Two different starting points
Square began as a payments company and grew a restaurant product on top of it, priced so a small room can start on a $0 plan. Lightspeed is headquartered in Montreal and sells to retailers as well as restaurants; it pitches Lightspeed Restaurant at complex, multi-location businesses. Square publishes nearly every number and keeps the commitment low. Lightspeed prices in tiers, charges for each kitchen screen, quotes its card rates and signs you to a term.
Plans and monthly fees
Square lists three restaurant plans in Canadian dollars. Free is $0 a month with unlimited countertop devices and locations. Plus is $60 a month per location and adds course management, live sales reporting and 24/7 support. Premium is custom pricing for restaurants processing more than $250,000 a year in credit card sales. All of this was read on Square's Canadian pricing page on October 30, 2026.
Lightspeed prints four plans. Its English pages list Starter at $69 USD a month, Essential at $189 USD and Premium at $399 USD, with Enterprise by quote. Its Canadian French site lists 89, 239 and 499 CAD a month (re-read October 31, 2026). Ask which list your contract uses. Starter covers the POS, floor plans, online ordering and delivery management; Essential adds Lightspeed Tasks; Premium adds multi-location management and advanced inventory. The page notes that prices may vary by business type.
Kitchen screens and extra devices
On Square Free, each kitchen display costs $20 a month. On Plus, kitchen displays are unlimited, but every countertop device after the first at a location costs $40 a month.
Lightspeed's Canadian French site charges $40 CAD a month for each kitchen screen on every plan ($30 USD in English), which is $480 CAD a year per screen. It prints no per-register price. Take one location with two countertop devices and two kitchen screens, before card fees, hardware and tax: Square Plus comes to $100 CAD a month, and Lightspeed Starter to $169 CAD a month on the Canadian French list, plus whatever the second register costs.
Card processing
Square prints its rates. In person it charges 2.5% on all major credit cards and 0.75% + 7¢ on Interac debit by chip and PIN or tap. Online orders are 2.8% + 30¢. On $40,000 a month in credit card sales, 2.5% comes to $1,000 a month.
Lightspeed builds its own processor, Lightspeed Payments, into the POS. The pricing page shows integrated payments as "Default" on Starter and "Custom" on Essential and Premium. No rates are printed, so ask for the credit rate, the Interac debit rate and any monthly minimum in writing, then divide total fees by a real month of your card volume.
Hardware
Square sells its hardware outright at prices printed on its Canadian page, from $249 for Square Stand (iPad not included) to $999 for Square Register. Lightspeed doesn't print hardware prices; Enterprise comes with a personalized software and hardware package. Ask Lightspeed for an itemized quote and whether you'd own the equipment.
Contracts
Square's restaurant pricing page says there is no long-term contract and that you can upgrade or downgrade at any time. Plus comes with a 30-day free trial.
Lightspeed publishes its terms. Its Service Agreement, last updated February 26, 2026, says the initial term is whatever your Order Form states and that the agreement renews automatically for a period of the same length. To end it, you give written notice at least 90 days before the term ends. Discounts on the first Order Form don't carry into a renewal unless agreed in writing.
French and Quebec
Lightspeed has the stronger public record here. It runs a Canadian French version of its website, makes its service agreement available in French, and in March 2024 announced the launch of its flagship Lightspeed Restaurant product in Quebec, its home province.
Square's Canadian page says Square is not currently compatible with Quebec's mandatory online sales-recording module, and it points Quebec restaurants to a partner integration. A Quebec owner should get a written answer on sales recording before choosing Square.
Lightspeed vs Square: who each one suits
Square suits an owner who wants to start on a $0 plan, see every rate before talking to anyone, buy hardware outright and keep the freedom to leave. Plus adds coursing, seat management and splitting a bill by seat. It works best outside Quebec.
Lightspeed suits a multi-location group or an inventory-heavy kitchen that wants POS, payments, inventory and reporting from one vendor, values a strong Quebec presence and French support, and can budget for a per-screen kitchen display fee and a term that renews on its own.
Where Waitery fits
Waitery was built in Canada, only for restaurants, as the next generation of restaurant tech. It is a QR-first restaurant POS from Mississauga, Ontario: guests scan a table QR code and order with no app, servers take orders and payments on handhelds, and tickets go to a kitchen display with station routing and no per-screen fee. The guest menu, kitchen and receipts work in English and French.
Like Square, Waitery publishes its price: one plan at $14 CAD per location per month, on our pricing page, with no setup fee. Like Lightspeed, it supplies its own hardware and integrated payments, so one company answers for the whole setup. Hardware can be rented monthly or bought outright, and processing is quoted per restaurant. For the detail, read Waitery vs Square and Waitery vs Lightspeed, take the restaurant POS tour, or see every POS comparison. Each vendor's plans are broken down further in our Square for Restaurants pricing guide and Lightspeed pricing guide,, or run your own numbers in the POS cost calculator.
This comparison uses the vendors' own public pages on the dates shown. Prices and plans change, so confirm them with Square and Lightspeed before you decide. Square and Lightspeed are trademarks of their owners; Waitery is not affiliated with or endorsed by either company.