Modern point-of-sale (POS) solutions are more flexible than ever and packed with features that speed up checkout, keep inventory accurate, and reduce the busywork of bookkeeping and reporting.
Whether you’re upgrading an outdated setup or choosing your first POS, this guide will help you find the best fit based on how and where you sell.
The 8 Best Point-of-Sale (POS) Systems in 2025
Our favorite POS systems are:
- Lightspeed – Best overall POS
- Square – Best for selling in-person and online
- TouchBistro – Best for restaurants and food service
- Revel – Best for multi-location businesses
- Clover – Best fully customizable POS system
- Shopify – Best ecommerce POS
- QuickBooks POS – Best for accounting integration
- Helcim – Best for lowering transaction costs
For most retailers and hybrid sellers, Lightspeed is a powerful yet approachable POS that covers advanced inventory, reporting, and built-in payments. If you’re a restaurant, managing several locations, or selling face-to-face and online, the other options on our list are purpose-built to shine in those scenarios.
We tested and compared dozens of POS platforms. The eight below nail the fundamentals and add specialty features for specific business models.
Each recommendation includes when it’s the best choice, key strengths, and important pricing notes so you can pick confidently.
Lightspeed – Best Overall POS
Lightspeed serves retailers, restaurants, and even golf courses with a clean interface, fast onboarding, and robust inventory tools.
It handles mixed selling environments—online, in-store, popup, and curbside—without duct-taped add-ons. Staff can learn it quickly, and managers get granular controls for catalogs, pricing, discounts, and permissions.
You can trial the full platform free for 14 days. When you’re ready, Lightspeed helps match the right hardware kit (or you can use supported devices you already own).
Standout features include low-stock alerts, unit-cost tracking, purchase orders, and the option to take deposits or sell out-of-stock items for automatic fulfillment when inventory arrives.
It’s especially strong for specialty retail and custom orders—think bike shops, jewelers, golf equipment, pet supplies, home decor, sporting goods, and apparel.
- Advanced inventory with variants, bundles, and work orders
- Customer profiles with purchase history, segments, and lifetime value
- Built-in payments and ecommerce options to unify channels
Lightspeed works on multiple operating systems and common hardware. Plans are typically offered on annual contracts, with entry-level tiers for retail and restaurants and quote-based pricing for golf operations.
Core features are included at the base tier, with upgrades for advanced analytics, loyalty, or omnichannel selling as you grow.
If you use Lightspeed Payments, typical card-present fees are about 2.6% + $0.10 per transaction (card-not-present costs are higher). Exact rates vary by plan and business type.
Start a free trial to see how Lightspeed fits your workflow.
Square – Best for Selling In-Person and Online
Square is the easiest way to start taking payments today. You can accept cards with a simple reader, use a handheld terminal or full register, and spin up an online store—no developer needed.
Square also lets you create a free website or online store, which is rare among POS providers and perfect for testing new products or channels.
Everything stays in sync. In-person, online, and invoice sales all feed the same dashboard for inventory, tax, and reporting—so reconciliation is painless.
Hardware scales with you: basic readers for mobile checkout, Square Terminal for all-in-one receipt printing, or Square Register for a full countertop setup.
Square’s free plan covers the essentials. Card-present fees are typically 2.6% + $0.10 per tap/insert/swipe (keyed and online rates are higher). There are no monthly fees unless you opt into industry-specific plans.
Upgrade paths include Square for Restaurants and Square for Retail (with advanced inventory and staff tools) and Square Appointments for service businesses. These “Plus” tiers add monthly fees per location but unlock deeper features as you grow.
Heads up: like many processors, Square may hold funds temporarily if your volume or ticket size spikes suddenly. It’s a fraud-prevention safeguard, but plan communications with Square as you scale.
Square is our top pick when you want one platform for pop-ups, storefronts, and ecommerce with minimal setup.
TouchBistro – Best for Restaurants and Food Service
TouchBistro is built for hospitality. Full-service, quick-service, bars, clubs, food trucks, breweries—it comes prepped for front- and back-of-house workflows.
Reservations, table maps, coursing, modifiers, menu changes, delivery integrations, and KDS are all native or available as add-ons, so you don’t have to cobble together point solutions.
Highlights include:
- Tableside ordering and payments
- Menu, table, and floor management
- Kitchen Display System (KDS) and customer-facing displays
- Inventory, staff management, and reporting/analytics
- Built-in payments and third-party delivery integrations
You can bring your own compatible Apple hardware or bundle equipment with software.
Pricing is modular. Core POS starts affordably, and you can add online ordering, loyalty, marketing, gift cards, reservations, KDS, and profit tools as needed.
- TouchBistro POS — starting at $69 per month
- Online Ordering — starting at $50 per month
- Loyalty — starting at $99 per month
- Marketing — starting at $99 per month
- Gift Cards — starting at $25 per month
- Reservations — starting at $229 per month
- Kitchen Display System — starting at $19 per month
- Profit Management Tools — starting at $330 per month
Note: All plans are billed annually.
Support is excellent—24/7 by phone and email—with available training for larger teams. Many reps come from hospitality roles, so guidance is practical.
Considerations: TouchBistro uses a hybrid setup (local network plus cloud). It’s optimized for Apple hardware and expects reliable on-premise networking. Add-ons can increase total cost, though you only pay for what you use.
Revel – Best for Multi-Location Businesses
Revel is a hybrid POS (local plus cloud) with enterprise-grade controls that smaller chains can actually use. If your operations span multiple stores, Revel keeps menus, pricing, inventory, and permissions consistent across locations.
Hardware options range from iPads and stands to kiosks, scanners, printers, payment devices, networking gear, and secure cash drawers.
Revel recommends purchasing hardware through them for smoother implementation. It’s pricier up front, but you reduce compatibility issues.
Software starts at $99 per terminal per month, with installation/onboarding from $674. Contracts are annual with a three-year minimum, and payment processing is quoted.
Where Revel stands out is customer engagement: strong CRM, segmentation, marketing ties, and a modern loyalty platform (Loyalty XT) that lets customers enroll via QR codes or at the POS, with auto-rewards and targeted offers.
If long contracts and higher upfront costs fit your budget, Revel delivers chain-level reliability and controls for growing brands.
Clover – Best Fully Customizable POS System
Clover is incredibly versatile. Build a setup that fits your floor plan with handhelds for line-busting and countertop stations with cash drawers and customer-facing screens.
The Clover App Market lets you expand beyond checkout—loyalty, employee scheduling and time clocks, inventory, accounting, and more. It integrates with Paychex, Gusto, Indeed, QuickBooks, Xero, and other popular tools.
Mix and match: use a fixed register at the counter and mobile readers on the floor, or outfit service teams with handhelds. It works well for retail, restaurants, professional services, and field service.
Pricing varies by hardware, software plan, and whether you lease or buy. Leases lower upfront costs but are more expensive over time. Buying hardware outright typically reduces long-term spend, especially on larger terminals.
Clover includes built-in payment processing, commonly starting around 2.6% + $0.10 per card-present transaction. Actual rates depend on your provider and plan.
Talk to Clover to configure the exact mix of hardware and apps your business needs.
Shopify – Best Ecommerce POS
Shopify is a top choice for unified commerce—sell online, in store, at events, and via social, with a single back office for products, inventory, orders, and customers.
If you already run your store on Shopify, adding Shopify POS is seamless. Inventory updates in real time across locations, and you can transfer stock between stores and forecast demand.
Build loyalty with detailed customer profiles and omnichannel features like buy online, pick up in store (BOPIS), local delivery, and in-store returns for online orders.
Shopify POS Lite is included with every Shopify plan; POS Pro (an add-on per location) unlocks advanced retail features like endless aisle, exchanges across locations, and detailed staff roles.
Basic Shopify — $39 per month
- 2.9% + $0.30 for online credit card transactions
- 2.7% for in-person card transactions
- 2 staff accounts
Shopify — $105 per month
- 2.6% + $0.30 for online credit card transactions
- 2.5% for in-person card transactions
- 5 staff accounts
- Unlimited staff POS PINs
- 1-5 store locations
Advanced Shopify — $399 per month
- 2.4% + $0.30 for online credit card transactions
- 2.4% for in-person card transactions
- 15 staff accounts
- Unlimited staff POS PINs
- Up to 8 store locations
For large multi-store fleets, you may outgrow Shopify POS and prefer a platform with deeper enterprise controls. But for most small and midsize retailers, Shopify nails omnichannel commerce.
If you’re starting fresh with ecommerce and need in-store checkout too, Shopify POS is a smart, scalable foundation.
QuickBooks POS – Best for Accounting Integration
QuickBooks is a leader in small-business accounting. While Intuit discontinued its standalone QuickBooks POS, QuickBooks Desktop users can integrate with Shopify POS for tight bookkeeping and clean sales data.
If you’re already on QuickBooks, this pairing streamlines reconciliation, tax handling, and inventory accounting while keeping revenue, COGS, and fees accurate across channels.
Promotions for QuickBooks Desktop customers frequently include discounted first-year Shopify POS pricing, a free tap-and-chip reader, and savings on additional hardware—making the transition more affordable.
The bottom line: if pristine books are mission-critical, the QuickBooks + Shopify POS combo is hard to beat.
Helcim – Best for Lowering Transaction Costs
Helcim offers interchange-plus pricing with no monthly fee, which can lower effective costs as you process more volume.
Flat-rate processors are easy to understand, but you often pay more on certain card types. With Helcim, you pay true interchange plus a small markup that scales with your monthly volume, so costs become more predictable and often cheaper at scale.
Hardware is straightforward—its wireless reader accepts major cards and wallets—and the platform works across desktop, tablet, and mobile for flexible checkout.
You can also launch a simple online store directly through Helcim and import products in minutes. Payment processing is built-in for a frictionless experience.
Because pricing is interchange-plus, average effective rates vary based on your volume and mix. If your goal is to reduce transaction costs over time, Helcim belongs on your shortlist. Sign up today.
How to Find the Best POS System
Use these criteria to evaluate options. This is the same framework we used to select our top picks.
Payment Processing
Your POS must accept cards and digital wallets reliably with clear pricing. Some include built-in processing; others integrate third-party gateways. If you’re happy with your current processor, confirm compatibility before you switch POS.
Compare card-present vs. online rates, chargeback policies, fund holds, and payout timing. Ask about interchange-plus options if you process higher volume.
Ecommerce Capabilities
If you sell online now—or might soon—choose a POS that syncs products, inventory, orders, and customers automatically. Disconnected systems cause stockouts, overselling, and messy reporting.
All-in-one platforms like Shopify unify channels; others (Lightspeed, Square) offer excellent omnichannel options as well.
Setup and Ease of Use
Look for fast deployment and an interface your team can learn quickly. If you have part-time or seasonal staff, simple workflows, clear role permissions, and easy training resources are non-negotiable.
Consider whether you can reuse existing hardware or need vendor-approved equipment. Vendor kits reduce setup friction but may cost more.
Inventory Management
Even basic tracking helps. For advanced operations, evaluate variants, bundles, purchase orders, low-stock alerts, and multi-location transfers. Omnichannel sellers need real-time syncing across online and in-store channels.
Hardware
Decide between mobile readers, all-in-one handhelds, and full countertop registers with printers and cash drawers. The right mix depends on your floor plan and service model (e.g., table service, queue-busting, or curbside).
Ask about offline mode for outages, customer-facing displays, barcode scanning, and compatibility with existing printers and cash drawers.
Industry and Type of Business
Choose a POS tuned to your workflows. TouchBistro is purpose-built for restaurants. Lightspeed excels at specialty retail and custom orders. Square and Shopify are ideal for hybrid online/offline selling. Revel is strong for multi-location control.
Smaller single-register shops can start with Square or Shopify POS Lite; growing brands may want Revel or Lightspeed for deeper controls as they expand.
The Value of a POS System
Modern POS platforms do far more than take payments. With the right system, you can:
- Manage inventory, suppliers, and employees
- Track and analyze essential sales and profitability metrics
- Connect with loyalty programs, email marketing tools, accounting, ecommerce, and payment processors
- Access real-time data anywhere from mobile devices
All of this improves the customer experience with faster checkout, accurate stock, and fewer manual errors—while giving you cleaner books and better visibility into what drives growth.
POS Systems FAQ
Choosing the right POS software is crucial to the success of your business. These modern solutions do so much more than just process payments. There are POS systems designed for general use, mobile applications, small businesses, and even niche things like coffee shops.
You can use a POS system to sync inventory with your registers, connect your online store with in-person sales, and centralize your bookkeeping. Transactions are easy for customers, who can pay in multiple ways. And everything is easier on the backend for your employees and business.