6 Best POS Systems In Australia

Square’s flagship Square POS app is completely free. Square also has free and paid versions of Square For Restaurants, Square For Retail, and Square Appointments.

The paid versions of each Square plan are as follows:

• Square For Restaurants: 129 AUD/month (Plus plan)
• Square For Retail: 109 AUD/month/location (Plus plan)
• Square Appointments: 40 AUD/month/location (Plus plan); 90 AUD/month/location (Premium plan)

Square also offers several paid add-ons, including:

• Square Online (Paid Version): 36 AUD/month (Plus plan); 99 AUD/month (Premium plan)
• Square KDS (Kitchen Display System): 25 AUD/month/device on Square For Restaurants free plan; unlimited devices for no additional cost on paid plan
• Square Loyalty: 49 – 149 AUD/month/location (price dependent on number of loyalty visits)

Square’s most unique free features for Australian business owners include the following:

• Free retail and takeaway/delivery ordering website
• Free Square checkout links so service-based and B2B businesses can accept invoice payments
• Free appointment scheduling link/page so you can accept appointments for services, special events, or private shopping
• Unlimited POS devices so businesses can take payments on phones, computers, iPads, and/or Square’s proprietary hardware

Retailers on a budget can sell an unlimited number of products in person, online, and on social media. You can also list your products on Google, place product buy buttons on blogs and marketing emails, and sync your inventory between all sales channels for free. On paid plans, you’ll get advanced inventory management features like automated purchase ordering, vendor management, and bulk stock editing.

Square’s restaurant plan is great for small counter-service restaurants, with an order manager, floor planner, and optional kitchen display system for an added 25 AUD/device/month. Square’s paid restaurant plan is better for full-service restaurants, with order coursing, individual seat management, and an unlimited number of kitchen displays with ticket order routing. Both plans allow you to sync your POS with online ordering platforms like Doshii, Deliverect, DoorDash, and Uber Eats.

For service-based businesses such as contractors, you can provide estimates, send contracts with estimates and invoices, collect digital signatures, and send deposit reminders for free. Service businesses such as salons or nail stylists allow you to schedule appointments, set up an appointment calendar, accept prepayments/deposits, track inventory and resources, and give tipping suggestions for clients. Square is one of the best salon POS software for independent stylists because of the number of free features available.

Square POS on iPad, Square Register, and Square contactless card reader.

You’ll need at least the Square contactless card reader (65 AUD) to take payments. The Square Stand is an iPad stand with a built-in card reader that costs 149 AUD. The Square Terminal is a handheld POS system that costs 329 AUD. The Square Register, a full register with a customer-facing display, costs 1099 AUD and is a great POS setup for servers to take orders at a counter.

Payment processing rates per transaction for Australian POS systems are as follows:

• In-Person Payments: 1.6% on tapped/inserted cards on Square Terminal or Square Register; 1.9% on Square Reader or Square Stand
• Online Payments: 2.2% on website, apps, invoices, and payment links
• Manually Entered Payments: 2.2% on keyed-in card payments on virtual terminal payments and manually entered card numbers on in-person payments

Square has monthly software plans with no early termination fees, as well as great POS hardware warranties.

Note: You’ll get lower payment processing rates if you purchase a Square Terminal or Register. The initial investment is slightly higher, but worth it in the long run.

Shopify offers free POS software with every eCommerce package, which comes at the following monthly prices:

• Basic: 39 USD/month (roughly 58 AUD/month)
• Shopify: 105 USD/month (roughly 156 AUD/month)
• Advanced: 399 USD/month (roughly 591 AUD/month)

Note: Shopify offers a 25% discount on plans if you pay for a year upfront.

Shopify also offers an advanced POS package as a paid add-on for 89 USD/month (roughly 132 AUD/month), or 79 USD/month (roughly 117 AUD/month) if you pay for a year upfront.

While Shopify’s free POS Lite app is included with all plans except the Shopify Starter plan, most of the best in-person sales and inventorying features come with the Shopify Pro add-on.

The POS Lite app does include a few unique features, such as a customizable POS interface, allowing you to use an iOS device as a barcode scanner, and allows you to bundle items for a discount during checkout.

The Shopify Pro plan allows you to create purchase orders, perform item receiving counts, require manager approvals for POS actions, accept exchanges, and create an unlimited number of staff members.

If we’re being honest, though, Shopify’s eCommerce features are what sets this software apart from the competition. These features include:

• Customizable online store builder (including hundreds of store templates) with item sales for in-store pickup, local delivery, shipping, and layaway
• Social media in-app sales on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube to convert your marketing efforts into concrete sales
• Suite of shipping tools to streamline item shipping and give accurate tracking updates to customers
• Abandoned cart recovery emails to recapture the interest of potential customers
• Subscription, event ticket, and digital download sales to widen revenue-generating product offerings
• International sales management platform

Shopify’s vast app market, the largest third-party software marketplace out of all providers on this list (including Clover), also sets this POS apart from the rest. With the Shopify app market, you can add all kinds of functionalities to your POS and eCommerce store.

For example, contractors can generate and print out invoices for customers with the Simple Invoice app, while gyms can schedule personal training sessions and classes using the Sesami appointment scheduling/check-in app.

The Sesami booking app is one reason why Shopify makes our list of the best POS systems for gyms.

Shopify POS card reader and iPad.

You’ll need at least the 69 AUD WisePad 3 card reader, which you can pair with any smartphone, to take payments in person.

Shopify iPad stands cost between 109 and 199 AUD depending on which model you purchase.

Shopify breaks down payment processing costs by software plan, payment processing rates, and whether you use Shopify Payments or a third-party payment processor.

If you use Shopify Payments as your payment processor, you’ll pay the following rates:

• Credit Card Payments: 1.75% – 1.95% per in-person transaction; 1.4% – 1.95% (plus a $0.30 flat fee) per online transaction
• Debit Card Payments: 0.55% – 1% per in-person transaction

If you do not use Shopify Payments, you’ll pay a transaction fee between 0.5% and 2% per order.

Shopify contracts are all month-to-month with no hidden fees; however, Shopify offers a 25% discount on annual eCommerce plans and a 10% discount on annual POS Pro plans.

You will pay an extra transaction fee if you opt out of Shopify Payments, but the extra fee may be worth it if you can save substantially on your payment processing fees by going with a different merchant services provider.

If you don’t use any integrations or add-ons, TouchBistro is 69 USD/month for one register, billed annually. The Dual plan includes two user licenses and costs 129 USD/month. The Team plan includes five user licenses at 249 USD/month, and the Unlimited plan includes unlimited user licenses at 399 USD/month.

Optional add-ons include:

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

The reservations app can be used to accept catering orders and book events.

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

TouchBistro’s most unique features are for full-service restaurants, both fine dining and family-style establishments. These features include:

• Reservation System: Customers can use TouchBistro’s built-in reservation system to make reservations from your web-based online ordering app, your Google Business Profile, and by calling. You can send reminder emails/phone messages about upcoming reservations, create floor plans specifically for managing reservations, charge large-party service fees, and assign different servers to reserved sections.
• Waitlist System: Allow customers to add themselves to your restaurant’s waitlist online when your restaurant is currently full. Send customers SMS notifications about their waitlist status and estimated wait time, with wait time updates. Enforce waitlist cutoff times so staff won’t get overwhelmed with customers past closing time.
• Table Management: Monitor seating times, courses, and table turnaround time for each table. Update floor plans quickly based on reservations and waitlists (e.g. pushing two tables together to accommodate a larger party.) Connect TouchBistro kitchen displays with individual seats to pace meals at tables.
• Liquid Inventory Monitoring: Restaurants with a bar section/drink menu can track liquid sales and wastage at your in-house bar or events featuring alcohol with TouchBistro’s Bevchek or Freepour integration.
• Customer Dining Preferences: You can ask for dining preferences/allergies when taking reservations. VIP diners can be flagged in customer reports, and their preferences can be saved for future orders to create a personalized dining experience.

TouchBistro’s loyalty program is an excellent revenue-generating software feature that allows you to offer points-based and item-based discounts, send marketing emails based on customer loyalty accounts, and have customers sign up on your restaurant’s online ordering site.

Caterers and mobile food service businesses will also appreciate the ability to:

• Create House Accounts: If you regularly cater to offices, schools, government organizations, or other businesses, it’s helpful to create customer house accounts. You can allow billing to customers’ house accounts with saved payment types and partial or full balance payoffs. You can allow customers to preload credits to an account.
• Take Catering Orders: Create a quote and take notes for future orders, 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 and set up catering order categories on kitchen displays.
• Customize Catering Order Parameters: Caterers can set different delivery zones and increase minimum order requirements and service fees depending on the delivery zone. If a customer tries to order online and inputs an address outside your delivery zone, an automated message will ask the customer to contact you to discuss a custom order.
• Accept Sales Off-Site: TouchBistro’s unique hybrid offline mode allows you to take orders at events or in a food truck. Sell prewrapped foods, bottles of alcohol, or retail items at events. You can also take future catering orders for new customers while at a job.

TouchBistro is an iPad-based system, and you may use several models as POS registers, customer-facing displays, and kitchen display systems. You can purchase iPad cases from TouchBistro or use your own.

When using TouchBistro, Square is supported for payments in Australia.

TouchBistro offers monthly and annual contracts, with the best per-month pricing on annual contracts. TouchBistro will charge an early termination fee for canceled accounts, though, so consider a short-term contract before committing to anything in the long run.

The following plans are for business owners who use Lightspeed Payments, Lightspeed’s in-house payment processor (only one register included):

• Lean Plan: 99 AUD/month; 79 AUD/month billed annually
• Standard Plan: 149 AUD/month; 129 AUD/month billed annually
• Advanced Plan: 249 AUD/month; 199 AUD/month

Note: If you don’t use Lightspeed Payments, you’ll be charged an extra 30 dollars per month.

Additional registers cost 39 AUD/register/month.

Lightspeed Retail’s most unique retail features include:

• B2B Retail Sales: Create customer accounts that allow you to block bulk pricing behind a user account login, making B2B and B2C sales possible. Create online catalogs for B2B customers. Accept deposits into accounts for use later and set account limits for different B2B customers.
• Inventory Management: Auto-populate purchase orders based on set minimum stock levels and backorders. Create vendors and edit pricing based on vendor, item, or category. Receive partial and full purchase orders.
• Subscription Sales: Sell subscriptions for a set amount of time or on an ongoing basis with a saved card on file. Create separate plans with separate tiers, and even sell non-physical items such as membership fees.
• Multi-Store Management: Create multiple permanent and temporary locations as you open more locations or sell at one-time events. Move inventory between locations, set custom reordering levels for each location, and get sales reports for all locations.
• eCommerce Sales: Lightspeed offers an eCommerce platform and integrates with Booxi, an eCommerce software that allows you to sell appointments, rentals, and retail items.

For rental businesses, such as bike or boat rental businesses, you can integrate your POS system with rental software for online and on-premise item rentals, repairs, and customer management. You can generate quotes, turn quotes into invoices, create item holds and layaways, and provide reservations for venues or retail items.

Businesses that rent out rooms, such as hotels, can use one of Lightspeed’s several booking/property management integrations, although if you include food and beverage services, Lightspeed Restaurant with a property management integration is probably a better choice (more on this later).

Repair businesses can allow people to book repairs online, estimate costs, communicate with repair workers, and allow workers to generate digital job cards.

Lightspeed’s highly customizable loyalty program allows you to engage with customers by rewarding points for every purchase, rewarding certain item purchases, creating sales and promotions for certain days, and using loyalty member data to create marketing campaigns for your business.

Lightspeed Retail iPad POS, iPad stand, PC admin dashboard, and barcode scanner.

Business owners in Australia may purchase iPads for use with Lightspeed POS software from the company or a compatible one from elsewhere. You purchase an older iPad that still gets updates (e.g., iPad Air 2) or purchase one of the latest iPad models (e.g., 2022 iPad Pro).

To use Lightspeed Payments, you’ll need to buy your card reader from Lightspeed. The company uses the WisePOS E terminal, which retails at around 249 USD, for tap and chip card payments, as well as mobile wallet payments.

If you choose to integrate your POS with Tyro for payments, you can rent countertop EFTPOS terminals (listed at 59 AUD/month for one device on Tyro’s website) and/or wireless mobile EFTPOS terminals (listed at 29 AUD/month for one device on Tyro’s website).

Lightspeed offers its own payment processing program, Lightspeed Payments, that charges 1.5% per transaction for in-person payments.

Note: Lightspeed Payments does not work with Lightspeed’s eCommerce product, Lightspeed eCom, but you can integrate your eCommerce site with hundreds of online payment processors, including Stripe, Square, and PayPal.

You may also integrate your POS system with Tyro, an Australian-based merchant services provider, for an additional 30 AUD/month. Tyro charges 1.4% per in-person transaction. The 0.1% difference can mean a lot for higher sales volume businesses, but you must also consider the fact that you’ll be renting payment terminals monthly if you decide to work with Tyro.

Tyro does not directly list pricing for online transactions, but online sources estimate an additional 0.4% fee for keyed-in card numbers, as well as fees for international card payments and currency conversion.

Tyro was the first bank in Australia to implement least-cost routing for contactless tap-and-go debit and credit card payments. This payment processing model allows Australian business owners to save between 6% and 8% on payment processing fees on average. Ask a Tyro representative more about how least-cost routing works and how to opt into the program.

We recommend that you try to estimate your monthly payment processing costs for both Lightspeed Payments and Tyro by estimating the number of Tyro card terminals you would need and a rough estimate of your monthly sales volumes before committing to either payment processor.

Lightspeed charges an early termination fee and requires all business owners to get a custom quote, which will detail your exact contract length and account cancellation process/fees. The company typically has strict hardware warranty requirements as well.

In general, we recommend thoroughly reading through any merchant agreements before signing up with any software provider, especially one that provides payment processing services.

Revel’s only advertised plan costs 99 USD/terminal/month. This plan requires a two-terminal minimum, three-year contract, and you must agree to use Revel Advantage International (powered by Adyen), 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.

The company also charges a one-time implementation fee starting at 674 USD, which includes a personalized hardware and software setup.

• 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 Revel dashboard
• Multi-Establishment Management: Create different parent and child establishments, 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 help kitchen staff decrease order prep time by routing the correct order items and modifiers to digital screens rather than relying on paper tickets. Revel kitchen display systems will also take order types from third-party ordering platforms, takeaway orders, in-house delivery orders, catering 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, 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 appreciate kiosks, customer display screens so customers can confirm their orders, digital menu integrations, omnichannel order management, and even drive-through 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 iPad POS register, iPad stand, iPad customer-facing display, cash drawer, receipt printer, and card reader.

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 Advantage International users can purchase the Verifone v400m or P400 Plus payment terminals.

Revel users can get a custom payment processing rate for Revel Advantage International, the company’s international built-in payment processing solution.

Alternatively, business owners can integrate their POS system with Windcave or Tyro for an added monthly fee.

Revel advertises that it will give the lowest rates and discounts on POS hardware if you opt into Revel Advantage, but we recommend getting additional quotes and bringing them to Revel to negotiate the best rates.

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.

Hotel property owners will purchase the Lightspeed Restaurant K-series since this version of Lightspeed offers property management integrations. Fast-casual/quick-service restaurants will most likely purchase the L-series since this has more restaurant-centric integrations.

Both versions fall under these pricing plans (one register included):

• Starter: 79 AUD/month
• Essential: 179 AUD/month
• Premium: 359 AUD/month

Additional registers cost an extra 39 AUD/month.

Any third-party integrations you add will come at an additional fee from those software providers, not Lightspeed.

The following are popular products that you may add to any software plan:

• Gift Cards: 39 AUD/month
• Customer-Facing Display: 15 AUD/month
• Kitchen Display System: 29 AUD/month
• Order Pickup Screen: 15 AUD/month

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 Doshii or DoorDash, self-service kiosk, or from servers at registers
• 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’s 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: Integrate your POS with a strong loyalty program that collects customer data for marketing campaigns

Lightspeed Restaurant item wastage report.

Hotels have several property management software options available to integrate with Lightspeed, including 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.

Business owners in Australia may purchase iPads for use as POS registers, self-serve kiosks, kitchen displays, order pickup screens, and more. Lightspeed’s iPads cost between 549 AUD and 1,899 AUD, depending on the models you purchase.

A cash drawer costs 109 AUD and tablet stands cost 104 AUD.

Receipt and kitchen printers cost between 260 AUD and 649 AUD, depending on the model.

Lightspeed uses Verifone products for payment processing. You must purchase your credit card terminals from Lightspeed.

Unlike Lightspeed Retail, you are required to use Lightspeed Payments on a restaurant plan. You’ll get a custom payment processing rate based on your restaurant size, time in business, and card mix.

Lightspeed requires every business owner to get a custom quote, which will detail the length of your contract, terms of payment, and conditions for hardware warranties. It also includes an early termination fee. We recommend you read your contract very carefully before signing anything.