Best Payment Solutions for Restaurants in the UK
What is a restaurant payment solution?
It's whatever your restaurant uses to take money from customers. That covers card machines, payments built into the POS, contactless terminals, online payment gateways and pay-at-table.
A good setup does more than take the payment. It talks to your POS, so staff aren't retyping totals, tables clear faster and the end-of-day numbers actually match.
Why payments matter beyond the fees
Most owners look at payments and see fees. Fees matter. But your payment setup also decides a few other things:
- Whether anyone keys in totals by hand. With integrated payments nobody does, so there's nothing to mistype.
- How long the end of a meal takes, which feeds straight into table turns and queue length.
- What ends up in your reports. Payment data drives sales reports, peak-hour analysis and menu performance.
- How the guest's last few minutes go - contactless, split bills, pay-at-table.
A clunky payment system gets in the way right when the customer is about to leave.
Types of payment solutions for restaurants
1. Integrated POS payments
The payment is part of the POS. The till sends the amount straight to the card reader, so nobody types it in and the two totals can't drift apart.
Most serious restaurant operators use this. Fewer errors, and orders and payments live in one system.
2. Standalone card machines
A card machine with no link to the POS. Staff key in every total by hand. You see these in smaller restaurants and pop-ups where cost comes first.
The catch: typos, messy reconciliation, and none of the payment data reaches your sales reports.
3. Online payment gateways
A gateway takes card payments for orders placed on your website or app. It has to connect with your online ordering platform, and ideally your POS too, so every order ends up in one place.
4. Pay-at-table
The customer pays from their own phone, or a server brings a terminal to the table. Floor staff spend less time chasing bills, tables settle up faster and fewer people walk out without paying.
5. Kiosk payments
The customer orders and pays at a self-service kiosk in one go. Common in fast food, QSR and busy casual dining. You need fewer people on the counter at peak.
Best payment solutions for restaurants in the UK
1. Flipdish
Flipdish takes payments across in-store POS, online ordering, branded apps, websites and self-service kiosks. Payments are tied directly to the Flipdish POS, so a card tapped at the counter, an online order and a kiosk order all go through the same system.
If you run more than one site, payment reporting for all of them sits in one dashboard. Franchise operators and multi-location groups can check every site without pulling reports out of separate systems.
Flipdish is built for restaurants, takeaways and hospitality, not for any merchant who happens to need a card reader. You can see it in how it deals with split bills, modifications, service charges and kitchen routing alongside the payment itself.
Best for multi-location groups, QSRs, takeaways and anyone who wants in-store and online payments in one place.
2. Square
Square gives you a card reader, a POS and some basic restaurant tools in one package. It's easy to set up, which is why plenty of new openings and simple operations start with it.
The gaps show up as you grow. Its restaurant features are thinner than the specialist platforms, and it doesn't go deep enough for multiple locations or complicated kitchen workflows.
Suits simple food businesses, pop-ups and early-stage operators who need to get going quickly.
3. SumUp
SumUp sells card readers and basic payment processing. Cheap to start, easy to set up. It isn't built for restaurants and doesn't connect much with restaurant POS or online ordering.
Suits market traders, mobile caterers and very small food businesses.
4. Epos Now
Epos Now is a POS with card payments built in. For restaurants it does more than SumUp or Square, and the hospitality features come as add-ons.
Suits small to medium restaurants after a mid-range POS and payments bundle.
5. Worldpay
Worldpay is a payment processor, not restaurant software. It processes card transactions and connects to various POS systems. Lots of UK businesses use it, but the restaurant software has to come from someone else.
Suits businesses that already have a POS and just need something to process the payments.
What to look for when choosing a restaurant payment solution
| What to check | Why |
|---|---|
| POS integration | Nobody keys in totals, and payment data lands in your reports |
| Online and in-store in one system | One set of numbers to reconcile, not two |
| Multi-site reporting | See every location without stitching reports together |
| Transaction fees | Work them out as a share of revenue, not just per transaction |
| Hardware cost | Some providers include the terminal, others charge for it separately |
| Contract length | Month-to-month, or locked in for years |
| Customer support | Who picks up when the terminal dies in the middle of Saturday service? |
What do restaurant card payment fees look like in the UK?
You'll usually pay some mix of these:
- A percentage of each transaction, usually 1% to 3% depending on the card and the provider
- A monthly fee for the POS or payment software
- Hardware, bought outright or rented monthly
- Online payment fees, which tend to be a bit higher than in-person rates
Don't compare on the headline rate. A low transaction fee with a big monthly charge can cost more than a slightly higher rate with no monthly fee. Run the numbers against your own transaction volume.
The case for keeping payments inside one restaurant platform
Plenty of operators end up with a POS from one company, card payments from another and online ordering from a third. The cost that catches them out is time, not money.
Month-end reconciliation across three systems drags. Errors are harder to trace. New staff have more to learn. And when something breaks on a Saturday night, you're ringing three different support lines.
Flipdish puts POS, online ordering, payments and reporting in one system. One vendor, one dashboard, one number to call.
How Flipdish handles restaurant payments
Flipdish takes payments on every channel it supports:
- In store, through card terminals linked to the POS
- Online, through restaurant websites and branded mobile apps
- At self-service kiosks
All of it goes into the same reporting dashboard, so multi-location operators see revenue for every site together.