Advertiser Disclosure: Our unbiased reviews and content are supported in part by, and we adhere to strict to preserve editorial integrity. Who doesn’t love stuff for free? If you’re raising your hand right now, not only do you look silly, but you’re also a liar. Go to any major sporting event that features America’s greatest contribution to society — the t-shirt cannon — and you’ll see just how much people love free crap. That said, as an intelligent and perceptive consumer, you know that it’s nearly impossible to find something both truly useful and completely free. In fact, the only things I can think of that meet the brief are love and the following point of sale systems.
Read on for a look at five of the best, no-cost POS systems on the market today. We’ll also talk about Square; it isn’t technically true point of sale software but it does have wide application in the POS industry and is used by a variety of retail and restaurant vendors. Table of Contents. Square is, by far, the most popular and feature-rich mobile register solution with no monthly fee.
But unlike the other free POS’s on this list, Square is less a software solution and more a fully mobile payments solution, meaning it runs via an app on your smartphone or tablet rather than a web browser on a computer (you can access your backend reports and your online store on desktop/laptop but you cannot process payments this way). A quick look at Square’s services.
We use POS Pizza. What’s nice about the paid version is that you pay for it and that’s it. No additional monthly fees. You use your own hardware. If you need support there are service options but are not required.
The free version is not bad either. No reason this product could not be used by any food vendor or restaurant. The reporting is quite flexible as well. I print out a monthly sales report and enter it into Excel. I then use a product that converts the xls file into an iif file that imports into Quickbooks. The monthly report dates match the dates of my Bank statement. When I balance my statement I mark off all the daily deposits that add up to the journal entries deposit sum.
Pos System Sub Shop 2016 Guidelines
Hi Christine! Thanks for the feedback. I will let know when we update the article (probably soon) and if/when we review HarborTouch. It looks like they have kind of a lot of negative reviews on the BBB, though, and several of the reviewers mention hidden fees and early termination fees.
Some POS systems are “free” in that they don’t charge a monthly charge, but they might gouge you with the merchant services contract. It looks like you have to use HarborTouch payment processing with this POS; it’s always preferable when a POS system gives you the option of using an outside payment processor.
Running a small business isn't easy, and especially so for retailers, restaurant owners, and others who have a brick-and-mortar storefront. Managing purchases and cash flow, keeping inventory stocked, making sure your employees are happy, and above all else serving your customers needs requires dedication, a solid business plan, and a bit of luck to be successful. In between all of these demands, it can be difficult to dedicate the time to fairly evaluate solutions to various business needs, including software. For businesses with a retail component, your choice of point of sale (POS) system may be the most important technical decision you make, and yet, an overwhelmingly confusing one.
There are simply so many choices on the market today, and no one decision is going to be right for every business. Do you want a point of sale system which ties in with your inventory management, or do you just need to keep track of purchase numbers? Does it make sense to host everything locally, or would a cloud-based solution work for you? And if it's cloud-based, what happens when you inevitably lose Internet connectivity from time to time? As if these kinds of factors don't make the decision difficult enough already, it's also worth considering what kind of support you need. Do you know the technical know-how to fix a system if it breaks, or customize it when your business needs change, or do you need that support from a vendor?
And, importantly, if your tech support vendor disappeared tomorrow, would you be able to find a new one tomorrow? Is your system open enough for a new vendor to easily take over and fix problems and make changes? For these reasons, open source point of sale systems might be a good option to consider for some businesses. In particular, they may appeal to those with some technical knowledge on staff who are looking to save costs by managing their own systems, as well as businesses who may need or desire significant customization from their system's default which require source code access to modify. So what are the open source options available for retailers looking for a new point of sale system? There are a quite a few, and they vary widely in their features, maturity, and size of community.
Let's take a look at a few options that might fit your business needs. Odoo, which we've looked at before in our roundups of, and tools, also provides a point of sale system solution. A part of Odoo's integrated solution, their point of sale system connects directly with the Odoo inventory and ecommerce tools, as well as their marketing and sales solutions, and runs on both Windows and Linux. It is web based, and while it can be used as a stand alone solution, the real power comes from its integrations. Odoo's open source edition is released under an version 3, and the source is available on. Odoo is primarily written in Python. OSPOS (“OSPOS”) is an aptly-named web-based point of sale system, which can be installed locally or remotely, and is packaged with Docker for easy installation, and will even run on a Raspberry Pi.
It has many features in addition to basic POS operation, including customer management, barcode printing, numerous reporting tools, and the ability to help track inventory. OSPOS is written primary in PHP with a MySQL backend, and is made available under an. SambaPOS is a point of sale system specifically designed for restaurants, and supports multiple languages and currencies. While a newer commercial version is available which is unfortunately proprietary, the slightly older SambaPOS 3 is available as open source under a license. Written in C#, SambaPOS 3's source can be found.
Targeted at a Windows platform, it seems like it may be a good choice for businesses with relatively simple needs. WallacePOS is a web-based point of sale system, written in PHP, which is designed to be compatible with standard POS hardware like printers, cash drawers, and barcode readers. Since it's written to run inside of a browser, it should work with any modern operating system.
You can grab the source code to WallacePOS, which is available under the version 3. A hosted version is also available.
Others In addition to these four, there are many other open source point of sale solutions:., a web-based point of sale system with multiple options for database hosting and several reporting options., which focuses on restaurants and is designed to work across multiple platforms., which including a kitchen display screen system., which we've, also include a point of sale module. These are far from the only options out there, and the right choice for your business could be wildly different from the choice that makes sense for someone else. Do you have existing hardware you need to support? Are transactions at your business generally a few expensive items or many cheap ones? Do you need to be able to handle returns quickly? Are most of your customers using cash or credit cards?
Think carefully about the exact demands your business has for its point of sale needs before making a decision. Have you used any of these open source point of sale systems before, or perhaps a different one? What was your experience, and what advice would you give to others? Let us know in the comments below. For more discussion on open source and the role of the CIO in the enterprise, join us at.
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