The best genuinely free POS system on the market is Loyverse. It offers small business owners- like yourself, perhaps- all the tools you need to get your business ready for the next stage of its growth.

However, compared to the more mainstream POS providers, it lacks complexity. Plus, you'll have to pay more for features such as employee management. That's why we'd likely recommend Square POS instead, for most small businesses.

It's a hard time to be running a restaurant or business at the moment. With the global pandemic showing no sign of subsiding customer demand still hasn't recovered to pre-pandemic levels – meaning you'll be more inclined to cut costs.

A free POS software might seem like an easy way to reduce your overheads. But, be warned, not all of them are as “free” as they claim to be and others simply don't have the features you'll need to run your business.

Here at Tech.co, we like helping small businesses get the best deal. Our quick, free, no-obligation comparison tool will find the best value POS system for your business in moments.

Is Free POS Software Really Free?

Most affordable POS systems on the market today are cloud-based. This means they are run by a company that hosts their software and licenses it out to businesses, who then use it while connected to the internet. (If the internet goes out, most POS systems can operate offline temporarily, and sync back up once they’re online again).

Since these systems tend to make their money on a subscription basis, some offer a free tier. This allows POS providers to gain brand recognition, and creates a broad customer base that might eventually move up to a paid subscription plan. It’s a “freemium” plan: Free, but with a premium option for those willing to reach for their wallets. An example is Loyverse POS.

Another type of “free” POS system is the type that takes a few percentage points off the revenue from each sale. While there’s no up-front cost for using the software, your monthly revenue will drop by around 2-3 %, so it’s not really free. However, the price might be more acceptable for a small business that can’t depend on consistently meeting a budget, or an individual vendor that doesn't sell year round. Square POS operates using this model and provides significantly better features for it.

Find out more – How Much Does a POS System Cost?

Other free POS systems include those offered by companies as a no-strings-attached loss leader to boost their brand name and encourage sales of POS hardware or add-ons, as well as open-source POS software, which is created and maintained by online volunteers but is often clunkier and may be outdated.

A free POS system might not give you the complete package in terms of features but the smallest businesses can definitely get by with a free system. Still, if you want to find out just how affordable POS systems can be, fill out our POS system price comparison tool for tailor-made quotes for your business needs (it might be a lot less than you think!)

Pros and Cons of Free POS Software

Pro: Cost. Getting a small business off the ground is a harrowing process, and even the best operations can easily spend years in the red. Saving 50 to 100 dollars a month on a POS system can make a huge difference for a new business.

Con: Hardware. While POS software can be free, no one’s giving away the hardware you’ll need. A tablet or smartphone may be the only essential hardware for a small operation (which you may already own), but card readers, iPad docks, or stand-alone touchscreen displays are all common POS hardware options, and will cost you.

Con: Interfaces. Paid POS software always looks slick and feels intuitive. The interfaces on a free POS, however, can vary wildly. Some look like a text-based version of the old Oregon Trail game and others look like an early 2000s pop-up ad. Whichever you pick, you’ll have to stare at it day in and day out, and it may be difficult or slow to use.

Con: Limited Functionality. Free POS systems will track sales and inventory, but may not have any options for managing employees or offering loyalty programs. This isn’t necessarily a con, however, as many small businesses wouldn’t benefit enough from these extra features to make them truly cost-effective.

Best Free POS Software for 2022

When it comes to picking out a free POS for your business, the main challenge is knowing which pros are definite musts and which cons are total deal-breakers. Luckily for you, we’ve rounded up the best free options, complete with lists of the main pros and cons that can help guide your decision.

Here are Tech.co’s top picks for free POS systems aimed at small businesses:

• Loyverse – The best genuinely free POS system for small businesses
• Square – The best overall POS system on the market, plus it has no monthly fees
• eHopper – The best for free payment processing
• ShopKeep – The best for side hustles and tiny businesses
• Shopify – The best for online-first businesses
• Imonggo – The best for cash-only businesses
• Zobaze – The best for businesses with Android hardware

Scroll down for detailed reviews of each POS, or click on the names above to jump directly to the system you’re interested in. All prices are correct as of 03/08/2021.

Loyverse

When it comes to completely free POS platforms, you'll struggle to do any better than Loyverse.

It has been designed from the ground-up as a genuinely free point of sale system to help small businesses move from away from Excel spreadsheets or even pen-and-paper setups to a slicker cloud-based solution.

It works best for retail businesses but could also be a great choice for service businesses or even takeaway food outlets. We wouldn't necessarily recommend it for restaurants, however, given its lack of a legit table management feature.

Loyverse features

For a free POS, Loyverse offers a surprisingly strong feature set. It offers sales and analytics tracking, as well as a well-rounded customer loyalty program. It does have a basic inventory feature too, but it's not the best on the market.

Loyverse can help you accept cash, credit, and debit card payments and works with a variety of payment partners including SumUp, WorldPay, and iZettle.

Loyverse pricing

Loyverse will give you a genuinely free POS system but it also offers some neat little extras that might be worth keeping in mind as your business grows.

Employee management, for example, costs $45 per month, per employee. This will let you set employee shifts and workloads, as well as tracking their performance. Advanced inventory, which allows you to get inventory valuation reports, manage stock, and create purchase orders, will set you back $25 per month.

Loyverse will also charge you $9 per month to start integrating third-party apps such as your QuickBooks account or WooCommerce online store. These features are becoming increasingly important considering the amount of business that is done online at the moment, so it's definitely worth factoring into your plans.

Square POS

Square is one of the biggest names in POS, and the free version of their service comes with plenty of features. It tracks sales and inventory, logs customer purchase history and emails receipts. Plus, its analytics features lets users see their monthly or annual growth.

It is our favorite POS system bar none and it just happens to be free to use — almost.

Square POS features

Square lets you accept credit, debit, contactless, and chip payments as well as offering its own integrated payment processing system. It even works offline and can instantly send digital receipts and invoices.

Its analytics and reporting features are almost unmatched when it comes to free (or paid!) POS platforms, offering more than 20 detailed options for staff and business performance. Square even has a free CRM system that lets you track customer feedback and respond to it if needs be.

Square POS pricing

Square does charge transaction fees: 2.6% of each card-based sale, plus 10 cents. Keyed-in transactions are charged at 2.5% plus 15 cents. Online sales cost 2.9% plus 30 cents. Cash and check transactions are free, though.

However, as you will only be charged when you make some sales, we consider Square POS to be worthy of consideration among these free alternatives. What's more, you'll also get a free Square card reader for iPhone or Android devices when you sign up.

Learn more about Square POS pricing.

All told, if you want to start a business with a free(ish) POS system, we'd choose Square.

eHopper

eHopper gives you a lot of features on its free plan. You get the free POS, obviously, but you also get a free terminal, and free payment processing — genuinely remarkable value.

eHopper features

eHopper works with retail, restaurant, and service businesses and lets you accept cash, debit, and credit card transactions easily.

However, none of its free features are particularly sophisticated and you might find that the platform struggles to keep pace with your business as it grows. eHopper's inventory management, for example, is a bit basic. You can adjust stock counts, for example, but you can't add product variants.

What's more, table management, ecommerce, customer loyalty, marketing, advanced reporting, menu building, and even barcode management are all reserved for the paid tiers.

eHopper pricing

A big downside is that on eHopper's free Essential plan, you'll only get one register for one store — anything more will require an upgrade.

If you run a single location such as a gas station, eHopper may be a good fit. The one register cap is the toughest restriction, and there’s no similar cap on the number of products or customers. You’ll be able to run an entire store for free, as long as you never open a second register.

However, there’s no email, phone, or chat support should anything go wrong. A paid tier starts at $29.99/register/month, and includes all the above features that are left out of the free tier, including training and support.

ShopKeep

ShopKeep offers a free account that will let one person operate a single register and make sales of up to $5,000 per month.

ShopKeep features

ShopKeep's single user, register and sales cap stipulations might sound harsh but you'll get detailed reporting and be able to add items to your inventory with modifiers such as sizing. You'll also be able to issue paper, SMS, and email receipts with your business' location and contact information. Plus, you'll be able to process credit card transactions, process returns, and even set up register shifts to help manage workloads.

ShopKeep pricing

As mentioned, ShopKeep offers a version of its software that is completely free, however only for one user of one register in one location and sales of up to no more than $5,000 per month.

ShopKeep's approach to its free account might not win over everyone but it's a great option for small retail stores just starting out. It gives you everything you need to hit the ground running.

It also gets you used to the ShopKeep UI and, should you need to expand, you'll be able to do so from $49 per month.

Shopify

Shopify isn't exactly a free POS system but you can get a free POS if you're already using its brilliant ecommerce platform.

Shopify features

Shopify POS Lite is included with all Shopify ecommerce plans and gives you some neat features.

You'll be able to accept Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Apple Pay, and Google Pay transactions with a Shopify card reader. Plus, you'll get credit card processing rates starting a 1.7% with Shopify Payments.

You'll be able to split payments and partial payments, giving your customers more flexibility. You'll be able to customize your POS layout, making it quicker and easier to complete transactions and you'll be able to offer a mobile checkout anywhere within your store if you want to use a tablet or phone, for example.

You can list unlimited products with multiple variants to account for different sizes, colors, or materials, for example. Plus, you'll be able to easily allocate different inventories to different stores or your online platform.

Shopify pricing

Obviously, Shopify POS isn't actually a free POS. But, if you're already running an online store and are looking to expand, Shopify might be the perfect fit for you — especially so if you're already using Shopify to run your ecommerce operations.

The cheapest Shopify plan costs $29 per month which, considering you'll be getting ecommerce and POS, really isn't too expensive.

Imonggo

Imonggo is a decent free option for an individual salesperson, allowing you to list 1,000 products and make 1,000 transactions a month, before having to pay.

Imonggo features

Imonggo's installation process is easy, and you should be able to master using the software quickly.

It offers the basics, such as inventory and sales management, and a few useful extra features (loyalty options, offline mode). Customer support is also included for free.

Imonggo is browser-based and works on Chrome, Safari, and Firefox meaning that you should be able to use it regardless of what hardware you might have.

While Imonggo might seem like a strong free POS system, it has one crippling downside: You cannot take card payments on the free plan.

Instead, you're limited to cash and check transactions only. This might have been fine a few years ago but now, with the prevalence of mobile payments and the emphasis on contactless transactions during the coronavirus pandemic, Imonggo looks out of date.

Imonggo pricing

On top of the lack of card payments available, and the restrictions mentioned above that mean you can add no more than 1,000 products and take no more than 1,000 transactions each month, you'll also be limited to one user at one location on the free plan. This could be another stumbling block if your business employs a lot of staff or operates across multiple locations.

You can upgrade starting at $30 per month but, at that price, we'd be choosing a different provider.

Zobaze

Zobaze is designed specifically to work with the Android operating system and is available from the Google Play Store.

Zobaze features

While Zobaze does give you a free POS, support options are limited and the company is primarily focused on the Asian market. With that being said, you'll still be able to use it to accept cash, credit cards, debit cards, and checks. What's more, you'll get reporting on profits, peak times, sales by staff member, and best performing products and product categories.

It even has an offline mode to help you in case the power goes out.

Zobaze pricing

The Zobaze app is free but offers in app purchases which range from $4.40 to $269 per item.

Despite the app's upsides, there's no real good reason to choose Zobaze over Loyverse or eHopper as free options, and if you're willing to pay there are far better choices available, including Tech.co's top-rated Square POS.

Zobaze is a better choice than pen-and-paper but we'd go for any of the other providers on this list ahead of it.

Verdict – Best Free POS Software

The best completely free POS is Loyverse. It has a surprisingly wide feature set, including some strong customer loyalty skills.

But our pick would still be Square. You won't have to pay any money until you start making sales and it's likely to be a far better long-term option for your business.

If you run a farmer’s market stall or a roadside kiosk and have no plans to expand, a free POS might give you all the features you need.  But if you run a single location and hope to continue growing the business, you should consider an option such as Square which will grow with your business, even if there are a few transaction feees associated.

If you need access to an expanded set of features and dependable tech support or training programs, you'll need a paid-for POS subscription up front. If you're unsure of the best choice for your needs, our handy comparison tool can help you collect personalized quotes from the best POS vendors available today- free and paid.

Adam is a writer at Tech.co and has worked as a tech writer, blogger and copy editor for more than a decade. He's also a Forbes Contributor on the publishing industry, for which he was named a Digital Book World 2018 award finalist. His work has appeared in publications including Popular Mechanics and IDG Connect, and he has an art history book on 1970s sci-fi coming out from Abrams Books in 2022. In the meantime, he's hunting own the latest news on VPNs, POS systems, and the future of tech.