0198/100
Square
Best for: Simple retail, mobile sellers, and a first POS
Watch: Advanced inventory or complex restaurants may outgrow it.
Fast setupPayments includedGood starter
Official site ↗Buy Decoded business desk
Pick a POS without getting trapped in the payment stack.
Build a practical shortlist, estimate payment costs, and arrive at vendor demos with questions about contracts, hardware, support, offline mode, and data export.
Independent planning aid · heuristic scores are not ratings · verify current prices and terms
Scenario-based shortlist
Choose the workflow before the vendor.
The score is an editorial heuristic, not measured performance or a customer rating. Use it to narrow demos—not to sign a contract.
0280/100
Shopify POS
Best for: Retailers where ecommerce matters
Watch: Best value usually comes when Shopify is also the online store.
EcommerceRetailOmnichannel
Official site ↗0380/100
SumUp
Best for: Very small mobile sellers and simple counters
Watch: May be too light for serious inventory or multi-location operations.
Low costMobileSimple
Official site ↗0477/100
Lightspeed Retail
Best for: Inventory-heavy retail and multi-store operators
Watch: More setup and monthly cost than starter systems.
InventoryMulti-locationRetail
Official site ↗Payment-cost screen
Turn the advertised rate into a planning total.
Request a written quote. Card mix, rewards cards, keyed transactions, chargebacks, PCI fees, taxes, contract terms, and negotiated pricing can change the result.
Estimated blended monthly cost$819
About 893 transactions/month. 36-month processing, software, and setup estimate: $30,694.
Already have two proposals?
Put both quotes through the same sales.
Compare processing, per-transaction charges, software, add-ons, hardware, setup, annual fees, and cancellation costs over one contract term.
Owner decision library
Prepare for the workflow, contract, outage, and exit.
These guides turn a vendor demo into a repeatable buying process. Start with your business type, then test the risks most sales presentations skip.
How to Choose a POS for a Bakery or Café
Choose a bakery or café POS by counter speed, modifiers, kitchen workflow, tips, online ordering, outage behavior, and ownership cost.
Open guide →How to Choose a POS for a Small Retail or Gift Shop
Compare retail POS systems by inventory, variants, gift cards, ecommerce, purchasing, staff permissions, hardware, and data export.
Open guide →POS Offline Mode and Register-Outage Plan
Prepare for internet, payment-terminal, printer, register, and cloud-service outages with vendor questions and a practical store fallback plan.
Open guide →POS Data Export and Migration Checklist
Protect product, customer, gift-card, sales, tax, inventory, and order data before moving to or leaving a point-of-sale system.
Open guide →Clover Contract and Reseller Checklist
Compare Clover offers by processor, reseller, hardware ownership, software plan, processing rates, contract, support, and cancellation terms.
Open guide →Complete POS Hardware Cost Checklist
Budget registers, payment terminals, printers, scanners, cash drawers, kitchen displays, networking, spares, installation, and replacements.
Open guide →POS Vendor Demo Scorecard
Use one repeatable scorecard for POS demos covering workflow, payments, hardware, support, offline operation, contracts, and data export.
Open guide →Head-to-head starting points
Compare the operating model—not a star rating.
Eight systems to research first
Different shops need different tradeoffs.
Profiles summarize likely fit and a major caution. They are not hands-on reviews, current price quotes, or paid rankings.
Square
Best for: Simple retail, mobile sellers, and a first POS
Watch: Advanced inventory or complex restaurants may outgrow it.
Official site ↗Shopify POS
Best for: Retailers where ecommerce matters
Watch: Best value usually comes when Shopify is also the online store.
Official site ↗Lightspeed Retail
Best for: Inventory-heavy retail and multi-store operators
Watch: More setup and monthly cost than starter systems.
Official site ↗Toast
Best for: Restaurants, cafés, bars, and food service
Watch: Not the first pick for normal retail inventory.
Official site ↗Clover
Best for: Shops considering hardware bundles through banks or processors
Watch: Terms can depend heavily on the reseller and processor.
Official site ↗TouchBistro
Best for: Restaurants wanting restaurant-specific workflows
Watch: Less relevant for ordinary retail shops.
Official site ↗SumUp
Best for: Very small mobile sellers and simple counters
Watch: May be too light for serious inventory or multi-location operations.
Official site ↗KORONA POS
Best for: Specialty retail, ticketing, and regulated-inventory niches
Watch: Most relevant when the shop has specialized needs.
Official site ↗Vendor-demo script
Make each seller answer the same questions.
Ask for answers in writing and attach them to your decision record. A polished demonstration is not evidence that migration, offline operation, support, or cancellation will work as expected.
- 01What is the exact monthly software cost for our complete use case?
- 02What are card-present, keyed, online, and invoice processing rates?
- 03Is payment processing required, optional, or negotiable?
- 04Who owns the hardware after purchase or lease?
- 05What are the contract term and cancellation fee?
- 06Can we export products, customers, sales, gift cards, and order history?
- 07What happens if internet access fails?
- 08What support is available during our open hours?
- 09Which integrations cost extra?
- 10What setup and migration help is included?
Red flags
- Vague or incomplete payment rates.
- Hardware leases that cost more than buying.
- Long contracts before proof of fit.
- No clean data export.
- Support hours that do not match store hours.
- Inventory workflows that only look good in the demo.
Launch checklist
- Test scanner, printer, drawer, card reader, gift card, refund, tax, tip, discount, exchange, and offline sale.
- Train at least one backup person.
- Keep a documented register/internet failure plan.
- Reconcile the first three days against bank deposits.
- Export and retain baseline product and customer data.