6 best POS systems for small business to thrive in 2024 – Expert’s picks

1. Magestore POS: Best POS system for omnichannel selling & integration

Magestore was founded in 2009 and has served more than 10,000 retailers globally, offering both Magento POS and a POS system for Shopify. Magestore POS solutions cater to various business types and needs, including clothing store POS, sports and outdoor POS, home appliances POS, furniture POS, coffee shop POS, and more.

For small businesses that need a simple POS, Magestore can provide the best-fit solution with all integral features to start selling online and in-store. Compared with SaaS solutions that charge monthly fees, choosing Magestore POS is smarter and cheaper point of sale choice because you can use it for lifetime without any hidden fees such as implementation and transaction.

Magestore POS is also a perfect choice for medium businesses that want to expand online to offline, drive sales, and maintain smooth retail operations with an omnichannel strategy. When you intend to scale up your business in the future, you can request for customizable solution to meet your higher business needs. It extends the power of Magento to your brick-and-mortar stores, streamlines your business, and delivers a better customer experience.

Notable features of this retail Magestore POS include:

• Work well on all browsers
• Interface is responsive to different devices
• Sync data in real time to track performances effectively
• Accept all popular payment methods
• Manage orders of online websites and offline stores right on the POS screen
• Provide store pickup and curbside pickup, give your customers more shopping choices
• Offer offline mode for uninterrupted retail operations with unstable internet
• Sync and run loyalty programs including promotions, rewards points, gift cards, and credits both live and offline
• Visualize real-time POS reports on sales, inventory, and employee performance
• Manage multiple stores and warehouses effortlessly in one place
• Seamlessly integrate with other extensions and software, support you with integration to streamline data smoothly

In addition, Magestore also provides Operation Service to maintain the system and ensure your POS and website are continuously operating stably with the highest performance. As a result, store owners can focus on growing business.

2. Square: Best POS software for start-up businesses

Square is a payment service company based in California, USA. Entering the POS market is a big step for Square to compete with other financial competitors. Square is top selected overall POS system for small business because of its price point and ease of use with options designed for general-purpose, retail, restaurants, and appointment-based businesses. In addition, each option has a free plan that includes unlimited sales and products on the online store. This is a reason many start up retailers choose Square low cost POS system to develop their stores.

However, it will not a right choice for retailers having further insights about business growth because when you have more sales, more transactions in the future, you will pay more fees for each transaction. When you scale up your store, Free plan’s basic features can’t meet your business needs anymore. As a result, you must choose to upgrade the system with so high fee each month. It is a financial mathematics that not all retailers are wise to think about right on the very first steps.

Here are some outstanding features of Square POS:

• Work great on phones, Android devices, or iPads
• Accept contactless payments
• Have no interruption of payment when your internet is lost
• Connect with Square hardware (cash drawers, receipt printers, and scales)
• Provide curbside pickup
• Come with inventory management and loyalty program for higher pricing package

3. Shopify: Best POS for eCommerce retailers

Shopify is an eCommerce platform company of the same name, based in Ontario, Canada. Shopify POS was released in 2013, helping their retailers run both physical and online retail stores on their Shopify platform. Shopify POS is the perfect choice for small and medium businesses in any industry. It comes with free plan for POS software to sell on the go or at events with limited features. Shopify plans all store sales, inventory, and customer data in one place, making it the best choice for sellers using Shopify as an eCommerce platform. The features this POS offers include:

• Provide in-store or curbside pickup and local delivery for social distance during COVID-19
• Manage inventory across all channels
• Include mobile POS application to help staff flexibly serve customers anywhere in the store
• Provide store performance and reporting via Shopify POS mobile app

4. Clover POS: Best retail POS for brick-and-mortar business

Clover POS is another versatile point of sale for small businesses with basic demands. It has user-friendly design and diverse hardware options to choose from. However, retailers who sell both online and offline need to consider its highers processing fees and connectivity dependencies. Below are all features that the Clover POS with highest pricing plan provides:

• Process payments and manage order
• Offer diverse hardware such as countertop, mobile, and handheld devices for business needs
• Allow inventory tracking and get real-time updates to streamline stock control
• Function as a CRM tool to manage customer information, loyalty programs and purchase history

5. Toast: Best restaurant POS system

If you are looking for an inexpensive POS for restaurant, Toast is a good choice that you cannot miss out on. It is one of the best restaurant POS software specifically designed for food service and industry-specific hardware. With Toast’s wired-connected terminals, you’ll no longer worry about Wi-fi and internet connection drops. Most importantly, Toast has some of the best customer service with a thorough onboarding and training process that guides you through every setup step, and it doesn’t end there. Even after you’re up and running, Toast customer support is available 24/7/365 via chat, email, or call. Therefore, it becomes the best POS system for most restaurants. Outstanding features of Toast POS include:

• Offer contactless solutions, including mobile ordering and payments, mobile and touch wallets, and QR codes
• Enable table-side ordering and payment with portable, pocket-sized terminals
• Map and manage tables, collect real-time customer feedback
• Send tickets to kitchen screens and order notifications automatically
• Provide detailed menu management with ingredient level tracking, recipe costs, waste and COGS reports, payroll management, sales data, and performance
• Integrate with online ordering and delivery
• Come with automated payroll and recruiting features, including HR paperwork, employee scheduling, in-depth labor reporting

6. Lightspeed Retail: Best for inventory management feature

Lightspeed is another competitive retail POS system provider based in Canada. The Lightspeed POS app for small business focuses on many retail industries such as groceries, toys, and hobbies with small to medium scale. This is a multi-platform POS system, so it becomes a prior choice for many eCommerce retailers.

However, sometimes merchants will come across with real-time sales and inventory data interruptions because the system is not native with a specifical platform. That is reason why you should consider the factor “native” when choosing a best POS solution for your business. Similarly, you need consider the total fees for a long term because this POS also charge your monthly fee. Lightspeed POS includes the following salient features:

• Manage orders and inventory
• Accept all popular payment methods
• Integrate customer retention features such as membership fees and rewards
• Create and manage store pickup orders
• Provide inventory tracking and vendor management portal right on POS
• Offer 50 built-in retail reports on sales, inventory, and employee performance

>>> Might you like: Best Lightspeed alternatives and competitors in retail [2024]

Those are the 6 best POS systems for small business that we would like to recommend to you. We understand that it’s never easy to decide which POS is suitable for your business. However, remember, the best POS combines ease of use and an affordable price. 

• Square POS and Magestore POS both have POS versions for small business. Their core features are powerful enough so you don’t need optional add-ons to build a retail POS system. If you choose to include inventory management, loyalty programs, and employee management, Magestore POS is your best choice because you will only pay once for lifetime with full features without extra fees. While Square POS is the best choice for start-up business with very basic features, you need to pay transaction fees per month and extra fees for upgrade your POS with many necessary features in the near future.
• Square can’t handle the complex problems of multi-location retailers, high-volume omnichannel sellers, and businesses with large amounts of complex inventory. In that case, you should consider Magestore system, LightSpeed ​​Retail, or Shopify.
• Also, if you want to integrate your POS with other software such as ERP, accounting, payment, and shipment, Magestore might be a good POS choice for you.
• If you are looking for a restaurant POS with many complicated features, consider LightSpeed and Toast POS.

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Now that you will have your own selection, connect with our experts to craft your best-fit POS solution today!

Why should you trust Magestore?

This list of best point of sale software for small business is compared and evaluated by the Magestore team who have been working in the POS retail industry for over 15 years. We carefully researched and read all reviews from customers on review sites and eCommerce marketplaces to bring out insightful comparisons between POS systems for small businesses. We understand what challenges merchants are facing and what becomes their concerns when they start selling both online and offline. We also listen to many of our customers’ sharings to understand all demands of a small retail business. 

These reviews are based on many factors including features, pricing plan, processing and transaction fees, rating, and customers’ real experiences. Before the article is published, our reliable proofreaders revised and updated properly to help readers make informed decisions.

What is a point of sale system?

A POS system is a solution to process customer payments for products and services. However, a modern POS solution does more than just process payments. It serves as the important business hub handling everything from sales, inventory management, customers, and employees to accounting, payroll, and shipping services. It’s known by other terms such as retail ePOS, retailer POS software, or retail POS software.

What are the components of a POS system?

Components of a POS system include POS hardware and software. This combination will create a complete POS system solution for growing merchants. Typical small POS system devices include:

• Cash drawer,
• Receipt printers,
• Credit card reader,
• Barcode scanners.

However, you can add customer displays, mobile devices, and self-service kiosks to enhance the shopping experience.

What are different types of POS systems?

There are 2 main types of POS systems for retail: on-premise POS and cloud-based POS. On-premises POS operates in an intranet and stores data in local servers, while cloud-based POS works on cloud technology. So you can access cloud-based POS with different devices from anywhere in your store or from home and whenever you want. According to research by Capterra, 79% of users of cloud-based POS systems are SMEs with less than $10 million in revenue. So U.S. retailers are saying goodbye to traditional POS systems with bulky counters and opting for a simple POS system that runs on tablets. And the iPad is the most popular hardware choice.

In addition, based on mobility, there are stand-alone POS systems, mobile POS, and self-service kiosks. The latter two are particularly important for curbside sales or contactless payments, so many business owners incorporate them into their stores.

How much does a POS system cost?

A POS system cost can range from free to $200 per month for a full package. Read on our latest POS price guide to understand more about its following components:

• POS monthly software: $0–299 per month
• Basic hardware: $299–899
• Payment processing fee: $0.10–0.30 per transaction

Free POS might be a suitable POS system for small retail store. However, you should consider investing on a right POS to operate your store workflows for a long run.

Is there a POS system for small business without monthly fees?

There are many POS that provide free monthly fee. However it is free monthly fee of the software, they will charge you transaction fees. In case you need more features in your POS, you also must pay more. It is an normal operation model of any SaaS solution providers.

How to choose the best POS system for your business?

To choose the best small business POS system, you need to consider 5 factors: price and subscription fees, hardware type and cost, payment processing options, features, and ease of use. In this article, we’ve narrowed down the winners in specific categories with the best POS software for small business in retail (eCommerce and inventory management are the most crucial features).