A point-of-sale system is a payment contract with a screen attached, and the screen is the part vendors talk about.
This guide ranks on the total cost of taking a hundred euros, on whether the hardware is yours or leased, and on what happens to the terminal and the transaction history if you switch provider.
AuthorHannah ReiterSenior Analyst, Business Applications
Vendors can pay for visibility on this page. It never changes what an entry
says about a product, including the criticism, and we earn nothing when you click through to a
vendor. How that works.
In short
What point of sale software does
A point-of-sale system takes payment in person, records the sale against stock and reporting, and settles the money to a bank account.
Five things, in this order. Feature counts are not among them: they are the least useful
comparison in software, because every vendor ticks every box.
01
Setup effort in point of sale software
What the first ninety days of a point of sale software rollout cost in hours, not in licence fees. A product that needs a partner engagement before it does anything is a different purchase from one a team configures in an afternoon.
02
What point of sale software really costs
What the bill becomes once the modules a normal buyer of point of sale software needs are added, and whether you can read that number without a sales conversation.
03
Getting your data out of point of sale software
How your own data comes back out, in what format, and whether that export is included in the point of sale software contract or billed as a project.
04
Independence from the vendor
Whether you can buy point of sale software, run it and leave it on your own terms. This test decides most of the order on this page, and it is why the largest vendors in point of sale software often sit below the smaller ones.
05
Who the product is built for
The size and shape of company each point of sale software product was actually built for. Most regret in software comes from buying for a company you are not yet.
The fourth test decides most of the order on this page, and it is the reason the largest
point of sale software vendors sit below the smaller ones. A product with a published price, an export
that works and no mandatory implementation partner is a product you can leave.
A platform suite that arrives with a quote, a partner and a two-year commitment may well be
the better software and is still the harder decision to reverse. We rank point of sale software for the
buyer who has to live with that decision without a procurement department, which is a stated
bias rather than a hidden one.
We do not publish a score out of ten. A number like 8.4 is a judgement dressed as a
measurement, and nobody can check it.
What you can check is on this page: what each point of sale tool costs, where the vendor is
established, whether the price is published, and what we think it is bad at. Our full method
is on the how we work page.
Per transaction, published as interchange plus a fee
—
A multichannel retailer that wants one payment platform everywhere
A single shop looking for an all-in-one till
Country is where the vendor is headquartered or contracts from, which is a
different question from where your data is hosted. Where the two tell different stories, the
entry says so.
SumUp reaches more countries than anything else here and the standalone terminal works without a phone, which is why market traders and mobile businesses use it where other readers fail.
Pricing is a single published rate. Reporting and integrations are minimal by design, and the inventory features are enough for a coffee stand rather than a shop with a catalogue.
What stands out
No fixed contract
Works standalone
Wide country coverage
Where it costs you
Reporting and integrations are minimal by design
Thin inventory features
Right for
A mobile or market business that needs a reader that just works
Wrong for
A multi-store retailer
United KingdomPer transaction, published; optional monthly plans
The entry offer is the cheapest full till system in the UK and the software covers both retail and hospitality. The contract length and cancellation terms generate more complaints than the product does.
What stands out
Cheap hardware bundle
Hospitality and retail
UK support
Where it costs you
Contract length and cancellation draw more complaints than the product
Support is stretched
Right for
A UK shop or bar that needs a full till system cheaply
Wrong for
A buyer unwilling to sign a long contract
United KingdomPer month by plan, published; payments extra
Card terminals with instant settlement and no monthly fee
Ranked #3 of 12 in Best POS System in 2026.
Published pricingEurope
myPOS competes on cash flow rather than on features. Settlement is instant into an account that comes with the terminal, there is no monthly subscription, and the device works over its own mobile connection without a phone.
For traders at markets, fairs and events that combination is genuinely useful. It is not a retail system: stock, purchasing and reporting are barely present, so a shop that needs to know what it holds should look higher up this list.
What stands out
Instant settlement
No monthly fee
Own business account
Where it costs you
Hardware bought outright
Almost no inventory or retail features
Right for
A mobile or small trader who needs the money today
Wrong for
A shop that needs stock control behind the till
United KingdomBuy the terminal; per transaction, published; free account
Hospitality ordering and payments without the hardware lock-in
Ranked #4 of 12 in Best POS System in 2026.
Published pricingEurope
storekit is aimed at hospitality specifically, where the requirements are order-at-table, split bills, tips and a menu that changes weekly rather than at stock control. It handles those at a published monthly price and does not require you to buy a locked hardware bundle to start.
The reservations are scope and maturity: retailers should ignore it entirely, and the accounting and rota integrations that an established restaurant group depends on are fewer than at the larger vendors.
What stands out
Hospitality focus
QR ordering
Published price
Where it costs you
Hospitality only
Small integration ecosystem
Right for
A restaurant or bar that wants table ordering and payments
Wrong for
A shop with stock, suppliers and purchase orders
United KingdomPer month per location, published; hardware optional
Zettle is the cheapest honest way for a small trader to take cards: one published percentage, no monthly fee, hardware you buy outright rather than lease, and settlement into your own account.
There is no contract to escape. What it is not is a store system — inventory, staff management and reporting are minimal, so a shop that needs stock control at the till will outgrow it quickly.
What stands out
No monthly fee
Cheap reader
Transparent rate
Where it costs you
Retail and inventory features are minimal
Not a store system
Right for
A small trader who wants the cheapest honest card acceptance
Square's free tier is the most complete in payments: you can open a business tomorrow with free software, a cheap reader and no contract, then grow into payroll, loyalty and online selling on the same account.
The recurring complaint is account stability — freezes triggered by unusual volume are well documented and painful when they happen to a business that depends on daily settlement.
What stands out
Free POS software
Ecosystem of add-ons
Fast onboarding
Where it costs you
Account freezes on unusual volume are a recurring complaint
Fees add up at higher volume
Right for
A new business that wants to be selling tomorrow
Wrong for
A high-volume retailer optimising card fees
United StatesPer transaction, published; paid software tiers
If the online store is already Shopify, the POS removes the reconciliation problem entirely: one product record, one stock number, one customer profile across the shop and the website.
Staff permissions and omnichannel fulfilment work as advertised. On its own, without the online store, it is an expensive way to buy a till, and in most markets you are tied to Shopify Payments.
What stands out
Unified with online store
Staff permissions
Omnichannel stock
Where it costs you
Expensive on its own without the online store
Locked into Shopify payments in most markets
Right for
A retailer whose online store is already Shopify
Wrong for
A shop with no ecommerce
CanadaPer month by plan, published; payments extra
Every part of Toast assumes a restaurant, from coursing and modifiers to tip handling and the kitchen display, and that focus produces a better experience than a general retail till adapted to hospitality.
Online ordering is included. It is US-only in practice, and the hardware and payment processing are bound together, so switching processor means switching everything.
What stands out
Kitchen display
Online ordering
Restaurant reporting
Where it costs you
US-only in practice
Hardware and processing are locked together
Right for
A restaurant that wants everything built for restaurants
Wrong for
Any non-hospitality retailer, or anyone outside the US
United StatesPer month per terminal, quoted; payments extra
Usually arrives through your acquiring bank, which makes it easy to buy and hard to compare. Terms vary by reseller, and terminals are often locked to the processor that sold them.
What stands out
App marketplace
Bank distribution
Range of hardware
Where it costs you
Terms vary by reseller and are hard to compare
Terminals are often locked to the processor
Right for
A business that wants to buy the till through its bank
Wrong for
A buyer who wants to compare rates properly
United StatesPer month by plan, quoted through resellers; payments extra
Behind the till, Lightspeed is a proper retail system: purchasing, supplier catalogues, matrix inventory and multi-store transfers that speciality retailers genuinely need. That depth is the reason to choose it over Square.
The complaints cluster around commercial terms — contract length, payment processing requirements and support responsiveness — rather than the software itself, so read the agreement carefully.
What stands out
Strong inventory
Multi-store
Supplier catalogues
Where it costs you
Contracts and payment terms draw the most complaints
Priced per register
Right for
A speciality retailer that needs real purchasing and stock
Wrong for
A single stall or pop-up
CanadaPer month per register, published; payments extra
Vend built a good retail point of sale in New Zealand and was acquired by Lightspeed, which is the fact that matters most when buying it. The software still does what it did — fast till, solid stock, multi-store transfers, sensible reporting — and existing customers are largely content.
The uncertainty is direction: features and branding are converging with the wider Lightspeed range, and the commercial terms around payment processing are the same ones customers complain about there.
What stands out
Retail-first
Multi-store
Now part of Lightspeed
Where it costs you
Being consolidated into the Lightspeed product line
Payment processing terms are the common complaint
Right for
A multi-store retailer that wants proven retail workflows
Wrong for
A buyer who needs certainty about the product roadmap
New ZealandPer month per register, quoted; payments extra
One payment platform for the till, the site and the app
Ranked #12 of 12 in Best POS System in 2026.
Published pricingEurope
Adyen belongs in this list because the payment layer is where a lot of the cost and most of the reconciliation pain in a point of sale actually sits. Interchange-plus pricing is transparent in a way the bundled providers are not, and having in-store, online and in-app payments settle through one platform makes month-end arithmetic straightforward.
It is only half the system: you still choose till software, and the commercial model is built for volume, so a single shop is better served by the all-in-one products above.
What stands out
Interchange plus pricing
One platform for all channels
Enterprise scale
Where it costs you
Not a till system — you still need POS software
Aimed at volume, not at a single shop
Right for
A multichannel retailer that wants one payment platform everywhere
Wrong for
A single shop looking for an all-in-one till
NetherlandsPer transaction, published as interchange plus a fee
A point-of-sale system takes payment in person, records the sale against stock and reporting, and settles the money to a bank account. The differences that matter are rarely in the feature list, so this is
the order we would work through them.
01
Decide whether you need a published price
9 of the 12 tools here publish what they cost; the other 3 quote per organisation, which means a sales conversation before you can compare anything. If you are buying without a procurement function, start with the ones that publish: SumUp, Epos Now, myPOS, storekit, Zettle by PayPal, Square, Shopify POS, Lightspeed Retail, Adyen POS.
02
Work out what the first ninety days cost in time
Licence cost is the number in the contract; setup effort is the number that surprises people. Ask every shortlisted vendor who does the configuration, how long it took the last customer of your size, and what happens if that person leaves halfway.
03
Check the exit before the entry
Ask for an export of your own data in a format you can open, and ask whether it is included or billed as a project. A vendor that hesitates here is telling you what renewal negotiations will feel like in three years.
04
Match the tool to the size you are, not the size you plan to be
Most regret in this category comes from buying for a headcount that never arrived. The entry-level products here are not worse; they are aimed at a different company.
05
Decide how much the jurisdiction matters
These 12 vendors are established in 6 countries across 3 regions (Europe 6, North America 5, Asia-Pacific 1). Where a vendor is established decides which government can compel access to what it holds, which is a different question from where the servers are. For most buyers that is a factor, not a veto.
The software price is not the price
Every product here earns on payment processing, and that is where the real cost sits. SumUp, Zettle, myPOS and Adyen charge per transaction and give the software away or nearly so.
Toast, Lightspeed and Shopify POS charge a monthly fee and then charge for payments on top. At any real turnover the processing rate decides the annual total and the monthly plan is rounding.
Get the processing rate for your card mix, including commercial and foreign cards.
Ask whether you may use a third-party acquirer, and what it costs if you do.
Model the annual total at your turnover, not the monthly plan fee.
Hardware you own against hardware you rent
myPOS and Zettle sell you a terminal outright; Clover and Toast lease hardware that stops being useful if you leave.
Locked hardware is the quiet lock-in in point of sale software, because switching provider means replacing the counter as well as the contract. A terminal you own can usually be repurposed; one you rent goes back.
Ask whether the terminal works with another provider if you switch.
Get the cost of replacing a broken unit, and the lead time.
Check what happens to leased hardware at the end of the contract.
Hospitality and retail are different products
Toast is built for restaurants: covers, courses, split bills, kitchen printers. Lightspeed Retail and Vend are built for shops: variants, stock across locations, purchase orders. The generalists, Square and SumUp, do both adequately and neither deeply. A restaurant running a retail POS improvises table service; a shop running a hospitality POS fights the stock module.
Match the product to your trade before comparing anything else.
Test your most awkward transaction: a split bill, or a variant exchange.
Check offline behaviour. Tills have to work when the internet does not.
Settlement timing is a cash flow decision
How fast money reaches your bank differs by days across this page, and for a business with thin margins that is more important than the rate.
Ask for the settlement schedule in writing, including weekends and holidays, and ask what triggers a hold. A provider that holds funds after an unusual day is a provider you find out about on the worst day.
Get the settlement schedule in writing, including weekends.
Ask what triggers a payout hold and how it is released.
Check whether refunds come out of the next payout or are charged separately.
What goes wrong most often when buying point of sale software
Comparing monthly software fees while ignoring the processing rate, which is the actual cost.
Buying locked hardware without checking whether it survives a change of provider.
Running a restaurant on a retail till, or the reverse.
Not testing offline mode before the first busy Saturday.
07
Frequently asked questions
9 answers
What is the best point of sale in 2026?
SumUp leads our ranking of 12. Sells to market traders and mobile businesses across more countries than anyone here, and the standalone terminal needs no phone. Reporting and integrations are minimal by design.
How did you rank these point of sale tools?
On what separates products after the demo: how much setup the first ninety days take, what the price becomes once the modules a normal buyer needs are added, how your data comes back out, whether you can buy and leave it without a partner engagement, and who the product is genuinely for.
That fourth test is why the large platform suites usually sit lower here than their market share would suggest. Not on feature counts, and not on a score we invented.
Which point of sale tools publish their pricing?
9 of the 12, with the pricing model each one publishes:
SumUp: Per transaction, published; optional monthly plans.
Epos Now: Per month by plan, published; payments extra.
myPOS: Buy the terminal; per transaction, published; free account.
storekit: Per month per location, published; hardware optional.
Zettle by PayPal: Per transaction, published; hardware bought outright.
Square: Per transaction, published; paid software tiers.
Shopify POS: Per month by plan, published; payments extra.
Lightspeed Retail: Per month per register, published; payments extra.
Adyen POS: Per transaction, published as interchange plus a fee.
The other 3 quote per organisation.
Is there a free point of sale tool?
Square offer a free tier or a free self-hosted edition. Read what the free tier excludes before you plan around it.
Where are these point of sale vendors established?
In 6 countries across 3 regions: Europe 6, North America 5, Asia-Pacific 1.
SumUp is established in the United Kingdom.
Epos Now is established in the United Kingdom.
myPOS is established in the United Kingdom.
storekit is established in the United Kingdom.
Zettle by PayPal is established in Sweden.
Square is established in the United States.
Shopify POS is established in Canada.
Toast is established in the United States.
Clover is established in the United States.
Lightspeed Retail is established in Canada.
Vend by Lightspeed is established in New Zealand.
Adyen POS is established in the Netherlands.
Establishment decides whose courts and whose disclosure laws apply, which is a separate question from where the data is hosted.
What should you use instead of SumUp?
Epos Now and myPOS are the next two on this page. Epos Now is for a UK shop or bar that needs a full till system cheaply; myPOS is for a mobile or small trader who needs the money today.
All 12 are ranked here with what each one is bad at.
Who should not buy SumUp?
A multi-store retailer. Reporting and integrations are minimal by design.
Do you get paid for these rankings?
Vendors can pay for visibility, which affects where and how prominently a product appears. It does not change a word of what the entry says about that product, including the criticism, and it cannot buy inclusion for something that does not belong in the category.
We take no commission when you click through to a vendor and we do not know whether you bought anything. The full arrangement is on our disclosure page.
How often is this point of sale guide updated?
Whenever the facts move: a price change, an acquisition, a product that stops being maintained. The published and updated dates at the top of the page are real, and a review means someone went back to the vendor documentation rather than bumping a date.
These 12 products are the ones we judged worth ranking in point of sale. If yours belongs here and is missing, tell us what it does and who it is for, and we will look at it. Inclusion is an editorial call and it is not for sale — but nobody gets considered for a list they were never put in front of.
People land on this page with a shortlist to make, not a browsing habit to feed. That is a narrower audience than a banner reaches and a far more decided one.
Written by us, about you
We describe the product in our own words, say who it suits and say who it does not. A vendor never writes the entry and never sees it before it goes up.
A correction costs nothing
If a fact about your product is wrong here, tell us and we fix it, whether or not there is any money between us. That offer is older than any commercial arrangement on this site.
Placement is separate, and disclosed
Where a product sits in the ranking can be paid for, and the notice above the list says so on every page. What the entry says about the product is not for sale at any price.
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