The best point of sale software of 2026

Square is the cheapest way for a small shop to start taking cards. The Free plan has no subscription: you pay 2.6% + 15¢ on in-person card payments and 3.3% + 30¢ online, and you get item and SKU setup, discounts, refunds and sales reports. With Tap to Pay on iPhone and Android you can take contactless payments on your phone before you buy any hardware, and Square's own hardware starts at $59. Square can also take payments offline.

The stock tools sit on the paid plans. Plus costs $49 a month per location and adds stock intake, vendor and purchase order management and cost of goods reports, with in-person payments at 2.5% + 15¢ and online payments at 2.9% + 30¢. Premium costs $149 a month per location and adds transfer orders between stores, returns and fulfillment across locations and 24/7 phone support, with in-person payments at 2.4% + 15¢. Both paid plans start with a 30-day free trial, and you can cancel or switch plans at any time. If you process more than $250,000 a year, Square will quote custom rates (prices checked November 4, 2026).

On the Free plan, phone support runs 6am to 6pm Pacific, Monday to Friday. Square sells separate restaurant and appointment versions with their own pricing, so check those pages if you run a café or a salon.

Choose it if you are opening your first store or market stall and want to start taking cards this week for no fixed cost.

Skip it if most of your sales happen online, because Shopify POS keeps your store and website on one catalog.

If your web store already runs on Shopify, its point of sale app puts in-store and online sales on one product catalog and one customer list, so stock counts stay right whichever channel sells the item. Every paid Shopify plan includes casual in-person selling: limited staff access to the POS, simple customer profiles and returns at the store where the item was bought. Shopify's own cost guide (updated September 3, 2026) lists Basic at $29 a month, Grow at $79 and Advanced at $299, each billed yearly. You need a phone or tablet and a Shopify card reader to start.

POS Pro is the add-on for a proper shop floor. It adds unlimited staff access with roles and permissions, inventory management, retail reports, richer customer profiles with loyalty insights, returns and exchanges at any location, and omnichannel selling such as buy online, pick up in store. Shopify's US price data lists POS Pro at $89 a month per location (checked November 4, 2026), and its FAQ says POS Pro is billed yearly.

We could not see Shopify's US in-person card rates, because its pricing page showed us European rates. Check them on shopify.com before you sign, and budget for the hardware, since the POS pricing page gives no hardware prices.

Choose it if your online store is the main business and you want a shop, pop-up or market stand that shares its stock.

Skip it if you only sell in person, because Square POS costs nothing a month to start and a Shopify plan does.

Lightspeed Retail suits stores where stock is the hard part: bike shops, apparel with sizes and colors, home goods with hundreds of suppliers. Former Vend customers already know it, because Vend is now Lightspeed Retail (X-Series), and the pricing page quotes X-Series prices.

Every plan includes one register, inventory management, purchase orders, landed costs, a mobile scanner app, the NuORDER wholesale catalog, workflows, API access, custom user roles and single sign-on, along with 24/7 chat and phone support. Basic includes a basic online store, Core adds the full ecommerce features, and Plus adds AI Doc Import, which is a paid add-on on the two lower plans.

The listed prices assume you take payments through Lightspeed Payments. Basic is $89 a month billed yearly or $109 billed monthly, Core is $149 or $179, and Plus is $289 or $339. Extra registers and locations cost more, and the page does not show those figures. The pricing page lists a card-present rate of 1.5% on all three plans and gives no card-not-present rate (prices checked November 4, 2026). There is a free trial, though Lightspeed does not say how long it lasts.

Lightspeed is headquartered in Montreal and says about 146,000 locations use it.

Choose it if you have a large catalog, reorder from many suppliers and want 24/7 phone support on every plan.

Skip it if you run a small shop with a short product list, because Square POS covers that for less.

KORONA POS is priced per terminal and built around stock-heavy specialty stores: liquor, convenience, garden centers, thrift, hardware, smoke and vape shops. It also sells a ticketing module for museums, water parks and other venues with entry gates.

Core costs $59 a terminal a month and covers checkout, the product database, sales reports, manual discounts, gift cards and open API access. Retail, at $79, adds inventory counts, real-time stock tracking, barcode automations, shelf and price labels, supplier ordering, customer management and promotions. Plus, at $99, adds multi-location inventory tools, top and slow seller reports, per-store pricing and accounting data export. Annual plans cost less, though the page does not list the yearly prices.

Add-ons are priced per unit: KORONA Food and KORONA Invoicing are $10 per register a month each, Ticketing is $50 per entry gate, Franchise is $30 per franchisee and a custom integration token is $45 (prices checked November 4, 2026). The free trial has no set end date and needs no card.

Support is included at no charge: phone, chat and email from 6am to 6pm Pacific, Monday to Friday, with 24/7 emergency support when a problem stops sales. KORONA is made by COMBASE USA.

Choose it if you run a liquor store, garden center or attraction and want supplier ordering and labels without paying per location.

Skip it if you mostly sell food at tables, because a restaurant POS such as TouchBistro handles floor plans and courses.

Loyverse is free point of sale software for iPhone, iPad and Android phones and tablets, plus compatible Android POS devices. You manage items, stock and reports from a back office that runs in any browser. A café, food truck or small shop can be selling within an afternoon without buying a terminal.

The free POS covers a lot. You get sales analytics, inventory tracking with low-stock alerts, a loyalty program where customers earn and redeem points, multi-store management from one account and an optional kitchen display app for iOS and Android tablets. If the internet drops, Loyverse keeps recording sales and syncs them when you reconnect, though card payments through an integrated provider still need a connection. Integrations are free.

Two paid add-ons cover growing businesses: employee management, billed per employee, and advanced inventory, billed per store. Each starts with a 14-day free trial. Loyverse sets prices by region and showed us euro prices, so check the US price on its pricing page. Loyverse says it has more than 350,000 active merchants in over 170 countries (checked November 4, 2026).

Choose it if you want a working POS with loyalty and stock alerts for nothing a month and already have a phone or tablet.

Skip it if you need purchase orders and supplier management in depth, because Lightspeed Retail and KORONA POS go much further.

SpotOn is a restaurant POS with two published plans and a clear trade-off between them. POS Essentials is $55 a station a month on a month-to-month term. Card-present payments cost 2.45% + 15¢ (American Express 3.19% + 15¢) and keyed payments 3.45% + 15¢. You buy the hardware: a Station 15 terminal is $750, a Station 10 is $415 and a handheld is $297, and implementation costs extra, with financing available.

The All-In plan has no software fee and includes the hardware, but card-present payments cost 2.79% + 20¢, keyed payments 3.79% + 20¢, and you sign a two-year minimum term with processing minimums. Larger groups can ask for a custom Build Your Own plan (prices checked November 4, 2026).

If you expect to stay with SpotOn for years and want to avoid a hardware bill up front, All-In makes sense. If you might switch, Essentials keeps you free to leave at a lower card rate.

The pricing page we checked covers restaurants only; SpotOn sends other businesses to a separate small business page.

Choose it if you run a busy restaurant or bar, want servers taking orders on handhelds and would rather buy hardware than sign a two-year term.

Skip it if you run a shop, because the plans above are built for food service; see Square POS instead.

TouchBistro builds its restaurant POS on Apple iPads, which work as both handheld terminals and countertop stations. It suits full-service and quick-service restaurants, cafés, bars, breweries and wineries, and TouchBistro itself says it is a poor fit for food trucks, caterers and retail shops.

The Point of Sale plan starts at $69 a month and covers menu management, floor plan and table management, staff management, reporting and 24/7 support. Hardware, payment processing and other fees cost extra. The Essentials Bundle starts at $119 a month and adds restaurant-grade hardware and integrated payments, with processing fees on top. A Custom Setup adds front-of-house, back-of-house and guest tools on a quote. TouchBistro charges no commission on online ordering and was advertising three months free for a limited time, without showing the terms (checked November 4, 2026).

If the internet drops, the iPads keep talking to each other, so staff can still take orders and payments, but reports and some other features wait until the connection returns. Contract length and setup fees are not published, so ask sales before you sign.

Choose it if your team already knows iPads and you want table maps and menu control in one restaurant system.

Skip it if you want published card rates and month-to-month terms in writing, which SpotOn shows on its pricing page.

AccuPOS is here for its accounting links. It connects to QuickBooks Online, Pro, Premier and Enterprise (US and Canada), Sage 50 US and Canada, Sage 100, Sage BusinessWorks and Sage Intacct, so the day's sales land in your books without retyping.

AccuPOS runs on Android, including its own custom hardware, and sells versions for retail stores, restaurants, bars, grocery stores, dispensaries, liquor stores, thrift stores and member clubs. It is also a SAM.gov certified vendor for government shops and counters.

Pricing starts at $84 a month, plus $45 for each extra station (checked November 4, 2026). AccuPOS does not publish card rates or contract terms, so ask for both in writing. The company is based in Westerville, Ohio.

Choose it if your accountant lives in QuickBooks or Sage and you want sales to post there automatically.

Skip it if you want a free start, published card rates or a large app marketplace; Square POS offers all three.