It is Monday afternoon at a burger place on MM Alam Road in Lahore. The owner has a POS quote and last month’s foodpanda payout statement in front of him. The quote looked like the big expense. Then he reads the commission line on the payout and starts wondering which one is really costing him more.
If you are looking up what a POS system costs in Pakistan, you are probably close to buying. The honest answer is that no single number fits every restaurant. What you pay depends on how many counters and branches you run and what the system includes. Here is how to read a quote, and why the online ordering line matters more than the hardware.
One-time costs: the hardware
Most quotes start with equipment you buy once: a POS terminal or tablet at the counter, a receipt printer, a kitchen printer or a KDS screen so orders reach the kitchen without anyone shouting, and a cash drawer. Some vendors bundle it. Others let you reuse a printer you already own, which lowers the upfront bill.
Recurring costs: the software
The software is usually a monthly or annual subscription, often charged per branch. A second branch normally means a second licence. Check whether updates, support and offline mode, for the evenings when the internet drops, are included or charged extra.
Setup, training and add-ons
Menu setup, staff training and installation are sometimes included and sometimes billed separately. Online ordering, delivery management and loyalty are often sold as add-ons. This is why the price of an all-in-one POS system in Pakistan can look higher on paper than a basic billing setup: it covers more of the business. Compare what each quote includes, not only the total.
The cost that never appears on the quote
Commission. On the foodpanda commission rate, Pakistan’s clearest public figure comes from foodpanda’s then-CEO. In an interview with Dawn published on October 17, 2021, Nauman Sikandar Mirza said the company’s commission rates “range from 22-23 per cent to 29-30pc,” under a four-tier structure in which single-outlet restaurants pay the highest rates (Dawn, 2021). That was in 2021, so check the rate in your own contract.
Here is an illustration with made-up round numbers. Say a restaurant does Rs 1,000,000 (10 lakh) of foodpanda orders in a month. At 22 percent, the commission is Rs 220,000. At 30 percent, it is Rs 300,000. That comes out every month, before ingredients, salaries or rent.
The second hidden cost is double data entry. When aggregator orders arrive on a separate tablet, someone retypes them into the POS. When they forget, your sales reports and stock stop matching.
Why your own ordering, connected to the POS, changes the maths
Foodpanda can still help new customers find you. But regulars who already know you do not need a middleman every time. When your own branded website and app send orders straight into the POS, those orders reach the kitchen screen, show up in the same reports and add customers to your loyalty list, for a small per-order fee of around 1% instead of the 22 to 30 percent aggregator commission above. You still pay for riders, packaging and the subscription. Moving even some repeat customers to your own channel is the main reason to pay for an all-in-one system. If you are weighing a free POS instead, we covered the trade-offs in this post on free POS systems.
Questions to ask before you accept any POS quote
- What hardware is included, and can I use my own printer or tablet?
- Is the software billed monthly or annually, and is it priced per branch or per terminal?
- Are setup, menu entry and staff training included?
- Is a KDS screen or kitchen printer supported, and what does it add to the cost?
- Are online ordering through my own website and app, delivery management and loyalty included, or extra?
- Do foodpanda orders flow into the POS automatically, or will my staff retype them?
- Does the system keep billing when the internet goes down?
- What does support cost, and what hours does it cover?
- What will I pay when I open my next branch?
One practical step
Take last month’s foodpanda payout, add up the commission, and write that figure next to every POS quote you have. Then send each vendor the questions above and ask for written answers. Tools like Blink combine POS, own online ordering, delivery and loyalty in one system, which makes that side-by-side comparison simpler.
