Subscription till, or one built for you?
The comparison people usually run is hardware price against build price, which is the wrong sum. Put both quotes in, over three years, per terminal, including the rises — and the answer is often not the one we would prefer.
Both sides
The subscription quote
The build quote you have been given
Over 3 years, 2 terminals
Subscription
£4,684
Built for you
£11,840
The subscription is £7,156 cheaper over 3 years.
Per month, all in
Subscription £130 a month · built £329 a month
On these figures the build pays for itself after about 12.0 years. Before that the subscription is cheaper; after it, it is not.
What this does not price
Card processing, which you pay either way and should compare separately. Being able to change things. What you own at the end. And speed: a product arrives configured in days, a build takes weeks, and if your till has just died that difference matters more than the arithmetic.
Where to get the numbers
The subscription side. Ask for the all-in monthly cost per terminal in year two, not year one, because year one is usually discounted. For a published example: on 14 October 2026 Epos Now’s UK site advertised bundles from £149 to £349 against “was” prices of £849 to £899, handheld systems from £15 a month, a kitchen display from £19 a month, and a discounted bundle footnoted as requiring a twelve-month subscription from £54 a month. Offers move, so check the figure on the day rather than trusting ours.
The build side. Use the quote you have actually been given, by us or by anybody else. We do not publish our prices, so there is no default here pretending to be one — the fields start at round numbers to make the arithmetic obvious, not as a price list.
The price rise field matters more than it looks
A subscription is a price somebody else sets. Over three years a modest annual increase compounds into real money, and it is the part of the comparison vendors leave out. Put zero in if you have a fixed price in writing; if you have not, you are estimating either way and it is better to estimate deliberately.
About this comparison.
Why compare over three years rather than on the price?
Why does the price rise field matter so much?
Why are there no Turtle prices in here?
Want it quoted properly?
Fixed price, fixed timeline, in writing within 48 hours, with the hardware quoted separately so you can see both.
Countertop tills →