Hi all,first time post here, long time lurker. As the title suggests, we are looking to make our way to a POS system and trying to see which would work best for us. We’re a small shop (600 sq ft) but we are at capacity during the weekend and do no delivery which we hope to change soon.
I have been evaluating Toast and Speedline and trying to gauge some feedback. I am concerned with Toast monthly pricing and fees and many people here seem to like Speedline. Toast seems to be on top of marketing and design and i’m sure people who use the UI love it. I do have a concern on how Speedlines website looks and feels. It does have somewhat of a dated look, even though that may not reflect how the product and software functions. I do come from a design background so it does make me hesitant but just being honest.
Any thoughts on either POS or maybe other POS that I may want to consider? Thank you.
When you say speedline has a dated website do you mean speedline.com specifically or are you talking about there online ordering? I have speedline and love it, and the first thing I would say is top notch about it is there online ordering which imo has one of the best ui’s . Other things speedline does very well is delivery management if that’s in the cards for you as well as just handling most of your typical pos features well.
Thanks for the reply. Yes the website seems a bit i dunno dated compared to sites like toast. Not trying to judge a product by it’s cover but the cartoons don’t exactly entice me. That being said though, i’ve read many positive things here in the forum and will most likely request a demo.
May I ask, what is it that you don’t like about Speedline?
I’m not sure off the top of my head of anything in particular I don’t like about speedline. I know there’s been a couple reports or data sets I wanted and it didn’t have but I don’t even recall what they are right now. The thing is most modern POS have an amalgamation of features that are all essentially the same and work well as long as its a well developed software company with good programmers. What I mean is that all the pos, Toast, Speedline, Microworks etc are all gonna do well at taking the orders and keeping track of the numbers. Where they seem to differ majorly is with online ordering, pizza delivery dispatching, and product customer support.
Speedline was founded in 1990. Toast in 2012. Take that for what it’s worth but we really enjoy speedline. 2 locations, 5 stations each, no issues of any real discussion. Speedline has a great name in the pizza POS world, they don’t need to have a flashy website. Toast had to attract customers and look more modern. I will say that SpeedDine (Speedlines OLO Platform) had propelled our digital sales in comparison to using a previous third party that they integrated with. I know of a lot of things speedline is planning as far as modernizing some software they currently have as well. We’ve used them since 2012. If there was one thing I wish they had, it would be their own self ordering kiosks rather than having to go through a 3rd party
We use Toast but we don’t have delivery. I run kitchen display screens and toast pull together online ordering, phone orders and counter orders into one seamless system at a much cheaper price than speedline.
When talking about a POS, a factor you should consider is how the system tells you about your business.
*Where are your new and existing customers coming from?
*Are you getting a return on your marketing $$'s
*Which menu items are the best sellers v. which ones are not
*If you have delivery, what’s the average delivery time from shop to customer
*Daily, weekly, monthly, annual revenues
I would check out this webinar SpeedLine is hosting on November 16th which speaks to these factors and others.
We have used Speedline for 16 years now and it has worked very well for us. There is a lot of customization, so much it will probably take several years for you to hone in all the settings to exactly how you want it. It’s kind of a learn as you go type of thing. POS companies are computer experts and not pizza experts, but I find Speedline to know the pizza business very well.
They do have a customer loyalty program that will work fine for a single location.
They have a great Online ordering system that is tied directly into your stores computer. Any change you make at the store level will automatically reflect on your website.
I have friends who use Toast. Some get good support from toast, some don’t get as good support. I have been using Microworks POS Solutions since 2001 (dine-in, delivery, carryout). Reasonably priced, very stable system. I do pay for monthly support. About the only time I call them is when a file get corrupted. I sometime think I waste money on support because I only call them a couple times a year