The 7 best retail POS systems for your small business in 2025

Why should I choose Square POS for my retail businesses?

Square stood out from an impressive array of POS competitors thanks to a feature-packed back office, and a highly intuitive frontend that’s a pleasure to use. We navigated around the well-designed front office with exceptional ease, thanks to the slick design and clearly labelled menu headings.

We found Square’s well designed frontend remarkably easy to navigate, making managing an inventory a cinch. Source: Startups.co.uk

Another clear strength for retail SMEs is the option to seamlessly integrate your POS with an ecommerce site, so you can keep your entire retail business under one square-shaped roof. We were equally impressed by the excellent inventory management, multi-site stock management,  customisable gift-cards and speedy email marketing tools.

Square for Retail can help you bolster repeat business with its built-in marketing tools. Source: Startups.co.uk

What makes this particularly enticing for retail entrepreneurs: you can get all these features on Square’s completely free plan. It’s a great, no-risk, way of trying out the platform to see if it’s to your liking. If you feel yourself needing more advanced tools like a bulk inventory intake, barcode label printing or smart stock forecasting, you can upgrade to the paid Square for Retail Plus plan.

Are there any limitations I need to know about?

• We did find that Square POS was missing a dedicated cost/profit management tool, so if this is a stumbling block for you then Shopify might be a better bet.
• There’s no built-in training mode for new staff, so if this is a must-have for you then jump over to Lightspeed Retail or takepayments instead (these are the only two platforms on this roundup to include a training feature).
• Square only provides set transaction fees, so if you don’t want a one size-fits-all approach then we’d recommend looking at takepayments or Clover instead.

How much does Square POS cost?

As we mentioned above, one of Square’s big selling points is the option for a completely free plan to get started on, which we ranked as the best free POS for small businesses. Another benefit of Square is the transparent pricing (unlike a lot of its rivals all the costs are publicly listed) so you know what you’re letting yourself in for.

However, the flipside to this is that all of Square’s pricing and transaction fees are set costs. You might be able to find lower transaction fees with a competitor like Clover or takepayments who offer a quote-based approach to pricing. There is a custom plan for Square, but this is generally aimed at more established businesses with a high turnover.

One thing to keep in mind though is that Square’s transaction fees are the industry average, so at least you know you’re getting a fair deal and you won’t be overpaying.

Why should I consider Clover for my retail business?

Scalability is a common concern for retail businesses when selecting a POS system, and Clover is particularly adept at supporting you as your retail business grows and expands over time. For one thing, Clover has an impressively wide ranging app store that’s filled with third-party applications than can help facilitate your growth as a business.

Clover has an extensive library of apps you can use to enhance your efficiency and expand your scope. Source: Startups.co.uk

Clover also has some of the sleekest POS terminals and accessories on the market, so you can make sure your retail outlets are fully equipped with the hardware they need as they expand. We also felt that the back office struck that all important balance between usability and features. The backend offers a suite of tools for multi-site inventory management and overseeing your employees across multiple locations.

Clover has an excellent range of terminals, card readers and accessories that can help your staff manage sales across your retail stores. Source: Startups.co.uk

A big issue for retail businesses is not having a reliable payment infrastructure, but luckily Clover has offline functionality so you can still take card payments while offline. Just keep in mind that you need to enable the offline mode with Clover, as its not automatic.

Are there any limitations I need to know about?

• While Clover is a great fit for medium, large and expanding retail stores, smaller outlets might find that Clover has slightly too much power under the hood for basic needs, and the cost of the equipment is pretty steep. Square is a much better fit for a low-financial-risk, portable POS system.
• Clover (along with Zettle, SumUp and takepayments) is also missing a community forum where merchants can discuss pain-points and solutions with one another. If this is something you’ll think you’ll want, you should check out Shopify instead.

How much does Clover cost?

Clover has top-of-the-range equipment, but it comes with a top-of the-range price tag to match. This will price out some smaller businesses, but those who don’t mind shelling out for first-class hardware will find a lot to like about Clover’s range of terminals and accessories.

Clover takes a quote-based approach to its transaction fees. Our own research indicates that these can cover a pretty broad range, but our insights team has indicated that the competitive processing fees provided by Clover can allow retail businesses to scale their operations without having to worry about significant sales deductions.

Why should I consider Shopify for my retail business?

Considering Shopify is the go-to name for ecommerce, it only makes sense to consider it for your POS if you’re looking to combine a brick-and-mortar shop with an online store. Shopify can seamlessly connect your online store with its iPad-based POS, and the key benefit is the unified dashboard to manage both in-store and online operations.

With Shopify you can manage both your in-store and online sales, all from the same interface. Source: Startups.co.uk

During our testing, both the back office and frontend proved to be user-friendly, with the latter being particularly straightforward to get to grips with. Retail stores will benefit from Shopify’s seamless inventory management, which can help you stay on top of varied and extensive inventories as well as preventing frustrating discrepancies in your sales.

Shopify has an impressive library of apps to help streamline your retail operation. Source: Startups.co.uk

Shopify also provides some excellent help and support options, including a community forum. So new users who are just getting started with a POS for the first time will have peace of mind.

Are there any limitations I need to know about?

• While Shopify does offer a stand to turn your iPad into a countertop style device, it doesn’t offer any first-party POS terminals. If you want the rugged durability of a dedicated countertop terminal, then you may want to check out Epos Now or Clover instead.
• Depending on the plan you choose, Shopify can be subject to some reasonably high transaction fees in addition to a monthly fee. If you’re just starting out as a new business and you want low processing fees on a low cost plan, Square or SumUp will probably be a better bet.

How much does Shopify cost?

While it’s not outrageously expensive, Shopify isn’t the cheapest option on the market either. For anything larger than a solo operation you’ll need to pay for the mid-range plan simply called “Shopify”. This costs a not inconsiderable £65 per month, per location.

The transaction fees aren’t the lowest we’ve seen either, so while businesses who want to seamlessly combine in-store and online selling may consider the cost more than worth it, it might be a bit pricey for those just starting out.

Why should I consider Epos Now for my retail business?

If you’re trying to keep overheads lean, but you still want the durability and professional look of a countertop POS terminal, then Epos Now is a solid option. Epos Now offers a range of POS equipment, including its impressive Duo Countertop terminal and accessories like barcode scanners and printers. You can buy these as a bundle at a competitive price point.

The Epos Now POS terminal also features a customer facing HD touchscreen display. Source: Startups.co.uk

We appreciated the wide, 15.6″ HD touchscreen on the Duo Countertop terminal, and it comes with a customer facing screen so your patrons can see their total. We found the back office especially easy to use, and it was really handy being able to access it straight from the POS terminal itself.

During our testing we found it very useful that we could access the back office directly from the POS terminal. Source: Startups.co.uk

It’s also good to know that Epos Now POS can still take card payments while offline automatically, so you don’t need to set anything up. Epos Now is also a solid choice if you’re looking to open up secondary retail shops thanks to its multi-store management features like being able to sync your stock across different locations.

Are there any limitations I need to know about?

• Epos Now has an impressive terminal and it’s packed with features, but we wouldn’t necessarily recommend it to first time POS users. If you’re a first time retail owner we’d advise trying out a more novice friendly platform like Shopify or Square, which are easier to get to grips with.
• We found that Epos Now doesn’t include built-in email marketing features, so if this is key to your operation you should check out the extensive email marketing options offered by Square.
• While we did find the customer facing display to be very helpful for showing customers their total, it can’t take payments. If you want a customer facing display that can accept payments, you should be looking at Clover instead.

How much does Epos Now cost?

Epos Now has some very competitive starting prices, especially for the POS terminal. So if you want to kit out your retail stores with some high-quality terminals and accessories without having to pay premium prices, Epos Now is worthy of your consideration.

Why should I consider Lightspeed Retail for my retail business?

Lightspeed Retail has been designed with medium to larger sized businesses in mind, and is particularly well suited to assisting retail stores with multiple locations. This is due to its strong, cloud-based inventory management tools that can track across all your levels and SKUs across all your locations.

Lightspeed offers some strong tools for customer engagement. Source: Startups.co.uk

It also provides extensive customer engagement tools to help you lock in that all-important repeat business, and ensure that your retail chain keeps growing. We came away from our testing impressed with the built-in gift card creation and email marketing tools to drive repeat business.

With Lightspeed Retail you can add notes to customer orders. Source: Startups.co.uk

Lightspeed Retail also provides an extensive library of apps, so you can download third-party applications to help boost your customer engagement capabilities even further. Lightspeed has also been designed to use specifically for iPad, which can be helpful for staff who need to continue to use the software while moving around a shop floor.

Are there any limitations I need to know about?

• While the solely iPad-based POS might be good for portability, some might prefer the high-quality hardware of Clover or Epos Now’s dedicated countertop terminals.
• Newer and smaller businesses might find Lightspeed to be too rich for their blood, and will be better suited to a low-cost option like SumUp, or Square’s free tier.
• We also discovered it was missing a built-in cost/profit analysis tool, which Epos Now can provide.

How much does Lightspeed Retail cost?

Please note that these are the starting prices for one register at one location. The price will increase for each location and register you need to add. 

Lightspeed Retail won’t be a budget option, as even the “Basic” package is reasonably high in price, and if you’re looking to use Lightspeed across multiple locations it can get expensive quickly.

However, some might consider the features for multi-store – and inventory – management worth splashing out for. Also keep in mind, if you want the built-in loyalty features or you want to integrate an ecommerce site, you’ll need to pay for at least the “Core” plan.

Why should I consider SumUp for my retail business?

For smaller and medium sized retail businesses, getting a clear look at your financial health can be critical. SumUp POS Pro can give you data-driven sales insights into your operation, across different locations. You get a general overview from the dashboard, but you also get filtered reports focused on specific categories.

We were pleased to find SumUp provided a comprehensive range of help and support, including prompt live chat answers. Source: Startups.co.uk

We were also impressed by multi-store support and the built-in inventory management tools, such as bulk-uploading. It also provides stock alerts, so you can get notified when an item is running low to prevent disappointing your customers.

In our testing we found accessing the store reports to be nice and easy, but we did find that the frontend was slightly trickier to use than the back office. Despite some quibbles, we found the system to be pretty manageable, and if you do get stuck we found the live chat function to be prompt and helpful.

Are there any limitations I need to know about?

• We did note that there wasn’t an option to create a physical gift card. If having actual gift cards to sell in your store is a must-have for you, you should be taking a look at Square instead.
• While it does have an offline mode, there are specific steps you need to take to ensure it will work. If you want a system that has an automatic offline mode then Lightspeed Retail will be the POS to look into.
• Unlike a competitor like Clover, there’s currently no option for a customer display.

How much does SumUp cost?

SumUp is a particularly good option for smaller retail outfits, thanks to its pay-as-you-go option with some competitive transaction fees. It’s a great, low-risk way to test out the platform.

SumUp POS Pro is the version we tested though, and this will be the version best suited to a lot of SMEs. You’ll get the inventory management tools, detailed data reporting and multi-site management all for a reasonable monthly fee.

Why should I consider takepayments for my retail business?

takepayments offers one of the best options for an all-in-one POS terminal. This will prevent you from having to pay for accessories, and will prevent your shop counter from getting overly cluttered. The terminal comes with a built-in printer, customer display and front and back code scanners.

The takepayments POS terminal comes with built-in front and back code scanners. Source: Startups.co.uk

takepayments is also a solid option for those new to the world of POS systems, as it provides a full onboarding experience from a dedicated expert. If you do run into any issues once you’re up and running, the support team can remotely access your POS system to diagnose any serious issues.

One of the key strengths of takepayments is the comprehensive onboarding experience. Source: Startups.co.uk

In terms of the usability, we did find that the back office was easier to navigate than the frontend. When it came to functions like adding customers or applying discounts, our users noted that it was frustratingly complicated.

Are there any limitations I should be aware of?

• takepayments certainly won’t be your first choice if building customer engagement is a top priority. It offers almost no tools to foster loyalty, or an option to sell gift cards. Lightspeed and Square are both better bets for customer engagement, and Clover has better options for gift cards.
• takepayments doesn’t have an app store. So if you want to boost efficiency with a wide library of third-party apps, you should be looking at Shopify instead.

How much does takepayments cost?

Where takepayments stands apart from many of its competitors is with its flexible, quote-based approach to transaction fees. Instead of a flat-rate you’ll be provided with a fee structure that will be tailored to your business.

In regards to the POS terminals, you won’t be able to purchase these outright, you’ll be leasing them for a monthly fee. The key thing to keep in mind here though, is that there is an additional £250 fee for the setup, so don’t get caught out by that.