Comparison

Dines vs Epos Now

An honest, feature-by-feature comparison to help you choose the right POS for your venue. Both are UK-built platforms. The right choice depends on what you run.

The short version

Dines Dines is purpose-built for complex, multi-vendor hospitality: food halls with dozens of independent traders, festivals needing offline-first reliability, and theatres maximising 15-minute interval windows. It includes automated vendor settlement, Tilly AI, and offline-first architecture with eSIM failover.

Epos Now Epos Now is a widely used UK cloud POS serving both retail and hospitality. It offers good value hardware packages, a straightforward setup, and covers the essentials well for single-site pubs, restaurants, and retail stores.

Feature comparison

A factual overview of what each platform offers across key hospitality functions.

Ordering

FeatureDinesEpos Now

iPad ePOS

Self-order kiosksPartial

QR mobile ordering (no app)Partial

Handheld POS (roaming)

Multi-vendor basket (one checkout)

Pre-ordering from seats (theatres)

Operations

FeatureDinesEpos Now

Kitchen display system (KDS)

Automated vendor settlement

Commission and revenue splits

Centralised multi-vendor menu management

Stock management

Staff management (rotas, permissions)

Payments

FeatureDinesEpos Now

Integrated card payments

Automated vendor settlementPartial

Offline payments (full functionality)Partial

Offline failover (Wi-Fi > eSIM > offline)

9-second automatic failover

Advanced

FeatureDinesEpos Now

AI assistant (menu creation, reporting)

Vouchers, loyalty, pre-paid tabsPartial

Real-time cross-vendor reporting

Which is right for your venue?

The best POS is the one that fits how your venue actually operates. Here is our honest assessment by venue type.

Food Halls

Best fit: Dines

Multi-vendor food halls need automated settlement, cross-vendor ordering, and centralised menu control. Dines was built for this complexity. Epos Now is designed for single-operator venues.

Festivals & Events

Best fit: Dines

Outdoor events need offline-first reliability. Dines maintains a 97.4% offline capture rate with 9-second failover. Epos Now's offline capabilities are more limited and not designed for temporary event infrastructure.

Theatres & Venues

Best fit: Dines

Interval ordering requires pre-ordering from seats and fast bar mode. Dines is purpose-built for 15-minute service windows. Epos Now doesn't offer theatre-specific features like interval pre-ordering.

Pubs & Small Restaurants

Best fit: Both

Both platforms handle single-site pub and restaurant operations well. Epos Now offers good value hardware bundles and a straightforward setup. Dines offers AI-powered menu creation and deeper hospitality-specific features.

Retail

Best fit: Epos Now

Epos Now has strong retail POS features including barcode scanning, product variants, and retail-specific inventory management. Dines is focused exclusively on hospitality and does not target the retail sector.

Dines by the numbers

97.4%

Offline capture rate

<60s

Average support response

98%

Customer retention year on year

Common questions

Is Dines or Epos Now better for food halls?

Dines is purpose-built for multi-vendor food halls with automated vendor settlement, cross-vendor basket ordering, and centralised menu management across all traders. Epos Now is a general-purpose POS that works well for single-operator pubs and restaurants but lacks the multi-vendor management tools that food halls require.

Does Epos Now work offline at festivals?

Epos Now has limited offline functionality. Dines provides an offline-first architecture with automatic failover from Wi-Fi to eSIM to full offline mode in 9 seconds, achieving a 97.4% offline capture rate. For festivals and outdoor events where connectivity is unreliable, Dines is designed specifically for these conditions.

Which is more affordable, Dines or Epos Now?

Both platforms offer competitive pricing. Epos Now offers attractively priced hardware bundles and monthly plans that work well for small venues. Dines offers competitive card processing rates with a platform fee, and for some products you only pay when trading. The right choice depends on your venue complexity and whether you need multi-vendor features.

Can I switch from Epos Now to Dines?

Yes. Dines offers rapid deployment, with single-site venues going live within 24 hours. Your menu, pricing, and product data can be migrated, and our team handles the setup for you. No data entry required on your side.

See Dines in action

Book a 15-minute call and we will show you how Dines works for your specific venue type.

Book a call