SumUp Alternative: The Best SumUp POS Alternatives for Restaurants
Why restaurants outgrow SumUp
SumUp is a card reader with a basic till attached. It's cheap, it's quick to set up and anyone can use it, so plenty of restaurants start on it when they first open.
It was built for small retail and service businesses, though, not restaurants. Once you start adding modifiers, running more than one printer, taking online orders or trying to set up a loyalty scheme, you run into the walls fast.
SumUp doesn't give you:
- A restaurant POS with table management and course ordering
- Online ordering for collection or delivery
- A branded app for your customers
- Self-service kiosks
- A kitchen display system
- Multi-location management
- Reporting built around how restaurants work
If you're missing two or three of those already, you've probably outgrown it.
The best SumUp alternatives for restaurants
1. Flipdish
Best overall for restaurants in the UK and Ireland.
Flipdish covers POS, online ordering, branded apps, kiosks, payments, loyalty and AI in one platform. It's built for restaurants, takeaways, cafés and restaurant groups, and nothing else.
SumUp gets you a card reader and a till. Flipdish runs the whole operation. Walk-ins, online orders, app orders, kiosk orders and phone orders all come into the same system and go straight to the kitchen display. Nobody has to retype an order from a tablet into the till.
What you get that SumUp doesn't have:
- A restaurant POS designed for hospitality from day one, not a retail till with a few extras bolted on
- Online ordering with no marketplace commission, because customers order from you directly
- Your own branded mobile app, so regulars reorder from you and not from a marketplace
- A Kitchen Display System that puts every order in front of the kitchen
- Self-service kiosks that cut queues and push up average order value
- An AI Phone Agent that answers when the phone rings and nobody can get to it
- AI marketing to bring customers back
- Local support in the UK and Ireland
2. Square for Restaurants
Square has a restaurant version that does more than SumUp for in-person service. It handles table layouts, courses and kitchen routing. Online ordering is weaker than on platforms built around ordering, and UK support is thinner than the US-focused documentation would have you believe.
3. Lightspeed Restaurant
Lightspeed is a hospitality POS aimed at sit-down restaurants. Floor plans, course ordering and staff management are all good. Online ordering takes extra setup and usually a third-party integration.
4. Zettle by PayPal
Zettle is basically the same kind of product as SumUp. A card reader and a simple till, fine for retail and very simple food businesses. No restaurant features, so if you need ordering integrations, kitchen management or loyalty, you'll hit the same problems.
5. Epos Now
Epos Now is a general POS used in both retail and hospitality. It does more than SumUp and has a hospitality version, but restaurants aren't its starting point the way they are for Flipdish. Watch the add-ons - the price climbs quickly.
SumUp vs Flipdish: side-by-side
| Feature | SumUp | Flipdish |
|---|---|---|
| Card payments | Yes | Yes |
| Restaurant POS | Basic | Yes |
| Online ordering | No | Yes |
| Branded mobile app | No | Yes |
| Self-service kiosk | No | Yes |
| Kitchen Display System | No | Yes |
| AI phone ordering | No | Yes |
| Loyalty programme | No | Yes |
| Multi-location management | Limited | Yes |
| Restaurant-specific reporting | No | Yes |
| Built for restaurants | No | Yes |
When to move on from SumUp
Some signs it's time:
- Online orders come in on a separate tablet and someone has to manage them alongside the till
- The phone rings on a Friday night and nobody picks up
- You want a loyalty scheme and have nowhere to run it
- You've opened a second site and can't see both from one place
- Delivery marketplaces are taking a big cut and you want customers ordering from you directly
- The kitchen is still working off printed tickets
Any one of these on its own might be fine. Several at once means a card reader isn't enough anymore.
What moving from SumUp to Flipdish involves
Changing POS sounds like a big job. Coming from SumUp it usually isn't, because there's not much to bring across - no customer history, no loyalty points, no online ordering data.
The work is:
- Setting up your menu in Flipdish
- Installing hardware (card reader, KDS and a kiosk if you want one)
- Setting up your online ordering page and app
- Training staff
Flipdish's onboarding team handles the setup, and most restaurants are done in a day or two.
How Flipdish can help
Flipdish works with everything from single-site takeaways to national chains. If you're on SumUp and know you need more, it's a step up that doesn't lock you into an enterprise system with features you'll never touch.
Ready to move on from SumUp? See what Flipdish offers restaurants.