What Lightspeed is primarily for
Lightspeed (formerly Lightspeed Restaurant, now Lightspeed Hospitality) is a cloud-based point-of-sale system built for restaurants, bars, and hospitality venues. Its core capabilities include:
- In-venue EPOS — table-side ordering, splitting bills, floor plan management
- Table management and reservations (via integration with platforms like OpenTable)
- Staff management and scheduling
- Kitchen display systems
- Inventory management and recipe costing
- Reporting and analytics
Lightspeed does have an online ordering module, but online ordering is a secondary feature within a comprehensive hospitality management platform. The primary product is the in-venue EPOS experience.
What Food-Ordering.com is primarily for
Food-Ordering.com is built exclusively for online, telephone, and collection ordering — the digital and remote order channel. Every feature is food-ordering specific: CallerID telephone ordering, ghost kitchen multi-brand management, allergen filtering by dietary requirement, timed delivery and collection slots, customer loyalty systems, hotel room service mode, and stadium/university ordering. There is no EPOS, no table management, no reservations system — it is a specialist platform for the remote ordering channel only.
Feature comparison
| Feature | Food-Ordering.com | Lightspeed |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | One-off licence | Monthly SaaS subscription |
| Online ordering | Core specialist feature | Secondary module |
| CallerID telephone ordering | Yes | No |
| Ghost kitchen multi-brand | Yes | No |
| Allergen filtering | Full | Basic |
| In-venue EPOS | Not included | Core feature |
| Table management | Not included | Core feature |
| Reservations | Not included | Via integration |
| Inventory management | Not included | Yes |
| Hotel / room service mode | Yes | No |
| Self-hosting option | Yes | No |
| White-label reseller | Yes | No |
Lightspeed suits:
Full-service restaurants and hospitality venues that need a comprehensive in-venue management platform — EPOS, floor plans, table management, staff scheduling, and reporting in one system. If in-venue dining is your primary operation and online ordering is a secondary requirement, Lightspeed's all-in-one approach may suit.
Food-Ordering.com suits:
Takeaways, delivery-focused restaurants, ghost kitchens, hotels, and any food business where online and telephone ordering is a primary channel. The specialist feature depth — CallerID ordering, multi-brand management, allergen filtering — and one-off licence model make it significantly more capable and cost-effective for the remote ordering channel than a EPOS platform's secondary online module.
Using both together:
Many full-service restaurants use an in-venue EPOS for table service and a specialist online ordering platform for their delivery and collection channel. Food-Ordering.com and Lightspeed can operate alongside each other — Lightspeed for in-venue, Food-Ordering.com for online and telephone orders, each routed to the kitchen independently.
Frequently asked questions
Does Lightspeed include online ordering?
Yes, Lightspeed has an online ordering module. It is a secondary feature within a comprehensive EPOS platform. For restaurants where online ordering is a primary channel requiring specialist features (CallerID telephone ordering, ghost kitchen multi-brand, allergen filtering, hotel room service mode), Food-Ordering.com's dedicated focus provides deeper capability.
Can Food-Ordering.com work alongside Lightspeed?
Yes. The two systems address different channels — Lightspeed for in-venue table service, Food-Ordering.com for online and telephone ordering. They operate independently, with orders from each channel routed to the kitchen via their respective systems.
Specialist online ordering — one-off licence
Food-Ordering.com is built exclusively for online, telephone, and collection ordering. No monthly fees after the licence. Get a quote for your restaurant or food business.
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