HelchPOS, next to the others
Seven systems a food hall might weigh us against, in one table — including the two rows where we lose. Every claim about somebody else was read off their own public site on 2026-08-17. Where their site does not say, this table says nothing rather than guessing.
| HelchPOSFood halls and multi-vendor venues | DINESFood halls, festivals, venues | NOQFestivals and events | peaziQR ordering | me&uGuest experience, order & pay | ToastRestaurants (US-led) | SquareSmall business, all sectors | LightspeedRestaurants and retail | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Counter till (POS)me&u and peazi connect to a till rather than being one. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | – | – | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| QR ordering on the guest’s own phone | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Kitchen screen (KDS)Square charges per screen; Lightspeed lists it as new. | ✓ | – | – | – | – | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Self-order kiosk | ✓ | ✓ | – | – | – | ✓ | ✓ | – |
| One basket across several kitchens, paid onceThe food-hall question. The three general-purpose systems do not describe it. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | – | – | – |
| Money split to each kitchen automaticallyWho gets what when one payment covered three kitchens. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | – | – | – | – | – |
| A meal deal spanning two different kitchensBurger from one unit, drink from another, one price. Nobody else describes it. | ✓ | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Loyalty for returning guestsOurs is one card for the whole hall rather than per kitchen. | ✓ | ✓ | – | – | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | – |
| Ingredient-level recipe costing, stock taken by dishHalf means stock counts exist without recipe-level depletion being described. | ✓ | ½ | – | – | – | ✓ | ½ | ✓ |
| A photograph of a supplier invoice becomes a delivery | ✓ | – | – | – | – | ✓ | – | – |
| Rota, clocking, holiday and contractsDINES lists staff management without the employment record. | ✓ | ½ | – | – | – | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| An API for your own reports and apps | ✓ | – | ✓ | – | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Card payments processed for youOurs is the cross. HelchPOS records a card taken on your own terminal and never touches the money — deliberately, so you keep your acquirer and your rate. | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Keeps trading with the internet downAlso ours. Kitchen bumps survive a drop; the till cannot complete a sale offline. | ✗ | ✓ | – | – | – | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| What it costs | £0for the software. A percentage only if you ever let us take the card payment. | On applicationPayments-led — the card rate is the product. | On applicationSold by event. | CalculatorQuoted per venue. | On applicationEnterprise-priced. | from $69/mo + $9 per employee. Starter kit $0. | £0 – £29+/mo, plus £15 per kitchen screen, £35 per kiosk, £25 loyalty — each per month. | from $69/mo. Essential $189, Premium $399. |
A dash is not a criticism. These are large products and a public page is not a full feature list — it only means we would not assert it for them.
One at a time, at length, including who should pick them rather than us: vs DINES · vs NOQ · vs me&u · vs peazi · vs Toast · vs Square · vs Lightspeed
The two rows we lose, in full
We do not touch your money
Every other system on this page processes the card. HelchPOS records a card payment taken on your own terminal — Dojo, SumUp, Zettle, a bank machine — and the money goes straight to you at the rate you already negotiated. That is a real disadvantage if you want one company and one statement for everything, and a real advantage if you would rather not hand your takings to a new supplier in order to use their till. It is also why the software is free: there is nothing to charge for yet.
We cannot trade with the internet down
Kitchen screens keep their queue through a drop and catch up afterwards, but the till cannot complete a sale offline. DINES makes a feature of automatic failover and publishes a capture figure; Toast, Square and Lightspeed all describe offline modes. Ours is written up as a piece of work, not as a claim — and until it is built, this row stays a cross.
Where the numbers came from
Read on 2026-08-17: Toast’s US pricing page, Square’s UK pricing page, Lightspeed’s restaurant pricing page, and the public product pages of DINES, NOQ, me&u and peazi. Toast and Lightspeed publish in dollars and are shown as published rather than converted. Square’s figure is the plan alone — the kitchen screen, kiosk and loyalty are each priced on top, which is why the row lists them. Prices move; if one has, the date above tells you how stale this is.
If we have a cell wrong about your product, tell us and we will change it — jamal@benamor.co.uk. We would rather fix a row than defend it.
The software is free. All of it.
Not a trial, not a tier with the good parts removed. Run the till, the pass, the stock and the QR menus for as long as you like and pay nothing.