The 6 Best POS Systems in Australia

We’ve tested 20 major POS systems, and can confidently say that Square offers the best POS system for Australian businesses.

Square has a comprehensive free plan and reasonably priced hardware, with terminal stands starting at $149, making it an affordable option for small and new businesses. When you’re ready to upgrade, it offers paid plans from $40 per month, and custom plans with more functions, as well as reasonably priced add-on tools for marketing, allowing businesses to keep the customers rolling in.

That said, for large businesses with complex operations, Square might not be the best choice, since it is missing profit management tools. For ambitious retailers who want to sell both in-store and online Shopify is a better option, while TouchBistro and Lightspeed offer powerful solutions for full-service restaurants.

Many POS providers like Clover, TouchBistro, Lightspeed, and EPOS Now have custom price points for transaction fees. In other words, you won’t know what you’ll be paying until you contact each provider.

If you’d like to cut to the chase, you can get exact, no-obligation pricing quotes directly from the best EPOS suppliers in the UK through our free quote-finding tool. For now, here’s everything we know about each supplier in our top six EPOS systems.

1. Square: Best for Scaling and Growing Your Business

Square is the best POS system for businesses looking to scale and grow, thanks to its affordable entry point price, and range of POS solutions designed to suit businesses of different sizes and industries, from hospitality to services.

What makes Square one of the best POS systems?

Small businesses, or those just starting out, can benefit from Square’s free POS software plan, which comes with multi-site stock and employee management, and menu and table management for hospitality businesses. These features aren’t always included in free POS software, and are missing from SumUp’s free POS software, one reason the provider didn’t make this list. A functional free POS plan like Square’s can give your businesses a leg up when it’s just starting out, by minimizing monthly overheads.

As your business grows, you can upgrade your Square plan (for a monthly fee of $40 to $129) to get access to more advanced features, catered to the type of business you run. For example, Square’s paid plan for retail businesses, which starts at $109 per month, per location, gives you access to more advanced reporting tools, like tracking discounts use.

The paid plans have a wide range of additional features, tailored to each business type, and offer good value for money on that front. Processing fees are still slightly, however, staying at 1.6%.

Square’s range of POS hardware also makes it easy to scale. Businesses can start out with simple card readers or tablets – such as using Square’s 2nd gen Stand for simple, integrated contactless and chip payment options via its iPad POS app – and move on to tills complete with cash drawers and receipt printers when needed, without having to switch to a new provider.

Our experience with Square

We found Square generally very easy to use. The backend was quite intuitive, and we had no trouble creating menus or listing items. We did struggle a little with more complex tasks like applying discounts to an order or splitting a bill, with one tester noting that they had to “add the amount” each customer was paying, instead of being able to assign items to them.

When it comes to hardware, we tested the Square Terminal, its portable POS device and card machine. While it was easy to access inventory and process payments from the device, we did have issues with the physical design. The card machine was quite wide, so wasn’t easy to hold in one hand, making it better suited to countertops than table service.

What type of business is Square good for?

Square’s free plan is good for small, single-location businesses, such as cafes, independent boutiques, or salons. The paid plans are suitable for businesses with up to three locations, such as budding chain restaurants. Businesses with more than three locations might find Square’s reporting tools a little limiting, as they aren’t designed to handle a lot of different locations, unless you opt for a custom plan.

Square’s pricing

Square alternatives you might also like

• Lightspeed: If you need cost management tools, or a POS system with a training mode for your staff, Lightspeed has these options, while Square doesn’t
• Clover: If you want a POS system that comes with cheap card processing fees, or own a restaurant and need to track ingredients, Clover is a better option than Square. It’s processing fees are negotiable, and can be as low as 0.2% if you process a lot of cards
• Shopify: If you’re an online-first business, Shopify can build you a better online store than Square – it has far more design and customisation options – and has a POS system that includes cost management tools

2. Clover: Best for Professional Hardware

Clover is the best POS system for businesses seeking professional hardware that can handle a fast-paced environment. Its got three different countertop terminals, two of which include a customer display, a handheld POS device that doubles as card machine, and a range of accessories.

What makes Clover one of the best POS systems?

Clover’s hardware was the best we tested. It was sleek and responsive, and its handheld POS device and card machine, the Clover Flex felt lightweight, despite its size.

Among Clover’s hardware offering is the Clover Station Pro, which is a countertop kit that comes with an employee and customer-facing screen, and a card machine. We found the customer display screen particularly intuitive, which restaurants will find useful when taking orders. It’s got a sleek design and responsive touch-screen, so your staff won’t have trouble with it, and you can customise the display and use it to show off promotional items.

During testing, we found the Clover POS system quite easy to use, despite having advanced features such as stock alerts and profit tracking. Adding a discount to an order with Clover was much easier than with Square since the option was presented to us at checkout, instead of us having to look for it on the screen. This is an advantage when training multiple employees, since they won’t need to waste time figuring out how the system works. On your end, you’ll be able to track inventory, profits, and employee performance across multiple locations.

Clover also has an extensive app store, where you can find solutions such as employee time clocks, customer loyalty programs, and cash tracking.

Our experience with Clover

We had no trouble assigning orders to guests and splitting bills with Clover, unlike on platforms like Square. The only thing that was slightly more challenging was printing receipts for a split bill. One tester noted that when splitting a bill, they didn’t realize they had to select the guests one by one at first, and instead selected all the guests, meaning the bill wasn’t registered as split.

When it comes to hardware, we were particularly impressed by how light the Clover Flex, Clover’s handheld POS device/card machine, was. Despite its size, it fit easily in our hand and didn’t feel cumbersome, making it great for table service.

What type of business is Clover good for?

Clover is a good option for establishments with multiple locations and several staff members. Its advanced features and easy-to-use platform makes it especially well suited to fast-paced environments.

It’s a good solution for retail stores, although we’d say it’s slightly more catered to food and beverage businesses, thanks to extra features such as QR code ordering.

Clover’s pricing

Clover’s pricing is in US dollars:

Clover alternatives you might also like

• Square: If you’re a small cafe or pop up that needs a low risk, portable POS system, Square is more suited to your needs than Clover
• Lightspeed: If you’re a restaurant owner who wants to know what you’ll be paying from the get-go, Lightspeed is a good alternative to Clover, since they disclose pricing on their website, which Clover does not
• Shopify: If you’re a retailer that values a good help and support network, you might want to go with Shopify, since it has a community forum (something Clover lacks)

3. Shopify: Best for Omnichannel Retail Businesses

Shopify is the best EPOS system for managing both in-store and online sales, thanks to its dual offering of ecommerce and EPOS software.

What makes Shopify one of the best POS systems?

First and foremost an online store builder, Shopify has branched out into the POS landscape. It has a unified dashboard that integrates both ecommerce and POS functions, and is able to manage inventory across channels to prevent any discrepancies in sale reports.

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. That being said, unlike Square or Clover, Shopify doesn’t have a built-in loyal programme builder, you need to integrate the system with a third-party app to build one.

Shopify also comes with a great help and support network for new users. In the Shopify Help Centre, we found answers to an enormous range of questions, as well as tutorials for using the platform, and a forum where you can troubleshoot with other businesses that use Shopify.

Our experience with Shopify

We found Shopify to be an intuitive system overall, with testers praising the interface for being very straightforward and very modern. The unified system for online and in-store sales meant that we didn’t have much trouble locating and sorting items. Even splitting a payment between cash and card was relatively simple.

However, we did experience some minor issues with the pop-up keyboard on Shopify’s iPad app. It sometimes covered the text we were typing, making it difficult to check for typos.

What type of business is Shopify good for?

Shopify’s POS system is tailored to retail stores that also sell online. Its ideal candidates are established online retail businesses that have one to five physical stores, and need robust inventory management. We wouldn’t recommend it to smaller businesses since its ecommerce plans (which you have to pay to get access to POS features) are expensive.

Smaller businesses that are just starting to sell online and in person are also good candidates, since the Shopify POS app can be accessed via smartphones and tablets, meaning you can use it without paying for expensive hardware. The $7 Starter plan also allows businesses to accept in-person payments via smartphone with tap-to-pay, no card machine required.

Shopify isn’t recommended for food and drink businesses, as it doesn’t have the features to handle menus and table plans.

Shopify’s pricing

Shopify alternatives you might also like

•  Clover: Shopify doesn’t sell physical terminals or tablets, despite the fact that its POS app can only be accessed via smartphone or tablet. If you don’t already have these available, and want a supplier that can provide you with some, Clover is a good alternative
• Zettle: Shopify’s processing fees (starting from 1.75%) are on the expensive side, especially when paired with the monthly fee. If you want cheap processing fees and a low-cost plan, you could try Zettle by PayPal, which doesn’t charge monthly fees, and can integrate with a variety of ecommerce platforms – though it hasn’t made our top selection because its hardware and POS software isn’t on par with competitors
• Lightspeed: Although Shopify has tutorials and a vast help centre, its POS system doesn’t have a training mode for staff. If that’s a priority for you, Lightspeed is a good alternative

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

Lightspeed is one the best EPOS systems for driving customer loyalty, thanks to its proprietary marketing tools and loyalty programmes.

What makes Lightspeed one of the best POS systems?

Lightspeed has two POS systems, one for restaurants and one for retail, and both come with a plethora of marketing and loyalty tools. To name a few, they include email and SMS marketing tools, loyalty programmes, automated marketing campaigns, gift card creation, and customer tabs, so you have a history of all previous orders.

These features do cost extra, but they’re built-into the system, so you don’t need to rely on third-party integrations.  And, using features like these to stay connected with your customers and give them incentives to return can help drive business growth. Lightspeed’s customer loyalty features also include access to an app store (on both Restaurant and Retail plans) that includes tools such as customer birthday mailers.

Both of Lightspeed’s POS systems also have a robust set of tools for managing sales and inventory, including cost vs profit breakdowns, and reports offer detailed insights into the performance of each channel or store. Cost vs profits reporting is essential for businesses with multiple locations, and is a key feature that’s missing from rival Square.

On the practical side, since Lightspeed’s POS software is completely tablet based, it allows your staff to stay mobile while serving customers. The software is also a cloud-based, unified platform, making it easy for you to oversee multiple locations at once.

Our experience with Lightspeed

Lightspeed was a little more challenging to use compared to the other POS systems we tested. As one tester put it, the platform was either “really easy and really obvious”, or impossible to figure out, depending on the task.

We mainly struggled with the frontend while trying to complete tasks such as adding a note to an order or adding a customer’s details, because of system lags or failures, which is a little concerning. We didn’t encounter such issues with rivals Clover or Toast.

That said, Lightspeed’s backend was very easy to use, since it had a much clearer layout than the frontend.

What type of business is Lightspeed good for?

Lightspeed is a good POS solution for both restaurants and retail stores, since it has dedicated systems for both these business types, with tailored functionalities.

Lightspeed Restaurant, for example, allows customers to order online, at the table, or from a QR code, while Lightspeed Retail comes with an online store builder.

Both of these solutions are best suited for medium-sized establishments, or ones with multiple locations, who need an POS system that can handle complex inventories, and help them grow and maintain their reputation by driving repeat sales.

Lightspeed’s pricing

Transaction fee amounts and hardware costs (card machines, tills, tablets, and terminals) are only available upon request at Lightspeed.

Lightspeed alternatives you might also like

• Clover: Clover has a superior range of terminals and accessories than Lightspeed, so if you need the best POS hardware on the market, Clover’s your best bet
• Shopify or Square: If you’re a smaller business, or are just starting out, and need a cheap or free starting plan, Shopify (with its $7 per month retail Starter Plan), or Square, with doesn’t charge for its POS software, are more affordable options than Lightspeed

5. TouchBistro: Easiest Hospitality POS System to Use

Designed specifically for food and beverage businesses, TouchBistro is the easiest to use POS system. During our testing, we found it to be the most intuitive platform to use, largely thanks to its straightforward front-end interface, which made it easy for us to process orders quickly.

What makes TouchBistro one of the best POS systems?

You can customise your package to get the features you need, which means you don’t pay for features you don’t use. Unneeded features also won’t appear in your back-end or front-end, making the process of finding the features you do need while working much simpler.

One of TouchBistro’s standout tools is table planning. Everything can be customised, from table shape, size, colour, and labels. Rivals Clover and Epos Now don’t allow for colour customisation, while doesn’t let you change table labels. Additionally, we could edit the floorplan and change it at any time from both the front and back-end, and we found it easy to input guest table transfers into the system too, without losing the customers’ orders.

Since the system is tablet-based, it’s also highly mobile, so your staff have easy access to it while taking orders at tables.

Other features available as add-ons are reservation management, and marketing and loyalty tools, such as customer app creation and point collection systems. These features can help entice customers to return, and managing them from your POS system instead of a separate system can ensure accuracy and avoid errors.

Our experience with TouchBistro

We found TouchBistro’s POS system to be exceptionally user-friendly, especially when it came to using the frontend. We were able to quickly process orders in just a few taps, and could even edit our table plan directly from the frontend of the POS system, a rarity in the industry.

That said, we did find the dashboard menu titles to be a little vague at first, especially when compared to competitor Square. But, unlike Square, TouchBistro has a training mode, which can speed up the learning process, especially if you have a large staff.

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What type of business is TouchBistro good for?

TouchBistro is best suited to growing food and beverage chains, whether that be restaurants, cafes, or bars and pubs. This is mainly due to its excellent table management features, and tablet-based design, allowing for mobility.

Since a lot of TouchBistro’s most useful features (advanced reservation management, and customer loyalty programs) come at an extra cost, it’s not well-suited to businesses that are starting out, or serve at one small location, since they might end up spending over budget.

TouchBistro’s pricing

TouchBistro’s pricing is in US dollars:

TouchBitro doesn’t disclose the cost of its POS hardware solutions, or its processing fees. Businesses can purchase a variety of equipment from TouchBistro, including iPad tablets, card machines, tills, and receipt printers, with prices available upon request.

TouchBistro alternatives you might also like

• Clover: Clover has the best POS hardware on the market, so it’s a better fit than TouchBistro if you need top of the range terminals and accessories
• Toast: TouchBistro doesn’t offer mobile and QR code ordering for customers, so if that’s a feature you’re looking for, Toast has you covered
• Square: Square comes with extensive tip management tools that TouchBistro lacks, so if your staff relies on tips, Square might be a better option

6. Epos Now: Best for Managing Complex Inventories

Epos Now makes managing complex inventories easy, thanks to features like advanced categorisation, which enable to create multiple variants of the same item, and bulk inventory uploads.

What makes Epos Now one of the best POS systems?

Epos Now is our top pick for managing large, complex inventories. The cloud-based software comes with crucial features, such as low stock alerts, bulk inventory upload, and cost vs. profit analysis. All this can help businesses juggling a large inventory identify the most profitable items for future ordering.

The system’s reporting tools are also capable or handling large or multi-location businesses, with reporting by location available, as well as reports based on items, employees, refunds, and discounts.

When it comes to physical terminals, Epos Now offers up a terminal with a 15.6 inch HD touchscreen, and a large customer display, so everything is clearly visible. There’s also a host of accessories available, such as barcode scanners, card machines, and receipt printers. Our one gripe is that the terminal is quite large, and is probably not suitable for small shops or pop-ups.

Epos Now’s key drawback is the fact that it isn’t as easy to use as others on this list. We found it tricky to navigate certain tasks, such as order splitting, during our usability testing.

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.

What type of business is Epos Now good for?

Epos Now is suitable for a range of businesses, from smaller stores with just one or two locations, to large restaurants with multiple locations. That’s because it combines powerful EPOS software functions with a flexible pricing structure.

Large or multi-location businesses will benefit from excellent inventory and profit management tools, while smaller businesses looking to decrease their monthly spending can purchase their EPOS solution upfront, with the option of an iPad-based app available at a reduced rate.

Epos Now’s pricing

Epos Now accepts both upfront payments and monthly payments. Its EPOS software package includes equipment such as a physical terminal and receipt printer, but businesses have the option of purchasing or renting additional hardware.

Epos Now alternatives you might also like

• Square: Epos Now doesn’t have many built-in marketing features, or extensive and automated tip management tools, so if those are your must-haves, Square is a better option
• TouchBistro or Shopify: Epos Now is not the most intuitive system to use. If you or your staff are uninitiated when it comes to EPOS systems, you’ll have an easier time with TouchBistro (if you’re in the food and beverage sector) or Shopify (if you’re in retail)
• Lightspeed or Clover: Epos Now’s pricing can change after 12 months. If you’d prefer a provider with more stable pricing, Lightspeed, charges a fixed monthly fee for its hardware and software.

How to Choose a POS System

We get it: with so many providers on the market, picking one can feel daunting. To help you out, we’ve listed some of the things you should consider when choosing your POS system.

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.

For example, Square charges zero fees for using its EPOS software, but you’ll have to pay upfront for each card machine, till, or other piece of equipment you need. This can really add up if you have multiple stores.

A provider such as Clover, on the other hand, charges a monthly fee for using its software and any equipment you rent. This could work out cheaper if your business has multiple locations.

Don’t forget about card processing fees either. Companies that have cheap or free software tend to charge more expensive transaction fees, so that’s something to be wary of.

POS functions and available hardware

Assess your business needs, and choose a provider that meets them closely. Some POS systems are designed with certain types of businesses in mind (eg. pubs and restaurants vs retail stores), which makes locating the right fit easier.

It’s also important to look at the features included in the POS software. For example, are you a pub or fast-food establishment that requires QR code ordering? Providers such as Clover and Lightspeed have this, while TouchBistro doesn’t.

You should also look at the physical equipment that’s available to buy or rent from each POS system provider. If your staff needs to take orders at tables, for example, a tablet-based POS system will be beneficial. If you accept cash as well as card, look for a POS provider that has a till setup.

Some POS systems are compatible with third-party hardware, but it’s always best to check if your existing equipment or the equipment you plan on buying can easily integrate with your chosen POS system.

You can find out more about what the average cost of a POS system is in Australia in our guide.

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.

POS systems like Clover and TouchBistro are particularly easy to operate, while Lightspeed has a training mode for new employees.

Customer support

Good customer support shouldn’t be overlooked when it comes to POS systems. In an ideal world, you’d never have to contact customer support but, let’s face it, no system is ever perfect.

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 centres, and community forums, if the POS system has them, can also be great for quick troubleshooting.

Don’t forget to look at customer support opening times. Most POS customer support teams operate during the week, but a few are also available at weekends and holidays, which could be really valuable if those are your busiest times.

Our Methodology: How We Test POS Systems