SpotOn alternatives, sorted by what you are actually replacing. Zayos included.
There are three separate SpotOn exits, and they need different vendors. Replacing the register points to Toast, Square or Lightspeed. Replacing the processor is arithmetic on your own card volume. Replacing only the online ordering points to ChowNow, Owner.com or Zayos. Decide which one you are doing first.
SpotOn figures on this page are quoted from spoton.com/pricing, accessed July 2026. Every other vendor figure is quoted from that vendor’s own page or attributed to a named source.
Which SpotOn are you leaving?
SpotOn sells a point of sale, a payment processor and an online ordering module as one package. Most comparison lists treat that as one decision. It is three, and quoting the wrong one is how operators end up replatforming a whole restaurant to fix a website.
You are replacing the register
The POS itself is the problem: it drops tickets, the handhelds misbehave, the back office is scattered. This is the biggest, slowest, most expensive move on the page, because it touches every station, every server and every report.
You are replacing the processor
The software is fine, the effective rate is not. SpotOn prices software and card processing together, so on the $0 All-In plan the "free" software is funded by the 2.79% + $0.20 rate. If your card volume grew, the plan that was cheapest at signup may not be cheapest now.
You are only replacing online ordering
The register stays. What has to change is the ordering site, the SEO, the customer list and the marketplace tablets stacked by the pass. This is the cheapest and fastest exit, and it is the one most operators actually need.
Why do restaurants shop for a SpotOn alternative?
Credit where it is due: SpotOn publishes its plans, its processing rates, its hardware prices and its contract terms on one public page, which is more than most of its competitors do. That transparency is what makes the five questions below answerable.
Why does the free plan have a two year term?
Because the software is paid for through the card rate. SpotOn publishes All-In at "$0/station per month" with card present processing at "2.79% + $0.20" and keyed at "3.79% + $0.20", and the same page states a 2 year minimum term and that processing minimums apply. POS Essentials is the mirror image: "$55/station per month" with a lower "2.45% + $0.15" card present rate (Amex "3.19% + $0.15") and month to month flexibility. Neither is a trick. But $0 with a two year term is a financing decision, not a free plan, and it should be priced like one.
What does the $0 plan actually cost me at my volume?
Run the arithmetic once and the decision makes itself. The gap between the two published rates is 0.34% plus 5 cents per card sale. On $80,000 a month of card volume across roughly 3,000 transactions, 0.34% is about $272 and the 5 cent difference is about $150, so the "free" plan costs roughly $422 a month in extra processing while POS Essentials would cost $55 per station. That is a worked example on stated rates, not a quote. Put your own volume through it before you renew.
Why is online ordering priced as a percentage of my card volume?
SpotOn Order sits inside the Core Bundle, published at "$50/month" plus "+20bps of GPV (capped at $200)". The cap is genuinely operator-friendly and most independents will never hit it. Still, this is a fee that grows as you grow, on top of the processing rate that also grows as you grow. If your reason for leaving is that too much of your bill is percentage-shaped, that is the line item to look at.
Why does my bill go up every time I add a terminal?
POS Essentials is priced per station, not per location, at $55 per station per month, and SpotOn publishes hardware at $750 for a Station 15 and $375 for a Handheld. A patio, a bar and two service stations is four stations. That is the right model for a busy full-service floor and the wrong model for a counter-service shop whose growth is all online, where the terminals never change but the order count does.
How hard is it to leave once payments are bundled?
This is the complaint that recurs in independent reviews. RestaurantTools.ai (July 2026) reports a $995 fee to switch processors, along with a fragmented back office spread across multiple sub-domained web apps and slow API access. We have not verified the $995 figure against SpotOn documentation, so treat it as reported rather than confirmed, and ask for the switching terms in writing. The structural point stands on SpotOn’s own published pricing: software, hardware and processing are quoted as one package, so leaving one usually means leaving all three.
Who should I look at, and for which exit?
Each entry is tagged with the exit it belongs to. Two of the six also happen to be the wrong answer for most people, and the entries say which.
Toast
Toast is the default landing spot for a restaurant leaving SpotOn, because it is the same shape of company: POS, payments, kitchen screens, payroll and ordering under one roof, with third-party delivery integrations built in. Per NerdWallet’s review (accessed July 2026): $0 Starter Kit or $69/month Point of Sale, processing at 2.49% + $0.15 card present if you buy hardware upfront, 3.09% + $0.15 pay as you go and 3.50% + $0.15 card not present, hardware from $149 to $1,454, and a two year contract with early termination fees. Honest read: you are trading one bundled two year relationship for another. Do it because the product is better for your floor, not because you expect more freedom.
Zayos vs Toast →Square for Restaurants
Square is the lowest-commitment way out of a bundled POS contract. There is a free plan, no long-term term, and the hardware is cheap and widely available. Square publishes in person processing at 2.6% + 15 cents on Free, 2.5% + 15 cents on Plus and 2.4% + 15 cents on Premium, online at 3.3% + 30 cents on Free and 2.9% + 30 cents on paid plans, and manual entry at 3.5% + 15 cents (accessed July 2026). Honest read: notice that Square’s Free in-person rate of 2.6% + 15 cents is very close to SpotOn All-In’s 2.79% + $0.20, so this is not automatically cheaper. It is simply not a two year commitment, which for many operators is the point.
Zayos vs Square →Lightspeed Restaurant
Lightspeed is the option for a full-service restaurant with a serious floor plan, inventory depth and a wine list, especially in a group. Its published plans (accessed July 2026) are Starter at $69 USD, Essential at $189 USD, Premium at $399 USD and a custom Enterprise tier, with Kitchen Display System at $30 per screen per month and online ordering listed as included on all tiers, also available as an add-on in some configurations. Honest read: Lightspeed does not publish processing rates or contract terms on that page, so you cannot compare total cost against SpotOn without a quote. Get both numbers in writing before you decide.
How POS integration actually works →ChowNow
If the register is fine and the ordering page is the problem, ChowNow is the least disruptive change on this page: you keep SpotOn on the floor and bolt a commission-free ordering channel on top. Published pricing (accessed July 2026): Launch $249, Grow $349, Elevate $449 per month, or $229/$319/$409 billed annually, with a $119 to $499 setup fee, 2.95% + $0.29 per transaction, $7.98 per order on Flex Delivery and a $99 annual Apple developer fee for a branded app. ChowNow takes no percentage of your food revenue on any plan. Honest read: it is direct ordering only, so your marketplace tablets stay exactly where they are.
ChowNow, and its alternatives →Owner.com
Owner.com is the pick when the ordering page works and nobody uses it. It is a demand-generation stack: AI-built website, SEO pages, branded app, loyalty and automated marketing. Published pricing (accessed July 2026): $249/month Flexible with a 5% restaurant fee per order, or $499/month Flat Rate "with no additional restaurant fees", both "month-to-month with no long-term contracts", with a 5% guest order support fee at checkout on both plans. Setup and processing rates are not published. Honest read: if you are leaving SpotOn because too much of the bill scales with volume, read those two 5% lines twice.
Owner.com, and its alternatives →Zayos
Our platform, so read it with that in mind, and start with what it is not: Zayos is not a point of sale. If your register is the thing that has to go, we are the wrong answer and Toast, Square or Lightspeed are the right ones. What Zayos replaces is the ordering side: a branded ordering site on your own domain with SEO schema, a customer list you own, a kitchen tablet, and on the $599 tier, Otter ingestion so Uber Eats, DoorDash and Grubhub orders land on the same screen as your direct orders. Pricing is flat and published, $499, $599 or $699 per location per month, no setup fee, month to month, priced per location rather than per station, so adding a terminal does not raise the bill. The per-order economics are flat too: the diner pays $0.99 pickup, $2.99 delivery, $0 dine-in and 10% on catering, and the restaurant keeps 100% of food revenue and tips. Honest counterweights: it costs more per month than a POS subscription, and Naya Grill (Pompano Beach and West Palm Beach, FL) is the only restaurant live and taking orders on it today, with storefronts built for Shishka Lebanese Grill, La Vie Mediterranean, Yummy Grill, aura, Courtyard Cafe, Mr. Smoke across 13 locations, Yalla Market and Tap That Ash, each opening ordering at its own launch.
Zayos pricing in full →SpotOn and its alternatives, one table.
Both SpotOn plans are listed separately, because switching between them is itself a legitimate answer. "Runs the register" means the product is a point of sale, not an ordering layer on top of one.
| Platform | Published entry price | Card and per-order economics | Runs the register | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SpotOn All-In | $0 per station per month, 2 year minimum term | 2.79% + $0.20 card present, 3.79% + $0.20 keyed, processing minimums apply | Yes | Operators who want no software line and accept the rate and the term |
| SpotOn POS Essentials | $55 per station per month, month to month | 2.45% + $0.15 card present (Amex 3.19% + $0.15), 3.45% + $0.15 keyed | Yes | Higher card volume where the lower rate beats the software fee |
| Toast | $0 Starter Kit or $69/mo Point of Sale | 2.49% to 3.50% + $0.15 by plan and card entry | Yes | Full replatform with delivery integrations included |
| Square for Restaurants | Free, Plus or Premium plan | In person 2.6% / 2.5% / 2.4% + 15 cents, online 3.3% or 2.9% + 30 cents | Yes | Getting out of a term contract quickly |
| Lightspeed Restaurant | $69 / $189 / $399 per month, Enterprise custom | Processing rates not published | Yes | Full service floors with inventory depth |
| ChowNow | $249 / $349 / $449 per month plus $119 to $499 setup | 2.95% + $0.29, $7.98/order Flex Delivery | No | Keeping the POS, fixing the ordering |
| Owner.com | $249/mo plus 5% per order, or $499/mo flat | Guest pays 5% order support fee, processing not published | No | Ordering plus demand generation |
| Zayos | $499 / $599 / $699 per location per month, no setup fee | Diner pays $0.99 pickup, $2.99 delivery, $0 dine-in, 10% catering | No | Direct orders and marketplace tablets in one kitchen flow |
Rates and plans change. Every figure here was read off the vendor’s own published page in July 2026, except Toast, which is attributed to NerdWallet because Toast does not publish full processing rates. Confirm current terms before signing.
When should you stay on SpotOn?
Stay if your card volume is low. The whole logic of the $0 All-In plan is that a small operator with modest card volume pays very little in absolute dollars for a full point of sale, and 2.79% + $0.20 on $15,000 a month is a cheap way to run a restaurant. The plan gets expensive as you grow, not while you are small.
Stay if you use the floor features. Table service, coursing, tabs, tips and a properly wired handheld are the hard parts of restaurant software, and swapping them out mid-season is genuinely risky. An ordering website is a low-risk thing to change. A register on a Friday night is not.
And stay, at least until renewal, if you are inside the 2 year All-In term. The published early exit path on that plan is not free. Use the time to price the alternatives properly, get the switching terms in writing, and move on a date you chose rather than one a contract chose for you.
Sources
- SpotOn official restaurant pricing page: All-In "$0/station per month", card present "2.79% + $0.20", keyed "3.79% + $0.20", 2 year minimum term, processing minimums apply. POS Essentials "$55/station per month", card present "2.45% + $0.15 (except Amex: 3.19% + $0.15)", keyed "3.45% + $0.15", month to month. Core Bundle "$50/month" plus "+20bps of GPV (capped at $200)". Hardware Station 15 $750, Handheld $375 (accessed July 2026).
- RestaurantTools.ai, SpotOn Restaurant POS review (July 2026): corroborates the plan pricing and hardware, and reports "a reported $995 fee to switch processors" plus a fragmented back office and slow API access. Reported, not confirmed against SpotOn documentation.
- NerdWallet, Toast POS review: $0 Starter Kit, $69/month Point of Sale, 2.49% + $0.15 card present with hardware upfront, 3.09% + $0.15 pay as you go, 3.50% + $0.15 card not present, hardware $149 to $1,454, two year contract with early termination fees, online ordering costs extra (accessed July 2026).
- Square, our fees: in person 2.6% + 15 cents on Free, 2.5% + 15 cents on Plus, 2.4% + 15 cents on Premium, online 3.3% + 30 cents on Free and 2.9% + 30 cents on paid plans, manual entry 3.5% + 15 cents (accessed July 2026).
- Lightspeed Restaurant pricing page: Starter "$69 USD", Essential "$189 USD", Premium "$399 USD", Enterprise custom, Kitchen Display System "$30/screen per month", online ordering listed on all plans. Processing rates and contract terms not published (accessed July 2026).
- ChowNow official pricing page: Launch $249, Grow $349, Elevate $449 per month ($229/$319/$409 annual), $119 to $499 setup fee, 2.95% + $0.29 per transaction, $7.98/order Flex Delivery, $99 annual Apple developer fee (accessed July 2026).
- Owner.com official pricing page: $249/month Flexible plus a 5% restaurant fee per order, $499/month Flat Rate "with no additional restaurant fees", 5% guest order support fee, "month-to-month with no long-term contracts" (accessed July 2026).
- Zayos pricing: the $499, $599 and $699 per location tiers, no setup fee, and the flat diner-paid service fee quoted above.
The $80,000 monthly card volume example is a worked calculation on SpotOn’s published rates, not a quote, not a customer result, and not a promise about your restaurant.
SpotOn alternatives, answered.
How much does SpotOn cost per month?
Does SpotOn really have a contract?
What is the best SpotOn alternative?
Can I keep SpotOn as my POS and change only the online ordering?
Is Zayos a replacement for SpotOn?
How do I compare a $0 plan against a $55 plan honestly?
Keep reading
Also: Zayos pricing, what Zayos is, Menufy alternatives, the full ordering-system roundup
Price the exit before you take the demo.
The free AI report runs your real order volume and average ticket and shows what the marketplaces and stacked percentage fees cost you last month. About 60 seconds, no card.