POS system for food truck: what a month costs in 2026

For most food trucks the cheapest POS with no contract is Square Free with a $59 Square Reader or Tap to Pay on your phone: no monthly fee and 2.6% + 15¢ a payment, or $540 on a $15,000 month of 1,000 payments. Toast’s Cellular kit costs $612.50 to $633.50 with its data plan. Clover costs $505 to $690 a month, and a $450 credit for new merchants on a 3-year contract puts Clover Flex below Square in year one.

What does a food truck need from a POS?

A truck needs a POS that takes cards without the building’s Wi-Fi, runs on a battery through a service, and costs little or nothing in the months the truck sits parked. Prices below are from each vendor’s own pages on November 13, 2026.

The example truck takes $15,000 a month in card payments, 1,000 payments at $15 each, all tapped or dipped. Tax, tips and cash are left out. Swap in your own sales and the rates still apply.

What does each option cost for one truck?

Month is the monthly fee plus card fees. First year is twelve months plus the up-front price.

Square: which device works without Wi-Fi?

Square Free costs $0 a month per location and charges 2.6% + 15¢ for a tap, dip or swipe. Tap to Pay on iPhone and Android is in every plan, so a phone alone can take contactless cards. The Square Reader for contactless and chip is $59 and pairs with a phone or tablet by Bluetooth, so it uses that device’s data. Square says there are no contracts and no monthly fees on the Reader.

The $399 Square Handheld and the $299 Square Terminal connect over Wi-Fi only (the Terminal also takes Ethernet with a separate hub), according to Square’s hardware comparison. On a truck that means a phone hotspot or a cellular router.

Square Plus is $49 a month and cuts the in-person rate to 2.5% + 15¢. That 0.1 point saves $15 on $15,000, so Plus pays for itself only above $49,000 a month in card sales. On Plus the Square KDS app is $30 a month per screen.

Square takes payments offline for up to 24 hours. Square’s terms put expired, declined or disputed offline payments on you, and offline mode does not work on the first-generation Reader.

Toast: what does the Cellular kit include?

Toast’s Cellular Starter Kit is a Toast Go 3 handheld with cellular and Wi-Fi, and Toast says it takes orders and payments when Wi-Fi is not available. The cellular subscription is $20 a month on both pricing plans. Toast’s checkout says the kit is for handheld-only service, and more hardware means one of its other Starter Kits.

On Pay-as-you-Go the handheld costs $0 and the Basic pack $0 a month, at 3.09% + 15¢ a payment. On Traditional the handheld is $749 up front and Basic is $69 a month, or $89 with the cellular plan, at 2.49% + 15¢. Traditional also charges 3.50% + 15¢ for American Express and for card-not-present Visa, Discover and Mastercard payments; the table assumes no Amex.

At $15,000 a month, Traditional saves $90 in card fees and costs $69 more in software, a $21 gain each month. The $749 handheld takes about 36 months to pay back, longer than the 2-year software agreement on the checkout page. Toast’s kit prices are for new customers at a single location, and recurring charges start the day you go live. Our Toast pricing breakdown covers the Core and Growth packs.

Clover: Flex, Go or a restaurant bundle?

Clover Flex is a handheld with a built-in receipt printer, Wi-Fi and LTE, and Clover rates its battery at 8 hours or more for a typical small business. The Flex page sells it at $749 or $40 a month for 36 months on Starter. Starter’s features list basic sales reports and employee profiles but not creating items and categories, which first appears on Essentials. A menu needs items, so the table uses Essentials: $70 a month for 36 months, or $749 plus $29.95 a month, at rates “as low as” 2.5% + 10¢. The Flex page shows no price for the LTE data plan.

Clover Go is a card reader that pairs with a phone by Bluetooth and works on Wi-Fi or cellular. Its pricing table on clover.com showed no prices and a “Contact sales” button when we read it.

Clover’s quick-service Advanced bundle includes a Flex and a Station Duo counter screen at $245 a month for 36 months, or $2,648 plus $109.90 a month, at 2.3% + 10¢ in person and 3.5% + 10¢ typed in. It is priced for a counter and a handheld; a truck with one window pays for a screen it may not use.

Clover subscriptions cannot be cancelled or refunded, though you can pay one off or upgrade. If you buy the hardware instead, the Flex bought on Essentials costs less than Square Free with a Reader after about 20 months on these numbers, before any credit. Clover devices also work only with Clover’s processing. Our Square vs Clover comparison prices both for a restaurant with a counter.

Clover’s online-only offer is a $450 statement credit on a Flex, Mini or Station bought through clover.com. It is for new Clover merchants, needs credit approval by January 31, 2027, $10,000 in card payments within the first four billing cycles and a 3-year contract, and ends December 31, 2026. The example truck clears the $10,000. Clover also lists a 90-day trial with no Essentials software fee for qualified merchants of selected business types, without saying which types.

Which is cheapest for a food truck?

On these numbers, Square Free with Tap to Pay or a $59 Reader costs the least in year one, at $6,480 to $6,539, and you pay nothing in a month the truck is parked. Clover Flex on Essentials is $6,540 on subscription, or $6,090 with the $450 credit, and $6,808.40 bought, or $6,358.40 with it. With the credit Clover is cheaper in year one, but you commit to 36 months and its rate is an “as low as” figure. Toast’s Cellular kit is the only option here with a published data plan, and it costs $1,063 to $1,560 more than Square Free with a Reader in year one.

If your phone signal at your usual spots is poor, the $20 Toast data plan or Clover Flex’s LTE may be worth the difference. If it is fine, a phone and a Reader do the job. For the rates behind these fees, see restaurant credit card processing.

What do pre-orders cost on each?

Say the truck also takes 200 pickup pre-orders a month at $15 each.

Square Free includes a branded online ordering page and pickup, which our Square online ordering post prices in detail. On Toast, online ordering is in the Core pack, which raises every payment to 3.39% + 15¢ on Pay-as-you-Go or adds $150 a month on Traditional. Clover’s quick-service bundles list no-fee online ordering, and Clover’s FAQ puts online sales at the typed-in rate.

Where Expresso fits

Expresso is not a POS. It cannot ring up a walk-up card sale at the window, take cash, or run a card reader, so a truck still needs one of the systems above. Expresso fits only for pre-orders and pickup: guests order and pay online, scheduled ahead if you like, and the order rings on a kitchen tablet that costs $149 once. A QR code on the truck lets a line order on their phones.

On the 200 pre-orders above, Expresso costs the truck $158.40 and guests $75, because the restaurant pays 3.2% + 30¢ on the order total and guests pay a 2.5% convenience fee on the food subtotal. There is no monthly fee and no contract. That is about what Square Free’s own online page costs the truck, and Square’s pricing page lists no guest fee, so a truck already on Square Free has little reason to add Expresso. It makes more sense on Toast Basic, where online ordering means the pricier Core pack, or on a Clover Flex plan if Clover’s online ordering add-on costs more. Expresso has no delivery and no loyalty program, only promo codes. Our restaurant tablet guide compares the tablets that come with each service.