Comparison

CAKE POS vs Square for Restaurants

No clear leader: Square for Restaurants (73.1) and CAKE POS (71.0) are within the 5-point margin; treat as a tie. The attribute-by-attribute breakdown below, with a source and date on every value, is the honest way to compare them.

Machine formatsMarkdownJSONGraphQLMarkdown is open. JSON and GraphQL need a free key.
CAKE POS71
Square for Restaurants73
Score
vioscaleAI score
CAKE POS71 / 100low · 49%
Square for Restaurants73 / 100medium · 59%
Pricing
Free tier
CAKE POS✓
Square for Restaurants✓
Model
CAKE POSfree
Square for Restaurantsfreemium
Price level
CAKE POSfree
Square for Restaurantslow
Starting price
CAKE POS–
Square for Restaurants$49
Transparent
CAKE POS✓
Square for Restaurants✓
Integrations
Count
CAKE POS5
Square for Restaurants26
Security
Iso27001
CAKE POS–
Square for Restaurants✓
Pci
CAKE POS–
Square for Restaurants✓
Market
Content
Faq
CAKE POS6 items
Square for Restaurants7 items

Capabilities

Feature-by-feature on the axes that matter for restaurant pos software. “-” means undocumented, not absent.

Core
Venue type
CAKE POSMulti-concept
Square for RestaurantsMulti-concept
Compliance
PCI DSS compliant
CAKE POS-
Square for Restaurants✓
EMV chip / contactless payments
CAKE POS-
Square for Restaurants✓
Reliability
Offline mode
CAKE POS-
Square for Restaurants✓
Front of house
Online ordering
CAKE POS✓
Square for Restaurants✓
Reservations / waitlist
CAKE POS-
Square for Restaurants✓
Loyalty / gift cards
CAKE POS✓
Square for Restaurants✓
Back of house
Kitchen display system (KDS)
CAKE POS✓
Square for Restaurants✓
Inventory management
CAKE POS✓
Square for Restaurants✓
Integrations
Delivery integrations (DoorDash/Uber Eats/Grubhub)
CAKE POS✓
Square for Restaurants✓
Hardware
Proprietary hardware ecosystem (terminals/KDS)
CAKE POS✓
Square for Restaurants✓
Market
Multi-location support
CAKE POS✓
Square for Restaurants✓
Target segment
CAKE POSSMB / independent
Square for RestaurantsSMB / independent
Payments
Payment processing
CAKE POSBuilt-in / proprietary processor
Square for RestaurantsBuilt-in / proprietary processor
Pricing
Pricing model
CAKE POS% of transactions
Square for Restaurants% of transactions

What each one is

The product in its own terms, so the numbers below have context.

CAKE POS

A restaurant point-of-sale system providing payment processing, online ordering, kitchen management, and customer loyalty features for single and multi-location businesses, with no monthly software costs.

Independently observed

Square for Restaurants

A cloud-based platform for restaurants combining point-of-sale terminals, kitchen display systems, and online order management, with integrations for delivery services, reservations, inventory, and accounting systems.

Independently observed

Pricing

List pricing as published by each vendor, with the date we read it. Always verify at the source before you buy.

CAKE POS

FreeFree tier

Core plan free. Growth and PAYG plans available by quote; all include payment processing in plan cost.

  • CoreFree
    • POS terminal with payment processing
    • Reporting and analytics
    • Online ordering
    • Kitchen Display System
    • Guest manager
    • +7 more
  • GrowthContact sales
    • Everything in Core
    • Premium bilingual support
    • White-glove setup
    • Sysco partner integrations
    • Business insurance access
  • PAYGContact sales
    • Enterprise integrations
    • Advanced multi-location reporting
    • Dedicated account manager
    • 24/7 platinum support
as of verify ↗

Square for Restaurants

SubscriptionFree tier30-day trial

Free plan available; paid plans include 30-day free trial

  • Square FreeFree
  • Square Plus-
  • Square Premium-
as of verify ↗

Platform & deployment

Where each product runs and how it can be hosted. A dash means undocumented, not unsupported.

Platforms
Web
CAKE POS✓
Square for Restaurants✓
iOS
CAKE POS✗
Square for Restaurants✓
Android
CAKE POS✗
Square for Restaurants✓
Deployment
Cloud / SaaS
CAKE POS✓
Square for Restaurants✓

Integrations

What each product connects to. Counts come from the vendor's own integration directory where one exists.

In common (4)
  • Quickbooks
  • Xero
  • Uber Eats
  • DoorDash

CAKE POS

25 total - 21 not shared
  • Coverdash
  • Fisherman
  • Dolce
  • 7shifts
  • Shogo
  • Davo
  • Olo
  • Checkmate
  • eCards
  • Paytronix
  • Restaurant 365
  • LRS Table Tracker
  • Crunchtime Kitchen
  • Orca
  • CheddrSuite
  • Epson
  • Cheftab
  • NCR
  • AWS
  • Elo Touch
  • Sysco
Independently observed

Square for Restaurants

36 total - 32 not shared
  • Delivery platforms
  • Grubhub
  • Toast
  • Wix
  • WooCommerce
  • OpenTable
  • Resy OS
  • Thrive Inventory
  • SKU IQ
  • Stream
  • Bookkeep
  • NetSuite
  • Sage Intacct
  • Zoho
  • INFI
  • Jotform
  • Kliken
  • Facebook
  • Printful
  • Shippo
  • SmarterSign
  • Weglot
  • Fomo
  • Trustpilot
  • +8 more
Independently observed
Still deciding?

CAKE POS or Square for Restaurants: which one depends on you

A composite score cannot know your constraints. Describe them and both get re-weighted against what you actually need, with the evidence behind every position.

Free to run, no account needed to start. How the evaluation works

Comparison generated from independently-sourced facts. Every value links to its source and retrieval date. See the method.