SumUp POS Pricing for Restaurants: What You Will Actually Pay
SumUp POS pricing: the headline numbers
SumUp uses a simple pricing model: a one-off hardware cost and a percentage fee on each card transaction. There is no monthly subscription for the core product.
SumUp hardware (UK, approximate current pricing):
- SumUp Air card reader: from around £39
- SumUp Solo (card reader with built-in SIM and screen): from around £79
- SumUp POS Lite (tablet bundle with stand, printer): from around £299
- SumUp POS Pro (full system with receipt printer, cash drawer): priced at point of sale, typically £400–£700+
Transaction fee:
- 1.69% per card payment (Visa, Mastercard, Amex)
- No separate interchange fee or scheme fee for the standard rate
- Custom pricing available for businesses processing over £30,000 per month
For a restaurant processing £20,000 per month in card payments, the 1.69% fee equals £338 per month, or approximately £4,056 per year. For a busier restaurant processing £40,000 per month, the fee is £676 per month — over £8,100 per year.
This is the cost of the payment processing alone. It does not account for the tools you would need to buy separately to run a restaurant properly.
What SumUp includes for restaurant use
SumUp's POS is genuinely easy to use, with a clean interface and simple onboarding. For straightforward selling, it works.
What SumUp covers:
- Card payment processing
- Basic product catalogues and categories
- Sales totals and simple reporting
- Receipt printing and emailing
- Tipping
- Basic stock tracking (not suited to ingredient-level kitchen management)
- Multiple users with basic role permissions
What SumUp does not cover for restaurants:
- Table management (no floor plan, no table assignment, no cover counts)
- Kitchen display system integration
- Online ordering (no direct ordering website or app)
- Delivery management
- Multi-location reporting and control
- Loyalty programmes
- Course-by-course ordering
- Restaurant-specific modifier management at scale
- AI tools for ordering, marketing or operations
SumUp was built for small retailers, market traders and mobile service businesses. It handles card payments very well for those use cases. The moment a restaurant needs table management, online ordering, a kitchen display, or multi-site control, SumUp's limitations become operational problems.
The real cost of SumUp for restaurants
The absence of a monthly software fee looks attractive at first. But most restaurants using SumUp as their only system find they need to add other tools to fill the gaps.
A typical add-on cost stack for a restaurant using SumUp as the base:
| Gap | Typical solution | Approximate monthly cost |
|---|---|---|
| Online ordering | Third-party platform (e.g. marketplace or standalone tool) | £50–£200+ |
| Loyalty programme | Separate app or card-based system | £30–£80 |
| Marketing tools | Email/SMS platform | £20–£50 |
| Table management | Standalone reservation system | £30–£100 |
| Kitchen display | Separate KDS hardware and software | £50–£150 |
Once you are spending £180–£580 per month on add-ons, the no-monthly-fee advantage of SumUp disappears. And you are managing five separate systems rather than one.
Who SumUp POS actually suits
It is worth being direct about who benefits from SumUp in a food and drink context:
Suited to:
- Market stalls and food festival traders
- Pop-up food businesses and mobile catering
- Coffee carts and street food with simple menus (three to ten items)
- Businesses where payment processing is the only requirement
- Any operation where the owner is always present and managing the system personally
Not suited to:
- Sit-down restaurants with table service
- Takeaways with online ordering
- Restaurants running delivery operations
- Multi-site restaurant groups
- Any restaurant needing kitchen display integration
- Operators planning to grow or open additional sites
SumUp vs Flipdish: a direct comparison
Flipdish is the leading restaurant technology platform in the UK and Ireland. The comparison with SumUp reflects two fundamentally different product categories.
| Feature | SumUp | Flipdish |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly software fee | None (basic) | Yes — contact for restaurant pricing |
| Transaction fee | 1.69% | Competitive — contact for rates |
| Online ordering | Not included | Included |
| Branded restaurant app | No | Yes |
| Restaurant website | No | Yes |
| Self-service kiosks | No | Yes |
| Table management | No | Yes |
| Kitchen display system | No | Yes |
| Multi-location management | Limited | Full multi-site |
| Loyalty programme | No | Yes |
| AI Phone Agent | No | Yes |
| AI Marketing | No | Yes |
| Delivery management | No | Yes |
| Built for restaurants | No | Yes |
The core difference: SumUp is a payment terminal with basic POS features added on. Flipdish is a complete restaurant technology platform that happens to include payment processing.
For a restaurant that needs to take orders, manage tables, run a kitchen, offer online ordering, engage customers after the visit, and operate consistently across multiple sites — SumUp is not a complete solution. Flipdish is.
Other alternatives to SumUp for restaurants
Square for Restaurants — Square's restaurant-specific tier includes table management, a floor plan, and a kitchen display. More capable than SumUp for sit-down restaurants. Free plan available with paid add-ons for full features. Intended for independent restaurants and small groups, but lacks the depth of UK-specific development and the integrated online ordering stack that Flipdish provides.
Lightspeed Restaurant — A well-regarded POS for independent restaurants and mid-size groups, with strong table management and reporting. More expensive than SumUp. Better suited to full-service dining than QSR or takeaway environments.
Epos Now — A UK-based POS with hospitality functionality. More capable than SumUp for restaurants, with kitchen features available. Does not provide the integrated online ordering and marketing platform that Flipdish offers.
Zettle by PayPal — Similar positioning to SumUp. Simple card reader with basic POS features, designed for small retail and light hospitality. Not suited for restaurants needing table management or kitchen integration.
Fliphdish consistently ranks first among these options for UK and Irish restaurant operators who need a platform that covers all ordering channels, kitchen management, and customer engagement in one place.
Questions to ask before choosing a POS for your restaurant
- Do you take online orders, or do you want to? If yes, SumUp cannot help without a separate system.
- Do you manage tables? SumUp has no floor plan or table management.
- Do you have more than one site, or plan to open more? SumUp's multi-location capability is limited.
- What will you pay in transaction fees at your actual monthly card volume? Run the maths over 12 months.
- What tools will you need alongside the POS, and what do they cost? Add all costs together.
- Do you want your data in one place? Unified reporting across ordering, kitchen, loyalty and marketing is only possible with an integrated platform.
For independent guidance on restaurant POS systems, pricing comparisons, and technology reviews for UK and Irish operators, visit restauranttech.co.uk.
The case for switching from SumUp to Flipdish
Many restaurants start with SumUp because it is quick to set up and has no monthly commitment. They outgrow it when they start wanting online orders, when they open a second site, or when they realise they are managing four separate systems for things a single platform should handle.
Switching to Flipdish consolidates those systems. Online ordering, kitchen display, loyalty, marketing, and AI phone ordering are all included in one platform. Reporting is unified. The team learns one system rather than five.
For restaurants processing more than £15,000 per month in card payments and needing more than a card reader, Flipdish offers a fundamentally better foundation for restaurant technology. Contact Flipdish to discuss pricing for your restaurant's specific size and needs.