The Best Point-of-Sale (POS) Systems of 2023

Square is a free POS system ideal for new and small businesses or solopreneurs looking to sell via multi-channel options. Thanks to its easy-to-use software, affordable price points, short setup time, online ordering, and integrated payment processing, it offers unbeatable value.

Square is an all-in-one POS solution designed for new and small businesses or solopreneurs with an easy-to-use interface, affordable price points, and industry-specific features. I like the instant setup using the free e-commerce website or online store and software, and the free or paid add-ons to tailor the service to your business needs.

Another benefit is its self-installable system, which offers features specifically for retailers, restaurants, and other small businesses. Its free plan allows anyone to get started without paying expensive monthly software fees and setup costs and still get basic features like unlimited products and sales.

Square doesn't support businesses that sell age-restricted or high-risk items, such as tobacco and liquor, or subscription-based products — but you can consider PaymentCloud. Plus, you can’t use a third-party payment processor because Square has a built-in one. Once you create a Square account, you can process your first sale right away and accept cards (and multiple other forms of payment). This short setup time gives Square an advantage over other POS solutions, along with its online ordering, comprehensive checkout, and integrated payment gateway.

Who is Square best for?

I found Square works best for new, independent, and small businesses in the retail, restaurant, or appointment-based and professional service realm with its user-friendly platform, zero setup, installation, and monthly software fees. Also, it has month-to-month compared to long-term contracts with POS providers like Clover.

Recent upgrades to Square

The Square Photo Studio app now lets iOS users take photos for selling online and connect images to items in your catalog. You can also accept Afterpay’s buy now, pay later (BNPL) payment option in-person and online, and sync your payments, accounts, and cash flow with Square Banking. Plus, you can accept card and mobile payments using iPhone 11 or newer models (with iOS 15.5 or later) without a card reader.

Square pricing

Square offers a transparent pricing structure with flat-rate payment processing fees of 2.6% plus 10 cents to 3.5% plus 15 cents per transaction. You won’t pay for setup, installation, or monthly software like with Clover or Shopify. And it doesn’t lock you into long-term contracts or agreements; cancel anytime at no cost. While Square is free, you’ll still pay for using its hardware devices.

This is a cloud-based POS for almost any independent, established business — particularly multichannel and specialty retailers and restaurants. Lightspeed’s robust inventory management, exceptional e-commerce tools, and user-friendly analytics platform give your store an edge over the competition.

Lightspeed, a robust inventory planning and management tool, has great overall value for restaurant business owners. Also, retail businesses know which items to stock at the right time, avoiding stocking discrepancies and shrinkage.

Built on iPads, it can run from a desktop computer and has many built-in features business owners will appreciate. You can bring your hardware (if compatible) or buy through the company at custom-quoted prices. Lightspeed syncs with POS data and provides more than 50 professional e-commerce themes, customer relationship management (CRM), search engine optimization (SEO), e-commerce marketing, shipping, and other tools.

I also liked its impressive sophisticated analytics and advanced loyalty management tools, and quick support, particularly the live chat option. Though Lightspeed is costlier than other POS options and its interface has a learning curve, it offers significant value, particularly for growing businesses, thanks to its order and vendor management, integrated payments, e-commerce platform, and detailed checkout flow.

Who is Lightspeed best for?

I recommend Lightspeed for well-established retailers and restaurants with large inventories and multichannel sales. Choose from different platforms: R-Series for retailers, K-Series and L-Series for restaurants, and the C-Series for e-commerce businesses.

Recent upgrades to Lightspeed

Updates include an integration partnership with OpenTable, and adding Lightspeed Payments for Golf with new hardware and ideal, integrated payments technology. Lightspeed is also launching a B2B network that connects retailers and brands and Lightspeed Retail, an e-commerce platform that merges advanced POS and payments into a powerful solution.

Lightspeed pricing

Lightspeed has four monthly, pay-as-you-go plans: Lean, Standard, Advanced, and Enterprise. You’ll get unique features depending on the plan. Lightspeed doesn’t have a free plan, but you get a 14-day free trial to test the platform before committing to a paid plan.

Toast is an all-in-one, cloud-based POS designed to help restaurant business owners control inventory, track sales, accept and process payments, and manage their employees. The software has a free starter POS plan, which small business owners use with no upfront cost and upgrade as their businesses grow.

Toast’s cloud-based POS offers diverse features geared specifically toward restaurants or establishments in the hospitality industry. It was easy and quick to set up and offers a free plan, ideal for entrepreneurs and small business owners. Its niche functions such as the Toast Mobile Order & Pay, 24/7/year-round support, full offline mode, screen designer, and fraud reports stand out against competitors.

I also liked its robust and durable hardware, the Toast Now feature that lets you accept online ordering without purchasing more equipment, multiple online ordering and delivery options, and its extensive partner network with access to numerous third-party apps. You also get online ordering, QR code ordering and payments, employee scheduling, in-POS messaging that sends alerts, and tip pool management. Other standout features include comprehensive customizable reports, real-time inventory tracking, access to business-specific HR documents like local regulations or handbook templates, and more.

Yet Toast POS falls short in some aspects. You can’t bring your own hardware as it runs on its proprietary terminals and tablets, and has only one payment processor — the built-in Toast Payments — and it locks you into a two-year contract.

Who is Toast best for?

I found Toast is great for businesses in the hospitality industry — particularly quick- and full-service restaurants. They benefit from Toast POS’s sheer scope of tools like order management and employee scheduling.

Recent upgrades to Toast

It updated its platform with features such as Order with Google and launched the Toast Invoicing tool that helps restaurants manage wholesale and catering orders alongside other business (takeout, delivery, and in-person) for free. You can streamline your operations and simplify payments for events and orders without using multiple systems to manage your revenue sources.

Toast pricing

Toast POS offers four pricing tiers: Starter Kit, Point of Sale, Essentials, and Custom. You’ll purchase the hardware separately through Toast but the upfront costs vary based on your specific hardware package and installation needs. The Starter Package also comes with a pay-as-you-go plan, saving on upfront costs.

Clover — a mobile POS (mPOS) provider owned by Fiserv — is ideal for retail, service, and restaurant businesses. It provides various proprietary hardware options you can configure to accept payments and upgrade as your needs expand.

Clover offers easy-to-use, versatile software and hardware. I found this POS unique because you can purchase it from your preferred merchant account. Clover’s hardware is ready to use right out of the box and syncs everything with its dashboard.

I also like that you can manage your business from anywhere with this all-in-one mPOS solution to create orders and invoices, accept payments, and send receipts via text to your customers. At the close of business, you’ll get a complete history of all your daily transactions. The Clover Dashboard organizes your sales, inventory, employees’ performance, apps, and business goals in a single central location.

While Clover stands out as a popular POS, it lacks in some areas, particularly its pricing, contract variability, and limited functionality and inventory management needs. Another downside is you can lease or purchase its hardware from other entities but can’t use them with other payment processors. With Clover’s Inventory app, you can create and manage inventory items — merchandise, menu items, and services — with Clover’s POS devices and the merchant dashboard.

Who is Clover best for?

I found that Clover works best for small businesses in the retail, restaurant, and professional services industries — looking for an all-in-one solution and multiple integrations with other business apps.

Recent upgrades to Clover

Updates include sorting and filtering options and new top navigation. There is an improved App Market layout, where you can see the apps you’ve installed and reorganized categories to target the most relevant merchant businesses. Other changes include new graphic enhancements for the Clover Flex 3 and Mini 3 devices’ Payments screen and expanded region-based availability for Clover App Market ratings and reviews.

Clover pricing

Pricing ranges from $50 to $290 depending on your type of business, and you can pay monthly or in full. Free plans are only available for businesses offering professional and home and field services, but you can use the free 30-day trial to see if it’s a good fit for your business.

Shopify POS helps you sell products almost anywhere, including in-person and online. The app is built on the Shopify e-commerce platform and syncs with your account to track inventory and orders across your online store, retail locations, and other active sales channels, for easier management.

Shopify POS is a user-friendly iPad app that allows you to make sales in-person or online. You can also sync it with your Shopify store to track and manage all your orders under one roof. Based on costs, features, integrations, and support, I found it easy to set up because I only had to download the app from the App Store and complete a quick setup process.

The main drawback is it requires an e-commerce subscription to operate your business, which attracts monthly subscription costs. I also couldn’t use Shopify POS without an internet connection, while Toast offers an Offline Mode option. Plus, many of the Shopify POS’s best features like the smart inventory control and advanced reporting tools aren’t available without upgrading to Shopify Plus or the Shopify POS Pro plan for an extra $89 per month, per location.

Who is Shopify best for?

Shopify POS is ideal for e-commerce, multichannel retail, and online businesses at any stage of growth. You can link your in-store and online sales and simplify inventory management, control your cash flow, and engage visitors (in-store and online) with marketing campaigns. The intuitive POS also eases the checkout experience so you can help customers whether you’re in-store or on the go.

Recent upgrades to Shopify

Shopify has a smoother omnichannel sales process, and apps are easier to leverage. A simpler, more customizable solution helps you manage your business better. It also offers opportunities for app developers to build new integrations and technical solutions.

Shopify pricing

Shopify POS offers two pricing plans: POS Lite and POS Pro. The Lite plan comes free with each Shopify e-commerce plan, letting you sell in-person or on the go, manage products, take payments, and build relationships with customers.

Since 2011, TouchBistro POS has been helping restaurants worldwide grow. The company focuses on features that help restaurants and their customers in ever-changing markets enjoy the dining culture they love. The POS streamlines and simplifies all aspects of the restaurant business — order taking, menu management, payment processing, accounting, inventory control, reporting, marketing, staff scheduling, and more.

TouchBistro, an award-winning iPad POS built for independent restaurants, is used in more than 100 countries. I like its distinguishing features, which make up its biggest strengths, such as the hybrid architecture, compared to mostly cloud-based competitors. The hard-wired local connection can run even if your internet connection goes down.

Plus, its core features and add-ons meet the unique demands of restaurants, including order-taking and processing and menu engineering — you get an all-around solution with all the POS features needed to run your restaurant, big or small. TouchBistro helps you improve your operational efficiency, make sound business decisions, and drive revenue growth. Its predictive data insights and Cloud dashboard let you see your performance and derive data-driven strategies to grow your business.

But TouchBistro lacks in specific areas, like its limited integration with specific apps and few enterprise-level capabilities, making it less suitable for multi-unit restaurant chains.

Who is TouchBistro best for?

I recommend TouchBistro for big and small restaurants because of its in-house technology, like online ordering, integrated reservations and payments, marketing, customer loyalty, and more.

Recent upgrades to TouchBistro

To meet the evolving needs of its customers, TouchBistro is looking to expand its restaurant offerings, core services, and strategic acquisitions at a time when more than 50% of restaurants depend on digital channels — at least moderately — to generate revenue.

TouchBistro pricing

TouchBistro offers transparent pricing, starting at $69 per month for its POS solution. For more features, you can purchase add-ons, such as online ordering, loyalty, marketing, gift cards, and reservations to suit your needs.

Helcim is an all-in-one POS platform that offers a simple but competitive pricing structure for small businesses. You can sign up easily and quickly to use the POS without getting locked into contracts or commitments.

This cloud-based software allows in-person payments from a smartphone, tablet, or desktop computer. You can get the POS on the Helcim app and use the Helcim Card Reader to accept payments, making it easy to select products for a sale or enter purchase amounts. I like that you can use it with any device, and access the service wherever you are, at any time. Plus, its virtual terminal allows you to process payments online, at the lowest rates possible compared to other payment processing services.

With a free Helcim account, you can use the POS on your mobile or desktop device (Windows and Mac). It offers competitive interchange rates, has no monthly costs, hidden fees, or contracts, and is quick and easy to set up and use.

But I found it unsuitable for seasonal and high-risk businesses, expensive for new and small businesses with low-volume transactions (under $25,000), and it offers very limited business management tool integrations. I also found its customer support slow and unresponsive. All these drawbacks prevented Helcim from scoring higher in my evaluation of its POS features.

Who is Helcim best for?

I found it ideal for fast-growing and higher-volume businesses. It’s free to use and has no monthly costs, hidden fees, and contracts, making it ideal for new and small businesses that don’t have the budget for monthly plans or POS hardware.

Recent upgrades to Helcim

Helcim constantly updates its POS features. One of the recent upgrades is on its checkout page. It’s now easier to navigate so you can add items to your cart and serve your customers even faster.

Helcim pricing

Helcim POS is free and doesn’t charge you monthly fees or lock you into any contracts or commitments. The software and card reader are included once you sign up. It's one of the easiest POS providers to set up and install over others like Toast, which work with specific (expensive) hardware.

You’ll only pay a one-time cost of $109 for the card reader, and start processing payments once you download and sync the Helcim app to the card reader. You can process in-person and online payments at low rates, especially if you process high-volume transactions. Also, you can access all Helcim merchant tools and customer support.

QuickBooks is known for its software with flawless accounting and reporting to help businesses. The company created the QuickBooks POS for businesses running in-store and online operations, adding helpful features that help you stay on top of your inventory, accept contactless payments, and seamlessly integrate with e-commerce tools.

This desktop program is built for retailers and other businesses that accept contactless as well as credit and debit card payments. I like its deep integration with QuickBooks software, making your accounting and reporting processes a lot easier, especially if you already use QuickBooks. And it offers diverse hardware, including barcode scanners, tablet stands, PIN pads, and cash drawers (at an added cost).

From inventory management to account integration and reporting, QuickBooks POS offers lots of features and functionality. I loved these possibilities, whether you’re selling in-store or online, making the POS a one-stop shop business management solution. I also liked the contactless payments and the mobile payments features, which help seasonal businesses accept payments on their mobile devices during trade shows, at curbside pickups, or at street fairs.

But it doesn’t integrate seamlessly with third-party apps as it does with its own tools and though you don’t pay monthly fees, the one-time and upfront costs are steep, especially for new and small businesses. Plus, it’s a PC-based program and works best with its own QuickBooks Payments processor, which offers monthly and pay-as-you-go plans. QuickBooks POS is locally installed — which may be a plus for in-store operations. But it doesn’t integrate directly with QuickBooks Online for on-the-go accounting, so you’re limited to using QuickBooks Desktop to manage your accounts.

Who is QuickBooks POS best for?

I recommend QuickBooks POS for businesses already invested in the QuickBooks ecosystem and midsize retailers with brick-and-mortar stores that prefer a desktop program over cloud-based.

Recent upgrades to QuickBooks POS

New features include accepting contactless payments, e-commerce integration for in-store and online management, integration with top marketplaces and shopping carts (Shopify, Amazon, and more), expanded tablet compatibility, and a save and email receipts function. The company also has new hardware that allows you to do more in less space.

QuickBooks POS pricing

It is free with a one-time fee payment for the plan that fits your business needs and budget. Each of the three plans (POS Basic, POS Pro, and POS Multi-Store) comes with QuickBooks Desktop financial software integration, reporting, e-commerce integration, contactless payments, ring sales, and inventory tracking and management.

Revel is a cloud-native POS best known for robust features, extreme customizability, customer loyalty programs, and enterprise-level capabilities. It is used across North America, Asia, and several European countries, but is particularly popular among multi-unit chains in the U.S. Use it to diversify your revenue streams, deliver a better customer experience, and scale your business with ease.

Revel POS offers a robust list of enterprise-level features, such as its bespoke menu management and advanced reporting, which can handle most aspects of restaurant management, particularly multi-unit chains.

One of my favorite things is you can compare data and insights from different venues and locations, and it runs on iOS, using iPads as its terminals. This is a major plus for many restaurants because of the seamless integration between iOS apps and iPads, and the automatic updates rolled out across devices, which ensure your device is up-to-date. And the user-friendliness of iPads can speed up your employee training process.

Revel offers a wealth of insightful features lacking in other cloud-based systems, such as customizable reports, smartphone apps for reporting, and more. That said, more features aren't always better. For smaller restaurants, Revel’s complex and extensive features make the POS overwhelming and tough for new employees to navigate.

Who is Revel best for?

I found Revel POS works best for restaurants, particularly multi-unit quick service chains, thanks to its robust and customizable features. You also get enterprise-level tools like its extensive third-party network, consultative services, open API, and standardized hardware bundles.

Recent upgrades to Revel

The company has announced several partnerships with leading companies, including DoorDash Drive and Voxie, a conversational texting and automation platform, to drive additional revenue for Revel’s restaurant and retail customers. It added a new integrated loyalty solution to its POS.

Revel pricing

Revel POS’s monthly fees cost $99 per terminal, per month, higher than many other iPad-POS programs for restaurants. But you get some value for your money as all its plans offer robust POS features, personalized onboarding, and setup/installation support, reporting, and analytics.

Epos Now is another cloud-based POS software built for businesses in the retail and hospitality industry. Based in the U.K., the company expanded to New Zealand, Australia, and North America. It offers numerous hardware options, rich features, and integration with third-party apps and credit card processing services.

Unlike other POS providers, Epos Now can run on Android, iOS, and Windows operating systems. Its own iPad app makes it easy to use your iPad as the POS terminal for your back-office activities.

I also like that Epos Now is compatible with major web browsers like Safari and Google Chrome on any device. The flexibility is extremely beneficial for businesses because you can choose the hardware and OS that works best for your budget and needs. Support is swift via live chat; I spoke to a human agent, but you can access further support via a phone call or ask a question in the Epos Now Community Hub.

Being a strictly cloud-based POS, you’ll need a strong and stable internet connection to operate it. Otherwise, you’ll lose all essential functions instantly, which leads to interruptions, a poor customer experience, and lost revenue.

Who is Epos Now best for?

I recommend Epos Now for growing businesses that need flexible hardware options and a POS that covers all the basics without complex features and pricey add-ons like TouchBistro POS. Its simple interface and features make it easy to use when training new hires.

Recent upgrades to Epos Now

Epos Now announced the launch of Epos Now Capital, a solution powered by YouLend, which helps owners access working capital quickly and easily to grow their businesses.

Epos Now pricing

Epos Now is a bare-bones POS with plans starting from $49 per month, offering basic hardware, competitive inventory, employee and customer management features, and third-party integrations.