Lightspeed is a Canadian company with genuine Australian roots, because the restaurant product grew out of Kounta in Sydney, and it shows. The till is mature, the local installed base is deep, and the catalogue of Australian integrations is the biggest of any hospitality point of sale here. If you are already on it, you are not on a bad product. What this article is about is the shape of the purchase: you start on a plan, and then you climb.
Start at the bottom rung
The entry tier does what an entry tier should. It rings up sales, it splits a bill, it takes a card, it reports at close. For a small cafe with a counter and nothing else, that is the job done, and Lightspeed publishes its Australian plan pricing in Australian dollars so you can see the first rung before you talk to anyone. Most venues discover within six months that the thing they need next sits on a higher rung or on a separate line of the invoice.
Rung two: a screen in the kitchen and gift cards at the counter
The chef is sick of paper tickets and wants a kitchen display. December is coming and you want gift cards. Neither is a strange ask, and Lightspeed can do both, but each arrives as its own add-on with its own monthly charge, and the kitchen display is charged per screen. Then each has to be set up. The kitchen screen needs your menu mapped to it, course by course, so mains do not print with entrees. The gift card product needs balances, expiry rules and a staff walkthrough before a busy Saturday. Two decisions, two setups, two new monthly amounts, one weekend of your time.
On Allvio Complete, both of those are already on. The price includes every app, so there is nothing to approve and nothing to schedule.
Rung three: the diary, the loyalty list and the roster
Bookings, loyalty and staff scheduling follow the same pattern. Each is a tier up, an add-on, or a partner product from that big integrations catalogue, which is a real strength right up to the moment you own four accounts. Every one of them is a login, a settings screen, an invoice and a support number. Accounting and payroll sit outside the Lightspeed suite entirely, so those are somebody else's subscription too, and that is the last we will say about the back office.
Rung four: the guest who expects to be remembered
Friday, 7.40pm. A couple who have eaten with you monthly for three years walk in for their anniversary. The diary shows a name and a table. The till knows what they drink. The loyalty product knows they are close to a reward. The ordering page knows he is gluten free, because he typed it into a pickup order in autumn. Four products, four fragments of one couple, and a floor staff member with eight seconds to greet them. They get a pleasant, anonymous welcome and a wine they have had four times. Nobody was careless. The information was simply spread across four accounts that no waiter has time to open.
The rung that never appears on a price list
Here is the cost nobody quotes you. The pasta special goes up two dollars on Thursday. You change it in the till, so the floor is right. The online ordering menu is its own item list, so you change it there, or the next pickup order comes in at the old price and you eat the difference. The lunch menus you printed on Monday are wrong, so they get reprinted. The website says the old number, so that gets edited too.
Now do trading hours for the Cup Day long weekend. The till, the ordering page and the diary each hold their own hours, so the change is made three times, and if the diary is the one you miss then it cheerfully books a party of eight for a day you are closed. Each of those edits takes five minutes. Five minutes, three or four times a week, forever, plus the times it goes wrong in front of a customer, is a real part of your job you never agreed to. Allvio takes the two dollars and the holiday hours once each and the till, the ordering page, the diary and your website all follow.
Adding it up before you climb
Month one on Lightspeed is a plan and hardware. Month twelve is that plan plus the kitchen screens, plus gift cards, plus loyalty, plus whatever partner covers bookings and rostering, and none of those lines get smaller as you grow. Allvio Complete is $399 per month ex GST for one location with every app switched on, and $299 per month for each extra location, with no per app charge and no per user charge. If you genuinely only want two or three apps, Build your own starts at $20 per month per app. Hardware is bought outright and yours: $1,499 ex GST for the single station, $1,869 for the retail station, $2,499 for the restaurant station. The trial is 30 days and takes no card.
Lightspeed | Allvio | |
|---|---|---|
What you are actually buying | A mature till on a plan, with the kitchen screen, gift cards, loyalty and more sold as add-ons or higher tiers | One AUD subscription with every app already on, including the ones you would otherwise add later |
Getting it running | The till first, then a separate setup for each add-on and each partner product you switch on | One setup, one login, before you open |
Changing a price or a menu item | Typed into the till, then the online ordering menu, then anything printed and the website | Typed once and read everywhere it appears |
Changing your trading hours | Held separately by the till, the ordering page and whichever diary you use, so three edits and one thing to forget | Set once for the till, ordering, bookings and site |
Keeping a customer's details right | The same guest can sit in the till, the loyalty add-on, the ordering page and a partner diary at once | One customer record every app reads |
Adding a kitchen screen or gift cards | Each is its own add-on with its own monthly charge, and the kitchen display is charged per screen | Both included, switched on in an afternoon |
Working out what it will cost you | Plan pricing is published in AUD, which helps. Your real number depends on how many add-ons you finish with | One published AUD figure per location, whatever you switch on |
When it breaks mid service | Depends on the rung: the till, an add-on or a partner product, each with its own support path | One number to ring, whatever broke |
Best fit | An established venue that wants the deepest local integrations list and has someone to manage them | An owner-operator who wants the whole list on from day one and one bill for it |
The venue that should stay where it is
If you run a multi site group with an existing stock system, a specialist diary and a bookkeeper who likes the integration you already have, Lightspeed is a reasonable home and moving would cost you more than it returns.
For everyone else the climb is the problem. Every rung is another login, another invoice and another place to type Thursday's price change. Allvio hands you the whole ladder at the start, and gives you the evening back.
This comparison reflects each product's general positioning as published by each vendor in August 2026. Features and pricing change: always check directly with each vendor before deciding.