6 Best POS Systems For Mac

The Square For Retail Plus plan includes inventory management features like vendor management, inventory counts, automated purchase ordering, and barcode printing. You can also accept cross-location returns and exchanges on the Plus plan.

Square also offers an appointment booking software for service businesses, Square Appointments.

Note: All free plans apply to single-location businesses only. If you open multiple locations, you must upgrade to a Plus plan.

Popular add-ons include Square Loyalty ($45+/month), Square Payroll ($35+/month), and Square Marketing ($15+/month).

Square has software features for retail and service businesses, but no matter which industry plan you choose, you get these free features:

• Square Online: Free online store builder that allows you to sell items, memberships, and/or schedule appointments
• Square Invoices: Free invoice builder to send estimates, charge deposits, and charge cards on file for things like multi-stage home improvement projects or B2B retail orders
• Unlimited Devices: On the free plan, you can use an unlimited number of tablets at your location
• Square Checkout Links: Accept payments via QR code, hyperlink, email, text, social media profile, or buy button embedded in a website
• Square Dashboard: Manage your inventory, reports, online store, appointments, customer profiles, and your team from anywhere on one tablet dashboard

Square Online store builder on a web browser.

Retail establishments will appreciate the Square social media integrations for selling on Instagram or TikTok, the Google product listing integration, and features like product reviews and saved carts.

Service businesses such as salons (Square is one of the best salon POS systems) or home repair businesses will appreciate the Google appointment booking integration, customer confirmation notifications and automated reminders, retail sales capabilities, and the ability to manage resources like manpower, in-store product usage, and tools.

Square POS on Mac with connected Square Terminal card reader.

You’ll need to connect the $299 Square Terminal to your Mac to take orders and payments in a streamlined way, or you can manually enter customers’ credit card numbers into the web-based POS app to accept payments.

However, if you manually enter card numbers, you will be charged higher payment processing fees.

All Square accounts include payment processing with Square Payments at the following prices:

• 2.6% + $0.10 for card-present payments
• 2.9% + $0.30 for online payments through a Square Online site
• 3.5% + $0.15 for manually keyed-in card payments (using a virtual terminal or card on file)

Square offers monthly contracts that are easy to cancel with no early termination fees.

You will need to purchase the Square Terminal if you want to give customers the ability to pay with chip cards and for a more streamlined POS register payment setup.

Helcim’s POS software is completely free to use. You only pay Helcim’s payment processing fees.

Helcim’s free Mac POS system offers all standard POS functions, and it’s easy for employees to add products, discounts, tips, and customer accounts during transactions. You can also sell individual items and sell to businesses using customer portals and large catalogs.

Helcim’s invoicing and recurring payment features are what sets Helcim apart from the other providers in this list. Helcim’s invoicing features include:

• Custom drag-and-drop invoice creation and payment settings
• Set full and partial invoice due dates
• Send reminders to customers about upcoming and overdue invoice payments
• Set recurring invoice payments with a card or account on file
• Create automated and manual tax settings for invoices

Helcim invoice designer request deposit for B2B wholesale order.

Helcim’s subscription management includes prorated billing, so you only charge customers for the days they use their subscription. It also includes metered billing, so you charge based on monthly usage data and can add one-time fees and add-ons. Customers will get an automated reminder when their card is about to expire.

You can also create free trials for customers. If a customer cancels their subscription, you can get feedback that will help you understand why they canceled to optimize your subscription business.

Helcim’s POS and web pages (including checkout carts, subscription signup, approvals, and client portals) can be built with a drag-and-drop builder, so your pages will have only the information you want, and they will all be custom-branded. This is useful for businesses that only need certain information fields, like those selling services, as you can remove fields like the shipping address.

Helcim credit card reader and POS terminal on a desktop device.

Helcim has a desktop app available on the Mac App Store so you can take sales offline. Helcim’s card reader costs $99 and you just connect it to your Mac via Bluetooth to take payments.

There are also a few compatible receipt printers available.

Helcim offers interchange-plus payment processing for all businesses, small or large. There are no minimum sales volumes or transaction numbers. This is highly uncommon among POS providers.

The company offers a sample “find your custom rate” tool on its website so you can easily see a rate estimate and how much you could save by switching to interchange-plus payment processing.

Similar to Square, Helcim offers very flexible month-to-month contracts with no early termination fees.

Hike POS plans come with one register license per location. Additional registers cost $39/month/device and extra locations cost $99/location/month.

This cloud-based all-in-one POS has several features beneficial to small- to mid-sized businesses.

Standout features include:

• POS inventory management system with tracking across multiple locations, automated reordering, custom barcodes, reminders, and updates
• Customizable loyalty program
• Real-time business analytics and numerous customizable reports
• Integrations including QuickBooks, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Shopify, and Mailchimp
• Customer and employee management
• In-store, online, and Amazon Marketplace sales

Note: If you’re looking for a retail POS system with a built-in online store builder, more online sales marketplace integrations, and better online/offline sales features, look into Shopify POS, one of our best retail POS systems. The POS software runs only on iPad and Android, but purchasing an iPad is worth it for the retail sales feature upgrades.

Receipt printer, cash drawer, Hike POS on Mac, barcode scanner.

Hike POS can be used directly from your Mac through a web browser or offline with the Hike POS app for Mac. Hike also sells various POS equipment, including barcode scanners, receipt printers, label printers, cash drawers, and hardware bundles. Contact the company for more information on hardware pricing.

Hike integrates with several payment processors in the US. Options include Square, PayPal, Elavon, WorldPay, TSYS, and Chase.

Hike POS does not have any contracts or hidden fees.

Make sure to read through any payment processing contracts before signing with any merchant services providers. Many providers have lengthy contract terms and early termination fees, so make sure to negotiate a good merchant agreement.

KORONA offers two monthly plans as well as the following best retail POS system add-ons:

• Plus: $20/month/terminal; includes advanced inventory management features like order level optimization and the ability to create different product pricing for each location
• Invoicing: $10/terminal/month; includes features like quotes, rentals, and invoicing
• Ticketing: $50/month/gate; includes features like ticket tiers and printing, customer management, and entry gate management
• Franchise: $30/month/franchise; includes features like automated royalty payments and consolidated inventory management
• Integration: $45/month/integration via KORONA’s open API

Other features, such as self-serve kiosk hardware and software, require a custom quote.

KORONA’s most unique POS features are its loss prevention features, affordable inventory management, and franchise capabilities. The loss prevention features make KORONA an especially strong liquor store POS system and convenience store POS system.

You’ll get these loss prevention features with KORONA:

• Forced drawer closing, blind till counts, and restricting cash drawer access to open only when they make a sale
• Require manager approval for item voids, price changes, item returns, and inventory changes
• Run cash drawer reports at any time, at the end of shifts, and set maximum allowed balance differences
• Cashier balance and time tracking reports
• Restrict which cashiers can grant permissions to other cashiers (used for managers who need to be able to use registers but will also need to create new cashiers and associated cashier permissions)

KORONA POS system edit cashier permissions.

KORONA offers great inventory management capabilities for its price point, and even general businesses can appreciate these features:

• Set reordering levels with preferred vendor/warehouse reordering sources
• Pack to single item conversion (great for selling items like cigarettes and liquor bottles)
• Product performance reports, including slow sellers, product movement, and reorder optimization level recommendations
• Stock difference lists and product discrepancy reports
• Inventory app so you can send purchase orders, receive items, and scan barcodes from your phone (Plus plan and higher only)

KORONA POS edit product information on the web-based dashboard.

Franchise owners will appreciate the ability to create portals for franchisees with restricted user permissions. You’ll also get franchise revenue reports and a royalty collection setup.

KORONA’s event and ticket management features make this system great for niche businesses like amusement parks and museums.

KORONA POS terminal, cash drawer, credit card terminal, and receipt printer.

Like Helcim, KORONA has a desktop POS app available for download, meaning you can take payments offline.

KORONA does not list pricing for hardware accessories online but is compatible with hardware from Epson, PartnerTech, PAX, Genius, Dejavoo, Econduit, Aures, Honeywell, and more.

You will need to connect your Mac device to a card reader to take card payments.

KORONA does not offer in-house payment processing but instead integrates with several payment processors, including Merchant Warehouse and Merchant Payment Systems.

You can also integrate KORONA with several merchant service providers through PAX and Dejavoo payment devices.

KORONA offers month-to-month contracts with no early termination fees. You can pay for an annual contract and get one month free.

The provider also offers an unlimited free trial so you can try out the software for as long as you need to before committing to it.

You do have to be careful about your merchant agreement and make sure the terms are fair for your business. High-risk business owners should expect to pay a little more for payment processing than other lower-risk business owners.

Poster POS offers the following subscription plans:

• Mini: $29/month ($24/month with annual billing)
• Business: $49/month ($44/month with annual billing)
• Pro: $69/month ($64/month with annual billing)

We recommend the Mini plan for small eateries that don’t have a large menu or need conversational item modifiers. The Business plan is for midsize restaurants and bars that open tabs for customers. The Pro plan is for full-service restaurants that accept table reservations.

Popular add-ons include the Poster Shop web-based online store builder app ($19/month), Poster Courier delivery management app ($5/month/courier), and GetOrder third-party delivery platform integration ($30/month).

Poster’s most important restaurant POS features include:

• Inventory Management: Assign ingredients to dishes and non-perishable items (e.g., coffee stirrers) to supplies. Take stock at any time and monitor stock movements. Transfer items to different storage locations (e.g., between two restaurants or two stations within one restaurant) and closely monitor where stock is going.
• Menu Builder: Poster POS has a surprisingly thorough menu builder that syncs well with your inventory management. You can create dishes and even create prep ingredients out of base ingredients (e.g., make “dough” out of flour, salt, and water) to create menu items quickly. Menus can be synced across in-person and online ordering platforms.
• Online Ordering: Allow customers to order online for takeout or delivery on the inexpensive online ordering platform builder. Incorporate the Poster courier logistics app to manage your delivery drivers. Add a QR code menu around your busy restaurant so customers can order at their table instead of waiting for servers during times when you’re short-staffed.
• Loyalty & Promotions: Poster includes a simple POS loyalty program builder that you can use to give members discounts on specific days, items, or other promotion conditions. It’s easy to sign customers up and servers just have to look up customers by name during checkout. You can also just create time-based or item-based promotions and apply the promotion to all patrons.

You can connect Poster POS to the kitchen display system app if you get an Android tablet. If you do that, servers can fire orders from the Mac POS terminal, and kitchen staff will see them on a screen rather than a printed kitchen ticket. Kitchen staff can mark off various stages of cooking and receive orders from online platforms as well.

Poster POS also has an affordable table reservation integration that allows customers to make reservations on their own and servers can accept and monitor reservations.

Note: If you’re looking for a POS system that’s easier to use and has more restaurant management features, Square For Restaurants and Lightspeed Restaurant are two of the best restaurant POS systems. You’ll just have to invest in an iPad.

Poster POS receipt printer, plus Poster on desktop, mobile device, and tablet.

You may accept payments via an integrated SumUp card reader ($19) or a non-integrated card reader that a third-party payment processing company would provide to you.

You can use just about any USB or Bluetooth receipt printer and any WiFi-enabled kitchen printer with Poster.

Poster integrates directly with SumUp for in-person payments at 2.65% for in-person orders, and Stripe for online orders.

You may also take payments with a non-integrated card reader for custom payment processing fees, although there is a little extra work involved in using this option.

Poster POS does require some extra work to set up, especially since it is a newer POS system without a huge library of tutorials and user demos. With the extra work comes more flexibility, though, especially in terms of payment processing and hardware requirements.

There are no early termination fees with Poster POS.

With Odoo, you get one app for free, so you can get your POS app without spending any money.

The paid plans are as follows:

• Standard: $31.10/user/month ($24.90/user/month with annual billing)
• Custom: $46.80/user/month ($37.40/user/month with annual billing)

With paid plans, you get access to all Odoo apps.

The Custom plan also includes an on-premise local installation offer for offline sales, multi-company management, the Odoo Studio which allows you to create your own Odoo apps, and an external API (application program interface) for even more developer customizations.

Odoo’s POS app comes with built-in inventory management and invoicing. Purchases are called “sessions” and you can create itemized sales or custom payments. Inventory can get very customized, including the ability to print barcode labels in a variety of sizes.

Much like Helcim, Odoo’s invoicing software allows you to create stylized invoice templates, store B2B customer information, and create custom repayment terms. Unlike Helcim, Odoo has expansive accounting software built into the invoicing software, and with some more account setup, you can keep even better track of your business activity.

However, the POS app is average, so we really like Odoo because of the other apps available. This includes HR and payroll software, a customer helpdesk ticket management app, a manufacturing order management app, a quality control monitoring app, and shipping courier integrations. No matter what kind of business you own or how large it is, Odoo has everything you and your employees need to succeed.

Odoo Rental management app item rental calendar.

You can purchase a Stripe Terminal card reader to take in-person payments. Depending on your model, you may spend between $59 and $299.

You can also choose a credit card reader from another third-party payment processing provider.

Odoo users most often use Stripe to process online and in-person payments, so you’ll be subject to Stripe fees. There are no additional fees to take payments through Odoo. You will have to set up the Stripe connection, and while it isn’t straightforward, there are tutorials to show you how Stripe works.

You also have the option to integrate Odoo with one of several payment providers such as Chase, Authorize.Net, and PayPal.

Note: If you’re looking for a highly customizable POS system with a built-in payment processor and you’re willing to move to an iPad-based POS, Revel Systems is a good alternative to Odoo’s POS system.

Odoo is an extremely flexible software provider with no early termination fees, so the only warning we can give is that it will take a little while to fully set up and appreciate all that Odoo has to offer.