SpotOn

In short

SpotOn is a restaurant point-of-sale and payments platform built around a touchscreen countertop terminal and a lightweight handheld device for tableside ordering, paired with commission-free online ordering, dynamic sales reporting and an AI menu assistant. Its distinguishing choice is pricing structure: SpotOn's core restaurant plan ties its software cost to a percentage of processing volume, and it separately offers a flat monthly software fee option with a different processing rate, rather than selling a single fixed-price plan the way some competitors do.

Key features for restaurants

Who it's for

SpotOn fits a table-service or counter-service restaurant that wants a POS with tableside ordering hardware and commission-free online ordering built into one system, and that is comfortable comparing a processing-volume-based software cost against a flat-fee competitor rather than assuming a single published number tells the whole story. It also fits a small multi-location group that wants one dashboard across sites.

Who should skip it

A restaurant that wants to compare software cost as a simple flat number without doing the math against its own processing volume should look at a competitor with a single published flat rate instead, since SpotOn's core plan pricing scales with card volume rather than staying fixed. A very low-volume operation might find the percentage-based structure adds up faster than expected relative to a flat monthly fee elsewhere.

Support and reliability

SpotOn markets round-the-clock phone support answered by a person rather than a queue, which matters for a restaurant whose POS goes down mid-service and cannot wait for a next-business-day callback.

What it does well

SpotOn's tableside handheld is built specifically for a full-service restaurant's floor: a server can take an order or run a card at the table rather than walking back to a fixed terminal, and the device's battery is built to last a full shift rather than needing a mid-service charge. Its online ordering runs commission-free and integrated with the POS rather than as a bolted-on third-party widget, so an online order and an in-person sale land in the same reporting and menu system.

Limits to know

SpotOn's All-In plan, which rolls software cost into processing rates with no separate monthly fee, carries a multi-year minimum commitment and a monthly processing minimum, which is a real tradeoff against the flexibility of a month-to-month plan. The Essentials plan avoids that lock-in with a flat monthly software fee and lower processing rates, but requires the restaurant to purchase hardware upfront (with financing available) rather than getting it bundled at no cost the way the All-In plan does. Either way, the total setup cost is not captured by looking at the software fee alone.

What to check on pricing

SpotOn publishes two different plan structures for restaurants on its pricing page: an All-In plan that rolls software cost into a higher processing rate with a multi-year commitment, and an Essentials plan with a flat monthly software fee, lower processing rates and month-to-month flexibility, but upfront hardware cost. Run your restaurant's typical monthly card volume and hardware needs through both before deciding which is cheaper; verified figures appear in the pricing table on this page rather than in this text.

Alternatives

• Toast if you want restaurant-specific hardware and payroll bundled with a different pricing structure; see SpotOn vs Toast.
• TouchBistro if you prefer iPad-based hardware and want reservations from the same vendor as your POS.
• Square if you want a free base plan with no monthly software fee and pay-as-you-go processing instead.

How we reviewed it

This review is based on SpotOn's own site, opened directly during this session: its restaurant product page, its pricing page, its homepage and its about page, which together describe the Station terminal, Handheld device, online ordering, DoorDash Drive integration, AI menu assistant, multi-location dashboard, kitchen display and kiosk hardware, payroll integration, support model and the two plan structures referenced above. Verified pricing figures appear separately in the pricing table on this page rather than in this text.