one-off for the till hardware, £25–£70 a month for cloud software and 1–1.75% of card sales in processing fees. A single-till takeaway spends around £4,400 over three years; a 40-cover restaurant with a kitchen screen and two order pads around £6,300. Posso systems start at £499 + VAT, with software from £25 + VAT a month and Posso Pay from 1% + 10p, quoted on card turnover.
What is the monthly cost of an EPOS system?
Cloud EPOS software is typically £25–£70 a month per till, with enterprise tiers above £100. The figure that matters is the total of software, delivery or online ordering integration, support and terminal rental, which can double the headline. Posso software and support are from £25 + VAT a month; delivery integration, if needed, is £45 a month with unlimited orders.
Are card fees really the biggest EPOS cost?
For most hospitality businesses, yes. A takeaway taking £60,000 a year on card pays around £1,000 a year at a mid-range rate and £1,050 at 1.75% flat; over three years that is £3,000 or more against a till that cost £500. Get the card rate quoted on your own average ticket before comparing hardware prices.
Is it cheaper to buy or lease an EPOS system?
Buying outright is cheaper over three years if you have the cash; leasing or finance spreads it and keeps the money in the business during opening. Posso hardware is bought outright from £499 + VAT, with finance from £24.92 a week if you prefer to spread it. Our [buy vs lease guide](/buy-epos-system-uk) works through the comparison in detail.
How much does a kitchen display system add to the cost?
Kitchen display screens typically cost £300–£800 per screen, with some providers adding £0–£30 a month per screen in licences. Posso's 21-inch kitchen screen is £399 + VAT. Whether it is worth it depends on your wrong-order rate and ticket volume; the [kitchen display cost guide](/kitchen-display-system-cost) sets out when a printer is enough.
Are there installation or setup costs?
Installation typically costs £0–£300 elsewhere, depending on whether it is remote or on site. At Posso, setup (menu build and configuration) is free and systems ship preconfigured; on-site installation for larger sites is priced on application. Ask whether quoted installation includes the menu build, because a menu with 200 items and modifiers is most of the work.
Get Your Free ePOS Demo Today
Tell us about your business and a member of the team will get back to you with a personalised demo, a quote, and answers to anything you want to check before you buy.
Prefer to talk? 0808 175 3956