Sero vs TouchBistro for restaurants

Devices and setup

TouchBistro, as of 2026 per its public site, is built around the iPad. That suits many restaurants: iPads are familiar, well made and easy for servers to carry. It does mean every station in the restaurant is an Apple device, and replacing or adding stations means buying more iPads. Many restaurants are happy with that trade-off.

SeroPOS runs on iPad too, plus iPhone, Android phones and tablets, Windows PCs and Macs. A Windows PC at the bar, Android tablets for servers and an iPad at the host stand can all run the same SeroPOS account with live table status. You can reuse hardware you already own and buy replacements wherever it’s convenient.

Service and kitchen

SeroPOS covers the service essentials: drag-and-drop floor plans with live table status, kitchen order tickets, a kitchen display, nested modifier groups with upcharges, combos, hold and resume, split bills by seat, percentage or item, tips and mixed tender. Dine-in, take-away and delivery orders share one kitchen queue. Combos and service products are supported too.

QR self-ordering lets guests order and pay from the table, which helps during short-staffed shifts. SeroBot answers the phone using your live menu and hours and can take reservations, so staff stay on the floor instead of picking up calls during the rush. Thirty themes and drag-and-drop button layouts let you arrange the screen for your menu.

• Floor plans with live table status
• KOT and KDS
• QR ordering at the table
• SeroBot phone assistant

Costs behind the menu

SeroPOS Pro includes recipe management with ingredient-level food costing, so you can see the margin on each dish and how supplier price changes affect it. Purchase orders and supplier records live in the same app, and low-stock alerts warn you before you run out of something on a busy night.

Sales and costs post into SeroBooks, where the P&L, sales tax and payroll sit on one ledger. SeroPayroll handles vacation pay, statutory holidays and overtime for every province from $25/mo, and SeroBooks Pro adds US payroll. Owners get a full picture of food cost, labour and profit without pulling numbers from separate systems.

When TouchBistro may be the better fit

If your team is committed to iPads and wants a restaurant-only product with a long Canadian track record, TouchBistro is a credible choice. It has deep restaurant experience, a large base of restaurant customers, and add-ons for reservations, marketing and gift cards built specifically for hospitality. Its focus on hospitality runs deep.

Restaurants that already rely on TouchBistro’s add-ons, or whose staff are trained on it and happy, may find it simpler to stay. If you don’t sell retail, don’t need accounting on the same ledger and like the iPad-only approach, the reasons to switch are smaller. Changing systems mid-season is disruptive, and staying put is a valid choice.

Switching

Export your menu from your current system, then rebuild categories, modifiers and combos in SeroPOS, or import items with Excel import and add modifiers afterwards. Set up receipt and kitchen printers, which SeroPOS auto-detects over USB or the network, and draw your floor plan with the drag-and-drop editor. Kitchen routing sends each item to the right station or printer.

Our in-app guides, demo data and live chat help with floor plans and kitchen routing. Start a 14-day free trial with no credit card and test a few services, ideally a quiet lunch first, before you switch over completely. There are no contracts or onboarding fees. Our team can join a call to review your setup before you go live.