Lightspeed Restaurant alternative · UK · sourced and dated 4 November 2026

A Lightspeed Restaurant alternative that starts from the table booking, not an add-on

Lightspeed Restaurant is an EPOS first: the iPad on the counter, handhelds at the table, the kitchen display. Table reservations are something you add to it. Slotina is built the other way round, from the booking and the room, with the order and the bill in the same place.

Tell me when Slotina opens

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Two systems that start at opposite ends of the evening

Lightspeed describes its restaurant product as a cloud till on iPad: order taking, payments, sending orders to kitchen and bar, a kitchen display, QR ordering and payment, stock and reporting. On its UK pricing page, Lightspeed Reservations is a paid add-on on every one of its three tiers.

For a bar or a counter-service café that rarely takes a booking, that order of priorities makes sense. For a restaurant whose Saturday is decided at the door — who is booked, where they sit, what to tell the walk-in at eight — the booking is not an extra. Slotina starts there: the booking page, the room drawn to scale and the host stand, and then the order, the kitchen display and the bill for the same table.

Choose Lightspeed Restaurant if

Your trade is mostly the counter and the bar, table reservations hardly figure, and you want an iPad till with handhelds.
You need integrations with a hotel PMS, delivery platforms or accounting software, which Lightspeed lists and Slotina does not have.
Keeping the whole till running through an internet outage matters more to you than anything else on this list.

Lightspeed Restaurant and Slotina, as of 4 November 2026

Facts as of 4 November 2026, for the UK. Lightspeed facts from lightspeedhq.com, read 4 November 2026 and linked below.
	Lightspeed Restaurant	Slotina
Who runs it	Lightspeed Commerce Inc., Montréal, Canada.lightspeedhq.fr, legal notice	Belavin Limited, a UK company, which prices Slotina per location and never per device licence.
How the price is set	Three monthly tiers that differ by the device licences included and the features bundled; extra licences and many features are paid add-ons; payments integrated, at a standard rate on the entry tier and a custom rate above it. Monthly plans can be cancelled at the end of the month; annual plans run to the end of their term.lightspeedhq.com UK pricing; UK restaurant page	Published: £99 per location a month for the first 100 UK restaurants that pay, then £149, plus VAT where applicable. Unlimited staff and devices, and the table bookings, in that price.
Table bookings	Lightspeed Reservations is a paid add-on on every tier.lightspeedhq.com UK pricing	A booking page at your own address, phone bookings at the host stand against the real free times, walk-ins seated in one tap, a waiting list at the door, rules for turn times, pacing and party sizes, and each room drawn to scale with named table combinations.
Kitchen display and QR	Included in the upper tiers; add-ons on the entry tier.lightspeedhq.com UK pricing	A kitchen and bar display by station, with minute limits that turn a ticket amber and red; QR ordering at the table, confirmed by a waiter first unless you choose otherwise.
Stock	Stock tracking with recipes, low-stock alerts and waste logging.lightspeedhq.com UK restaurant page	Stock in grams, millilitres or pieces, counts, deliveries and waste, a recipe for each dish, suppliers and purchase orders.
Staff scheduling	The UK restaurant page does not mention it; on the UK pricing page workforce and payroll are an add-on.lightspeedhq.com UK restaurant page and pricing	A weekly rota and a time clock, rostered against worked hours, and a CSV of the hours for your accountant. Hours only, no payroll.
When the internet drops	It keeps working without internet and syncs when the connection returns.lightspeedhq.com UK restaurant page	The restaurant mode of Slotina's app holds the waiter's rounds and sends them in order once the connection is back; card payments and the kitchen display need the connection.
Connections to other systems	Integrations in categories such as hotel PMS, delivery platforms and accounting, among others named.lightspeedhq.com UK restaurant page	Slotina connects to none of these: the CSV files are how its figures travel.

Sources for the Lightspeed column (read 4 November 2026)

Why start from the booking

The booking is not an add-on

The booking page, phone bookings, walk-ins and the waiting list are the system's first screen, at the same price as the rest of it. A guest who books online lands on a table that seats them, in a room drawn to its real size.

One table, start to finish

The host seats the party; the waiter sends rounds by seat and course to the kitchen display; the bill is split by dish, by seat or evenly and paid with Tap to Pay on a phone or from the table's QR code.

No licence count

Every member of staff gets their own login, and every tablet and phone sees the same floor. Adding the Saturday runner's phone does not change the price.

Limits to know before you switch

Slotina does not connect to a till or EPOS you already have, to delivery platforms or to accounting software.
No card terminal or countertop reader: cards are taken with Tap to Pay on a phone, or paid by the guest from the table's QR code, into your own Stripe account.
When the connection drops, the app keeps the waiter's rounds and sends them once it is back; card payments and the kitchen display wait for the connection.

Moving from Lightspeed to Slotina

Bring the menu
Export your menu as a CSV or Excel file and import it into Slotina, with a preview before it is saved and an undo after. Then check each dish's allergens against the 14: an allergen word the import does not recognise is reported and skipped, never guessed.
Bring the bookings
If you used Lightspeed Reservations, export the bookings as a file and choose "another file" on Slotina's import screen. You check how the columns are matched and see a preview; future bookings arrive confirmed, waiting for a table, and no marketing consent is carried across.
Draw the room and the stations
Draw each room with its tables, then set the kitchen and bar stations each category goes to, and their minute limits.
Pick a quiet night to switch
Give every member of staff their own login, connect your Stripe account for card payments, and run the first service on a Monday rather than a Saturday.

Lightspeed Restaurant questions

Are table reservations included in Lightspeed Restaurant?

On Lightspeed's UK pricing page, read on 4 November 2026, Lightspeed Reservations is a paid add-on on every tier. In Slotina the booking page, phone bookings, walk-ins and the waiting list are part of the one monthly price.

Do I pay more for each extra tablet or phone?

Lightspeed's tiers differ by the device licences included, and extra licences are paid. Slotina's price is per location, with unlimited staff and devices in it.

Can I run Slotina next to my Lightspeed till?

Slotina does not connect to Lightspeed, so the two would keep separate records. For one record of the evening, the menu and the table bookings move across and the orders and payments are taken in Slotina from the first service.

Does Lightspeed Restaurant sell in Ireland?

We could not show it: on 4 November 2026 its UK country selector listed no Irish site, the UK pricing was in pounds and did not mention Ireland, and its Irish address returned an error. So this page compares the offer in the UK.