A Standalone Kitchen Display Pushes Square Deeper into Restaurant Management Software

The Covid-19 pandemic forced many restaurants to change the way they do business by providing online and mobile ordering, and even setting up pickup and delivery-only kitchens to meet consumers’ changing ordering preferences. With that need in mind, Square Inc. on Thursday announced its kitchen-display system, Square KDS, will now be available as a standalone product.

San Francisco-based Square introduced Square KDS in November as part of Square for Restaurants Plus. It said at the time the technology helps restaurants manage and fulfill orders through multiple ordering channels. Those channels include restaurant Web sites, mobile, point of sale, and delivery apps. 

Such restaurant-management software can be especially important to pick-up and delivery-only kitchens, also known as “ghost kitchens,” which have popped up in the past 15 months as restaurants sought ways to evolve their businesses amid Covid-19 restrictions. Ghost restaurants are highly focused on the speed and quality of their kitchen operations, since customers ordering through online and mobile channels are not seated at a table and being served by the wait staff.

Now, Square says, its kitchen-display system should have appeal as a standalone product. “By enabling restaurants to subscribe to just Square KDS, we empower them to build the tech stack that works best for their business,” Lior Koren, product manager for Square KDS says by email. “Not only are they looking for ways to optimize and automate their workflows, they are looking for ways to connect their kitchen with their diners. No matter where their diners place their order, restaurants will be able to fulfill them from Square KDS.”

Untethering Square KDS is also a way for Square to embed itself deeper in the highly competitive restaurant-management software business, which is populated by the likes of such aggressive players as Shift4 Payments Inc.

“We’re constantly iterating and talking to our sellers to learn about—and build—the features that are most important to their business,” Koren says. “Square KDS’s functionality and flexibility is an important aspect of the decision of many restaurants who evaluate Square’s ecosystem.”

For example, Koren says a restaurant can transition to Square Online and accept orders through Square KDS, then transition over to Square’s POS solution for on-premises sales. 

“Restaurants can fulfill orders however a customer prefers, whether that’s physically in the dining room, via takeout, delivery, or curbside pickup,” Koren says. “Square KDS integrates orders from the point-of-sale, Square Online, and third-party online-ordering and delivery platforms, providing restaurants with one central place to manage orders.”

Square says Square KDS is available as a standalone product in the United States, as well as several other countries for $10 per month per device through the end of 2021. The application is also available on a standalone basis in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and Ireland. Square for Restaurants Plus subscribers can access unlimited Square KDS devices at no additional cost, according to the company.