Top three free retail PoS systems

By Agnes Teh Stubbs, Analyst, Software Advice

For retailers that are just starting out, a free retail PoS can be a highly cost-effective way of managing your business in the early years. We’ve gathered three of them below, focusing on their target audience and key features.

eHopper

Target audience: Best suited for small and new businesses who are looking for an easy-to-use PoS equipped with basic functionalities, without any bells and whistles.

Key features:

- 100% free card processing: Businesses can accept credit cards for free with no processing fees

- Compatible with multiple platforms: Operates on Android tablets, iPads, and PCs

- Online ordering:Online orders are synced with its PoS to enable store pickup and delivery

- Order management: Orders can be monitored and tracked until they are delivered

- Inventory management: Ensures all incoming and outgoing inventory is up-to-date and organised by vendor segments.

Vend

Target audience: Perfect for small and midsize retailers who want a robust set of inventory, sales, and customer management tools, and who have desire compatibility with standard hardware platforms, such as barcode scanners, cash drawers, and printers.

Key features:

- Inventory management: Create multiple product variations, migrate products from an old PoS, and import existing items barcodes as well as create new ones

- Compatible with multiple platforms: Works with Macs, PCs, and iPads, with a dedicated iPad app

- Operates with a variety of hardware: Compatible with a variety of in-store hardware, such as receipt printers, barcode scanners, and cash drawers.

uniCenta

Target audience: Best suited for small to midsize retailers and hospitality businesses that want the flexibility of expanding beyond the regular feature set of a PoS and have the ability to integrate with third-party products.

Key features:

- Open source: Users can optimise and configure functionalities to suit their needs

- Compatible with multiple platforms: Works with Windows, Linux, and macOS

- Multi-location and multi-terminal: Users can install the software on as many terminals and locations as needed

- Inventory management: Monitor and track inventory across multiple stores and warehouses

- Customer management: Stores key customer information and sales transactions.