talech POS Review

Pros

• Many niche features
• Intuitive UI
• Competitive monthly cost
• Numerous payment processor options

Cons

• Not many direct integrations
• Poor offline mode
• Limited eCommerce capabilities

Overview

talech POS is a cloud-based point-of-sale system with custom solutions for retailers, restaurants, and service-based businesses.

talech offers an extensive feature set at great prices, so this POS is a solid choice for businesses of all sizes.

talech POS Pricing

talech is extremely competitive when it comes to the price of restaurant POS systems, especially considering the software’s level of functionality.

While talech does not officially offer a free trial, you can schedule a 30-minute demo to view the more advanced features of talech or start with the free mobile POS plan before making your decision.

talech’s plans are month-to-month, so there’s no long-term commitments or early termination fees if you decide talech isn’t right for your business.

We’ll cover the basics of each plan talech offers later on, but, overall, many popular features are built-in to the software or available as add-ons for an affordable price.

talech Mobile Plan: $0/month

This low-risk plan is best for new business owners, on-the-go professional services, and part-time sellers.

Included features:

• Fixed and variable length services
• Start and end padding time
• Basic order management
• Basic discounts
• Customer history tracking
• Add customers to orders
• Basic reports
• Use your smartphone
• 100 products
• 24/7 email support

Note: Elavon payment processing fees and a Bluetooth card reader are required for the free talech Mobile POS plan.

talech Starter POS Plan: $29/month

This plan offers all of the same features as above but is better suited for more established businesses like cafes and smaller retail establishments.

Included features:

• Fixed and variable-priced products
• Modifiers and exclusions
• Products w/variations and modifiers
• Inventory tracking
• Multi-level user access
• Cash drawer management
• Basic and automated reports
• Unlimited devices ($29/month for each additional device)
• 500 products
• Gift card support ($19/month)
• Third-party integrations
• 24/7 phone and email support
• Optional Getting Started package (additional $199 fee)
• Menu upload assistance (only available with the Getting Started package)

talech Standard POS Plan: $69/month

This plan offers all of the same features as above, but the additional flexibility makes it one of the best quick-serve POS systems. This plan could also suit your fast-casual restaurant or medium-sized retail store.

Included features:

• Bundles
• Sell items by weight
• Supplier tracking
• Barcode label printing
• Clock-in and timesheets
• Multiple roles per employee
• Labor cost reporting
• Kitchen printing
• Automatic discounts
• Exchanges
• Store credit
• House accounts
• Advanced reports
• Unlimited products
• Loyalty program
• Kiosk mode
• Customer-facing display
• Online ordering ($49/month)
• Mandatory Getting Started package (additional $199 fee)
• Menu upload assistance

talech Premium POS Plan: $99/month

This plan offers all of the same features as above but is only necessary for full-service restaurants, businesses with multiple locations, and service-based establishments like salons and spas.

Included features:

• Inventory alerts
• Purchase orders
• Inventory log
• Stocktake
• Table management
• Pay by position
• Split and merge orders
• Coursing
• Automatic gratuity
• BOGO discounts
• Gift cards
• Online ordering

Extra talech Costs & Fees

A few additional costs and fees may increase your monthly payment. These include extra devices, gift cards, and online ordering.

Make sure that you compare your plan options to get the best pricing. For example, adding online ordering to your Standard plan costs an additional $49/month, or you can simply upgrade to the Premium plan, which includes this feature for no additional cost.

talech POS Is Best Suited For…

Businesses that fall into the standard retail, restaurant, or service categories and are looking for an affordable and comprehensive POS system. If your business needs offline capabilities or relies heavily on online sales, however, talech might not be the best POS software for you.

talech POS Features

talech breaks its POS offerings into three specific categories: retail, restaurant, and services. The retail features are also included in the restaurant and services categories.

Here is a breakdown of the different features available for retail, restaurant, and service-based businesses.

Note: Some features are only available on higher-pricing plans.

Ease Of Use

Staying true to the DIY model of the 21st century, talech POS is designed to be easy to set up and use. It’s very sleek and user-friendly, with an intuitive layout and large buttons. Both POS user admins and cashiers report that one of the highest qualities of talech is the software’s ease of use.

The average merchant can get essential functions up and running with little or no help from how-to articles or technical support. You can watch support videos to get an idea of how the different parts of the system operate.

If you do need further assistance, however, talech does offer a Getting Started package that you can purchase for an additional fee. This service includes menu upload assistance and gains talech some points in the initial setup category.

Customer Service & Support

In previous years, talech POS reviews included many complaints about customer service, but that trend seems to have ended.

talech offers the following support options for merchants:

And here’s a closer look at those options:

• Phone: Available 24/7 with practically no wait time.
• Email: Although this service is also available 24/7, you could be looking at a 12-24 hour response time.
• Knowledgebase: If you don’t feel like contacting support, you can always do some troubleshooting yourself with the searchable database of help articles. There are also some training videos covering basic functions.
• Live Chat: talech has a strong live chat function that promptly connects you with a human, but only after you give it your full name and email address. This feature is available Monday through Friday from 8 AM to 5 PM.

Payment Processing With talech POS

talech has partnered with several banks and payment processors to make it possible for you to choose virtually any merchant services provider you would like to work with.

talech specifically lists Elavon and Global Payments as EMV-compliant processors as partners that work well with the talech POS. The actual list is much longer, including Bank of America Merchant Services, Worldpay (formerly Vantiv), Chase, and others. Additionally, talech’s USAePay gateway allows talech customers to connect to all major credit card processors in the US.

Another feature of talech POS is the ability to pass the cost of accepting credit cards on to your customers and reduce business costs via an optional surcharge. Cardholders will see a surcharge on the screen if they choose to pay with a credit card and it also appears on the receipt. This can encourage customers to use debit cards, checks, or cash instead.

talech Contract & Commitment

talech offers monthly and annual plans. You may upgrade or downgrade your pricing plan anytime by contacting talech support, and the changes will take place on your next billing cycle. There are no refunds on any plans.

If you do not pay your fees on time or talech can’t process your payment, you are automatically charged a $15 fee. talech may also charge a 1.5% late fee (or the highest amount by law, whichever is lower) per month from the payment due date until your account balance is paid in full.

If you deactivate your talech account, and then reactivate it, you are charged a $50 reactivation fee.

talech may change your fees at any time but will give you a 30-day notice before doing so.

talech POS Reviews

There aren’t a ton of talech reviews. Still, many of them speak highly of talech, especially when it comes to price and software usability. The company receives 3.9/5 stars (based on 328 reviews) on Software Advice but just 2.1/5 stars (based on 97 reviews) on Trustpilot.

talech offers two different case studies on their website, Spitroast Kitchen, and Pacino’s restaurant, bar, and venue. Through talech’s work with both businesses, they were able to reduce the training time of new staff on the POS system from 4 hours to just 20 minutes, reduce over-staffing and decrease labor costs, keep employees employed during the COVID shutdowns, and save 20% to 30% in 3rd party online ordering/delivery fees.

Negative talech POS Reviews & Complaints

These are some common complaints about the POS:

• Reporting: This area is not as robust as it could be, even if you subscribe to a plan that includes “advanced” reports. Depending on your business needs, you might even need a third-party reporting program to supplement the system.
• Limited Offline Functionality: This is to be expected of any cloud-based software, but many of the top-performing POS vendors have found ways to work around internet outages and keep their systems running almost seamlessly in the midst of them.
• Customer Service: Several customers have complained about long wait times or poor customer service experiences including a communication/knowledge gap between tech support and customer support.
• Glitches: A few customers complained about the system lagging at various times or functions that didn’t seem to operate as intuitively as they should.

Positive talech POS Reviews & Testimonials

Here are some things customers appreciate about talech:

• Ease Of Use: The majority of talech customers are impressed with how easy the system is to navigate, use, and explain to new hires.
• Pricing: For the number of features you have access to, talech’s subscription cost is difficult to match; many customers cite this as a significant reason behind their decision to go with talech.
• Customer Management: A common theme among talech users is how easy it is to track customers, keep tabs on their spending habits, and contact them for marketing campaigns.
• Credit Card Processing Options: You aren’t locked into a contract with any “preferred” credit card processor with this software.
• Industry-Specific Features: It’s difficult to offer an all-in-one POS that has the built-in functionality to suit retail, restaurant, and service-based businesses, but talech pulls it off.

Getting Started With talech POS

Unlike talech’s competitors, it’s a little tricky to get started with your onboarding journey. There are no large flashy “Sign up today” or “Get started!” buttons on their website. You’ll need to create an account before you do anything else. There are two different onboarding journeys from this starting point.

talech Assisted Onboarding

talech Assisted Onboarding is required for Standard and Premium plan users.

Once you create an account, you will receive an email with your initial login credentials followed by your onboarding email. From there, you can follow the chart below and you’ll be on your way to having a usable and successful POS system!

talech Assisted Onboarding flow chart.

talech Self-Serve Onboarding

talech Self-Serve Onboarding is the only option available for Mobile plan users. Starter plan users can choose to pay more for Assisted Onboarding, but we don’t necessarily recommend it.

You will not receive dedicated setup, installation, or menu upload assistance. Once you receive your welcome email, you get your login credentials and a link to talech Academy and then you’re on your own! The flow chart below shows the process in a little more detail

talech Self-Serve Onboarding flow chart.

Alternatives To talech POS

Not sold on talech? Want to know more about how it compares to other big names in POS? Here are the main differences between talech and some of its top competitors.

talech VS Square

Square is another great low-risk investment when it comes to POS systems for restaurants, retail, and service-based businesses. It also offers a free plan and app, it’s easy to use, and has a large number of features available for a reasonable price. The Square standard app, Square for Restaurants, and Square for Retail are all great options if you want a versatile POS system with a built-in payment processor for little to no cost.

If you have a preferred payment processor, switching to Square might not be the best choice for you. This is just one of the areas talech could benefit your business more than Square. Square also only offers its loyalty program as a paid add-on, so you could end up spending more for the same features talech offers. Square is also well known for fund holds that can restrict businesses and keep money tied up for long periods, whereas talech does not have the same problems reported.

talech VS Lightspeed

Another popular option for restaurant and retail businesses, Lightspeed offers an advanced reporting system that can stand up to the strongest POS competitors. Lightspeed offers products specifically created for retail (Lightspeed Retail POS), restaurant (Lightspeed Restaurant POS), and golf (Lightspeed Golf, formally Chronogolf) business types along with a dedicated eCommerce plan/platform, Lightspeed eCom. With built-in B2B and B2C customer management, a customizable loyalty program, and an open API for software integrations, Lightspeed is a force to be reckoned with.

On the flip side, if you’re a service-based industry, Lightspeed doesn’t offer the same features as talech that you need to run your business smoothly. Lightspeed is also incredibly expensive when compared to talech’s low-price (or free) plans and hardware. Because Lightspeed is such a giant, poor customer service and software glitches are reported as some of the main issues for users. talech’s smaller offering and user base can be an advantage when it comes to system downtime and dedicated customer service.

Final Verdict Of talech POS

talech offers an impressive array of features at an exceedingly affordable price. This software has both general and niche POS features that give small business owners in a variety of industries the tools they need to operate efficiently.

In fact, talech made our list of the best restaurant POS systems, mostly due to the excellent price point compared to similar POS offerings.

However, talech doesn’t work as well as other POS systems when there’s no Wi-Fi and doesn’t have extensive eCommerce features either, so we wouldn’t recommend this POS software for food trucks or businesses heavily focused on online sales.

In general, talech is one of the best low-cost POS systems on the market. If you’re very budget-conscious, though, there are plenty of free POS systems you should look into before deciding which POS to start with.

Restaurant POS Review Methodology

We evaluate and test each software system that we review at Merchant Maverick, placing special emphasis on certain key software characteristics in order to generate our granular product ratings.

For restaurant POS software in particular, we have a 56-point rubric we use to evaluate the system in terms of its pricing, ease of use, features, and user reviews. These points are based on attributes relevant to the restaurant or foodservice POS niche—such as the availability of features like online ordering, ingredient inventory, table management, tipping, and others.

Our rating system also takes into account attributes that are desirable for POS systems and cloud-based software in general, such as the availability of monthly pricing plans, free trials, and transparent software contracts.

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Square is an industry-leading point-of-sale and payment processing provider. Sign up for a free account and get a complimentary card reader for use with Square POS. Start For Free.

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