Food & Restaurant · head to head
Lightspeed Restaurant vs Backbar
Lightspeed Restaurant
Food & Restaurant
One restaurant POS to power it all
- From
- $69/month
- Rated
- -
Backbar
Food & Restaurant
Bar inventory management with drink costing and purchasing tools
- From
- On request
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Each has a real cost: Lightspeed Restaurant starts at $69 a month for Starter, rising to $189 for Essential and $399 for Premium; Backbar invoice syncing with inventory requires the top Professional plan at $129 per month billed monthly, as of August 2026
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Lightspeed Restaurant and Backbar actually diverge.
| Attribute | Lightspeed Restaurant | Backbar |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $69/month | On request |
| Platforms | Web, Ios, Android | Web |
| Founded | 2005 | Unknown |
Identical on both: pricing model (subscription), free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Food & Restaurant).
What each one covers
Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.
Only in Lightspeed Restaurant
- Floor plan management
- Tableside ordering
- Menu management
- Staff management
- Delivery integration
- Advanced reporting
- Uber Eats
- DoorDash
Only in Backbar
Nothing recorded that Lightspeed Restaurant does not also cover.
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Lightspeed Restaurant
- Point of Salenot Backbar
- Order Managementnot Backbar
- Inventory Controlnot Backbar
- Staff Schedulingnot Backbar
Backbar
No use cases recorded yet. See the Backbar review.
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Lightspeed Restaurant
- Starts at $69 a month for Starter, rising to $189 for Essential and $399 for Premium
- The kitchen display system is charged separately at $30 per screen per month
- Lightspeed Reservations, reservation integrations and Lightspeed Tasks are add-ons on every tier below Enterprise rather than included features
- Integrated payments are fixed to a default configuration on Starter, with custom configuration only from Essential upwards
- Card processing rates and hardware costs are not published, and the vendor notes prices vary by business and industry
Backbar
- Invoice syncing with inventory requires the top Professional plan at $129 per month billed monthly, as of August 2026
- Pricing is charged per location, so multi-location bars pay the plan fee separately for each site, as of August 2026
Pricing, plan by plan
Lightspeed Restaurant
$69/month- Starter$69/month
- POS
- Menu management
- Payments
- Essential$189/month
- Online ordering
- Delivery
- Advanced reporting
- Premium$399/month
- Multiple locations
- API access
Backbar
On requestNo published plan breakdown. See the Backbar review.
Which should you pick?
Choose Lightspeed Restaurant if
- You need floor plan management.
- You work on Web, Ios, Android.
- You also want tableside ordering.
Choose Backbar if
Nothing in the data separates Backbar from Lightspeed Restaurant on the points above - pick on price and on how each one feels to use.
Questions people ask
- Is Lightspeed Restaurant or Backbar better?
- Neither clearly leads. Lightspeed Restaurant starts at $69/month and Backbar at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Lightspeed Restaurant or Backbar?
- Lightspeed Restaurant starts at $69/month and Backbar at On request.
- Does Lightspeed Restaurant or Backbar run on more platforms?
- Lightspeed Restaurant runs on Web, Ios, Android. Backbar runs on Web.
- What is Lightspeed Restaurant best used for?
- Lightspeed Restaurant is most often used for point of sale, order management, inventory control, staff scheduling. Of those, point of sale and order management are not what Backbar is typically brought in for.
- What can Lightspeed Restaurant do that Backbar cannot?
- Lightspeed Restaurant covers Floor plan management, Tableside ordering, Menu management, Staff management.