EPOS Till Rental: The Ultimate Guide

Renting an EPOS till for your EPOS system software is a great way to avoid spending large, upfront sums to purchase equipment outright.

While some EPOS software is free, prices for basic systems, consisting of a single till and simple software, usually start from as little as £19 per month. More advanced EPOS systems can cost over £165 per month.

Down below, we detail the benefits of different types of EPOS systems, whether your business should choose to rent or lease equipment, and all the other burning questions you have about renting an EPOS system – including some suggestions of top providers to pick.

Average EPOS Till Rental Costs

We compared prices from our leading EPOS suppliers to find the average cost of renting an EPOS system in the UK.

Note: Prices are an estimate and subject to change. Rates can typically be negotiated with the supplier.

Why Get an EPOS Till For Your Business?

Using an EPOS system has many time and cost-saving advantages, which vary according to your industry.

• Bars, pubs, and restaurants: They fasten service time and improve staff efficiency. Table management can also be done via the EPOS system and it can automate end-of-day cash count.
• Hotels and leisure sector businesses: The customer relationship management (CRM) tools offered by some EPOS systems allow for a tailored engagement with customers. They’re also a way to take and manage online reservations with ease.
• Retailers: EPOS systems provide crucial sales insights while allowing for extensive stock management control. Promotional deals can also be streamlined and price adjusting can be easily automated.

Types of EPOS tills you can rent

Each type of EPOS till system has different benefits, from mobility and ease of use to data management and customer interaction. Ultimately, the best EPOS system for you depends on your business needs, such as what environment you operate in or the level of software integration that suits your operations.

Here’s a rundown of the three main EPOS hardware types to help you decide what equipment will be best for your business.

Countertop EPOS tills

A countertop EPOS till is the most popular — and often the cheapest — type of EPOS system available.

They’re operated using either a keyboard or touchscreen interface and can be integrated with a tablet device or wireless card machine to form a more mobile EPOS solution. They can also be linked to other hardware such as card readers, receipt printers, and cash drawers.

While a countertop EPOS till is adaptable for many businesses, we particularly like that they are:

• Durable and reliable for continuous use.
• Offer comprehensive features suitable for high-volume transactions.

Suited to: Retail stores, restaurants and hospitality businesses with a permanent point of sale.

Touchscreen EPOS Terminal

Touchscreen EPOS tills are rapidly becoming the standard option for many shops and retail outlets thanks to their ease of use and simple, intuitive interface. They are generally much smaller than countertop options, using less countertop space with more basic transaction processing options.

A touchscreen terminal could be ideal for your business if you are looking for:

• Easy-to-learn: Intuitive to use for employees — even the less tech-savvy ones.
• Quick Payments: Fast, efficient and accurate processing of customer payments.
• Space-saving solution: Touchscreen EPOS tills take up less room as they generally require less power and don’t need a mouse or keyboard.

Suited to: Small to medium-sized retail and hospitality businesses​ processing simple transactions at fast-pace.

Portable and Handheld EPOS till systems

Portable EPOS systems range from simple handheld devices to iPad/tablet-based EPOS solutions.

These lightweight systems are ideal for dynamic sales environments, with many packages geared towards the hospitality and catering industries where the point of sale is often at the customer’s table.

Handheld EPOS systems are easy to operate and, in a restaurant setting, can be used to send orders directly to the kitchen with the click of a button.

The benefits of handheld EPOS systems are:

• Clear and concise touch-screen ordering through the device helps minimise wrong orders and hard-to-read handwriting.
• High mobility and quick setup, helpful for on-the-go businesses.
• Kitchens can receive orders quicker and prepare food sooner.
• Efficient management of tables and staff ensures a smoother shift.
• Easy to sync with EPOS hub via Bluetooth or WiFi.
• Enables smarter scheduling of staff, helping to save you money.
• Easily update and add new features through apps.

Suited to: Market traders, mobile food vendors, and event organisers.

EPOS Tills: Local vs. Cloud-Based Data Storage

EPOS systems manage and store data you use for your business activities in two primary ways: locally via the equipment on-premise or remotely via internet-based cloud storage.

Today, cloud-based storage is incredibly common. This is because most EPOS hardware and software are integrated, and that tends to mean cloud-based software and data storage are part of the package, too.

By using a cloud EPOS system, a business can scale its operations up or down without significantly changing its overall software or hardware infrastructure. Plus, you can access data remotely and more easily integrate business data and operations with other cloud services, such as accounting and CRM software.

Here’s a brief comparison of cloud-based EPOS systems and those which store data locally:

EPOS Tills: Renting vs. Leasing

For many businesses, it makes sense to rent an EPOS system. But if you do decide that purchasing is the best way to go then it’s worth considering a lease-to-buy deal.

EPOS leasing contracts typically run for about 18 months and at the end of it, the system is yours to keep. Leasing rates are a little higher than renting rates, while the length of the lease can also impact overall cost. Generally, the shorter the lease, the less you’ll pay overall.

Ultimately, depending on the type and state of your business, leasing may be more or less attractive than renting your EPOS till. Here are some of the major things to consider about either option:

Leasing Costs

While rates will ultimately vary depending on the equipment you need, below we’ve provided example monthly fees for leasing an EPOS system worth £1,000 based on the length of the lease, so you can know what to expect.

How Long Can I Hire an EPOS Cash Register For?

Short Term Till Hire

Short term EPOS till hire is a great option for businesses that operate seasonally or for short or uncertain periods of time. In particular pop-up stores, start-ups without a fixed location and traders at festivals and events will benefit from short term EPOS till rental.

It can also be a solid option to reinforce your existing EPOS systems during peak trading periods.

Short term EPOS rental is generally charged on a weekly basis. You can expect to pay a little more in rates than you would leasing for a longer period.

Long Term Till Hire

Long term EPOS hire is the go-to option for most businesses looking to lease EPOS tills. Not only do you get cheaper rental rates, but most contracts are open-ended so you can keep hold of the system for as long as you need it.

You’ll benefit from regular software updates from your EPOS supplier, usually free of charge, and hardware is usually upgraded annually.

The main benefit of long term EPOS system rental is that you’ll be able to build a data-rich picture of customer buying habits, employee performance and stock management. EPOS systems track all this and more, and by using the backend software, you can gain valuable business insights to help you optimise and refine your working processes.

EPOS till rental contracts, servicing and installation

Contracts

EPOS rental contracts for retail outlets and shops work in a similar way to a mobile phone contracts: you pay a set fee over a fixed length of time, from one week to 60 months, it’s your call.

Costs tend to decrease as the contract gets longer. So to get the best rental rates for an EPOS till you need to think carefully about how long you’ll need the system for and sign a contract accordingly. Don’t just pay on a rolling weekly basis.

Installation

Nearly all EPOS till rental contracts include free installation. Though increasingly providers are offering a plug-and-play option where the system comes pre-configured and just needs to be switched on. Either way, with any reputable EPOS supplier, installation should be a breeze.

When you sign an EPOS rental contract you should expect to receive:

1. Installation by a trained engineer
2. Fully programmed equipment (e.g. with correct logos etc already pre-loaded. Your stock list can be added by the engineer.)
3. On site training for all staff
4. Quick-start guides and easy-to-use manuals
5. Ongoing support as and when needed if issues arise

Servicing and repairs

Free servicing and repairs is included with most rental contracts — it’s one of the big advantages of hiring an EPOS system over buying one outright.

If you experience a problem with your EPOS till, suppliers will first try to fix it over the phone. If that doesn’t work they’ll have a replacement unit sent to you, usually within 24 hours, to minimise loss of earnings.

Top 4 UK EPOS Suppliers

Here’s a quick round-up of the best EPOS suppliers in the UK, according to our thorough research and testing.

1. Square: Best for Growing Your Business

Square is our top-rated EPOS system for small to medium-sized businesses due to its cost-effectiveness and scalability. It offers a free plan with essential features like stock and employee management, making it great for startups, cafes, and small retailers.

Plus, we found it relatively easy to use during testing, with only a few hiccoughs around applying discounts at checkout. This makes it suitable for novice users, business owners and staff alike.

As businesses grow, Square’s plans can be upgraded (for a monthly fee between £29 to £69) to include advanced inventory and reporting tools (view reports by shifts, employees, returns, discounts, and more).

Unless you opt for a custom plan, it is less suited to chain businesses with more than three shops as its reporting tools aren’t designed to handle a lot of locations. It’s missing cost vs profit management for example. Still, Square also integrates with free online store builders, aiding businesses looking to expand into e-commerce alongside their in-person business.

And regarding EPOS till hardware, Square allows you to rent your choice of equipment between two set dates for hardware in the numbers of 1 to over 50. You can also purchase the hardware outright with upfront or instalment lease payments over a certain number of months.

2. Clover: Best EPOS for Professional Hardware

Clover provides the most robust hardware tailored for fast-paced environments, making it ideal for businesses needing professional-grade EPOS systems.

We particularly like the Clover Station Pro when we tested it, find it responsive, bright, and at a comfortable height for typing. The Clover Station Pro features intuitive dual screens and a built-in card machine, enhancing order efficiency in settings like restaurants. Its user-friendly interface, combined with advanced features like stock alerts and profit tracking, streamlines operations and staff training.

Clover also supports multiple locations and offers an app store with tools for employee management and customer engagement. A standout feature is its fingerprint recognition, speeding up staff logins and operations during busy periods. We believe it is best suited to the food and beverage sector, but Clover’s extensive capabilities make it an excellent choice for general retail needs, too.

As for its EPOS hardware, Clover does allow both rental and purchase of its equipment. This information isn’t public, so you’ll need to contact its sales team for a quote on the exact hardware you want to purchase and how.

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

Shopify stands out as a superb EPOS system due to it integrating both in-store and online sales on a single platform. As you may expect, retail businesses with both physical and online operations will benefit most from this. But what else does it offer?

Well, robust inventory management, such as stock level updates and bulk inventory  uploads, and customer profile synchronization across channels. Shopify’s unique advantage lies in its seamless service from the same provider for e-commerce and EPOS systems, unlike other systems that require third-party integration.

Despite its powerful capabilities, Shopify’s interface is quite intuitive, and we didn’t struggle completing many tasks during testing. Our minor complaint is that the keyboard pop-up sometimes covers what you’re writing.

However, due to its pricing, we believe Shopify is less optimal for smaller businesses or those in the hospitality industry lacking specific features, like menu management.

With Shopify, it isn’t clear if you can rent EPOS hardware in the UK. It is possible to rent and purchase for US-based users, so we’d like to think you could in the UK too, though the online store only discusses outright purchase. We recommend talking to its sales team to understand what payment plans you can arrange for your business.

4. Lightspeed: Best for Fostering Repeat Business and Customer Loyalty

Lightspeed is our pick of the EPOS systems for promoting customer loyalty. It comes equipped with targeted marketing tools like email and SMS campaigns, and loyalty schemes, tailored for both retail and restaurant settings.

Elsewhere, it offers fairly comprehensive sales and inventory management tools to aid your business in uncovering valuable insights to optimise operations. Notably, Lightspeed operates on a cloud-based, tablet-friendly platform, facilitating staff mobility and multi-location management. Even better, it has a 14-day free trial, allowing you and your business colleagues to evaluate its capabilities before committing to whether it’s for you.

However, Lightspeed was one of the more tricky systems we tested, mainly due to the fact that we encountered serious lags when trying to add customers to our database. This wasn’t the case on rival platforms.

Lightspeed offer the little public clarity about their EPOS hardware costs. However, after speaking to its customer support channels, we discovered that you can rent or purchase its EPOS equipment. You’ll need to contact its sales team for the exact prices of the hardware you need.

How Do We Test EPOS Systems?

We spent around 160 hours researching EPOS platforms, and over 20 hours testing them to bring you this list. We evaluated them based on six categories, broken down into between four and 12 subcategories, in order to get an impartial ranking.

Here’s what we looked at:

• EPOS software: the breadth of features included in the EPOS software, and how valuable they are to the average business, including inventory management, menu/product creation, customer engagement tools and table management.
• Hardware/equipment: the variety of equipment available to purchase or rent, with special importance given to key items, such as physical terminals, customer displays, and accessories.
• Ease-of-use: how easy each system is to use, based on feedback from several average users who were assigned basic tasks to complete on each system, such as menu/item creation, accessing reports, or applying a discount.
• Help and support: how effective and reachable the customer support teams are, with bonus points given to EPOS systems with help centres and training modes.
• Costs: the price of the system, how it compares to competitors, and whether it’s good value for money.
• User experience: whether everyday users know and like the system, whether they’d recommend it, and what they say about it in online reviews.

We gave each EPOS system a score in each of the above testing and research categories, and combined them to produce an overall score, which was used to rank them.

Next Steps: Getting a Custom Quote

The best way to save money on EPOS till hire for your business is to compare quotes from multiple suppliers. The problem is that most providers have custom pricing systems. As a result, it’s difficult and time-consuming to work out exactly how much each provider will cost you.

Luckily, this is where Expert Market can help. Just fill in our free comparison tool and we’ll match you with trusted EPOS providers, who will then send bespoke quotes your way.