The 5 Best POS Systems for Small Businesses in Canada

Square is the best POS system for small businesses in Canada, based on the results of our most recent POS tests. It offers comprehensive free POS software plans for both retail and hospitality businesses, a simple, slick interface, and a range of affordable hardware.

Price isn’t everything, however, and we’ve made sure to balance functionality and cost when researching the most suitable POS systems for small businesses. With that in mind, Toast is our runner-up. Its starting price of $120 per month is expensive, but it’s worth it for busy hospitality businesses that need to manage large food and beverage inventories.

On the retail side, Shopify is worth exploring if you run a business that sells online and in-store, as its integrated ecommerce tools are unmatched in the industry. You can see a full list of the five POS systems that made the cut and why below.

For a quick summary of what you’ll get for your money with each top small business POS system, see the table below:

1. Square: Best All-around Small Business POS System

Price from: $0-$85 per month for software only, plus custom plans

Key features

• Free software plans (does not include hardware costs)
• Tablet-based software app
• Industry specific packages
• Wide range of hardware (from terminals to barcode scanners)
• Free online store builder

What makes Square great for small businesses?

Square has managed to stay on our list for several years thanks to its free POS software plans, which cover retail, restaurants, and appointment-based businesses such as salons. Pair this with a free online store builder, and Square is an affordable option for small businesses.

Free doesn’t mean substandard with Square. Its free POS software plans come with premium features such as multi-site stock tracking, employee management for up to five members (shift tracking and scheduling), and table planning for restaurants (a feature often omitted from free plans). And if you sell online via a Square online store, you’ll be able to seamlessly track orders and sales across platforms.

You’ll still have to pay for equipment, since hardware isn’t included in the free plan, unlike with SpotOn. However, since Square is a tablet-based POS system, if you already own an iPad, you could limit your purchases to the $69 Square reader or the $249 iPad stand with a built-in reader.

Square is also a scalable option. As your business grows, you can upgrade to its paid plans to get access to advanced inventory management and reporting features, such as stock forecasting (recommendations on what to reorder), supplier management, and profit forecasting.

Our experience testing Square

We found Square generally very easy to use. The backend was intuitive, and we had no trouble creating menus or listing items. And we appreciated the search function, which helped us find tools quickly.

We did run into a few annoying glitches, however, such as the table plan not appearing in the backend, and we found the process of cancelling orders and adding staff accounts overly complicated.

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 it wasn’t easy to hold in one hand, making it better suited to countertops than table service.

What could Square improve?

Although Square is a scalable option, thanks to its free plans and affordable paid plans, it’s missing a few advanced features. For example, Square doesn’t offer cost versus profit analysis on any of its plans, and its restaurant POS system is missing ingredient usage tracking.

These are useful tools for when your small business grows into a large business, since they can minimize waste. If you think you’ll need them, a good, but more expensive alternative is Toast.

Square also doesn’t have a training mode for staff, which can slow down onboarding new recruits. That said, Square’s software is quite easy to use, so this isn’t a huge issue, but if a training mode is a must for your business, competitors Clover and Toast offer one.

2. Toast: Best for Established Restaurants with Complex Operations

Price from: $120-$220 per month for software and hardware, plus custom plan

Key features

• Dedicated restaurant POS system
• Expensive compared to competitors
• Countertop terminals and an Android app
• Extensive cost management features
• Online and mobile ordering (paid add-on)

What makes Toast great for small businesses?

Toast is more expensive than competitors, with its software plans starting at $120 per month. But, for small businesses that have the budget for it, Toast is a great POS system for restaurants, especially ones with complex operations.

That’s because it has a large array of inventory and profit management tools. These include food and recipe cost management, low stock alerts, and kitchen productivity reporting (only available on the Essentials plan). That last one is missing from SpotOn’s toolkit.

These features are essential for minimizing waste and increasing profit lines, especially for restaurants that juggle a large menu.

The $120 per month Starter plan is a better value for money than the $220 per month Essentials plan, since both plans have almost exactly the same features. The main difference between the two is that the Essentials plan comes with a handheld POS device and a KDS, as opposed to just a POS terminal.

Whichever hardware kit you choose, you should rest easy knowing that, since Toast is engineered for restaurants, all its hardware is built to withstand heat, grease, and spills.

You can also take your restaurant online with online and mobile ordering, using Toast’s delivery services and takeout app. However, this is an add-on, so it costs extra. Other useful add-ons whose price isn’t disclosed include employee scheduling, gift card creation, and built-in marketing and loyalty tools.

Our experience testing Toast

We found Toast was very easy to use, especially when completing basic tasks such as creating floorplans and menus. Even tasks we struggled with on platforms like Square, such as splitting bills and applying discounts, were completed easily on Toast.

Our main complaint is that we found it hard to set up tip-sharing policies for employees since we had trouble finding this setting in the backend due to vague signposting. We also struggled with setting up a discount on an order, which is something we had trouble with on a lot of other POS platforms we tested.

In this case, we found Toast’s wording a little confusing, since you have to click on an “update” button to find the discount button. Square clearly labels this option on the checkout screen.

What could Toast improve?

One downside to Toast is that it has a high starting price, and a lot of its features, such as marketing or scheduling, are paid add-ons with no disclosed price, making budgeting hard. So, if you’ve got a simple menu, you’ll do better with SpotOn or Square’s free plans.

Additionally, although Toast’s POS app is only compatible with Android tablets. If you already use an iPad-based EPOS software and want to spare yourself the expense of replacing your hardware, we recommend Square instead.

3. Shopify: Best for Retail Businesses With an Online Presence

Price from: $119/month + $37-$389/month for online store

Key features

• Unified platform for managing in-person and online sales
• Expensive with added cost of ecommerce platform
• Extensive inventory management features
• Large app store for third-party software integrations
• iPad-based terminals and compact card machines

What makes Shopify great for small businesses?

Shopify is better known as an ecommerce platform, but it has offered POS software and equipment for several years now, becoming one of the best POS systems for retailers that sell both online and in-store.

It only has one POS plan, which costs $119 per month, and we recommend small businesses pair it with Shopify’s cheapest ecommerce plan for an added $37 per month.

This is expensive, but it gives you access to Shopify’s unified dashboard that integrates both ecommerce and POS functions is one of its key strengths, making managing inventory and sales across platforms easy.

Shopify’s POS features include assigning products to be sold online, in-store, or both, and stock levels update to reflect both in-person and online sales. It’s also possible to accept in-store returns for online purchases and customer profiles that sync in-person and online purchase history.

Shopify is also a great choice for small businesses that use a lot of different software, or want to expand theeir feature kit with integrations, since it integrates with over 8,000 apps, far more than the 1,300 runner-up Square integrates with. These include loyalty tools, CRM software, and social media integrations.

Our experience testing Shopify

While we found Shopify’s frontend easy to navigate, we had a little more trouble navigating the backend.

What made the frontend easy to use was the intuitive layout of the checkout page, product library, and discount buttons. Plus, the addition of an AI assistant allowed for quick troubleshooting and feature lookup. We also generally liked the sleek and modern appearance of the frontend, which made subtle use of colour to make features stand out.

However, we had more trouble using the backend, mainly due to the sheer volume of features and menus (Shopify’s backend is for managing sales across multiple channels, after all).

The abundance of menus and submenus made finding features such as staff accounts and discount settings difficult, leading us to rely on the AI assistant a lot.

What could Shopify improve?

Like Toast, Shopify is an expensive option when you factor in the combined monthly cost of POS and ecommerce software. At a minimum, your small business will pay $156 per month. If your operation is still quite small, but you want to benefit from integrated online and in-person sales management, Square’s free software tools are a good alternative.

Shopify also only offers iPad-based software and doesn’t sell physical countertop terminals, only a tablet stand. This set-up won’t work for all businesses, so if you prefer a more heavy-duty terminal, we recommend Clover.

Like Square, Shopify is also missing a training mode for employees. Given that most staff will only be handling Shopify’s easy-to-use frontend, this might not be an issue, but if it is, all other providers on this page, besides Square, offer a training mode.

4. SpotOn: Best for Simplifying Staff Scheduling and Communication

Price from: $0 per month for software and hardware, $99-$135 USD per month (premium software only)

SpotOn pricing is only available in US dollars (USD).

Key features

• Free plan that includes hardware (pay through transaction fees)
• Cloud-based platform (view data from anywhere)
• Automatic offline functionality
• One-off setup and onsite training fee
• App for managing shifts, tips, and payroll

What makes SpotOn great for small businesses?

SpotOn is the best hospitality POS system for staff scheduling, thanks to its proprietary “Teamwork” app. It integrates seamlessly with the POS system and acts as a unified platform for shift and tip management, payroll administration, labour costs projection, and employee communication.

This can help you better manage employees, leading to increased retention and reduced turnover, a key problem plaguing many small hospitality businesses.

You’ll get access to the Teamwork app on the $99 USD per month Counter-service and $135 USD per month Full-service plans, but you’ll need to pay for it as an add-on on the free Quickstart plan.

This doesn’t mean you’re getting a raw deal with the Quickstart plan. It’s a free POS solution that offers both software and hardware, paid for in slightly higher transaction fees. We haven’t found anything like it in the industry. Not even Square includes hardware in its free software plan.

SpotOn also has some nifty features. There’s a drag-and-drop function for bill splitting, making it easy to assign items to specific customers, and the system can generate reports in charts and graphs form, for clear visualization.

Our experience testing SpotOn

SpotOn was one of the most intuitive POS systems to navigate that we tested. We didn’t have much trouble setting up discounts or creating menu items with variations.

That said, the frontend was harder to use than the backend, mainly because the frontend required a few extra clicks to add items to an order, compared with how quickly we could do this using other POS systems, like Square.

We also didn’t like the floor plan functionality, since it’s not drag and drop. To change the size of the tables, you have to click a bar chart button rather than drag them to make them bigger, something restaurants with large floor plans might want to consider.

What could SpotOn improve?

SpotOn doesn’t have the most extensive hardware selection, which is limited to two countertop terminals and a handheld POS device. KDSs are available through SpotOn’s partnership with Fresh KDS, but that’s it. For a provider with a wide range of hardware and accessories, we recommend Square or Clover.

And, while SpotOn offers onsite training for both you and your employees, this and the setup costs will set you back around $1,000 USD.

5. Clover: Best for Professional Hardware

Pricing: Custom (monthly plans for hardware and software, or upfront hardware purchases)

Key features

• Wide range of hardware (from handheld devices to accessories)
• Fingertip login on terminals
• Custom POS hardware and software packages
• Low transaction fees

What makes Clover great for small businesses?

Clover is the best POS system for small businesses seeking professional hardware that can handle any environment, from retail stores to coffee shops and restaurants.

We tested its most popular piece of kit is the Clover Station Duo, which is a countertop POS terminal that comes with an employee and customer-facing screen, a card machine, and a cash drawer. It impressed us with its sleek design and responsive touch-screen, and fingerprint login, which allows staff to quickly enter orders. You can also customize the customer display and use it to show off promotional items.

Another popular item is the Clover Flex, a small handheld POS device that can be used on its own or paired with larger Clover terminals. We found it to be very light, despite its size, making it especially great for serving customers on the shop or restaurant floor.

Clover’s unified cloud-based system can be used to track inventory, profits, and employee performance across multiple locations. We also found it quite easy to use, despite its advanced features such as stock alerts and profit tracking.

Our experience testing Clover

Clover has remained consistently easy to use in our testing, despite offering advanced features. We particularly like Clover’s frontend, which is highly intuitive and makes great use of colour to highlight features. The drag-and-drop design of Clover’s table planner is also a nice touch for hospitality businesses.

Are only critiques are that we had trouble finding where to set up discounts and loyalty programmes, and real-time syncing issues disrupted the overall smoothness of the experience.

What could Clover improve?

The Clover POS system is missing a key tool for restaurants. It has no automated tip sharing, a feature you can get with Toast. Additionally, Clover’s opaque pricing can understandably put some small business owners off.

Clover used to advertise its pricing for Canada, but now only does so for the US market. Based on the US prices, we’d say it’s in the same range as Toast, so, on the expensive side. To offset this, Clover has cheap processing fees, around 1.0% + 10¢ per transaction, far less than SpotOn or Square’s fees.

How to Choose a POS System for Your Small Business

Here’s what you should consider:

1. Price and budget: work out how much you’re willing to and can spend, and whether you want to go with a system that has monthly fees, or want to spend more on one upfront purchase. Some POS providers also handle payments, so take a lot at their transaction fees, as these can eat into profits overtime.
2. Core software functions: consider what tasks you want your POS system to perform for you, whether you’re willing to pay more for certain features, and what ones you can do without.
3. Hardware: if you have existing hardware that you’d like to keep, make sure your new POS system is compatible with it. Additionally, check the provider’s hardware offering, and make sure it can supply you with almost everything you need.
4. Ease-of-use: how easy a system is to use is quite subjective, and highly depends on you and your team’s experience. If you’re inexperienced, it’s more important to pick a POS system that has a reputation for being simple to operate.
5. Marketing and loyalty integrations: while not a top priority, choosing a POS system that offers built-in marketing and loyalty (often as add-ons) or integrates with third-party apps will make it easy for you to use sales data to turn new customers into regulars.

How We Test POS Systems for Small Businesses