Best POS Systems For Small Business

If you want Lightspeed’s customizable loyalty program builder but don’t need the highest-level plan, you can get a lower-level plan and talk to Lightspeed about a Lightspeed Loyalty add-on.

Note: Each plan comes with one location and one register. You may purchase additional registers for $59/register/month. With each new location, you get another register. For example, if you have two locations, you’ll get two registers, one in each location, but will only pay the added location fee. If you purchase a third register license, you’ll pay the added location fee and an additional $59/month.

Lightspeed offers several proprietary add-ons such as Lightspeed Subscriptions, plus third-party integrations like Booxi appointment scheduling software and Hubtiger rental software.

All business owners will appreciate Lightspeed’s customizable loyalty program, extensive inventory management features, work order monitoring, and Lightspeed eCom capabilities.

The unique inventory matrixing system makes it simple for retailers to sell items in singular departments or across departments, add inventory tags to items, and attach items to a vendor. When you’re running low on something, you get a low-stock alert, and then you can look up a vendor and order several things at once.

Retailers will appreciate Lightspeed’s unique shopping features, such as purchasing online for in-store pick-up, item holds/layaway, and an online customer return/exchange portal.

If you rent out items, venues, or services, Lightspeed Retail has excellent form builders, appointment scheduling, and a dedicated reservation app.

Lightspeed is also great for wholesalers. It has a quote system, catalog builder, customer accounts, pricing adjustments/discounts by customer group, minimum order requirements, and wholesale to individual item breakdowns.

Finally, we are impressed by Lightspeed’s multi-location features, which include:

• Stock transfers across locations
• Pricing variations, depending on the location
• Allowing customers to choose where to pick up online items
• Loyalty points syncing across locations so customers can collect/redeem points at all stores

You can purchase a Lightspeed Payments-compatible WisePOS Ecard reader for $299 and an iPad for $329. You must buy your card reader directly from Lightspeed to ensure it is compatible with Lightspeed Payments, the company’s required payment processor.

Lightspeed offers accessories such as an iPad stand for $199, a cash drawer for $129, a barcode scanner for $199, a label printer for $124, and a receipt printer for $399.

Contact a Lightspeed representative and ask about a discount on a retail POS hardware bundle.

In-house payment processing with Lightspeed Payments is required for all Lightspeed Retail users in the US and Canada (Lightspeed is one of the best Canadian POS systems.) The rate is 2.6% + $0.10 for all in-person card present payments and 2.9% + $0.30 for all online payments.

To get the best prices, you are required to sign up for at least an annual Lightspeed plan. However, there are early termination fees for canceling a plan, so we recommend starting with a monthly plan until you’re sure Lightspeed Retail is a good POS for you.

Also, you must verify that you have received your Lightspeed hardware within five business days of receiving it. If you don’t, the equipment is not covered under Lightspeed’s 30-day warranty (14 days for Apple products.)

All Square plans allow you to install the Square POS app on an unlimited number of devices. If you have multiple locations, you pay for each location.

The free plan is completely free to use forever, can be installed on an unlimited number of devices, and you can start using Square immediately. Paid plans are billed by device and location.

Popular Square add-ons include:

• Square Loyalty: $15+/month
• Square Payroll: $39+/month
• Square Marketing: $15+/month
• Square Invoices Plus: $20/month
• Square Online (Paid Version): $29/month Plus plan; $79/month Premium plan

Restaurants may purchase a Square KDS subscription for $20/device/month on the free Square For Restaurants plan, while those on the paid plan can install the Square KDS app on an unlimited number of devices.

All Square users have access to these features for free, which is very uncommon among POS providers:

• Free retail and takeout/delivery ordering website
• Free Square checkout links to take invoice payments and make sales without a website
• Free appointment scheduling link for small service-based business owners
• Unlimited POS devices so businesses can take payments in several ways

Square For Retail users can sell products in person, on their website, on social media sites like TikTok and Instagram, and list products on Google so users can discover them. Products are synced across all sales platforms, so inventory is always updated.

Square For Restaurants (one of our best free restaurant POS systems) allows you to take orders quickly with conversational modifiers, accept tips, manage orders from multiple ordering platforms, take online orders through a personalized ordering site, and Order with Google. Using Order with Google, people searching for restaurants near them will discover your restaurant and order from your Google Business Profile.

Small business owners such as salon or nail business owners can use Square Appointments (one of our best salon POS systems) to allow people to book appointments on their website, Instagram, Google, and through a button embedded into emails and other webpages. You can also send automated appointment reminders, set up time tracking to bill by the hour, and access team management capabilities, all on the free Square Appointments plan.

Square requires you to use Square Payments, the company’s built-in payment processing on all plans. You are charged a flat 2.6% + $0.10 per tap, dip, or swipe card/digital wallet payment (2.5% on paid Square Plus plans). Manually keyed-in card payments and invoice payments have a rate of 3.5% + $0.15, while the payment processing fee rate for online store payments is 2.9% + $0.30.

Square has highly flexible month-to-month plans with no penalties for canceling early or remaining inactive. The company also has a generous POS hardware warranty.

One of the only caveats is that Square has an aggregated merchant account model, which means that businesses do not get their own dedicated merchant accounts. This may, in rare cases, lead to withheld funds on transactions that Square’s algorithm flags as high-risk or even sudden account termination for some merchants.

Shopify’s eCommerce pricing plans range from $39/month to $399/month. You get 25% off if you pay for an entire year upfront. Each eCommerce plan offers the “Shopify POS Lite” app for $5/month.

For more retail features, such as store pickup and unlimited staff accounts, you’ll need the $89/month/location Shopify Pro subscription, which is added to your monthly eCommerce plan. Additionally, while there are many free Shopify apps on the company’s app market, some require you to sign up for a paid subscription.

Your payment processing rate decreases on higher-level plans. Once small businesses start processing a more substantial amount of payments, they should strongly consider upgrading to save money in the long run.

Shopify’s in-person sales solution integrates well with the company’s eCommerce software, making Shopify an excellent POS with eCommerce sales option. With Shopify, retailers can:

• Sell on their own website for in-store pickup, local delivery, curbside pickup, or shipping
• Sell on social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, WhatsApp, and Snapchat
• Sell on marketplaces such as Amazon, eBay, Etsy, and Walmart Marketplace
• Connect to dropshipping apps to start their own dropshipping business
• Sync inventory across all sales channels

Shopify’s free in-store sales features include the ability to take partial payments/deposits, schedule discounts and generate digital coupons, put items on layaway, and take custom payment types.

The paid Shopify Pro POS app adds functions like exchanges, purchase ordering functions, and stock transfers between locations.

Shopify’s newly released Shopify Markets tool makes this POS system a great choice for small sellers who want to take their first steps toward international commerce. While other POS providers, and even other eCommerce store builders, require you to pay more or just aren’t equipped to handle international sales, Shopify has created global selling software and offers it with every Shopify store at no added cost.

With Shopify Markets, small business owners can easily translate their store into multiple languages, accept different local currency payment types, create different shipping settings for different geographical areas, and limit their content/offerings by region.

We do have to note that most of Shopify’s best features will come in the form of an app from Shopify’s app market. The market has over 8,000 apps, with more being added every day. With a Shopify add-on app, you can create product catalogs, start an email marketing campaign, and sell subscriptions and memberships — your only limit is your imagination (and, in some cases, your willingness to pay an added monthly software subscription fee).

Shopify POS register stand with a card reader.

The Shopify app runs on most phones and tablets. Like Square, Shopify now has Tap to Pay on iPhone, which allows iPhone users to take contactless payment types on their phones, no hardware required.

There are many Shopify POS hardware options available. The Shopify Chip & Swipe Reader, which is the bare minimum requirement for taking chip card and mobile wallet payments, starts at $49. The $219 Shopify Retail Kit includes an iPad stand, Shopify card reader, Shopify card reader dock, and iPad stand mount.

Shopify also allows you to build your retail kit, where you can pick and choose which iPad equipment, barcode scanners, cash drawers, and receipt printers you’d like to include in your bundle. This gives small business owners more choice while also ensuring that every piece of hardware is compatible with the Shopify POS app.

Processing with Shopify Payments is included on all plans, or you can use an external processor for an additional transaction fee. In-person payment processing fees for Shopify Payments range from 2.4% to 2.7%, depending on your plan. Online processing fees range from 2.4% to 2.9% + $0.30.

Note: If you choose to use a third-party payment processor, Shopify will charge a transaction fee ranging from 0.5% to 2% per transaction. This fee will be in addition to the fee you have to pay your third-party payment processing provider. If you can get much better rates from somewhere else, then paying the transaction fee to Shopify may be worth it.

All Shopify plans are billed month-to-month, which means there is no long-term commitment. You can spring for an annual plan for better pricing.

Most Shopify requirements surround payment processing. To use Shopify Payments, you must meet Shopify product sales guidelines and purchase a card reader directly from Shopify (no high-risk businesses allowed.) To use a Shopify-approved third-party payment processor, you must use a card reader sold by that payment processor and pay an added transaction fee ranging from 0.5% to 2%.

TouchBistro offers the following plans, but the company requires every small business owner to get a custom quote, so your pricing may be different than listed below:

• Solo: $69/month for one software license; $105/month for one iPad and software license bundle
• Dual: $129/month for two software licenses; $209/month for software and hardware
• Team: $249/month for five software licenses; $359/month for software and hardware
• Unlimited: $399/month for unlimited licenses; custom pricing for software and hardware

The company also charges a nonrefundable setup fee that starts at $200 and includes your hardware setup plus software walkthrough.

There are also add-ons available at the following prices:

• Online Ordering: $50/month
• Loyalty Program: $99/month
• Marketing: $99/month
• Gift Cards: $25/month
• Reservations: $229/month

Note: While the TouchBistro Reservations app is admittedly pricey, there are no per-order fees that you would get by pairing your POS software with third-party reservation management software.

TouchBistro’s best small business POS features include offline sales capabilities, upselling features, reservation and waitlist apps, and catering features. The system also has an affordable loyalty program builder, which is useful for converting more customers (but we understand if aspiring fine dining establishments don’t want to implement one.)

As servers take orders, they get upselling suggestions in real-time, plus comprehensive item information, including nutrition and allergen facts, to describe dishes. Patrons who order online get automated upselling suggestions that update in real time as they add and remove items from their orders.

The best full-service restaurant features include:

• Reservation System: Customers can make reservations from your web app, Google Business Profile, or by phone. TouchBistro has created a separate reservation app so that you can view and modify reservations, send reminder emails/phone messages about upcoming reservations to reduce no-shows, and create floor plans specifically for managing reservations.
• Waitlist: The waitlist is part of the TouchBistro Reservations app. With it, you can allow customers to add themselves to the waitlist online when your restaurant is currently full, send customers SMS notifications about their waitlist status, and enforce waitlist cutoff times.
• Customer Dining Preferences: You can ask for dining preferences/allergies when taking reservations. VIP diners are noted in customer reports, and their preferences can be saved for future orders to create a personalized dining experience.
• Customer Accounts: You can allow billing to customers’ house accounts with saved payment types. You can also take partial or full balance payoffs and allow customers to preload credits to an accoCatering companies will appreciate these features:

• Taking Catering Orders: Caterers can create a quote and take notes for a future order, require a deposit for future orders, and choose how far in advance someone can order. You can also set concrete event start and end times.
• Delivery Customization: Caterers can set different delivery zones, increase fees depending on the delivery zone, and set minimum order amounts per delivery zone. If a customer inputs an address outside your delivery zone, an automated message will ask the customer to contact you to discuss a custom order.
• On-Location Sales: TouchBistro is a unique hybrid system that allows for online and offline sales. You can bring items that are on your catering menu with you and sell them on location.

TouchBistro countertop iPad POS, iPad stand, handheld iPad POS, cash drawer, card reader, and receipt printer.

TouchBistro is an iPad POS system that runs on iPads and iPad Minis, which you may source yourself or purchase from TouchBistro.

TouchBistro also supports hardware from third-party suppliers such as Chase Payments Solutions (formerly Chase Merchant Services), Square, Star Micronics, Verifone, and Epson.

Check with TouchBistro before purchasing any hardware to make sure the hardware models are compatible with TouchBistro software. Alternatively, you can contact TouchBistro for a quote on hardware and make your purchases through the POS company.

TouchBistro offers an in-house payment processing solution, TouchBistro Payments (powered by Chase), which uses an interchange-plus pricing model. You have to contact TouchBistro for a custom quote.

Interchange-plus pricing can help you get the lowest payment processing rates, depending on your business size, model, and merchant account terms.

You may use third-party payment processors such as Square, TSYS, Worldpay (a company we don’t typically recommend), or Barclaycard to process payments.

TouchBistro offers annual contracts. Like most POS providers, you’ll get better pricing with longer contracts. However, TouchBistro will charge an early termination fee for canceled accounts, so consider getting a shorter contract before committing to anything in the long run.

Toast’s $0 upfront Quick Start Bundle plan looks like a good deal, but to get this deal, you have to pay much higher per-order fees, to the point where it could be worth it to purchase your POS equipment upfront and pay a monthly fee if you can afford it. If you can’t afford it, find a way to finance your purchase or switch to a paid plan as soon as you have the money to do so.

On the $69/month Core plan, you’ll have to pay an additional $75/month if you want to add digital ordering, which includes online orders to takeout and Toast delivery services. The $165/month Growth plan comes with digital ordering at no extra cost.

On the Quick Start Bundle plan, you can add the digital ordering and marketing suite (includes digital ordering, loyalty, gift cards, and email marketing) for no monthly cost, but Toast will increase your per-order payment processing fees again to a relatively high percentage.

You can purchase these popular Toast software add-ons at the following prices:

• Digital Ordering: $75/month
• Third-Party Ordering Platform Sync: $30/month for Grubhub, DoorDash, or Uber Eats; $75/month for all three
• Loyalty: $50/month
• Gift Cards: $50/month
• Kitchen Display: $25/month plus one-time hardware purchase
• Self-Serve Kiosk: $90/month plus one-time hardware purchase
• Email Marketing: $75/month
• Catering & Events: $100/month

Other popular add-ons, such as Toast Payroll and Toast Scheduling, require you to get a custom quote which will be determined based on factors like the number of employees and locations you own.

If you plan on purchasing multiple Toast products at once, make sure to ask about a discount for bundling products.

Toast’s most unique features are its very customizable loyalty program, multiple ordering methods, the Toast Go 2 handheld POS (one of the best handheld restaurant POS systems), and the extensive number of auxiliary products that create self-contained restaurant management software.

Toast’s extensive loyalty program, which is one of the best rewards programs, automatically:

• Prompts customers to sign up on customer-facing displays, receipts, self-serve kiosks, and online orders before or after they finish ordering
• Automatically connects a loyalty account to a credit card so customers can automatically earn points just by using their card
• Allows customers to sign up with a phone number or email and send a welcome gift or loyalty points
• Generates a loyalty account portal that customers can log into to see their points and add new payment methods/contact information
• Notifies servers and customers when they have loyalty points available to use (also applies for self-serve and online orders)

Toast also offers many ways for customers to order, including self-serve kiosk ordering, tableside ordering, ordering online through your own in-house ordering system and all major third-party delivery services, and calling ahead for in-store pickup.

With Toast Delivery, you can assign drivers to orders, add custom delivery fees, send customers order updates in real-time, and set tipping rules for delivery orders. Toast’s highly customizable pickup and delivery options are what make Toast one of the best pizza shop POS systems.

The software’s special multilocation management includes varying menus (and pricing) by location, custom tax settings for each location, and customers can collect/redeem loyalty points at any location. In addition, franchisees and location managers allowed to change menus may easily do so without disrupting the setup of any other location.

Toast also has a complete employee payroll, 401(k) management, and employee scheduling products, whereas most other restaurant POS systems require third-party integrations to get all these features.

Toast online ordering on a smartphone, Toast admin dashboard on PC, Toast KDS, Toast Go 2 handheld POS, Toast countertop POS.

Toast software only works with Toast’s proprietary Android POS hardware, which is more heat and spill-resistant than iPads, which every other POS system but Square and Clover relies on.

Toast hardware comes at the following prices:

• Toast Go 2 Handheld POS: $627
• Countertop POS: $875
• Outdoor Wi-Fi Access Point: $104
• Kitchen Printer: $269
• Cash Drawer: $134
• KDS: $629 + $25/month
• Self-Serve Kiosk Terminal: $809 + $90/month

On the pay-as-you-go Quick Start Bundle plan, you can get the handheld POS for no upfront cost and no monthly fees, as long as you agree to pay higher per-transaction payment processing fees. If you pay upfront for your POS hardware, you’ll pay between $69/month and $165/month for your POS software.

In general, we do not recommend the pay-as-you-go plan because the higher per-order fees will cost you more than the original price of the hardware once you get in enough orders.

If you can, pay for your POS hardware upfront. Otherwise, look into equipment financing to help you cover the costs of the restaurant hardware you need in your establishment.

Toast offers flat-rate payment processing for individuals on the Quick Start Bundle plan, and those on the Standard plan who opt into the starter kit. Payment processing ranges from 2.49% plus $0.15 to 3.49% plus $0.15 per order and depends on whether you pay for your tablet POS hardware upfront, and whether you add the digital ordering package to your starter kit for no monthly fee, but an increase of 0.4% in payment processing fees.

Any plan with a custom hardware quote will also have a custom payment processing fee.

We highly recommend that if you can pay a predictable monthly fee, you should do it. You’ll almost always save money in the long run. For example, while a 0.4% increase in payment processing fees to get an entire digital ordering suite with the loyalty program included doesn’t seem like much, it will add up over time.

Toast’s standard contracts are two years, require Toast payment processing, and come with a large early termination fee. Consider signing up for a short-term plan before committing for the long run.

The Clover pricing above is for business owners who purchase their POS hardware upfront from Clover.com. We recommend the Clover Register plan to most retailers.

If you decide to enroll in Clover’s “pay monthly” plan so that you can pay for your hardware over time, you’ll pay one monthly fee for both your hardware and software. That fee will range depending on your hardware package.

Additional devices are $14.95/month/device if you have all your registers in one location. If, for example, you have two Clover Minis in two different stores, you’ll have to pay the full Register subscription cost for both Minis.

All Clover users can use Clover’s offline payment mode, customer database building, loyalty program setup, integrations with some of the best payroll software for small businesses, and 450+ add-on apps available to create the POS system that fits their business’s every need.

Restaurant and bar owners will appreciate Clover’s pre-authorization function, perishable inventory management apps, online ordering page, self-serve kiosks, and surcharges for large parties.

Retailers and grocery store owners will appreciate these retail-centric features:

• Buy online, pick up in-store/delivery options
• Integrations with scales, barcode scanners, etc.
• Customizable inventory management and item tracking
• Item returns via virtual terminal

Clover’s ID verification app, EBT payment acceptance capabilities, and lottery sales app make Clover one of the best grocery store POS systems.

Clover countertop POS system, handheld POS system, barcode scanner, cash drawer, and card reader.

Clover hardware ranges from $199-$1,799 for a Clover Go up to a Clover Station Solo.

If you use Clover’s parent company, Fiserv, for payment processing, you’ll get the following flat-rate payment processing:

• Card-Present Transactions: 2.3% – 2.6% + $0.10% per transaction
  
• Card-Not-Present Transactions:3.5% + $0.10 per transaction
  

Card-not-present transactions include any phone order, third-party ordering platform order (e.g., Grubhub and Order With Google), invoice payment, online order on a Clover-hosted website, manually-keyed-in card payment, and any form of payment that is not a swipe/chip/tap card payment, cash, or check.

If a large amount of your revenue comes from online or phone orders, choose a different payment processor or POS provider for your restaurant.

If you purchase your Clover hardware and software from Clover.com, you will need to sign a 36-month or 48-month contract, with the potential for large early termination fees if you decide to cancel your contract before your term is up.

However, by signing a merchant agreement with one of these best Clover resellers, you can get short-term contracts, no early termination fees, and better payment processing rates and fees.

Revel’s advertised pricing requires a two-terminal minimum, three-year contract, and you must agree to use Revel Advantage, Revel’s in-house payment processing solution.

However, most businesses will want to add on Revel products such as its delivery software, online ordering platform, highly customizable loyalty program, and multi-location management functions. A Revel representative will give you a custom quote for all these software add-ons.

There is also a $674 one-time implementation fee.

Note: Because of this relatively steep initial investment, we recommend Revel to small business owners who know they will need niche features, and to those who are looking to upgrade their current POS system to one that allows for more customization, offers better multilocation management features, and allows you to choose your payment processor.

Revel offers one of the most comprehensive feature sets of any POS software on this list, mainly because you have access to both retail and restaurant management features.

No matter what type of business you run, you’ll appreciate these unique Revel features:

• Loyalty Program: Includes custom rewards point setup, gift options, and automated loyalty points marketing for customers who haven’t stopped by in a while
• Online Ordering: Online ordering for local delivery with real-time driver monitoring and shipping with auto-generated third-party shipping rate calculations; third-party delivery platform integrations
• Purchase Ordering: Purchase order generation with set par levels, vendor management, and partial/full order receiving
• Employee Management: Includes scheduling, time clocks, employee roles, and payroll, all within the Revel dashboard
• Multi-Establishment Management: Create different parent and child establishments, and unique brands, charge royalty fees, and push changes across single, multiple, or all establishments
• Inventory: Revel offers inventory matrixing, custom attributes, stock unit conversions, waste management, loss reports, and automated perishable food/liquid inventory tracking

All restaurant types can make good use of Revel’s kitchen display systems, which will accept all order types, including third-party ordering platform orders, takeout orders, in-house delivery orders, catering orders, phone orders, and any custom order type you specify.

Full-service restaurants will appreciate Revel’s table monitoring system, which allows servers to transfer customer orders to different sections (such as moving from the bar to a table), change a customer’s seat at the table, monitor table turnaround, facilitate order sharing and splitting, and charge items to house accounts. You can also set up catering, charge service fees based on party size, and set up waitlists/reservations.

Quick-service restaurants will enjoy self-serve kiosk software availability, customer display screens so customers can confirm their orders, digital menu integrations, omnichannel order management, customer order-status screens (which can be branded to match your restaurant’s aesthetic), and even drive-through order management capabilities.

Any business that provides services such as catering, rentals, or repairs will appreciate Revel’s built-in appointment booking system and predefined service charges. Revel also has an open-ended item feature that allows you to charge a custom fee depending on how long you spent on a service, how long a person rented an item or venue, or any other cost parameter.

Revel offers POS hardware and accessories for Revel users, which you’ll get a custom quote for.

Alternatively, with Revel’s written permission, you may purchase Revel-compatible hardware on your own. The company asks for written permission to ensure that you are spending your money on hardware that will work and can avoid having to return any equipment to third-party providers.

Revel offers its own in-house payment processing solution, Revel Advantage, on which you will get a custom quote. The company advertises flat-rate payment processing.

You will most likely be required to pay an additional monthly fee to integrate with compatible outside payment processors such as First Data, Heartland, TSYS, Chase Paymentech, Worldpay, and Elavon.

Revel’s standard contract is three years, with a substantial early termination fee depending on how far you’re into your contract before canceling.

While you’ll get the best prices with a longer contract, we recommend making extensive use of your demo, asking lots of questions to your Revel account representative, and even signing up for a month-to-month plan until you’re sure that Revel is the right fit for your growing business.

Revel typically offers a discount for users who bundle their software, hardware, and payment processing into one bill. We recommend that you get an estimate on hardware and payment processing rates from outside companies and bring that estimate to Revel to see if they’ll match it.

These plans are for one license per register. Additional registers cost $59/register/month.

Note: Lightspeed lists these plans online, but you must get a custom quote to find out how much you’ll be paying in fees and whether you’ll pay on a monthly or annual basis.

Lightspeed add-ons like Lightspeed Delivery, an online portal that automatically syncs all your in-house and third-party app orders within your POS, are available as an additional paid monthly subscription. Several third-party software apps are also available for an additional monthly fee as well.

Lightspeed’s best features for quick-service and fast-casual restaurants include:

• Order Types: Allow customers to order from anywhere via QR code, web-based app, third-party integration such as Grubhub or DoorDash, self-service kiosk, or from servers at registers
• Order Status Display Screens: Integrate an order pickup screen with your POS and kitchen display software so that customers can see the status of their meal preparation; include a customer-facing display so that customers can ensure their order is right before pushing it through to the kitchen
• Kitchen Display Management: Lightspeed offers one of the best kitchen display systems; bump screen makes accepting online orders for delivery, pickup, or dine-in easy; break tickets up by single item, station, or employee
• Inventory & Wastage: A wastage tracking module is available on Lightspeed plans, as well as detailed product purchasing, item production, and stock-taking features
• Loyalty Program: On all Lightspeed Restaurant subscription plans, you can integrate your POS with a strong loyalty program that collects customer data for marketing campaigns

Hotels have several property management software available to integrate with Lightspeed, including StayNTouch, Oracle, Preno, and Protel. Alternatively, on Lightspeed’s highest-level plan, you may integrate your current property management system with your POS software. With either solution, you can accept reservations, charge meals from different restaurants to an individual’s room, break up group meals into individual charges, and offer room service with one software.

Lightspeed Restaurant iPad and iPad stand, kitchen printer, cash drawer, and receipt printer.

Lightspeed Restaurant hardware is all iPad-based, which means that you’ll need to bring a separate card terminal to the table for tableside payments or take a card up to the front for payment.

You may purchase your iPads yourself or through Lightspeed at $329 per device. The iPad stand costs $199, the kitchen bump bar costs $199, the cash drawer costs $129, and the kitchen printer costs $299.

It’s important to purchase your card reader (Lightspeed supports Verifone products) from Lightspeed to make sure your Lightspeed Payments account is configured correctly with the hardware.

Lightspeed has an in-house payment processor, Lightspeed Payments, which all merchants in the US and Canada are required to use (Lightspeed Restaurant is one of the best Canadian restaurant POS systems). The company charges the following payment processing fee for individuals on the Essential plan:

• Card-Present Payments: 2.6% + $0.10
• Online Payments: 2.9% + $0.30
• AMEX Card Payments: 3.5% + $0.10

Those on the Premium plan will get a custom payment processing rate, which should be lower than the above rates.

Lightspeed lists monthly pricing, but you must get a custom quote and sign a service contract. Your service contract will tell you whether you’re expected to pay monthly or annually. If you do not pay your fees on time, Lightspeed will charge a late fee. There are no returns on software subscriptions.

If you purchase your hardware from Lightspeed, you must verify that your hardware purchase is accurate. Lightspeed’s 30-day limited warranty will not apply to your purchase if you don’t. There is a restocking fee if you return a Lightspeed hardware purchase.

If you cancel your Lightspeed account, Lightspeed will charge an early termination fee, which can get pretty steep depending on the length of your contract and whether you got any discounts on your initial purchase.

Our advice: Start with a month-to-month subscription before committing to Lightspeed for the long term.

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

Helcim’s free 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 add custom transaction notes and checkout fields, pre-authorize cards, save orders for later, and accept checks on the POS, which is not something that many POS systems have built into their register interface. You can sell individual items and sell to businesses using customer portals and large catalogs.

Helcim’s invoicing and recurring payment features are what set Helcim apart from the other providers in this list and make it a viable option for B2B and B2G businesses. Helcim’s invoicing features include:

• Generate invoices from the touch screen POS and link a customer to it
• Accept partial invoice payments from the touchscreen POS and virtual terminals
• 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 invoiHelcim’s subscription management includes prorated billing, so you only charge customers for the days they use their subscription and metered billing. With this billing method, you charge based on monthly usage data and the ability to 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, and 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. It’s also for businesses that require unique ordering fields, such as custom jewelry making using photos submitted by customers.

Helcim iPad POS system and card reader.

Helcim’s card reader costs $99. Helcim software is compatible with just about all smartphone, tablet, and desktop devices, no matter the operating system.

Additionally, in June 2023, the company launched the $349 Helcim Smart Terminal, a mobile POS system that, like the Square Terminal and Clover Flex, includes an integrated POS register, credit card/mobile wallet reader, and receipt printer.

There are also a few compatible receipt printers available.

Helcim offers interchange-plus payment processing for all businesses. 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. As an example, if a professional services business makes less than $50,000 per month and has an average transaction size is $250 with an even mix of in-person and online payment types, that business will get an estimated processing fee of 1.94% plus $0.08 for in-person payments and 2.51% plus $0.25 for online transactions.

The company also started offering a cash discount program with merchant accounts for business owners who would like to pass their credit/debit card processing fees to customers. The company will uniquely allow business owners to give customers the choice to pay a “convenience fee” if they choose to pay with a card or pay through a bank account, which has lower fees for business owners than card payments.

Helcim offers very flexible month-to-month contracts with no early termination fees, much like Square does. Each business owner gets a merchant account when they sign up with Helcim.

KORONA offers two monthly plans as well as the following add-ons:

• Food: $10/month/terminal; includes restaurant software features like menu, table, and server management
• 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.

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)
• Custom self-checkout kiosk hardware and software with RFID tag monitoring to reduce item theft

KORONA’s basic retail plan includes several inventory management features that other POS systems only offer on higher-level plans. These features include:

• Price and shelf labels with barcode printing automations
• Pack to single item conversion (great for a liquor store POS system)
• Inventory counts and adjustments from the KORONA POS mobile inventory app
• Supplier interface integrations with vendor shipment tracking

While KORONA’s advanced inventory management is now a separate add-on as of August 2023, the add-on is affordable and worthwhile unless you have several terminals. The advanced inventory allows you to create set reordering points with automated reordering, generate custom product performance reports, create individual store listings and prices, and perform financial forecasting.

With KORONA’s franchising add-on, you can create custom royalty payment systems, automate royalty payments, manage franchisee communication between all locations, set ordering preferences and reordering points per location, and get franchise insight reports.

We also have to note how unique the company’s self-checkout kiosk hardware is. The secure self-checkout system is one of the reasons why KORONA is one of the best convenience store POS systems.

KORONA self-checkout kiosk with RFID tagging and automated scanning.

KORONA integrates with POS terminals by PartnerTech and AURES Group. Both are durable proprietary countertop POS terminals with large screens. The company also offers self-checkout hardware for a custom price.

You may also purchase compatible card readers from Genius, PAX, Dejavoo, and eConduit. You’ll likely get a credit card reader from your merchant services provider that you can connect to KORONA.

Epson is the most common provider of receipt printers and cash drawers, but you can connect any USB printer and cash drawer to KORONA. You can also connect any USB barcode scanner.

KORONA does not offer in-house payment processing but does integrate 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, which means that you can’t take payments, but 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.