In 2026, restaurant billing software in India costs 9,000 to 30,000 rupees a year per outlet on the mainstream products, 30,000 to 60,000 and up on enterprise systems, and 700 to 2,500 a month on the newer cloud tools, plus 15,000 to 30,000 once for the hardware. Building your own billing system costs 10 to 25 lakh and makes no sense for anyone.
The software is the cheapest line on a restaurant's technology bill, and that is the useful thing to know. For a single outlet doing 60 lakh a year with 40 percent of orders through delivery apps, the aggregators' commission comes to about 6.2 lakh a year, twenty times the billing software. If anything is worth building against, it is that.
What does restaurant billing software cost?
| Option | Typical price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Petpooja | 9,000 to 30,000 a year per outlet, quoted rather than listed | Billing, KOT, inventory, aggregator integration, reports; the default for single outlets |
| Posist (Restroworks) | 2,500 to 5,000 a month per outlet, with implementation of 30,000 to 80,000 for multi-outlet setups | Enterprise features, central kitchen, franchise reporting |
| Cloud tools such as Restrofi, TMBill and similar | 700 to 2,500 a month | Billing and KOT with fewer integrations |
| Hardware | 15,000 to 30,000 once per outlet | Touchscreen or tablet, thermal printer, cash drawer; sometimes bundled into an annual contract |
Prices are what the products published or what reviewers reported in 2026; several vendors quote rather than list, so treat these as the band to expect. Per-outlet pricing is the Indian norm, the same shape as per vehicle in fleet software and per bed in hospital systems.
The GST point every 5 percent restaurant misses
Most standalone restaurants are on the 5 percent GST rate without input tax credit. That means the 18 percent GST charged on the software subscription, the hardware, and the aggregators' commission cannot be claimed back. A 20,000 rupee subscription costs 23,600, and a 22 percent commission is really 26 percent. Budget the gross figures, not the quotes.
What does the first year actually cost?
A single-outlet restaurant, 60 lakh of annual sales, 40 percent through Zomato and Swiggy:
| Line | Annual cost |
|---|---|
| Billing software, mid-range | 20,000, or 23,600 with GST you cannot claim |
| Hardware, first year | 15,000 to 30,000 |
| Aggregator commission at 22 percent on 24 lakh of orders | 5.28 lakh |
| GST on that commission at 18 percent, unclaimable | 95,000 |
| Payment gateway on prepaid direct orders, about 2 percent | Depends on volume |
| Technology, excluding commission | About 40,000 to 55,000 |
| Commission | About 6.2 lakh |
Zomato and Swiggy commissions run 18 to 28 percent of order value depending on city, category and scale, with new listings in metros typically at 22 to 24 percent. Add platform fees, payment charges and the discounts restaurants fund themselves, and the all-in take lands at 25 to 35 percent. Only chains with ten or more outlets have much room to negotiate.
What is worth building, if anything?
Not the billing. Petpooja at 20,000 a year does more than a 15 lakh custom system would, and keeps up with GST changes you would otherwise pay a developer for.
What some restaurants should build, or buy, is a direct ordering channel: a website and WhatsApp flow where regulars order from you without the aggregator in between. The arithmetic for the outlet above:
- Every order moved from an aggregator to direct saves about 26 percent of its value, commission plus the unclaimable GST, less a 2 percent payment fee.
- Moving a quarter of aggregator orders direct saves about 1.5 lakh a year for one outlet.
- A direct ordering platform costs a few thousand rupees a month or a few percent per order, which is the right answer for one outlet.
- A custom ordering channel built for a brand, menu, cart, UPI, order to kitchen, loyalty, costs 3 to 8 lakh, in the range of a single feature in our e-commerce app cost guide. Over five years with maintenance that is about 10 lakh, so it needs to save 2 lakh a year: roughly a third of one outlet's aggregator orders, or under a tenth across four outlets.
So: one outlet rents a direct ordering tool. A brand with four or more outlets, or a cloud kitchen living on delivery, can justify its own. The channel that moves those orders is usually WhatsApp, and what a WhatsApp ordering agent costs is in our WhatsApp AI agent cost guide.
The cloud kitchen case
A delivery-only kitchen is the extreme version of the same arithmetic. With 90 percent or more of orders through aggregators, a kitchen doing 40 lakh a year pays 8 to 10 lakh in commission and unclaimable GST before rent and wages. Its billing software is a few hundred rupees a month on a cloud tool. For a cloud kitchen, a direct ordering channel is not a nice-to-have; a repeat customer who orders on WhatsApp instead of the app is worth about a quarter more per order, and a brand with two or three kitchens has the volume to justify building its own channel rather than renting one.
What moves the price
- Number of outlets, because every product prices per outlet and the enterprise ones add implementation.
- Integrations: aggregators, payment gateways, accounting, loyalty. Petpooja's are included; cheaper tools often lack them.
- Inventory and recipe costing, which is where billing becomes management and the price steps up.
- Hardware, and whether it is bundled into a longer contract at a promotional price.
- Central kitchen and franchise reporting, which is what pushes a chain onto Posist-class pricing.
How to read a restaurant software quote
- Ask for the per-outlet price in writing, before GST, and remember you probably cannot claim that GST.
- Ask which aggregator integrations are live, not planned.
- Ask what happens to your sales history if you switch. It is yours.
- Ask whether hardware is bundled and what the contract term is.
- Count the commission before you count the software. It is where the money is.
Questions people ask
How much does restaurant billing software cost in India?
Nine thousand to 30,000 rupees a year per outlet on mainstream products such as Petpooja, 30,000 to 60,000 and up on enterprise systems such as Posist, or 700 to 2,500 a month on newer cloud tools, plus 15,000 to 30,000 once for hardware. Add 18 percent GST, which most restaurants on the 5 percent rate cannot claim back.
What is the Petpooja price per year?
Petpooja quotes rather than publishes, and reported prices for a single outlet run from about 9,000 to 30,000 rupees a year depending on modules, with hardware of 15,000 to 30,000 usually extra or bundled into an annual contract.
How much commission do Zomato and Swiggy charge?
Eighteen to 28 percent of order value in 2026, with new metro listings typically at 22 to 24 percent, plus 18 percent GST on the commission, platform fees and restaurant-funded discounts. The all-in take is usually 25 to 35 percent. Chains with ten or more outlets can negotiate toward 18 to 22 percent.
Should a restaurant build its own billing software?
No. A custom billing system costs 10 to 25 lakh and then needs a developer for every GST change, for a function that rents at 20,000 a year. Build a direct ordering channel instead, if you have the volume to justify it.
Is a direct ordering website worth it for one restaurant?
Usually as a rented platform rather than a build. Moving a quarter of a 60 lakh outlet's aggregator orders to direct saves about 1.5 lakh a year, which pays for a platform fee easily but not for a 3 to 8 lakh custom build. Custom makes sense from about four outlets.
Can a restaurant claim GST on software?
Only if it is on the 18 percent rate with input tax credit, which usually means a restaurant inside a hotel with rooms above 7,500 a night. Standalone restaurants on 5 percent cannot, so every subscription effectively costs 18 percent more than the quote.
Getting a real number
If you run one outlet, buy Petpooja or a cloud tool, rent a direct ordering platform, and spend the money you saved on getting regulars to order direct. If you run a brand with several outlets or a delivery kitchen, the ordering channel is worth pricing properly, and that is what we build. What it looks like is on our e-commerce development page.