The Best Free POS Systems of 2024 – Features & Benefits Compared

• Accept Multiple Forms of Payment: Square POS allows businesses to accept various payment types, including credit cards, contactless and mobile payments like Apple Pay and Google Pay, and even gift cards. I like this flexibility as it ensures that customers can pay in the way that’s most convenient for them, potentially boosting sales.
• Customizable Checkout: You can customize the checkout experience with item modifiers and a customizable item grid layout. In my testing, this proved really handy for streamlining orders during rushes.
• Basic Inventory Management: This feature allows you to track inventory in real-time, set up alerts for low stock, and generate detailed reports. Effective inventory management is crucial for avoiding stockouts and overstocking, which can lead to lost sales, excess costs, or wastage.
• Customer Relationship Management (CRM): The built-in CRM software helps with storing customer information, tracking interactions, and engaging with customers through targeted marketing. This usually leads to increased customer loyalty and repeat business.
• Offline Payments: You can process card payments even when the internet service is temporarily unavailable. This ensures that you can continue to operate and make sales during internet outages, which is essential for maintaining uninterrupted service.

These features are all accessible on the free plan, but you may have to purchase a paid plan for more advanced functionalities.

Square POS provides flexible rates that adapt to the needs of various business types. There is a forever free plan and two paid plans that you can upgrade to if needed.

• Square for Appointments
  • The Free plan includes basic scheduling features like unlimited calendars, online booking website, and customer management tools.
  • The Plus plan adds more advanced capabilities like class booking, waitlists, cancellation fees, daily appointment limits, and reporting.
  • The Premium plan provides additional functionality like resource management, custom contract fields, Square Team Plus for staff management, and Square Shifts Plus for advanced scheduling and payroll prep.
• Square for Retail
  • Square for Retail Free plan includes basic retail POS features like integrated payments, order management, sales reporting, and customer profiles at 2.6% + 10¢ per in-person transaction.
  • The Plus plan adds advanced inventory management tools like barcode printing, purchase orders, smart stock forecasts, and discounted 2.5% + 10¢ pricing on in-person sales.
  • The Premium plan provides custom pricing and additional support for established, high-volume businesses eligible based on sales processed.
• Square for Restaurants
  • The Free Restaurant plan includes core features like order entry, menu management, table management, and support.
  • The Plus plan adds premium capabilities such as close-of-day reports, advanced reporting, unlimited KDS devices, and 24/7 phone support.
  • The Premium plan provides everything in Plus along with custom pricing on additional Square tools like Payroll, Marketing, Loyalty, and Online for eligible subscribers.

Each of the Square POS plans comes with a free plan and a 30-day free trial to allow you to test the software before making final decisions.

Square free POS system is ideal for small business owners who need a sophisticated yet simple transaction processing system. It’s particularly beneficial for mobile sales, and its scalability makes it an excellent choice for those who may scale up their operations in the near future.

• Omnichannel Selling: Shopify POS allows customers to shop both in-store and online, providing a convenient buying experience to customers. The ability to manage all of your storefronts in one place simplifies inventory management, order fulfillment, and customer data tracking across all touchpoints.
• Smart Inventory Management: Automatically update inventory across all sales channels, reducing errors and saving time. For restaurants or grocery stores, this means having real-time stock levels and ensuring that popular products are always available.
• Mobile POS Hardware: Having a mobile POS allows you to complete sales transactions from anywhere in the store or while on the go, which is ideal for businesses with limited space or who provide outdoor services.
• Local Pickup and Delivery Options: Shopify provides pick-up and delivery, which simplifies the process of managing and fulfilling local pickup and delivery orders, a critical service for fast-food businesses in today’s on-demand market.
• Staff Management Tools: Shopify allows business owners to control staff authorization and records performance across different locations.

Shopify POS has a variety of price plans to suit businesses of all sizes and purposes, from solo entrepreneurs to growing retail chains.

• POS Lite – The Lite plan is divided into two categories: Starter and Retail, with both focused on in-person sales. These plans contain features such as cash tracking, split payments, a free Shopify app, unlimited registers, and refunds.
• POS Pro – This plan is designed to help businesses achieve omnichannel selling with the help of advanced tools. This plan includes all of the features of Lite, as well as retail analytics, omnichannel selling, staff management, customer profiles, and inventory management.

Shopify doesn’t provide a free plan, but it offers a three-day free trial, which you can take advantage of before settling on any monthly paid plans. The paid plans are the cheapest compared to any other provider, as you get your first month for only $1, and the cheapest plan is only $5/month.

Shopify POS is ideal for businesses that need an effective, user-friendly POS system that interacts seamlessly with online sales. It’s ideal for retailers who need rapid, efficient service both online and in person.

• Online Ordering: Toast allows customers to easily order directly from your website across any device, commission-free. This feature streamlines the ordering process and enhances customer convenience.
• Mobile Order & Pay: Customers can place orders and make payments directly from their mobile devices while dining in your restaurant. This seamless experience improves efficiency and customer satisfaction.
• Toast TakeOut: You can access thousands of potential guests through a mobile ordering app that is commission-free. This feature expands your reach and encourages repeat business.
• Delivery Services: Even if you do not have your drivers, this function provides effective delivery management.
• User-Friendly Interface and Real-Time Item Countdowns: This makes menu management seamless and helps you prevent the awkward “86″ situation so your servers and your kitchen are in sync.

Toast POS pricing is structured based on your restaurant business’s growth phase, making the software suitable for all restaurant businesses of any size. Its pricing and features can advance as your business grows.

• Starter Kit – This plan is free, ideal for single-location restaurants that need 1-2 terminals to get up and running. This plan offers a Toast Flex POS terminal + cloud-based POS software, a Toast Tap payment device and router, free setup support, and customer care.
• Growth – This plan is ideal for growing restaurants with 1-15 locations looking to get started with core functionality and flat-rate processing with essential features and flat-rate processing, including cloud-based POS, digital ordering and delivery tools, and customizable hardware configuration.
• Enterprise – This plan is for enterprise restaurants with 16-1000 locations and includes all of the Growth plan features, as well as marketing, gift cards and loyalty team management, payroll and scheduling, and Toast’s xtraCHEF – Automated back-office management solutions.

Toast POS’s Starter plan allows restaurants to use the software for free but requires specialized hardware. You can also contact their support team to try out the demo.

I found Toast POS to be best suited for single-location restaurants. It’s designed to cater to the unique needs of the food service industry, offering a comprehensive set of tools that streamline operations from order to delivery.

• Kitchen Display System (KDS): With the eHopper KDS, you can speed up cooking processes and eliminate errors. This feature can help improve kitchen order accuracy with its clear and detailed view of each order.
• Order Management/Tracking: Order management and tracking are great features that boost sales productivity. This feature allows you to manage your orders with an option to track order statuses.
• Split Payment Support: eHopper’s split payment feature helps you enjoy a seamless and speedy customer experience as it allows you to split payments by order amount, item, or table guest. The split payment report section is also a great place to understand the mode of payment and your customer’s behavior.
• Credit Card Pre-Authorization: This is an efficiency feature that helps improve customer experience and reduce fraud. Once a customer’s card has been pre-authorized, you do not have to re-swipe their card every time at checkout.
• Inventory Localization: The inventory localization feature allows you to set different languages, currencies, and date/time formats for each store or register during inventory set-up. This helps to improve operations and minimize roadblocks by accommodating all employees, irrespective of their differences.

eHopper offers 4 different plans, each of which you can get at two different billing intervals.

• Free POS –This plan includes free POS software, card processing, inventory management, customer management, employee management, and reporting.
• Essential Plus – It offers compatibility with multiple devices, card processing with eHopper processing or standalone terminals, tip management, customer management, and basic reporting.
• Freedom – This plan can cater to restaurants and any retail business, offering unlimited products, unlimited transactions, loyalty, pre-authorization, etc.
• Restaurant – This software plan offers full-service & quick-service restaurants with kitchen display systems, loyalty, inventory management, and more.
• OmniChannel – This package offers all the advanced features your business needs, including 1 hour a month of phone support, online ordering website, table management, and more.

eHopper’s yearly plan is cost-effective because you can save 30% to 50% when you subscribe for a year compared to paying monthly.

Their free plan is suitable for small businesses like retail boutiques, vape shops, grocery stores, and pizza stores that need basic POS functionality. Businesses needing additional capabilities would want to consider one of eHopper’s paid plans, like the OmniChannel plan, which includes an online ordering website, loyalty program, table management, and more comprehensive features.

eHopper POS is best for small businesses that need an all-in-one POS system that can facilitate seamless payment and business management on a limited budget.

• Detailed Sales Analytics: Assess sales performance across a variety of parameters such as time, stores, staff, payment kinds, and more. With the insights gained from sales analytics, you can immediately identify patterns and problem areas that need to be addressed.
• Advanced Inventory Management: In addition to product upload, Loyverse inventory management allows you to simply plan purchases, export records to suppliers, track stock receipts, and manage vendor relationships.
• Basic Features: Loyverse provides retail and restaurant businesses with the fundamental functionalities they need to organize and execute payments efficiently. The free POS system includes multiple payment options, open tickets, and a simple customer display and POS interface.
• Built-in Loyalty Program: Allows you to reward loyal customers and encourage them to visit your business, cafe, or restaurant frequently.
• Simple Dashboard: The back office interface offers quick access to your store’s POS reports. It works in tandem with the Loyverse POS software to provide you with essential real-time information about your business, helping you to make critical decisions quickly.

Loyverse POS is free to use and you can download the mobile app from Google Pay or AppStore. You can additionally purchase add-ons at an affordable fee based on your business preferences.

• Integrations – This add-on plan allows you to connect to your accounting software, e-commerce platform, marketing tools, and other apps.
• Employee Management – You may need this addon to manage employee access, track performance, and make decisions.
• Advanced Inventory – With this add-on, you can have more control over your inventory and how to manage it for business efficiency.

Loyverse’s paid plans are tailored to your number of stores or employees, giving you greater flexibility.

Loyverse is the ideal POS for multi-store businesses that sell in-store and online, as well as small businesses with limited funds for additional hardware.

• Quality Checkout Experience: Provide your customers the flexibility to pay as they wish, which makes a good impression and keeps your staff feeling in control and engaged.
• Comprehensive Reporting and Analytics: Zettle PayPal offers detailed yet understandable analytics. This analytics function allows you to view sales reports, staff insights, customer information, and stock numbers from your mobile device, all from the POS software.
• Contactless Payment Option: With the contactless payment option, you can easily set up and start receiving payments in minutes using the Zettle by PayPal app. This is feasible because Zettle is mobile-friendly, allowing for compatibility with any smartphone or tablet. Businesses that operate on the go or have limited counter space would profit from this functionality.
• User-friendly Interface: The POS is easy to set up and use, as it does not require any technical knowledge. This makes it an ideal payment solution for small businesses seeking a simple yet robust POS system to maximize operations and improve customer experience.
• Inventory Management: Run your business proactively thanks to automatic alerts and real-time synchronization of in-store and online merchandise. With this tool, you will be able to meet client demand by keeping track of the right products.

Zettle by PayPal is a free point-of-sale software. As a result, businesses just need to pay a transaction fee depending on usage rather than a monthly commitment fee.

Zettle’s free plan offers inventory management, a quality checkout experience, secure payment, high-level reporting, and ecommerce integration to simplify every sale. You only pay for the transactions you complete and the hardware your company needs.

Zettle by PayPal is ideal for small businesses that are looking for a flexible, mobile-friendly POS solution thanks to its free app and flexible payment options.