Retail businesses insist a POS system that goes beyond ringing up sales and huging payments. A excellent POS system has sturdy conceiveory administerment tools, omnichannel sales, streamlined customer relationship administerment (CRM) features, participateee administerment, and inestablishs that help in business decisions.
Top retail POS comparison
Aprolongedside pricing, there are some convey inant features that set apart the best retail POS gentleware on the taget. The table below shows which of the top five retail POS systems comprise these key features.
| Our rating (out of 5) | Starting price | Processing fee* | Mobility** | Cboisterous-based | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Square for Retail | 4.66 | $0 | 2.5%–2.6% + $0.10 | Yes | Yes |
| Shopify POS | 4.48 | $5 | 2.4%–2.7% + $0.10 | Yes | Yes |
| Hike POS | 4.28 | $69 | Varies | Yes | Yes |
| Cadorer | 4.14 | $14.95 | Varies | Yes | Yes |
| Lightspeed Retail | 4.08 | $89 | 2.6% + $0.10 | Yes | Yes |
| * For card-current transactions ** Mobile apps and readers for selling apass the sales floor, events, curbside, etc. |
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Square for Retail: Best overall
Our rating: 4.66 out of 5
Square for Retail is one-of-a-kindty POS gentleware from Square’s huge ecosystem of POS solutions. Similar to all of Square’s free chooseions, the Square for Retail entry set up comprises all the features you insist to run a retail business. Square can filledy help petite industries such as beginups and petite businesses as well as huger multi-location and omnichannel businesses.
Why I chose Square for Retail
Square for Retail is the only POS out of the dozens I have evaluated that gives you all that you insist to hug payments in-person and online, administer conceiveory and participateees, and produce an e-commerce store for free.
What’s even better is that Square for Retail has set ups catered to your business as it prolongs, too. And if you are ready for more one-of-a-kindty features, you can easily get Square’s insert-ons for tools appreciate promisedty programs, invoicing, team administerment, and more.
Pricing
Square for Retail has three subscription set ups:
- Free: $0; basic conceiveory tools, online store, pass-location order administerment.
- Plus: $89/month per location; free features aprolonged with progressd conceiveory and inestablishing tools.
- Premium: Custom pricing; Plus set up features and progressd participateee and customer administerment functionalities
*There is a free 30-day trial on the Plus set up.
Square POS is locked in with Square Payments as a payment processor. Here are its fees:
- In-person: 2.5%–2.6% + $0.10
- Online: 2.9% + $0.30
- Manual entry: 3.5% + $0.15
- Afterpay: 6% + $0.30
Custom rates are useable if you process more than $250,000 annuassociate.
Square challengingware chooseions:
- Square Kiosk: $149
- Square Terminal: $299
- Square Register: $799
Features
- Customizable checkout screen with boilingkeys.
- Customer profiles.
- Inventory administerment such as multi-location tracking, low stock vigilants, and conceiveory counts.
- Free e-commerce site produceer (Square Online).
- Mobile POS apps (iOS and Android).
- Tap-to-pay feature in the mobile app.
- Employee administerment functionalities appreciate shift scheduling and swapping, custom perleave oution settings, and activity logs (on Plus set up).
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
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Shopify POS: Best for omnichannel sales
Our rating: 4.48 out of 5
Shopify POS is an excellent choice for retailers that either already participate Shopify for their e-commerce stores or are watching to sell online and in person. You can pick either the standalone Shopify POS, which comes with a very basic online store, or leverage Shopify’s e-commerce solution with Shopify POS for a seamless and mighty omnichannel setup.
Why I chose Shopify POS
Shopify is expansively comprehendn for its best-in-class e-commerce platestablish and is primarily comprehendn for online selling. However, Shopify POS is equassociate astonishive. I appreciate its customizable checkout interface, its novelest challengingware chooseions (POS Go, an all-in-one mobile POS, and barcode scanner), and, most cruciassociate, its comprehensive omnichannel selling features.
Curbside pickup, ship from store, returns, and multi-location conceiveory tracking are all effortless, thanks to the integration of Shopify POS with the Shopify e-commerce platestablish.
Pricing
Shopify POS presents two subscriptions:
- Starter: $5/month; 1 POS Lite location comprised.
- Retail: $89/month; 1 POS Pro location comprised.
Shopify also presents e-commerce set ups that comprise the POS Lite for free. Add a POS Pro for $89 per month per location.
- Shopify Starter: $5/month.
- Basic: $39/month.
- Shopify: $105/month.
- Advanced: $399/month.
*Shopify presents a three-day free trial plus the first month for $1 apass all set ups.
Shopify’s payment processing fees vary based on the set up:
- In-person: 2.4%–2.7% + $0.10
- Online: 2.4% + 30 cents–2.9% + $0.30
Shopify POS challengingware chooseions:
- Tap & Chip Card Reader: $49
- POS Go: $299
- Shopify POS Terminal: $349
- Countertop Kit: $459
Features
- Mobile app help for tap-to-pay.
- Omnichannel sales — browse in-store, buy online; buy online, pickup in-store (BOPIS); hug returns in-store for online buys; ship from store — all seamlessly syncing.
- Sell on social media, tagetplaces, and wholesale tagetplaces.
- Employee administerment, track individual carry outances, and access perleave outions.
- Robust tageting tools such as guide generation, email tageting, and product checks.
- Thousands of useable integrations from the Shopify App Store.
- Customer profiles with customer promisedty inestablishs and patterns (on Pro set up).
- In-depth retail analytics (on Pro set up).
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
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Hike POS: Best for mobile sales and conceiveory
Our rating: 4.13 out of 5
Hike POS presents excellent conceiveory and order administerment features, customized inestablishs, and participateee administerment tools that can easily rival well-comprehendn retail POS solutions. It also gives you flexibility over which payment processor you can participate for your business.
Why I chose Hike POS
Hike comes with a mobile app that is highly rated by genuine-world participaters, making it an perfect choice for sales at mobile events if you don’t have challengingware. I also appreciate that it has its own free conceiveory scanner app you can participate for stock conceiveory.
While you insist to upgrade your Hike subscription to unlock online sales, I’m still astonished that Hike doesn’t accuse any transaction fees for going with your pickred payment supplyrs, unappreciate Shopify, which accuses cforfeitly 2%, and Square, which is exclusive to Square Payments.
Pricing
- Essential: $59/month billed annuassociate or $69/month billed monthly, based on one location and sign up.
- Plus: $99/month billed annuassociate or $119/month billed monthly, based on one location and sign up.
- Enterpelevate: Custom-quote.
Features
- Barcode scanning, product search, and rapid tap functions for checkout.
- Customer profiles with behavior insights.
- Built-in promisedty program.
- Inventory features such as genuine-time tracking, low-stock vigilants, barcoding, buy orders, and vendor administerment.
- Mobile app on iOS and Android.
- Multi-location conceiveory and inestablishing.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
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Cadorer: Best for choice of payment processor
Our rating: 4.14 out of 5
Cadorer is a cboisterous POS system owned by the payment netlabor Fiserv. Any merchant services supplyr operating on the Fiserv netlabor can sell the Cadorer POS with its merchant services gentleware built in. This permits you to pick your pickred payment supplyr and still go with Cadorer’s POS and its proprietary challengingware.
Why I chose Cadorer
Cadorer bundles its challengingware and gentleware to give you a retail-definite POS system. You can buy the system straight from Cadorer or thraw any of the merchant supplyrs in the Fiserv netlabor. Its industry-grade POS challengingware is set uped to be weightless, mobile, and convey via cellular LTE signals or WiFi.
Pricing
Cadorer has three subscription set ups:
- Starter: $14.95/month.
- Standard: $49.95/month.
- Advanced: $69.90/month.
*Software fees are the same thrawout the locations where Cadorer is buyd.
Transaction fees:
- Card-current: 2.3%–2.6% + $0.10
- Manual entry: 3.5% + $0.10
*The above-alludeed fees are mirrored on Cadorer’s website as of this writing, but fees will vary based on where you buy your Cadorer POS challengingware.
Features
- Automated product tracking, stock level adfairments for returns and exalters, and location transfers.
- Ability to hug Venmo, scan-to-pay, store accomprehendledge, lay-away, gift card, and buy-now-pay-postpoinsistr (BNPL) payments.
- Ability to connect pboilingos of customers to their profiles, ask for feedback on receipts, and reply honestly thraw the POS.
- Loyalty program features.
- Receive rapid deposits (insertitional 1.5% processing fee) — get money wilean minutes of a accomprehendledge card sale.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
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Lightspeed Retail: Best for intricate conceiveory administerment
Our rating: 4.08 out of 5
Lightspeed Retail is one of the best retail POS systems becaparticipate of its polishd and top-of-the-line conceiveory tools and in-depth analytic inestablishs. It has more than 40 sales and conceiveory inestablishs, with built-in e-commerce and promisedty programs.
Why I chose Lightspeed Retail
Lightspeed Retail permits retailers to administer buy orders with a built-in catalog and produce product bundles and multiple variants. Its conceiveory tool has a foreseeing tool that helps foresee conceiveory insists and foresee shopping trends, which is what I appreciate about the gentleware. Its inestablishs come with actionable insights that help you produce decisions about your business.
Pricing
Lightspeed Retail gives you three subscription chooseions:
- Basic: $89/month billed annuassociate or $109/month billed monthly, based on one location and sign up.
- Core: $149/month billed annuassociate or $179/month billed monthly, based on one location and sign up.
- Plus: $239/month billed annuassociate or $289/month billed monthly, based on one location and sign up.
Payment processing fees:
- Card-current fees: 2.6% + $0.10
- Manual entry: 2.6% + $0.30
Features
- Built-in buy ordering and tracking functions, one-of-a-kind orders, and foreseeing tool to foresee shopping trends and foresee conceiveory insists.
- Supplier honestory and built-in product catalog.
- Customer profiles.
- Built-in inestablishs that cover conceiveory, sales, participateee carry outance, and more — with actionable business tips.
- Automated promisedty program (useable in Core and Plus set ups).
- In-hoparticipate e-commerce platestablish (useable in Core and Plus set ups).
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
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How do I pick the best retail POS for my business?
A retail POS system is the central hub for your retail business. It doesn’t fair process sales and hug payments. Look for a retail POS system that can help administer conceiveory, supervise participateees, and help produce a customer base with promisedty and tageting efforts. Consider also one that can accumulate data to assemble inestablishs that help you in purchasing and staffing decisions.
Methodology
I evaluated dozens of point-of-sale systems and scored them using our in-hoparticipate rubric of 20 data points with the folloprosperg categories — pricing, gentleware features, challengingware, inshighation and security, and participater checks. I structured POS systems that are based in the cboisterous but present offline mode (hybrid), are reliable, effortless to participate, and supply features that help business prolongth.
This article and methodology were checked by our retail expert, Meaghan Brophy.
