How Much Does a POS System for Restaurants and Retail Cost in Saudi Arabia in 2026?

For a single shop or a small restaurant, ready-made cloud software on a monthly subscription is usually the right choice: it is live in days, issues invoices that meet the requirements of the Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority (ZATCA), and needs no upfront investment. Building a custom system for one shop with ordinary operations is money in the wrong place, and we do not recommend it.

A custom system makes sense in three cases. First, when the chain grows and the total of subscriptions per branch, terminal and user becomes a large yearly figure. Second, when your business has something ready-made software does not support, such as special pricing, in-house production or a franchise with central rules. Third, when you want the POS to be part of one system with stock, accounting, the app and loyalty, instead of separate programmes that do not talk to each other.

The sales screen itself is the simplest part. The cost comes from what connects to it:

A restaurant POS revolves around the order: tables, takeaway and delivery orders, modifiers on an item, sending the order to the kitchen screen or printer, and splitting the bill. Its stock works by recipe: selling a meal deducts its ingredients by the gram. The key integration is with delivery apps, so staff do not enter an order twice.

A retail POS revolves around the item: barcodes, variants such as size and colour, wholesale and retail prices, offers such as buy one and get the second at a discount, and returns and exchanges. Its stock works by unit, with a reorder level. Before you compare quotes, make sure the provider has built for your kind of business, because turning a retail system into a restaurant system costs more than building it right.

The point of sale is where most of your invoices are issued, so it is the first thing the e-invoicing obligation touches. Phase two is applied in waves announced by ZATCA and requires your system to be connected to the Fatoora platform. Check the date of your own wave with the Authority directly, and start early enough to leave time for testing.

If your current system works well and does not support the connection, an integration project may be enough. Published market offers put it at SAR 9,500–18,000 for a business with one system, and SAR 22,000–45,000 for a company with several branches and tills. In a new custom system the connection must be part of the build, not a later add-on. Ask every provider: is the integration included and tested, or a separate item?

The figures in this guide are for software only. Hardware is a separate item priced by its supplier: a screen or tablet, a receipt printer, a cash drawer, a barcode scanner, a kitchen printer or screen, and a reliable network in the branch. Ask the quote to list the hardware compatible with the system, so you do not buy something that will not work with it.

With cloud subscriptions, work out the price per extra branch, terminal and user, and paid add-ons such as advanced stock and loyalty. With a custom system, count yearly support of 15% to 25% of the implementation cost. The most expensive hidden cost is downtime: a till that fails at the peak hour is a direct loss, which is why offline working and fast support are not luxuries.

Try the system with your own hands: enter a real order from your menu, apply a discount, process a return and close the shift, then disconnect the internet and do it again. Then compare:

At Fortune Code we build custom POS systems when they are the right choice, and we tell you plainly when a ready-made subscription is enough. We work with a written scope and a contract, payments tied to each phase going live, a written delivery date that we keep, and fast technical support after go-live, and the code and data are yours. Prepare the following and we will send a written proposal within 24 hours: