Two Canadian companies, two different products
Both of these started in Canada. TouchBistro was founded in 2010, and its privacy notice gives a Toronto address on Richmond Street West. It began as an iPad app for restaurants and still describes its POS as built just for restaurants. Lightspeed is headquartered in Montreal, where its founder started it, and sells point of sale and payments to retailers as well as restaurants. Lightspeed Restaurant is the hospitality product, and Lightspeed pitches it at complex, multi-location businesses.
That difference shows up in the pricing. TouchBistro prices for a single restaurant that adds pieces as it grows. Lightspeed prices in tiers, and its top published tier adds multi-location management and advanced inventory.
Plans and monthly fees
TouchBistro shows three bundles on its pricing page. Point of Sale starts at $69 a month and covers the full POS software: menu management, reporting, floor plan and table management, staff management and tableside ordering, with no features locked. Hardware is required and isn't included. The Essentials Bundle starts at $119 a month and adds integrated payments and restaurant hardware. Custom Setup is quoted. The page prints no currency, and a footnote says hardware, payment processing and other fees apply. Kitchen display, inventory, online ordering, reservations, loyalty and gift cards are all add-ons priced by quote. When we checked on October 30, 2026, TouchBistro was offering three months free for a limited time, without the terms on the page.
Lightspeed prints four plans, in US dollars. Starter is $69 USD a month, Essential $189 USD and Premium $399 USD; Enterprise is quoted. Lightspeed's Canadian domain redirects to the same page, and there's no separate CAD price list. At the Bank of Canada rate of 1.4002 (September 18, 2026), Starter works out to about $97 CAD a month before tax, and the bill moves with the exchange rate. Every plan adds $30 USD a month for each kitchen display screen, and the page notes that prices may vary by business type.
Card processing
Neither company prints its rates. TouchBistro includes integrated payments in its Essentials and Custom bundles. Its FAQ says it works with a range of payment processors, integrated or standalone, so you can keep a processor you already have on the Point of Sale plan.
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, which we read as negotiated rates on the larger plans. With either vendor, ask for the in-person credit rate, the Interac debit rate and any monthly minimum in writing, then work out the effective rate against a real month of your own card sales.
Hardware
TouchBistro's Point of Sale plan says hardware is required. The Essentials Bundle includes restaurant hardware in the monthly price, and TouchBistro offers financing for venues with two or more terminals. It also sells TouchBistro One, a single device for orders and payments, by quote. No hardware prices are printed.
Lightspeed doesn't print hardware prices either. Its pricing page lists a customer-facing display, a kitchen display and an order pickup screen, and Enterprise comes with a personalized software and hardware package. Ask both for an itemized hardware quote and whether you'd own the equipment outright.
Contracts
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, or notice equal to the term if it is shorter than 90 days. Discounts on the first Order Form don't carry into a renewal unless agreed in writing. Read the Order Form closely.
TouchBistro doesn't print a contract length, a renewal rule or a cancellation fee on its pricing page. Ask for all three in writing before you sign.
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.
TouchBistro announced French and Spanish versions of its app in April 2016, and its privacy notice is published in English and French. Its pricing page says nothing about Quebec, so a Quebec restaurant should ask for a French demo and a written answer on how TouchBistro works there today.
Who each one suits
TouchBistro suits a single full-service restaurant that wants a restaurant-only POS with tableside ordering, 24/7 support from a Toronto company, and the option to start on software alone and add payments, hardware and the kitchen later.
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 US-dollar pricing and a per-screen kitchen display fee.
Where Waitery fits
Waitery is Canadian too, from Mississauga, Ontario, and like TouchBistro it is built only for restaurants. It starts from the guest's side of the table. 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. The kitchen display comes with the plan, with no per-screen fee. The guest menu, kitchen and receipts work in English and French.
Waitery is one plan at $14 CAD per location per month, published on our pricing page in Canadian dollars, with free setup and no iPad to buy. It runs its own integrated payments on its own hardware, which you can buy or lease over 48 months, and processing is quoted per restaurant during the demo. For the detail, read Waitery vs TouchBistro and Waitery vs Lightspeed, take the restaurant POS tour, or see every POS comparison. Each vendor's plans are broken down further in our TouchBistro pricing guide and Lightspeed pricing guide.
This comparison uses the vendors' own public pages on the dates shown. Neither vendor prints card processing rates or hardware prices, and TouchBistro does not print contract terms or the terms of its current offer. Prices and plans change, so confirm them with TouchBistro and Lightspeed before you decide. TouchBistro and Lightspeed are trademarks of their owners; Waitery is not affiliated with or endorsed by either company.