The 11 Best Point of Sale Systems for Small Businesses

What is a Point of Sale system?

A point of sale system, also known as a POS system, allows your business to accept payments from customers and keep track of your sales. These used to be called a cash register back in the day. Today’s POS systems are a combination of hardware and software that typically includes a barcode scanner, a card reader, a cash drawer, and a receipt printer. Most of the new POS systems allow the cashier and the customer to interact on a touchscreen to complete the sale. For smaller and less complicated businesses, the simplest setup would be a credit card reader connected to a tablet or smartphone.

Best Small Business POS Systems

• Clover • Square • Toast • NCR • Lightspeed • TouchBistro • GoDaddy • Epos Now • Lavu • Revel Systems • Helcim A POS system allows you to accept customer payments, track your sales, and manage and track your inventory. It will also give you the ability to run reports. You should look for the best point of sale system that does everything you need it to, at a reasonable price in relation to other POS systems on the market, that is also easy to setup and use. The best POS systems will do all that for you. When you make the decision to buy a new POS system, or upgrade your old one, it can be a daunting task to figure out where to even begin. We created this guide on the top names in point of sale systems to help you to narrow down which one would be the best one for you and your business.

Clover Point of Sale System

The first thing that you will notice when you take a look at the Clover POS system, is that they have that simple, high tech look to them. They have some great pricing models, and packages for many different types of business. Startup Cost: $0 to $5000+ Monthly Cost: $14.95 to $290+ Payment Processing Fees: 2.3% + 10¢ Per Transaction If card not present: 3.5% + 10¢ Some of their standard POS package options include the following: • Full Service Dining Restaurants • Quick Service Dining - Fast Food • Retail Shops • Professional Services • Personal Services • Home & Field Services Their POS packages can be purchased and paid for up front, or they can be paid for with a monthly payment. Package prices range from $0 to $5000 on up, depending on the level of package that you need, and whether you need the more advanced hardware. These various hardware and software options to fit companies of all sizes, make, and models, this is a top contendor for our favorite POS solution. If your hardware needs are minimal, and your business is fairly simple small business, you could easily start with the Clover Go card reader, and then upgrade to a full point of sale solution at a later date if you decide you need to, or as your business grows. The Clover system is easy to setup and begin using right away. The hardware is setup and ready to use as soon as you open the box, and everything syncs together nicely with the Clover dashboard. Clover is a highly popular, and widely used, POS solution that gives you the capability to manage your business from anywhere. You can use the Clover Go app to create your orders, take payments, and send receipts to your customers easily through text. When your day is over, you can see a full history of all the transactions.

Square POS System

Another favorite POS system that is perfect for small businesses is called Square. The Square POS system has affordable priced chip readers for simple small home based or small office businesses, and advanced features and hardware for larger brick-and-mortar businesses. Square offers POS software and hardware solutions for your business to be able to take customer payments. Its POS solution plans are geared toward restaurants, retail, and service based businesses as well. Their pricing model is a little more difficult to lay out with quite a few options. Startup Cost: Monthly Model Below Monthly Cost: $0 to $60+ Payment Processing Fees In person - 2.6% + 10¢ per transaction Online - 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction Manually entered - 3.5% + 15¢ per transaction Invoices - 3.3% + 30¢ per transaction

Toast Point of Sale Systems

The Toast Point of Sale System provides software for small restaurants, large chains and everything in between. It is an all in one solution to let you manage your business. A long term contract is required. It enables your business to accept and track your sales. They have front-of-house, back-of-house, and guest- facing technology solutions. Startup Cost: Monthly Model Below Monthly Cost: $0 to $165+ Toast can be used to process credit and debit card transactions. It includes features for marketing, employee scheduling, and online ordering as well. There are a lot of third party apps available to give you even more advanced features and uses of the POS solution.

NCR POS System

The NCR Point of Sale System provides point of sale solutions for Banking Businesses, Restaurants, Retail establishments, Grocery Stores, Gas Stations, Service type businesses, and more. They offer a lot of solutions, through third party resellers, but we will compare the Aloha cloud model as it is the one that closely resembles the models in other point of sale solutions that we reviewed. Startup Cost: Monthly Model Below Monthly Cost: $0 to $175+ Payment Processing Fees: 2.25% to 2.99% + $0.15 per transaction

Lightspeed Point of Sale System

The Lightspeed Point of Sale System gives you the ability to manage your inventory across all of your locations, centralized purchasing, and detailed reports. It lets you track sales and performance across all of your locations as well. Startup Cost: Monthly Model Below Monthly Cost: $69 to $199+ Payment Processing Fees: 2.6% + $0.10 per transaction

TouchBistro POS Solution

The TouchBistro Point of Sale System is an all in one restaurant management system. It supports third party POS hardware like barcode scanners, and cash drawers. The solution caters to restaurant businesses, and does not have a retail store version of it’s POS solution. This system lets you track your inventory levels, table turnover, and create customer accounts. It lets you manage your employees by assigning roles, tracking their attendance, and managing employee profiles. There are over fifty different reports that you can run for managing your restaurant business. Startup Cost: Monthly Model Below Monthly Cost: $69+ Payment Processing Fees: Variable, Currently 2.49% + $0.15 per transaction

GoDaddy Point of Sale Solution

The GoDaddy Point of Sale System provides a simple, and streamlined point of sale solution to enable you to accept payments online and in person. It give syou the ability to track your sales with a comprehensive dashboard. This is the perfect solution for those small businesses that want to setup a website, and accept payments online. Startup Cost: $300+ Payment Processing Fees: 2.3% + 0¢ per in-person transactions 2.3% + 30¢ per online transactions 3.3% + 0¢ per keyed-in transactions

EposNow Point of Sale Solution

The EposNow Point of Sale Solution is intuitive, and typically takes less than 15 minutes for businesses to setup and start using. It has a flexible and customizable solution that is priced right. Startup Cost: $99+ Payment Processing Fees: 2.6% + 10¢ per transaction

Lavu Point of Sale System

The Lavu Point of Sale System was specifically designed for restaurant type businesses. It is an iPad based, highly customizable POS system that is perfect for restaurants of all sizes. It’s great for coffee shops, pizza restaurants, and food trucks. There are several POS hardware and accessories options to include terminals, kitchen display systems, cash drawers, and devices to network it all together. Monthly Cost: $59 to $349 Payment Processing Fees: 3rd Party - Not Listed

Revel Systems Cloud Based Point of Sale System

The Revel Systems Point of Sale System is a cloud based POS system that runs off of ipads. It’s ideal for restaurants, pizza places, sandwich shops, retail stores, and coffee shops. Many different hardware accessories are available from their website like the iPads, stands for the iPads, cash drawer, printers, payment devices, and more. Startup Cost: $674+ Monthly Cost: $99+ Payment Processing Fees: 2.49% plus $0.15 per transaction

Helcim Point of Sale System

Helcim is a simple POS solution that you can install on your existing desktop, laptop, tablet, or smartphone. They don’t charge any monthly or hidden fees, and it publishes its processing rates openly on its website. There is not contract to get locked into. It doesn’t get any simpler than that. Startup Cost: $0 Monthly Cost: $0 Payment Processing Fees: In Person - 1.86% plus $0.08 per transaction Keyed & Online - 2.40% plus $0.25 per transaction

Point of Sale System Costs

When you are considering to buy a POS system, you will find that there are three main costs to consider. There can be a hardware fee that would be part of your startup costs. Then there is the monthly fee for the service, and to maintain the software. Lastly there is the payment processing fee. On top of that you may decide to buy some of their advanced features that can also add to the cost, but some people like to start with the basics and add services over time as they grow their business.

Point of Sale Hardware Costs

The startup cost to get started with the right POS hardware can range from hundreds to thousands of dollars, with an average startup cost of about $800. Your exact cost will depend on how many different pieces of hardware that you decide to buy as part of your solution. Sometimes this cost can be leased or rolled into the monthly payments.

Point of Sale Software Costs

The software plan, or service, costs range from free to hundreds of dollars per month, depending on the package that you decide to go with for your business.

Point of Sale Payment Processing Costs

The payment processing fees can range from 2.25% to 3.5% per transaction. These fees can vary based on whether the transaction is in person or online. When the card is not available in person, there is a higher risk for fraud to occur, so the fees are a little higher to make up for the average losses on that type of transaction.

Choosing the Right Point of Sale System

Before you choose a POS system, you need to determine what type of system would work best for your business, what kind of features you would like, and what you can set aside for your budget.

Cloud Based vs Server Based Point of Sale System

Cloud-based POS systems are mobile, easy to use, stored in the cloud and backed up regularly. Cloud based systems are easier to maintain, and typically less expensive. They require less technical skills to manage and keep running. With the data stored in the cloud, the reports, and other features can be accessed online from anywhere. If you don’t have reliable internet access, you may need a server based system so you don’t have outages. With a server based point of sale system you don’t have to rely on the internet working for you to run your business, but there will be higher hardware costs, and a possible local support contract if you don’t have anyone on staff that can manage a server. Three is also a higher risk for data loss, so you would want to make sure you have a good backup device and determine how often you want to make sure your data is backed up so that you can recover quickly in the event of a major failure. Most businesses today do go with the cloud based point of sale system due to the ease to maintain, they are easier to setup, and they are easier to recover from when you have a failure.

Retail or Restaurant Business Point of Sale Solution

Many point of sale solutions today can run most types of businesses, but some POS solutions are specifically designed for restaurants, or retail type businesses. So you need to make sure the one you choose is best designed for your type of business.

What Features Do You Want In Your Point of Sale System

Thinking about the type of features that you want in your POS system before you start looking into the different ones will help you narrow down the field. Some solutions come with all of the features built in that you could possibly need, some require you to buy a higher level service, and some add services individually based on your needs.

Common Features In a Point of Sale System

• Payment Processing • Advanced Reporting • Employee Management • Inventory Management • Gift Card Management • Loyalty Programs • Custom Management

Customer Support for Your Point of Sale System

Time is money when it comes to business. You will want to make sure that the solution your go with has a support option for 24/7 support. When your POS isn’t working, it’s hard to run your business, and it’s impossible to process customer credit card transactions. If it’s not included, it atleast needs to be a pay for use option that is there for you any time you may need it.

Benefits of a Point of Sale System

Some of the most important benefits of a good point of sale system is that you can take credit card payments, you can sell online, you can track your orders, you can manage your employees and customers, you can run reports to give you in depth visibility into how your business is doing day to day and month to month.

Point of Sale Systems Frequently Asked Questions

What Is A Point of Sale System?

A point of sale system, also known as a POS system, records the products or services that a customer or guest purchases. It adds up the costs, calculates that taxes, and the shipping. It processes the payment, and provides the customer with a receipt.

What Types of Businesses Need A Point of Sale System?

Pretty much every business out there needs a point of sale system. Websites that sell products or services, retail stores, coffee shops, sandwich shops, home based service type businesses, landscape companies, really almost any type of business that accepts payments, should have some sort of point of sale system.

When Should A New Business Buy A Point of Sale System?

A business that will be taking payments from customers should invest in a good point of sale system before the business starts. It’s important to be organized from day one. You will appreciate this when it comes time to accept a credit card payment, or having those reports come tax time. If you are in the market for buying, or selling a business or commercial property, or even looking to expand or get a new lease, Michelle Mendenhall, with EXP Commercial, is a great resource for getting it done. Michelle Mendenhall Professional Business Broker, IBBA Commercial Real Estate Sales & Leasing Associate Phone: 916.459.7526 DRE #02116152 LocalGirlGoesCommercial.com michelle.mendenhall@localgirlgoescommercial.com michelle.mendenhall@expcommercial.com At ViralStudioX, we highlight products and services that you might find interesting. We frequently receive free products from manufacturers to test. This does not drive our decision as to whether or not a product is featured or recommended. If you click a link on this page, then go on to make a purchase, we might receive a commission – at no extra cost to you, and does not impact the purchase price of any products that you may purchase.