Walk into three EPOS sales conversations as an independent and you will hear three quite different pitches, because you are being sold three different kinds of thing. It helps to know which is which before you compare prices, because comparing them on price alone is like comparing a van, a motorbike and a car by the size of the fuel tank.
This is the practical, who-is-each-one-for version. For the underlying principles of choosing a till, the EPOS guide covers the ground in full.
The traditional terminal: ICRTouch and its peers
Traditional EPOS, of which ICRTouch is one of the best known in the UK, runs on dedicated, purpose-built terminals. Its strengths are real. The hardware is solid and made for the environment, the till logic is mature and deep, and for a busy operator who wants a fast, reliable terminal that has handled thousands of services, it does the core job well.
The honest limitations are also real. It is, at heart, a till. It may integrate with other systems, but those integrations are bolt-ons rather than a single platform, and you are often tied to specific resellers, specific hardware and specific support arrangements. If your only frustration is that you want a better till, a traditional system may be exactly right. If your frustration is that your till knows nothing about your guests, a newer traditional till will not fix that, because that is not the problem it is built to solve. We lay out the specifics in the ICRTouch comparison.
The card-led all-rounder: Square and similar
Square came at hospitality from payments. Its strength is a low barrier to entry: cheap or free to start, simple to set up, familiar hardware, and card processing baked in. For a cafe, a bar, a small or fast-service venue, or anyone who wants to be taking payments this afternoon, it is genuinely easy to live with.
Where it stops short is depth. Full table service, kitchen workflow, and above all a real guest record that ties bookings, spend, loyalty and marketing to one person, are not where a payments-first product is strongest. Square will take the money tidily. It is less designed to tell you who your regulars are by value and win them back. That is the trade you are making for the simplicity. The Square comparison goes into where the line sits.
The all-in-one platform
The third option is not a till at all, strictly speaking. It is a platform where the till is one module, sitting alongside bookings, payments, loyalty, marketing and a guest record, all sharing the same data.
The advantage is the thing the other two cannot easily do: every item and payment lands on the guest who ordered it, automatically, so the till is building your most valuable asset while it works. The honest cost is that an all-in-one platform asks you to move more of your operation onto one system, and in any given area a dedicated specialist might go deeper. You are trading a little best-in-class depth in each box for the larger benefit of everything being joined up.
For an independent whose real problem is five systems that do not talk to each other, that trade is usually worth making. For a venue that genuinely only needs a fast till and nothing else, it may be more than they need. That is a fair thing to admit.
How to actually decide
Do not start with the products. Start with the question: what is the job I am hiring a till to do? If the answer is purely "ring orders quickly and take payment", a specialist till or a card-led all-rounder may be plenty. If the answer is "ring orders, take payment, and help me understand and keep my guests", then a standalone till of any kind will leave you back where you started, stitching systems together by hand.
Then read the real cost, not the headline. Software licence, hardware bought or rented, card rate, contract length and the cost of leaving. A cheap-looking till with a high card rate and a long hardware rental can be the dearest option on the table.
Where Grace fits
Grace is the all-in-one option, built for the independent who is tired of paying several companies for systems that ignore each other. The till is native, it feeds one guest record, it runs a kitchen display rather than a printer, it keeps working through a WiFi outage, and you can use Grace Pay or bring your own card provider. If what you want is genuinely just a faster terminal, a specialist may serve you better, and I would rather say so. If what you want is a till that makes your guests visible, that is the whole reason Grace exists.
FAQ
Is Square a good EPOS for a restaurant?
Square is strong for cafes, bars and venues that want simple, card-led payments with a low barrier to entry. It is less suited to venues that need deep table service, kitchen workflow and a real guest record. Whether it fits depends on how much of a full hospitality system you need rather than a fast, tidy till. - q: "What is a good ICRTouch alternative?" a: >- It depends what you valued about ICRTouch. If you want the same robust, traditional till feel, other terminal-based systems compete directly. If your frustration was that the till does not talk to your bookings, marketing or guest data, the alternative is an all-in-one platform rather than another standalone till. - q: "Should an independent choose an all-in-one platform or a dedicated till?" a: >- A dedicated till can be excellent at being a till and nothing else. An all-in-one platform trades a little of that specialist depth for the advantage of one guest record across bookings, payments, loyalty and marketing. If guest data and joined-up systems matter to you, the all-in-one usually wins. If you only need a fast till, a specialist may be enough. - q: "Does it cost more to switch EPOS to an all-in-one?" a: >- Not necessarily, and sometimes less, because you may be replacing several separate subscriptions at once. The real costs to weigh are migration, staff training and any hardware change. Read the full cost across software, hardware and card fees rather than the headline price.