How we compare POS systems
We list 7 POS systems sold to US small businesses, and a published software rate card exists for 4 providers. Where a vendor quotes instead, the table shows a quote. Every figure comes from the vendor's own pricing page.
The calculator takes your card volume, average transaction, locations and registers, and adds each system's software fee, per-location and per-register charges and, with the processing toggle on, its published card rate on that volume. Your own card rate completes the cost of a system sold as software alone; your POS cost today turns the result into a difference. Commission does not change the order.
Toast, Clover and the POS system prices you cannot read off a web page
The questions asked most often about US POS systems are what the fees come to and how long the contract runs. For Toast and Clover, neither has a full answer you can read off a web page. Toast quotes the software fee and the processing rate inside a sales conversation. Clover quotes its software fee, publishes only a starting card rate, and is also sold through resellers on their own terms.
| Provider | Software monthly fee |
|---|---|
| Clover | Quote ($0-135/mo by plan/reseller) |
| Lightspeed | $89/mo (Retail Basic, annual; Core $149, Plus $289) |
| Shopify | $0 POS Lite (Pro ~$89/location) |
| SpotOn | $55/station/mo |
| Square | $0/mo (Plus $49, Premium $149 per location) |
| Toast | Quote ($0 Starter to ~$165/mo + add-ons) |
| TouchBistro | From $69/mo |
The consequence is that two restaurants on the same street can pay differently for the same equipment. Force every quote into one shape: ask, in writing and on one page, for the software fee per terminal per month, the processing rate and per-transaction fee, the hardware price and how it is paid for, any implementation charge, and the term.
| Provider | Payment processing rate | Per-transaction fee |
|---|---|---|
| Clover | From 2.3% + 10¢ | Quote |
| Lightspeed | ~2.6% + 10c | 10c |
| Shopify | 2.7% (in-person, Basic) | None |
| SpotOn | 2.45% + $0.15 | $0.15 |
| Square | 2.6% + 15c | 10c |
| Toast | Quote (Toast payments, negotiable) | Quote |
| TouchBistro | Quote (custom "cost plus" rate, never published) | Not stated |
Comparing the rates themselves belongs on our payment processing comparison. What matters here is that a quoted rate and a published one are not the same kind of number.
Contract length and hardware financing in a POS system deal
Contract length is one of the few things buyers here search for by name, and the table answers it unevenly.
| Provider | Contract length | Free trial |
|---|---|---|
| Clover | Varies (direct flexible; reseller multi-year) | No |
| Lightspeed | Annual term typical | Yes (14 days) |
| Shopify | No lock-in (monthly) | Yes (3 days, then $1/mo intro) |
| SpotOn | No long-term lock-in (claimed) | Demo only |
| Square | No lock-in | Not needed (free plan) |
| Toast | Quote (multi-year typical) | Demo only |
| TouchBistro | Not stated | Not stated |
Hardware is often where the term comes from, because it is the part nobody wants to pay for up front. You buy it outright, you finance it, or it arrives inside a quote with everything else.
| Provider | Hardware cost |
|---|---|
| Clover | Flex / Mini / Station Duo (purchase or financed, quote) |
| Lightspeed | iPad-based; reader/stand/printer bundles (~$300-1,000+) |
| Shopify | Tap-and-chip reader from ~$49 / terminal kit to ~$329 |
| SpotOn | Quote (SpotOn Terminal, handhelds, KDS) |
| Square | Reader $0 magstripe / contactless $49 / Stand $149 / Terminal $299 / Register $799 |
| Toast | Quote (proprietary terminals, KDS, handhelds) |
| TouchBistro | Quote (iPad-based; financing offered for 2 or more terminals) |
Three questions decide what the deal costs you. Is the hardware agreement separate from the software agreement? Financed equipment is often papered by a finance company, so canceling the software does not end the equipment payments. Who owns the terminals at the end of the term? What do renewal and exit cost, as numbers rather than policies?
Restaurant floor or store shelf: which POS system market you are buying from
This table looks like one market and is really two. A restaurant needs a floor plan, open tabs, a kitchen screen, modifiers and tips. A store needs stock counts, barcodes, purchase orders and returns. A vendor covering both usually does it with separate products under one brand.
| Provider | Industry focus | Table management |
|---|---|---|
| Clover | Both | Yes (Table Service plan) |
| Lightspeed | Both (Retail + Restaurant) | Yes (Restaurant product) |
| Shopify | Retail (omnichannel) | No (retail/omnichannel) |
| SpotOn | Hospitality (some retail) | Yes (restaurant) |
| Square | Both | Yes (Square for Restaurants) |
| Toast | Hospitality (restaurants) | Yes (core, restaurant-only) |
| TouchBistro | Restaurants only | Yes (floor plan, tableside ordering) |
Read the table management column as a price, not a tick: a named plan or a named product is a different subscription from the one you were quoted. On the restaurant side the delivery apps are the integration that matters; on the retail side it is stock and the online store.
| Provider | Platform integrations |
|---|---|
| Clover | Clover App Market, QuickBooks, Xero, e-commerce |
| Lightspeed | QuickBooks, Xero, built-in eCom, DoorDash, Uber Eats, 100s of apps |
| Shopify | QuickBooks, Xero, Shopify App Store, Afterpay/Klarna |
| SpotOn | DoorDash, Uber Eats, QuickBooks, reservations, marketing |
| Square | QuickBooks, Xero, Square Online, 200+ apps |
| Toast | DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grubhub, QuickBooks, 100+ |
| TouchBistro | 7shifts, MarginEdge |
Watch for modules billed on top rather than included. TouchBistro sells inventory and loyalty as paid add-ons, so its starting software figure is a floor.
Locations and registers: how a POS system bill grows
Growth is priced on doors and lanes rather than headcount. If a second site is anywhere in your plan, cost it now, because it can move the order of this table.
| Provider | Additional register cost |
|---|---|
| Clover | Quote (per device) |
| Lightspeed | ~$39 per register |
| Shopify | POS Pro ~$89/mo per location |
| SpotOn | Quote (per device) |
| Square | $0 (free plan); Plus $69-89/location |
| Toast | Quote (per handheld/terminal) |
| TouchBistro | Not stated |
Some published vendors also list a per-location charge for their paid tiers:
| Provider | Per-location fee |
|---|---|
| Lightspeed | $89/location (another subscription) |
| Shopify | $89/location (POS Pro) |
| Square | $89/location (Retail Plus) |
Choosing your own processor with a POS system
Every system here can process cards itself. When processing is locked to the POS, your card rate is part of your software contract: you cannot re-shop it without replacing the equipment, the staff training and the menu build, and the vendor knows that when your rate comes up for review.
TouchBistro's row states the alternative: alongside its own payments service it names third-party processors it works with. Every other row lists processing as integrated, and Clover adds a second layer, since a reseller sets the merchant terms itself.
Establish whether the contract obliges you to use the vendor's processing for the whole term, whether the software price changes if you bring your own processor, and whether the terminals will work with anyone else.
Tips and sales tax at the register: the US jobs a POS system has to do
Tips are treated as wages and reach the employee's W-2, so the tip record that starts at the register has to survive the trip into payroll, and states differ on how tipped wages may be paid. Ask whether the system exports tips per employee per shift in a form your payroll software takes, whether pooling rules can be set by role and shift, and who can adjust a tip after close. TouchBistro sells scheduling as a separate paid add-on, a reminder that scheduling is often a separate purchase.
Sales tax has no single national rate: a storefront can sit under a state, county, city and special district rate, and what counts as taxable varies by item. Ask whether tax rates are set per location, whether items can be assigned tax categories, who updates rates when a jurisdiction changes one, and whether the system produces a report by jurisdiction you can file from. If you also sell online, economic nexus rules can create filing obligations in states where you have no premises, which is a conversation for your accountant.