The Best Retail POS Systems in Canada

Square is the best POS system for retail, all things considered. With its free retail-specific POS software, affordable yet stylish hardware, and paid plans geared towards growing businesses, Square is the most scalable and best value-for-money POS system we’ve looked at.

While Square is a cheap, low-risk option for small and medium-sized businesses, larger retail businesses looking for advanced customer engagement and retention tools will find Lightspeed Retail a better fit.

How did we come to this conclusion? We spent over 20 hours testing 10 different retail POS systems to find the five best systems for retail businesses. We know that modern retail POS systems aren’t just for managing stock and monitoring sales, but are also used to improve marketing and connect online and in-person sales. That’s why we took those features and more into account when evaluating retail POS systems.

The Best Retail POS Systems: At a Glance

Check out the table below for a quick overview of the POS systems for retail stores, and keep reading for detailed reviews of each:

1. Square: Best All-around Retail POS System

Square has a dedicated retail POS system, which includes a completely free software plan that’s a great option for new businesses, and affordable paid plans with more advanced features for established stores.

Our experience with Square

We found Square to be easy to use overall. The layout of the platform is very intuitive, with clear signposting on the side menu, and throughout different tabs. For this reason, basic tasks like adding items and their variants to the inventory and adding items to the checkout were completed without a hitch.

However, we did struggle with more demanding tasks, such as adding discounts at checkout. It took a little digging in the checkout menu to find this function, since it wasn’t clearly visible on the main checkout screen.

Why we like Square for retail

Square’s free POS plan is a great place to start if you’re a new or small retail business. You’ll be able to easily add existing products by scanning their barcodes and inputting their details, or import them in bulk if you prefer. Plus, you’ll get access to core tools like exchange and refund management.

Square also has an excellent free online store builder, which syncs with the POS system, allowing one to manage in-store and online sales from the same interface. You can even allow customers to schedule in-store pickups for online orders with this tool.

You’ll need to pay $79 per month for more comprehensive retail features, such as advanced inventory tools and reporting, and multi-location management. This is still fairly affordable compared to other POS systems. Shopify, for example, charges $119 per month per location, making it more expensive than Square in all respects.

Square also has some of the most affordable hardware on the market, with card readers starting from $69 and its 2nd generation iPad POS stand is available for $249. The latter offers integrated contactless and chip payment options to use with an iPad (not included) and Square’s iPad-made POS system, plus a swivelling design for customer-facing transactions, all for less than $100.

Meanwhile, its countertop kits start at $889, whereas you’d likely be paying over $1,000 for Clover’s equivalent (Clover doesn’t divulge its Canadian pricing so we can’t give an exact estimate).

Square’s shortcomings

Although it is a fairly versatile POS system, capable of handling both small and medium-sized retail operations, it does have its limits.

Its profit management tools aren’t extensive, for example, which could be an issue for businesses taking lots of payments at multiple locations. Shopify has a better set of tools to help businesses manage multi-channel and multi-location sales, including online orders.

There’s also no training mode for employees. This might not be an issue, since Square was one of the easiest systems to use that we tested. But, if you have a large staff team and need to get them up to speed quickly, you might benefit from a system like Lightspeed Retail, which does allow for training.

Lastly, Square’s card processing fees are a tad on the expensive side, at 2.5% on the free plan, and 2.45% paid plan. You can get lower fees with Clover since it offers customized, negotiable pricing, which is better value if you have a high sales volume.

2. Clover: Best for Managing Rapid Retail Expansion

Clover is the best POS system for managing rapid retail expansion, thanks to its three-tier pricing plans, extensive app store full of useful software add-ons, and excellent range of hardware.

Our experience with Clover

We were especially impressed by Clover’s hardware when testing it. The screens on its terminals were bright and very responsive, and its Clover Flex handheld POS device/card machine was very light and easy to hold in one hand, despite its size.

On the software side of things, although we were able to complete most tasks with ease, we did find Clover’s choice of words for functions to be a little vague at times. It was also a bit of a pain to add items and variants since we had to go into each item’s settings to add prices and variants, instead of working directly from the items tab.

Why we like Clover

In our testing, we found it to be very intuitive to use, striking a good balance between advanced functionality and usability. Clover’s POS system inventory tools allow you to track stock across locations, and you can create customized reports for everything from sales to profits.

Instant updates to your inventory are made possible with a barcode scanner on the Clover Flex, a handheld POS device that syncs with the main system. This handy device allows you to take payments on the go, and is a good fit if you want the ability to take payments on the shop floor – or you can simply use it for inventory purposes. Its countertop systems, the Station Solo or Station Duo come with a fingerprint login, making it easy for employees to log in and quickly process a sale.

Clover’s shortcomings

Clover’s great hardware comes at a hefty price, so it’s not the best option for small or new retail stores. It doesn’t help that Clover doesn’t advertise its pricing for the Canadian market, making it hard for businesses to tell if it’s in their budget without spending time getting a quote first.

You’ll get better value for money and transparent pricing with Square, which has very affordable hardware.

3. Shopify: Best for Managing In-store and Online Sales

Shopify is the best solution for managing both in-store and online sales, thanks to its integrated ecommerce and POS systems.

Our experience with Shopify POS

Shopify was relatively easy to use, and we appreciated the fact that the layout of its POS was the same as its e-commerce store, making for a seamless transition between the two.

The platform stood out when it came to how easy it was to add discounts to orders, something we struggled with on a lot of other POS systems. That said, we didn’t like that the keyboard and other pop-ups sometimes hid what we were typing, which made it hard to check for typos.

Why we like Shopify

Primarily an ecommerce website builder tool, Shopify has become a popular solution for omnichannel sellers. With its app-based software, you’ll get access to a unified dashboard, where you can manage inventory and sales across channels.

Useful features include the ability to accept in-store returns for online purchases and low-stock reports that take both online and in-person sales into account. You can also create customer profiles that sync in-person and online purchase history, making it easier to reward customer loyalty.

Plus, like Clover, Shopify also has an extensive app store, allowing you to tailor both your online store and your POS system to your needs.

Shopify’s hardware offering is also quite decent. It doesn’t sell physical terminals, since its software operates via an app, but it does have a pretty wide selection of POS accessories, from receipt printers to barcode scanners.

Shopify’s shortcomings

One of Shopify’s main downsides is that using its POS system requires you to also pay for a Shopify online store, on top of the $119 per month you’ll be paying for the POS, and that doesn’t come cheap. Online store plans range from $51 to $517 per month.

If you’re not interested in an online store but still want great functionality, we’d recommend Clover instead. If you do want an online store, but don’t want to pay Shopify’s hefty fees, then you should consider Square. It has free plans for both its POS software and ecommerce software, and its paid plans work out cheaper than Shopify’s.

Shopify’s processing fees are also quite high. If you’re not using Shopify Payments to process card transactions, Shopify adds on an extra 0.6%-2% on top of third-party processing fees.

4. Lightspeed Retail: Best for Managing Multiple Stores

Lightspeed Retail is the best POS system for managing multiple stores, thanks to its comprehensive inventory management tools, and excellent marketing add-ons.

Our experience with Lightspeed Retail

Although Lightspeed Retail wasn’t difficult to use, we did find the platform a little frustrating to use because of the lack of confirmation when changes were made, and some glitches. For example, when adding products, they didn’t immediately appear in the product inventory, so we weren’t sure if we had successfully added them.

Besides these glitches, we were impressed with Lightspeed’s reporting tools and particularly liked the detail given in payments and closure reports.

Why we like Lightspeed Retail

Lightspeed’s excellent inventory management solutions include being able to track items across multiple locations, and built-in supplier cataloging and cross-site stock reordering, which can help avoid shrinkage.

If you opt for Lightspeed Retail’s Advanced Marketing add-on, you’ll also get access to great loyalty and customer retention tools. You can store customer data, and create personalized marketing emails and promotions, as well as offer customers loyalty programs.

Lightspeed also has some great reporting tools. You can run automated reports to analyze sales and customer behaviour, allowing you to quickly adapt your operations and maximize sales.

Lightspeed Retail’s shortcomings

Lightspeed Retail’s main shortcoming is that, unlike the other providers on this list, it’s not fully transparent with its pricing. It lets you know how much you’ll pay for its software and basic hardware packages, but not how much additional hardware, or add-ons cost. The provider with the most clearly laid out pricing is Square, which tells what everything costs, from hardware accessories to add-on software.

Like Shopify, Lightspeed Retail’s POS system is also app-based and requires an iOS tablet; it’s not compatible with Android. So, if you’re looking for a physical terminal and a wide range of hardware, we’d recommend Clover or Epos Now instead.

Lastly, Lightspeed doesn’t have dedicated cost vs profit management tools and makes you pay extra for advanced reporting. So, if you want robust reporting as part of your basic system, we’d recommend Clover or Shopify.

5. Epos Now: Best for Small Retail Businesses

Epos Now is our pick for the best retail POS system for small businesses, since there’s a possibility of paying no monthly fees if you pay more for the hardware and software bundle.

Our experience with Epos Now

Epos Now was one of the more challenging POS systems we tested, mainly because there were so many tools at our disposal. For example, adding products to the inventory was very easy, but creating variants for them wasn’t because of the amount of detail the platform demanded for each variant.

We also found it quite hard to type on Epos Now’s touchscreen-mounted register because the screen was very large and set a little too high for comfort. We think this could easily be improved if the provider made the mount retractable.

Why we like Epos Now

Epos Now offers great value. For one upfront payment of $649, you’ll get access to Epos Now’s POS software, and a hardware kit that includes a terminal, built-in receipt printer, and card machine, and then a $107 per month fee after that for 12 months. Beyond that, how much you pay will be determined by what you renegotiate with EPOS Now.

Alternatively, if you have your own hardware already, you can just get the software for a lower, negotiable fee.

If you need it, you can also purchase additional hardware and accessories at a reasonable price, like barcode scanners for $99, or staff swipe cards for $79.

Epos Now’s POS system also affords you a decent amount of functionality for the price. Its POS software is cloud-based, which means you can access it from a desktop, app, or the till system. You’ll also get access to excellent cost and profit management tools, at no extra cost, and extensive inventory categorization.

Epos Now’s shortcomings

One of Epos Now’s main shortcomings is its total lack of native marketing tools, placing it at odds with all the other providers on this list. However, you can integrate your Epos Now POS system with a variety of marketing apps, such as Mailchimp or Loyalzoo.

Additionally, despite being an affordable option, Epos Now actually isn’t the easiest system to use. It was the one we struggled with the most during testing, so might not be a good fit for novice POS users. For a simple system, we’d recommend Square.

Buying Guide: How to Choose a Retail POS System

If you’ve read all the reviews, and still don’t quite know what POS system is best for your retail business, don’t sweat it.

Here are some of the things you should consider before making a decision:

• Cost and pricing structure: You know your budget better than we do, and it goes without saying that you shouldn’t choose a POS system that you can’t afford. We recommend that you look closely at the pricing structure, and assess what’s included for free, and what comes at an added cost, to get the best deal.
• POS functions and available hardware: Assess your business needs, and choose a provider that meets them closely. For example, do you want to sell online, or only in-person? Do you need a system that can manage multiple stores, or just one? You should also look at the physical equipment that’s available to buy or rent from each POS system provider. If you accept cash as well as card, look for a POS provider that has a till setup.
• Ease of use: As a rule of thumb, the easier a POS system is to use, the better. This will speed up training and service times, and reduce room for error. This doesn’t mean you need to go with the absolute easiest system to use. If you and your employees are experienced with POS systems, you could compromise on ease of use in favour of advanced features.
• Customer support: Good customer support shouldn’t be overlooked when it comes to POS systems. We’d recommend choosing a POS system that has a customer support phone line since calling is usually the fastest way to get an issue resolved. Live chat channels, help centers, and community forums, if the POS system has them, can also be great for quick troubleshooting.

Our Methodology: How We Tested Retail POS Systems