9 Best iPad POS Systems For Small Business

Square has several free POS plans: Square POS, Square for Restaurants Free, Square for Retail Free, and Square Appointments Free. These plans are best for small businesses with only one location (or mobile-only/online businesses) and straightforward inventory needs.

Square Plus plans are available for a monthly fee. These plans are best for multi-location businesses or businesses with more complex inventory and employee management needs.

Paid add-ons are also available.

Square POS is a popular, highly affordable system for small businesses in the retail, restaurant, and service industries. There’s a very generous free plan available, which includes everything from an online ordering website to an appointment scheduler that’s so helpful, that it places Square on our list of best salon POS systems.

The free plan also includes social media selling capabilities and free employee management features. Most notably, the free plan also allows you to take payments on an unlimited number of iPad devices, a rare POS subscription feature.

Paid plans allow you to use Square in multiple locations, use an unlimited number of kitchen display systems (Square KDS), add Square mobile POS terminals at your restaurant, and use advanced inventory tracking tools.

Square hardware costs $49-$799.

To use Square on your iPad or iPhone, you’ll need at least the Square contactless card reader to accept chip and mobile wallet payments. This is ideal for businesses with no budget, especially mobile-only businesses.

You can also purchase a Square Stand, which holds up your iPad and includes a built-in card reader, so you won’t need to deal with a separate card reader. This is a low-cost countertop POS option.

Business owners, especially restaurant owners, who want the ability to take payments on the go should consider purchasing the Square Terminal or the Square Restaurant Mobile POS kit.

Square also offers register kits, which include cash drawers, receipt printers, barcode scanners, and more. The provider also offers hardware peripherals such as weight scales and stands to create self-serve kiosks.

All Square accounts include processing with Square Payments. Square charges 2.6% + $0.10 for all in-person payments and 2.9% + $0.30 for all online payments.

Square is entirely pay-as-you-go with no contract. You can even sign up for Square and decide never to use it or only use it as a backup POS option.

The downside is that Square is a third-party payment processor, which means you don’t get the same account stability or customer service you’d typically get with a dedicated merchant account. As a result, some Square merchants have faced unexpected fund holds on large transactions and even sudden account terminations (in very rare cases).

Lightspeed plans all come with one POS register software license and Lightspeed Payments, Lightspeed’s in-house payment processor.

Extra registers incur an additional monthly fee.

Third-party software integrations cost extra and are billed by third-party software providers.

Lightspeed Retail includes all the standard in-store POS functions, plus:

• Multistore & multi-sales channel inventory management
• Holds & layaways
• Shop by appointment
• Store credit
• Retail product reporting
• Free barcode scanner for scanning large amounts of inventory

Lightspeed Retail also has rental item management integrations and appointment scheduling functions that make this Apple POS system a great option for renting out items such as sports equipment or appointment-based rental businesses such as clothing rentals.

The dedicated golf POS solution offers everything you need to run a public or private golf course, including tee time management, individual and family accounts, and automated payments.

Lightspeed hardware costs $199 – $329. 

To download Lightspeed software, you must use an iPad that can run iOS version 14.5 or higher.

You can purchase a Lightspeed Payments-compatible WisePOS E-card reader, as well as accessories like an iPad stand, cash drawer, barcode scanner, label printer, and receipt printer.

Contact a Lightspeed representative and ask about a discount on a retail POS hardware bundle.

Lightspeed plans include built-in payment processing with Lightspeed Payments. Lightspeed Payments charges a flat rate of 2.6% + $0.10 for in-person payments and 2.9% + $0.30 for online payments.

Lightspeed allows you to sign up for monthly or annual plans. While you’ll get the best pricing for annual plans, we recommend signing up for a monthly plan until you decide you really like your POS solution.

If you decide to cancel your plan before your subscription term is up, you will have to pay an early termination fee that, depending on your term length, can be pretty substantial. This is another reason to start out with month-to-month pricing.

Also, Lightspeed plans will automatically renew unless you let a Lightspeed Representative know that you do not intend to renew your plan within 90 days (if you have a longer contract length) or 30 days with a monthly plan if you signed up for a plan without a custom order form.

Lightspeed hardware is only eligible for the 30-day warranty (14 days on Apple products) if you verify that you have received your hardware within five business days of receiving it.

Revel’s pricing plans include a three-year contract and payment processing with Revel Advantage.

Considering that Revel is made for established businesses, possibly with multiple locations, many business owners will get a custom quote for their monthly POS subscription.

There is also a mandatory one-time POS implementation fee for professional software setup and training.

Revel Systems is a highly customizable Apple POS system with features for almost any business: drive-through restaurants, mobile catering companies, multi-store retail businesses, franchises, grocery stores, salons, and more. Revel is flexible enough to take one feature and apply it to many situations.

Standout features include:

• Built-in drive-through ordering capabilities
• Self-serve kiosks
• Online ordering/delivery modules
• Multi-store management
• In-depth inventory management
• Appointment scheduling
• Open ticket functions
• Invoicing
• Loyalty programs
• Gift cards

Businesses that do on-site events or operate without a physical location will love that you don’t need a WiFi connection to take payments or for most of Revel’s features.

Plus, Revel offers several software and hardware integrations. There are even drive-through digital menu board and speaker system integrations, which is one reason why Revel is one of our best drive-through POS systems.

You must get a quote and then purchase hardware directly from Revel or get approval from Revel in writing for specific hardware purchases.

Revel offers a hardware and service leasing program from Apple Financial Services to help merchants reduce their upfront purchase costs with an extended payment plan. However, we generally recommend purchasing your hardware upfront whenever possible to avoid interest and so that merchants will never have their hardware taken away.

Revel offers in-house payment processing, Revel Advantage, but like many payment processors, you must get a custom quote.

You may also choose to work with several external payment processors, such as Moneris, Adyen, and Tyro. Revel may charge an extra monthly fee for doing this, though.

Shop around for the best payment processing rate before committing to Revel Advantage. Consider bringing in a quote from an external payment processor and ask Revel to match it (or even beat it).

Revel contracts have a 36-month standard term length, and to get the best pricing, you are expected to stick to this contract length and use Revel Advantage payment processing.

If you cancel your Revel contract early, you’ll pay an early termination fee equal to twice your usual monthly payment for the rest of the contract term length or $15,000, whichever is greater.

You can back out of your contract before an annual automatic renewal if you give at least a 30-day notice.

Do not start with a long contract whenever possible. Get your POS provider to agree to a month-to-month contract or extended free trial before committing, especially when a provider expects you to sign up with them for at least three years.

If you add user licenses, your pricing will increase.

There are also several add-ons available, including an online ordering module, a gift card program, and a reservations system.

The company also charges a nonrefundable setup fee and includes your hardware setup plus software walkthrough.

TouchBistro is a POS designed by and for servers and kitchen staff to take orders, process payments, and monitor inventory as smoothly as possible.

It has all your standard restaurant POS features, plus features such as:

• Customizable server interface
• Upsell prompts
• Automated inventory tracking
• KDS system

TouchBistro makes it easy for kitchen staff to navigate online, tableside, and third-party delivery app orders so you never miss a sale.

TouchBistro’s hybrid cloud-based/locally installed setup allows your POS to function completely offline, making TouchBistro one of the best food truck POS systems out there.

TouchBistro sells iPad POS hardware kits, including a kit for smaller venues with an iPad, router, kitchen printer, and cash drawer. Larger venues with a multiple-iPad setup can use a Mac mini server to sync all the iPads.

As with many restaurant POS vendors, you’ll have to call for a custom hardware quote.

TouchBistro includes built-in payment processing with TouchBistro Payments (powered by Chase), which has an interchange-plus payment processing model.

You can also use TouchBistro with an outside payment processor, such as Square, TSYS, or WorldPay. As far as we can tell, TouchBistro doesn’t charge extra for using an integrated processor.

Like most other POS systems, TouchBistro gives you options to sign up month to month but offers its best rates if you pay for its services a year in advance. However, TouchBistro does charge an early termination fee if you cancel your plan early, and the fee is dependent on how long you had between your cancellation date and the end of your contract.

Consider starting with a monthly plan until you’re sure TouchBistro is right for your business.

If you do end up canceling your plan, you must send a written notice to TouchBistro at least 30 days before the end of your subscription term, or you’ll be automatically charged for another term.

With Shopify, you get 25% off 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 is first and foremost on eCommerce retail software but has since branched out into in-person, social media, and online marketplace sales. Retail sellers, and arguably subscription sales and digital item sellers, will find everything they need to run a successful business either built into the Shopify platform or within the Shopify App Store (which now offers over 8,000 free and paid apps.)

Standout features for multichannel retail sellers include:

• BIPOS (buy online, pick up in-store)
• BORIS (buy online, return in-store)
• Local delivery
• Post in-store items on marketplaces and social media
• Publish items across all channels
• Inventory automatically decreases across all channels when a sale is made
• Gift cards
• Exchanges
• Deposits
• Partial payments
• Custom sales/discounts
• Marketing campaigns
• Convert stores into multiple languages and currencies

Shopify hardware ranges from $0-$459+. Shopify POS can use iOS or Android hardware, but you’ll need to use an iPad to take advantage of all the features. To sell on an iPad, you will need a Shopify card reader, and an optional POS hardware kit.

Shopify sells hardware bundles such as a Star Micronics mPOP bundle that includes a tablet stand, cash drawer, receipt printer, and hand scanner (iPad not included).

Shopify payment processing is included via Shopify Payments. The rate you pay is dependent on your plan level and in-person transaction fees are 2.4 – 2.9%.

You can also integrate an outside payment processor, but you will have to pay an additional transaction fee on each sale, ranging from 0.5 to 2%.

Shopify plans are month-to-month with no contract. However, you can save 50% on your first year of service if you pay ahead for a year.

Like Square Payments, Shopify Payments is a third-party payment processor, which means you won’t get your own dedicated merchant account and may not have great account stability. Shopify Payments is powered by Stripe, and you can read our Stripe Payments review to get a better idea of what to expect from this processor.

Helcim’s POS software is completely free to use. You only pay Helcim’s payment processing fees.

Helcim’s free iPad POS system offers all standard POS functions, and it’s easy for employees to add products, discounts, tips, and customer accounts during transactions. You can also sell individual items and sell to businesses using customer portals and large catalogs.

Helcim’s invoicing and recurring payments features are what really set Helcim apart from the other providers in this list. Helcim’s invoicing features include:

• Custom drag-and-drop invoice creation and payment settings
• Set full and partial invoice due dates
• Send reminders to customers about upcoming and overdue invoice payments
• Set recurring invoice payments with card or account on file
• Create automated and manual tax settings for invoices

Helcim’s subscription management includes prorated billing, so you only charge customers for the days they use their subscription, metered billing. With this billing method, you charge based on monthly usage data and the ability to add one-time fees and add-ons. Customers will get an automated reminder when their card is about to expire.

You can also create free trials for customers, and if a customer cancels their subscription, you can get feedback that will help you understand why they canceled to optimize your subscription business.

Helcim’s POS and web pages (including checkout carts, subscription signup, approvals, and client portals) can be built with a drag-and-drop builder, so your pages will have only the information you want, and they will all be custom-branded. This is useful for businesses that only need certain information fields, like those selling services, as you can remove fields like the shipping address.

Helcim’s equipment costs $99 – $329. This includes a card reader that’s compatible with just about all smartphone, tablet, and desktop devices.

There are also a few compatible receipt printers available.

Helcim offers interchange-plus payment processing for all businesses, small or large. There are no minimum sales volumes or transaction numbers. This is highly uncommon among POS providers.

The company offers a sample “find your custom rate” tool on its website. As an example, if a professional services business makes less than $25,000 per month and has an average transaction size is $250, the business can expect to pay a processing fee of 1.95% plus $0.08 for in-person payments and 2.40% plus $0.25 for online transactions.

Helcim offers very flexible month-to-month contracts with no early termination fees, much like Square does.

All Lightspeed plans come with one restaurant POS tablet software license. Additional tablet register software licenses add to your monthly pricing.

Popular Lightspeed add-ons, such as kitchen display systems and self-ordering kiosks depend on the number of tablet software licenses you need.

Lightspeed integrations, such as liquid inventory management software, cost a separate monthly fee on behalf of the third-party software company.

Lightspeed works well for both quick-serve and full-service establishments, as well as niche establishments such as wine bars and hotels with features like:

• Built-in loyalty programs
• Discounts
• Text & email campaigns

From a single iPad, restaurant owners and managers can make use of the software’s best inventory and menu management features, including:

• Assign ingredients to preferred vendors with automated purchase ordering capabilities
• Sync menu and inventory so that servers and managers get alerts about low-stock and disables that item/modifier on the tablet so servers can’t sell an out-of-stock product
• Assign single ingredients to multiple dishes to get accurate inventory reports, reordering points, and reduce sales of out-of-stock items
• Identify item spoilage, wastage, and theft so you can work to reduce lost profits
• Generate reports about the highest-performing menu items across locations and insights about how to capitalize on those opportunities

Lightspeed also allows you to create one master restaurant account to manage multiple locations. With one iPad, you can duplicate POS and KDS settings.

While many restaurant iPad ordering systems offer standing self-serve kiosks, Lightspeed offers a unique self-ordering solution for sit-down restaurants. Using Lightspeed’s self-ordering table mode, customers can order multiple items over multiple courses at their own pace and pay for the entire meal at the end.

Unfortunately for busy sit-down restaurants and fine-dining establishments, Lightspeed doesn’t have its own reservation/waitlist system. However, there are several affordable and well-designed integrations for sit-down establishments and hotels. In fact, many of these integrations are cheaper than built-in reservation systems that competitors offer.

Hardware costs range from $129-$519. Lightspeed Restaurant hardware is all iPad-based. Hardware options include a countertop POS with a customer display, standalone iPads for tableside ordering, and/or iPad kiosks for self-ordering. Lightspeed’s KDS is also iPad-based.

You may purchase your own iPads or through Lightspeed.

It’s important to purchase your card reader (Lightspeed supports Verifone products) from Lightspeed to make sure your Lightspeed Payments account is configured correctly with the hardware.

We advise contacting Lightspeed to get a custom quote on a hardware bundle.

You are required to use Lightspeed Payments, Lightspeed’s payment processor (powered by Stripe), which charges the following per-transaction fees for those on the Essential plan:

• In-Person Payments: 2.6% + $0.10
• Online/QR Code Payments: 2.9% + $0.30

Note: With tableside QR code ordering and payments, you will get a higher fee than if you add a tableside self-ordering menu that allows customers to order from an iPad and pay with a physical card later. This is because a QR code order is essentially an online order.

While QR code ordering can be a great tool to take orders in places like pools or hotel rooms, consider using a tableside kiosk instead of an online ordering menu if your patrons are still physically sitting in your restaurant.

Lightspeed requires you to fill out a custom order form, which will detail your contract length. Lightspeed Restaurant’s pricing page lists only monthly fees, meaning that you can get a monthly contract to start with.

While longer contracts cost less in the long run, Lightspeed does charge an early termination fee, and hardware return windows are short (14 days for Apple products, 30 days for accessories). Consider starting out on that monthly plan until you’re sure Lightspeed is the tablet POS for your restaurant.

Businesses that will benefit from extensive appointment booking features, such as in-home cleaning services, salons, spas, and personal trainers will find everything they need on talech’s Premium plan, which includes all of talech’s features.

Additional fees include the following:

talech offers retail and restaurant POS solutions that are somewhat basic compared to other options. It’s talech’s service business POS solution that sets this system apart from its competitors. Business owners in industries such as beauty, wellness, repair, construction, repairs, and cleaning services will really benefit from talech’s service POS solution.

talech POS software offers features such as fixed and variable length service charges, start and end time padding, and (on talech’s highest-level plan) an online booking website. You can send invoices for consultations, products, and services. Customers can pay online or arrange for check or cash payments and will get an automated reminder if their payment becomes overdue

Your online booking website can operate on its own or be embedded as a booking button on an existing website. You can create appointment blocks for clients to choose themselves, block off time for walk-ins, charge appointment deposits, and charge for no-shows.

There are also retail sale features such as product sales by weight, product bundling, and selling products with variable options. You can track suppliers, get inventory alerts, and take stock. Plus, you can offer discounts and store credit for customers to build lifelong relationships with first-time buyers.

talech sells various iPad stands, kits, and other peripheral hardware. You’ll need to contact talech for ordering and pricing information.

talech includes multiple payment processing options, giving you the ability to choose which one works best for you. Some options include Elavon, Global Payments  Chase, and USAePay.

talech offers month-to-month and annual plans. You can deactivate your plan at any time without facing any penalties. If you choose to reactivate your plan after deactivating it, you’ll be charged a $50 fee.

Loyverse’s core POS package, which includes the POS software itself, the backend management dashboard, a kitchen display system, a customer display system, and a built-in loyalty program, is free forever.

Paid add-ons include:

• Employee Management
• Advanced Inventory
• Integrations

Loyverse is a free POS system built with grocery stores, cafes, restaurants, and bars in mind. It comes packed with the basic inventory, menu, and customer relationship management features plus more advanced features such as a kitchen display system, loyalty program,  and a customer display system, at no monthly cost.

Restaurants that want to sell takeout or prepackaged foods by weight can do so with Loyverse’s embedded weight barcodes, while bars will appreciate how Loyverse has set up drink ordering and inventory management functions.

Advanced (paid) features include extensive employee management, more inventory features such as purchase order creation and stock takes, and third-party app integrations.

You may download the Loyverse app on any Apple device. Loyverse sells hardware such as barcode scanners, printers, cash drawers, and iPad stands.

You’ll have to purchase compatible card readers on your own.

You may use Worldpay, SumUp, or PayPal to accept payments.

Loyverse offers monthly and yearly plans with no penalties for cancellation.