Best 15 Open Source and FREE Restaurant Management Software

Find the Right Open Source and FREE Restaurant Management Software

What Is the Purpose Of The Free Restaurant Management Software?

What Are The Benefits Of a Free Restaurant Management System?

What Are The Features Of a Free Restaurant Software?

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Last Updated: April 4, 2023

It takes a lot of effort to manage employees, and maintain a kitchen, while also providing great food and an unforgettable experience to your customers. As a result, they need every tool they can get to do so, and restaurant management software offers them all the features they need to enhance their business.

To cope with the constant stress and fear of getting reviewed badly, most of the restaurateurs are upscaling their operations with tech-savvy software. Almost over 80% of the restaurateurs are turning towards technology to run their food businesses online.

Looking for a Free and Open Source Restaurant Management System? Check out SoftwareSuggest’s list of the Best Restaurant Management System.

Although it is now possible for restaurant owners to please their customers and flourish their business by managing their restaurant activities using a restaurant management system for free. This will add a golden feather to their cap by enhancing functionality and improving customer experience.

What is Free Restaurant Management Software? 

Free restaurant management Software (RMS) is a sort of point-of-sale (POS) software designed specifically for restaurants, food trucks, and other businesses in the food service industry. However, unlike a POS system, an RMS encompasses inventory and employee management functions.

RMS systems track employees, inventory, and sales. Depending on your restaurant’s setup, software and hardware, such as cash registers, barcode scanners, and receipt printers, are typically included.

Source: Grandviewresearch

The most important aspect of a free restaurant management software (RMS) is that it allows you to manage your restaurant’s needs at a glance, simplifying your day-to-day workload. In addition, you can customize a restaurant management system that works well for your business by integrating it easily with other software applications.



What Are The Features Of a Free Restaurant Software?

We’ve compiled a list of features that define the best free restaurant management systems so that you have everything you need to know when choosing the proper hardware, software, and technology for your business:

1. Point-of-Sale (POS)

Your primary way of entering orders and recording payments is through POS tool. However, it may also integrate with other types of management software and integrate with third-party applications.

2. Payment Processing

Software for accepting payments allows you to accept credit cards and mobile payments. Some payment processing systems have native integrations, while others let the business owner choose the best service suited to their needs.

3. Inventory Management

Keeping track of current stock, cost of goods and menu pricing are standard inventory management functions. Analyzing your past information can help you diminish waste and manage your losses in your restaurant. Your open source restaurant software should be able to tell you which items run out most quickly or get wasted the most.

4. Customer Data

You can create marketing campaigns that will convert by knowing your customers’ details, what they order, how they like to pay, and when and how they respond to communication.

5. IVR

The importance of online orders cannot be overstated. What about orders made over the phone? Customers still make orders and reservations over the phone, especially for brands they know. 

Customers often place complaints and concerns over the phone as well. The restaurant management system should integrate this feature and manage all your calls in one place.

6. Table Reservation System

Reservations are a crucial part of Dine-in experiences. You should be able to accept reservations through your website, reduce wait times, and maintain all reservations in your free restaurant management system.

What Are The Benefits Of a Free Restaurant Management System? 

Listed below are the top 4 benefits of a restaurant management system and how it can improve efficiency in the restaurant industry:

1. Enhance Customer Relationships

A free restaurant management system will enhance customer experience and lead to higher satisfaction levels. As a result, restaurants can easily modify menus, reduce waiting time, and provide customers with a variety of payment options with accuracy, like cash, check, card, etc. Therefore, they offer better, more efficient service, resulting in satisfied customers.

2. Track Sales

There are many credit card and cash transactions at restaurants these days. Due to its ability to track all sales data using a hybrid mobile app, this restaurant pos software makes life easier for the restaurant manager. Using this data, you can keep track of your items sold, which gives you the power to make better business decisions.

3. Automated Analysis

A free restaurant management software can automatically generate reports. It produces a compelling report on the impact of marketing schemes such as discounts, loyalty programs, and consumer behavior. This leads to powerful future strategies designed to improve relationships with existing customers and attract new ones.

4. Boosts Employee Satisfaction

When employees feel trusted, giving them some control over their shifts is an efficient way to provide them with autonomy. In addition, the employee scheduling software makes it simple for the team to swap shifts with appropriate colleagues. 

In addition, it ensures that you are always fully staffed without exceeding your labor budget, as you can set the parameters to find those who can swap shifts.

What Is the Purpose Of The Free Restaurant Management Software?

Managing customers is undoubtedly one of the most challenging tasks a restauranteur can undertake. 

1. Ease the restaurant operations 

Other than customers, operating restaurants involve many processes, such as busy kitchens, financial planning, quick customer support, and a cumbersome setup process that keeps the entire management alive. If done correctly, it would ensure the company’s smooth flow and increase profits in the long run. 

2. Serve customers efficiently with your flawless service

In today’s dynamic service market, restaurants intend to keep customers happy for a lifetime to make sure they are regular customers. That means you need to manage the complexities of the backend and use well-organized restaurant pos software to handle day-to-day operations seamlessly.

3. Reduce complications while handling orders and payments

The restaurant pos software simplifies the complicated handling of daily orders and payments. The program improves a restaurant’s efficiency by efficiently handling orders, inventories, appointments, and waitlists.

4. Eliminate non-essential expenses

The production and infrastructural costs for restaurants are already massive. However, with open source restaurant software, restaurateurs and restaurant managers have one less thing to think about when it comes to unnecessary staff expenses. 

Find the Right Open Source and FREE Restaurant Management Software



Software providers in the market have a wide range of free options available to help you choose the best for your restaurant. Some even offer a trial version to check out all the features before you hire the paid versions to do the work for you. 

So, make sure you ask for any trial or free version of the best free management software when surfing vendors for the same.

Although surfing for the right vendors might take time, we have searched for you and curated a list of the 15 best free restaurant management systems to help you pick one for your cafe, hotel, or restaurant.

Floreant is one of the most widely used point-of-sale applications globally. It is the first enterprise-grade restaurant POS system that has been released in the public domain.

Floreant POS is easy to understand due to its user-friendly interface and used by many restaurants because of its open-source and free version. It has a multitude of attractive features that make it a strong contender for any premium restaurant pos software. It has a robust backend and resolves issues in real-time.

It has a simple hassle-free setup that barely takes 90 seconds to be up and running. It offers support for financial information reporting, bar tab keeping, plugins, managing cash terminals, tax computation, and so much more for zero additional costs. 

It can handle various types of products and you can easily modify the code to suit the restaurant’s operations using it. This open-source POS is available for Windows, Linux, and Mac.

Features

• Allows you to work offline without the need for internet connection

• Offers advanced analytical and report-generating tools

• Can easily manage cash drawer, payout employee tips, and more

• Supports regular sales tax and generates tax-included pricing

Pros

• Simple and intuitive interface

• Easy functionalities with easy to understand guide manual

• Ideal for a newbie in the hospitality industry

Cons

• Lack of advanced functionality

• Does not integrate with other software systems

• Has a few bugs which can be flattened with regular updates

Odoo is an all-in-one POS software that claims to have an interface designed for productivity. It provides a god’s eye view of what is going on at each table to maximize the efficiency of your waitstaff while reducing the waiting time for your customers. 

Other modules include integrated inventory management software wherein any stock related transaction at your restaurant is reflected in the inventory module in real-time. This allows your staff to check the availability of any product without wasting any time.

Odoo is available free as a web restaurant management app as well as offline. It is operational across all devices and operating systems.

Features

• No specific hardware required for its installation

• Provides excellent customer experience by offering loyalty programs

• Offers a user-friendly and well-designed interface

• Seamlessly integrates with other Odoo applications, like sales, e-commerce, etc.

Pros

• It provides a lot of features in its free version

• It assists in making complicated work easy

• Straightforward functionality and intuitive

Cons

• Odoo is slow and a little buggy at times

• Customizing features is not an option with Odoo

• UI and UX could have been better

eHopper is a POS explicitly designed for small businesses. This cross-platform point-of-sale system is ideal for small shops and new restaurants who will want to expand later in the coming years.

Even though it is for small businesses, it has excellent features. It offers various standard POS functionalities such as Order Management and Tracking, Inventory control, Split Payments, Tips and Tax Management, and Customer Management, to name a few.  

eHopper is an all-in-one business management POS system that will help you reduce the time required for back-office tasks, enabling you to focus on driving sales and improving customer experience. eHopper is available for Android, iPad, Windows, and Poynt Smart Terminal.

Features

• Streamlines all operations by allowing you to manage everything from a single dashboard

• Offers cloud-based storage to stay updated in real-time

• Easily integrates with multiple terminals and touch-screen devices

• Lets you keep track of the order and billing using your mobile terminal

Pros

• Real-time synchronization with other features

• Good money save. It’s an all-in-one unit

• Good customer support with troubleshooting

Cons

• Lack of full-service restaurant features

• It does not remember credit card details

• Doesn’t add your business logo to the receipts

Pangea is available in three different versions: Restaurants, Spas, and Retail. This point-of-sale system cannot only be used for restaurants, bars, and cafes but also salons, spas, shops, and supermarkets. 

Its restaurant POS software is equipped with multiple features under commonly required heads such as Accounting, Sales, and Stock. It even provides additional features, such as employee management and reporting facilities. 

Its multiple functionalities under different versions make it go-to software for companies with a multi-channel business on their hands.

Features

• Enables customization to give a look and feel of your brand

• Generates reports and allows you to share directly through emails

• Allows you to create multiple accounts to access the system with different roles 

• Keeps track of the stock to avoid any inconvenience

Pros

• Has a proper on-premises deployment

• An ideal choice for startups and SMEs

• It comes with loyalty program support

Cons

• Only supports Windows

• Not widely and popularly used software

• Lacks advanced functionality in the free version.

uniCenta is a free and open-source POS that can be used for outlets ranging from bars, cafes, and restaurants to supermarkets and grocery stores. It was built in 2010 with a mission to provide robust, commercial-grade open-source point-of-sale software to small and medium enterprises. It includes features for sales, inventory, supplier, employee, and customer management.

It is available as an on-premise, self-hosted, and cloud-hosted POS system, which your company can select depending on the type of operations you deal with daily.

uniCenta has an interface that is user-friendly and can be installed easily on unlimited terminals.

Features

• Compatible with various operating systems, like Linux, Apple, Windows

• Lets you customize the layouts to give your preferred look

• Easily access all the core functionalities from a single dashboard

• There is no license fee or vendor lock-in

Pros

• It serves many different functions

• It tracks employees activities

• It keeps up with sales and process transactions

Cons

• It is difficult to troubleshoot issues

• Customization needs extra software and programming knowledge

• Advanced features are difficult to comprehend and use

SambaPOS is free restaurant management system that offers all the answers necessary for the dynamic growth of a restaurant. SambaPOS provides some of the most exceptional features that give the restaurant a competitive edge.

It has organized and visually appealing kitchen displays that allow the staff to enjoy their work and make changes whenever needed. It offers an experience with confidence, which improves employee efficiency and keeps customers happy.

Features

• It increases productivity by tracking and analyzing the restaurant’s performance

• Easy-to-understand floor plans and table management

• Create completely customized menus

• Real-time advanced reporting of data

Pros

• Simple and intuitive interface

• Ideal for restaurant owners that needs basic working

• Loaded with a great set of features

Cons

• Operates only on a Windows system

• Custom reports are hard to understand

• Troubleshooting the issues require technical assistance

TouchBistro is free restaurant management software that is very popular among small and medium-sized restaurants as it offers variant pricing plans to fit all budgets.

TouchBistro has cutting-edge features and custom-designed for the restaurant industry. It provides unlimited access to the basic restaurant management modules and can be upgraded for better functional performance. It has a simplistic interface that enables users to begin work and gain expertise immediately.

It is a holistic solution provider software for any restaurant, as it will lead to a massive change in internal operations!

Features

• Provides insightful analysis to help you make smart decisions

• Can access real-time information from anywhere, anytime using any device

• Enables patrons to upgrade their meals through an intelligent self-ordering kiosk

• Have an active support team in place — 24 hours a day, seven days a week

 

Pros

• It provides excellent cloud reporting features

• It has impressive customer support

• Simple and intuitive user-interface

Cons

• Sometimes lags when placing orders or used continuously

• Setting up is a hassle and requires a technician

• Occasional glitches and disconnects with the admin

Toast POS is a customizable, easy-to-use, and free restaurant management software provider It is a comprehensive point of sale and management system that helps eating joints to improve operational efficiency, increase sales, and create an overall better guest experience. 

Toast POS automates all essential processes such as table ordering, rapid menu modifications, cloud-based enterprise reporting, online ordering, and labor management on a minimal interface.

It is the perfect way to manage your restaurant from anywhere in the world and offers full developer support.

Features

• Generates reports in real-time whenever you want them 

• Enables tableside ordering and payments to help you grow your customer list

• Has a simple payment processing for all transactions

• Highly scalable software that can fit into any business size

Pros

• It is tremendously efficient

• Can troubleshoot the issues without calling support

• User friendly with an easy interface

Cons

• Most of the advanced features are available at extra cost

• Customer support lacks the essence and sounds unprofessional

• Glitchy and sluggish features within the software

San software is a highly customized restaurant management software open-source that supports a unique combination of platforms and applications It addresses the cross-functional business requirements of the clients. San Software provides customized mobile solutions for payment, purchase orders through mobile and customer orders through mobile.

Features

• Maintains database by determining structural requirements

• Determines structural database requirements by analyzing client operations 

• Review objectives with clients

• Installs database systems by developing flowcharts

Pros

• User-friendly features

• Incredible customer support

• Easy to access remotely and from cloud

Cons

• Difficult to address troubleshoot issues

• Hard to read data analysis report

• Advanced features lack support

10. OpensourcePOS

Open Source Point of Sale is a web-based restaurant management and point of sale system. It has a simple and intuitive user interface. It can be installed locally or remotely, packaged with Docker for easy installation, and run on Raspberry Pi.

It is free restaurant management software for small and medium-sized businesses. It will enable customers to use different modes of payments.

Features

• Stock management (items and kits)

• VAT, customer, and multi tiers taxation

• Sale register with transactions logging

• Quotation and invoicing

Pros

• It has an excellent customer support

• User friendly with an easy interface

• Provides unique features and functionality

Cons

• Have to go through some unnecessary steps while installation

• Sometimes lags with a few basic features

• It gets slow with overtime use

Imonggo is free, web-based point-of-sale software for small businesses. It has everything you might require for managing your restaurant, store, office, or stockroom. It lets you access your Imonggo account from any source – be it your mobile phone, tablet, laptop, or a PC without extra hardware.

With its easy-to-use and simple yet intuitive interface, it lets you keep track of your sales data with just a single click. It provides you a view of the stock history and customers’ orders to help increase your staff’s efficiency.

Its advanced features like Customer Membership enable you to give instant discounts or point to loyal customers whenever they visit your restaurant. This helps you retain your existing customers as well as attract new ones. Imonggo offers integration with Xero, an most popular accounting software tool in the world, to run your business smartly.

Features

• You can easily add your products to the stockroom by uploading a CSV file

• Lets you save a backup of your inventory by downloading it offline

• Does not require any extra hardware except for the support of a web browser

• Has an iPad application

Pros

• Developed capability for offline sales

• It places more power in the hands of owners

• It has excellent customer support

Cons

• Overly simple feature-set

• No built-in e-commerce functionality

• Lacks restaurant-centric functions

TastyIgniter is an open-source, restaurant online ordering system that helps a restaurateur gain a competitive edge. It is exclusively designed for extended support of restaurant management. You can install and start operating it in a matter of a few minutes.

Its mobile-friendly design helps you target end customers as an increasing number of people are moving forward to using digital platforms, whether for table reservations or ordering food. With TastyIgniter, your customers can define the delivery zones, and it would readily optimize the delivery charges accordingly.

TastyIgniter takes table management to the next level by providing an overview of the seating arrangement, staff, and status. Also, its support for multiple payment options offers flexibility to your customers. You can customize TastyIgniter as per your restaurant’s requirements and in a way that reflects your brand.

Features

• Compatible with all sizes of business — be it small, mid or big restaurants

• Enables customization to give a look and feel of your brand

• Has a clean and easy-to-extend code structure, marketplace and community

• Offers smooth and easy-to-use interface so that anyone can handle it

Pros

• It is built in keeping every type of restaurant in mind

• It has excellent customizable solutions

• It provides excellent customer support and services

Cons

• It does not have built-in accounting

• It lacks employee management feature

• The free version provides limited features

ROBOTILL is a professional, powerful, and easy-to-use POS software that comes with a retailing software for pubs, restaurants, and food outlets. It supports a multitude of POS hardware, including touch screens, electronic cash drawers, barcode scanners, card reader, customer pole displays, and more. It also works well without any POS hardware – a standard computer and printer are enough. 

It is an excellent choice for any sized restaurant as it allows you to use your restaurant’s floor plan. This makes table selection easy for waiters – determine which tables are in use, which tables are reserved, and which are available.

Its free version never expires. Hence, ROBOTILL is an ideal restaurant POS software that will streamline the internal operations and ensure massive success.

Features

• Supports any number of POS points and back-office PCs

• Has a clean, intuitive interface, which makes it easy to use

• Offers loyalty program to help you retain and gain customers

• Supports features like product variants, complex product setup, specials, combo deals, etc.

Pros

• It is versatile and easy to use software

• It has excellent customer support

• Supports ordering automation

Cons

• It only has on-premise deployment

• Windows is the only operating system it supports

• Most of the functionalities are only available in the paid version

JustBilling from Effiasoft is professional restaurant management software perfect for multi-location restaurant and franchise business. It is compatible billing software system with Windows and Android platforms, and you can access it from your mobile, tablet, and computer.

It is specifically designed to simplify complex operations and maximize your restaurant’s productivity. It enables your staff to receive orders via smartphone, tablet, desktop computer, or large screen POS devices. You can extend your reach and increase your business’s credibility by letting the POS maintain your offers, discounts, and loyalty programs.

On placing an order, kitchen order tickets pop up on its Kitchen Display System. This helps a chef eliminate the risk of missing any order. The chef can discard the card once the order is served. Effiasoft’s JustBilling does not depend on any hardware or software. Thus, you can easily install it on your device within a fraction of time.

Features

• Keeps you updated about your stock in real-time

• Tracks and maintains all your expenses at one place

• Generates accurate report on your daily sales, products, customers, fees, and more

• Manage all your suppliers and product costing to help you make optimum purchasing

Pros

• User-friendly and has a good interface

• It supports prompt data synchronization

• Great customer and loyalty management features

Cons

• It functionalities lack updates and customization

• Supports mostly all except the iOS mobile platform

• It sometimes lags when performing necessary actions

Spectrum POS is point-of-sale software that manages any retail business, including your restaurant, food outlets, and many more. Its enhanced features help you elevate customer experience and improve profits.

You can successfully run its web app on Windows and Macintosh platforms. Moreover, you can even access it on your Android and iOS smartphone. This enables restaurateurs to increase their pace of service as well as improvise their overall efficiency. Its central management system handles customer loyalty programs efficiently.

It’s platform-independent and database independent design hierarchy makes it a perfect fit for your restaurant.

Features

• Generates more than 200 reports on sales, purchase, stock, etc.

• Enables customization of the menu screen to add your preferred look

• Comes with an intuitive touch screen to enhance customer experience

• Offers multi-tier loyalty programs

Pros

• It provides control of what is happening inside the restaurant

• It offers good customer support

• Excellent performance

Cons

• It does not use smart tools

• The free version offers basic features

• Decent customer support

Bottom Line

Restaurant management software simplifies many tedious tasks and helps in the effective administration of routine work. It automatically updates customer and restaurant requirement details repeatedly, allowing the restaurant to offer quality service, without any delay.

These are our top fifteen free restaurant management software curates to meet your end needs.

Check them out and pick the one that best suits your needs. If you are using any of the above mentioned free and open source restaurant management system, let us know with your experience in the comment section below.

Frequently Asked Questions

    What is the best free and open source restaurant management system?

According to our research, here are our top 5 free and open source restaurant management system:

1. Floreant
2. Odoo
3. eHopper
4. Pangea
5. uniCenta

Are open source restaurant management system free?

Almost all open source software for restaurant management is free, but exceptions exist.

What are the disadvantages of free restaurant management software?

The disadvantages of free restaurant pos software are:

1. You won’t be able to use the Internet-based POS system if your Internet connection fails.
2. Free pos software comes with ongoing costs.
3. It can be expensive to upgrade software.

What challenges do restaurant owners face, and how can open source software for restaurant management solve them?

In the business world, owning a restaurant becomes both a full-time job and a lifestyle, and dealing with multiple challenges can quickly become overwhelming. So, for example, one of the most significant challenges restaurant owners face is uncontrolled stock wastage. Hence, many restaurants use inventory management software, which handles the whole inventory cycle, from counting and repositioning to invoicing and ordering.

Hiba is an accomplished specialist in writing for Software as a Service (SaaS) and has extensive experience crafting compelling and informative content. With over two years of experience, she has honed her skills in producing various forms of content, including articles, blog posts, and more, all centered around SaaS. Hiba is dedicated to sharing her insights to assist businesses in leveraging SaaS to achieve growth and success.