Visibility in this ranking can be paid for. Payment moves a vendor's position within the
shortlist; it never adds a vendor, and it never changes a word of the review. The largest vendors in point of sale software
cannot hold places 1 to 3. Places 1 to 3 go to challengers, vendors outside the best-known brands in a category,
wherever the category has them; the established names follow from place 4 in their ranked order. How it works: placement disclosure ·
editorial process.
The 15 tools, reviewed
#1 Loyverse
Free tablet POS for small cafés and shops · Cyprus · loyverse.com
Free core app Bring your own tablet Processor choice
Loyverse does the basics at no cost: ring up sales on an Android or iOS tablet, print receipts on a common printer, track stock, run a points loyalty scheme and send orders to a kitchen display app.
- Pricing: Free + paid add-ons. Core POS free, including multi-store back office and kitchen display. Free plan: free plan.
- Best for: Single-site cafés, kiosks, small shops
- Strengths: Sales and receipts; Basic inventory; Built-in loyalty points.
Where it falls short
Reporting is basic, and the useful extras such as staff time tracking and advanced inventory are paid add-ons. There is no table service floor plan to speak of.
Wrong for
A full-service restaurant or a retailer with purchase orders, suppliers and several stores should look at TouchBistro or Lightspeed Retail instead.
Visit Loyverse →
#2 KORONA POS
Processor-agnostic retail POS with month-to-month terms · United States · koronapos.com
Processor choice No long contract Retail first
KORONA is the rare POS that does not insist on its own payments. The merchant can pick from several supported processors and keep negotiating, and published plans run month to month.
- Pricing: Per register / month. Published monthly plans per register, month-to-month, with the merchant choosing among supported card processors. Free plan: free trial.
- Best for: Liquor, convenience and specialty retailers
- Strengths: Inventory and ordering; Multi-store management; Age verification prompts.
Where it falls short
Table service comes only through the paid KORONA Food module, aimed at cafes, bakeries and quick service rather than full dining rooms, and the interface is functional rather than polished.
Wrong for
Full-service restaurants and bars that need table maps and kitchen routing should look at Toast, TouchBistro or SpotOn, and a salon should look at Vagaro.
Visit KORONA POS →
#3 Lavu
iPad restaurant POS for independent venues · United States · lavu.com
iPad POS Restaurants Bundled payments
Lavu launched in Albuquerque in 2010 as an iPad POS for restaurants and has stayed with that market: floor plans, coursing, modifiers that cope with a build-your-own bowl, kitchen printing and a kitchen display.
- Pricing: Quote only. Quote-based monthly software fees with higher packages adding online ordering and loyalty, usually paired with Lavu's own payment processing. Free plan: none.
- Best for: Independent restaurants and bars
- Strengths: Floor plans and table service; Kitchen display and printing; Menu modifiers.
Where it falls short
The POS itself has no published price, only the Marty AI analytics tiers do, so the real monthly figure surfaces in a sales call once add-ons and processing are bundled in, and some buyers report multi-year agreements.
Wrong for
Retailers of any kind, and restaurant groups planning several sites with central menus.
Visit Lavu →
#4 Lightspeed Retail
Retail POS with purchasing and multi-store stock control · Canada · lightspeedhq.com
Inventory depth Multi-location Supplier catalogs
Lightspeed is what retailers graduate to when a simpler POS starts losing track of sizes, colors and stock across stores. Matrix items, purchase orders, supplier catalogs, serial numbers and transfers between locations are all native, and the reporting answers real merchandising questions such as sell-through by vendor or aged stock by store.
- Pricing: Per location / month. Published monthly plans per location, billed higher without Lightspeed Payments; extra registers cost more. Free plan: free trial.
- Best for: Multi-store retailers with complex catalogs
- Strengths: Matrix variants; Purchase orders; Stock transfers.
Where it falls short
The two product lines, X-Series and R-Series, are sold side by side and can confuse buyers about which one they are getting.
Wrong for
A single café or kiosk with twenty menu items is paying for depth it will never use; Square or Loyverse is simpler.
Visit Lightspeed Retail →
#5 Square
Free-to-start POS with its own readers and terminals · United States · squareup.com
No monthly fee Own hardware Flat processing
Square remains the easiest way to go from nothing to taking cards the same day. The free plan is genuinely usable, the reader ships quickly, and the same account covers a market stall, a counter-service café or a barber chair through its restaurant, retail and appointment modes.
- Pricing: Processing + optional per location / month. Free plan with flat-rate card processing. Free plan: free plan.
- Best for: New and seasonal businesses, pop-ups
- Strengths: Free point of sale app; Restaurant, retail and appointment modes; Offline payments.
Where it falls short
Flat-rate processing that suits a new business becomes expensive at higher volume, and Square hardware only runs with Square payments.
Wrong for
A retailer processing several hundred thousand dollars a year should get an interchange-plus quote from Clover or KORONA, and a multi-site restaurant group will find Toast or Revel more capable.
Visit Square →
#6 Clover
All-in-one terminals and software from Fiserv · United States · clover.com
Turnkey hardware App market Fiserv processing
Clover gets the counter right. The Station and Mini terminals are built for daily abuse, the software covers retail, quick service and table service without add-on hunting, and the App Market fills gaps like scheduling or advanced reporting.
- Pricing: Hardware + monthly plan + processing. Hardware bought outright or financed, plus a monthly software plan and Fiserv card processing. Free plan: none.
- Best for: Retail and quick-service counters wanting turnkey hardware
- Strengths: Countertop and handheld terminals; Inventory with variants; Employee permissions.
Where it falls short
Clover devices only process through Fiserv, so changing processors means replacing every terminal.
Wrong for
A full-service restaurant that needs sophisticated kitchen routing should look at Toast or TouchBistro, and any merchant that wants to shop its processing rate every year should look at KORONA POS instead.
Visit Clover →
#7 Toast
Restaurant POS with kitchen, ordering and payroll built in · United States · pos.toasttab.com
Restaurant-built Handheld ordering Toast payments only
No other system on this list understands a busy restaurant as well. Coursing, seat-level ordering, modifier logic, kitchen display routing, handheld ordering at the table and online orders feeding the same kitchen queue are all native and battle-tested at scale.
- Pricing: Per location / month + processing. Hardware plus monthly software per location and Toast payments; a low-upfront starter plan trades hardware cost for higher processing. Free plan: none.
- Best for: US full-service and quick-service restaurants
- Strengths: Kitchen display system; Toast Go handhelds; Online ordering.
Where it falls short
Toast hardware only processes through Toast, so there is no room to negotiate a rate with an outside acquirer.
Wrong for
A retailer, or a restaurant outside Toast's supported countries, should look at Lightspeed or Epos Now.
Visit Toast →
#8 Shopify POS
Store checkout tied to a Shopify online shop · Canada · shopify.com
Unified online and store stock Shopify ecosystem Omnichannel
For a brand that started online, Shopify POS removes the hardest omnichannel problem: the store and the webstore share one product catalog, one customer record and one inventory count.
- Pricing: Per location / month + processing. In-person selling is included with every Shopify plan. Free plan: free trial.
- Best for: Shopify merchants opening physical stores
- Strengths: Shared product catalog; Buy online, pick up in store; Ship-to-customer from store.
Where it falls short
Card-present payments run through Shopify Payments, so processing is not negotiable in most markets. Restaurant features are essentially absent.
Wrong for
A restaurant, or a physical shop with no online store, gains little here; Clover, Lightspeed or Square fit better.
Visit Shopify POS →
#9 Revel Systems
iPad POS for multi-location restaurants and retail · United States · revelsystems.com
Always On mode Central menus Multi-site
Revel runs on standard iPads but behaves like enterprise software: menus and prices are managed centrally and pushed to every site, recipe-level inventory tracks ingredients, and the Always On mode keeps registers and kitchen screens talking over the local network when the internet fails.
- Pricing: Quote only. Quote only; software per terminal with a minimum term, plus hardware and processing through Shift4 in most deals. Free plan: none.
- Best for: Chains of 5 to 50 sites
- Strengths: Always On offline mode; Central menu management; Kitchen display system.
Where it falls short
Pricing is quote-only and contracts tend to run for years. Since the 2024 acquisition by Shift4, new deals lean heavily on Shift4 processing.
Wrong for
A single restaurant or shop will overpay for the multi-site tooling and should look at TouchBistro, Square or Clover.
Visit Revel Systems →
#10 Epos Now
UK POS for retail and hospitality with hardware bundles · United Kingdom · eposnow.com
UK focus Retail and hospitality Hardware bundles
Epos Now is built with British trade in mind: VAT handling, UK hardware bundles, integrations with Xero and Sage, and a hospitality mode with table plans next to a retail mode with barcode stock control.
- Pricing: Hardware + monthly subscription. Hardware bundles bought or financed, plus monthly software and optional Epos Now Payments. Free plan: none.
- Best for: UK independents in retail or hospitality
- Strengths: Retail and hospitality modes; Table plans; Stock control.
Where it falls short
Customer reviews repeatedly mention difficulty cancelling, long-running hardware finance and slow support responses. The interface feels older than Square or Lightspeed.
Wrong for
Operators who value flexible terms and responsive support should compare Lightspeed or Square in the UK, and a busy restaurant should look at TouchBistro or Toast.
Visit Epos Now →
#11 Vagaro
Salon, spa and studio booking with checkout built in · United States · vagaro.com
Booking and POS Commissions Client marketplace
In a salon, the sale and the appointment are the same event. Vagaro ties them together: the client books online, the stylist sees notes and formulas, checkout pulls the service from the calendar, and tips and commissions land against the right staff member.
- Pricing: Per calendar / month. Monthly subscription priced by number of bookable calendars, plus add-ons and Vagaro payment processing. Free plan: free trial.
- Best for: Salons, spas, barbers, fitness studios
- Strengths: Online booking; Client records and forms; Memberships and packages.
Where it falls short
Pricing climbs with each bookable calendar up to the seventh, after which more staff are free, and with add-ons such as marketing or branded apps. Payments are tied to Vagaro's processing.
Wrong for
Any restaurant, bar or general retail store should ignore it.
Visit Vagaro →
#12 TouchBistro
iPad POS for independent full-service restaurants · Canada · touchbistro.com
Local server Table service iPad-based
TouchBistro was designed by restaurant people for table service. Floor plans, seat numbers, split bills, coursing and server sections work the way a front-of-house manager expects, and because the system has historically run on a local server in the restaurant, a dropped connection does not stop orders reaching the kitchen.
- Pricing: Per location / month. Monthly software per location with paid add-ons for reservations, online ordering and loyalty; integrated payments optional in some markets. Free plan: none.
- Best for: Independent sit-down restaurants and bars
- Strengths: Floor plans and table management; Menu and modifier management; Kitchen display system.
Where it falls short
Reservations, online ordering, loyalty and gift cards are each separate add-ons, so the monthly bill grows quickly.
Wrong for
Quick-service chains wanting drive-thru and kiosk tools should look at Revel or Toast, and retailers should look at Lightspeed or KORONA.
Visit TouchBistro →
#13 SpotOn
Restaurant and retail POS with local service reps · United States · spoton.com
Restaurant focus Local reps Bundled processing
SpotOn competes with Toast on features for bars and restaurants, including handheld ordering, kitchen displays, online ordering and loyalty, and differentiates on service: many accounts are installed and supported by a local representative. Operators who have been burned by call-center support often value that more than any single feature.
- Pricing: Per station / month + processing. Published per-station plans: a $0 plan with included hardware, higher card rates and a two-year minimum term, or a month-to-month plan with lower rates and hardware bought outright. Free plan: none.
- Best for: US restaurants and bars wanting hands-on support
- Strengths: Handheld ordering; Kitchen display; Online ordering.
Where it falls short
Processing is SpotOn's own, and the $0 plan pairs higher card rates with a two-year minimum term, so compare plans on your own volume.
Wrong for
Merchants outside the US, or anyone who wants self-service signup without a demo, should look at Square, Loyverse or Lightspeed.
Visit SpotOn →
#14 SumUp POS
Card reader and simple POS for micro-merchants · United Kingdom · sumup.com
Low entry cost Own processing Micro-merchants
SumUp built its business selling small card readers to sole traders across Europe, and the POS grew around that base.
- Pricing: Per transaction + optional monthly. The Free POS plan costs nothing beyond pay-as-you-go card fees. Free plan: free plan.
- Best for: Stalls, pop-ups and one-counter cafés
- Strengths: Card reader payments; Item library; Tap to Pay on phone.
Where it falls short
Processing is SumUp's alone, so there is no shopping the rate as volume grows, and a flat percentage becomes expensive for a shop taking tens of thousands a month.
Wrong for
Retailers with deep catalogs or several branches; Lightspeed Retail or KORONA POS manages stock properly.
Visit SumUp POS →
#15 Erply
Retail POS and inventory platform for multi-store chains · Estonia · erply.com
Retail chains Processor choice Offline registers
Erply comes from Tallinn and was built for retailers who think in stores rather than single transactions: shoe chains, pharmacies, garden centres and franchise networks where head office sets prices and each branch keeps its own stock and reorder points.
- Pricing: Per location / month. Published monthly plans that scale with locations and registers; large franchise and enterprise setups are quoted. Free plan: free trial.
- Best for: Retail chains and franchise groups
- Strengths: Multi-store inventory; Offline-capable registers; Franchise management.
Where it falls short
The back office is dense and needs real training; a small shop will find too many screens between it and a price change.
Wrong for
A single café or gift shop that wants to be selling by the afternoon.
Visit Erply →
Questions and answers
What is the best point of sale software in 2026?
Loyverse ranks first of 15, best for single-site cafés, kiosks, small shops. KORONA POS is second (liquor, convenience and specialty retailers) and Lavu third (independent restaurants and bars). Places 1 to 3 go to challengers, vendors outside the best-known brands, wherever the category has them.
Which POS systems keep working when the internet goes down?
Most modern systems have some offline mode, but they differ in what they allow. Square and Shopify POS can store card payments offline for a limited period, and the merchant carries the risk if a stored card later declines.
Can I use my own card processor with my POS?
Often not. Clover, Toast, Square and Shopify POS require their own processing, and their hardware will not run with another acquirer. KORONA POS, Erply and Loyverse integrate with several processors, which lets you shop the rate.
Do I need proprietary hardware or will an iPad work?
It depends on the system. Revel, TouchBistro, Lightspeed and Loyverse run on consumer tablets with standard printers and cash drawers. Square offers both an iPad app and its own terminals.
What happened to Vend and Square for Restaurants?
Vend was acquired by Lightspeed in 2021 and now continues as Lightspeed Retail X-Series, so we cover it under Lightspeed Retail rather than as a separate product.
What is the difference between a restaurant POS and a retail POS?
A restaurant POS is built around tickets, tables and the kitchen: modifiers, coursing, seat numbers, split checks, tip pooling and routing items to the right printer or display.
Are there hidden fees in POS pricing?
The usual ones are equipment leases arranged through a third-party finance company, early termination fees, monthly PCI compliance charges, chargeback fees, higher rates for keyed-in cards, and paid add-ons for loyalty, gift cards, online ordering or advanced reporting.
Is a free POS system really free?
Square and Loyverse both have free plans that a small shop can run indefinitely, and SumUp's basic app costs nothing beyond its card rate.
How long does it take to switch POS systems?
A single retail shop with a clean product spreadsheet can switch in a week, most of it spent relabeling and training.
Which POS is best for a salon or fitness studio?
Vagaro is the strongest fit on this list because booking, client records, memberships and checkout share one database, so a stylist's tip and commission land against the right appointment. Square also has an appointments product that works for simpler setups.
What should a multi-location business look for in a POS?
Central control of items and prices with the option to override per store, stock transfers and purchase orders by location, consolidated reporting that can also be filtered by site, and staff permissions that follow employees between branches.
