Epos Now vs Flipdish: Which POS Is Better for Restaurants?
Epos Now vs Flipdish at a glance
Epos Now is a UK-based POS company with a product designed for both retail and hospitality. Flipdish is a restaurant technology platform built specifically for restaurants, takeaways, QSRs, cafés and multi-location groups. Both operate in the UK and Ireland, but they are built for different operators with different needs.
The short version: Epos Now suits simple hospitality operations that want a basic till and some reporting. Flipdish suits restaurants that want a single integrated platform covering in-store ordering, online ordering, apps, kiosks, AI phone ordering and customer marketing.
What is Epos Now?
Epos Now is a point-of-sale system founded in the UK in 2011. It serves retail and hospitality businesses across the UK, US and Australia. Its hospitality product includes a till interface, basic menu management, reporting and integration with third-party tools through its AppStore.
Epos Now is a generalist system. It can serve a coffee shop or a clothes shop using the same core product. That breadth is both its appeal and its limitation for restaurants that need features specific to food service: table management, kitchen display systems, online ordering and multi-channel menu management.
What is Flipdish?
Flipdish is a restaurant technology platform founded in Ireland in 2015. It serves restaurants, takeaways, QSRs, cafés, pubs and multi-location groups across the UK, Ireland and Europe.
Flipdish combines POS, online ordering, branded mobile apps, self-service kiosks, AI phone ordering, AI marketing, customer loyalty and payment processing in one connected platform. Every channel feeds into a single system, giving operators a unified view of sales, customers and performance.
Feature comparison
| Feature | Epos Now | Flipdish |
|---|---|---|
| Point of sale | ✓ | ✓ |
| Menu management | ✓ | ✓ (multi-channel) |
| Kitchen display system | Via third-party integration | ✓ Native |
| Table management | Via add-on | ✓ |
| Online ordering | Via third-party integration | ✓ Native |
| Branded mobile app | Not available | ✓ |
| Self-service kiosk | Not available | ✓ |
| AI phone ordering | Not available | ✓ |
| Loyalty programme | Via third-party integration | ✓ Native |
| AI marketing | Not available | ✓ |
| Multi-location management | ✓ | ✓ (core feature) |
| Direct delivery management | Not available | ✓ |
The most significant difference is that Epos Now relies on third-party integrations to match what Flipdish offers natively. Each integration adds cost, creates potential for data inconsistencies and introduces another vendor relationship to manage.
POS functionality
Both platforms offer core till functionality: order taking, payment processing, split bills, voids, refunds and basic reporting.
Flipdish’s restaurant POS is built specifically for food service. Menu structures, modifiers, courses and kitchen routing are treated as core features. The interface is designed around how a restaurant actually takes orders — at the counter, at the table, or through a kiosk.
Epos Now’s POS is built for a broad range of business types. For restaurants, some hospitality features require additional configuration or AppStore integrations, and the workflow may feel less intuitive for food service staff compared to a purpose-built restaurant system.
Online ordering
This is where the difference becomes most significant.
Epos Now does not have a native online ordering product. Restaurants taking orders online must integrate with a third-party platform, which adds subscription cost, requires menu synchronisation between systems and means customer data from online orders sits separately from in-store data.
Flipdish includes online ordering natively. Orders taken through a restaurant’s website, branded app or kiosk flow through the same POS and reporting system as in-store orders. There is no separate system to maintain, no separate contract and no customer data split across platforms.
For any restaurant taking online orders — which is now the majority of UK restaurants — this distinction has real operational consequences.
Mobile apps and kiosks
Epos Now does not offer white-label branded mobile apps for restaurants.
Flipdish provides branded mobile apps for restaurants, giving operators their own app in the App Store and Google Play under their brand. Customers order directly from the restaurant through the app, with no marketplace commission and full access to customer data.
Similarly, Flipdish’s self-service kiosk product integrates natively with the POS. Epos Now does not offer a kiosk product.
AI and automation
Flipdish has invested significantly in AI-powered restaurant tools, including an AI Phone Agent that handles inbound phone orders automatically and AI Marketing that automates customer re-engagement campaigns based on order history.
For a busy restaurant that still takes a significant number of orders by phone, the AI Phone Agent alone can reduce staff workload and capture orders that would otherwise be missed.
Epos Now does not have equivalent AI-powered ordering or marketing tools.
Pricing
Neither Epos Now nor Flipdish publishes a single fixed price for restaurant deployments, as both platforms are sized to the business.
Epos Now has advertised software plans from around £25–£35 per month for a single-location setup, with hardware available separately or in bundles. AppStore integrations carry their own subscription fees. A restaurant needing online ordering, loyalty and marketing tools through the AppStore can add £100–£200/month to the base cost.
Flipdish pricing is based on the products used and the scale of the operation. Because Flipdish includes online ordering, apps, kiosks and marketing natively, the total cost of a fully operational Flipdish setup is often comparable to Epos Now once all the integrations required to reach the same functionality are factored in.
The right comparison is not Epos Now’s base price versus Flipdish’s base price. It is the total cost of achieving the same operating capability from each platform.
Multi-location operators
Both platforms support multi-location restaurant groups, but the depth of that support differs.
For Epos Now, managing multiple locations means managing separate POS accounts with shared reporting. Menu changes must be pushed to each site individually, and integration management is duplicated per location.
Flipdish is designed from the ground up for multi-location restaurant groups. Menu management, customer data, reporting, loyalty and marketing operate at group level, with site-level customisation where needed. For groups operating five or more sites, this is a meaningful operational advantage.
Support
Epos Now provides UK-based support across its broad customer base of retail, hospitality and services businesses.
Flipdish support teams are specialised in restaurant operations. Support staff understand the operational context of a busy service — the difference between a software query at 2pm and the same query at 7pm on a Friday evening is significant, and Flipdish builds its support model around that reality.
Which platform should you choose?
Consider Epos Now if:
- You run a simple hospitality operation with no online ordering requirement
- You need a low-cost basic till system
- You are a retail or mixed-use business that also does food service
Choose Flipdish if:
- You want online ordering integrated with your POS
- You want a branded mobile app for your restaurant
- You are running or planning to run multiple locations
- You want AI phone ordering or automated marketing
- You want a single platform rather than a POS plus multiple integrations
Why Flipdish comes out ahead
Epos Now is a reasonable option for the most basic till requirements. For any restaurant that wants to build a direct ordering channel, reduce marketplace fees, grow customer loyalty or operate across multiple sites, Epos Now requires multiple integrations and additional spend to reach comparable capability.
Flipdish provides that capability natively, with a platform designed specifically for restaurants, support teams that understand restaurant operations and a track record with restaurant groups across the UK, Ireland and Europe.
Request a Flipdish demo and see how the platform compares for your specific operation.