Upserve POS System Reviews (2024)

Upserve POS Reviews for Restaurants

Choosing a restaurant point-of-sale (POS) system is a big decision for your restaurant or bar business. So, we’re taking you on a journey to test and compare the best options on the market. 

Upserve by Lightspeed is a restaurant software company that offers POS software and hardware, inventory management solutions, restaurant funding, restaurant apps, and overall restaurant support. Founded in 2009 by Angus Davis, Upserve was developed for independent restaurants and has since expanded. It acquired Breadcrumb by Groupon in 2012. Today, Upserve is managed by Lightspeed Commerce.

To know if Upserve is the product for you, looking at product reviews by other restaurants and bars will give you firsthand perspectives of this POS system.

In this guide, we will dive into Upserve reviews, offering insight into how its product can align with your needs — and how it might fall short. 

We will explore where Upserve lands on the G2 Restaurant POS Grid and how it fares on other third-party customer review sites. Then, we’ll identify Upserve’s strengths, weaknesses, and how it compares to the Toast software.

With that process in mind, let’s explore Upserve and see how it fits into the restaurant software ecosystem. 

How does Upserve compare to the best restaurant POS systems on third party sites?

What is the G2 Scoring Grid for Restaurant POS software? If you’re not familiar, the G2 Scoring Grid evaluates products and vendors based on reviews from its user community as well as data aggregated from online sources and social networks. Its algorithm calculates two scores—Satisfaction and Market Presence—which form the axes for the G2 scoring grid. 

How does the G2 Restaurant Grid scoring work?

The G2 scoring algorithm has two main factors: real-time customer reviews and market presence. 

The Satisfaction rating focuses on product attributes from user reviews. The algorithm considers popularity based on the number of reviews received, the quality of reviews (i.e., how thoroughly completed they are,) the recency of reviews, satisfaction with specific product attributes, and Net Promoter Score (NPS). The final customer Satisfaction score is normalized for each industry grid so that the scores are relative.

For Market Presence, G2 combines 15 metrics from its user reviews, publicly available information, and third-party sources. The metrics include the company’s web and social presence, age and growth, employee satisfaction, and reviews. The idea is to understand how effectively the solution has penetrated the market, succeeding long enough to signal company growth, longevity, and interest from companies looking for its product. 

On the G2 scoring grid, the X-axis reflects the Satisfaction score while the Y-axis reflects the Market Presence score. These 2 axes leave us with four quadrants, which G2 indicates as “Leaders” (Q1, top right), “Contenders” (Q2, top left), “Niche” (Q3, bottom left), and “High Performers” (Q4, bottom right). 

As you can see grid below, Toast ranks #1 in the Restaurant POS category. This is indicated by Toast’s placement in the top right “Leaders” section, reflecting its high market presence and high satisfaction rating.

Upserve falls in the “High Performers” category, illustrating its high performance with a low market presence. 86 Upserve POS reviews on G2 earned the platform a 4.1 out of 5. 

Since Upserve isn’t a new player in the market, it may be losing points for its total number of G2 reviews (86 compared to 198 for Toast,) its employee reviews on Glassdoor (3.6 compared to 4.3 for Toast,) its size, and potentially its online presence. These factors all play a role in how restaurant managers might experience Upserve daily.

Based on the G2 Scoring Grid, many Upserve customers are happy with their platform of choice. Yet, other companies rank higher for both Satisfaction and Market Presence. With that in mind, let’s dig a bit deeper into third-party reviews to learn what users are saying about their day-to-day experience with Upserve. 

Third-Party Upserve Reviews and Customer Ratings

Third-party review sites have become increasingly popular in recent years, providing platforms for business owners and managers to share thoughts on the products and services they’ve tried. We’ll examine a few of the most common review sites to understand what restaurant and bar managers say about their experiences with Upserve. 

Upserve Reviews on TrustRadius

On TrustRadius, Upserve has 29 total reviews and ratings, with a score of 6.1 out of 10. Reviewer sentiment is mostly positive, with 22 positive examples and two negative examples. According to TrustRadius data, the most common users for Upserve are small businesses with under 50 employees.

TrustRadius also offers two scales to understand the overall review score: usability and support rating. Upserve has a usability score of 8.5 out of 10 and a support rating of 8.9 out of 10. With those scores in mind, there appear to be other drawbacks pulling its overall rating score down. 

Reviews mention positives like user-friendly employee tracking, offline credit card transactions, and ease of check splitting. On the other hand, negative reviews cite many missing features and customer service that steeply declined amid the COVID-19 pandemic. One reviewer also cited a lack of notification for cards processed offline and later declined, creating a notable blind spot for payment processing. 

Upserve Reviews on G2

On G2, Upserve has 86 reviews and a 4.1 out of 5 score. Specific reviews highlight positive experiences with iPad onboarding and initial installation, ease of splitting invoices, inventory tracking integrations, and a friendly user interface. 

Negative reviews explain missing reporting features (like payroll reports,) challenging and confusing billing experiences, and slow software processing daily. Many reviewers across both TrustRadius and G2 show a desire for clear distinctions between online features and offline features. 

Upserve Reviews on GetApp

Finally, GetApp features 273 Upserve reviews with a 4.3 out of 5 overall rating. Among reviewers, 87% share that they would recommend Upserve to others. 

The pros are Upserve’s ease of setup, reliable 24-hour phone support, and affordability. The cons include system crashes, frustrations around modifying customizable features, and unresponsive customer service. 

Upserve Strengths

Based on the information above, a few strengths stand out consistently for reviewers. Let’s take a closer look at how Upserve effectively splits checks and offers a seamless onboarding process. 

Splitting Checks

Splitting checks is a common pain point for restaurant staff. Fortunately, Upserve seems to simplify the process for servers. Many reviews highlight the ease of splitting checks and managing multiple payment avenues for the same bill. 

Setup and Onboarding Ease

Another common theme among reviews is onboarding simplicity, with many people impressed by the speed and simplicity of implementing the Upserve software. Here is one review from G2 that sums up the positive invoice splitting feature and installation process.

Upserve Weaknesses

No platform is perfect. Various reviewers site weaknesses to Upserve. These weaknesses are mostly software-related, from missing features to software lagging or crashing.

Frequent Bugs and Glitches

Many reviewers across all the sites above share experiences with bugs and glitches that receive little attention from Upserve developers. These bugs appear to pop up often in tools and features. Multiple reviews indicate that finding fixes is a low priority for Upserve support. 

Basic Feature Offering

In what might be the most common complaint against Upserve, numerous reviews cite features that they wish existed but don’t. Here are just a few examples:

• Customers aren’t able to add a tip in offline mode.

• Unable to pick and choose which online items can accept preorders. 

• Time estimates aren’t proportional to the number of items ordered.

• No global ability to change menu items at all locations. 

Based on these limitations, those considering Upserve should clarify their must-have features and make sure Upserve software offers them before committing.

Software Delays and Crashes

Finally, reviews indicate that the Upserve software often lags and crashes during shifts, which can be an incredible hassle during peak times. Many reviewers share that they’ve had to restart the system during their busiest shifts, delaying the experience for guests. This time-waster led multiple reviewers to give an overall negative impression of the software. 

Mixed Opinions

Interestingly, many Upserve factors seemed to present a positive for some reviewers and a negative for others. Here are specific areas where reviewers contradicted each other.

Reporting

While some reviewers praised Upserve for its robust reporting features, others commented that reporting needs improvement. For those interested in detailed reporting and analytics, it's wise to see if Upserve will meet your data needs before committing.

Customer Service

We see many reviews with clients raving about the Upserve customer service experience. Yet, others indicate a general lack of responsiveness and inability to reach someone via phone instead of email. One review shared that phone support was available, but they were placed on an hour-long hold every time they needed help. 

Upserve vs. Toast

Last but not least, we can’t fully understand the Upserve offering without comparing its features and capabilities to the Toast POS, the market leader in the restaurant space. 

Both Upserve and Toast offer a reliable network with top-speed performance and 24/7 support and services. They also offer industry-leading handheld POS products, enabling servers to take orders and accept payments at the table. 

However, Upserve lacks key features when it comes to connecting online ordering directly to the kitchen. Toast orders automatically sync to Toast kitchen display screens, notifying restaurant staff and patrons when orders are received. This feature promotes streamlining and elevating the guest experience.

Upserve also doesn’t offer training and support during onboarding. Toast has a local presence in 230+ cities across the United States, with local specialists that aid in sales, support, and implementation. The aim? Make the onboarding and training process as seamless as possible, with available in-person support.

Final Thoughts and Recommendation

Upserve seems to be a middle-of-the-road solution that works well for some restaurant businesses but falls short for others. It’s a consistently popular choice among local, independent restaurants. 

No matter which POS you’re looking at, it is always important to evaluate its performance. At the end of the day, the POS system you choose is up to you. 

If you’re still deciding on which POS to choose, feel free to refer back to the information above or contact the Toast team for more information.

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