Software for Point of Sale

There are many types of POS software on offer, free and paid. And it can be confusing to know which one is best for your business.

To help you with this, we have reviewed five leading POS software solutions and picked out the very best one for small businesses.

Lightspeed Retail: Best For Inventory Management

Lightspeed is known for its excellent inventory management and multichannel selling features, making it perfect for fast-growing retailers that need to track large inventories and sync their online and in-person sales. Lightspeed also has some unique inventory features, and you can create purchase orders and complete them across multiple vendors. Lightspeed comes with fairly advanced loyalty functionality as well, allowing you to store information on customers and offer specialized discounts.

Lightspeed Features:

Customizable Tags: Customizable tags allow you to essentially create your own inventory taxonomy for searching for items.
Item Variations: Your inventory management system allows you to add multiple attribute matrices (large, black, leather, etc.). You also have the ability to assemble items into bundles, including serialized items. You can also manage items that are typically bought in bulk but sold individually.
Returns & Exchanges: Simplify returns and exchanges with Lightspeed eCommerce by allowing customers to open a support ticket directly from their profile.
Shipping Tools: Get organized when it comes to shipping out products with Lightspeed Retail’s shipping tools. You can organize, edit, and view shipments from the back end, issue tracking codes to customers, and integrate with shipping APIs like ShipStation and EasyPost.
Holds & Layaway: You can hold and suspend sales and return to them later or transfer them to another device. You can also place items on hold/layaway for customers to pick up at a later date. Adding new/existing customers to a sale directly through the POS interface is seamless.
Gift Certificates & Gift Cards: Gift certificates/cards also have a barcode for ease of use and can be reused (their balances can be changed).
Customer Loyalty Program: Lightspeed Loyalty allows you to reward your customers online and in-store with its point-based loyalty program. This fully integrated program allows you to easily add customers, automate marketing campaigns, categorize rewards, and send one-time offers for birthdays, special occasions, or to celebrate your VIP customers. You can also use this add-on to create automated marketing campaigns via SMS and a drag-and-drop email builder.

Monthly pricing starts at $69/month for basic POS functionality, but features such as eCommerce, loyalty, analytics, and accounting software integration will cost you extra. In terms of payment processing, Lightspeed Retail integrates with processors such as Vantiv Integrated Payments and Cayan but favors its own payment processor, Lightspeed Payments.

Pros

Deep inventory management
Advanced retail features
Integrated eCommerce

Cons

Advanced features cost extra

Get Started with Lightspeed Retail POS

Shopify POS: The best POS system for retail stores

Square Point of SaleShopify

Starting monthly fee: $9.00
No starting fees
Free mobile reader

Visit Shopify

Shopify gained a reputation in the retail space as a premier web-based POS platform. The company now over 1 million business customers worldwide using its ecommerce, Amazon marketplace, and point-of-sale services.¹

The company’s powerful ecommerce integration translates into an impressive point-of-sale solution for retail brick-and-mortar stores too. Shopify POS is a service that’s easy to set up and highly customizable to fit small businesses and scale up as your business grows.StrengthsAffordable basic subscription and processing feesFree 14-day trialRobust ecommerce toolsWeaknessesNo subscription-free planLimited reporting on the basic planExtra fees for using third-party payment providers

Shopify offers three major plans plus one scaled-down “Lite” plan for doing retail business on Facebook only. Plans differ on their monthly price, fees for payment processing, and breadth of included services.

The $29 Basic Shopify plan is an affordable option for smaller retail businesses that are online, in a single retail location, or selling in-person at pop-up stores and local markets.

Shopify’s transaction fees are also a little complicated. Online or keyed transactions range from 2.4% + 30¢ to 2.9% + 30¢, depending on your plan. Meanwhile, in-person transaction fees fall between 2.4% to 2.7%—again, depending on your plan.

If you opt to use a payment provider other than Shopify Payments, however, you’ll also be assessed a third-party payment provider fee, which can be anywhere from 0.5% to 2% per transaction. So if you want to use a Shopify system and Shopify software, you may want to steer clear of Square, PayPal, or other payment gateways.

Square

Visit Square

100% FREE TO DOWNLOAD
USE YOUR OWN DEVICE FOR POS
DOUBLES AS A CREDIT CARD PROCESSOR
REAL-TIME ANALYTICS & REPORTING

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Square POS is one of the most common and well-recognized POS system out there.

I see them in retail locations where I do the majority of my in-person shopping. You likely have too — especially if you’ve been to a farmer’s market, pop up shop, or food truck recently.

There’s a good reason for that: Flexibility. You can turn your own devices such as a cell phone or tablet into a POS system without having to buy any extra hardware.

If you want to get hardware directly from Square, they have plenty of different options for you to choose from:

Square register
Square Reader for contactless and chip payments
Square Reader for magstripe
Square standup for contactless and chip
Square terminal

It all depends on the type of business you have. For coffee shops or boutique clothing stores, the register and standup terminal would be the best options. But for accepting payments on the go, you can turn your smartphone into a POS solution with the Square Reader for magstripe.

The versatility makes Square a popular choice for small business owners. Square doubles as a credit card processor, so you won’t need to integrate a third-party solution to accept payments.

You can also build a free website with Square, which is one less thing you have to pay for. Every business needs a piece of online real estate, and Square lets you design a functional online store for free.

Square is also known for its straightforward and transparent pricing. The software is 100% free to download and use. You won’t pay any hidden costs or monthly fees either. No matter how many sales you process, your only cost is the transaction rate.

Square costs 2.6% + $0.10 per transaction.

It’s worth noting that Square does offer volume discounts for larger businesses. If you process more than $250k per year with an average order size over $15, you can contact their sales team for a custom solution.

Square provides real-time analytics and reporting. It’s also easy for you to view, manage, track, edit, and update your inventory with this POS solution. Square creates customer profiles so you can manage your customers better.

One potential drawback of Square is scaling too quickly. Some users complain that their accounts were placed on hold for large transaction volumes, as the system has security protocols in place to protect against fraudulent charges.

Square is the best overall POS system today. I’d recommend it for entrepreneurs, small business owners, and even medium to large-sized companies.

Lightspeed

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STARTING AT $69.99 PER MONTH
BEST FOR INVENTORY MANAGEMENT
IDEAL FOR RETAIL STORES
USE YOUR OWN DEVICE

GET STARTED NOW

Lightspeed is a lesser-known POS system compared to other options on our list. But it’s still one of the best in the biz for inventory management.

The company offers POS solutions for retailers and restaurants. But for the purpose of this review, I’m going to focus on the retail POS system.

Lightspeed’s inventory system makes it easy for you to save time with centralized purchasing catalogs that are integrated into the POS software. You can sell in bundles and manage multiple product variations, as well.

Track unit costs, get alerts for items that are low in stock, and even sell out-of-stock items that will be fulfilled upon arrival.

Lightspeed is ideal if your retail location requires special requests, like custom items, work orders, layaways, and purchase orders. You can meet all of these demands directly from your POS.

This makes it a popular choice for small business owners in the following categories:

Bike shops
Jewelry stores
Golf equipment
Pet supplies
Home decor
Sporting goods
Apparel

You can use Lightspeed with your own hardware from any device, regardless of the operating system. Lightspeed POS allows you to set up customer profiles for purchase history and lifetime value. You can also segment your customers into different categories.

There are five different price points for you to choose from, depending on the size of your operation:

Basic — $79 per month ($69 billed annually)
Starter — $119 per month ($99 billed annually)
Standard — $139 per month ($119 billed annually)
Advanced — $189 per month ($169 billed annually)
Pro — $259 per month ($229 billed annually)

Ecommerce integration begins at the Starter level, and the ability to connect your accounting software starts with the Standard plan.

For customer loyalty programs, you’ll need to upgrade to the Advanced package. Analytics are only available for Lightspeed Pro.

Additional registers can be added for $29 per month, each. You can also use Lightspeed as a payment processor. They charge 2.6% plus $0.10 per transaction.

The biggest drawback of Lightspeed is that it doesn’t have as many payment processing integrations as some of the other options on our list. This might be intentional, so they can convince you to use their processing system. Learn more and sign up here.

PayCafe

Visit PayCafe

24/7 CUSTOMER SUPPORT
GREAT ECOMMERCE SOLUTION
IN-DEPTH REPORTING
EASY TO SET UP

TRY IT TODAY!

PayCafe offers a very comprehensive payment processing system.

They provide you with solutions to handle and process in-person credit card payments as well as a great online payment service. It’s a solid contender if you’re looking to build an ecommerce website along with your physical store.

Their credit card processing solutions are optimized to accept one-time, subscription, or invoice payments with just a few clicks. They also let you accept all major debit and credit cards as well as 135+ different currencies.

PayCafe’s reporting is absolutely standout too. They provide you with real-time metrics and data to show you how your business performs over time.

You’ll also be able to fully customize your reporting dashboard so you receive exactly the type of metrics you need to improve your sales.

Their pricing is obscured on the website. However, it starts as low as 2.49% per transaction. Learn more.

Clover: Best For Ease Of Use

Clover POS	Visit Site Read our Review

Clover is a solid and versatile all-in-one system that comes with everything you need to start selling within minutes. The custom-built Android hardware isn’t exactly cheap, but it takes a lot of the initial hassle out of the setup process and has an easy-to-use interface that can be mastered in a very short amount of time. You can easily assign each worker a unique role or permission. The inventory management is advanced and allows for bulk importing and easy labeling and sorting.

Clover reporting systems are also solid and can be viewed directly or exported with a simple click. Clover has one of the more generous gift card options around included with the software, allowing customers to access cards on their mobile devices. Clover additionally provides advanced loyalty tools to help you attract repeat customers. The Clover App Market gives you access to pretty much any type of feature or integration you might need.

Clover Features:

Inventory: Clover has updated its inventory features. Items can be described with variants (such as color) and options (such as size) and organized into categories or labeled for quicker access.
Customer Management: Clover gives you the ability to collect customer information at the time of sale. Later, you can search for customers by name and date or look up a customer’s order history.
Gift Cards: As you would expect, Clover is on top of its game when it comes to customized gift cards. Both digital and physical cards can be branded to suit your company. Customers can access and use their cards on their mobile devices. The cards are all tracked digitally.
Loyalty: Clover’s loyalty functionality comes included with Clover Mini, Flex, and Station, which is a nice perk. You can customize your program, allowing customers to accrue loyalty benefits in several different ways. It’s also possible to store and easily look up customer information and track their spending habits. You can send out real-time promotions through text or email campaigns, and you can receive customer feedback directly.
Online ordering: Clover plans at the $9.95/month level and up include a customer-facing online ordering portal with options for curbside pickup and delivery. Clover also works with various eCommerce platforms including Shopify, WooCommerce, and Magento.
App Market: Like Square, Clover has its own app market, giving you access to hundreds of different applications that can improve your business or your personal experience within the POS, and the market is constantly updating.
Built-in Item Exchanges: The ability to exchange items within the store is simple and comes with the software. You don’t need to set up this function that also links up with your inventory to ensure an accurate count.

All Clover accounts come with a merchant account, and you have to go with First Data/Fiserv as your back-end processor. But many companies sell Clover products and offer their merchant accounts (backed by Fiserv) with their own terms, so do your research on those companies before committing. You can also check out our article on the best Clover resellers for an idea of the most reputable companies to get your Clover machine from. If you decide to buy from Clover directly (recommended), plans start at $0/month for payment processing only, though you’ll pay $39.95/month for the full Register plan with retail POS features. Additional devices are $10/month/register.