Best POS for Canadian restaurants and cafés

A Smithville dining room does not need Shopify’s SKU counter. It needs modifiers, a kitchen ticket, split cheques, and Interac on a $48 table. US restaurant-POS blogs skip the part that changes the bill: CAD or an honest USD label, a published Interac rate or an honest “ask sales,” and whether Québec WEB-SRM is even supported.

This comparison is four food-service names Canadians actually shortlist: Toast (Canada host; CA$ printed), Square for Restaurants (published Interac), Lightspeed Restaurant (Montreal; USD restaurant list), and TouchBistro (Toronto; $69 unlabelled). Restaurant POS prices checked against public vendor pages, 6 September 2026. Buttons are official marketing URLs, not affiliate trackers.

Reservations and client booking are appointment scheduling. The wage run is still Canadian payroll. GST/HST on the cheque is a location tax you configure — the Z-tape is not a return.

Who this page is for

• A Canadian café, QSR, or full-service room that needs tickets, modifiers, and Interac — not a clothing SKU.
• An operator who heard “Toast is in Canada now” and needs the CA$ card, not a US $69 blog.
• A Québec room that must ask about WEB-SRM before they swipe.
• Not a grocery or boutique. Not a hands-on hardware lab. Not a Revenu Québec ruling.

Snapshot (public pages, 6 September 2026)

Toast — Canada host, CA$ card, Interac refunds same day

Official pos.toasttab.com/ca/pricing (6 September 2026): Starter starting at CA$120/month. Essentials CA$220/month. Custom quote for device count and package. Same-page footnote: pricing includes the first hardware terminal subscription; additional devices cost extra. Upfront hardware and implementation vary. Official pos.toasttab.com/ca/pricing prints CA$ on Starter and Essentials. That is a Canada list, not the US Toast $69 / “Starter Kit free” cards. Confirm tax at checkout. Source: https://pos.toasttab.com/ca/pricing.

The Canada comparison chart lists card-present and card-not-present as “per transaction flat rate” and platform rate as “no fee.” It does not print an Interac debit table. Official toasttab.com payments page describes processing as a custom quote. Do not invent 2.49% or 2.99% from a US blog or from Square’s competitor page. Source: https://pos.toasttab.com/payments/payment-processing-fees. Official Toast help “Issue a Refund” (updated 13 August 2026): for Interac customers in Canada, full and partial refunds must be submitted by 11:59 p.m. ET on the same day as the original transaction; next-day Interac refunds are not supported. That documents Interac on Toast in Canada. It is not a published Interac rate. Source: Toast Issue a Refund. Square’s competitor page quotes different Toast dollars — that is Square marketing, not Toast’s Canada list.

Toast is the usual “restaurant OS” pitch: proprietary hardware, payments bundled, kitchen and FOH on one stack. Budget the terminal footnote and get the Interac rate in the quote. Do not treat a US Starter Kit blog as Smithville pricing.

Square for Restaurants — published Interac, $0 start

Official squareup.com/ca/en/point-of-sale/restaurants/pricing (6 September 2026): Free $0/month + processing — unlimited countertop POS devices and locations; M–F 6:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m. PT support. Plus $60/month per location + $40/month per extra countertop POS; 30-day trial; unlimited Square KDS; 24/7 support. Premium: custom pricing if you process more than $250,000 in credit card sales per year (other exclusions apply) squareup.com/ca/en/point-of-sale/restaurants/pricing prints $0 / $60 / custom next to Interac at 0.75% + 7¢. Those processing rates match Square’s published Canada fee table. Software dollars are not prefixed “CAD”; treat them as the Canada restaurants list and confirm GST/HST at checkout. In-person credit 2.5% in-person for major credit cards (Free and Plus). Interac 0.75% + 7¢ per Interac chip & PIN or tap. Online 2.8% + 30¢ online. Keyed 3.3% + 15¢ manual entry / card on file. KDS on Free is $20/month per device. Plus and Premium include unlimited KDS devices at no extra subscription. Source: https://squareup.com/ca/en/point-of-sale/restaurants/pricing.

Offline payments up to 24 hours in one session. Interac debit does not work offline; an offline Interac attempt auto-declines when connectivity returns. Same-page footnote: Square products are not compatible with Québec’s WEB-SRM / mandatory billing. Square offers an integration with Master Your Rush POS, which is WEB-SRM certified. This is the cheap experiment for a counter café that already knows Square. Plus is the plan if you need party-size auto-gratuity, seat splits, and a real KDS. Card-rate context: Square vs Helcim and payment processors.

Lightspeed Restaurant — Montreal, USD list

Lightspeed is a Montreal company. This page is Restaurant POS, not Retail (X-Series). Official lightspeedhq.com/pos/restaurant/pricing/ (6 September 2026): Starter US$69/month. Essential US$189/month. Premium US$399/month. Enterprise: custom quote. Kitchen Display System $30/screen per month on the public table (USD page) Official lightspeedhq.com/pos/restaurant/pricing/ prints USD on Starter / Essential / Premium. Confirm CAD billing and Canadian Interac rates with Lightspeed — do not treat a US card-present promo or a blog’s 2.6% as a Canadian Interac quote. Starter lists integrated payments as Default; Essential and Premium list Custom. The public Restaurant page does not print Interac or Visa Canada rates. Source: https://www.lightspeedhq.com/pos/restaurant/pricing/.

Do not confuse this with Lightspeed Retail (X-Series) on the retail POS page. Get a Canadian quote that names Interac. Official L-Series help: Lightspeed Restaurant L-Series does not support WEB-SRM. Existing Québec L-Series merchants were told to switch to K-Series (deadline cited 1 June 2025). Ask Lightspeed which SKU is WEB-SRM certified for your room. Source: https://resto-support.lightspeedhq.com/hc/en-us/articles/39112100823579-About-WEB-SRM-and-L-Series-Quebec.

TouchBistro — Toronto, unlabelled $69

Official contact page lists 85 Richmond Street W, Suite 200, Toronto, ON. The privacy notice lists TouchBistro Inc., 1100 – 85 Richmond St W, Toronto, ON M5H 2C9. Official touchbistro.com/pricing (6 September 2026): Point of Sale starting at $69/month — menu, reporting, floor plan, staff management, 24/7 support. Hardware required. Hardware, payment processing, and additional fees apply. Essentials Bundle starting at $119/month — POS plus integrated payments and restaurant-grade hardware. Payment processing and additional fees apply. Custom Setup: quote touchbistro.com/pricing prints $69 and $119 with no CAD or USD prefix. This page does not invent CAD. Confirm currency and tax at checkout. KDS, inventory, online ordering, reservations, loyalty, and labour management are add-ons or quote items. The public page does not print those add-on dollars. Source: https://www.touchbistro.com/pricing/.

Official integrations page lists payment partners including Moneris (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, INTERAC Direct Payment) plus Worldpay and Chase. That is partner Interac — not a published TouchBistro Interac rate. TD announced a TouchBistro merchant integration for Canadian restaurants (7 November 2024). Official integrations list 7shifts for staff scheduling. That is an integration, not a built-in CRA payroll product. Staff rotas that are not a POS add-on sit on employee shift scheduling. Sources: https://www.touchbistro.com/features/integrations/; https://www.touchbistro.com/contact-us/.

A practical pick

1. Counter café, published Interac, $0 software: Square for Restaurants Free. Add Plus at $60/location when you need KDS and seat splits.
2. Full-service room that wants a Canada-printed software card and will take a processing quote: Toast Starter at CA$120 (first terminal in that sticker; extra devices extra).
3. Montreal vendor, multi-location, will accept a USD software list and an Interac sales quote: Lightspeed Restaurant Essential (US$189) — not Retail X-Series.
4. Toronto iPad FOH, want Moneris or TD as the Interac rail: TouchBistro from $69 — confirm CAD at checkout.
5. Québec WEB-SRM: do not assume Square. Read Square’s own footnote. Ask Lightspeed for K-Series. Ask Toast and TouchBistro in writing.
6. Retail merch, not tickets: POS systems for Canadian small businesses.
7. Processor fee tables: payment processors for Canadian small businesses.
8. Who works the close: employee shift scheduling. Guest bookings: appointment scheduling.