The Front Desk Review

Best POS Systems · head-to-head

Shopify POS vs Lightspeed Restaurant

A sourced, side-by-side comparison for pos systems. Shopify POS has the lower entry price. Every figure links to the public page it was captured from — the vendor's own wherever the vendor publishes the number, otherwise the named public source — with the date we captured it.

Shopify POS has the lower entry price — Shopify POS starts at $39/mo, Lightspeed Restaurant at $69/mo. Free tier: Shopify POS No, Lightspeed Restaurant No. HIPAA: Shopify POS —, Lightspeed Restaurant —.

As of 2026-09-05 · figures link to their source below

Side by side

Shopify POS

$39/mo entry
Entry price$39/mo (Basic (with POS Lite))
Free tierNo
HIPAA (BAA)—
SOC 2Yes
GDPRYes
Best forDTC brands scaling from ecommerce into physical retail

Lightspeed Restaurant

$69/mo entry
Entry price$69/mo (Starter)
Free tierNo
HIPAA (BAA)—
SOC 2Yes
GDPRYes
Best forFull-service and multi-location restaurants needing offline resilience and floor management

Sources — Shopify POS: shopify.com (verified 2026-09-05) · Lightspeed Restaurant: lightspeedhq.com (verified 2026-09-03)

Key features

Shopify POS: Unified online + in-store inventory synced in real time across all channels; Buy online / return in-store, local delivery, and ship-from-store out of the box; SOC 2 Type II and SOC 3 certified; GDPR DPA available (last updated July 2025); Shopify Payments built in — no additional gateway fees when used

Lightspeed Restaurant: Offline mode keeps operations running without internet; iPad-based tableside ordering and card pre-authorizations at Starter tier; Centralized gift cards valid across all locations; SOC 2 audited yearly; ISO 27001 and EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework certified

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