Lightspeed Restaurant Reviews

Pros

Ease of use, ease of setup, always someone to help available 24/7

Cons

I can’t even think of something I don’t like about Lightspeed. We are very satisfied with them.

Alternatives Considered

Toast POS

Reasons for Switching to Lightspeed Restaurant

Better setup, better customer service, availability to add other services like online ordering and loyalty program

Pros

The set up was easy with great support from the staff at Lightspeed. Great ability to handle multiple floor plans, products, users and reporting. Very full featured software that should be able to handle any restaurant's business.

Cons

It can be a little confusing when first starting to use the ordering piece on the ipad, a bigger learning curve than some other POS systems, but once you practice with it a bit, it makes sense.

Alternatives Considered

Clover, TouchBistro and Toast POS

Reasons for Choosing Lightspeed Restaurant

Square was not robust enough and their pricing for multiple order entry ipads was too high.

Switched From

Square Point of Sale

Reasons for Switching to Lightspeed Restaurant

It had all the functionality that we needed and the pricing was good and the support is phenomenal!

Pros

I thought this product was going to be a great way to more easily keep my books up to date and get pricing and inventory dialed in as compared to square. It has a lot of functionality compared to a product like shop keep or square.

Cons

Service - Limited concern for the customer's problems. No effort to actually work through and understand a client's business.
Sales Team - Arrogant and dishonest
Billing - Sly and deceitful. Invoices serve as contracts as they contain fine print at the bottom that refers a client to the company's actual contract and product terms that the client must hunt down for themselves.
Management - No concern for clientele.

Pros

The setup took time, but with good planning, we are able to get a lot of value out of the back-end reporting without the add-on module.

Cons

I wish our Chase payment system could be integrated.

Alternatives Considered

TouchBistro

Reasons for Choosing Lightspeed Restaurant

The previous system did not provide robust enough reporting and did not function when there was an interruption in the internet connection.

Reasons for Switching to Lightspeed Restaurant

In the end, Lightspeed did not offer full integration with Chase, but came to the table with an offer on hardware that made it more attractive.

Pros

I most like the "easiness" it has on the eye. For service, the floor plans, menus, and payment buttons are all easy to see and use. Makes for a faster and more efficient service every night.

The reporting is in-depth and also easy to find/consume. The reports are visual and make it easy to "at-a'glance" understand how the service is performing.

Cons

The difficult components were in the initial set up of the floor plans for us. In order to make our floor plans look professional and aseptically pleasing we had to reach out to an outsourced consultant for aid in designing.

Also, we integrated Lightspeed with our PMS (for our hotel) so that guests could seamlessly add products from the bar to their hotel reservations. This set up process was early in the stages for both companies - it may be more figured out - but the process took many months. Back and forth conversations with both companies. We are successfully using it though as of now - and the systems are interfacing seamlessly.

Pros

It is easy to use and the back office reports are very useful.

Cons

When it glitches the time on hold on the phone is ridiculous and Lightspeed needs to put techs on the road to help out the restaurants using their product

Pros

I manage a restaurant called Eclipse Chocolate, and I was uncertain that Lightspeed would be able to meet all of our needs. We're a full service dining concept with brunch and dinner daily, a cafe, a bakery, an event space, a confectioner, and a wholesaler; we needed a POS that would be intuitive and adaptable to a very dynamic menu, and usable by professional servers, as well as kitchen and production staff. We got it!

The customer service is outstanding, and offered hands-on support with our setup. We'd had some initial miscommunications and misunderstandings, and we found we needed some additional functionality out of the software. However, the team has always been very helpful and fast to respond; I'm also very pleasantly surprised how much development is being done with the app. This is definitely a well-supported POS that is constantly being improved.

I'm extremely impressed by how well it works for our unique "combo based" menu. Lightspeed has helped close a lot of simple human error loopholes!

We also decided to invest in the "Liteserver," which was an expensive piece of hardware, but a welcome relief during internet outages. Losing WiFi during a busy brunch was disastrous with previous cloud-based POS'es, but now we don't even miss a beat (or a ticket).

Cons

There are some minor missing features I would still like to see, like better development of Labor Reports to help calculate overtime, but I have confidence that they will be added in time. I see an update every couple weeks, so I do believe the dev team is working through a list.

Pros

So easy to train the team
Simple sensible interface
Regular updates and improvements
Great Hotel PMS (Opera) Interface

Cons

Only works on Ipad, would be great if Android was an option to open up the hardware market
Needs consolidated reporting for chains

Pros

We like the ease with which new staff can learn to use this software. We also like the clarity with which the back end is organized, and the support available to help us learn the various features. It is simpler and easier to follow than Lightspeed Retail's back end. Reporting features are extremely helpful. It is all very customizable.

Cons

I don't like that the the software is not linked directly to Lightspeed Retail, and that when we lose internet connection we lose access to our POS.

Pros

Very user friendly for our staff, we have some "older" staff that are not very computer knowledgeable and they were able to learn the workflow very easily, and our younger staff love it because its like using their phone. We have recommended Lightspeed restaurant to other restaurant operators. Reporting is great, back office can be accessed from a tablet our phone to make changes and see reports on the fly.

Cons

Would like to see more integration with other platform for online gift card sales, also would like to see a few different hourly reporting functions.

Alternatives Considered

TouchBistro

Pros

We had the highest expectations for Lightspeed POS and have been ecstatic about the choice.
Staff appreciates the ease of use and the quick customization (once familiar with back office which does not take that long).
We have continued to appreciate the helpful 24 hour customer service team. Even when they did not have answers for our unique problems, they always did their best to figure out a workaround.
The ability to export raw data of every receipt item for every receipt entered has proven invaluable. With knowledge of Excel, data analytics have been insightful and highly beneficial.
Since the pandemic began, Lightspeed has continued to innovate and has improved their product which has allowed us to create an online ordering site for pickup and delivery.
And the best part is full integration with our online site, POS, accounting software, and scheduling software.

Cons

First, no POS is perfect, including Lightspeed. Understanding the back end has allowed us to create work arounds for things the software is currently incapable of doing as intended at this time. One thing has been problems with combos, which we resolved with a workaround.
The biggest con is the process used for some software upgrades. Understandably, when a request is made often, it is pushed up the programmer's priority list. There are however some upgrades that, although not highly requested, can definitely improve the product. I have several requests into the programmers at this time.

Alternatives Considered

Hippos POS, Squirrel POS, TouchBistro and Silverware Avrio

Reasons for Switching to Lightspeed Restaurant

Lightspeed being Ipad based was the first consideration which eliminated some. Then online reputation, customer service, and sales process were taken into account. And, as a publicly traded company, the Lightspeed stock at the time of purchase was in the news and it was at the start of it's rise. At this writing, it is almost triple that price.

Pros

The software is comprehensive. Many add-ons are available at high costs.

Cons

It can get complicated and takes some effort to train new staff.
Support is good for the software although I have found that are led down the wrong path and wast time. Some of the representatives are not knowledgeable enough.

Pros

Lightspeed is very reliable, easy to program good functionality. In 3 years our POS has not crashed or stalled. Customer support is remarkable. The team is knowledgeable and professional. My questions are answered the same day.

Cons

Most of the reporting is very good. I would like more one page style reports, for example all servers that worked yesterday lists total sales, category sales, average check. I can get this information but each server is listed separately so analysis is time consuming.

Alternatives Considered

TouchBistro

Reasons for Choosing Lightspeed Restaurant

Lightspeed would be simpler and had great customer support.

Reasons for Switching to Lightspeed Restaurant

During the demo I felt Lightspeed had more features that would be beneficial to our restaurant.

Pros

We are able to customize according to our needs. We utilize many of the components and are constantly learning.

Cons

Sometimes we have recommendations and submit them.

Pros

Nothing to say here. There is nothing good about this system except for the promptness of my customer service, who usually has bad news. But as I now understand my customer service rep doesn't ACTUALLY work for Kounta, she works for the company that sold it to me. I wish they would have sold me one of their other POS options.

Cons

Server level order control is an upgrade, they don't tell you that when purchasing, even though that is one of the most basic things. Check splitting is the most laborious I have ever experienced, if you have a table that needs multiple splits get them a refill of their coffee because it will take a while. No over all system close out, no way to re-open a check. In lieu of that simple option they have a refund button, but, guess what if you had multiple pay types IE Cash and CC that doesn't work, can only refund whole amount to one pay type, which then screws up the server report(one of the biggest reasons to have a POS system) Integrated credit card system has worst customer service ever. If you need to get someone after 9 good luck. Randomly loses checks! Have no idea how that happens but if you are on a check and the system reloads(which it does a lot) bye bye order!

Pros

How easy it is to get support, how knowledgeable the support staff is with the software & shortcuts to use it. Also, it tracks inventory across multiple platforms so you don't sell inventory you don't have.

Cons

It's fairly expensive in comparison to what we were using in the past (quick books POS - doesn't track inventory across multiple platforms but cheaper)

Alternatives Considered

Hike

Reasons for Choosing Lightspeed Restaurant

doesn't track inventory across multiple platforms

Reasons for Switching to Lightspeed Restaurant

More options

Pros

Fairly easy to set up for basic items. Not much else is easy with this.

Cons

Anytime we lose power, printers will not work and requires a 45 min - 1 hour call with support. Cannot set up a tab using a credit card at our bar. Tickets print too long with unnecessary information that is redundant. Multi-choice items are difficult to program and then make the order tickets EXCEEDINGLY long. System freezes up when the restaurant is busy causing delays.

Pros

Lightspeed is so easy to use. The simplicity of the program makes it so efficient for even my newest team members to use. We would be lost without it. The service team is outstanding to work with. The reliability is outstanding.

Cons

Actually we are very satisfied with the services that we are receiving from Lightspeed.

Pros

Ease of alteration and basic use for staff

Cons

The back end of product input is a little cumbersome - a simply category/sub-category/sub-sub category system works best. Sometimes this is represented by Department/category/sub-category either way, it is far more flexible for product input, button organisation and more granular for reporting.

Pros

Lightspeed is sleek, very professional look and feel. Although it does take a number of buttons to run through a transaction, it's definitely an upgrade to what he had prior. The loyalty program integration is amazing, as customers earn points on the spot without any manual entry.

Cons

Although not directly related to POS, their payment processing dose not allow partial refunds which causes us headaches at times.

Alternatives Considered

Toast POS

Reasons for Choosing Lightspeed Restaurant

Spotting connectivity, card reader wouldn't work.

Reasons for Switching to Lightspeed Restaurant

Better reviews and integration with their loyalty program

Pros

They are accuracy and analysis.

With Lightspeed each and every order is entered with 100% accuracy, so you don't have to worry about wrong items or amounts being entered. And with their integrated system you can manage your inventory, and analyze your sales patterns. All because Lightspeed gives you sophisticated and detailed sales reports at your fingertips all while saving time and money and reducing costs.

Cons

There was no onsite tutorial on how to access certain data, but a quick call with tech support and within a few minutes I mastered the system and where everything is placed.

Pros

Display of the pos is look modern and kounta can create recipen and inventory and back office. Pso system complet with back office.

Cons

Actually they have good features in back office for reporting. But not as good as inventory system by itself. First, POS system not completly all transaction is automaticly show in the report when want to do closing cashier (shift), like we need to do manual calculated some other transaction except cash like card and gofood payment as i used to. Because you have to submit all your type of payment on closing time then you will get report that will show your manual calculted are balance or not, split bill need to do by amount not by item, mostly apps that i was using were by item. Second, we need to buy with additional charge to get more features that we can see more details report (like insight and purchase) and that is expensive. If you dont buy, you will not get clear report as you need for analyzing restaurant performance. Third, menu item that you sell and item only you use for recipe are the same product list. Fourth, service charge and tax calculations are confusing to get the right amount. Every report that you want to dowbload as csv as not that correct way as csv.

Pros

EASY TO USE - GOOD VALUE COST - GREAT CUSTOMERS SERVICE

Cons

SOME FUNCTIONAL NEED TO BE IMPROVE AND SOME AREA NEED TO BE ADJUST TO BE MORE FUNCTIONAL

Pros

When we started with Lightspeed it was awesome. There was a time I couldn't say enough about how much we liked Lightspeed.

Cons

As they grew and added features and modules the program always had serious deabilitating gliches.
Their customers support went from A+ to F in three years.

Pros

Lots of different bells and whistles and the developers are willing to work with you to customize a solution.

Cons

Too much work to stand up and too much work to keep running. The system crashed all the time and has to be constantly updated, revitalized, refreshed, and worked on in the back end.