Top 5 Best Point-of-Sale Software in 2025: Square, Shopify, Lightspeed, Toast, and Clover

The best point of sale software in 2025 depends on the business: Square is the safest overall choice for many small businesses, Shopify POS is best for ecommerce-led retail, Lightspeed Retail suits complex inventory, Toast is built for restaurants, and Clover offers flexible hardware. No single POS is the right universal winner.

Prices and features change, so this ranking uses the June 2025 comparison snapshot where historical context matters and current U.S. pricing pages checked in August 2026 for present-day cost signals. A vendor-published comparison is useful for feature discovery, but it is not independent testing.

Key takeaways

• Square is the best default for many first-time buyers because its U.S. software starts at $0 per month per location and covers retail, restaurants, services, invoices, and online selling.
• Shopify POS is strongest when a merchant already runs Shopify ecommerce; POS Pro adds $89 per month per location to a paid Shopify plan.
• Lightspeed Retail is designed for inventory-heavy retailers and currently lists $89, $149, and $289 monthly plans, each with one register.
• Toast is the restaurant specialist, with a Starter Kit starting at $0 per month and a Point of Sale plan starting at $69 per month, before variable hardware, processing, and implementation costs.
• Clover has broad hardware and app choices, but the acquiring bank or reseller can change the processing rates, contract, support, and total cost.

What is the best point of sale software in 2025?

The best point of sale software in 2025 is Square for most small businesses, but the best choice changes by operating model. A Shopify-based online retailer should usually start with Shopify POS; a retailer managing extensive purchasing and stock across locations should examine Lightspeed Retail; a restaurant should prioritize Toast; and a buyer who values hardware variety may prefer Clover after reviewing the reseller agreement.

The ranking below is a best-use-case ranking rather than an absolute performance league table. Retail, restaurant, appointment, and mobile-selling businesses have different workflows, so a restaurant system with excellent kitchen routing may be a poor choice for a clothing shop.

Rank	POS	Best for	Starting software price	Processing model	Ecommerce	Inventory depth	Main drawback
1	Square	Most small businesses and first-time buyers	$0/month Free tier; $49 Plus; $149 Premium per location on the current U.S. page	Current card-present rates shown at 2.6% + 15¢, 2.5% + 15¢, or 2.4% + 15¢ by plan	Built-in online-selling options	Good for straightforward retail; paid tiers add depth	Processing and add-ons can matter at higher volume
2	Shopify POS	Ecommerce-first and omnichannel retail	Shopify Basic from $39/month; POS Pro adds $89/month per location	Basic in-person rate starts at 2.6% + 10¢; plan and terms affect rates	Native Shopify connection	Strongest with POS Pro and Shopify catalog tools	Overkill for merchants who do not need Shopify ecommerce
3	Lightspeed Retail	Complex inventory and multi-location retail	$89 Basic, $149 Core, or $289 Plus per month	Confirm quoted processing terms	Available through ecommerce integrations and plan features	Strong catalog, purchase orders, vendors, and reporting	More expensive and complex than entry-level POS systems
4	Toast	Restaurants, cafés, bars, and food service	Starter Kit from $0/month; Point of Sale from $69/month	Package-specific terms; processing and hardware vary	Restaurant online ordering options	Menu, modifier, kitchen, table, and order workflows	Specialized ecosystem and possible hardware/payment lock-in
5	Clover	Flexible hardware and a broad app marketplace	No universal national price; seller and processor determine the offer	Varies by acquiring bank or reseller	Depends on apps and configuration	Varies by app and industry setup	Contracts, rates, support, and fees require careful comparison

Prices are U.S. signals, software-only unless stated otherwise, and subject to change. Square, Shopify, Lightspeed, and Toast figures are linked to their current pricing pages; Clover cannot responsibly be summarized with one universal price.

How was this POS software ranking determined?

The ranking weighs the factors that change the buying decision, rather than rewarding the platform with the longest feature list:

Criterion	Weight	What it measures
Industry fit	25%	Whether the system matches retail, restaurant, service, or mobile workflows
Core software depth	20%	Checkout, inventory, customers, employees, reporting, and operational controls
Total-cost transparency	15%	Clarity around software, payment processing, hardware, add-ons, and contracts
Setup and staff training	15%	Onboarding effort, daily usability, and configuration complexity
Inventory, reporting, and scalability	10%	Ability to support more products, locations, employees, and transactions
Integrations and ecosystem	10%	Ecommerce, accounting, payroll, loyalty, delivery, and third-party applications
Hardware and offline capability	5%	Readers, registers, scanners, printers, portability, and qualified offline operation

For restaurants, menu modifiers, kitchen routing, tableside ordering, online ordering, and labor tools deserve more weight. For retailers, inventory, purchasing, vendor management, ecommerce synchronization, returns, and stock transfers matter more. For mobile sellers, portability, offline operation, low upfront cost, setup time, and straightforward processing matter more.

What does modern POS software do?

Modern POS software is more than a digital cash register. A POS can connect payment acceptance with product data, stock, customer records, staff permissions, reporting, online sales, marketing, invoicing, appointments, and business integrations.

• Accepts card, contactless, and other supported payments.
• Manages products, variants, prices, discounts, taxes, and inventory.
• Stores customer profiles, purchase history, loyalty data, and marketing permissions.
• Provides sales, product, employee, and location reporting.
• Controls employee permissions and may include time tracking or payroll integrations.
• Connects online and in-person selling, including ecommerce synchronization and pickup workflows.
• Supports invoices, appointment booking, recurring billing, memberships, or service packages where the product includes those tools.
• Connects to accounting, ecommerce, delivery, payroll, loyalty, and other applications.
• Operates compatible hardware such as card readers, registers, barcode scanners, receipt printers, cash drawers, kitchen printers, and customer displays.
• May accept transactions during an internet outage, although offline mode does not mean every feature works without a connection.

Which POS features matter for each type of business?

The correct POS begins with the business workflow. A system should be rejected if it cannot handle the transactions, inventory, service rules, or kitchen operations that employees perform every day.

Business type	Prioritize	Best candidates from this list
Retail shop	SKUs and variants, barcode scanning, purchase orders, stock transfers, cycle counts, vendors, multi-location inventory, ecommerce synchronization, returns, exchanges, and loyalty	Shopify POS, Lightspeed Retail, Square for Retail, Clover
Restaurant, café, bar, or food truck	Menus, modifiers, floor plans, open tabs, split checks, tips, service charges, kitchen display, course routing, online ordering, delivery, and tableside ordering	Toast, Square for Restaurants, Clover Restaurant, Lightspeed Restaurant
Salon or appointment business	Appointments, deposits, cancellation rules, recurring billing, client profiles, staff calendars, memberships, packages, tips, invoices, and marketing automation	Square Appointments and service tools; specialized alternatives may also fit
Mobile seller or pop-up	Phone or tablet compatibility, portable readers, qualified offline payments, low upfront cost, battery life, quick onboarding, and simple inventory	Square, Shopify POS, Clover Go, and selected payment-first alternatives

1. Is Square the best overall POS for small businesses?

Square is the best overall starting point for many small businesses because it combines a $0 software entry tier, simple hardware, integrated payments, and products for retail, restaurants, services, invoices, and online selling. Square is particularly suitable for a startup, independent seller, café, salon, market stall, or business that wants to begin without assembling several separate systems.

Square’s own comparison describes Square as an all-around solution and separates POS needs by retail, restaurants, services, and beauty rather than claiming that one configuration fits every merchant. The comparison is first-party vendor material, so use it for feature discovery rather than independent performance evidence. See Square’s POS comparison for its industry positioning.

What does Square cost?

According to Square’s current U.S. pricing page, the Free plan costs $0 per month per location, Plus costs $49 per month per location, and Premium costs $149 per month per location. The same page displays card-present rates of 2.6% + 15¢, 2.5% + 15¢, and 2.4% + 15¢ by plan tier. The page represents current pricing signals checked in August 2026, not necessarily the exact prices Square charged throughout 2025.

“Free” describes the software tier, not the total cost of accepting payments. Hardware, payment processing, payroll, marketing, loyalty, restaurant tools, advanced retail features, and other add-ons can create recurring or transaction-based costs.

What are Square’s strengths and limitations?

• Strengths: low initial software cost, broad industry coverage, simple onboarding, mobile hardware, integrated payment acceptance, invoices, appointments, ecommerce, employee management, marketing tools, and listed offline-payment support.
• Limitations: payment-processing costs may outweigh the subscription savings as sales volume rises, and advanced inventory, restaurant, payroll, marketing, kiosk, or kitchen requirements can increase the monthly bill.
• Choose another system when: a retailer needs unusually deep vendor and purchase-order controls, a restaurant needs specialized enterprise kitchen operations, or processor flexibility is a priority.

2. Is Shopify POS the best choice for ecommerce-first retail?

Shopify POS is the best choice for retailers that need online and in-person commerce to share products, inventory, customers, and order workflows. Shopify is especially compelling when the merchant already uses Shopify for its online store or plans to make ecommerce a major sales channel.

What is the difference between Shopify POS Lite and POS Pro?

Shopify POS Lite is included with a paid Shopify plan and supports basic in-person selling. Shopify POS Pro adds more advanced retail capabilities, including staff permissions, inventory counts, purchase orders, low-stock alerts, clienteling, retail analytics, and omnichannel selling. Shopify lists these differences on its current POS pricing page.

According to that pricing page, Shopify Basic starts at $39 per month, Basic in-person card rates start at 2.6% + 10¢, and POS Pro costs an additional $89 per month per location. Pricing, billing terms, payment rates, geography, and eligibility affect the actual quote.

When is Shopify POS a poor fit?

Shopify POS can be an unnecessarily expensive choice for a merchant that only needs a standalone countertop checkout and has no meaningful ecommerce operation. The buyer may pay for online-store infrastructure, apps, and a Shopify subscription even when a simpler payment-first POS would meet the business’s needs.

Shopify’s main differentiators are its native online-store connection, shared product and inventory data, customer profiles, buy-online/pick-up-in-store workflows, and large app ecosystem. The buyer should still confirm whether required inventory, staff, reporting, returns, and omnichannel features require POS Pro or third-party apps.

3. Is Lightspeed Retail best for complex inventory?

Lightspeed Retail is best for retailers that need serious catalog, purchasing, vendor, stock, reporting, and multi-location capabilities rather than only a fast checkout. A boutique with thousands of products, variants, suppliers, or locations is more likely to benefit from Lightspeed’s depth than a small seller with a narrow catalog.

How much does Lightspeed Retail cost?

According to Lightspeed’s current Retail pricing page, the public tiers are $89 per month for Basic, $149 per month for Core, and $289 per month for Plus. Each displayed plan includes one register. Lightspeed states that prices may vary and that additional service fees may apply depending on the business and industry.

What does Lightspeed Retail do better?

Lightspeed emphasizes inventory management, product variants, purchase-order synchronization, catalog access, vendor workflows, loyalty, reporting, forecasting, custom roles, ecommerce integrations, and multi-location operations. These tools can justify the higher price when they replace manual spreadsheets or disconnected purchasing systems.

The trade-off is implementation and learning complexity. A low-volume shop with a small product range may pay for capability it never uses. The buyer should ask about onboarding, data migration, registers, ecommerce connections, payment terms, reporting limits, and add-on fees before signing.

4. Is Toast the best POS for restaurants?

Toast is the best specialist choice in this shortlist for restaurants, cafés, bars, food trucks, and other food-service operations because Toast is built around menus, modifiers, tables, kitchen coordination, online ordering, and restaurant hardware. Toast should not be treated as a general-purpose substitute for Shopify POS in ecommerce retail or for a deep retail inventory system in a clothing store.

How much does Toast cost?

Toast’s current pricing page lists a Starter Kit starting at $0 per month and a Point of Sale plan starting at $69 per month. Toast also lists custom pricing and add-ons, while hardware, implementation, payment processing, and package terms vary.

The $0 Starter Kit is not the same as a no-cost POS with no obligations. The restaurant must ask what processing arrangement, hardware purchase or commitment, implementation fees, contract duration, add-ons, support, and termination rules accompany the offer.

What restaurant workflows should be tested?

• Menu items, modifier groups, substitutions, discounts, and service charges
• Table and floor plans, open tabs, split checks, transfers, and partial payments
• Course timing and routing to kitchen display systems or printers
• Tips, tip pooling, refunds, voids, and employee permissions
• Tableside ordering, online ordering, delivery integrations, and customer notifications
• Restaurant payroll, scheduling, loyalty, marketing, and reporting add-ons

Toast’s specialization is its advantage and its limitation. A restaurant may value the operational fit, while a general retailer may inherit unnecessary complexity and a more tightly bundled hardware and payment ecosystem.

5. Is Clover worth it for flexible POS hardware?

Clover is worth considering when a business wants several countertop, handheld, or mobile hardware configurations and access to a broad app marketplace, but Clover requires more contract scrutiny than a simple national price comparison.

Why is Clover pricing difficult to compare?

Clover hardware and software may be sold through different acquiring banks, payment providers, or resellers. The same Clover-branded device can therefore come with different processing rates, monthly software charges, support arrangements, contract lengths, equipment ownership terms, and cancellation fees. Consult the official Clover pricing page, then compare the actual merchant agreement rather than relying on a generic advertised price.

Before accepting a Clover offer, request written answers about monthly software, processing rates by transaction type, hardware ownership, financing or leasing, contract length, early termination, PCI or compliance fees, chargebacks, app subscriptions, support hours, equipment returns, and whether the merchant can change processors.

Who should avoid Clover?

Clover is a poor fit for a buyer who wants one transparent, standardized national offer or who is unwilling to inspect reseller terms. Clover can work well for retail and food service, but app quality, recurring fees, processor rules, and support depend on the complete arrangement, not only the device logo.

How much does POS software really cost?

POS cost has at least four separate parts: software subscription, payment processing, hardware, and add-ons or implementation. Comparing only monthly software prices can produce the wrong result because a $0 plan may earn revenue through processing, while a paid plan may include more operational tools or different rates.

What should a complete POS budget include?

• Software: monthly or annual plans, per-location charges, per-register charges, and per-user fees.
• Processing: card-present, card-not-present, manually keyed, debit, credit, rewards, international, and negotiated rates.
• Hardware: readers, terminals, tablets, stands, registers, cash drawers, scanners, receipt printers, kitchen printers, displays, cellular service, warranty, financing, or leasing.
• Add-ons: payroll, loyalty, marketing, ecommerce, appointments, delivery, kitchen display, advanced reporting, accounting, and third-party apps.
• Implementation: setup, migration, training, installation, data cleanup, and support.
• Risk costs: chargebacks, refunds, instant payouts, contract cancellation, PCI fees, and equipment-return requirements.

Are payment-processing rates comparable?

Payment rates are comparable only when the transaction type and assumptions match. Card-present rates should not be compared directly with online checkout or manually keyed rates. Card type, rewards status, international origin, transaction volume, refunds, chargebacks, payment processor, and negotiated terms can all change the result.

For an illustrative comparison, assume one U.S. location, one register, $20,000 in monthly card-present sales, 400 transactions, a $50 average ticket, no hardware financing, and no add-ons. At Square’s displayed Free-tier rate of 2.6% + 15¢, processing would be $580 per month: $520 in percentage fees plus $60 in per-transaction fees. At Shopify’s displayed Basic in-person starting rate of 2.6% + 10¢, processing would be $560 per month, before the $39 Shopify subscription. The resulting Shopify total would be $599 before POS Pro, while Square Free would be $580 before hardware or add-ons.

This example does not establish a universal cheapest provider. Lightspeed, Toast, and Clover require the buyer to obtain and compare their actual processing terms, and even Square or Shopify rates may vary by plan, channel, card type, volume, and merchant agreement.

How do multi-location costs scale?

Ask whether the relevant unit is an account, location, register, device, employee, online store, or add-on. For example, Shopify POS Pro is listed at $89 per month per location, so three POS Pro locations would represent $267 per month for POS Pro alone, in addition to the underlying Shopify plan and other costs. Square Plus and Premium are also listed per location. Lightspeed’s displayed plans include one register, so additional registers or services must be confirmed in the quote.

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What are the most important POS buying risks?

1. Do not choose by introductory price alone. A restaurant POS may advertise a low starting tier but charge separately for hardware, processing, implementation, kitchen tools, or online ordering.
2. Do not buy hardware before checking compatibility. Confirm iOS or Android support, operating-system versions, printers, scanners, cash drawers, displays, cellular connectivity, warranty, replacement, and return terms.
3. Do not assume a demo feature is included. Ask which plan, register, location, app, or add-on provides each demonstrated capability.
4. Do not treat offline support as full offline operation. Confirm how long transactions can remain offline, which card types are excluded, when synchronization occurs, what happens if an offline payment is later declined, and whether refunds, inventory, and reports require reconnection.
5. Do not ignore payment lock-in. Confirm whether the merchant must use the vendor’s processor and what happens when the agreement ends.
6. Do not sign before reviewing exit terms. Check contract length, early termination, equipment return, financing, leasing, PCI, chargeback, and support terms.
7. Do not skip migration planning. A POS change affects products, customers, tax rules, discounts, modifiers, staff roles, inventory, refunds, and historical sales.
8. Do not assume security is automatic. Compliant hardware alone does not make the entire business PCI-compliant or satisfy every local tax, receipt, privacy, labor, and payment requirement.

How should a business migrate to a new POS?

A controlled migration reduces checkout disruption and prevents lost customer, inventory, and tax data.

1. Export products, SKUs, variants, prices, taxes, customers, and historical sales from the old system.
2. Clean duplicate customer records and standardize product names, SKUs, categories, modifiers, and vendor data.
3. Confirm tax rules, receipt requirements, privacy settings, tipping, discounts, returns, and employee permissions.
4. Verify hardware compatibility and test readers, printers, scanners, cash drawers, displays, kitchen equipment, and cellular connections.
5. Rebuild discounts, modifiers, memberships, loyalty rules, appointment policies, and online-ordering mappings.
6. Import opening inventory and reconcile the count against a physical stock check.
7. Test purchases, refunds, partial returns, exchanges, split payments, tips, voids, discounts, taxes, and offline recovery.
8. Train staff by role and prepare a written fallback procedure for outages.
9. Run the old and new systems in parallel briefly when operationally feasible, then reconcile payments and inventory.
10. Keep an export and documented account-access procedure before closing the old service.

What alternatives should businesses consider?

The five ranked platforms cover broad use cases, but smaller or specialized businesses may prefer a narrower system.

Alternative	Best fit	Limitation to investigate
PayPal Zettle	Simple mobile selling and PayPal-linked businesses	Less suited to complex inventory, multi-location, and restaurant workflows
SumUp	Lightweight mobile payments and small sellers	Verify U.S. availability and current advanced inventory and employee features
TouchBistro	Restaurants needing table-service capabilities	Compare integrations, hardware, processing terms, and add-on costs with Toast
SpotOn	Restaurants seeking hospitality, marketing, and customer tools	Request a complete quote and confirm which services are included
Industry-specific systems	Medical, salon, fitness, cannabis, grocery, and specialty retail operations	Check compliance, vertical inventory, scheduling, and local requirements

Businesses considering QuickBooks Point of Sale alternatives should verify current product availability and support policy before planning a migration, because accounting-product lines and support arrangements can change.

Which POS should each type of business choose?

• Best overall small-business POS: Square, especially when low startup cost and broad business tools matter.
• Best ecommerce retailer POS: Shopify POS, especially when Shopify already powers the online store.
• Best inventory-heavy retail POS: Lightspeed Retail, especially for purchasing, vendors, variants, reporting, and multiple locations.
• Best restaurant POS: Toast, especially for menus, kitchen operations, tableside service, and restaurant ordering.
• Best mobile or low-complexity seller POS: Square, with Shopify POS and Clover Go also worth comparing for the required channel and hardware.
• Best hardware-flexibility POS: Clover, provided the merchant compares the reseller’s rates, contract, support, and equipment terms.
• Best salon or service-business POS in this shortlist: Square, because its appointments and service-business capabilities align more closely with booking, client, payment, and invoicing needs.
• Best multi-channel Shopify merchant POS: Shopify POS, because online and in-person products, inventory, customers, and orders can share the Shopify environment.

What should you ask before signing a POS contract?

• What is the total first-year cost including software, processing, hardware, installation, training, support, and required add-ons?
• Are rates different for card-present, online, keyed, debit, rewards, and international transactions?
• Can the merchant use an existing payment processor, or is the merchant locked to the vendor?
• Is hardware purchased, financed, leased, bundled, or conditional on a processing agreement?
• What happens to equipment and data if the contract is canceled?
• Are there PCI, statement, chargeback, refund, instant-payout, or early-termination fees?
• Which features require a higher plan, additional register, additional location, or third-party app?
• How long can offline mode operate, and which transactions or features are unavailable offline?
• Can the merchant export products, customers, tax data, and historical sales in a usable format?
• What are the support hours, escalation process, replacement policy, and implementation timeline?

Final verdict

Choose Square when the priority is the easiest broad small-business start. Choose Shopify POS when online sales and physical retail must share one commerce system. Choose Lightspeed Retail when inventory, purchasing, vendors, and locations are operationally complex. Choose Toast for restaurant-first workflows. Choose Clover when hardware and app flexibility matter enough to justify careful review of reseller pricing and contract terms.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best POS software for a small business?

Square is the best default POS for many small businesses because its U.S. software has a $0 entry tier, simple hardware, integrated payments, and products for retail, restaurants, services, invoices, and online selling. A business with specialized restaurant, ecommerce, or inventory needs may be better served by Toast, Shopify POS, or Lightspeed Retail.

What is the cheapest POS system?

There is no universally cheapest POS system because software, processing, hardware, add-ons, and contract costs differ. Square has a $0 U.S. software tier, Shopify Basic starts at $39 per month, Lightspeed Retail starts at $89 per month, and Toast’s Starter Kit starts at $0 per month, but payment processing and other costs still apply.

Is Shopify POS better than Square?

Shopify POS is better for ecommerce-first retailers that need Shopify online and in-person inventory, customer, and order workflows. Square is generally better for a small business seeking a standalone, low-cost POS with broad retail, restaurant, service, and mobile capabilities.

Is Toast only for restaurants?

Toast is primarily designed for restaurants, cafés, bars, food trucks, and food-service operations. Toast’s menu, modifier, table, kitchen, online-ordering, and restaurant hardware workflows are strengths in food service but usually make Toast a poor fit for ordinary retail or appointment businesses.

Can POS software work without internet?

Some POS platforms support offline transaction acceptance, but offline mode does not mean that every POS feature works without internet. Businesses should confirm offline duration, excluded card types, synchronization timing, later declines, refunds, inventory updates, and reporting requirements before relying on the feature.

The Bottom Line

Bottom line: Match the POS to the work your employees perform. Square is the safest general recommendation; Shopify POS leads ecommerce-led retail; Lightspeed Retail leads complex inventory; Toast leads restaurants; and Clover offers hardware flexibility with the greatest need for contract and reseller scrutiny.