Methodology
How we review hospitality software
hospo.tech is built around operator situations, not vendor wishlists. A system that works for a three-person espresso bar might be the wrong fit for a multi-site restaurant group.
What we evaluate
| Criterion | What we check |
|---|---|
| Venue fit | Cafe, restaurant, bar, pub, QSR, food truck, hotel or multi-site. |
| Australian relevance | Local availability, AU pricing signals, support, hardware and payment fit. |
| Core workflow | Whether the tool handles the messy work it claims to handle. |
| Integrations | Accounting, payments, rostering, bookings, ordering, delivery, loyalty and inventory. |
| Commercial risk | Pricing clarity, contract terms, hardware lock-in, payment lock-in and cancellation pain. |
| Operational risk | Offline mode, support hours, exports, training burden and service-time failure modes. |
| Evidence quality | Official sources, product docs, public pricing, screenshots, operator feedback and update recency. |
How pages get ranked
Rankings are based on best fit for the stated use case. “Best POS for cafes” is not the same question as “best POS for a multi-site restaurant group.” We prefer clear caveats over one-size-fits-all rankings.
- Category pages group tools by operator workflow and show the full directory context.
- Money pages make a tighter recommendation for a specific buying intent.
- Vendor pages explain fit, caveats, pricing visibility, integrations and evidence.
- Comparison pages pick a winner by axis and explain when the loser is still the better choice.
Affiliate and vendor relationships
Hospo.tech may earn referral or affiliate revenue from some vendors in future. That cannot buy ranking position. We will include useful tools even when there is no commercial relationship, and we may deprioritise tools with poor fit, unclear pricing, weak local support or bad operator risk.
What we will not do
- We will not publish fake star ratings.
- We will not pretend every vendor is amazing.
- We will not hide quote-only pricing behind hype.
- We will not call a tool Australian-ready unless the evidence supports it.
- We will not publish scraped database stubs as if they are reviews.
Update process
Each software profile carries a last-checked date when available. Pricing, integrations and support claims change often, so older records should be treated as leads for verification, not final buying advice.