Opero vs GoTab

GoTab and Opero are both restaurant POS systems built around bring-your-own-device hardware with prices on the website. Past that, they make different bets. GoTab started in a taproom and is organized around the guest-led tab: a guest scans a code, opens a tab with a card held on their phone, keeps ordering, and settles once. It runs on Android, iOS and Windows and prices a base plan plus add-ons per extra screen. Opero is a restaurant operating system that runs on the Android tablets and phones you already own, charges one price per location with unlimited devices, and keeps QR ordering pay-first: each round is paid on the phone before it reaches the kitchen.

Two bring-your-own-device systems, two pricing shapes

Both companies let you skip proprietary terminals, which is rarer than it should be in restaurant software. The difference is what happens to the bill as the room fills with screens. GoTab's public pricing is modular: a base plan, then a monthly add-on for each additional POS, kitchen display or kiosk device, and separate add-ons for loyalty, third-party delivery aggregation, multi-location management and the on-premise server. That keeps the entry price low for a one-register bar, and it means a taproom running two registers, a kiosk, two kitchen screens and loyalty is paying for each of those lines. Confirm the current plans and the add-on list on GoTab's site; they change.

Opero is one number per location per month: $149 for Opero (quick-service and counter restaurants), $249 for Opero Full-Service (adds table service, inventory and scheduling), and a custom Enterprise plan. Devices are unlimited on every plan and there is no device count anywhere in the billing. A second register, a fourth kiosk and a kitchen screen on the patio cost the tablets and nothing else. Billing is month-to-month.

QR ordering: guest-led tabs vs pay-first rounds

This is the row GoTab wins outright, and it matters most in bars. A GoTab guest scans the code at the bar or the table, opens a tab with a card pre-authorized on their phone, orders round after round, and closes out once at the end of the night; the tab can follow them from the bar to the patio. The card is held from the first round.

Opero's QR ordering is a different model. A guest scans the code at the table, orders from the live menu and pays on the phone, and the order fires to the kitchen only after the payment succeeds, tagged with the table label. The next round is a new order paid the same way. There is no card held, no pre-authorization, and a QR order never joins a server's running check; the server's handheld and the register see it as a paid order at that table. Guests can join rewards and earn points from the phone, but coupon codes and points redemption are not offered on the QR page today.

Which model you want depends on the room. A pay-first round is the simpler guest experience for a taproom with communal benches and a short tap list, and it means nothing unpaid ever reaches the kitchen. A pre-authorized tab is the right tool for a cocktail bar or a venue where guests roam and settle once. If the second one describes you, GoTab is the better pick.

Android only vs Android, iOS and Windows

GoTab runs its POS on Android, iOS and Windows devices and also sells and leases its own hardware for operators who would rather not bring their own. Opero is Android only: registers, tableside handhelds, kiosks, kitchen displays, customer displays and menu boards all run on Android tablets and phones, in Chrome or in the Opero Android app, and a kitchen display can also run on any TV with a browser. If your staff phones or your counter devices are iOS or Windows, replacing them is a real cost of a switch and you should weigh it.

The one device Opero sells is the card reader: required, one per location, bought from Opero, and paired to each register or kiosk that charges cards. Everything else can be hardware you already own.

What happens when the internet drops

Opero has no offline mode. Every order, charge, void and refund is a round-trip to the cloud, so a register without a connection cannot ring or settle, and nothing is queued to send later; kitchen bump taps are the one thing retried after a short blip. GoTab sells an on-premise server add-on with an enhanced offline mode for venues that cannot afford a dead register during a storm or a festival. If your venue's connectivity is unreliable, that add-on is a reason to pick GoTab, and its cost belongs in your comparison.

Kiosk, kitchen screens and the rest of the stack at one price

Opero's base plan includes the register, unlimited self-order kiosks, QR and online pickup ordering, kitchen display screens, digital menu boards and customer displays, a guest database with loyalty points, coupons, and a reporting workspace with a multi-location dashboard. Opero Full-Service adds the floor plan, reservations and waitlist, the tableside handheld with table checks and splits, inventory with recipe costing, staff scheduling with a time clock, QuickBooks Online sync and AI recommendations. The kiosk is pay-first, runs in English and Spanish, and can show a halal-only screen.

GoTab's catalog is wider in places Opero does not go: memberships and subscriptions, gift cards, an RFID pass, loss-prevention tooling, a marketplace, and a phone-only POS. Several of those are separate products or add-ons rather than part of the base plan, so check which ones your plan includes. Opero has no gift cards, no memberships product and no multi-vendor split for food halls.

Where Opero stops, stated plainly:

• ✓No bar-tab card pre-authorization. A counter tab is an unpaid order paid later from the register; on Full-Service a table check settles at the end of the visit.
• ✓No happy-hour or time-based pricing. Prices change when you change them.
• ✓No course firing or hold-and-fire, no merging of checks or tables, no seat-level ordering.
• ✓Full refunds only. There is no partial or line-item refund.
• ✓No published processing rates. Payments are quoted per business.

Breweries and taprooms: where each one fits

GoTab's brewery footprint is genuine. It markets to breweries, bars, food halls, eatertainment venues and hotels with dedicated pages, lists integrations with brewery production and event-booking software, and its tab mechanics were designed on a taproom floor. If you are a production brewery running batch and keg software in the back of house and want the POS to talk to it, GoTab has the head start.

Opero fits the taproom front of house: one menu spine, so a kicked keg disappears from the register, the kiosk, the QR menu and the online menu in one edit; QR ordering that suits communal tables; a guest database and loyalty for regulars on the base plan; and unlimited screens, so a release-day kiosk or a patio handheld adds nothing to the bill. It does not track keg levels or ounces poured, and it has no integration with brewery management software; expect the two systems to live side by side.

When GoTab is the better pick

GoTab is the stronger choice when:

• ✓Guest-initiated tabs with a card held on the phone are how your bar runs, and you want the tab to follow the guest across the venue.
• ✓Your devices are iOS or Windows and you do not want to replace them.
• ✓You need an offline fallback; Opero has no offline mode, and GoTab sells an on-premise server with one.
• ✓You run a food hall, a multi-vendor venue or an events business that needs RFID passes, memberships or gift cards.
• ✓You want brewery production or event-booking integrations the POS already supports.
• ✓You want a published processing rate on the vendor's site before you talk to sales.

Pick Opero if you want one flat per-location bill for unlimited Android screens, kiosk and KDS included, pay-first QR and online ordering, and month-to-month terms, and the pre-authorized tab is not a requirement for your room.

Switching from GoTab to Opero

A switch is mostly about devices, the menu and your tab habits. Android tablets and phones carry over: register each one on Opero's Devices page with a role and it becomes a register, kiosk, kitchen display or handheld. iOS and Windows devices do not carry over, so count what you would replace. You rebuild the menu once, or import it from a spreadsheet export, then copy-then-edit it per location. Opero renders a QR code for your online ordering link; per-table codes are URLs with the table label that you make and print yourself.

The operational change is the tab. If your bartenders are used to guests opening pre-authorized tabs from their phones, plan the new flow before go-live: QR orders are paid per round, counter tabs are unpaid orders paid later at the register, and on Full-Service a table check accumulates rounds and settles by card at the table or by cash at the register. Opero sells you one card reader for each register or kiosk that takes cards; it is the only hardware you must buy from us. Month-to-month terms mean you can run one location on Opero for a few weeks before moving the rest.