Square POS vs. TouchBistro

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Square POS
Score 9.1 out of 10
N/A
Square POS is a point-of-sale software solution with features such as accept credit cards with your iPhone, Android, and iPad along with the flexibility to accept credit card payments anywhere, from Square headquartered in San Francisco, California.
$10
per each additional reader; first reader free
TouchBistro
Score 2.6 out of 10
N/A
TouchBistro is a complete mobile POS solution on the iPad for the restaurant industry. It allows users to manage reservations, view the menu, take orders and review sales reports with a few simple touches. Instead of servers repeatedly moving between customers and terminals for order management, servers can remain with customers and instantly submit orders to the kitchen and bar. Servers no longer need to write down an order and then enter it into a distant terminal. TouchBistro's single entry…
$25
per month
Pricing
Square POSTouchBistro
Editions & Modules
Each Transaction
2.6% + $0.10
per transaction
Square Reader for magstripe
$10
per each additional reader; first reader free
Square Stand for contactless and chip
$16
per month
Square Terminal
$27
per month
Square Register
$39
per 24 months
Square Reader for contactless and chip
$49
per reader
Square Point of Sale
Free
Gift Cards
$25
per month
Online Ordering
$50
per month
POS License
$69
per month
Reservations
$229
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Square POSTouchBistro
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details——
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Square POSTouchBistro
Considered Both Products
Square POS
Chose Square POS
Square offers about 70-80% of what all the others do, but when stacking out the pricing and efficiencies, it's competitively priced leaving more money in our pockets while the spend to get that other 20%-30% doesn't make sense operationally.
TouchBistro

No answer on this topic

Top Pros
Top Cons
Best Alternatives
Square POSTouchBistro
Small Businesses
Shopify
Shopify
Score 8.8 out of 10
Square POS
Square POS
Score 9.1 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Epicor Eagle
Epicor Eagle
Score 8.3 out of 10
Shopify
Shopify
Score 8.8 out of 10
Enterprises

No answers on this topic

No answers on this topic

All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Square POSTouchBistro
Likelihood to Recommend
9.0
(58 ratings)
2.4
(13 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.6
(9 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.7
(18 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Square POSTouchBistro
Likelihood to Recommend
Block, Inc (Square)
Square POS is by far the easiest POS software to use at events and train additional team members on - even with temporary or first-time employees. It's easy to see how each event is doing in live time. It gives the event manager a real-time view of revenue earned. Its really easy to create/manage/delete users to keep the platform secure.
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TouchBistro
For a small business like ours, it works very well, is very user friendly, but the cost to add more tablets so that we can keep one at the bar, one on the interior dining area and one on the outside dining area is difficult as they have to be iPads, and there is an additional cost to add another tablet for use on the floor
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Pros
Block, Inc (Square)
  • Mobile transactions (not like from a phone, but in terms of the ability to physically relocate rapidly).
  • Simple setup.
  • Generally uncomplicated pricing.
  • Widespread customer familiarity: because it's so regularly in use in our industry (musicians/entertainment professionals), people know and trust it in a way that you might not with a different provider.
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TouchBistro
  • The best thing about Touch Bistro is how user friendly it is! Works just like an iPhone. My younger employees hardly need any training on it.
  • Touch Bistro is very easy to set up and to maintain on a daily basis. Putting in my specific products and ingredients was simple. Adding modifiers, pricing and descriptions was simple enough. We have specials that change daily and updating the system in the morning is fast and easy.
  • Employees can clock in and out with Touch Bistro. Inventory can be tracked and updated.
  • Running reports is important in my business. Touch Bistro allows me to easily track my sales, for any period of time. I can easily find the numbers I need to pay my sales tax or do payroll. With just a few clicks I can compare my sales from month to month or year to year.
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Cons
Block, Inc (Square)
  • Too much going on for simple users. There are so many different apps and pages now that I get lost almost every time I log onto Square
  • The high percentage of fees taken from sales
  • The difficulty in changing default settings
  • The layout of the “website” you can create is truly a nightmare
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TouchBistro
  • Online ordering can not be added on to once the customer arrives, can’t edit or change anything once placed
  • Slow speed to place next order, and syncing with debit machines
  • Frustrating that screen needs to be closed until payment goes through, hard in a very busy restaurant
  • New updates always cause glitches in the system. The last update I now have drinks printing to my kitchen that never did before.
  • Admin and servers not being able to do printouts
  • Discounts not displaying on day printouts
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Likelihood to Renew
Block, Inc (Square)
I don't really foresee anything being able to dislodge Square from our organization—we're not evangelists or anything like that—it's just the best solution we've found for our use case. Being able to quickly handle transactions from customers and then track all of those sales for analysis/bookkeeping later on.
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TouchBistro
No answers on this topic
Usability
Block, Inc (Square)
Once set up, Square POS is very easy to use. I feel it is a little too easy. Many other solutions have some layer of complexity to them but Square POS is pretty straightforward and this makes it the ideal POS solution in my opinion. If a solution can remove the barriers to use and allow end users to get on with their tasks without being slowed down, then it is a winner. This is what we were able to achieve with Square POS.
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TouchBistro
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Block, Inc (Square)
An admission - I have NEVER had to use Square POS support. The system is seamless, it just works! I have never had any queries about how the system worked as everything is so clearly laid out. I have never had any problems with payments. If their support systems are anywhere near as good as their software, I think we'll be in good hands.
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TouchBistro
First of all, I hardly ever need support for Touch Bistro, that’s how well it works. In the very instances over the years where I did need to call, customer support was easily accessible and fast and accurate with their responses
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Alternatives Considered
Block, Inc (Square)
We only used Square POS while we were getting set up with Authorize.Net. It isn't as flashy or recognized by the general public, but in our industry, that isn't a priority. We do very large transactions so the higher rates and fees from Square add up insanely quickly making the lower rates and fees from Authorize.Net the nail in Square's coffin for us.
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TouchBistro
Harbortouch has a very robust POS system however it has issues that we do not seem to have with TouchBistro. One of the issues with Harbortouch is if the internet goes down, the credit card reader will not work and actually lock of the POS system causing extra customer wait times while their food is getting cold. TouchBistro's system will still capture the card info even when the internet is down and process it when the internet is working again
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Return on Investment
Block, Inc (Square)
  • The opportunity cost of waiting for payments and manually bringing them to a bank means that we don't have to visit our bank branch. That alone saves us several hours each month.
  • We can use ordinary computers and mobile devices with Square instead of paying for expensive software or terminals.
  • Our clients appreciate not having to process payments to us, and anything that helps our clients and makes them happy carries more import than I can explain in this space.
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TouchBistro
  • The software is easy to understand and use
  • We could not find a case for the iPads that would also fit the third party card reader so we went without. This resulted in card readers breaking off in the charging port rendering the iPad useless.
  • Reports were available in real time, so it was extremely easy to see sales and make quick decisions.
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ScreenShots