The 10 Best Mobile POS Systems for November 2024

• Kitchen Display System – I found this to be the perfect way to maintain seamless communication between the servers and the chefs at the back. With just a few clicks, all the orders you take on handheld POS devices can be sent to the kitchen display at the back, facilitating effective communication.
• Integrations – I think Lavu offers some really interesting add-on options. For example, to keep customers coming back, you can engage them in a loyalty program named Lavu Loyalty – a benefit available in all three plans. Similarly, if you have a restaurant with a bar, you can integrate with Digital Pour or Bar-i Liquid Accounting to get insights into bar performance and manage liquor inventory.
• Contactless Payment Options – The contactless payment and ordering system helps improve customers’ satisfaction. With its contactless QR code payment system, your customers can simply scan a QR code on their receipt and make payments conveniently while you enjoy quicker payments.

Lavu no longer offers transparent pricing. You’ll need to contact their sales team to receive a quote for their iPad POS System, kitchen display system, and their integrations/add-ons. Lavu does have a free demo that allows you to try their system before committing financially.

Lavu is an excellent choice for businesses that use iPads or iPhones as a portable POS system. It offers a robust feature set, including a flexible dual pricing system that lets you set different prices for items based on the payment method and works seamlessly even without WiFi.

• Dedicated Takeout App – Toast provides a dedicated takeout app to let customers order from anywhere. Unlike using third-party platforms like DoorDash and Uber Eats, you don’t have to pay commission – everything you earn is yours.
• Reliable Offline Mode – Toast comes with a power-packed offline mode. In this mode, you can not only process payments but also print order tickets and receipts without an internet connection. Once you have an internet connection, you can send your payments through to be recorded.
• Team Management & Payroll – I love Toast’s generosity with its staff management and timekeeping features, which are available to all plans, even the free ones. With these features, you can manage your team and track their productivity all on the same software.

Toast POS pricing is structured based on your business’s growth phase, making the software suitable as a scalable option. See the table below for a full price list.

• Starter Kit – This free plan is ideal for single-location companies that need 1-2 terminals to get up and running. Its features include a Toast Flex POS terminal + cloud-based POS software, a Toast Tap payment device and router, free setup support, and customer care.
• Point of Sale – This plan is ideal for growing companies looking to get started with core functionality and flat-rate processing, including cloud-based POS, digital ordering and delivery tools, and customizable hardware configuration.
• Build Your Own – This plan is for enterprises. It 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.

Each Toast POS plan comes with 24/7 support, flexible payment options, offline mode, and easy setup. You can start using the POS software for free by downloading the Android or iOS app.

Toast mobile POS is best for small businesses and startups that need a scalable and complete POS system with advanced features. It is also good for food businesses that offer delivery and online service to customers.

• Omnichannel Loyalty Program – The retail POS plan helps you offer an omnichannel loyalty program, a scheme designed for loyal customers in which each purchase earns them virtual points that they can use to get discounts on their next purchase.
• Automated Tax Calculation – Lightspeed’s automated tax calculation ensures accurate tax information is added to sales transactions, reducing manual entry and avoiding tax penalties.
• Built-in B2B Purchase Orders – This feature supports data accuracy and time management for retail POS. With the B2B catalog, you can easily add preloaded product information from your suppliers to your POS, ensuring your product data is accurate and the team is efficient.

Lightspeed offers flexible price plans that support businesses such as Restaurants, Retail, and Golf.

• Basic – The basic plan is designed for essential day-to-day business needs for independent retailers. It features a customizable POS experience, basic insights, integrated payments, and inventory management.
• Essential/Core – This is an advanced plan focused on achieving business growth, offering features such as multi-location management, advanced inventory, accounting, ecommerce and marketing integrations, online ordering, and Lightspeed live app.
• Premium/Plus – Tailored for advanced customization, easy scalability in established retail operations, and connection to all restaurant departments. It features custom reporting, API access, custom user roles, workflow access, and multiple revenue center support for hotels.
• Enterprise: This plan is designed for large businesses with custom needs. It features everything in the Premium plan, with a customized software and hardware package, unlimited launch and consultation services, and a dedicated customer success manager available in most regions.

Lightspeed offers a 14-day free trial. All the Lightspeed plans come with personal onboarding assistance, 24/7 support, and a dedicated customer success manager who’ll ensure you make the right moves.

I recommend Lightspeed for businesses seeking an easy-to-use POS on Android app with robust features like automated tax calculation, built-in B2B purchase orders, and an omnichannel loyalty program, compatible with both iOS and Android.

• Automated Discounts – Speed up checkout with automated discounts, adding offers to categories or items so that every time someone orders them, the discount is added to the bill without you having to enter it manually.
• Custom Item Grids – For faster checkouts, Square offers custom item grids where you can store the menu items. For instance, if a pumpkin spice latte is your best-selling product during the fall season, it makes sense to have a shortcut that’ll let you add it to the bill in a click. The faster the line moves, the happier your customers will be.
• After-Pay Feature – For retailers dealing with expensive products, the After-Pay Option allows you to make larger sales with time. It’s a Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) solution that lets your customers pay in four installments over six weeks. You get all your money at the time of sale, however, without having to wait.

Square POS offers price plans based on different business stages and types. You can choose a plan based on your needs, whether a custom feature-packed price plan, advanced features that are designed for unique business needs, or a free plan with basic features.

• Square for Retail – This POS plan is designed to help retail stores sell in-store and online without hassle. It features advanced inventory management, sales, and personnel.
• Square Appointments – This plan is designed to support an appointment-based business. It includes built-in features that save you time and keep you in control by providing a simple and smooth customer booking experience.
• Square for Restaurants – This plan includes features like online ordering, team management, menu management, payment processing, and inventory management to help restaurants operate more efficiently and meet consumer demands.

For every business type you choose, you can access a free forever plan and a 30-day free trial to allow you to test the software before making final decisions.

Square’s POS software is for any business looking for a free solution with excellent custom ordering capabilities and a system that can grow with your business.

• Unified Inventory – You get access to a unified inventory where you can track the stock for your online and in-person store. With this feature, it’s easier to keep up with the stock of two inventories.
• Free Website – One of the features that makes Shopify the perfect POS solution for new businesses is its free website. The “Sell In-person” plans come with a simple online store for your business, whereas the “Sell Everywhere” plans come with a custom online store that you can design as you wish. If you don’t already have an online site for your store, Shopify can save you the trouble of looking into the best website builder.
• Omnichannel System – Shopify synchronizes product information across all your sales channels to offer a good user experience and allows customers to shop the way they want.

Shopify’s price plan is designed to support both online, in-store, or omnichannel businesses. See the table below for the complete price list.

Starter – This plan is suitable for businesses that only want to sell on Socials, and it features one POS login, a limited online store, and 5% transaction rates on third-party payment providers.

Retail – This plan is for businesses that sell at retail stores. It features a 2% transaction rate on third-party payment providers, unlimited POS logins, and a limited online store.

Basic – This is a Pro plan that supports omnichannel selling. It features a 2% transaction rate on 3rd-party payment providers, unlimited POS logins, a full-featured online store for three markets, POS Lite, and 10 inventory locations.

Shopify –  This plan is suitable for businesses with small teams. It features POS Lite, 10 inventory locations, localized global selling (three markets), and five additional staff.

Advanced – This plan is designed for growing businesses with scalable features, such as 0.6% transaction rates, third-party payment providers, custom reports and analytics, 10 inventory locations, advanced 24/7 chat support, localized global selling (three markets) + add markets for $59/month each, 15 additional staff accounts, improved checkout capacity, and POS Lite.

Shopify does not offer a free plan, but you can test it with its 3-day free trial. Also, it allows you to access the first paid month at $1. If your business has multiple locations, you have to pay $89/month for each POS Pro location.

Shopify POS is best for businesses that use Shopify products and want solutions to boost their mobile sales.

• Bill Splitting Simplification – TouchBistro POS simplifies bill splitting. You can split evenly or by simply dragging and dropping items ordered to individual guests, making the process extremely simple.
• Additional Products Pop-up – One of TouchBistro’s most interesting features is the upsell pop-up, which reminds your servers to offer additional products. If your customers order steak, a preconfigured pop-up can remind servers to recommend sides, such as potatoes or salad.
• Staff Management – Tracking employees’ activities is easy. Its built-in staff management software, designed specifically for restaurants, helps you quickly optimize labor costs.

TouchBistro offers a single POS plan while it sells other advanced features individually to allow businesses to choose the most needed feature that will improve their restaurant business.

TouchBistro POS lacks a free plan but allows you to test the service through its free demo.

It offers add-ons such as;

• Payments and Customer-facing (at Quote-based pricing),
• Kitchen Display System at $19/mo,
• Profit Management at $330/mo,
• Online Ordering at $50/mo,
• Reservation at $ 229/mo,
• Loyalty at $99/mo,
• Marketing at $99/mo, and
• Gift Cards at $25/mo.

TouchBistro is best for busy restaurants to streamline table service. Its pricing lets you pay only for the features that matter most to your business, making it ideal for small restaurants on a budget.

• Instant Tableside Order Entry – Cake Restaurant POS mobile access through CAKE OrderPad empowers your staff to streamline table turns and reduce order errors.
• All-in-One Features – Restaurant management is easy with its advanced features all in one place. Using Cake POS means you do not necessarily need to pay for other software to manage your restaurant payment, engage customers, or manage employees.
• Reservation Management – The Cake Guest Manager system provides a comprehensive reservation management solution for restaurants. It offers flexible settings to configure reservation availability, party sizes, and table layouts, enabling you to optimize seating capacity.

Cake POS’ pricing isn’t transparent. However, they do offer a free demo, allowing you to see the software at work. Contact their team to try the demo or get a quote for their POS system.

Cake POS is best for large restaurant businesses with multiple locations that need a comprehensive POS system to centralize their business management.

• Cost Tracking – I liked Clover’s cost tracking feature – the perfect tool to keep your inventory’s budget under check. You can check cost by item and details like how much each item costs to stock.
• Clover Capital – Clover provides businesses with the opportunity to access funds. It operates on fast funding, such that your loan application gets approved in 1-2 business days while you receive funding 2-3 business days later.
• Contactless Payment – You can accept all types of contactless payments – from contactless credit and debit cards, to Apple Pay and other digital wallets with Clover. Clover also allows for QR-code payment (and menus).

Clover’s price options cater to different business needs, such as restaurants, retail, professional services, and more. The pricing plans include a base fee plus a monthly subscription fee.

In the table below, we’ve split out the different plans to give you a better overview of what’s on offer.

• Starter – The plan is for small businesses or startups with basic payment processing needs. It features sales tracking, a cash drawer, a receipt printer, online ordering, tracking, shift management, customer engagement, and essential reporting.
• Standard – This plan is for businesses that need moderate POS functionalities. It includes everything in the Starter Plan, including advanced reporting, customer management, Clover gift cards, and inventory tracking.
• Advanced – Clover’s advanced plan features everything in the Standard Plan plus advanced inventory management, employee management, and detailed analytics.

Clover offers price options that cater to subscriptions or purchasing the POS system, depending on your budget.

Clover is suitable for small to medium-sized businesses such as restaurants, retail stores, and service businesses seeking a flexible and scalable POS system to streamline their operations, manage customer and employee profiles, and enhance customer experiences.

• Tip Management – No need for paperwork as you manage your servers’ tips. From a dashboard, your managers can review, edit, and distribute tips for a shift with a single click.
• Commission-Free Online Ordering – With SpotOn Order, you can say goodbye to third-party delivery services’ exorbitant fees as you manage your business online delivery.
• Affordable Hardware Solutions – SpotOn supports startups and small restaurants with affordable hardware by eliminating upfront hardware payments for restaurants while providing financial help for small businesses.

SpotOn price information is targeted to restaurants and small businesses separately. The restaurant plans include stationary hardware. However, if you’re interested in a mobile system, the small business plan is the way to go.

Small Business Pricing Information

• Terminal: This plan is for startups and offers a handheld POS and features that support ringing up payments and printing receipts from one convenient, portable device.
• Terminal + Website: This plan is for small businesses that need more options to manage payments and is launching a website.

Businesses looking for affordable hardware will find SpotOn to be a suitable choice. As a handheld POS device is included for small businesses at a low cost, I find it to be especially suited for small retail businesses.

• Gift Card Support – With Zettle, you can sell and manage gift cards easily to attract new customers and boost loyalty without extra fees. You can also track balances and redemptions, helping you manage your gift card program effectively.
• Inventory Management – The platform allows you to track and manage stock levels efficiently, helping you keep tabs on your inventory. In other words, you can set up low-stock alerts, import product data in bulk using CSV spreadsheets, and perform full or partial inventory counts using barcode scanners or manual entry.
• Detailed Reporting – Zettle also gives you powerful tools to understand your sales. With real-time sales tracking and trend analysis, you can see which products are selling best and when. This helps you determine what’s working and what might need a change.

Zettle offers a simple pricing plan with transaction-based fees.

• Card-present – 2.29% + $0.09 fee per transaction
• QR code payments – 2.29% + $0.09 fee per transaction
• Manual card entry – 3.49% + $0.09

Invoicing fees vary, with 3.49% + $0.49 for Zettle payments and 2.99% + $0.49 for cards and other methods.

Hardware is affordable, starting at $29 for your first card reader. If your business has multiple locations or high sales volume, you can get custom rates tailored to your needs.

Zettle is a perfect mobile POS system for retail businesses looking to simplify their payment processes with its low pricing and robust sales features. It’s a great fit for small shops, mobile vendors, event organizers, and online stores because it makes accepting payments simple and secure.