User Reviews Overview
About Lightspeed Restaurant
The one-stop restaurant platform built for ambitious hospitality professionals to make fast, data-driven decisions, serve more customers and maximise efficiency. Transform and unify your digital and physical operation through...
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- Industry: Sports
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Best POS I've used
We wanted a simple to use, reliable and feature rich application and Lightspeed delivered, only wish we could write our own extensions a little easier.
Pros
The ux is absolutely straightforward and intuitive, you hardly even need the manual from set up to production
Cons
API behind a pay wall. As a software developer who casually wrenches and has set up lightspeed in multiple businesses, I'd have liked to get in deeper on the nerdy side. From a regular user perspective that's not an issue though.
- Industry: Restaurants
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
Take the plunge, get Lightspeed
Started with Lightspeed during covid, and it was possibly one of the best decisions we could have made for our restaurant. We are now able to accurately determine quantities of items sold and see what menu items are performing under to be able to advertise and highlight those items. Customer support is always available and I’ve never had to wait long to be connected to someone when I needed help. They will do their absolute best to fix every problem you have. We also recently went through a Hurricane that caused power and internet outrages for extended times in our area. We were still able to use Lightspeed despite not being able to connect with the internet thanks to their software and technology. Once the internet was restored (about a month later), Lightspeed was able to back up all sales and report information from when the internet was out. I highly recommend taking the plunge and starting up with Lightspeed. We are very satisfied.
Pros
Ease of use, ease of setup, always someone to help available 24/7
Cons
I can’t even think of something I don’t like about Lightspeed. We are very satisfied with them.
Alternatives Considered
Toast POSReasons for Switching to Lightspeed Restaurant
Better setup, better customer service, availability to add other services like online ordering and loyalty program- Industry: Hospitality
- Company size: 201–500 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
Lightspeed Restaurant Review
The overall experience with Lightspeed Restaurant is very good! It's easy to understand and user-friendly.
Pros
What I like most about Lightspeed Restaurant is the data and reports you need are in there and you can easily pull them out because it's easy to navigate.
Cons
So far, there's nothing I like least about Lightspeed Restaurant because the reports needed by the team are in there.
Top Lightspeed Restaurant Alternatives
- Industry: Hospitality
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 6-12 months
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Review Source
Not for us!
Overall the platform/epos does what it needs to do! We personally had constant connectivity issues between devices which they always try to lay blame elsewhere, which caused issues with kitchen printing and network printing in general. We installed a £5k new internet / network across one of the sites to resolve all and it did nothing to improve with 800mb speeds
We have several pubs / restaurants, and this was really not suited to our operations!
We also were not allowed to add a new site without using light speed payments at the new site with the epos which we didn’t want to do as they couldn’t match our current card machine rates. Therefore this resulted in the new site using a different epos, which we have now moved all the businesses too.
I don’t think it’s your worst option of an epos, but for someone with a small operation such as ours with a couple pub/restaurant sites, this is not the epos for you!
Pros
A lot of features and reporting - integrates well. Nice user interface and design for staff
Cons
I found the system overall too much, everything was just harder than it needed to be to set up, harder than it needed to be on the back offfice, inventory was far more complicated than it needed to be, reports covered everything but were also just a little too meticulous at the same time that it was counter productive and just needed to provide the information needed.
Alternatives Considered
Toast POSReasons for Choosing Lightspeed Restaurant
For a better service and epos provider with less issues and better connectivitySwitched From
Epos NowReasons for Switching to Lightspeed Restaurant
Features and user interface looked good! Highly recommended online- Industry: Hospitality
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Lightspeed for hospitality
Perfect for hospitality and great for pulling reports
Pros
Fast integrarion and accurate reporting for stocked products
Cons
Sometimes it can take awhile to get a response from support
- Industry: Restaurants
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
Choose Lightspeed!
Lightspeed was, is, and will continue to be great for us.
Staff loves the ease of use of the front end. I love the simplicity of updating the online site, the data available for export in the office, and the full integration with our other software.
Pros
We had the highest expectations for Lightspeed POS and have been ecstatic about the choice.
Staff appreciates the ease of use and the quick customization (once familiar with back office which does not take that long).
We have continued to appreciate the helpful 24 hour customer service team. Even when they did not have answers for our unique problems, they always did their best to figure out a workaround.
The ability to export raw data of every receipt item for every receipt entered has proven invaluable. With knowledge of Excel, data analytics have been insightful and highly beneficial.
Since the pandemic began, Lightspeed has continued to innovate and has improved their product which has allowed us to create an online ordering site for pickup and delivery.
And the best part is full integration with our online site, POS, accounting software, and scheduling software.
Cons
First, no POS is perfect, including Lightspeed. Understanding the back end has allowed us to create work arounds for things the software is currently incapable of doing as intended at this time. One thing has been problems with combos, which we resolved with a workaround.
The biggest con is the process used for some software upgrades. Understandably, when a request is made often, it is pushed up the programmer's priority list. There are however some upgrades that, although not highly requested, can definitely improve the product. I have several requests into the programmers at this time.
Reasons for Switching to Lightspeed Restaurant
Lightspeed being Ipad based was the first consideration which eliminated some. Then online reputation, customer service, and sales process were taken into account. And, as a publicly traded company, the Lightspeed stock at the time of purchase was in the news and it was at the start of it's rise. At this writing, it is almost triple that price.- Industry: Hospitality
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
0 Support
Pros
Please note that I have subscribed to Kounta which at the time had good support in Australia. Since it has been taken over by Lightspeed support has gone down the drain.
There is no knowledge and response time is unacceptable.
Forget about using phone as the message clearly states if you don’t get connected to operator within 15minutes call will be disconnected.
Cons
Really bad support. It absolutely frustrating to have to chase my payments which are short. Waiting for answers for like 20minutes. Requesting contact with my account manager repeatedly for last four weeks. As a business owner I don’t have time to chase it. Resolutions should be fast and easy. I dread every tine that I have to contact their support.
Response from Lightspeed
Hi Gosia,
We're sorry to hear about your recent support experience. We thank you for taking the time to share your feedback with us -- ensuring the satisfaction of our customers is paramount to us!
Unfortunately, we are unable to locate your account in our system. We want to ensure that we address your concerns, so we highly encourage you to reach out to your Account Manager directly.
We appreciate your time!
The Lightspeed team
- Industry: Food & Beverages
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Indifferent Support
Although I had used Lightspeed pre pandemic it became a nightmare to re-set up post pandemic. First, they didn't even have available the App for the new version in my country's App Store. Then it took days (via email) to figure things out and get it up and running. They have the absolute WORST support when it comes to billing. One time my CC was declined and it took me a WEEK to get the card re-charged with a lot of run-around between chats and unfilled promises by Lightspeed. The link to pay your bill that they eventually send you DOES NOT WORK (nor have they done anything about it after I notified them many months ago. At chat support they send you another link to another system that declines the charge saying "not supporting the currency in your country" Whaat? The U.S. dollar, probably the most used currency in the world! Off chat support again with no promise of how long I'll take to re-try charging my card. There's an indifference there to the customers. I sense that they have become too big for their britches? Oh, and they just turned off my Backoffice access without any warning! oh wait, I've only been a customer for 8 years... hm
Pros
It runs fairly stable and has a lot of features
Cons
Difficult set-up and customer service and particularly a billing department that don't care about the customer.
- Industry: Hospitality
- Company size: 51–200 Employees
- Used Daily for 6-12 months
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Review Source
Good POS option
Pros
Lightspeed is very easy to use and very intuitive for staff
Cons
Inventory is limited and not suitable for businesses with a big listing of products
Response from Lightspeed
Hi Rocco,
Thank you for your feedback! We're glad to hear that you find Lightspeed easy to use and intuitive for your staff. We're constantly working to improve our inventory features to better accommodate businesses with larger product listings. Your input is valuable as we strive to make Lightspeed the best POS option for all types of businesses.
The Lightspeed Team
- Industry: Food & Beverages
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
Definitely would not recommend. Over priced and impossible to cancel.
Pros
Easy to use but when compared to competitors like square, extremely over priced.
Cons
I would be very careful signing up, we have been trying to cancel for weeks now but have been given the run around. The sales team is supposed to reach out but we have been waiting. Now our next months payment has just come out. They are extremely difficult to deal with. Other companies have call centers based in the states but it does not seem as though lightspeed does.
Response from Lightspeed
Hi Gurjinder,
We would like to sincerely apologize for your recent experience with Lightspeed.
We value all feedback and would like to learn more about your specific experience, to have the opportunity to address your needs and concerns.
As we are unable to identify your account within our records, please feel free to contact our Customer Success team should you wish to provide further feedback. You may reach us via email at [email protected].
The Customer Success Team
Lightspeed
- Industry: Retail
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Not The Same Company They Used To Be
The first two years we used Lightspeed was awesome. Year three the software was failing weekly.
We went two weeks without the inventory purchase order system, because Lightspeed told us it was a probelm on our end. The deny they had problems. We went a long time without being able to process payments because a clitch in their system. I personally beleive they were growing too fast. It was clear that they accepted that they would loose customers through out the process.
Pros
When we started with Lightspeed it was awesome. There was a time I couldn't say enough about how much we liked Lightspeed.
Cons
As they grew and added features and modules the program always had serious deabilitating gliches.
Their customers support went from A+ to F in three years.
- Industry: Restaurants
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Lightspeed is an excellent partner to us
Lightspeed is a true partner with us at Campus Towers. With their programs we have a reliable easy to use program. We are very satisfied with the service provided.
Pros
Lightspeed is so easy to use. The simplicity of the program makes it so efficient for even my newest team members to use. We would be lost without it. The service team is outstanding to work with. The reliability is outstanding.
Cons
Actually we are very satisfied with the services that we are receiving from Lightspeed.
- Industry: Hospitality
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
User friendly!
Overall, it is a good experience. The customer service is suitable and helpful. The system itself is easy to figure out.
Pros
I most like the "easiness" it has on the eye. For service, the floor plans, menus, and payment buttons are all easy to see and use. Makes for a faster and more efficient service every night.
The reporting is in-depth and also easy to find/consume. The reports are visual and make it easy to "at-a'glance" understand how the service is performing.
Cons
The difficult components were in the initial set up of the floor plans for us. In order to make our floor plans look professional and aseptically pleasing we had to reach out to an outsourced consultant for aid in designing.
Also, we integrated Lightspeed with our PMS (for our hotel) so that guests could seamlessly add products from the bar to their hotel reservations. This set up process was early in the stages for both companies - it may be more figured out - but the process took many months. Back and forth conversations with both companies. We are successfully using it though as of now - and the systems are interfacing seamlessly.
- Industry: Food & Beverages
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 1-5 months
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Review Source
Fantastic system; exactly what we were looking for
When we decided to explore for a new POS system for our business, we were looking for a system that would be very user friendly, easy to install, good solid remote help desk and overall, a system that would be speed up our service. Due to the fast responses from lightspeed we were completely informed with the solution offered and had a quote in our inbox within no time. Very accurate, detailed and excellent service. Now 5 weeks later, the system is up and running in our operation in Jamaica. The installation was quick and easy (and we are certainly no experts at it) The staff training literally took 10 minutes and everybody enjoys working with the program. Most importantly as managers and owners we have all the accurate information available to control sales, waste and possible theft. All information is just a few Clicks away. Incase you don’t know; the help desk is simply phenomenal and well trained. As you can tell, I can recommend lightspeed to any company that looks for a system that clearly was designed for the user and by pros.
Pros
The ease of using it. Very user friendly, even a person that has barely ever been in contact with a tablet or PC has no problem using it.
Cons
Have not found anything yet that we would need. Other than maybe the ability to pay in a different currency (calculate change in another currency for example)
- Industry: Retail
- Company size: 51–200 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Lightspeed for Bicycle Retail
If there was another option that exceeded the value, I would recommend a change for something that is more intuitive, more user friendly, and offered more complete support.
Pros
The POS functions are fairly easy to use and the reporting is simple. Also, customer info and scheduling are also fairly easy to use and navigate.
Cons
It is very difficult to train a new person on the software. Inventory management is very difficult and tedious and most all functions related to inventory management including ordering are a nightmare to manage.
- Industry: Restaurants
- Company size: 201–500 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
A easy to use system that my team love
We started using Lightspeed around two years ago. When joining the business I inherited a creaky old POS system that had been chosen for its ability to connect to our hotel PMS rather than for its usability and features. I was surprised that a cloud based system would have the capability to connect to hotel PMS but lightspeed does this really well. We started with 6 month trial in one location and now all locations run there F&B using Lightspeed. I was really happy with the support I received whilst on boarding, getting the system set up how we want it is very easy and the regular system updates only ever make things better. The key quality though has to be the ease at which the team use the system. Training is down to ten minutes rather than several hours supported by a hefty manual with our previous system. We are not about to explore the add ons for our next new opening including Customer Facing Display, Kiosk and Kitchen Display,
Pros
So easy to train the team
Simple sensible interface
Regular updates and improvements
Great Hotel PMS (Opera) Interface
Cons
Only works on Ipad, would be great if Android was an option to open up the hardware market
Needs consolidated reporting for chains
- Industry: Retail
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 6-12 months
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Review Source
Great POS system for small retailers
I'd recommend Lightspeed to anyone. I've used the cloud-based platform in a baby boutique and a home/gift shop. It's served us well in both settings. All our employees have been able to use the system without difficulty and the analytics have given us an advantage in managing operations.
Pros
Back-end setup is pretty simple and user interface for point of sale is easy and forgiving. Our '72 year old non-computer literate' retail associate was able to master it in no time. Customer support is also top notch.
Cons
There are a few small issues - refunds are a multi-step process, and setting up the ecom website didn't feel as intuitive as it could be. (I did talk with customer service about this. They agree the process could be streamlined and are in the process of rolling out a new setup process shortly.)
- Industry: Maritime
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Lightspeed POS very helpful
I am very happy with this product
Pros
Being able to search a part, and track the sales of a part, is very helpful
Cons
Custom pricebooks need to be in correct format to load
- Industry: Retail
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Industry standard POS software with learning curve
Mostly positive. There is a leaning curve. Gets the job done and is industry standard for bicycles.
Pros
This software is the industry standard in the bike industry. Most common item are in their database and it does everything that it needs to do. There is a learning curve and it is not clear, to me, if cloud backup is available for records. I have read about integration with quick books but have yet to explore this feature.
Cons
Searchable help, including FAQ, while using would be helpful. Item names appear partially when searching until you click on them. This makes it hard to differentiate between 2 similar items.
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Review Source
Kounta review from a "cloud integrator" perspective
I am a cloud integrator and have implemented a number of Xero + POS add-ons. I select Kounta for my customers purely on its hospitality focus and it's table management add-on. I have been really impressed with how it handles the concept of modifiers and how smooth the integration is with Tyro electronic payments.
However, I feel that there is a lot of navigating around the 'back office' to get what you need to get done. The CSV data importers are good, but I still found I had to do many repetitive updates manually via the user interface that the importer didn't support. The user interface is a bit big and boxy for my liking but understandably some see this as a benefit if working off a tablet in a cafe most of the time.
The client registration process was a bit tedious (maybe at least for us implementers/advisers) but when up and running my customers love the product. The POS register is really powerful and soon after becoming power users the only niggling complaint I get are small enhancements to customisations which are unfortunately locked down in the product anyway. e.g. layouts on receipts, dockets, shortcuts panel, etc.
I have also been really impressed with Kounta's email support and communication on release notes. You can really tell they are working hard in making this product better and better. Personally, I would like to see more flexible pricing plans for store owners that have multiple (small-sized) cafes, which will hopefully encourage the greater use of bump screens for the Kitchen/Brewster and mobile registers where waiting staff can take orders + electronic payments at the table. Maybe I am just over the little pad and pencil.
In short, I am a big fan of Kounta POS in food & beverage. Totally recommend.
- Industry: Restaurants
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
Love Lightspeed
Very pleasant very fast customer service
Pros
Easy to navigate through love customer service
Cons
Like everything nothing bad love customer service
- Industry: Food Production
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Lightspeed POS
Lightspeed has been really good to us over the past 4 years with regards to reports and POS systems.
Pros
The software was extremely customizable and accommodating . There was always an answer and or a work around to getting the setting that you need.
Cons
The price. In my situation I really only need the basics and there isn't a more accommodating price point for the little that I need. Also, they are relatively new to ecom and the add on is way too much for what it is.
- Industry: Restaurants
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
Best on the market
Anytime an issue or a question rise up, the team is super helpful and quick to solve it !
Pros
Best POS system on the market. Period ! The customer service and dummy proof system makes everythiong easy, plus accounting is directly linked. Amazing time saver !
Cons
When you set up your floor plan there is not a lot of choices in terms of ''decoration'' to help new memebers of the team visualise the better.... But truly, that's being a little bit over the top...
- Industry: Restaurants
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
First Advanced Software
We need better support system in the week end. We need a app to view from the menu. We will have to use browser to login into restaurant manager. As a owner, we need to simple app to check the sales summary for each location in the app.
Pros
Easy to use with many features. We have been using this software since the inception. We are happy with software.
Cons
There are few limitations to use it but it's getting fixed one by one. We have only POS system. We are looking complete solutions for the restaurant to track the sales and expenses.
- Industry: Hospitality
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Great system
Pros
Great easy system to use. Easy to change payment methods and products and downloading and updating on excel also possible. Just starting to sync with Xero so that’s good too. Customer support really has improved massively since we started using it 2 years ago. I would recommend as a good all rounder.
Cons
Reporting in close detail has been a tricky one but with Kounta insights it seems to be improving although I think it’s still work in progress.