The Best Cloud POS System 2024 – Pricing & Features

• Competitive Pricing for POS: Clover’s cloud-based POS system stands out for its exceptionally low credit card processing fees in the market, surpassing even leading platforms like Square, Toast, and Vend. Offering a range of Clover payment processor options, both software and hardware, it enables businesses to accept diverse payment methods, from traditional cash and checks to modern tap cards, mobile wallets, PayPal, Venmo, and online transactions.
• Robust Cloud POS System: Whether you operate a restaurant, professional services firm, or retail outlet, Clover’s cloud-based system simplifies payment processing and operational tasks, ensuring the smooth handling of card transactions. Moreover, you can conveniently monitor transaction data and generate reports from anywhere at any time.
• Efficient Team Management: Clover POS comes equipped with excellent team management functionalities to streamline workforce operations and boost productivity. Through the app, assigning role-based permissions, implementing performance evaluations, and organizing staff incentives become effortless. Additionally, managers can accurately track employee time and attendance with the Time Clock feature.
• Access to Real-Time Reporting Anywhere, Anytime: Clover empowers businesses with comprehensive insights into profitability through real-time sales data, employee sales performance metrics, and more. With the right credentials, accessing this valuable information is possible from any device, ensuring you stay informed and in control at all times.

Clover’s pricing structure varies greatly, contingent upon the industry you operate in and any add-on features you may wish to include. This means that it’s difficult to provide exact pricing, as the company’s pricing structure is so adaptable.

Still, after trying the software for one month, we were pleased to see that our plan cost just $50 per month, and it included a handheld POS device. This experience shows us that Clover can be quite competitively priced as a POS for small businesses.

However, it’s worth noting that as your business requirements grow in complexity, Clover’s pricing will probably increase, too–and the price can balloon rapidly if you need several pieces of hardware.

With fantastic industry-specific features and amazing reporting capabilities, Clover is a solid cloud POS for small, growing businesses that want a cost-effective, comprehensive system.

• Ease of use: Shopify’s user interface is incredibly intuitive, making this application a delight to use. On top of that, it’s functionality-rich, but all of the features are easy to understand and get to grips with.
• Perfect for omnichannel: Shopify offers a wealth of user-friendly features that are perfect for companies with an ecommerce wing, including customizable checkout options, automated abandoned cart recovery, and seamlessly triggered discount codes
• Marketing and promotions embedded: Each Shopify plan is bundled with powerful marketing tools such as customer segmentation capabilities, unlimited contacts, and engagement features like Shopify Email and Shopify Inbox, enabling you to boost marketing efforts at no extra cost.
• Unique features: Shopify has several thoughtful features we haven’t seen in other POS providers. For instance, if a customer closes their tab before completing their transaction, you can implement an automated email to them, showcasing the items and providing a convenient link for completing the purchase online.

Shopify’s basic plan seems quite cost-effective at first–but keep in mind that you’ll also need to pay for hardware initially. Plus, when you look at the higher tier plans, Shopify quickly escalates in price, meaning it might not be scalable for every small business.

• Basic: The Basic plan caters perfectly to solo entrepreneurs, offering essential features such as 10 inventory locations and POS Lite, complemented by round-the-clock chat support.
• Shopify: Tailored for small teams, this plan encompasses all the functionalities of the Basic plan while also providing an additional allowance of 5 staff accounts.
• Advanced: Geared towards scaling businesses, the Advanced plan delivers custom reports and analytics, upgraded 24/7 chat support, and an expanded capacity of 15 additional staff accounts.

If you’re looking to run a next-level online shop and implement a comprehensive POS system from one platform, Shopify is the way to go. With a range of powerful ecommerce and cloud POS features, Shopify will be a great asset to any growing business.

• Table-side payments: TouchBistro Payments supports table-side payments via debit and credit cards, as well as digital payment methods like Google Pay and Apple Pay. Plus, even in cases of internet downtime, the system will automatically process offline payments, so you can keep up and running no matter what.
• Operational support: TouchBistro simplifies restaurant layout organization, staff assignment, and seat availability tracking. For example, from the app, you can assign tables to reservations, block out specific time slots, and automate the sending of SMS reminders to guests regarding upcoming reservations.
• Excellent upselling features: ThouchBistro’s POS comes with a brilliant menu management system, enabling you to design and edit your menu to your exact liking and even highlight upselling opportunities to your waiting staff.
• Strong marketing insights: TouchBistro incorporates a stellar marketing platform that gathers customer data, so you can create personalized marketing experiences that drive repeat orders.

TouchBistro offers a refreshingly flat pricing structure–which is quite rare amongst POS providers. However, its processing fees aren’t readily available, so you’ll need to ensure that these rates fit your business’s expectations before signing anything on the dotted line.

• TouchBistro: Priced at $69 per month, TouchBistro offers access to a wide array of exceptional restaurant management features. This includes the dedicated POS system, robust floor plan management tools, menu management functionalities, and much more.

TouchBistro is an excellent cloud POS system for restaurants that want plenty of extra features to help streamline operations, boost sales, and optimize marketing efforts.

• Streamlined POS: Lightspeed’s built-in payment solution lets businesses handle transactions directly, skipping the hassle of third-party providers. The provider also offers competitive, clear per-transaction fees, whether your customers are paying in person or checking out online.
• Ecommerce tools: Lightspeed makes setting up an online store a breeze with its e-commerce tools. You can create stunning storefronts with plenty of payment options, and there are thoughtful features like customer wish lists and integration with services like Deliveroo to boost sales.
• Inventory management: Managing stock is delightfully simple with Lightspeed. Even if you’ve got plenty of different product variations, Lightspeed’s data-driven inventory management system makes it easy to understand your inventory at a granular level.
• Integrations: Lightspeed’s app marketplace is vast–from accounting and e-commerce to reporting and payroll, there’s a whole range of apps you can install to boost data synchronization and analysis.

Although you won’t need to purchase additional hardware to use it, Lightspeed isn’t the cheapest cloud POS provider out there, with the company’s cheapest plan costing more than some providers’ most expensive plans!

• Lean: Lightspeed’s basic plan gives you access to Lightspeed payments, deep reporting features, and a tab that enables you to create a customer reward scheme.
• Standard: The standard plan also gives you access to online ordering and inventory management in addition to everything in the lean plan.
• Advanced: With the advanced plan, you’ll get access to Lightspeed’s API integration–something best reserved for organizations with in-house IT staff who can take advantage of the software’s backend data.

Lightspeed is best for busy retailers and restaurants with multiple locations and complex inventory requirements.

• Menu management: With Lavu, it’s quick and simple to design and edit professional looking menus through ready-to-go templates, which you can access remotely.
• Dual pricing: One of Lavu’s unique features is its Dual Pricing function, which assists restaurants in managing card processing fees by incentivizing customers to pay with cash.
• QR code payments: Lavu boasts an innovative transaction feature: printed QR codes that you can put on dining tables. With these, guests can pay at their own convenience by scanning the code for a fast, hassle-free payment experience.
• Self-service kiosks: Lavu’s intuitive self-ordering kiosks are powerful pieces of POS hardware, perfect for quick-service restaurants.

Lavu is quite expensive compared to some of the other cloud POS providers on this list. However, it’s worth noting that even its most basic plan is pretty comprehensive–giving you access to functionality like inventory management, customized reporting and 24/7 customer support.

Here’s a closer look at each plan.

• Starter: Lavu’s starter plan comes equipped with the provider’s POS system, loyalty scheme features and plenty of customized reporting options.
• Growth: The Growth plan has added features like DoorDash integration and QR code payments.
• Optimized: With this plan, you’ll also get access to QuickBooks or Xero integration for your accountancy needs.

Lavu is a great cloud POS system for quick-service restaurants that want to embrace digitalisation across their operations.

• Built for restaurants: Toast’s puts speed into payments with its mobile ordering functionality and TakeOut app, both of which help customers to take control of the ordering and payment experience, while enabling restaurants to maximize sales.
• Excellent hardware: When it comes to hardware, Toast doesn’t disappoint. Their lightweight, handheld POS devices are built to withstand the rigors of the food service environment, boasting spill, dust, and drop-proof design on top of a 24-hour battery life.
• Analytics: Toast’s reporting and analytics tools give you both location-specific and overall insights into important metrics like sales, labor costs and menu data, which you can check from any device, at any time.
• Intelligent menu updates: Toast makes updating menus easy and intuitive, and the software is perfect for businesses with frequent seasonal or daily changes. Plus, Toast empowers you to choose accurate menu pricing for every item, thanks to its integrated software that gives you data on profit margins and percentages.

Toast boasts a free basic plan, which is perfect for food trucks and small restaurants. As your company grows, you can also add on more features by scaling up to the Core or Growth plan, both of which are quite reasonable for all the features you get.

• Starter: Toast’s free plan comes packed with essential features, including order and table management, real-time fraud monitoring, round-the-clock customer support, and automatic software updates. Additionally, it offers reporting and analytics, menu management, and installation and configuration services.
• Core: Toast’s Core paid package allows for hardware customization and unlocks access to extra perks like team management tools and API access, unavailable in the Starter Kit plan.
• Growth: Toast’s Growth plan expands on the Core plan by incorporating Toast Online Ordering, Toast Delivery Services, and the Toast TakeOut App. This comprehensive package caters perfectly to the needs of expanding restaurants.

Toast is a great cloud POS system for small, busy independent restaurants, as well as small restaurant chains, that want to unlock value from their POS data.

• Payment flexibility: Square offers a range of payment options. As well as the usual credit cards, debit cards, and contactless payments via Apple and Google Pay, Square also gives you the option to allow customers to pay via QR code, as well as by gift card for customers, which is a nice, unique touch not every POS provider offers.
• Perfect for ecommerce: Like Shopify, Square has also dipped its toe into the ecommerce game with Square Online, which enables you to create a beautiful ecommerce website that compliments your physical store.
• Inventory management: Square POS comes equipped with an automated inventory management feature, taking the hassle out of stock-taking and fulfillment.
• Staff management: For an extra price, you can benefit from Square’s add-on features, including payroll and shift scheduling.

Square’s pricing plan is free, although you will need to pay to purchase hardware, with prices starting at $20.

While Square’s free plan may entice new businesses, it’s important to recognize that the company needs to generate revenue, which is where processing rates come into play. Square’s processing fees lean towards the higher end of the spectrum.

Moreover, some of Square’s features are only available as paid add-ons, which can quickly escalate the price you pay if you want lots of extra features.

Still, if you want a straightforward cloud POS solution and are in the early stages of business, Square’s free plan can meet your needs.

We recommend Square’s cloud POS systems for small, new businesses that want a low-cost but effective POS system.

All POS providers offer their software through subscription models, although some have free plans available. Typically, you can benefit from discounts by opting for annual payments instead of monthly subscriptions.

In addition to the cloud POS service fee, you’ll encounter transaction fees with each payment processed. These fees can vary significantly depending on the provider and the chosen plan, so it’s essential to carefully review them before making a decision.

Many POS providers offer additional features to assist in operational management. However, these extras usually come at an additional cost, often in the form of a monthly subscription on top of the base fee.