14 Best Restaurant Management Software [Industry Favorites]

Running a restaurant is not easy, with high competition everywhere. Restaurant owners have to constantly deal with the changing demands of customers, fluctuating operational expenses, and strict food safety guidelines. 

Restaurant management solutions help the owners and managers of restaurants, hotels, and cafés handle their front-of-house and back-of-house operations. It also improves staff productivity and customer satisfaction while reducing waste.

I’ve researched and reviewed the top restaurant management software based on key features, such as table management, online ordering, inventory management, staff management, customer relationship management, POS integration, and reporting and analytics.

• 1. Lightspeed Restaurant – Best for Growing Restaurant Businesses
• 2. MarginEdge – Restaurant-Specific Accounting & Analytics
• 3. Toast POS – All-in-One Restaurant Management Platform
• 4. MarketMan – Best for Inventory & Food Cost Control
• 5. Oracle MICROS Simphony – Cloud-Based POS for Enterprise
• 6. Restaurant365 – Best for Restaurant Accounting & Operations
• 7. Apicbase – Recipe Management & Procurement Solution
• 8. BevSpot – Inventory & Ordering for Bars & Restaurants
• 9. Zoho Creator – Build a Custom Restaurant Management App
• 10. Square for Restaurants – Affordable POS Solution
• 11. OpenTable – Best for Online Reservations & Guest Management
• 12. TouchBistro – iPad POS System for Restaurants
• 13. SynergySuite – End-to-End Restaurant Management Platform
• 14. SevenRooms – Guest Experience & Marketing Automation
• Show moreShow less

Restaurant Management Software Comparison

Below is a quick comparison table of the restaurant management solutions I will be discussing later in this article.

Let’s now discuss the top restaurant management systems and my review of each of them.

1. Lightspeed Restaurant

Lightspeed Restaurant is a customizable and flexible restaurant management software that offers a unified platform to run your operations faster. You’ll get powerful insights to serve your customers better and add to their happiness. You also get data-backed recommendations to simplify the ordering process for your customers.

The software offers real-time insights to track transactions and figure out the best strategies to improve customer experience. Optimize your menu, identify top-performing staff, and track customer satisfaction levels with accurate data from the restaurant management software. 

Features

• Customizable POS
• Menu optimization
• Online ordering facility for customers
• QR code scanning
• Table side ordering
• Kitchen inventory management
• Hotel property management system (PMS) integration
• Partner API to manage restaurants in multiple locations on one platform
• Competitive intelligence to find opportunities and trends

Above is Lightspeed’s “Magic Menu Quadrant” that visually categorizes menu items based on their popularity and customer retention, helping restaurants identify their top-performing dishes and hidden gems.

The sidebar navigation offers quick access to sales, server insights, and marketing tools, making it easy to manage operations and employee performance. This tool provides feedback on menu performance, enabling restaurant owners to optimize their offerings and boost customer satisfaction.

Pricing

Plans	Starting Price	Key Features
Essential	$189/month	Customizable POS, menu manager, advanced insights, single view reconciliation, CRM and loyalty
Premium	$399/month	Floor plans, RAW API access, Multiple revenue center support, Multi-location management, Lightspeed Pulse mobile app
Enterprise	Get a quote	Unlimited launch and consultation services, dedicated support team and customer success manager, and personalized software package

Explore Lightspeed Restaurant

2. MarginEdge

MarginEdge is a restaurant management platform that lets you view your food costs and automate back-office operations, such as managing inventory and invoice processing, to save time. It offers restaurant-specific accounting and analytics to reduce manual work, manage expenses, and make decisions based on accurate data. 

MarginEdge reduces the complexity of your restaurant business with its real-time insights and advanced tools, helpful for delivering exceptional services to your customers. It does the math and tells you the difference in the costs between the foods and ingredients you purchased and the items you sold

Features

• Automated invoice processing
• Inventory tracking
• Shows food costs, such as price changes, food usage, daily P&Ls, and wastage
• Invoice categorization
• Menu items comparison based on desserts, entrées, and appetizers
• Back office efficiencies
• Menu and recipe analysis
• cost management
• POS integrations
• Accounting integrations

Above is the complete dashboard of MarginEdge restaurant management software, which helps you track orders, vendors, performance, inventory, accounting, and more. You can directly search for date, type, status, etc., in the search bar to get the data you want without any hassle.

Pricing

Plans	Starting Price	Key Features
One-time fee	$330/location/month	Easier inventory tools, recipe management with robust menu analysis, free vendor statement reconciliation, no fuss invoice processing

Explore MarginEdge

3. Toast POS

Toast POS is a fully featured, all-in-one restaurant management software that manages every operation, such as taking orders, processing payments, managing inventory, and setting schedules for staff. The platform helps you turn more tables, take online orders, eliminate bottlenecks, and keep your services in sync, whether you’re managing a small café or a large-scale restaurant or hotel. 

Toast POS is a cloud-based system that you can access from anywhere. It offers restaurant-grade hardware, offline mode, and more than 200 app integrations to run your restaurant smoothly. You’ll get a customizable hardware setup and transparent pricing to manage your operations in a single platform with add-ons for online ordering, payroll, etc. 

Features

• Inventory management
• Table management
• Staffs schedule management
• Online orders management
• Sales categorization
• PMS integration
• Menu management
• Real-time reporting
• Access to contactless payments
• Automated bookkeeping and cost management

Above is the Toast POS’s “table management interface” where you can alert tables based on prior bookings to your customers. You can view guest names, the number of individuals, the time they arrive, and the status of their booking on this interface. This helps you manage your tables accordingly.

Pricing

Plans	Starting Price	Key Features
Starter Kit	$0	Hardware kit with no upfront cost, cloud-based POS, hardware configuration for 1 terminal
Point of Sale	$69/month	Custom hardware configuration, table and order management, integrated PCI-compliant payments and surcharging
Build your Own	Custom pricing	Online ordering and delivery, automated inventory, employee scheduling, guest loyalty and marketing

Explore Toast POS

4. MarketMan

MarketMan is a cloud-based restaurant management system that restaurants use to manage invoicing, purchasing, inventory, recipe costing, etc., and control inventory and food costs. With its predictive analytics, you can minimize waste and improve profit. 

MarketMan’s SaaS platform automates back-house operations and provides you with accurate reporting on Costs of Goods Sold (COGs), expenses, and inventory. It offers advanced reporting features for accurate pricing and profitability reports. This enables businesses, from small coffee outlets to hospitality groups, to have complete control over their costs. Use the reports to identify food waste areas and receive order quantities.  

Features

• Restaurant inventory management
• Suggestive ordering
• Digital Cookbook
• Recipe costing
• Purchasing and receiving
• Expense tracking
• Inventory management
• Centralized reporting
• POS and Accounting integration
• Automated online order handling
• Menu management

MarketMan’s dashboard is an easy-to-understand interface, as you can see in the above image. It lets you track your inventory, purchasing, food costs, and other essential things easily. You can select daily, weekly, and monthly data checks to get the graph accordingly. This helps you update your goals and income and take strategic action to boost your restaurant business.

Pricing

Plans	Starting Price	Key Features
Operator	$239/month	Placing and receiving orders, inventory counting and transfers, accounts payable management, POS and accounting software integrations
Professional	$299/month	Recipe costing and digital cookbook, invoice scanning, inventory waste tracking
Ultimate	$429/month	Suggestive ordering, 2 included vendor integrations

Explore MarketMan

5. Oracle MICROS Simphony

Oracle MICROS Simphony is a cloud-based POS software for enterprises to run online sales, delivery, and curbside pickup efficiently. It helps you expand your menu options through virtual brands and cloud kitchens. You can connect your kitchen, front-of-house, and back-office operations with this solution to grow, adapt, and improve customer experience. 

Oracle MICROS Simphony manages your menu items, creates menus, and sends them to your cloud kitchen or restaurant. The platform sends alerts to your customers when their orders are ready for pickup or on the way to delivery. It integrates with your preferred payment gateways, delivery services, loyalty programs, online ordering platforms, and reservation apps. 

Features

• Kitchen display systems
• Labor management
• Inventory management
• Self-service Kiosks
• Loyalty programs
• Reporting and analytics
• Menu management
• InMotion mobile app

Oracle MICROS Simphony automates and simplifies menu updates so that you can add or remove menu items, update prices, and provide discounts on orders. This also helps you generate invoices easily from the ordering app.

Pricing

Plans	Starting Price	Key Features
Essentials	$55/month	Perfect for small restaurants, cafés, and bars, reliable POS system with a low-cost ownership, small IT footprint
Plus	$75/month	Perfect for multi-location restaurant chains and franchise operators, advanced analytics, inventory management, advanced marketing

Explore Oracle MICROS Simphony

6. Restaurant365

Restaurant365 brings together inventory, workforce management, payroll, and accounting to help you manage and grow your restaurant. It is best for restaurant operations and accounting as the platform integrates with your banks, vendors, and POS tools. It automates menu costing, supplier payments, payroll, and inventory tracking, and provides real-time insights. You will get detailed labor and sales data from your POS to create daily sales automatically. 

Restaurant365 offers powerful tracking tools to keep tabs on the restaurant’s inventory, labor, and scheduling. It provides AI-powered, mobile-first employee training, communication, and management to improve your customer experience. This helps back-office managers focus on guest experiences, team productivity, and management. 

Features

• Recipe management
• Cash management
• Purchasing and receiving
• Logbook and chat
• Scheduling
• Bookkeeping
• Fixed asset management
• Commissary
• Sales forecasting
• Hiring and onboarding of staff
• Intraday polling

Above is Restaurant365’s inventory management interface that shows you the current quantity, current cost, adjustments, and more in a tabular format. This allows you to track your inventory and update menu items accordingly to give your customers a better experience.

Restaurant365 Pricing

Plans	Starting Price	Key Features
Essential	$499/location/month	General ledger, budgeting, daily sales and labor polling, forecasting, actual vs theoretical food costing, inventory management
Professional	$749/location/month	Fixed asset management, advanced workflows, custom financial reporting, intraday sales polling, prep management, schedule, labor matrix, purchase orders

Explore Restaurant365

7. Apicbase

Apicbase manages your recipes, inventory, analytics, and purchasing in its unified platform, so you can operate excellently across restaurants and hotels. It offers recipe management and procurement solutions to increase your profit, enhance customer experience, and ensure regulatory compliance. It provides large restaurants with a consistent dining experience for customers across all locations. 

Apicbase encourages you to adopt sustainable practices and manage waste efficiently to make environment-friendly sourcing decisions. It acts as a backbone of your back-office operations that centralizes all essential F&B data to provide insights into all processes. It reduces the workload of your management team and staff using automation features.

Features

• Menu engineering
• Menu planning
• API
• Production planning
• Traceability
• HACCP and tasks
• Demand forecasting
• Food cost control
• Food safety and compliance
• Inventory management
• Central production unit
• Carbon tracking
• Performance dashboards
• Internal ordering

Apicbase Pricing

Plans	Starting Price	Key Features
Starter	Not available; option to watch a demo and explore the product	Menu engineering, procurement, inventory, sales analytics, insights hub
Growth	Not available; contact them to get a quote	Mobile app for intake and counts, order to par, automated inventory, more detailed insights
Professional	Not available; contact them to get a quote	Demand forecasting, BOM ordering, user management, custom fields, SSO and 2FA
Enterprise	Not available; contact their experts to get a quote	99% uptime SLA, dedicated CS manager, custom integrations, more storage capability, increased API limits

Explore Apicbase

8. BevSpot

BevSpot is your all-in-one restaurant management software best for inventory and ordering for bars and restaurants. It also manages invoicing and provides essential sales data to grow your food and beverage business from anywhere. The platform predicts inventory and offers a smart card to fill your cart based on your usage. This way, you can order confidently from your vendors with just a single click from anywhere.

BevSpot provides reports, including graphs and charts to track and compare COGs and sitting inventory. The price tracker shows the fluctuations in prices and helps you find opportunities to save. Monitor item-level menu varieties to generate more profits by connecting sales and inventory to your restaurant POS system. It works for everyone in the team, including owners, general managers, accountants, chefs, and bar managers. 

Features

• Fast inventory management
• Smart ordering
• Recipe management
• Sales data
• Analytics and reporting
• Shelf-to-sorting
• Offline mode
• Custom storage data

This is the BevSpot inventory management interface that allows you to add quantity by clicking on the “+” and “-” signs after each item. After clicking on the signs, you will see a calculator-like box where you add quantity in grams, millilitres, and more. From the sidebar, you can choose for which you want to update the inventory, such as the front bar, Wine service bar, Walk-in Cooler, etc.

BevSpot Pricing

Plans	Starting Price	Key Features
Schedule a chat to get a quote	$0	Full access to all features up to a certain period, white-glove implementation, employee training
Standard	$299/month	Inventory, ordering, recipe management, transfer tools, unlimited exports of accounting and operational data, POS integrations and profitability reporting
Pro	$399/month	Product variance reporting, unlimited AI voice processing, accounting integrations, dedicated account management team
Enterprise	Inventory, ordering, recipe management, transfer tools, unlimited exports of accounting and operational data, POS integrations, and profitability reporting	Group-wide onboarding, cross-location employee management, flexible multi-location proof of concept period, location-based requisition reporting, dedicated portfolio account manager

Explore BevSpot

9. Zoho Creator

Zoho Creator is a powerful low-code platform that allows you to build a custom restaurant management system based on your needs and menu categories. You can manage front desk operations, revise menus, keep tabs on kitchen activities, and more. 

Zoho Creator allows you to refine your menu and access reports to understand how your menu is performing and how much order is delivered by time and day of the week. It makes the reservation process easy and optimizes your spending, so you can say goodbye to paperwork. You can monitor and track every action and reaction of your restaurant, from anywhere. 

Features

• Drag-and-drop form builder
• Prebuilt integrations
• Mobile application
• Redesigning menus
• Custom restaurant management solutions
• Status tracker

Above is the dashboard to manage your orders, order tickets, reservations, menus, suppliers, inventory, and customer satisfaction score. You can add the menu name and items from the sidebar and submit the final list. As shown, you can select the order type, table number, time of entry, and who is the attendant to your customer from the dashboard to place a final order. You can also reserve a table for your customers by filling up their details.

Pricing

Plans	Starting Price	Key Features
Standard	Contact the team for the pricing	Up to 1 application, building blocks, branding and personalization, workflow rules and actions, built-in-approvals, blueprints analytics
Professional	$20/user/month	Unlimited applications, up to 100 custom AI models, developer environments, activity logs, user roles and permissions
Enterprise	$25/user/month	SAML-based single sign-on, audit trail, backup, API management, up to 20 custom connectors
Flexible	Contact team for the pricing	If you have a custom requirement, you can talk support team for a tailored plan

Explore Zoho Creator

10. Square for Restaurants

Square for Restaurants is a cloud-based, all-in-one, and affordable POS solution that helps you improve your workflow and manage orders. Whether you are a single-location full-service or multi-location quick-service restaurant, it simplifies your processes and boosts your profits.

Square for Restaurants lets you add new revenue streams, maximize your sales, fulfill more orders, turn one-time customers into loyal customers, stay on top of inventory and labor costs, and access your money. You can optimize the purchase of hardware, including kitchen and receipt printers routers, and cash drawers, that best fit your needs. 

Features

• Menu management
• Online ordering
• Payment processing
• Loyalty programs
• Team schedule management
• Marketing and payroll tools
• Email campaigns
• Automated tax fillings
• Customer directory
• Advanced access
• Invoice management
• Kiosk instalment
• POS integration

This is the interface where you can create a menu, manage orders and payments, and track employees’ actions. I used Square AI to generate a menu as shown in the above picture. You can modify the menu, update the prices and publish it in your hardware so that customers can order directly. In the sidebar, you’ll get other options like inventory management, supplier details, invoices, and more.

Pricing

Plans	Starting Price	Key Features
Free	$0	Best for new businesses with small teams, Square Restaurant POS software, Monday to Friday phone support
Plus	$69/location/month	Ideal for growing business, supports up to 5 locations, orders from multiple channels, Square KDS software, 24/7 phone support
Premium	$165/location/month	Perfect for businesses with over 5 locations, Square Mobile POS software, Square Kiosk software

Explore Square for Restaurants

11. OpenTable

OpenTable is an online reservation and guest management software that allows your guests to book tables directly through a website or mobile app. From solo dining to group dining, it allows your customers to discover your restaurant while searching. It minimizes no-shows or cancellations, drives booking with digital marketing campaigns, and seats high-value guests.  

OpenTable gives you real-time guest insights to offer better hospitality to your diners, understand business performance, and benchmark your restaurant on key metrics like no-shows and seated guests. It allows you to manage your restaurant operations from anywhere, work offline, get easy setup, account management, and a user-friendly interface.

Features

• Restaurant operation management
• Automated tasks
• AI features
• Account management
• Application to book table
• Menu management
• Scheduling
• Online order
• Reservation management
• Waitlists and walk-in management

OpenTable’s interface provides a visual table layout with real-time reservations, waitlist tracking, and table statuses, helping staff optimize seating efficiency. The reservation panel on the left allows hosts to manage upcoming bookings, assign tables, and track guest arrivals seamlessly. Additionally, the system color-codes table availability and status, making it easy to monitor turn times, reduce wait times, and maximize table utilization.

Pricing

Plans	Starting Price	Key Features
Basic	$149/month	Reservations, profile listing, booking widget, review management, notify me, deposit and credit card hold
Core	$299/month	Booking integrations, guest experiences, inventory controls, access rules, mobile app with floor plan
Pro	$499/month	Automated reservation messages, real-time guest spend alerts, premium SMS messaging, guest tags and notes

Explore OpenTable

12. TouchBistro

TouchBistro is a reliable iPad POS system designed specially to manage front-of-house and back-office operations of restaurants. While growing your business to heights, it also takes care of your guests by reducing wait times, guarantees order accuracy, and serves customers with dine-in, delivery, or takeout options. 

TouchBistro drives repeat business, boosts premise orders, turns tables faster, and improves average check size. It helps you reduce cost savings, improve communication between staff, monitor staff performance, and find cost savings with its reporting tools. The platform boosts kitchen efficiency and enhances the speed of service. 

Features

• Inventory management
• Labor management
• Kitchen display system
• Point of sale
• Customer-facing display
• Loyalty programs
• Payments
• Reservations
• Gift cards
• Marketing
• Menu management
• Tableside ordering

TouchBistro’s interface allows servers to efficiently take and manage orders by assigning them to specific seats within a table. The menu categories are visually displayed for quick navigation, enabling faster order entry, while the shared order feature ensures that multiple guests at the same table can have individual items tracked separately. The order summary panel provides real-time updates on subtotal, taxes, and total costs, helping staff streamline billing and improve customer service.

Pricing

Plans	Starting Price	Key Features
Front of House (FOH) solutions	$69/month	Includes point of sale, payments, and customer-facing display features
Back of House (BOH) solutions	$19/month	Separate pricing tiers for inventory management, labor management, kitchen display system, and profit management
Guest engagement solutions	$50/month	Separate pricing tiers for online ordering, reservations, loyalty, marketing, and gift cards

Explore TouchBistro

13. SynergySuite

SynergySuite is a module-based, end-to-end restaurant management platform that allows you to choose the functionalities you need for your back-office operations. It is translatable and available in multiple languages, making it operable across international markets. You’ll get three mobile applications to manage your payroll, scheduling, and reporting efficiently from anywhere. 

SynergySuite lowers your food and beverage costs with its food inventory software that comes with a reliable reporting feature. You’ll get real-time tracking to cut inventory count time and enhance profitability with its accurate inventory tools. It makes your purchasing easy and allows you to take advantage of automated invoice matching, price updates, and built-in order management.

Features

• Inventory management
• Operation management
• Labor and scheduling
• Purchasing
• Food safety
• Reporting and analytics
• Three mobile applications
• Cash management
• Human resource solutions
• Franchise management

Pricing

SynergySuite offers 3 pricing plans – Essential, Standard and Complete. The pricing is available only on request.

Explore SynergySuite

14. SevenRooms

SevenRooms offers a guest experience and marketing automation solution to increase sales, turn first-timers into regulars, and drive growth. It keeps guest profiles in a unified database that you can use to improve customer experience and market. The platform allows you to provide personalized experiences to your guests, from booking to dining experiences. 

SevenRooms lets your front-of-house operators manage pre-shift, seating, waitlist, reservations, and turns while welcoming and recognizing regular guests. It is a smart, dependable, adaptable, and lightning-fast solution that can turn your guest data into dollars with its personalized marketing campaigns. 

Features

• Reservation and waitlist management
• Loyalty and perks
• Reputation management
• Table and revenue management
• Online ordering
• API and integrations
• Group reporting
• Private line
• Event management
• Email and text marketing

Pricing

Book your personalized demo to find new opportunities, satisfy guests, and improve customer relationships. 

Explore SevenRooms

What Is a Restaurant Management Software?

Restaurant management software is a solution that comes with many useful tools and features to help restaurant owners simplify their front-of-house (FOH) and back-of-house (BOH) operations and focus on point of sale (POS). It includes inventory management, online order processing, staff scheduling, guest reservations, payments, and reporting. 

A restaurant management platform offers data security and food safety features to adhere to the data and food compliance. It also tracks labor, inventory, and sales data through advanced reporting and analytics. This lets you identify pain points and make better decisions based on data. 

Benefits of Using Restaurant Management Software

Restaurant management software (RMS) offer 5 benefits as given below.

1. Operational efficiency: An RMS automates restaurant operations like billing, order processing, and table management to reduce errors and speed up the service.
2. Happier customers: The RMS streamlines reservations, reduces waitlists, and minimizes order mistakes to improve customer experience. It also offers personalized promotions to attract customers and turn first-timers into regulars. 
3. Inventory and cost control: The platform tracks stock and manages inventory to reduce waste and optimize purchasing. This helps you save time and improve profit margins. 
4. Simplified staff management: The RMS automates staff scheduling, manages payroll, and tracks employee performance to simplify your staff management process and improve productivity. 
5. Improved decision-making: The software uses advanced reporting and analytics features to provide insights into sale systems, menu performance, and customer preferences. This helps restaurant managers and owners make better decisions to optimize operations and boost profitability. 

What is the Difference Between Restaurant Management Software and Restaurant POS?

Restaurant Management Software (RMS)	Restaurant POS
RMS is a software solution that manages all restaurant operations, including inventory, staff, customer management, and POS.	Restaurant POS is a transaction-processing system used for order management, payment collection, and billing.
The key functions are staff scheduling, analytics, table management, inventory management, POS integration, and more.	The key functions are payment handling, basic inventory tracking, receipt generation, and order processing.
It offers advanced inventory management that comes with automated stock alerts and cost analysis.	It has limited stock tracking and often requires external integrations to track inventory and send you alerts.
It tracks staff payroll, performance, and scheduling.	It tracks employees’ logins, shift hours, etc., but lacks workforce management.
It provides tools for personalized promotions, loyalty programs, and customer data analysis.	It provides limited CRM features that store order history and customer contacts.
The cost is higher depending on the features.	The cost is lower than RMS as it only focuses on orders and payments. But, some providers charge transaction-based fees.
Ideal for restaurants looking for a complete management solution to simplify their restaurant operations.	Ideal for restaurants looking primarily for a solution to handle orders and transactions.

To Summarize…

• Restaurant management software improves operational efficiency – Solutions like Lightspeed Restaurant and Toast POS help streamline table management, online ordering, staff scheduling, and kitchen operations, reducing manual work and enhancing service speed.
• Different tools serve different restaurant needs – MarketMan is ideal for inventory and food cost control, while Oracle MICROS Simphony is a great choice for enterprise-level POS. If you’re looking for accounting and financial tracking, Restaurant365 is a top contender.
• Seamless integrations boost restaurant performance – Software like TouchBistro integrates with POS systems, accounting tools, and payment processors, while SevenRooms focuses on CRM, guest experience, and text marketing to increase customer retention.
• Automation leads to smarter cost management – Platforms such as MarginEdge and Apicbase use AI-driven reporting and analytics to optimize menu pricing, track inventory in real time, and reduce food waste, leading to better financial decisions.
• Choosing the right RMS depends on business priorities – Zoho Creator allows businesses to customize their operations management system, while OpenTable specializes in reservations and guest management. For small restaurants needing an affordable and scalable POS, Square for Restaurants is a strong option.