With a full POS system and free booking site, Square Appointments offers a lot of value for salons and independent stylists. But as with other Square products, it only makes sense if you commit to using Square Payments as well, which can be a great convenience or a severe limitation.

Lightspeed is one of the most robust and easy-to-use solutions in today’s POS market. If you’re looking for a retail system that will likely have every option you could dream up in a POS in both the front and back end, and pricing isn’t a major consideration, Lightspeed Retail should be fairly high on your list.

Franpos has established itself as a solid all-in-one system and is particularly useful in the salon world. It specifically caters to franchises and service industry establishments with special feature requirements (booking, scheduling, checking in and out, employee-specific service rates, rentals, and recurring memberships).

TouchBistro boasts some of the most customer-friendly software in the point of sale industry. TouchBistro’s innovative software and intuitive design remain highlights for this POS. The company has also bulked up in the past year, adding better in-house inventory and reporting features to make it an even more attractive product.

If you own a small business, Revel is certainly scalable for virtually any size. However, although Revel is a good POS system, using Revel Systems is a long-term commitment.