POS Systems for Small Businesses: Cost-Effective Solutions

Benjamin Fernandes
technology-insider
Published in
6 min readOct 17, 2023

The ever-evolving competitive landscape is boosting the need to adopt solutions that can increase the productivity of companies massively. POS systems are among such solutions. Point-of-sale systems, AKA POS systems, enable businesses to process their finances faster, manage databases smartly, and improve overall business efficiency.

Modern businesses are adopting POS systems at a rapidly increasing rate. A Go Globe report suggests that by 2025, the mobile POS market will surpass $4,650 billion worldwide.

Point-of-sale systems are a combination of software and hardware designed to help businesses with transactions, gather insights, analyze customer insights, and more. This guide talks about some of the best POS systems for small businesses. If you are keen to know this market well, stay with us until the end!

1. eHopper

eHopper is optimized to assist the retail and restaurant industry. The best point-of-sale software for small businesses is equipped with several great features that make business operations faster and cheaper. eHopper has been assisting businesses for nearly 15 years now.

You can use eHopper for free on Android, PCs, or mobile payment systems. Some features that you get access to using this free POS software for small businesses include 100% free card processing, multiple payment modes, inventory management solution, customer management solution, in-depth sales and staff reports, and more.

2. Clover

The best POS system for small businesses is focused on empowering businesses like e-commerce, retail, service-based, and more. The tool does not charge for each employee making it one of the cheapest POS systems for small businesses out there. At the time of writing this article, Clover offers a monthly payment system for its services. Or, businesses have the option to pay in full.

Adopting this point-of-sale software for small businesses gives you complimentary equipment protection coverage. This coverage includes protection against theft, loss, and accidental damage. And on top of that, you can even customize its functionalities to optimize Clover to meet your business needs.

3. TouchBistro

The next best Point-of-sale system for small businesses, TouchBistro offers its services starting at a price of $69 per month. You can, however, also taste its functionalities through a free demo that is available on request. Pricing of TouchBistro is also flexible to meet the requirements of several categories of businesses. You can connect with the folks running TouchBistro to have more insights on that.

As for its features, TouchBistro offers bill-splitting services, in-depth analytics, support for multiple payment methods, an offline mode, staff management options, menu management options, custom floor plans, and more.

4. Shopify POS

Shopify has become a reliable brand as the best point-of-sale system for small businesses out there. The omnichannel POS system comes with a free trial. The trial is accessible for 3 days during which you can test and find the best strategy to use Shopify POS.

Using Shopify POS, you can manage sales, staff, inventory, customers, and insights on multiple devices. Additionally, you can run it on a smartphone, laptop, and POS Terminal to keep your data handy all the time. At the time of writing this article, several large and small organizations out there are using Shopify POS to upscale their business activities.

5. Vend

Vend is among the popular systems of point-of-sale for small businesses that can support a global market. Vend can help you set up an online e-commerce business without having to code. The platform lets you set up your business activities across your preferred platform whether it is Facebook, Instagram, or even TikTok.

Vend lets you sell anything from physical goods to digital products; from services to subscriptions. There are several functionalities provided by Vend to support in-store pickup, curbside pickup, shipping, and even local deliveries. You can even access an official demo of the product on Lightspeed’s official website.

6. Erply

Businesses around the world have been trusting Erply for a while now due to its ability to streamline functions. The platform has several features that have contributed to its popularity.

For instance, a self-checkout system, cloud-based product management system, manageable product batches, order management system, warehouse management system, free storefront builder, several integrations, and more.

Erply also promises you an interruption-free service using its offline functionalities that let you manage your orders even when you are not connected. Some of the trusted payment solutions available on Erply include Pax, WorldPay, Verifone, Windcave, and TSYS among others.

Additionally, the fee to use Erply falls between $5 to $15 making it one of the cheapest POS systems for small businesses. However, it can go high if PCI compliance fees and gateway fees are included.

7. ShopKeep

Another e-commerce solution by Lightspeed, ShopKeep is dedicated to pushing businesses towards growth. The platform supports restaurants from over 100 countries. You can access its services 24/7 to grow your business.

ShopKeep is available in the form of hardware and software as well. And its developers continuously update the platform to keep it compatible with the evolving market. Another reason why you should prefer ShopKeep is that it has several offices across locations including Paris, Auckland, Sydney, Melbourne, and New York City among others.

8. Toast POS

Over 93,000 restaurants around the world are trusting Toast POS. The platform is used to manage payroll for businesses like cafes, pizzerias, breweries, bars, and more. The best POS system for small restaurants, Toast comes with an offline mode for a smoother business operation.

Additionally, if you are stuck or have any questions, the customer service of Toast POS is also available 24/7. Toast also has a cloud-based storage system that makes it easier to access data on multiple devices. Its restaurant-grade hardware is capable of helping you track every business transaction you make with accuracy.

9. Square POS

Square POS is available in different forms of hardware like Square Register, Square Terminal, Square Stand, Square Stand Mount, and Square Reader among others. The best POS system for small businesses enables several methods of payments including contactless and chip-based payments.

But if you are not interested in investing in separate hardware, you can even install its app on Android or iOS smartphones and enable contactless payments there. There is a Restaurant Mobile POS Kit as well. This transforms your phone into a payment machine making it easier for you to process payments.

10. Helcim

Helcim is designed to empower small businesses by helping them save up to 25% on average. This point-of-sale system for small restaurants and other forms of businesses supports online checkout, ACH transfers, virtual terminals, invoicing, recurring plans, online food businesses, SMS payments, QR codes, and more.

Helcim’s services are cheap. The platform does not charge any monthly fees, setup fees, cancellation fees, or anything like that. Instead, it charges based on the credit card transaction volumes that you process each month. However, if you want to use the hardware of this retail POS system for small businesses, you can buy it in the form of a terminal, or card reader by paying a flat fee for whatever mode you choose.

Wrapping up

The dynamic nature of businesses is pushing them to upscale their business strategies. POS systems are among these strategies most businesses are preferring to. The abilities of POS systems for small businesses make it easier for them to manage and monitor business insights with enhanced accuracy.

Such features are triggering significant growth in the POS market. It is expected that from $29.02 billion in 2023, the market will cross a worth of $81.15 billion by 2030 at a CAGR of over 15%.

So, if your goal is to keep your business competitive and improve the quality of your business operations, pick any of the above point-of-sale(POS) systems for small businesses and attract better growth opportunities.

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Benjamin Fernandes
technology-insider

Follow me for insightful explorations into the fast-paced realm of technology, and let's embark on a journey to decode the digital evolution.