Operations Updated on: October 1, 2026

12 min read

Lightspeed vs Orderbird: Restaurant POS for DACH

Author Bardhyl

Quick Answer: In Switzerland, orderbird PRO starts at CHF 79.90 a month on a 12-month term with one device licence, while Lightspeed Restaurant starts at CHF 89 a month with one licence and scales to CHF 249 with three. orderbird suits single-site cafés, bars and restaurants that want a straightforward iPad till with table plans and wireless ordering. Lightspeed suits venues that want deeper analytics, inventory, integrated online ordering and multi-location tools in one platform. For most operators, card fees and extra device licences will cost more over three years than the base subscription, so compare the full setup, not the headline price.

Choosing between Lightspeed vs orderbird is really a choice about how your restaurant will run for the next three to five years. Both are iPad-based, both are built for hospitality and both serve Switzerland, Germany and Austria, yet a three-terminal setup in Switzerland ranges from about CHF 2,160 to CHF 2,990 a year in software alone, before a single card payment is processed.

Lightspeed vs Orderbird at a Glance

Most comparisons online still quote Lightspeed plans that no longer exist and ignore Swiss pricing entirely. The table below uses each provider’s published Swiss and German price pages as of September 2026.

	Lightspeed Restaurant	orderbird PRO
Company background	Founded in Montréal in 2005, expanded in DACH by acquiring Berlin-based Gastrofix in 2020	Founded in Berlin in 2011, fully owned by payments group Nexi since 2022
Scale	144,000 customer locations worldwide as of 31 March 2025, across retail and hospitality	Over 17,000 hospitality customers
Platform	iPad POS, Tableside handheld, kitchen display, cloud back office	iPad POS, wireless ordering, MY orderbird live reports
Switzerland entry price	CHF 89 a month, Basic plan, 1 licence	CHF 79.90 a month, 12-month term, 1 device licence
Extra terminal in Switzerland	CHF 49 a month	CHF 49.90 a month
Germany entry price	€89 a month	€99.90 a month with orderbird card payments, €119.90 without
Support	24/7 chat and phone	24/7 emergency support, advisors on weekdays
Strongest fit	Growing restaurants, groups, hotels, data-driven operators	Cafés, bars, bistros and independent restaurants

Neither system is the better POS in absolute terms. They are built for different operating styles, and the right choice depends on how many terminals you need, how you take payment and whether you plan to open a second site.

Lightspeed vs Orderbird Pricing in Switzerland, Germany and Austria

Price pages in the DACH region differ by country, so a German review will not tell a restaurant in Zurich or Bern what it will actually pay.

Switzerland: the CHF price list

Lightspeed Restaurant publishes three Swiss plans. Basic costs CHF 89 a month with one licence. Core costs CHF 159 a month with two licences, which can be a fixed till, a Tableside handheld or a kitchen display. Pro costs CHF 249 a month with three licences, multi-location tools and online ordering included. Every extra licence adds CHF 49 a month on any plan.

orderbird PRO costs CHF 79.90 a month on a 12-month term, including a service licence, one device licence, onboarding and 24/7 emergency support. Each additional device licence costs CHF 49.90 a month, and the online reservation system adds CHF 59 a month. orderbird also offers lower effective prices if you prepay for one or three years.

Germany and Austria: the EUR price list

In Germany, Lightspeed mirrors its Swiss structure at €89, €159 and €249 a month, with €49 per extra licence. orderbird sells three bundles: S at €99.90 with one device, M at €139.90 with two devices plus cash book and voucher system, and L at €169.90 with three devices, reservations, cash book and vouchers. These prices apply when you also book orderbird’s card payments. Without them, the bundles cost €119.90, €159.90 and €199.90. Extra devices cost €39.90 a month, and all German packages include a certified online TSE.

In Austria, orderbird PRO starts at €99.90 a month with orderbird card payments, or €119.90 without, and €39.90 per extra device. Lightspeed quotes Austrian venues through its sales team, so request a written offer.

What three terminals cost for a year in Switzerland

Take a typical Swiss bistro that needs one fixed till and two handhelds.

Setup	Monthly software	Annual software
orderbird PRO, 1 licence + 2 extra	CHF 179.70	CHF 2,156.40
Lightspeed Basic, 1 licence + 2 extra	CHF 187.00	CHF 2,244.00
Lightspeed Core, 2 licences + 1 extra	CHF 208.00	CHF 2,496.00
Lightspeed Pro, 3 licences included	CHF 249.00	CHF 2,988.00

The gap between the cheapest and most complete setup is about CHF 830 a year. Whether that is worth paying depends on what you would otherwise buy separately: inventory, loyalty, online ordering and multi-site reporting are included from Core or Pro, while orderbird keeps the base price lower and lets you add modules as you need them.

Card fees usually matter more than the subscription

orderbird publishes its Swiss card rates: 0.95% for Maestro and V Pay, and 2.5% for all other debit and credit cards, with no base fee. Its Pay Terminal Plus reader costs CHF 329 per device for new customers. Lightspeed sets a standard payment rate on Basic and a customised rate on Core and Pro, so you receive the figure in your offer.

Use this formula before you sign:

Annual POS cost = monthly software × 12 + hardware + monthly card turnover × blended card rate × 12

At CHF 25,000 of monthly card turnover, every 0.1 percentage point of card fees equals CHF 25 a month, or CHF 300 a year. A restaurant processing that volume at 2.5% pays CHF 7,500 a year in card fees, which is more than double any of the software setups above.

Features Compared: Table Service, Kitchen, Reporting and Online Orders

In a Lightspeed vs orderbird feature check, both systems cover the essentials every restaurant needs: table plans, course control, split bills, tips, voids, daily closing reports and data export for your accountant. The differences sit one level deeper.

Table service and kitchen flow. orderbird is known for fast wireless ordering, called Funkbonieren in German, which sends orders from the table straight to the kitchen or bar printer. Lightspeed offers the same through Tableside handhelds and adds a native kitchen display system, included as a licence option from Core upwards.

Reporting and analytics. orderbird’s MY orderbird dashboard shows live sales from anywhere and exports clean data for accounting. Lightspeed goes further with Advanced Insights, Lightspeed AI for plain-language questions about performance, and Benchmarks & Trends that compare your venue with others in your area. If you already review your restaurant sales data weekly, Lightspeed gives you more to work with.

Inventory and recipes. Lightspeed includes inventory management, supplier orders and fully costed recipes from Core upwards. orderbird focuses on the till itself, so stock control usually runs in a separate tool.

Online ordering and QR. Lightspeed’s Order Anywhere covers QR ordering, click and collect and delivery through your own ordering site, included on Pro and available as an add-on on Basic and Core. In Germany, orderbird offers a QR ordering system at €39.90 a month and a free digital menu.

Multi-location management. Lightspeed Pro is built for groups, with central menus, prices and reports across sites. orderbird licenses devices per venue, so groups should ask how consolidated reporting across several locations will work for them. Our guide to managing multiple restaurant locations covers what to centralise first.

Compliance Across DACH: MWST, TSE and RKSV

A POS that is fully compliant in Berlin is not automatically set up correctly for Basel. Each DACH country has its own rules, and both Lightspeed and orderbird configure them per market.

Switzerland has no equivalent of Germany’s TSE or Austria’s RKSV signature requirement for cash registers. What matters is correct MWST handling. According to the Swiss Federal Tax Administration, the standard rate is 8.1% and the reduced rate is 2.6%. In practice, food served at the table is taxed at 8.1%, while takeaway food qualifies for 2.6%, so your POS must switch rates correctly between dine-in and takeaway. Swiss businesses must also keep their business records for 10 years.

Germany requires a certified technical security element, the TSE, under the KassenSichV. Both providers include it: orderbird bundles an online TSE in every German package, and Lightspeed runs a cloud TSE. Since 1 January 2026, food in German restaurants is taxed at 7%, while most drinks remain at 19%.

Austria requires a digital signature on every receipt under the RKSV. orderbird markets its Austrian setup as RKSV-compliant, and Lightspeed documents RKSV configuration in its help centre.

If you operate across borders, for example a group with sites in Zurich and Munich, confirm that one account can run both country configurations and report them side by side.

Lightspeed vs Orderbird: Which POS Fits Your Restaurant?

The right answer to Lightspeed vs orderbird changes with the type of venue you run.

Café, bar or bistro with one or two tills. orderbird is usually the more economical start. At CHF 79.90 a month, its setup is simple, staff learn it quickly, and orderbird says about a week of preparation is enough to go live.

Independent full-service restaurant with 60 to 120 seats. Both work well. Choose orderbird if speed at the table is your main goal and you already use other tools for stock and marketing. Choose Lightspeed Core if you want inventory, a kitchen display and loyalty in the same system.

Restaurant group with three to eight sites. Lightspeed Pro is designed for this, with central menu control, multi-site reports and benchmark data. For an operator focused on KPIs per location, that consolidation saves hours each week.

Hotel restaurant. Lightspeed offers PMS integrations to link room charges with the restaurant till, available as an add-on. Ask orderbird which hotel systems it currently connects to before deciding.

Food truck, pop-up or event catering. In Germany, orderbird MINI is an all-in-one mobile device designed for exactly this. Lightspeed covers mobile service through Tableside and Tap to Pay on iPhone or Android.

Seven Questions to Ask Before You Sign

Whichever way your Lightspeed vs orderbird decision leans, these questions come up after most POS demos, and asking them upfront prevents expensive surprises.

What is my exact card rate, and is it fixed? Get the blended rate in writing for your card mix, including international cards.
Is the monthly price tied to your payment service? In Germany and Austria, orderbird’s lower price applies only with orderbird card payments. Ask the same question for your Swiss offer.
How is TWINT handled? Neither provider lists TWINT among the integrated methods on its Swiss payments page as of September 2026, so ask how Swiss guests can pay by TWINT at the table.
Who owns the hardware? Clarify whether iPads, printers and terminals are bought, rented or bundled, and what happens to them at contract end.
What is the contract length and notice period? orderbird’s Swiss price is based on a 12-month term. Ask Lightspeed for its term in writing too.
What happens when the internet drops? Both advertise offline capability. Test it during the demo by switching off Wi-Fi.
Can I export all my data if I leave? Sales history, item data and guest records should be exportable in a standard format.

How SparissimoFood Helps Alongside Your POS

A POS runs what happens inside your restaurant. It does not, on its own, bring you new orders or tell you who your regular takeaway guests are. That is where many Swiss restaurants lose margin, because online orders often arrive through marketplaces that keep the guest data and charge heavy commission.

SparissimoFood gives you a direct online ordering channel for delivery, pickup and QR table orders that runs next to whichever POS you choose. Guests pay with TWINT or card, and every name, email and Natel number captured through your ordering page belongs to your restaurant. It is not a replacement for a full table-service POS like Lightspeed or orderbird. It is the layer that keeps your online orders, and your guests, in your own hands.

SparissimoFood is not commission-free. Plans start at CHF 49 a month with an 8% commission on Starter, CHF 79 a month with 5% on Business, and CHF 148 a month with 5% on Professional. At 200 online orders a month with a CHF 45 average, the Business plan costs CHF 529, compared with CHF 2,250 to CHF 2,700 on a marketplace charging 25 to 30% for courier delivery. Our breakdown of restaurant online ordering costs in Switzerland shows the full calculation.

You can compare the plans and start a 14-day free trial with no credit card, enough time to run direct ordering alongside your new POS and see which guests start ordering from you directly.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Lightspeed or orderbird cheaper in Switzerland?

orderbird PRO has the lower entry price at CHF 79.90 a month on a 12-month term, against CHF 89 for Lightspeed Basic. With three terminals, orderbird costs CHF 179.70 a month and Lightspeed between CHF 187 and CHF 249, depending on the plan. Card fees often decide the real total, so compare the rate on your expected card turnover before choosing.

Does Lightspeed or orderbird support TWINT?

As of September 2026, neither Lightspeed nor orderbird lists TWINT among the integrated payment methods on its Swiss payments page. Both accept major debit and credit cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay. Because TWINT is widely used in Switzerland, ask each provider how TWINT payments are handled at the table before you sign.

Do Swiss restaurants need a TSE for their POS?

No. The TSE is a German requirement under the KassenSichV, and Austria uses the RKSV signature system instead. Swiss restaurants need a POS that applies the correct MWST rates, 8.1% for food served on site and 2.6% for takeaway food, and they must keep business records for 10 years.

Which is better for a restaurant with several locations?

Lightspeed Pro, at CHF 249 or €249 a month with three licences, is built for multi-location groups, with central menu control, cross-site reports and benchmarks. orderbird licenses devices per venue and fits individual sites well. Groups should ask orderbird how reporting across several locations is consolidated before deciding.

Can Lightspeed or orderbird handle online orders?

Lightspeed offers Order Anywhere for QR ordering, click and collect and delivery, included on Pro and available as an add-on on Basic and Core. orderbird offers QR ordering in Germany at €39.90 a month. Many Swiss restaurants run a separate direct ordering platform with TWINT alongside their POS to keep guest data and avoid marketplace commission.

The best POS is the one your team trusts on a Saturday night, and the one whose three-year cost you calculated before you signed.