Best Garden Center POS Systems

Note: With each new location, you get another register. For example, if you have two locations, you’ll get two registers, one in each location, but will only pay the added location fee. If you purchase a third register license, you’ll pay the added location fee and an additional $59/month/device.

Lightspeed offers several proprietary add-ons such as Lightspeed Subscriptions and Lightspeed Workflows. The company also offers third-party integrations like Booxi appointment scheduling software and Hubtiger rental software.

Lightspeed Retail offers flexible tools for garden centers to sell in-store, online, or wholesale while keeping inventory accurate and operations organized.

Key features for garden centers include:

• Item Bundling: Combine multiple items (like individual flowers) into new products (such as flats) for accurate stock tracking and easy promotions.
• Inventory Adjustments: Mark products as dead, damaged, or returned and update counts with the Lightspeed scanner app.
• Sales By Weight: Sell materials like gravel or soil amendments by custom units with scale integration.
• Rental & Service Management: Create quotes, require deposits, and accept incremental payments for rentals or ongoing services like maintenance.
• Subscriptions & Workshops: Offer recurring memberships or ticketed events such as gardening classes to boost community engagement.
• Multi-Store Management: Transfer and track stock across locations and monitor items in transit.
• Notable Integration – Booxi: This appointment and rental management app helps florists and event planners schedule consultations, prevent double-booking, and offer personal shopping appointments for weddings and special events.

Lightspeed offers accessories such as an iPad stand, a cash drawer, a barcode scanner, a label printer, and a receipt printer.

The company also integrates with the StarMicronics series of scales through the Hyperspace POS app integration. You connect the scale to Lightspeed through this app. This way, shoppers can fill bags or containers with supplies and then put the items on a scale to pay for exactly how much they want, rather than buying a pre-weighed item.

Contact a Lightspeed representative to get the most accurate estimate of a garden center POS hardware bundle.

Lightspeed offers its own payment processing service, Lightspeed Payments, which US and Canadian garden centers are required to use. You are required to purchase your card reader from Lightspeed as well.

The company charges processing fees of 2.6% + $0.10 per card-present transaction and 2.9% + $0.30 per online transaction.

You can sign up for Lightspeed Retail on a month-to-month, annual, or custom contract length. It’s important to note that every Lightspeed user must fill out an order form before signup, meaning that users may get custom contracts with custom terms.

Lightspeed charges an early termination fee if you decide to cancel your plan early, so consider getting a monthly plan until you’re sure Lightspeed is the right POS system for you.

If you purchase hardware from Lightspeed, you must confirm that you have received it within five business days. Otherwise, your hardware will not be covered under Lightspeed’s hardware warranty (14 days for Apple products and 30 days for non-Apple products).

Square pricing is per location, so you can have an unlimited number of smartphone/iPad/PC or proprietary Square devices at any one location.

This is very cost-efficient for larger spaces and for taking POS systems on the go to places like farmers’ markets or vendor fairs.

Square’s best free features for small garden center owners include:

• Online Store Builder: Build a completely free Square Online store to sell items for pickup or delivery and collect custom order requests.
• Quotes & Invoices: Provide quotes and invoices for services such as landscaping and garden planning. Also, collect split payments over time on large orders.
• Subscription Memberships: Sell multi-tier subscription memberships for garden center members to get special perks.
• Advertising: Create social media posts on platforms like TikTok and Instagram to advertise and even sell your products. Use the built-in blog feature of Square’s website builder to connect with your local crowd, provide important gardening information, and get found in more places online.
• Register & Barcode Scanner: Square’s POS register interface is customizable to make checkout a fast and easy experience for cashiers. There’s also a free barcode scanner app for iPhone users to count inventory, check pricing, and scan items for purchase.

The free plan offers basic inventory management, which includes the ability to quickly add and edit individual items or in bulk, add variants and sale prices to items, group items into different categories, and sync inventory between online and offline sales.

Paid plans offer more inventory features, such as the ability to link vendors to products in your item catalog, which will make reordering items easier.

Square software works on phones and tablets. There are many Square hardware options available, but you should purchase at least the Square Contactless + Chip Reader so you can take chip cards and NFC-based payments such as Google Pay and Apple Pay.

A full Square Register bundle, suited for garden centers that accept cash, is a great option if you have a bigger budget.

Other hardware, such as receipt printers, does not need to be purchased from Square. Just make sure that the hardware you buy is compatible with Square software.

Square is incredibly affordable because the company makes its money on payment processing fees, which means you can only process payments via Square Payments, the company’s in-house payment processor.

Square charges a payment processing fee of 2.4% – 2.6% + $0.15 per card-present transaction. You are charged a fee of 2.9% – 3.3% + $0.30 for card-not-present transactions.

Square subscriptions are month-to-month, and you can cancel your merchant account anytime without consequences.

If you damage your Square hardware within your hardware warranty period, even if you didn’t purchase the hardware directly from Square, the company will send you new equipment. Don’t forget to send old pieces back to Square within 14 days of getting your new hardware, or you will be charged for the new equipment.

Revel has recently moved to a completely quote-based pricing system, so all business owners will need to contact a Revel representative to get a custom quote.

Revel also charges a one-time implementation fee that covers onsite hardware installation and a detailed software setup.

Revel POS is an excellent fit for larger or multi-location garden centers thanks to its robust reporting, advanced inventory tools, and customization options.

Key features for garden centers include:

• Advanced Reporting: Generate pre-built or custom reports with flexible filters to track blooming cycles, propagation growth, and seasonal sales.
• Product Summary Reports: Identify best-selling plants and supplies, analyze discounts, and monitor product damages or losses.
• Product Forecasting: Use past sales and inventory data to predict demand, plan planting schedules, and exclude one-time bulk orders for more accurate forecasts.
• Customer & House Account Analysis: Track customer preferences, loyalty participation, B2B payments, and account balances to refine marketing and wholesale management.
• Multi-Location Reports: Monitor performance across stores, including sales, stock movement, losses, employee data, and franchise royalties.
• Inventory Management: Classify products by type or pricing tier, manage wholesale orders, and transfer inventory between locations with in-transit tracking.
• Customizable Setup: Revel’s open API and hybrid (cloud or local) configuration let you integrate custom software, operate offline, and manage sales anywhere on your property.

Revel offers bundles through its website that come with everything you need to get set up. It also offers individual items for purchase, but you will need to call for a quote.

Revel offers its own in-house payment processing solution, Revel Advantage. Revel no longer advertises a definitive flat rate fee, meaning that you’ll get a custom quoted fee based on order volume, average transaction size, and mix of payment methods.

If you choose to work with a third-party payment processor (which you cannot do on the three-year plan), you will likely pay a higher monthly subscription fee.

Revel requires a three-year processing agreement and a two-terminal minimum if you want the most cost-effective pricing.

However, the company charges a high termination fee if you cancel early, so it might be worth it to pay a higher monthly price in case you’re not sure whether Revel POS is right for you. You can switch to a long-term plan later on for lower fees.

You can get discounted pricing if you pay for an entire year upfront. Each eCommerce plan (that comes with a full store) offers the “Shopify POS Lite” app for free.

For more retail features, such as store pickup and unlimited staff accounts, you’ll need the Shopify Pro subscription, which is added to your monthly eCommerce plan. Additionally, while there are many free Shopify apps on the company’s app market, some require you to sign up for a paid subscription.

Your payment processing rate decreases on higher-level plans. Businesses with larger transaction volumes should strongly consider upgrading to save money in the long run.

Shopify’s best features revolve around omnichannel selling and flexibility:

• Online Store Builder: Shopify’s store builder is the most advanced and polished among POS options. You can customize listings with care instructions, videos, or guides, and add features like newsletter popups. Accept online orders for local pickup, delivery, or shipping.
• Social Media Selling: Promote and sell items directly on Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest — perfect for selling plants, tools, and garden décor.
• Online Marketplace Sales: List products on Etsy and Amazon, with automatic syncing and inventory updates across all channels.
• Mobile Sales: Sell anywhere — at farmers’ markets, pop-ups, or garden events — using the Shopify POS app. Customers can buy items on-site or schedule deliveries for later.
• QR Code Generator: The Shopcode app creates product QR codes you can print on tags or plant stakes. Customers can scan them for info or to purchase directly online.

In-store, Shopify also supports partial payments, deposits, discounts, layaway, and custom payment types. Most advanced features (like custom catalogs, memberships, and email marketing) are available through Shopify’s 8,000+ app integrations.

The Shopify app itself runs on most phones and tablets.

You can purchase the Shopify Chip & Swipe Reader, which is the bare minimum requirement for taking card and mobile phone payments..

The most expensive hardware is the POS stand for USB-C tablets with a connected card reader. The card reader features a customer-facing display.

Shopify integrates with its own in-house payment processor, Shopify Payments. Retailers that use Shopify Payments do not need to pay transaction fees. In-person Shopify Payments processing fees are 2.4% – 2.7% per transaction, while online payment fees are 2.4% – 2.9% + $0.30. Percentage fees vary depending on your pricing plan.

If you prefer to use a different processor or do not qualify for Shopify’s in-house payment processor, you have several options, but you will have to pay additional fees.

Most Shopify requirements surround payment processing. To use Shopify Payments, you must purchase a card reader directly from Shopify.

To use a Shopify-approved third-party payment processor, you must use a card reader sold by that payment processor.

The above Clover pricing only applies to Clover users who purchase their POS hardware upfront from Clover.com.

Additional devices are $14.95/month/device if you have all your registers in one location. If, for example, you have two Clover Minis in two different stores, you’ll have to pay the full Register subscription cost for both Minis.

You can purchase your Clover POS hardware from several Clover resellers that may have different software contract terms, so your monthly software pricing may vary.

Clover’s best features focus on ease of use, service flexibility, and built-in sales tools that work for garden centers of any size:

• Online Ordering: Create a branded ordering page for pickup or delivery, with built-in options for discounts, promotions, and digital or physical gift cards.
• Loyalty Program: Every Clover account includes a customizable loyalty program to reward repeat customers and track engagement.
• Offline Payments: Keep sales moving even when Wi-Fi goes down with Clover’s offline mode, which securely stores transactions until you’re back online.
• Invoicing & Payments: Email invoices, track payment statuses, and accept recurring payments with cards saved on file — ideal for maintenance or landscaping clients.
• Customer Management: Build a customer database with loyalty tracking, order history, and private feedback collection to improve service.
• Inventory Tools: Track stock levels, perform stock takes, and create detailed, itemized orders through the Clover Flex mobile POS.
• App Integrations: Access 450+ Clover apps to expand your POS, from weight scale integrations to email marketing and custom inventory tools.
• Payment Flexibility: Because Clover is sold through multiple resellers, you can shop around for the best processing rates and contract terms for your business.

You may purchase your Clover system from Clover or one of several Clover resellers.

The Clover Flex is an excellent choice for garden centers that accept garden design or maintenance jobs, workshops and consulting, or any other on-location job. The Clover Flex allows you to send and accept payments on invoices, quickly charge for any additional items or service fees, accept signatures, and print out receipts.

Clover POS software only works with Clover hardware.

If you purchase your devices from Clover, you must use Fiserv as your payment processor. Fiserv charges the following payment processing fees:

• Card-Present Transactions: 2.3% – 2.6% + $0.10 per transaction
• Card-Not-Present Transactions: 3.5% + $0.10 per transaction

Card-not-present transactions include online sales, phone orders, orders from third-party shopping platforms, manually-keyed-in card payments, and anything else that is not a chip/tap/swipe card payment, cash, or check.

If a huge chunk of your sales happens online, consider a different Clover reseller or a different POS provider altogether to avoid the relatively steep card-not-present payment processing fees.

If you purchase your device from a Clover reseller, your fees and fee payment structure will change. Large retailers may save on payment processing fees if they choose to work with a Clover-authorized reseller.

Clover offers 36-month and 48-month contracts with early termination fees should you cancel your contract early. There’s also nothing you can do with your Clover hardware if you stop using Clover POS software since Clover hardware is proprietary. The company won’t fix hardware that you obtain from any source other than Clover.com.

If you work with a Clover reseller, you are subject to that reseller’s terms, so do your research before committing. Read your contract and other customer reviews of your potential merchant service provider to avoid Clover scams.

The bottom line is that no matter where you get your Clover hardware, buying expensive proprietary hardware is a big commitment. So, make sure Clover is right for you before shelling out the money for the fancy POS hardware.