Point of sale · Made in Canada
No software fees, no contract, nothing to unlock. One card rate: 2.49%. Built for full service, with tables, seats, coursing, splits and tip pools on an iPad app that keeps up with a Friday night.
Why North
No subscription, no per-device fees, no modules to unlock. Every feature on every iPad, from the first one.
Nothing to sign for the software and no early termination fee. If North stops earning its keep, you leave.
Every screen is built to a speed budget on a base iPad, so a tap is a tap when there are forty covers waiting.
Provincial taxes set up for you, cash rounded to the nickel, “cheque” spelt right, and your data stored in Montréal.
Orders, kitchen tickets and cash keep flowing when the internet drops, and sync when it’s back. No server in the back to babysit.
iPads, Epson and Star printers, and Adyen handhelds. Bring the iPads you have; nothing is locked to us.
Switching
What owners run into with the big three, from their own price lists, contracts and reviews, and what North does instead.
On Toast
Locked in for years
No contract. Stay because it works; leave whenever you like.
Card rates by quote
One published rate, 2.49%, with no per-payment fee.
A fee for every device
No device fees. Any recent iPad, printers from Epson and Star.
On TouchBistro
Glitches and crashes
Built to a speed budget on a base iPad: a new line on the cheque in under 50 ms.
Add-ons for the basics
Everything North does is included, for every device.
A server in the back office
No on-site server. Devices sync with the cloud and keep working offline.
On Square
Table service is the paid plan
Coursing, seats, splits and tip pools on every device, free.
Billed by the device
No device fees, however many iPads and printers you run.
Offline, but not for Interac
Orders, kitchen tickets and cash keep going offline and sync when you’re back.
Speed
A server with a full section can’t wait on a spinning wheel. Every North screen has a speed budget on a base iPad, and the app keeps the menu, floor and open cheques on the device, so a tap doesn’t wait for the internet.
North’s performance targets on a 10th-generation iPad, with a 200-item menu and a 60-table floor.
Savings calculator
Set your card sales, card mix and devices. We add up a year of software fees and card processing at each company’s Canadian prices. If you know what you pay now, put it in.
A year on North instead of Toast
You save$8,159
saved a year, before hardware.
| A year | Toast | North |
|---|---|---|
| Card processing2.80% effective vs 2.49% | $33,599 | $29,880 |
| Software and devicesEssentials $220/mo, then about $50 per extra device (estimate) | $4,440 | $0 |
| Total | $38,039 | $29,880 |
North is free software with one blended card rate of 2.49% on every card. Other companies’ figures are their Canadian list prices where published, and marked estimates where not, checked October 2026; your quote may differ. Hardware and taxes aren’t included. Sources and assumptions.
The back office
Owners and managers set up menus, floors, staff and tips, and read the numbers, from the back office. These are real screens from a demo restaurant group.
Menus
Items, modifier groups, dinner, brunch and bar menus, and specials, edited as a draft in the back office and sent to every iPad and handheld when you publish. 86 an item and every device knows.
Floor
Drag tables onto the floor plan, group them into sections, and keep a patio layout ready for June. Servers open a table, seat guests and course the meal from the same map.
Reports
Reports are built from every synced cheque, payment and time card. Sales by hour, menu mix, server summary, covers and table turns, compared with the period before.
Tips
Set tip-outs and pools by role, and North writes the rules back in plain English so everyone can check them. At close, each person’s share is worked out from the cheques and time cards.
Net sales by hour over 90 days at the demo group’s Distillery venue.
Kitchen
Send fires the order to the grill, cold and bar printers by item, with seats, courses and modifiers where the cooks look for them. Impact printers for the hot line, thermal for the bar, cash drawers that open from the receipt printer.
Tickets to the grill, cold and bar stations on Epson and Star printers.
North’s handheld app runs on Adyen Android payment terminals.
Split any way the table asks, and pay seat by seat.
Staff sign in with a PIN; roles decide who can void, comp or refund.
Clock in and out on the iPad; hours flow into labour reports and tip pools.
One organization, many venues, each with its own menu and floor.
Every change records who made it, from which device.
Owners protect the back office with an authenticator app.
Made in Canada
North was built for Canadian rooms from the first line, not translated from an American one. Choose your province and the taxes are set up, liquor rates included. Cash rounds to the nickel. Prices are in dollars and cents, receipts carry your GST/HST number, and your data stays in Montréal.
Québec isn’t supported yet: restaurants there need a sales recording system certified by Revenu Québec.
| Province | Taxes North sets up |
|---|---|
| Ontario | HST 13% |
| British Columbia | GST 5%, PST 10% on liquor |
| Alberta | GST 5% |
| Manitoba | GST 5%, RST 7% |
| Saskatchewan | GST 5%, PST 6% on food, LCT 10% on liquor |
| Nova Scotia | HST 14% |
| New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, PEI | HST 15% |
| Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut | GST 5% |
Hardware
At the bar, host stand and server stations. A base iPad is plenty; bring the ones you have.
Receipt and kitchen printers on your network: Epson TM-m30, TM-T88 and TM-U220; Star TSP100 and SP700, and more.
Take the order and the payment at the table on an Android payment terminal.
Questions
We earn from card payments, at one published rate of 2.49%. There’s no subscription, so we only make money on nights you’re serving.
No. North is month to month with nothing to sign for the software. If you leave, take your data with you: every report exports to CSV.
Card payments, credit and debit, at one blended rate with no per-payment fee. Cash costs nothing. The calculator shows how that compares with the rates other companies publish.
The iPads keep working. Orders, kitchen tickets, splits and cash payments are saved on the device and sync to the cloud when it’s back. There’s no server on site to restart.
iPads for the floor and bar, receipt and kitchen printers from Epson or Star, and Adyen handhelds for paying at the table. Use iPads you already have; no proprietary hardware.
In Canada. North’s servers and database run in Montréal.
Not yet. Restaurants in Québec need a sales recording system certified by Revenu Québec, and North isn’t certified yet. Every other province and territory is supported, with its taxes set up for you.
Create an account, import your menu from a spreadsheet (CSV), draw your floor plan and pair each iPad with an eight-character code from the back office. Staff sign in with a PIN.
Create your account, import your menu, draw your floor and pair your iPads with a code. No contract to sign and nothing to pay for the software, ever.