Wow! Free POS system for small business. What a relief, right? You’ve been looking for an integrated point of sale solution, but the price tags gave you a heart attack. Yeah, most POS providers want to charge a good deal to get an efficient and functional system. Even if it has a certain IP connectivity embedded in it, what’s the guarantee it won’t fail you when you least expect it will? I have got something that can be a suitable alternative to what you have been considering so far…
In this article we shall be looking at some of the best cashier software for your small busniess.
Upserve.
Upserve is an all-in-one POS system for restaurants that helps you combine your payment process, inventory process, and other reservation systems. You can also customize the management solution according to the demands of the customers and your brand.
Moreover, the user-friendly interface allows you to deal with menu inventory and other sales processes. In simple words, you have all the control of your operations, starting from the front desk to the kitchen.
Key Features:
- Easy Control: All you have to do is to learn the navigation in the dashboard. After this, you’ll be able to have control over the entire operation without any hassle.
- Offline Mode: You can opt for online mode and still make transactions and print receipts offline.
- Analytics and Reports: The in-built reporting and analytics tool gives you details about the performance of the restaurant. You also get detailed insights into the trends that can help you enhance your business.
- Split Payments: You can split the orders between card payments and cash payments. Moreover, you can rely on this computation as it’s most likely to be accurate.
Best For:
If you are looking for an all-in-one POS system to have control over your entire operations, then Upserve is an excellent option. It’s suitable for small and middle-sized businesses.
Pros:
- It provides an all-in-one solution to deal with inventory control and reservation systems as well
- The user interface is straightforward, and you can customize it accordingly
- You can manage the operations of the entire business through a simple dashboard
- Provides you with detailed insights into popular products, helping you enhance your business and provide great customer experience
- You can also choose to work in the offline mode and accept payments without hassle
- You also get access to a free demo if you want to test the product
- Offers 24/7 customer support in the US
- Combines inventory, POS, payment processes, reservation systems, and more
Cons:
- If you’re a beginner, you might find it a bit challenging to use
- Third-party software integration is quite not possible
Pricing:
The Core plan costs $59, the Pro plan is $199, and the final Pro Plus plan costs $359.
Toast POS.
Toast POS is best for restaurants in the United States. It also helps you keep your business accounts updated and enhance customer satisfaction. Moreover, you can manage restaurant booking, product availability, and online orders altogether.
The significant advantage of using Toast POS is that it saves time and automates your point of sale software. And If you want to know more about the product, you can always go for a free demo and get familiar with all the features.
Key Features:
- Restaurant Management: It allows you to streamline all the processes related to the kitchen and front house, starting from sales to customer reports.
- User-friendly Interface: With an easy-to-use interface, you can allow the customers to pay bills and sign receipts and work on paperless transactions.
- Multitasking Features: You can make use of multitasking ability and take the order and deal with menu items and all related tasks simultaneously.
- Pricing Plans: The product offers flexible prices in options, and you can upgrade your plan as your business grows. You can also buy the bundle and hardware as a one time purchase and go through a free demo before you even start using it.
Best For:
If you have a restaurant business, then Toast POS is an excellent option. It’s also affordable and helps with multitasking.
Vend.
Vend is one of the first-ever retail POS systems to use the cache capabilities of HTML5. The system is currently used in more than a hundred countries and by over 20,000 businesses.
One of the most significant features of the product is that it’s intuitive, and has a modern, straightforward design. Moreover, it’s not only a web-based system but also offers an easy-to-use iPad-based application as well.
Key Features:
- Variety of Features: The system provides numerous unique features starting from, including price books, loyalty programs, and much more.
- Integration Facilities: The product offers extensive third-party integration with numerous tools, including payment gateways like PayPal, Vantiv, and Square.
- Customization Options: It provides plenty of customization options to align with your sales processes. It also helps you keep your information hidden and secure.
- Inventory Features: It provides extensive inventory features, and lets you deal with bulk items within seconds. On top of that, you can categorize the inventory items as well.
Best For:
Vend is most suitable for middle-sized businesses looking for memorable customer experience.
Pros:
- The product is user-friendly and feasible for beginners
- It integrates with numerous other systems, including accounting software and ecommerce portals
- Though it’s a cloud-based system, it works just as efficiently in Google Chrome
- Offers affordable price plans
- Provides omnichannel experience with seamless sales process across all channels
Cons:
- You have to pay extra for some features like tech support.
- The features need further improvement
Pricing:
The pricing plans start from $99 per month. You also get a 30-day free trial to give you an idea about the product.
Square: Best Overall & Free POS System for Small Businesses
Overall Score: 4.48 OUT OF 5 i
- Free POS, best value for small businesses
- Easy to use, fast setup
- Can grow with your business
- Limited inventory control
- Not suitable for high-risk businesses
- Limited phone support
Square Pricing
- Point-of-sale app: Free—no startup or monthly fees.
- Pro POS plans are available from $60/month
- POS solutions for retail, restaurant, appointments, and general purpose
- Card-present processing fee: 2.6% + 10 cents per transaction
- Card readers: From $49
- Terminals: From $299, interest-free payment plans available
- Operates on iOS, Android, and Square hardware
- 30-day free trial for Pro plans
Square is the best POS system for most small businesses because of its affordable price point and easy-to-use software with options designed for general purpose, retail, restaurants, and appointment-based businesses. Each option has a free plan that includes unlimited sales and products, an online store, and a $50-$60 monthly plan with additional features. This makes Square our top-scoring all-around POS system and our top choice for free POS and mobile POS solutions. Square for Retail is also our top choice for all-purpose retail POS, and Square Appointments is the highest-scoring POS system for salons and spas.
Modular add-ons including payroll processing and marketing, and flexible hardware options are also available. Scroll through the images below to see Square’s interface and hardware options.
Learn more about Square and why small businesses love it.
Square POS Features
- Built-in payment processing: Accept credit and debit card payments in person or online, contactless payments, phone payments, and via invoice or recurring or subscription billing, with next-day deposits. Square is also one of the only POS systems that offers instant deposits for an extra fee.
- Square Appointments: Manage multiple appointment calendars, set up online booking, allow customers to book and manage appointments with an online portal, send automatic SMS and email reminders, and require credit cards upon booking for no-show and cancellation fees.
- Square for Retail: Utilize barcode-based interface with omnichannel sale tools and inventory management features like barcode creation, vendor management, purchase orders, and detailed sales reports.
- Square for Restaurants: Integrate online ordering, order management system, kitchen display system, conversational ordering, table and seat management, firing and coursing options, and menu reporting and management.
- Square Dashboard: Process transactions, track product sales, view reports, and manage teams, taxes, payroll, and more in one centralized cloud-based dashboard.
- Customer relationship management: Create customer profiles and collect and respond to customer feedback. Square Marketing Assistant can identify marketing campaign opportunities, suggest email campaigns based on your customer list and activities, analyze performance, and identify best practices.
- Online store: Build a free website and online store to sell online for pickup, shipping, or delivery. Create simple online ordering pages or add shoppable posts to your existing website or social media accounts.
What Square Is Missing
For multilocation storefronts, high-volume multichannel sellers, and businesses with large complex inventories, Square likely won’t have enough power to handle the complexities of your business. Large or growing restaurants should consider Toast, Upserve, or Revel Systems.
Multichannel or large retailers will likely find Shopify’s smart inventory and best-in-class ecommerce solutions a better fit for their needs. Or, consider Lightspeed for complex analytics and inventory management.
Shopify: Best Multichannel POS
Ovrall Score: 4.47 OUT OF 5
- Good value for small businesses
- Omnichannel and smart inventory sales tools
- Easy to use, intuitive interface
- Best-in-class ecommerce platform
- Glitchy offline mode
- Free POS app has limited features
- Requires ecommerce subscription
Shopify Pricing
- Monthly ecommerce software fees (required): $39–$299
- Monthly POS software fees: $0 for basic POS app, $89 for Shopify POS Pro
- In-person processing fees: 2.4%–2.7% with built-in Shopify Payments
- Tap and chip card reader: $49
- Operates on iPads and desktops
- 14-day free trial
Shopify is an ecommerce platform that comes with a free POS software for selling products at events or on-the-go, plus features to sell on social media and third-party marketplaces. For brick-and-mortar retailers, Shopify has a POS Pro plan with omnichannel selling tools, sophisticated inventory management, and more detailed analytics. With all Shopify plans, sales, inventory, and customer data are stored in one place, making Shopify the best POS for multichannel sellers.
In our evaluation, Shopify earned a 4.47 out of 5, coming in just behind Square. Whereas Square excels in price and ease of use, Shopify earned a perfect score in register features and a high score for management tools. So, while they earned nearly identical scores, their strengths are very different. The biggest drawback to Shopify POS is that an ecommerce subscription is required, and many of the best POS features (smart inventory management and advanced reporting) require you to upgrade to POS Pro for an additional $89 per month.
Conclusion
Being a small business owner, you want to save as much money as you can and reduce your monthly expenses. Nowadays there are very few places where you can find free cash register software solutions. If you are looking for a good POS software without any monthly plan fees, then this article will be useful for you.