Self-order kiosks for restaurants: costs, hardware, setup and when they pay off

What a self-order kiosk is and how ordering works

A self-order kiosk is a touchscreen in your venue where guests browse the menu, choose options and extras, pay, and send the order to the kitchen without queuing at the counter. The guest's flow is usually the same everywhere:

1. Choose eat-in or takeaway (this can matter for VAT and packaging).
2. Browse categories with photos, pick dishes, sizes, sauces and extras.
3. See allergens and prices per item before adding to the basket.
4. Pay at the kiosk by card or phone, or choose to pay at the counter.
5. Get an order number (on screen, on a printed ticket or by email) and wait for it to be called or shown on a screen.

Behind the screen, the order lands in the same place as counter orders: a kitchen printer or a kitchen display, and your daily sales report. A kiosk that does not connect to your kitchen and till simply moves the queue from the counter to the pass.

Payment: card terminal at the kiosk or pay at the counter

There are two ways to take payment on a kiosk: an integrated card terminal, or 'order here, pay at the counter'. Most venues use the first and keep the second as a fallback.

Card processing fees on a kiosk are normal in-person rates. As an example of a published rate, Square lists 1.75% per in-person transaction in the UK. Many providers, including SumUp for its kiosk, quote card fees individually.

Kiosk hardware: floor-standing, wall or counter, tablet on a stand

Kiosk hardware comes in three main forms, and the right one depends on floor space, footfall and how much you want to spend up front.

Prices for floor-standing all-in-one kiosks are mostly quoted on request, so we don't give a range here. Published examples for the other two types are below. As a reference for the tablet route, a business reseller lists the 11-inch iPad (A16, 128 GB) at €400.99 excl. VAT (checked October 2026); you add a stand or enclosure and a card reader.

Software pricing models and published kiosk prices

Kiosk software is almost always a subscription: a monthly fee per kiosk or per venue, sometimes bundled with hardware, plus card fees from the payment provider. Check whether the fee is per device (it grows with every extra kiosk) or per venue.

Other models you will see: per-venue subscriptions that include kiosk, QR and online ordering together; commission or fee per order; and leasing, where hardware and software are paid monthly over a fixed term. Leasing lowers the up-front cost but usually ties you in for years, so read the cancellation terms.

When does a kiosk pay off? A worked break-even example

A kiosk pays off when the labour it frees up, or the extra orders and upsells it brings, exceed its monthly cost. Here is a simple calculation with every assumption stated, so you can swap in your own numbers.

Scenario 1, labour. Assume the kiosk takes enough orders during the lunch peak that you need 1 staff hour less per day, at an assumed wage cost of €20 per hour, 26 trading days a month. That frees €520 a month, about five times the cost.

Scenario 2, extra orders only. Assume no labour saving, but each extra order or upsell leaves €3 after food cost (assumption). You need €108.47 ÷ €3 = 37 extra orders a month, under 1.5 a day, to break even.

On the Free plan the software costs the restaurant €0, because a small service fee per order is added for the guest by default (€0.30 under €10, €0.50 from €10 to €30, €0.99 over €30). Break-even is then just the hardware: €19.47 ÷ €3 = 7 extra orders a month. Prices and plan details are on the pricing page.

Test before you buy big: run one tablet kiosk at your busiest counter for a month and count kiosk orders, average basket and how often staff still had to help. That tells you more than any vendor estimate.

Where kiosks work, and where they don't

Kiosks work wherever guests arrive in waves and order at a counter; they add little where a server already takes every order at the table.

If guests sit down first, QR table ordering on their own phone often does the same job without any hardware. Many venues combine both: a kiosk at the entrance for walk-ins and QR codes on the tables.

Accessibility: what the European Accessibility Act means for kiosks

Since 28 June 2025 the European Accessibility Act (Directive (EU) 2019/882) requires payment terminals placed on the EU market after that date to meet accessibility requirements, which includes the card terminal on a kiosk. Here is what the directive actually says:

• Products in scope include payment terminals, defined as devices whose main purpose is to allow payments with payment instruments at a physical point of sale. ATMs, ticketing machines, check-in machines and interactive information terminals are covered when they are dedicated to services the directive covers (such as passenger transport and consumer banking).
• Restaurant ordering is not on the list of covered services. The directive does cover e-commerce services, but defines them as services provided at a distance through websites and mobile apps. A kiosk inside your venue is not 'at a distance'; your online ordering webshop may be.
• Product obligations sit with manufacturers, importers and distributors: conformity assessment, CE marking and an EU declaration of conformity. Ireland's regulator, the CCPC, lists these duties and does not set separate duties for a business that only uses a terminal.
• Microenterprises (fewer than 10 staff and annual turnover of no more than €2 million) that provide services are exempt from the service requirements. They are not exempt for products they make, import or distribute.
• Existing terminals: EU countries may allow self-service terminals used for services before 28 June 2025 to stay in use until the end of their economically useful life, up to 20 years after they entered use.

What to do in practice: when you buy a new kiosk with a built-in card reader, ask the supplier for the EU declaration of conformity that covers accessibility. The CCPC's guidance even uses a touchscreen payment terminal in a restaurant to show the problems: a wheelchair user who can't reach it, and a blind guest who gets no audio or keypad. Its advice is to get independent legal advice if you are unsure.

In the UK the EAA does not apply, but the Equality Act 2010 places a duty to make reasonable adjustments on every service provider. Either way, the safest design keeps a staffed counter open as an alternative to the kiosk.

Placement and menu design for kiosks

Put the kiosk where guests see it before they see the counter queue, and design the menu for a quick order, not for reading.

• Placement: near the entrance, with room for a second person to wait behind without blocking the door. Keep the pick-up point and order-number screen visible from the kiosk.
• Reach: mount the screen and card reader so a seated wheelchair user can reach them, and leave clear floor space in front.
• Start screen: one tap to start, a language choice, and eat-in or takeaway. Nothing else.
• Categories: as few as possible, best sellers first. Use real photos of your dishes.
• Options: ask required choices (size, sauce) before the item goes in the basket; offer one relevant add-on, not five.
• Allergens: show them per dish on the kiosk, the same as on your other menus. See our guide to allergen information rules.
• Readability: large text, strong contrast, buttons big enough for a thumb, and a generous time-out so slower guests aren't sent back to the start.

Receipts and tax records

Every kiosk sale must end up in your till records and daily report like any other sale, and guests should be able to get a receipt. Give them the choice of a printed receipt or a digital one by email or QR code.

Rules differ by country. In Germany, for example, businesses using an electronic recording system must issue a receipt for each transaction, and a receipt may be issued electronically only with the recipient's consent. How cash-register rules apply to your kiosk depends on how it connects to your till, so check with your till supplier and accountant. Our cash register rules guide covers the main European countries.

Common kiosk mistakes

• Buying hardware before testing. Start with one tablet kiosk and measure for a month before ordering floor units.
• Copying the paper menu one-to-one. Long descriptions and endless categories slow every order down.
• No fallback. When the card terminal or Wi-Fi drops, staff must be able to take orders at the counter.
• Kiosk not linked to the kitchen. Retyping kiosk orders defeats the purpose.
• Ignoring per-device fees. Five kiosks at a per-device price cost five times as much; compare with per-venue pricing.
• Hiding the kiosk. If guests don't see it before they join the queue, they won't use it.
• Letting the menu go stale. Sold-out items left on the kiosk lead to refunds and annoyed guests.

Kiosks with Restaurant by DTS

Restaurant by DTS runs its self-ordering kiosk in the browser on a tablet, so you can use a tablet you already own on any stand. Kiosk orders arrive on the same kitchen display and dashboard as QR, online and POS orders, the menu can be shown in 8 languages, and payments go straight to your own Mollie, Stripe, PayPal or Paystack account. See how the kiosk works.

Frequently asked questions