TL;DR
iPOS has deep F&B roots and a strong hardware ecosystem. LOOP wins on AI-driven operations, real-time multi-outlet visibility, and a pricing model that doesn't penalise growth per device.
LOOP vs iPOS — Multi-Outlet F&B Comparison
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PEKO ecosystem
LOOP runs the venue. PEKO brings the customer back. Two products, one company.
PEKO — the AI customer-retention platform (heypeko.com) from the same company as LOOP. PEKO handles retention; LOOP handles operations.
| LOOP — operations | PEKO — retention |
|---|---|
| Inventory & recipes | Churn prediction |
| Shift & staff management | Automated win-back |
| Table layout | Member portal |
| Kitchen display (KDS) | Loyalty tiers |
| E-invoice (TT78) | Receipt OCR enrolment |
| Aggregator queue (GrabFood / ShopeeFood / Be) |
LOOP and PEKO each work on their own. Run both and the data syncs into one single AI brain, so nothing is entered twice. PEKO is not a POS and does not replace one — it also runs alongside any other POS.
Choose LOOP if
- ✓You run 2+ outlets and want one operator who can speak commands instead of clicking.
- ✓You want AI demand forecasting per daypart (target MAPE 14–22%), not gut-feel.
- ✓You're on SEA payment rails (VietQR, PromptPay, QRIS, DuitNow, PayNow, QR Ph).
- ✓You're already on PEKO loyalty (or planning to) — 50% lifetime LOOP discount.
Choose iPOS if
- →You want a bundled hardware package (POS terminal + printer + KDS) with on-site installation in HCMC or Hanoi.
- →You need a large local partner network for tier-2/tier-3 city rollouts and phone support in Vietnamese.
- →Your ops team prefers a proven, feature-stable F&B stack over an AI-first product.
- →Your outlets are franchise-heavy and each franchisee expects a familiar iPOS interface.
| Feature | LOOP | iPOS |
|---|---|---|
| Bundled AI customer-retention platform (PEKO) | Yes — POS + PEKO share one diner identity; 34% second-visit retention vs 19% industry baseline (PEKO 2026 dataset) | Not offered — iPOS has no AI customer-retention layer like PEKO |
| AI voice & text commands (Vietnamese) | Ask LOOP in Vietnamese — pull reports, change prices, draft promos from a phone call | Not available |
| Pricing model | Flat per-outlet, unlimited devices | Per-device licensing |
| AI forecasting & anomaly detection | Native | Reports only |
| Central kitchen transfers | Push + pull, real-time | Manual transfer slips |
Bottom line
Pick iPOS if you want a battle-tested, hardware-bundled F&B stack and don't need AI day one. Pick LOOP if multi-outlet visibility and forecasting are how you plan to grow margin.
Why teams pick LOOP
- No per-device fee — open every till and KDS you need.
- AI digest each morning highlights what changed yesterday.
- One menu, multiple outlets, instant sync.
iPOS's strengths — let's name them honestly
iPOS has been in Vietnamese F&B for over a decade, sells bundled hardware, has a service network in HCMC, Hanoi and Da Nang, and ranks well on consumer-discovery queries (their order.ipos.vn subdomains host hundreds of restaurant brand menus). Operators who picked iPOS in 2018–2022 generally know the product, have trained staff, and aren't suffering daily pain. None of that is going away.
Where iPOS's content reach distorts the buyer view: a lot of the 60K+ monthly organic traffic Semrush attributes to ipos.vn comes from consumer queries (Mixue menu, Haidilao prices, cafe-finder posts) rather than operator buyer-intent terms. If you're evaluating iPOS the product (not the iPOS blog), the field is much more even than the top-line traffic number implies.
Per-device licensing vs. flat per-outlet pricing
iPOS prices per device — each POS terminal, each KDS screen, each manager tablet adds a line item. For a 5-outlet quán with 3 till devices + 2 KDS + 1 manager tablet per outlet (6 devices × 5 = 30), the device fees compound to roughly 1.6–2.2× LOOP's flat per-outlet bill at the same configuration.
LOOP's per-outlet plan is flat regardless of how many devices the outlet runs. Add a fourth till for Friday-night peak? Free. Hand out 4 manager tablets for line-busting during Tết? Free. The operating implication: a LOOP operator never has to model 'is the extra terminal worth it?' — they just deploy it.
If your outlet operates with 1 till + 1 KDS + 1 manager tablet, the pricing gap narrows. The wider your hardware footprint per outlet, the more lopsided this becomes in LOOP's favour.
Hardware ecosystem: bundled vs. BYO
iPOS sells hardware bundles — order the POS, you get the iPOS-branded terminal, printer, drawer and KDS shipped and installed. This is genuinely convenient for first-outlet operators with no hardware preference. The downside: extending or replacing hardware later usually means going through iPOS again.
LOOP is BYO: any Android tablet, any Windows touchscreen, any ESC/POS receipt or kitchen printer, any standard cash drawer, any USB or Bluetooth barcode scanner works. We publish a tested hardware list per country (Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore) and our installers will work with whatever you already own. Hardware capex per outlet for a LOOP deployment runs about 35–55% lower than a comparable iPOS bundle.
AI: digest, voice command, forecast — what's actually new
iPOS provides reports. An owner reading the iPOS dashboard on Sunday morning can find most of what they need — it's just slow and requires manual interpretation.
LOOP collapses the same loop to four daily-driver workflows. The morning AI digest, in Vietnamese, names the three things that changed yesterday and the recommended next action. Voice/text command — 'LOOP, in báo cáo doanh thu chi nhánh Quận 1 hôm qua' — completes inside 12 seconds while you're driving to the kitchen. Per-outlet × per-daypart demand forecast feeds the prep list overnight. Anomaly detector pages the operator at 14:00 if void rate at outlet #3 spikes 2σ above baseline.
If you read reports anyway and don't mind doing it on your own time, you won't miss AI. If you'd rather have the system tell you what to do next, the gap is felt within a month.
Central kitchen and recipe-level inventory
iPOS supports central-kitchen workflows but most deployments we audit use manual transfer slips (a printed paper or shared Excel between central kitchen and outlets). It works but is slow and error-prone at the 4th+ outlet.
LOOP's central-kitchen module is a real push-and-pull queue. Outlet manager taps 'request 10kg beef + 8L broth' from the morning prep list; central kitchen sees the request, fulfils it, the inventory move is logged automatically with timestamps and signatures. Closing the kitchen book at month-end takes minutes, not days.
Pricing comparison
Indicative 2026 list pricing. iPOS deals are negotiated per customer; ranges below reflect what operators told us in onboarding interviews (n=37).
| Plan | LOOP | iPOS |
|---|---|---|
| Per outlet base / mo | ₫499K (Growth) / ₫999K (Business) | ₫600K–₫1.5M depending on tier |
| Per-device fees | ₫0 — unlimited devices | ~₫150–250K per terminal / KDS / mo |
| Hardware capex per outlet | ₫8–14M (BYO Android + ESC/POS) | ₫18–32M (bundled iPOS hardware) |
| AI features (digest / voice / forecast) | Included Growth+ | Not offered as a per-outlet AI workflow |
| Central-kitchen module | Included Business | Custom quote |
| Bundled diner loyalty (PEKO) | Included all tiers | Not offered |
Dated 2026 benchmarks
As of
| Metric | LOOP | iPOS | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| All-in monthly cost, 5-outlet × 6-device deployment | ~₫2.5M (5 × ₫499K) | ~₫4.5–6.5M (base + per-device) | Onboarding interviews 2026, n=37 iPOS migrators |
| AI workflows shipped (voice / digest / forecast / anomaly) | 4/4 native | 0/4 native | Product audit 2026-05 — feature parity matrix |
| Central-kitchen transfer cycle time | <60 seconds (in-app push/pull) | 5–15 minutes (manual slip + reconcile) | LOOP onboarding audits, n=42 outlets |
| Operator hours saved/outlet/week vs. report-driven workflows | 9.5 hours (AI Hours Saved 2026) | Baseline | /en/research/ai-hours-saved-restaurant-operators-vietnam-2026 |
Migration playbook
iPOS → LOOP cutover follows the same parallel-run pattern as the KiotViet migration, with one extra step: iPOS hardware can usually be re-flashed and kept in service under LOOP, which preserves your capex.
- 01
Data export from iPOS (week -2)
LOOP exports menu, modifiers, ingredients, supplier list, customer DB and 12 months of sales history from iPOS via their CSV export. Loyalty balances and gift-card credits are migrated 1:1 — no diner ever sees their points reset.
- 02
Hardware re-use audit (week -1)
Most iPOS-branded Android terminals can be re-flashed for LOOP. ESC/POS printers, drawers and barcode scanners are kept as-is. Items we replace: proprietary KDS screens (~5% of deployments). The hardware-reuse rate across 2026 iPOS migrations is 87%.
- 03
Cutover weekend with parallel run
Saturday after close: iPOS goes read-only for refunds, LOOP comes live for new orders. A LOOP engineer is on-site at each outlet through Sunday brunch. By Monday open, LOOP is the system of record; iPOS reporting stays accessible 90 days.
- 04
Aggregator + HĐĐT + payment rails
GrabFood, ShopeeFood, Be and foodpanda merchant credentials re-point to LOOP. HĐĐT re-issuer (Viettel/FPT/VNPT) is re-wired through LOOP's connector. VietQR, MoMo, ZaloPay continue with the same merchant accounts — no settlement disruption.
- 05
Voice-command rollout (week +2)
Owners and area managers are onboarded to LOOP voice commands in week 2 using real prior-week data. Typical first-week voice usage: 18–28 commands/day per owner; mature usage stabilises at 35–60.
Typical operator downtime during cutover: 0 hours. iPOS stays read-only; LOOP runs live in parallel. Average iPOS → LOOP migration in 2026 completed in 21 days from kickoff to LOOP being the sole system of record.
Which one is right for you?
Single outlet already on iPOS, profitable, no chain plans
Stay on iPOS
Switching cost outweighs the device-fee and AI gains at a single profitable outlet. Revisit when you open outlet #2.
2–5 outlets running 5+ devices/outlet
Switch to LOOP
Flat per-outlet pricing alone usually cuts software cost 40–60%. AI workflows + central-kitchen module compound the gain. Typical payback: <45 days.
6+ outlets, central kitchen, multi-region
LOOP Business
Native central-kitchen push/pull and per-outlet × daypart forecasting are step-changes over iPOS's manual transfer model. SLA support included.
F&B inside a hotel group with global procurement
Trial LOOP for chain ops, keep iPOS for compliance if procurement insists
Some hotel groups have legacy iPOS procurement contracts. LOOP can run alongside as the chain-operations layer while iPOS continues as the till of record.
Frequently asked
- Does LOOP work with my existing iPOS hardware?
- In most cases yes — LOOP runs on Android tablets, Windows touchscreens, and standard ESC/POS receipt printers, including the hardware iPOS deployments commonly use.
- Does LOOP include loyalty?
- LOOP handles operations. For AI-driven customer retention, PEKO is the sibling product from the same company — it runs alongside LOOP or alongside any other POS. Together they cover operations and retention.
- Can PEKO handle inventory and staff scheduling?
- No — PEKO is the retention layer. LOOP covers inventory, recipes, shifts, table management and kitchen display in the same ecosystem.