A Look At 5 POS Systems (Point-of-Sale)

Bankable FEC
June 13, 2018

What are POS systems?

For many businesses, a POS (point-of-sale) system is an essential part of the operation. While POS systems can serve multiple purposes, their primary purpose is for managing payment transactions. The system is a mix of hardware as well as software: the hardware being in the form of a cash register or credit card scanner, while the software is in the form of an interface that can track sales data, manage customer information, and more. These systems have been around for years, but they have seen a tremendous amount of change as technology continues to advance. One of the trends in technology that made a massive impact on the POS industry is the shift towards cloud storage. Because of cloud-based technology, POS systems can run on a wide range of devices, even including an app on a user’s phone.

POS System

Contenders

Now that we have loosely covered what a POS system is, let us take a look at 5 popular options in the market for comparison.

  1. Square (https://squareup.com/)

Square is one of the most common names in the POS industry. They were an early influencer in the cloud-based POS market, and were the popular choice for iPad or phone-based POS solutions.

POSITIVES OF USING SQUARE:

NEGATIVES OF USING SQUARE:

  1. ShopKeep (https://www.shopkeep.com/index-b)

ShopKeep is particularly popular in the retail industry. They describe themselves as being funded by merchants, for merchants. The system is primarily iPad based, and is the #1 customer rated iPad based POS.

POSITIVES OF USING SHOPKEEP:

NEGATIVES OF USING SHOPKEEP:

  1. Vend (https://www.vendhq.com/us/)

Vend markets themselves as the “all in one” POS solution. They specifically aim for multi-store retail locations that need a wide variety of features. They boast of having users like Disney, Sennheiser, and Ecco.

POSITIVES OF USING VEND:

NEGATIVES OF USING VEND:

  1. Bindo (https://bindopos.com/en/)

Bindo is a cloud-based iPad POS system that offers specialized services for both retail stores and restaurants. They describe themselves as a one-stop retail solution for local retailers, with their main bragging points being that their service is easy to use, is efficiently cloud-based, and is analytically focused.

POSITIVES OF USING BINDO:

NEGATIVES OF USING BINDO:

  1. LightSpeed (https://www.lightspeedhq.com/)

LightSpeed POS is a combination of three different products pointed towards small-medium businesses: Lightspeed Retail, Lightspeed E-Commerce, and Lightspeed Restaurant. They have a strong pedigree, considering they are backed by four of the largest investors in the tech industry, including Accel and Inovia.

POSITIVES OF USING LIGHTSPEED:

NEGATIVES OF USING LIGHTSPEED:

Overall, the best POS system depends on the needs of the company using it. Square’s lack of a regular fee makes it highly enticing for smaller businesses while Vend’s massive list of features is appealing to larger businesses. If you are considering adding a POS system to your company, read up about each option and decide what features or aspects are of the highest priority to you. However, you can’t go wrong with any of the 5 options that we have listed above.