Best POS System for Small Business and Restaurants: 10 Picks by Business Type, With the All-In Monthly Cost

The best POS system depends on what you sell: Square to start free, Shopify POS for a shop that also sells online, Toast for a restaurant, Lightspeed Retail for several stores. A POS system is the software, card processing and hardware that ring up a sale.

Every price comes from the vendor’s US pricing page, checked November 2026.

Take an illustrative shop with 200 sales and $10,000 in card sales a month. On Square Free’s printed 2.6% + 15¢, it pays 10,000 x 0.026 + 200 x 0.15 + $0 = $290 a month.

In This Article (15 sections)

Quick Comparison: The Best POS Systems at a Glance

Ten systems, each matched to one kind of business, with prices and rates as each vendor’s US pricing page printed them in November 2026.

Software	Best for	Starting price	Card-present rate	Contract or hardware term	Key limitation
Square	A free start for a shop or cafe	$0 per location per month; Plus $49, Premium $149	2.6% + 15¢ Free; 2.5% + 15¢ Plus; 2.4% + 15¢ Premium	No long-term contract	KDS app needs a paid plan
Shopify POS	Retailers who also sell online	Basic $39 per month billed monthly, $29 billed yearly; POS Pro $89 per location	2.6% + 10¢ Basic; 2.5% + 10¢ Grow; 2.4% + 10¢ Advanced	Monthly or yearly; Plus on a 1- or 3-year term	2% fee with another processor on Basic
Toast	Full-service and quick-service restaurants	Starter Kit $0 per month; Point of Sale from $69 per month	Not published	Toast hardware only	Rate not printed; most suites are add-ons
Clover	Countertop hardware on one monthly bill	Retail Basic $16 per month for 36 months, or $349 outright	2.6% + 10¢ Basic; 2.3% + 10¢ Standard, Advanced and quick-service	36 months, or buy the device	Basic has no inventory or loyalty
Lightspeed Retail	Multi-location and high-SKU stores	Basic $89 per month billed annually, $109 billed monthly	1.5% Lightspeed Payments, as printed	Annual or monthly	Extra locations and registers are a sales quote
SpotOn	Restaurants that want $0 upfront hardware	All-In $0 per station per month; Essentials $55 per station	2.79% + 20¢ All-In; 2.45% + 15¢ Essentials	All-In: 2-year minimum	Essentials needs stations and implementation upfront
TouchBistro	Table-service restaurants	From $69 per month	Not printed; processing extra	Not printed	KDS and online ordering are unpriced add-ons
Lightspeed Restaurant	Bars and multi-venue groups	Starter 69 USD, as printed	Rate not printed	Not printed	Billing period not shown
Helcim	Lower fees past $50,000 a month	$0 per month	Interchange + 0.40% + 8¢ in the first tier	No contract	Interchange varies, so no single rate
Loyverse	A free POS on your own phone or tablet	$0; add-ons $5 to $25 per store or per employee per month	Set by a third-party processor	No term printed	Reports stop at 31 days without an add-on

Sources: Square pricing, Square fees, Shopify pricing, Shopify POS pricing, Toast pricing, Clover retail pricing, Lightspeed Retail pricing, SpotOn pricing, TouchBistro pricing, Lightspeed Restaurant pricing, Helcim pricing, Loyverse pricing, checked Nov 2026.

What Each POS Costs a Month in Card Sales for a Small Shop and a Busy Cafe

Take two illustrative businesses: a shop with 200 card sales a month at a $50 ticket (200 x $50 = $10,000) and a cafe with 2,500 sales at a $10 ticket (2,500 x $10 = $25,000), each priced at the vendor’s printed card-present rate plus the software fee.

Software and plan	Monthly software	Card-present rate	Shop (example)	Cafe (example)	Notes
Square Free	$0	2.6% + 15¢	10,000 x 0.026 + 200 x 0.15 + $0 = $290	25,000 x 0.026 + 2,500 x 0.15 + $0 = $1,025	One location; no KDS
Square Plus	$49	2.5% + 15¢	10,000 x 0.025 + 200 x 0.15 + $49 = $329	25,000 x 0.025 + 2,500 x 0.15 + $49 = $1,049	KDS app adds $30 per device
Shopify Basic	$39 billed monthly	2.6% + 10¢	10,000 x 0.026 + 200 x 0.10 + $39 = $319	25,000 x 0.026 + 2,500 x 0.10 + $39 = $939	Shopify Payments; POS Pro adds $89 per location
Clover retail Basic	$16 for 36 months	2.6% + 10¢	10,000 x 0.026 + 200 x 0.10 + $16 = $296	Retail plan	Compact terminal included in the 36-month price
Clover quick-service Starter	$135 for 36 months	2.3% + 10¢	Restaurant plan	25,000 x 0.023 + 2,500 x 0.10 + $135 = $960	Mini terminal included in the 36-month price
SpotOn All-In	$0 per station	2.79% + 20¢	Restaurant plan	25,000 x 0.0279 + 2,500 x 0.20 + $0 = $1,197.50	Hardware included; 2-year minimum; processing minimums
SpotOn POS Essentials	$55 per station	2.45% + 15¢	Restaurant plan	25,000 x 0.0245 + 2,500 x 0.15 + $55 = $1,042.50	One station at $750 upfront, plus implementation
Lightspeed Retail Basic	$89 billed annually	1.5%, as printed	10,000 x 0.015 + $89 = $239	Retail plan	No per-sale fee printed; 1 register
Helcim	$0	Interchange + 0.40% + 8¢	10,000 x 0.004 + 200 x 0.08 + $0 = $56, plus interchange	25,000 x 0.004 + 2,500 x 0.08 + $0 = $300, plus interchange	Margin only; interchange varies by card

Sources: Square fees, Shopify pricing, Clover retail pricing, Clover quick-service pricing, SpotOn pricing, Lightspeed Retail pricing, Helcim pricing, checked Nov 2026. Illustrative volumes; Amex, keyed and online sales excluded. Toast, TouchBistro, Lightspeed Restaurant and Loyverse print no rate, so they have no row.

Rates are written as decimals in the math (2.6% = 0.026, 15¢ = 0.15).

Two break-even lines fall out of the table. Square Plus trims the rate by 0.1 points over Free, so its fee pays back only above $49 / 0.001 = $49,000 a month in card sales; Premium trims 0.2 points, so its fee pays back above $149 / 0.002 = $74,500. Below those volumes you buy Plus or Premium for features, not for the rate.

The restaurant rows show the price of $0 hardware: SpotOn’s All-In costs the cafe 25,000 x 0.0034 + 2,500 x 0.05 – $55 = $155 a month more than Essentials, which is $155 x 24 = $3,720 over the 2-year minimum, against one $750 station paid once. Helcim’s rows are margin only: the interchange on top moves with the card mix, so ask for a statement estimate before you compare it with Square.

1. Square: Best for Small Businesses Starting on a Free Plan

No other pick on this list lets a new business open with a $0 plan, a printed flat rate and a $59 card reader, which makes Square the lowest-risk start for an owner who does not yet know their volume. You pay for that in the rate on every tap and in phone support: weekdays 6am-6pm PT for the first 90 days on Free, weekdays on Plus, and 24/7 only on Premium.

The free plan covers a counter. Square Point of Sale includes business solutions for restaurants, retail, services and beauty in one app, so a cafe that adds a retail shelf keeps its software, and hardware is bought, not leased, from the $59 Reader to the $899 Register, with no long-term contract required.

Where Free stops is the kitchen. The Square KDS app is not available in Square Free and costs $30 per device a month on Plus, so a restaurant with two kitchen screens pays $49 + 2 x $30 = $109 a month before processing. That is where Toast’s $0 Starter Kit and Loyverse’s free kitchen display start to matter.

Skip it if:

you run a full-service restaurant that needs payroll, tips and a kitchen display from one vendor (Toast bundles them), or your volume has outgrown a flat rate (Helcim’s margin drops with volume).

2. Shopify POS: Best for Retailers Who Also Sell Online

Shopify’s POS is the right retail choice when the online store is the core business and the counter is the second channel, because the plan that runs the website also runs the register. The serious retail features sit in POS Pro, on top of the plan, and that line decides the real cost.

Every paid plan includes casual in-person selling from a phone or Shopify card reader; Basic, Grow and Advanced include inventory for up to 10 locations, and Plus for 200. On Basic only limited staff can access the POS, while Grow gives unlimited POS logins, so a shop with several cashiers should check the Basic login limit before it signs.

POS Pro adds staff roles, purchase orders, returns at any location and retail reports, so a Basic store with one Pro location pays $39 + $89 = $128 a month before processing. Lightspeed Retail includes purchase orders in every plan, with extra locations quoted by sales, which wins when purchasing depth matters more than the website.

The processor is the second decision. Keep another processor and Shopify adds a third-party transaction fee of 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow and 0.6% on Advanced. On Basic at the shop’s volume, that is 10,000 x 0.02 = $200 a month for nothing in return.

Skip it if:

you sell only in person; Square’s free plan costs $0 a month where Basic costs $39.

3. Toast: Best for Full-Service and Quick-Service Restaurants

A restaurant buys Toast because table and order management, Toast Mobile Order & Pay, commission-free online ordering, Tips Manager and payroll come from one vendor, with 24/7/365 support. Two things are hidden: the processing rate is not printed, and the software only runs on Toast-approved hardware.

The Starter Kit is the way in for a single location: one location, up to two terminals and a hardware kit with no upfront cost. Toast calls this Pay-as-You-Go, which trades upfront hardware and installation costs for an all-in-one platform rate.

The $69 Point of Sale plan lets you choose your own Toast hardware configuration, but most of what makes Toast a platform is an add-on with its own fee: Digital Storefront Essentials for online ordering, Team Management Essentials with Tips Manager, xtraCHEF for food cost, Restaurant Management Pro for multilocation management. Price each suite in the quote, not after.

Toast’s new-restaurant bundle prices Point of Sale plus payroll essentials and basic scheduling at $69 a month plus $9 per employee, so a ten-person kitchen pays $69 + 10 x $9 = $159 a month for POS and payroll. Compare that with standalone payroll software for small businesses before you bundle.

Against SpotOn, Toast’s pricing page lists payroll and a supplier and accounting suite that SpotOn’s page does not, while SpotOn prints both of its rates on the page; against TouchBistro, Toast runs only on its own approved hardware, while TouchBistro works with a range of payment processors.

Skip it if:

you want your processing rate on paper before you sign (SpotOn prints it) or you run a counter cafe on a phone budget (Square’s free plan and $59 reader).

4. Clover: Best for Countertop Hardware on One Fixed Monthly Payment

Clover suits an owner who would rather pay one fixed monthly amount for the terminal and software than buy hardware and pick a plan. Card fees are charged per sale on top, and its 2.3% + 10¢ on Standard and quick-service plans sits below Square’s 2.4% to 2.6% + 15¢. The price of that convenience is the 36-month term the monthly figures assume.

What Basic leaves out matters more than its price: item-level discounts, itemized returns, detailed sales reports, inventory management and loyalty are marked Not Included and arrive with Standard. A shop that tracks stock by item should compare Clover Standard, not Basic, with Square Plus.

Quick-service cafes get their own ladder with no-fee online ordering and QR-code ordering included. Starter’s per-sale fee is lower than Square Free’s, with the terminal in the price, and the cost table’s cafe row shows what that is worth at volume.

Two offers run out on December 31, 2026: a $450 statement credit with Station, Mini or Flex, which needs a 3-year contract, credit approval and $10,000 processed in the first four billing cycles, and no SaaS fee for a 90-day trial of Essentials or Services Growth for qualified merchants.

Skip it if:

you might close, move or change concept within 36 months; Square sells its Terminal outright with no long-term contract required.

5. Lightspeed Retail: Best for Multi-Location and High-SKU Stores

Buying stock, not just selling it, is what Lightspeed Retail is built around: purchase orders, PO Sync with the NuORDER catalog of over 5 million products, Lightspeed Wholesale and landed costs sit in the plans, which is what a store with a large catalog or several locations needs. The catch: every plan includes one register, and extra locations and registers go to Contact sales.

The plans step up on inventory depth: Basic includes inventory management, purchase orders, the wholesale catalog and Lightspeed eCommerce at its Basic level, and Plus adds AI Doc Import, which turns a scanned supplier invoice into a draft purchase order. Shopify prints $89 per POS Pro location; Lightspeed makes you ask, so get the quote before you compare the two.

The rate line is unusual: a 1.5% Lightspeed Payments card-present rate on all three plans with no per-sale fee printed, the lowest retail row in my cost table. Ask in the demo whether a per-transaction fee applies. If what you need is stock control without a new register, my ranking of inventory management software by business type covers that case.

Skip it if:

you run one register and a very small catalog; Square Free and Shopify Basic need no sales call.

6. SpotOn: Best for Restaurants That Want $0 Upfront Hardware

Opening a restaurant with no cash for terminals is the problem SpotOn’s All-In plan solves: no station fee, hardware included, and the cost recovered through a higher card rate instead. The catch: processing minimums apply and the term is two years minimum, so this is a financing decision dressed as a software plan.

Both plans include ordering, payments, table layouts, menu management, reporting and 24/7 support; Essentials adds an upfront bill for stations and implementation. At the cafe’s volume, All-In costs 25,000 x 0.0034 + 2,500 x 0.05 – $55 = $155 a month more, which repays the $750 station alone in under five months, before implementation costs, so All-In is the plan for a restaurant whose opening cash is gone, not for one that wants the cheaper total.

Online ordering is a bundle, not a line item. SpotOn’s Core Bundle adds SpotOn Order (commission-free online ordering), Profit Assist and Marketing Assist for $50 a month per location plus 0.20% of gross payment volume, capped at $200 a location. Toast sells the same idea as a Digital Storefront suite without a printed price. Hardware is SpotOn’s own, and the FAQ recommends a $300 backup router.

Skip it if:

you can pay $750 a station upfront and 0.34% of your card sales plus 5¢ a sale tops $55 a month (the cost table’s cafe row shows Essentials cheaper), or you want month-to-month terms on the $0 plan, which SpotOn does not offer.

7. TouchBistro: Best for Table-Service Restaurants

Nothing in TouchBistro’s core POS is locked behind a higher plan: menu management, floor plan and table management, tableside ordering, staff management and reporting all come with the entry plan. What you pay extra for is the kitchen display, online ordering, reservations and inventory, add-ons whose prices the page does not print, plus processing.

The Essentials Bundle adds restaurant-grade hardware and integrated payments to the same software, and venues with two or more terminals can finance hardware.

Online ordering carries no commission, which makes it the add-on most worth pricing; SpotOn prints its online-ordering bundle price and cap, TouchBistro does not. Processing is a choice too: TouchBistro works with a range of payment processors, integrated or standalone, which suits a restaurant with an existing merchant account but leaves the all-in cost to a quote. Support is 24/7 by phone and email at no extra cost.

Skip it if:

you need a price for every add-on before the demo; SpotOn prints its rates, hardware and online-ordering bundle on one page.

8. Lightspeed Restaurant: Best for Bars and Multi-Venue Restaurant Groups

Lightspeed Restaurant earns its place for the bar and the group: pre-auth bar mode, floor plans, multi-location management, multiple revenue centers for hotels and raw API access all appear on its pricing page, a different set of tools from TouchBistro’s single dining room. Budget a per-screen kitchen display fee.

The pricing page does not say whether its plan prices are per month or per year, so confirm the period before you compare Starter with Toast’s $69 a month. Integrated payments are the default on Starter and custom on Essential and Premium, which points to a negotiated rate at the higher tiers.

The feature list adds order and pay at table with QR codes, Tempo for service pacing and a Pulse mobile app for multi-site performance.

Skip it if:

you run one cafe counter; Square’s free plan rings the same card with no software fee.

9. Helcim: Best for Lower Processing Costs at Higher Volume

Cutting card fees, not running a dining room, is Helcim’s job: it prices interchange-plus, passes the card networks’ wholesale cost through and adds a margin that drops by tier, with no monthly fee, no contract and no cancellation fee. The catch is that the interchange part is not one number, so your effective rate depends on the cards your customers carry.

The tiers are the product. Helcim’s in-person margin starts at interchange + 0.40% + 8¢ and steps down through four more volume bands to interchange + 0.15% + 6¢, with the discount applied automatically from the average of your last three months.

Whether Helcim wins depends on whether interchange plus margin lands under a flat rate for your card mix, and a debit-heavy counter is where the gap opens, because US PIN-debit runs through the same interchange-plus model.

The POS side is lighter than Toast or Lightspeed: a free app for a laptop, tablet or smartphone with tipping, split payments, inventory tracking and customer records, plus unlimited users at no extra fee. Hardware is bought, not leased, and Tap to Pay on iPhone carries no hardware cost.

Skip it if:

you need restaurant tables or a kitchen display; Toast and SpotOn build those in, and Helcim’s point-of-sale page describes neither.

10. Loyverse: Best Free POS for a Phone or Tablet

Loyverse gives the smallest seller point of sale, essential inventory, loyalty, a kitchen display and multi-store management for free, on a phone or tablet you already own. What it does not give is a processor: card payments come from a separate company.

The kitchen display is the reason a food business should look: Square’s KDS app is not available on its free plan, while Loyverse sends orders to the kitchen in real time at no charge, which for a food truck or a two-table cafe is the difference between free software and a paid plan.

Processing is the open question. Loyverse’s pricing page prints no card rate, and its Payments menu lists several processors, so the all-in cost depends on the processor you pair with it.

Skip it if:

you want one bill for software and processing; Square gives both from one account on its free plan.

How to Choose a POS System for Your Business

Start from your business type, then price the all-in cost at your volume, then read the contract.

1. Business type first. A dining room with servers needs tables, tips and a kitchen display, which shortlists Toast, SpotOn, TouchBistro and Lightspeed Restaurant; a store with stock to reorder needs purchase orders, which favors Lightspeed Retail or Shopify POS Pro.
2. All-in cost at your volume, worked as in the cost table above.
3. Processing model and term. Flat rates (Square, Shopify, Clover, SpotOn) are readable but fixed; interchange-plus (Helcim) falls with volume but varies by card; an unpublished rate (Toast, TouchBistro, Lightspeed Restaurant) is a quote to get in writing.
4. Hardware, locations and support. Square and Helcim sell devices outright, Clover and SpotOn All-In fold them into a term, and Toast and SpotOn run only on their own devices; Square and Shopify print a per-location fee where Lightspeed Retail quotes one.

The sales that land in your books are the last check: the POS you pick should sync to the accounting software your small business already uses, and Lightspeed, Toast and Loyverse each name an accounting integration on their pages.

Software	Kitchen display	Table management	Online ordering	Multi-location	24/7 phone support
Square	$30 per device on Plus, $20 on Premium; not on Free	Yes (restaurant features)	Yes	Yes, plan fee per location	Premium only
Shopify POS	Not listed	Not listed	Yes, the online store	Yes, POS Pro $89 per location	Plus only; 24/7 live chat on Basic and Grow, enhanced live chat on Advanced
Toast	Not listed on the pricing page	Yes	Add-on (Digital Storefront)	Add-on (Restaurant Management Pro)	Yes
Clover	Not priced on the pricing pages	Not listed	Yes, no-fee (quick-service plans)	Not listed	Yes
Lightspeed Retail	Not listed	Not listed	Yes, built-in eCommerce	Quoted by sales	Yes
SpotOn	Custom quote	Yes	Core Bundle, $50 per month + 0.20% of GPV	Build Your Own	24/7 support (channel not stated)
TouchBistro	Add-on	Yes	Add-on, no commission	Not listed	Yes
Lightspeed Restaurant	$30 per screen per month	Yes	Yes, listed on every plan	Yes	24/7 support (channel not stated)
Loyverse	Free	Not listed	Not listed	Free	24/7 live chat with a paid add-on

Sources: Square restaurant pricing, Shopify POS pricing, Toast pricing, Clover quick-service pricing, Lightspeed Retail pricing, SpotOn pricing, TouchBistro pricing, Lightspeed Restaurant pricing, Helcim point of sale, Loyverse pricing, checked Nov 2026.

Restaurant POS Checklist: KDS, Tables, Online Ordering and Tips

A restaurant POS needs four things, and each pick prices them differently: a kitchen display, table management, commission-free online ordering and tip handling.

• Kitchen display: Square’s KDS app is $30 per device a month on Plus and $20 on Premium, and not available on Free; Lightspeed Restaurant charges $30 per screen per month; Loyverse includes it free; TouchBistro sells it as an unpriced add-on; SpotOn names KDS monitors under its custom builds.
• Table management: Toast lists table and order management, SpotOn table layouts, TouchBistro floor plan and table management, Lightspeed Restaurant floor plans and pre-auth bar mode; Square lists tableside ordering with coursing and seat management among its restaurant features.
• Online ordering without commission: Toast’s Digital Storefront, SpotOn Order in the Core Bundle, TouchBistro’s add-on and Clover’s no-fee online ordering on quick-service plans all state no commission; Square lists a branded online ordering page among its food and beverage features.
• Tips and the team: Square lists tip pooling and commissions tracking and payroll from $35 a month plus $6 per person; Toast bundles Tips Manager in Team Management Essentials and payroll at $69 plus $9 per employee. Shift scheduling beyond the POS is a separate buy, and my ranking of employee scheduling software for restaurants covers the free options.

Read the Contract Before the Rate

• Clover: monthly prices run 36 months, and the $450 credit needs a 3-year contract
• SpotOn All-In: a 2-year minimum with processing minimums; Essentials is month-to-month
• Shopify Plus: a 1- or 3-year term
• Toast: software runs only on Toast-approved devices
• Square, Helcim and Loyverse: no term printed

Before signing, ask what happens to the hardware if you close early, whether there is a processing minimum and whether the rate changes after year one, and get the answers in writing.

Also Considered

Four systems that appear in POS searches did not make the ranking, because none prints a POS software price:

• Revel Systems: its pricing URL now lands on a Shift4 Dine page that states Revel is part of Shift4.
• Lavu: pricing depends on your configuration, number of devices and whether you activate Marty.
• SumUp: the US pricing page lists a Free tier, POS Plus and SumUp POS without POS prices.
• Epos Now: the US pricing page prints hardware offers and no software subscription price.

FAQ

Which POS system has the lowest fees?

It depends on volume. Lightspeed Retail prints 1.5% card-present on all three plans with no per-sale fee listed. Clover’s 2.3% + 10¢ on Standard and quick-service plans and Shopify’s 2.4% + 10¢ on Advanced are the lower flat rates with a per-sale fee, but each sits behind a pricier monthly plan. At higher volume Helcim’s interchange-plus margin falls by tier, and whether it undercuts a flat rate depends on your card mix.

Which POS is better than Square?

Better for a job, not overall: Toast for a restaurant that wants tables, tips, payroll and online ordering from one vendor, Shopify POS for an online retailer, Lightspeed Retail for a chain that writes purchase orders, Helcim for a high-volume business. For a first counter with no monthly fee, Square still fits.

What is the best POS system for a food truck?

A truck needs a battery-powered reader and no monthly fee. Square’s $59 Reader pairs with your phone on the free plan, and Loyverse runs free on a phone with a third-party processor, including its free kitchen display.

Can I run a POS from home on my phone?

Yes. Square Free takes payments with just your phone through Tap to Pay on iPhone or Android, and Helcim’s Tap to Pay on iPhone also carries no hardware cost. Both charge only when a card is processed, so a home-based seller pays nothing in a quiet month.

Do I need a contract to get a POS system?

It depends on the pick. Square and Helcim print no long-term contract; SpotOn All-In, Clover and Shopify Plus print the terms listed above; Toast, TouchBistro and Lightspeed Restaurant print none, so ask. Buying the device outright, as Clover’s $349 option or Square’s $299 Terminal allow, removes the hardware term.

Final Verdict: My Pick for Each Situation

• Pick Square if you are opening a first counter, cafe or service business: the hardware is the only commitment.
• Pick Shopify POS if your web store is the business, and budget for POS Pro per location.
• Pick Toast for a full-service or quick-service restaurant once the processing rate and suite fees are in writing; pick SpotOn if you want the rate printed, on Essentials when you can pay $750 a station and All-In when you cannot.
• Pick TouchBistro for a table-service room, with the add-on prices confirmed with TouchBistro.
• Pick Lightspeed Restaurant for a bar, hotel outlet or venue group, after you confirm the billing period and budget $30 per kitchen screen.
• Pick Lightspeed Retail for several stores with heavy purchasing, with the extra-location quote in hand.
• Pick Clover if you want one monthly bill for hardware and software and the location will be open in 36 months.
• Pick Helcim past $50,000 a month in card sales, once a statement shows interchange plus its margin under your flat rate.
• Pick Loyverse if software must cost nothing, paired with a processor whose rate you have read.