If you run an independent café in Manchester, your till is probably the piece of kit you think about least and use most. It takes every order and has a big say in how long your queue gets at 11am on a Saturday. Pick the wrong one and you can end up locked into a contract, paying for hardware you don't need, or giving a slice of every order to a platform.
This guide goes through what to look for in an EPOS (electronic point of sale) system for a small café. It's written with Manchester in mind, but most of it applies just as much to owners in Liverpool, Chester and the rest of the North West.
Start with how your café actually runs
Before you look at any brochure, write down how a normal week works. A Northern Quarter coffee shop doing takeaway flat whites to commuters has very different needs from a sit-down brunch spot in Ancoats or Chorlton where tables stay put for an hour and a half.
Ask yourself:
- Counter, table service, or both? If you only serve over the counter, a simple till and card reader may be all you need. If you take orders at the table, you'll want a floor plan, open tabs and a way to split the bill.
- How busy is your peak? Weekend brunch in south Manchester can mean every table turning at once. A system that sends orders straight to a kitchen screen saves your staff walking tickets back and forth.
- Do you do collection or delivery? If you do, check whether online orders land in the same place as till orders, or whether you end up with a separate tablet for each delivery app.
- How many staff use the till? Students and part-timers make up a big share of café staff in a university city. A till that a new starter can pick up in one shift matters more than a long feature list.
Once you know which apply, you can ignore most of what you're shown in demos.
Hardware: use what you've got where you can
Older EPOS systems came with their own terminals, often on a lease. Many newer cloud systems run in a web browser on an iPad, Android tablet, phone or laptop you already own. For a small café, that can be the difference between spending hundreds of pounds up front and spending nothing.
Things to check:
- Does it run on your existing devices? If it needs a particular brand of tablet, ask why.
- Which card readers work with it? Some systems tie you to their own reader and payment rates. Others let you use your own payment provider.
- Kitchen printing. If your kitchen wants paper tickets, check which printers are supported. Network printers from Star and Epson are common choices.
- What happens when the Wi-Fi drops? Old mill and warehouse buildings can have patchy signal. Ask exactly what still works offline. Some cloud tills keep taking cash and sync later, but card payments and online orders usually need a connection. A cheap 4G backup router is worth considering.
The costs to compare (and the ones people miss)
The monthly fee is the number everyone compares, but it's rarely the whole cost. When you're getting quotes, put these side by side:
- Monthly subscription per venue, and whether extra devices or staff logins cost more.
- Setup or installation fees.
- Contract length. A 12, 24 or 36-month minimum term is a big commitment for a small business. Rolling monthly is safer while you're still working out what you need.
- Card processing fees. These are separate from the software fee. Find out whose rates you're on and whether you can switch provider.
- Commission on orders. Some QR ordering and online ordering services take a percentage of every order. On a busy café's takings, a few per cent soon adds up to more than the subscription.
- Add-ons. Kitchen screens, table ordering, loyalty and stock control are often priced as extras.
Labour is also getting more expensive, which makes software that saves staff time worth more. The National Living Wage for workers aged 21 and over rose to £12.71 an hour from 1 April 2026 (GOV.UK), and employer National Insurance went up to 15% in April 2025 (HMRC Employer Bulletin). If a till helps one person do what used to need two at peak, that's a real saving.
Features that earn their keep in a small café
You don't need everything. These are the features that tend to pay for themselves:
- A kitchen display screen. Orders appear as new, preparing and ready, so the kitchen isn't reading handwriting.
- Tabs and split bills. Essential if you do table service. Groups at brunch will always want to split.
- QR table ordering. Guests scan a code on the table, order from their phone and can pay there too. It works well for second coffees that would otherwise wait for someone to catch a server's eye.
- Cash-up against a float. End-of-day counting is quicker and mistakes are easier to spot.
- Staff roles. Limit who can give refunds, discounts or open the drawer.
- Your own customer list. If guests can opt in to hear from you, you own that list. That isn't true of customers who order through a delivery app.
- Food safety records. Digital temperature checks and HACCP logs can live in the same system rather than on a clipboard.
A note for Liverpool and Chester
The same rules apply across the North West, but the pressures differ. On Bold Street in Liverpool, or in the Baltic Triangle, you may be serving a mix of locals, students and visitors, sometimes late into the evening. In Chester, footfall around the Rows and on race days can be far higher than on a quiet weekday, so a system that copes with sudden busy periods without extra staff is useful. If you're comparing options locally, some providers have EPOS for cafés in Liverpool and other North West towns, with in-person setup visits.
Questions to ask in every demo
Take this list with you:
- Can I try it free, without giving card details?
- Is there a contract, and what's the notice period?
- Is there a setup fee?
- Do you take any commission or platform fee on orders or payments?
- Can I use my own payment provider, and who pays the processing fees?
- Does it run on the tablet I already have?
- What works when the internet goes down?
- How do I get my menu in? Can you import it from a photo or from my current system?
- Who do I call when something breaks on a Saturday morning?
An example of current pricing
To give a sense of what's out there, Café QR's EPOS for Manchester cafés is one cloud option built for independents. It runs in a browser on existing tablets and phones, and covers the till, kitchen display, floor plan and tabs, QR ordering, bookings and cash-up. At the time of writing its published pricing runs from £9.99 per venue a month for QR ordering only, to £39 for the full POS and £59 for multi-site (which adds stock and recipe tracking). There's a one-month free trial with no card needed, no setup fee, no contract and 0% commission. Card payments go through the venue's own Stripe account, so Stripe's fees still apply. Prices change, so check before you decide, and compare at least two or three providers against the questions above.
To see what a till system for a café should include, read a few providers' feature pages side by side. You'll soon spot what's standard and what's sold as an extra.
Conclusion
The best EPOS for your café is the one that fits how you already work, doesn't lock you into a long contract and doesn't take a cut of every order. Start with your own week, not the feature list. Use the tablets you have if you can. Add up the full cost, including card fees and commission. And always try it on a real shift before you commit. Whether you're in the Northern Quarter, on Bold Street or just off the Rows in Chester, the cafés that get this right spend less time fighting their till and more time on their customers.