whats-best.ai
Search Sign in

POS & Checkout Systems

Lightspeed Restaurant

Rest of world Report an error

Panel rating · 6 judges · How to read the stars

Category median

Sovereignty: not determined

0–5 in half steps. 5 means the rubric's top anchor is met on the evidence.

by Lightspeed Commerce Inc. · www.lightspeedhq.de

Compare with Tillhub → Report an error on this page Is this your product? →

Link to this page

Lightspeed Restaurant: AI-assisted analysis on whats-best.ai Lightspeed Restaurant: AI-assisted analysis on whats-best.ai (dark)

Add ?theme=dark to the image address for dark backgrounds. The badge shows the category and the month of the latest evaluation, and EU-Made where that is the product’s provenance. It never shows a score.

Lightspeed Restaurant at a glance

Vendor
Lightspeed Commerce Inc.
Headquarters
Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 29 Oct 2026
Data hosting
Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 29 Oct 2026
Free plan
Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 29 Oct 2026
Panel verdict
The AI panel rates Lightspeed Restaurant 2.5/5, the mean of 6 judges. Judges scored Lightspeed Restaurant strongest on operations and locations, accounting and portability and checkout and hardware, each clustering at 6 to 7. how scores are made
As of
Vendor pages captured 29 Oct 2026; evaluated by the panel 30 Oct 2026. all sources

Lightspeed Restaurant alternatives, European ones first →

Read this page as one judge. Each weighs the same scores by what they care about.

The Retail Shop Owner

Weighted verdict

Owns a stationery and gift shop with a second branch across town and about four thousand articles, many in several colours. Wants barcodes scanned at the till, stock that shows what the other branch still has, transfers between the two shops, suppliers and reorders in the same back office, vouchers that work in both branches, and the month's sales handed to the tax adviser without a USB stick.

Same scores as the panel view — this lens weights them the way this judge cares.

Scored by The Retail Shop Owner

Panel median The Retail Shop Owner This judge’s scores over the panel median. Each label opens its reasoning below.
Scores per criterion, in stars out of 5
Criterion Panel median The Retail Shop Owner
Checkout, receipts & hardware 3.5 of 5 3 of 5
Card payments & fees 2 of 5 2 of 5
Fiscal compliance (TSE, DSFinV-K, RKSV) 2.5 of 5 2.5 of 5
Inventory, tables, staff & locations 3.5 of 5 3.5 of 5
Accounting handoff, DATEV & data export 3.5 of 5 3.5 of 5
European sovereignty 2 of 5 2.5 of 5
Pricing transparency 2.5 of 5 2.5 of 5

Checkout, receipts & hardware

How this is scored

How a sale is rung up and what it runs on: a fast till on tablet, phone or dedicated terminal, articles, modifiers and discounts, split bills and tips, receipts printed or sent digitally (QR code, email, a digital Bon), returns and cancellations, a customer display, which hardware is supported or sold (receipt printers, cash drawers, scanners, scales), and whether the till keeps selling when the internet is down.

0 — Not a till; sales cannot be rung up or receipts issued in the product.

3 — Sales rung up on one device with a printed receipt; digital receipts, supported hardware and offline operation are basic or not described.

5 — A till app on named devices (iPad, Android or Windows) with articles, modifiers, discounts and split payments, receipts printed or sent digitally, returns and cancellations, a list of supported printers, drawers and scanners, and an offline mode stated.

8 — Several device types and own or third-party hardware with a published compatibility list, offline mode with its limits stated (how long, which payments, how sync resolves), digital receipts meeting the receipt obligation, customer display, scales and barcode labels supported, and hardware rentable or bought with the terms stated.

10 — A till that never stops a sale: offline operation documented including card payments and fiscal signing, hardware open to standard devices rather than locked to the vendor, receipt layouts that meet the legal minimum content in each named country, and a stated uptime or a status page with incident history.

Report an error

The Retail Shop Owner

The till runs on an iPad, the hardware page lists named receipt and kitchen printers, cash drawers, a 2D barcode scanner and a Zebra label printer — exactly the kit my four thousand articles need — and offline operation is documented with its limits: master data maintenance and cloud reporting only work online, while X- and Z-closings stay possible in the local WLAN, with data syncing to the cloud once the line returns. Split bills and guest tip selection are described. We found no public information on a customer display, scales, digital guest receipts, or purchase and rental terms for the hardware, which keeps this in the middle of the scale. 1 5 9 10

Report an error

Card payments & fees

How this is scored

How the till takes card and mobile payments and what that costs: an integrated terminal and the acquirer behind it named, girocard, credit cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay, tap to pay on a phone, the fee per transaction by card type, monthly terminal fees, payout timing, and whether the merchant may use a terminal or acquirer of their own choice instead. A "free" till paid for by card fees counts here.

0 — No card payment of any kind can be recorded at the till.

3 — Card payments recorded at the till, by an integrated terminal or by typing the amount into a separate one; the acquirer, the fees and the choice of terminal are basic or not described.

5 — An integrated card terminal with the payment provider named, girocard, credit cards and mobile wallets accepted, the transaction fee published for the main card types, payouts with their timing stated, and the amount passed to the terminal without retyping.

8 — Fees per card type and terminal cost published, tap to pay on a phone, tips and split payments on the terminal, several integrated acquirers or terminals to choose from (not only the vendor's own), the regulated payment institution named, and card payments reconciled to the daily closing.

10 — Payments without lock-in: the till works with any of several named acquirers on equal terms, fees for every card type, currency and chargeback published, the merchant's contract with the acquirer separable from the POS licence, and a change of acquirer documented without changing the till.

Report an error

The Retail Shop Owner

Lightspeed Payments is named as the embedded processor taking credit, debit and mobile payments, with tap-to-pay on a phone, tips on the card, pay-at-table on the e285 and v400m, and on-demand payouts within hours even at weekends. But no transaction fee by card type is published anywhere I read, terminal costs are not shown, and the only documented switching detail is a time-limited bonus of up to 1000 Euro for customers processing at least 25.000,00 € of card volume — that tells me nothing about what a normal month costs me. For the restaurant till we found no public information on using a terminal or acquirer of my own choice. 1 3 11

Report an error

Fiscal compliance (TSE, DSFinV-K, RKSV)

How this is scored

Whether the till survives a cash audit: for Germany a certified technical security device (TSE) with its provider and BSI certificate named, hardware or cloud, the DSFinV-K export for the Kassennachschau and the tax audit, the receipt obligation (Belegausgabepflicht), the Kassenbuch and daily closing (Z-Bericht), GoBD-compliant storage for ten years, and help with the § 146a AO registration; for Austria the RKSV signature and FinanzOnline registration; for other countries their named fiscal rules (NF525, Fiskaltrust and similar).

0 — No fiscal function at all; the product is not a cash register in the legal sense, or states that it does not meet the fiscal rules of the markets it sells into.

3 — The till is called compliant ("finanzamtkonform", "KassenSichV-ready") without naming the TSE, the export formats or the closing; the details are basic or not described.

5 — A TSE included or offered with its provider named (hardware or cloud), the DSFinV-K export available, receipts carrying the TSE signature, a daily closing and cash book, and the receipt obligation met on paper or digitally.

8 — TSE provider and BSI certification named with what happens when the TSE fails, DSFinV-K and the GoBD archive for ten years stated, the § 146a AO registration supported, a procedure documentation (Verfahrensdokumentation) template offered, and the fiscal rules of at least one further country (Austrian RKSV or another) named and met.

10 — Audit-proof across markets: fiscal compliance documented per named country with certificates published, the procedure documentation maintained by the vendor, the fiscal journal exportable after the contract ends, and the vendor's handling of a Kassennachschau (what the auditor gets, from whom, how fast) described.

Report an error

The Retail Shop Owner

A certified cloud TSE is claimed as fully finance-office compliant, signing every transaction and recording cash, voucher, EC and card revenues, and X- and Z-closings are documented — the daily automated transfer of single records in DSFinV-K format into DATEV Kassenarchiv online and on into the DATEV cash book covers the audit basics my tax adviser needs. We found no public information naming the TSE provider or its BSI certificate, and none on the receipt obligation, GoBD ten-year storage, help with the section 146a registration, or a procedure documentation template. 1 2 9 15

Report an error

Inventory, tables, staff & locations

How this is scored

What the till runs beside the sale: stock and articles with variants, suppliers and purchase orders, recipes or ingredients for hospitality, tables, courses and a kitchen display or kitchen printer, self-order and QR ordering, staff logins with roles and rights, cash differences per employee, reports by product, staff and hour, and several branches or sites managed from one back office.

0 — No articles, stock, staff or reporting beyond the single sale.

3 — An article list and a sales report; stock, staff rights, tables and several locations are basic or not described.

5 — Article and stock management with variants or modifiers, staff logins with roles, reports by product, employee and period, and for hospitality tables and kitchen printing or a kitchen display; several locations or tills under one account.

8 — Stock with suppliers, purchase orders and inventory counts or recipes, a kitchen display and QR or self-order, granular staff rights and a log of cancellations and voids per employee, central articles and prices pushed to several branches, and cross-site reporting.

10 — Multi-site operations run through the product: stock transfers between branches, central menu and price management with local overrides, franchise or group structures, forecasting from sales history, and every change to an article, price or void attributed and exportable.

Report an error

The Retail Shop Owner

Inventory runs in the same back office with suppliers, purchase orders against minimum stock levels, automatic reordering at set times and recipes, and the platform is described as suitable for unlimited locations with central stock management and real-time insight into every site — close to what my two branches need. The kitchen display with stations, timestamps and offline mode plus QR and self-ordering are richly documented, though they are restaurant matters to me. We found no public information on stock transfers between branches, granular staff rights with per-employee void logs, or cash differences per employee. 1 10 13 14

Report an error

Accounting handoff, DATEV & data export

How this is scored

What reaches the books and what leaves with the merchant: an export to DATEV (DATEV format, DATEV Kassenarchiv online, DATEV Unternehmen online) and to named accounting tools, booking with revenue accounts and tax rates, card payouts and fees reconciled, an API and webhooks, integrations with shop, booking or staff tools, and a complete export of articles, customers, sales and fiscal journals when the contract ends.

0 — No export of any kind; the day's figures have to be retyped.

3 — A CSV or PDF report of sales; booking data, named integrations and a full export are basic or not described.

5 — A DATEV export or another named accounting export with revenue accounts and tax rates, several integrations listed, a documented API, and sales and articles exportable.

8 — DATEV Kassenarchiv online or DATEV Unternehmen online named, card payouts and fees booked separately for reconciliation, a public API with webhooks and a developer portal, integrations with named shop, booking and staff-scheduling tools, and a full export of articles, customers and sales stated.

10 — Nothing stays behind: a complete export of all records including the fiscal journal and receipts in documented formats, access to past data after cancellation for the retention period stated, a migration path from and to other named systems, and the API covering every object the back office shows.

Report an error

The Retail Shop Owner

This is the criterion dearest to me: single records transfer daily in DSFinV-K format into DATEV Kassenarchiv online and on into DATEV Kassenbuch online, manual CSV exports are explicitly retired, product categories, accounts and payment types map automatically, cash archives can be built per location or consolidated, and my external tax adviser can be invited in — no USB stick. Direct API access is a paid add-on on all plans with documentation available, and Sage payroll takes working hours from the time tracking. We found no public information on webhooks, a developer portal, separate booking of card payouts and fees, or a full export of articles, customers and sales when the contract ends. 4 5 15 16

Report an error

European sovereignty

How this is scored

Who the contracting entity and the parent company are, where sales, customer and employee data are hosted, and who the subprocessors are (hosting, cloud TSE, payment processing, receipt delivery, email, analytics). Independently sourced by the sovereignty pipeline; POS data is financial and fiscal at once, holds staff logins and customer cards, and has to stay readable for the tax office for ten years, so the whole chain counts, not only the database.

0 — Non-EU vendor and contracting entity, hosting unstated, subprocessors unnamed, and no data processing agreement offered.

3 — A privacy policy and a data processing agreement exist, but hosting location is unstated or non-EU and the subprocessors are not listed.

5 — EU hosting available and an EU contracting entity or EU representative, but parts of the chain (cloud TSE, payment processing, email, analytics, support) run through non-EU providers without a stated safeguard.

8 — EU hosting on named infrastructure, EU contracting entity, TSE provider and payment institution, subprocessors listed with their locations, a data processing agreement published, and security certifications (ISO 27001, SOC 2) stated.

10 — Sovereign end to end and evidenced: European ownership, entity, TSE, payment institution, hosting and every subprocessor, data export and deletion documented, and certifications published with their scope rather than implied.

Report an error

The Retail Shop Owner

The German legal notice names Lightspeed POS Germany GmbH in Berlin with commercial register number HRB 138363 B, the payments contract runs with Lightspeed Netherlands B.V., and ISO 27001, SOC 2 Type 2 and PCI DSS certifications are stated for the infrastructure providers. But hosting is described only as third-party multi-tenant infrastructure with no location given, and the German page only points to an English subprocessor list whose contents were not captured, so locations of the chain stay unknown. We found no public information on a published data processing agreement. 1 6 8 11

Report an error

Pricing transparency

How this is scored

Whether a buyer can compute the real annual cost from public pages alone: licence per till or per location, which modules (tables, kitchen display, stock, extra tills, DATEV export) cost extra, the TSE and its yearly fee, hardware to buy or rent, card terminal fees and transaction fees, setup and installation, support plans, minimum term and notice period.

0 — No public prices at all; every customer is a sales call or a dealer quote.

3 — A starting price or a free tier exists, but how cost scales with tills, locations, modules or hardware is unclear.

5 — Plans are public with their price per till or location and main inclusions, but at least one commonly needed piece (the TSE, extra tills, hardware, card fees, setup) is unpriced or "on request".

8 — Every plan priced publicly with its scaling rule, the TSE, hardware and add-ons priced, card fees and terminal costs listed, setup and support priced, minimum term and VAT treatment stated.

10 — Complete price computability: annual cost derivable for a given number of tills, locations, modules and card volume, with every add-on, hardware, TSE, setup, support and payment fee and the cancellation and data-return terms published.

Report an error

The Retail Shop Owner

The three plans are public — Basic at 89 € /mo, Core at 159 € /mo, Pro at 249 € /mo — with every further licence at €49, monthly plans cancellable at month's end and annual plans running to term, which lets me scale the second till on paper. Hardware is explicitly not included in the prices, the kitchen display and accounting prices sit on separate pages, and most add-ons only note that additional fees may apply. We found no public prices for the TSE, hardware, or card transaction fees, so my real annual cost across two tills and two card volumes is not computable from these pages. 1 5 9 14

Report an error

European sovereignty — proven facts

0 of 6 dimensions proven

Built only from facts shown on the vendor's own pages. A dimension we could not prove is left open, not scored as zero.

Hosting location Not determined — uncited Report an error
Hosting options Not determined — uncited Report an error
Open source Not determined — uncited Report an error
Data processing agreement Not determined — uncited Report an error
Transfer impact assessment Not determined — uncited Report an error

Questions about Lightspeed Restaurant

Is Lightspeed Restaurant European?

No. whats-best.ai classifies Lightspeed Restaurant as Rest of world.

Where does Lightspeed Restaurant store data?

Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 29 Oct 2026.

Does Lightspeed Restaurant have a free plan?

Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 29 Oct 2026.

What are the best alternatives to Lightspeed Restaurant?

As of 3 Nov 2026, the panel rates ready2order (3.5/5), Square (3/5) and Gastronovi (3/5) highest among the other 18 POS & Checkout Systems products evaluated. Ratings that look equal are rounded to half stars; the order uses the unrounded rating, then the name. The highest-rated European alternative is ready2order (EU-Made). Ratings are the AI panel’s opinion, formed from public evidence: how scores are made. The full list, with European products first: Lightspeed Restaurant alternatives.

Where this could be wrong

What we left out

A claim that does not survive our checks costs us the claim, not the page. This is what was taken off this one.

Do you know more about Lightspeed Restaurant? Tell us Report an error on this page

Sources (16)

The pages every claim on this page was read from — each one checked, dated, and kept verifiable.

  1. 1 Vendor homepage (restaurant till) www.lightspeedhq.de Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →
  2. 2 Features page (cloud TSE) www.lightspeedhq.de Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →
  3. 3 Features page (payments) www.lightspeedhq.de Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →
  4. 4 Features page (accounting) www.lightspeedhq.de Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →
  5. 5 Pricing page www.lightspeedhq.de Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →
  6. 6 Legal notice www.lightspeedhq.de Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →
  7. 7 Privacy policy www.lightspeedhq.de Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →
  8. 8 Subprocessor list www.lightspeedhq.de Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →
  9. 9 Checkout, receipts & hardware — found from sitemap www.lightspeedhq.de Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →
  10. 10 Checkout, receipts & hardware — found from sitemap www.lightspeedhq.de Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →
  11. 11 Card payments & fees — found from sitemap www.lightspeedhq.de Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →
  12. 12 Card payments & fees — found from sitemap www.lightspeedhq.de Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →
  13. 13 Inventory, tables, staff & locations — found from sitemap www.lightspeedhq.de Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →
  14. 14 Inventory, tables, staff & locations — found from sitemap www.lightspeedhq.de Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →
  15. 15 Accounting handoff, DATEV & data export — found from sitemap www.lightspeedhq.de Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →
  16. 16 Accounting handoff, DATEV & data export — found from sitemap www.lightspeedhq.de Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →