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An in-house operating system for venues.

One system runs the whole room — and it stays running when the internet doesn't. The whole stack lives in the venue, not in someone else's cloud.

Every venue runs on a stack it doesn't control. Ten vendors, ten logins, ten invoices — a point of sale here, reservations there, payroll, loyalty, inventory, the books — and none of them speak to each other. The night the internet drops, half of them go dark with it.

cipher is the one system that replaces all of it. It lives in the venue, runs the entire floor and the entire office, and keeps ringing through an outage. One system. Seven surfaces. The operator owns their continuity; cipher owns the stack.

You bring the venue; cipher builds the stack.

The stack you already rent.

Run the math on what a venue pays to stitch ten tools together — POS, reservations, scheduling, inventory, loyalty, payroll, the books — and it lands around $4,450 a month, per location. Ten bills for one job none of them finish, because none of them connect.

  • Toast
  • SevenRooms
  • 7shifts
  • MarketMan
  • CRM / loyalty
  • ADP
  • QuickBooks
≈ $4,450 / month · per location
cipher one system

cipher is the one that replaces them.

What cipher runs

One system. The whole room.

Seven surfaces, one spine — every one of them native, not a browser tab dressed up as an app.

cipher POS — point of sale
Orders, tabs, and payments on hardened Linux terminals, with card readers at every station. Keeps taking orders — and cash — when the line to the internet goes down; card processing picks back up with the connection.
Reservations & tables
Bookings, the floor, covers, the waitlist — the front of house in the same system as the register, not bolted on from another vendor.
Memberships & loyalty
Member tiers and rotating QR check-in that can’t be screenshotted or saved. The guest relationship is yours — not rented from a CRM.
Inventory & the cellar
Live counts across every bar, pours, par levels, what’s on hand and what’s running low — without a separate app or a clipboard.
Back office
Sales, labor, and a real P&L on an actual cost basis — and a close-day that genuinely closes the day. The owner’s numbers, live, not a month behind.
Staff & HR
The whole employee lifecycle — hire, onboard, handbook, schedule, scanner — in one place instead of three subscriptions.
The public storefront
Your website, e-commerce, and member sign-up, on the same system as everything behind the bar.
Answers on tap
The floor gets the handbook and the playbook the moment they need them. The office gets its numbers explained, not just displayed.
Built closed
Passwordless sign-in, clearance-based access, default-deny security — and a network we run for you, so the night never depends on someone else's uptime.

The name is the thesis. cipher is the system. φ is the engine that runs underneath it. 7 is the key. Read it left to right and the name tells you exactly what it does — the system, the engine, the architect.

Founding operators · Southeast · no platform fees

A foundation, not a trial.

We're standing cipher up with eight to ten Southeast venues first — three months, no platform fees. Not a trial. A foundation. Founding operators shape the system every venue after them inherits. If you run a room in the Southeast, we'd like to hear from you — apply and we'll walk your floor. See the full price ladder.

Book a walkthrough Southeast · three months · no platform fees
What it takes

What your room needs.

cipher runs on infrastructure that lives in the venue. Some of it you may already have; the rest gets scoped with you before anything is billed. Ranges, operator to operator, so you can size it now.

On-prem network + server
from ~$1,500
A server, a core switch, and patch cabling for the floor — the spine the whole system runs on.
Cabling in the walls
venue-side
This is a venue-side prerequisite, not a cipher charge: each station needs two network drops run back to your server room — one for the terminal, one for the reader — or a single bar on one drop plus a small switch. If your room isn't wired for it yet, we scope the runs with you and you bring your own low-voltage; we don't mark cable up as software.
Terminals
retrofit or quoted
Already operating? We retrofit the terminals you have, where they qualify — and the remote printers with them. If not, we quote them.
Payments
~$250 / reader
A merchant processing account, plus a card reader at each point of sale.

No exact invoice until we've walked your floor. This is the shape of it, not the bill.

Questions

The short answers.

What is cipher?

cipher is an in-house operating system for venues. One system replaces the ten vendors a venue usually stitches together — point of sale, reservations, memberships, inventory, back office, staff and HR, and the public storefront — and it runs locally in the venue, so the floor keeps ringing through an internet outage.

Who is cipher for?

Hospitality venues first — restaurants, supper clubs, bars, lounges, nightlife rooms. Hospitality-first but retail-capable: scan a bottle or package’s barcode at the terminal and it rings straight onto the open tab — and the same UPC scanners drive inventory and receiving.

What does cipher include?

Seven surfaces on one spine: point of sale (front and back of house), reservations and table management, memberships and loyalty, inventory, staff scheduling, the books, and the public storefront. One system, not ten — installed, maintained, and secured by cipher.

Are cipher’s features native or add-ons?

Native — one system, one spine. Reservations, memberships and member rewards, inventory, scheduling, events, and agreements are built in, not bolted on through app marketplaces or third-party subscriptions. One login, one vendor, one bill.

Does cipher integrate with my existing POS (Toast, Square, Shift4)?

No — cipher IS the POS. It replaces the existing register stack rather than bolting onto it. One system, not an integration.

What does cipher replace?

The stack you already rent — POS, reservations, scheduling, inventory, loyalty, payroll, and the books. Ten tools that don’t talk to each other, around $4,450 a month per location. cipher is the one system that replaces all of it.

What does cipher cost?

POS (front and back of house) starts at $199/month — one server license and two terminals; additional terminals are $50/month. Full-platform tiers start at $499/month — see cipher7.io/pricing.

Can cipher run multiple locations?

Standing up a new venue is a single command — a fully-configured venue from a config file. Inside the venue, bars, kitchen stations, and storage zones are first-class locations with their own counts, PAR levels, and printer routing.

Does cipher handle credit card processing?

Card readers and processing are integrated and run through a partner merchant processor — cipher doesn’t hold merchant funds. 0%-processing options are available — ask when you apply.

Can I self-install cipher?

Two paths: white-glove — the cipher team installs on-site — or self-install, with hardware configured at the cipher office and shipped or picked up. Every install includes a site visit and network confirmation.

Can I run cipher on hardware I already own?

cipher isn’t a software download. It runs on hardware the cipher team builds and configures — hardened Linux kiosk terminals, locked down to run the POS and nothing else. Have machines already? On approved hardware, cipher wipes and reinstalls them into the same locked-down build.

What does the cipher POS run on?

Not Android, and not a tablet app. cipher’s point of sale runs on a hardened Linux operating system with a locked-down kiosk build — terminals boot into the POS and nothing else.

Why does cipher run on Linux instead of Android?

Legacy registers ran on Windows, which Microsoft has wound down for point of sale; most modern POS moved to Android tablets — cheap hardware, quick to ship, on an app-store model that puts third-party downloadable apps on the same device that rings the sales. cipher takes the other path: a hardened Linux OS in a locked-down kiosk that boots into the POS and nothing else — no app store, no third-party apps, one vendor patching and maintaining the whole stack. Quick to ship isn’t the same as hard to break.

Is cipher open source?

No. cipher is a licensed, managed platform — cipher builds, secures, and maintains the stack. Operators get a supported system, not a codebase to maintain.

What kind of POS is cipher — enterprise software, open source, or something else?

Neither. Linux POS options usually come in two shapes: enterprise suites sold through long contracts, and open-source systems you host and maintain yourself. cipher is a third shape — a turnkey local appliance. It runs on hardened Linux inside the venue like a self-hosted system, but cipher installs, maintains, patches, and secures it like a managed vendor. Not open source, not a tablet app, no IT staff required.

Does cipher work when the internet goes down?

Yes — the system runs in-house and keeps ringing through an outage. The POS database is stored locally, so service doesn’t stop when the connection does — card processing resumes when the connection returns.

Who maintains the system?

cipher does — patched, hardened, and backed up by cipher. You never staff an IT department.

Can cipher send agreements for signature?

Yes — agreements go out for e-signature by SMS link, and signed copies are stored automatically.

Can cipher run ticketed events?

Yes — create an event and the public site updates itself: pricing, tickets, tables. No web developer in the loop.

How deep is the inventory system?

Counting and stock-ups run right at the terminal — scan, weigh, log. The management brain — receiving, purchase orders, recipes, reports — runs in cipher’s portals. All one system.

Does cipher handle staff onboarding?

Staff onboarding is built in — send the new hire one link, they complete their paperwork, and the hire is confirmed once a manager verifies the I-9. Every document e-signed and stored automatically.

Is data encrypted?

Yes — in transit and at rest. We protect your data on a hardened Linux build that cipher patches and maintains. Security ships built in — it isn’t a checklist the venue has to manage.

How do I start?

cipher is rolling out venue-by-venue across the Southeast. Apply below — we’ll walk your floor and tell you if your room is a fit.

Can I get cipher for my venue?

Yes — cipher is a commercial point-of-sale and venue platform. It’s rolling out through Southeast venues now; contact inquiry@cipher7.io or visit cipher7.io/home#apply and we’ll walk your floor.

Want the full detail? Read the capability catalog — the seven surfaces and the architecture.

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