What do POS systems do?
Point of sale (POS) systems allow users to accept payments from customers for goods or services. They allow restaurants, physical retailers, and online businesses to process transactions and keep a record of all sales made.
Point of Sale Systems
Point of Sale Systems Overview
Top Rated Point of Sale Products
These products won a Top Rated award for having excellent customer satisfaction ratings. The list is based purely on reviews; there is no paid placement, and analyst opinions do not influence the rankings. Read more about the Top Rated criteria.
Point of Sale Systems TrustMap
TrustMaps are two-dimensional charts that compare products based on trScore and research frequency by prospective buyers. Products must have 10 or more ratings to appear on this TrustMap.
Point of Sale Products
(1-25 of 233) Sorted by Most Reviews
The list of products below is based purely on reviews (sorted from most to least). There is no paid placement and analyst opinions do not influence their rankings. Here is our Promise to Buyers to ensure information on our site is reliable, useful, and worthy of your trust.
Shopify is a commerce platform designed for both online stores and retail locations. Shopify offers a professional online storefront, a payment solution to accept credit cards, and the Shopify POS application to power retail sales.
Key Features
- Product management (130)86%8.6
- Product catalog & listings (132)84%8.4
- Branding (131)82%8.2
Square POS
Top Rated
Square POS is a point-of-sale software solution with features such as accept credit cards with your iPhone, Android, and iPad along with the flexibility to accept credit card payments anywhere, from Square headquartered in San Francisco, California.
Toast Point of Sale is a cloud-based restaurant point of sale solution provided as the foundation for Toast's all in one restaurant management solution which supports payment processing, as well as customer care, gift cards and loyalty, as well as back of house and back office (HR,…
Lightspeed Retail is a retail PoS system from Lightspeed headquartered in Quebec. Core retail POS features are expanded on higher service tiers with ecommerce option and payments gateway, an accounting system, and a customer loyalty program.
PayPal Zettle (formerly PayPal Here) is a POS and payment processing system that includes either a mobile card reader or a chip reader (hardware), and is powered by the mobile PayPal Here app. Admins can add up to 1,000 users per account, and the app also includes invoicing, reporting,…
The Epicor Eagle N Series is Epicor's present comprehensive retail software system built around features such as multichannel sales, a point-of-sale system, and inventory and merchandising management.
Clover Networks, a First Data company (merged with Fiserv July 2019) offers a modular suite of Point of Sale systems (PoS) for restaurant and retail. This modular suite features fixed PoS stations, a customer loyalty program and gift card, an analytics module, as well as a mobile…
TouchBistro is a complete mobile POS solution on the iPad for the restaurant industry. It allows users to manage reservations, view the menu, take orders and review sales reports with a few simple touches. Instead of servers repeatedly moving between customers and terminals for…
Fiserv (formerly First Data) and ICICI Merchant Services combined a payment gateway and point-of-sale software and hardware solutions with features such as card & check acceptance, and merchant mobile commerce solutions, and ecommerce gateway. First Data merged with Fiserv in July…
Revel Systems, from the company of the same name headquartered in San Francisco, is a point of sale (POS) system for restaurants, bars, and related businesses (e.g. bakeries, wineries, etc) which can be extended to provide workforce management, menu and table management, and also…
Sellsy is one integrated suite for sales management. Some key features include: CRM Pipelines, Invoicing, Time Tracking, HelpDesk, ERP, and POS.
FloristWare is a POS/CRM system for anyone in the business of selling flowers. It is designed to help retail florists increase sales and profits while saving time and money. The vendor says FloristWare is an "independent" system, meaning that it is not affiliated with any wire service…
SuiteCommerce from Netsuite provides a flexible, open web store front-end solution enabling richly branded, highly personalized and engaging shopping experiences that will drive conversion and grow revenue. Built upon a modern, scalable and extendable HTML and JavaScript architecture,…
Siriusware Salespoint Solutions is a point-of-sale software solution with features such as onsite ticketing and online ecommerce.
STORIS POS is a point-of-sale software solution with features such as furniture POS software and cloud-based ERP solutions.
ShopKeep is an iPad point of sale system; The vendor says it is intuitive, secure, affordable software that helps merchants run smarter businesses. The product optimizes staffing and inventory, while offering sales reports and customer information on a cloud-based platform. The product…
MicroBiz is an eCommerce retail management solution butil around features such as inventory management, payment gateway, and purchase orders / receiving tracking.
PixelPoint POS, from PAR Technology Corporation (ParTech), is designed for use in restaurant concepts from quick service to table service. PixePoint POS is a software that adapts to your business rather than forcing you to change your processes.
QuickBooksPOS is a point-of-sale software solution with features such as ring up sales and inventory tracking.
Cin7, headqduartered in Auckland, aims to make complex retail and wholesale simple with all-in-one cloud inventory, POS, EDI and 3PL. Cin7 allows users to manage sales channels, inventory, point of sale and supply chain in one central, cloud-based software. Cin7 offers integrations…
Learn More About Point of Sale Systems
What are Point of Sale Systems?
The Point of Sale (POS) is the place where a retail transaction takes place: It's the hardware and software used to physically accept payments and record transactions. All POS systems rely on some type of payment gateway or processing software, but not all POS systems require hardware like a credit card reader or register. Physical stores and restaurants often have these hardware components while eCommerce businesses don’t require them.
The main role these systems serve is to process transactions. This includes being able to scan product barcodes or provide a menu of items to choose from, calculating the total item price, and giving the customer an itemized list of products they purchased.
Self-service POS systems automate the transaction entirely, doing away with the need for a human service staff member. Point of sale systems are widely used in the retail, fast food, and restaurant industries. Some POS software is specifically designed for the restaurant industry. Read more about Restaurant POS software here.
Cloud POS Systems
POS systems can either be on-premise or cloud-based. More traditional POS systems are typically on-premise, meaning they are installed on a local computer and all customer and transaction data is saved to a local server. On the other hand, cloud-based POS systems are not tied to a specific computer and can be operated from anywhere with a stable internet connection.
One of the biggest benefits of using cloud-based POS software can be accessed from a tablet or other device by service staff in the field or a retail store. It can also sync with online purchases and accounts for better data collection and retention.
This allows bartenders, servers, and retail associates to be more mobile and accept payments from customers on-the-go.
POS System Comparison
Before investing in a point of sale system, consider the following key factors:
- Ease of use: Is the software easy to set up and start using? How steep is the learning curve of the system? Having a user-friendly point of sale system is critical, especially If multiple people will be using it to process customer transactions.
- Industry-fit: Some POS systems are specifically designed for the retail or restaurant industry. Rather than purchasing a more generic system that will likely need further customization, look for one that is customized to the needs of your industry and business.
- Cloud-based vs. on-premise: Traditional point of sale systems are usually on-premise software. They store transaction records and other data locally, rather than on cloud servers. While they can be more customizable, on-premise POS systems aren’t quite as mobile and remote-user friendly as cloud-based POS systems. Cloud-based systems store data on a public or private cloud server and can be accessed and operated remotely via a strong internet connection.
Other Features
In some cases, POS providers also provide integrated payment gateways for eCommerce features and/or payment processing services.
For small businesses, trends like mobile payments and mobile loyalty programs are especially relevant to product selection. For large businesses, the POS system will often be part of a larger retail management suite.
Pricing Information
Pricing covers both hardware and software. Entry-level systems begin at around $500 for the hardware and a monthly subscription price for the software of about $50. However, High-end systems can cost twice that much.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the best POS systems?
According to end-user feedback on TrustRadius, some of the most popular point of sale systems (by the number of reviews they have) are:
How much does a POS system cost?
Most POS systems for restaurants and physical storefronts have both hardware and software costs. The hardware (e.g. the cash registers, credit card readers, iPads, etc..) can cost multiple hundreds of dollars, up to a few thousand dollars. In addition to the hardware costs, POS software typically costs between $50-$100 per month.