Vend POS Review
Vend's POS system is well-suited for mid-sized retail businesses that need to take multiple payment types, manage multiple locations, and more.
Vend by Lightspeed

Total Rating | 4.0 |
---|---|
Pricing | Fair |
Features | Good |
Customer Service | Excellent |
Integrations & Add-Ons | Excellent |
Reviews, Complaints & Testimonials | Excellent |
Pros
- Extensive inventory management
- Multistore capability
- Loyalty program
- Gift cards
Cons
- Expensive monthly cost
- No built-in eCommerce capabilities
- Basic reporting tools
Vend POS Overview
Vend’s point of sale system focuses specifically on in-person operations for mid-sized retail businesses. The system has great inventorying features that manage a lot of stock over one or several locations. Vend offers a built-in loyalty program for retailers to build their customer base and automated promotions to bring first-time and repeat customers back to your store.
Unfortunately, Vend doesn’t come with the online transaction capabilities and built-in social media marketing tools that business owners expect in a modern POS. Business owners often find themselves paying for extra monthly subscriptions to give Vend the abilities other POS providers already include in their monthly plans.
Considering that Vend pricing plans are already expensive, business owners who want to operate online and in physical locations may find Vend is not the right POS for them. Vend does not have any built-in restaurant or general service-based features, so businesses in those industries should steer clear of this POS.
Keep reading our Vend review to find out whether Vend is the right POS system for your brick-and-mortar retail business.
Table of Contents
What Is Vend?
Lightspeed Retail acquired Vend in 2021, and if you go to Vend’s website, you’ll notice that it’s beginning to refer to its product as Lightspeed Retail POS (X-Series). Vend is an iPad-based point of sale system that allows mid-size retail stores to take multiple payment types, manage inventory over one or multiple locations, build customer loyalty programs, and offer discounts.
Vend POS Pricing
Vend POS Plan | Price | When To Use |
---|---|---|
Vend POS Lean Plan | $89/month | If you only need to take payments and manage inventory |
Vend POS Standard Plan | $149/month | If you want to integrate an eCommerce website and accounting into your POS |
Vend POS Advanced Plan | $269/month | If you want advanced reporting features |
Vend has three pricing plans, and the pricing for each varies depending on whether you pay for a monthly or yearly subscription, how many locations you have, the number of registers you need, and whether you use Lightspeed Payments (Vend’s built-in payment processor) to process transactions.
You’ll pay a monthly premium (starting at $30/month for subscriptions) if you decide against Lightspeed Payments as your payment processor.
All plans come with one register per location. Additional registers cost $59/register/month and additional locations cost $119/location/month.
Vend POS Lean Plan
The Vend POS Lean plan costs $89/month for one register ($69/month with annual billing) and includes the following:
- Retail POS
- Integrated processing with Lightspeed Payments
- 24/7 customer support
- Open API access
Vend POS Standard Plan
The Vend POS Standard plan costs $149/month for one register ($119/month with annual billing) and includes everything in the Lean plan, plus:
- Accounting integrations with QuickBooks, Xero, and MYOB
- Free Ecwid subscription for integrated eCommerce
- Option to integrate with Shopify, BigCommerce, or WooCommerce for eCommerce functionalities
Vend POS Advanced Plan
The Vend POS Advanced plan costs $269/month for one register ($199/month with annual billing) and includes everything in the Standard plan, plus:
- Loyalty program setup
- Advanced reporting
- Serialization (record serial numbers for products and track which unit is sold to which customer for warranty purposes)
Vend has a calculator on its pricing page you can use to determine your total monthly cost based on how many registers and locations you need.
Vend Point Of Sale Features
You can check out a complete list of Vend’s features and see a demo video on Vend’s website (though you’ll need to give your name, phone number, and email address to gain access). Here, I just want to touch on a few of Vend’s most notable features.
Vend Retail POS
- Returns and store credit
- Split payments
- Order holds and layaways
- Track customer payment history and past purchases
- Points-based loyalty program
- Branded gift cards (paid add-on; not compatible with eCommerce integrations)
- Customer management portal for targeted marketing campaigns
Vend POS Inventory
- Barcode importing, creation, and printing
- Barcode scanner app
- Purchase order creation and progress monitoring
- Automated stock reordering based on custom inventory rules
- Custom price books based on location, customer type, and/or time-sensitive discount
- Product bundling (to sell special bundled products) and breakdowns (to sell bulk inventory as individual items)
- Item transfers across locations
- Full/partial inventory receiving and returns
- Demand forecasting to predict when you’ll need more or less inventory
Other Vend POS Features
- Open API access (to add third-party software to your POS ecosystem)
- Cash management
- Employee sales monitoring
- Reports by product, brand, supplier, employee, end-of-day, end-of-week, etc.
- Mobile Retail Dashboard containing all your data, across multiple locations, from any device
- Free Ecwid eCommerce integration
- Integrations with accounting software
Is Vend POS User-Friendly?
Once signed up for the free trial, you’ll have the opportunity to take a self-guided tour. Each category is linked to the appropriate page in the dashboard for configuration. The software walks you through the processes of adding products and customers, setting up taxes, and customizing the register quick keys, among other things. It’s a great way to get oriented to the system, though it’s all pretty self-explanatory, given how intuitive the software is.
Even as you get into some of the more peripheral functions of the POS, such as the loyalty program and inventory management setup, Vend is ridiculously simple to use. Vend offers a helpful 10-minute demo video that gives a brief overview of its offerings, but if you have any experience with POS systems, it’s unlikely you’ll need it to figure out basic functions. Adding inventory was simple, and the option to create tags to more efficiently sort products was a snap. If you import your inventory via a CSV file, you can be up and ready to accept payments in a matter of minutes.
Customer Service & Support
Vend offers 24/7 customer support on all plans, which is not very common among POS providers. These are all your support options:
- Phone: Technical help is available 24/7.
- Live Chat: There is a live chat option in which a live representative replies in under 10 minutes.
- Email: Vend usually answers emails within 24 hours.
- Knowledge Database: This database is comprised of frequently asked questions, video tutorials, and the option to submit support tickets or suggest new features.
- Social Media: The company has several social media channels, including YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
Vend’s community forum has received a great deal of spam, so the page is not very active.
Payment Processing With Vend POS
Vend offers its parent company’s in-house payment processor, Lightspeed Payments, as a payment processing option for merchants. With Lightspeed Payments, you’ll pay a fee of 2.6% plus $0.10 per card-present transaction and 2.6% plus $0.30 per card-not-present transaction.
You can use third-party payment processors, such as Worldpay, PayPal, CardConnect, EVO, North American Bancard, TSYS, and Square, but you will have to pay transaction fees if you decide to use any payment processor other than Lightspeed Payments.
You must purchase hardware that is compatible with Lightspeed Payments if you want to use Lightspeed Payments.
Contract Length & Early Termination Fees
There are no fees and no refunds if you cancel your monthly or yearly subscription early. It’s easy to cancel your subscription if you decide Vend is not the right POS for your business.
You must pay attention to how many locations and registers you add to your plan, or your monthly subscription price may skyrocket.
Finally, remember that if you choose a third-party payment processor, you will pay considerable transaction fees. If you want to use a specific payment processor, it may be best to avoid Vend altogether.
Vend Integrations & Add-Ons
Vend offers 50+ integrations with third-party software programs covering various areas, such as accounting, eCommerce, CRM, inventory management, employee management, scheduling, and analytics. These are a few standout integrations:
- Accounting: Xero, QuickBooks Online, MYOB
- eCommerce: Ecwid, Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce
- Employee Management: Deputy, Homebase, Gusto Payroll
- Email Marketing: Mailchimp
- Online Marketing: Pointy from Google to list items on your Google Business Profile
Plus, with Vend’s open API, it’s possible to build a custom integration for pretty much any business app you want.
Vend POS Reviews, Complaints & Testimonials
Vend is not BBB accredited but has an A+ BBB rating and zero customer complaints. Overall, Vend POS reviews tend to be positive.
Negative Vend Reviews & Complaints
It’s pretty impressive for a system with Vend’s reach to have as few blisteringly negative reviews as it does. That said, there are a few common themes that recur in negative Vend reviews:
- Price: Vend isn’t the cheapest solution on the market, especially with the options it only makes available with its Advanced Plan. And if you have to pay for an additional eCommerce platform, the costs can add up. Customers who don’t need all of Vend’s functionality often find it less than affordable.
- Glitches & Missing Features: After scouring the internet, I found several complaints regarding slow servers and minor glitches in the system. Some customers have also expressed a desire for a more robust feature set. For example, one reviewer wants to see a customer display option that is not limited to the iPad app, and several found the reporting suite lacking.
- Lack Of Payment Processing Options: Several reviewers complained that Vend POS was incompatible with their preferred credit card processor or could not find a supported processor that would work in their country. It’s worth noting that Vend’s list of payment processing partners has grown over time.
Positive Vend Reviews & Testimonials
Several customer testimonials can be found on the Vend site and the Vend blog under the tag “customer experience.” But there are satisfied customers all over the web. Here is what most of them are talking about:
- Simplicity & Usability: “Simple,” “smooth,” and “intuitive” are all words you’ll repeatedly see people use to describe this system. And I can’t argue with them. It’s virtually impossible to get lost in this system since every function is self-explanatory. Even start-up hiccups appear to be minimal.
- Inventory Management: Many customers praise Vend’s inventory management system as helpful and easy to use. Reviewers especially like that you can view images of products in your inventory.
- Customer Support: Based on the reviews I’ve read, while not everyone is thrilled with Vend’s customer service, enough people are happy with it to justify putting it in the “pros” category. But suppose you’re more inclined to trust real numbers than people’s opinions (which may or may not be tainted by the general negativity of the internet). In that case, Vend has a real-time feedback tool that displays the current customer satisfaction rating based on the last 100 ratings. You’ve got to be pretty confident in your customer service ratings if you’ve got them out there for the whole world to see.
Final Verdict On Vend POS
Vend is one of the rare POS systems that will allow you to open it up and feel immediately at ease. The company also has a reputation for excellent customer service. For mid-sized businesses focused strictly on in-person sales, which may not necessarily need to utilize extremely in-depth reports and inventory analysis, it would seem to be a perfect solution.
When thinking about Vend, you must also consider the fact that Lightspeed Retail acquired Vend in late 2021. With this acquisition, Lightspeed Retail now has all the features Vend offers and more at the same price point. For many retailers, especially ones that want to create an online sales presence, Lightspeed Retail is the right option for them.
If you’re not sure whether to work with Vend or its parent POS provider, Lightspeed Retail, both providers offer a 14-day free trial.
Before making any decisions about which retail POS system to work with, read our post on the best retail POS systems.
Vend POS FAQs
The Merchant Maverick Seal of Approval 🏆
Vend by Lightspeed ![]() |
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After hours of in-depth research and evaluation, we can confidently recommend this brand to our readers. Get started today and see Vend by Lightspeed for yourself.
The Merchant Maverick Seal of Approval 🏆
Vend by Lightspeed ![]() |
---|
After hours of in-depth research and evaluation, we can confidently recommend this brand to our readers. Get started today and see Vend by Lightspeed for yourself.
Organization Name: Timonium Wild Bird Center
It is difficult to say whose support is worse, WoldPay from FIS or VEND. I have been trying for five weeks to get my VEND POS Application to play. First it was Worldpay’s inability to fulfill on an authorization terminal – now its VEND’s inability to provide the technical support required to set it up. VEND claims to have 24/7 support – in reality they have when they get around to it support. Making a support appointment means that they are supposed to call you back at your appointed time. In reality, they seem to be challenged by the concept of time zones and this morning called at 0600 EDT instead of 0800 EDT.Based on my experience to date – I could not recommend VEND
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
for the first few months vend was awesome but then covid-19 came and they have been nothing but unreliable, ive had problems with the daily reports, the debit paymemt bridge won’t signal to the debit machine half the time, the system crashes occasionally and the worse part is since the covid they stopped doing phone support so if you run into issues expect weeks before they get back to you and even then if they give you the wrong answer your waiting another week. They have cost me thousands in lost revenue and if something don’t change soon I’m going to have to switch again….. highly not recommended
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: Campo Marzio
Vend is a basic POS system for its price. Here are some of my comments:1) They do not allow scanning of Supplier EAN/UPC barcodes (ex. If you sell a CocaCola soda can, then you cannot scan the barcode already on the can and Vend forces you to print a new barcode label for the can… makes no sense!)2) Very limited receipt / invoice customisations3) Has no ability to issue quotes4) Limited reporting abilities5) Product import abilities are limited and sometimes confusing6) Does not allow you to add product images to each SKU7) Vend works mainly off the Product Name and not the SKU as many POS systems do
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: Cajubrasil
I was very reluctant to sign up for Vend initially because the reviews were mixed and it was very expensive for the services it provided. However, after their pursuit of me as customer, I oblidged. While the features were limited, I used the services for a few months because at the time it was “fit for purpose”. But it’s my recent experience that completely turned me off. I recently transferred my business banking account which resulted in an updated credit card. Initially, my bank rejected their charges as their payment portal was not listed as accepted. Daily I was on the phone with vend support who assured me that there will be no additional charges as we worked through the issues. However, the minute the issue was resolved, my card was charged double. And the customer service representative that was responding to me on the hour, has yet to provide a solution or reverse the double charge. What’s worst is that there is no call center to contact. So you sit and wait until someone responds to you. Needless to say, no one is responding. Very poor experience.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: Soak
We were thinking of switching to Vend from QuickBooks POS. I spent months researching POS systems and had it down to Lightspeed and Vend. After talking to a lot of people and doing demos from both companies, I was surprised to find out we can’t use Vend. It is a huge disappointment! All because of a tag printer! Vend is only compatible with one label printer, which in itself is surprising since it is a small printer that appears to be made for home use vs commercial use. However, more disappointing is that Vend only supports certain size tags. We have many small items and need to be able to use a tag smaller than 2 inches. Their answer was…sorry! There has to be other stores that use smaller tags??? Anyway, so much for all of their great features..we are forced to look elsewhere!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
My review is for Merchant Maverick. How can you give a misleading 5 stars for Vend if most of the 69 reviews are 1 and 2 stars? A little misleading wouldn’t you say? Business owners come here for an accurate assessment of a company, your ratings seem biased at best.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Todd,
Thanks for your feedback. To address your concern about the validity of our reviews, please read our post on negativity bias and how this site makes money to better understand how Merchant Maverick delivers real, unbiased reviews to our readers. Best wishes!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
VEND was quite helpful but then it is very expensive especially for a startup. The customer support costs are quite a sore pin-prick to deal with. It was really taking toll on my restaurant business. I started using a newer, more affordable one – Waiterio. I strongly believe one should use POS that are custom-built for a specific industry due reduce operational costs.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
We migrated to Vend in August 2018, however I have been hesitant to switch to an annual plan in case we need to jump ship. We are a smaller shop (3 iPad registers, Shopify) and Vend meets all of the requirements in our evaluation: order syncing, COGS, ease of use…etc. However, I took for granted the basic features of a POS: ability to process credit cards and stability. We probably have lost around 2-3K in sales due to stability issues with the Paypal credit card integration. During certain weeks, we have to force quit these apps 2-3 times a day. I have worked with support, but other than updating apps and iOS, their hands are tied. In your POS evaluation, be sure to give weighting to one integrated system (Square, Shopify…etc). Now that Shopify supports COGS, I’m curious to give them a second look.All and all Vend is a decent system from a use and requirements perspective…I just wish it was more stable. Our tech support hours have increased 10X this year due to Vend.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: Ideal Green Market Cooperative
Thanks for your review of VEND. I had my reservations about using this POS software after we had some issues with customer support. I agree VEND will have to change how it operates and offer customer support free of charge. If their product works well, customer support issues should decrease.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.