The Top 5 Cash Registers for Small Businesses

Nowadays, there are two main types of cash registers, ones that for part of a modern point-of-sale (POS) system, and traditional electronic cash registers (ECRs). While most businesses are switching to POS systems, some small businesses still prefer to use ECRs because they’re cheaper, so we’ve included both types in our list.

When it comes to POS cash registers, some of the best POS suppliers offer great countertop systems. Among the best cash registers for small businesses are the Clover Station Duo, the Square Register Kit, and the Toast Countertop Kit. These registers can all be used to access their respective provider’s POS systems.

In the ECR category, the best cash registers are the SAM4S ER-180U and the SAM4S ER-925. These are standalone machines primarily used for taking and recording transactions.

We’ll get into what pieces of kit come with each register, what functions you can do with them, and what type of small business they’re best for in this review. If you’re in a rush, just fill in our quotes form. It takes less than sixty seconds to complete, after which you’ll receive quotes from POS suppliers we’ve tested that best fit the needs of your business.

Best Five Cash Registers for Small Businesses: Overview

We reviewed, rated and compared the leading cash registers for restaurants and small businesses.

Best POS Cash Registers

The best cash registers that come with integrated POS systems are the Clover Station Pro, Square Register Kit, and Toast Countertop Kit.

Cash registers that integrate with POS systems are quickly becoming the new standard, since they come with more advanced management and reporting features than their electronic counterparts.

1. Clover Station Pro: Best all-round modern POS cash register

Price: $1,799

The Clover Station Pro from Clover is a modern POS cash register. It comes with a 14″ HD touchscreen display, a cash drawer, a receipt printer, and an 8″ touchscreen customer display that has a built-in card reader.

Why we like the Clover Station Duo

During testing, we found the touchscreen to be particularly responsive, and we liked the fingerprint login on the main register, which sped up the sales process.

The addition of a customer facing display, and the fact that Clover has a large variety of hardware, with three terminal set ups, a portable POS device, and numerous accessories, earned it the top spot for POS hardware. Square came close, but its handheld POS device wasn’t as ergonomic as Clover’s, and Toast is missing a customer display that can process card payments, like Clover and Square’s.

The Station Duo might not be the cheapest option out there, at $1,799, but it’s worth it for businesses that want to access Clover’s excellent POS software. This hardware kit works with several Clover software plans, ranging from $49.95 to $129.85 per month. These include software for retail, counter-service, and full-service restaurants, and give you access to a variety of tools, including refund management, customer loyalty programs, and online ordering.

The Station Duo integrates with additional Clover hardware, including:

• Clover Flex ($599): Handheld POS device, card reader, and barcode scanner
• Clover Card Reader ($49): Contactless card reader
• Kitchen printer
• Kitchen weight scales

Who is Clover suitable and not suitable for?

2. Square Register Kit: Best for retail businesses

Price: $1,269

The Square Register Kit from Square comes with a 12.5″ touchscreen terminal, 7″ touchscreen customer display with a built-in card reader, cash drawer, and a receipt printer.

Why we like the Square Register Kit

The Square Register Kit is slightly cheaper than the Clover Station Duo, but it’s got a similar sleek design. However, since the Square Register’s screen is slightly smaller than the Clover Station Duo’s, we thought it might be more tricky to use if you have a large inventory you need to sift through.

It’s still a functional and affordable modern POS cash register, and it integrates with Square’s POS software, which you can start using for free. Square has free and paid POS plans for both retail and restaurant businesses. Paid plans start at $89 per month for retail, and $69 per month for restaurants.

We found both POS systems easy to use during our testing, although in terms of tools, we determined that Square’s paid retail POS software was slightly better than the paid restaurant software, since it comes with better reporting tools, like cost vs profit management.

The Square Register Kit connects with other Square hardware, including:

• Square Terminal ($299): Handheld POS device with card reader
• Square Reader ($59): Contactless and chip and pin reader
• KDS ($299-$699)
• Label/Kitchen printers ($349-$399)

Who is Square suitable and not suitable for?

3. Toast Countertop Kit: Best for businesses that serve food and drinks

Price: $1,024.20

The Toast Countertop kit from Toast POS includes a 14″ touchscreen terminal with a flip screen, a card reader (tap, chip and pin), and a data security router.

Why we like the Toast Countertop Kit

The kit is a little more light touch than Clover or Square’s offering, missing a cash drawer, receipt printer, and customer display with built-in card reader. The lack of customer display might be a nuisance for restaurants that do counter-service, since you’ll have to swivel your screen for customer to see the amount they’re being charged.

That being said, it might be worth it, since you can get the Toast Countertop Kit for free if you pay slightly higher processing fees of 3.09% + 15¢  compared to Toast’s standard 3.09% + 15¢.

This also gives you access to Toast’s excellent restaurant POS software, which retails from $69 per month on a standard plan. Regardless of the pricing plan you choose, you’ll get access to table and menu management, basic discounts, and team management.

Some of Toast’s features come as paid add-ons, but are only available starting from the $69 software plan. This model allows you to build a system that’s right for you, with no unnecessary features. Add-ons include mobile ordering and delivery, loyalty programs and gift cards, and tip management.

The Toast Countertop Kit integrates with other Toast hardware, including:

• Handheld Starter Kit ($799): Handheld POS device with built-in card reader
• Guest Self-Service Starter Kit ($1,339.20): Kiosk, card reader, and data security router
• KDS system

Who is Clover suitable and not suitable for?

Best Electronic Cash Registers

The best electronic cash registers are the SAM4S ER-180U and the SAM4S ER-925.

Electronic cash registers (ECRs) are quickly becoming a tool of the past, being replaced with modern POS systems, but SAM4S is one of the few companies that still manufactures electronic cash registers. That’s why two of them have earned a spot of this list, since you’re guaranteed access to customer support and replacement parts.

1. SAM4S ER-180U: Most affordable option for retailers

Price: $185 to $263

The SAM4S ER-180U is a compact cash register with a built-in cash drawer and receipt printer, an LED screen display for the operator and customer, and a 48-key keyboard.

Why we like the SAM4S ER-180U

The SAM4S ER-180U is an affordable option, costing less than $200, way under the over $1,000 price point of most POS cash registers.

As is typical with traditional electronic cash registers, the SAM4S ER-180U doesn’t have any touchscreens, but it has small operator and customer screens, so you’re still able to see the amount being tended thanks to its two small LED screens.

This compact cash register weighs under 18 lbs, and is a great option for small vendors at markets, or small convenience stores. It’s not suited to businesses with more than 10 till workers, since it only accepts 10 employee logins.

The SAM4S ER-180U doesn’t support many accessories, so it’s best for businesses that only do cash transactions unless you feel like purchasing a separate card machine system.

Its main features, besides cash tending are:

• 500 PLU’s
• Tax Calculation (4 TAX Rates)
• Daily and periodic reports (printed on receipt paper)
• 10 employee logins

2. SAM4S ER-925: Best for connecting to peripheral hardware

Price: $529 to $684

The SAM4S ER-925 cash register comes with a large cash drawer, a 150-key keyboard, an LED screen display for the operator and customer, and a built-in receipt printer. It also connects

Why we like the SAM4S ER-925

The SAM4S ER-925 is more expensive than the ER-180U, starting at $529, but its price is more than justified.

This cash register comes with multiple ports, so it can easily be connected to peripheral hardware, such as card machines, barcode scanners, scales, and more.

It also has more advanced features, but still within reason for an ECR. It can manage up to 10,000 PLUs, 50 employee logins, and can produce a variety of reports:

• Financial reports
• Employee reports
• PLU by price level reports
• Hourly, monthly, and by chosen date sales reports

Given its capabilities, its a cash register we recommend to small businesses with a varied inventory, whether they’re in retail or hospitality. That’s because the SAM4S ER-925 comes with separate keyboards for retail and hospitality businesses, allowing the machine to be tailored to your business type.

Electronic Cash Register vs POS System: Which is Better?

For most businesses looking to upgrade their hardware, choosing a cash register that comes with a POS system is the better option than an electronic cash register (ECR).

Modern POS systems offer many advantages, including being easier to use than ECRs. You and your employees will be operating on a touchscreen that’s basically a computer, instead of having to memorize complicated keyboard functions, as is the case with ECRs.

However, POS systems cost more than ECRs. Not only will you be paying for hardware that generally costs over $1,000 (compared to $500 for the average ECR), but you’ll also be paying your POS supplier a monthly software subscription fee to be able to actually use the system.

The fact that electronic cash registers are more affordable than POS systems is probably their biggest selling point today. They also have longer lifespans than POS systems, though the gap has shrunk in recent years. The best cash registers for small businesses will give you at least 15 years of good service, whereas POS hardware tends to need replacing after 10 years, the same way a computer does.

That said, software from top POS suppliers does outlive the hardware it’s deployed on. Plus, many ECR manufacturers are switching to making POS systems, with SAM4S being one of the few exceptions. So, if you want to guarantee your access to customer support and regular hardware upgrades and replacements, POS systems are the better option.

Advantages of a POS System

Modern POS systems offer more than just a safe place to store cash. There are several reasons why POS systems are replacing traditional ECRs:

• Easy operation: Most POS systems are operated on a touchscreen at the sales counter, and from your desktop in the back office. This makes them much easier to use than ECRs, since you don’t need to memorize a thousand keyboard functions and enables you to access your data from anywhere, at home or on the go.
• Customer marketing: Most POS systems facilitate customer marketing since they come with integrated marketing and loyalty tools. They make it easy to collect customer email addresses with e-receipts, allowing you to send targeted messages based on their recent purchases. This isn’t a feature that’s available with electronic cash registers.
• Inventory management: Modern POS systems can automate a lot of inventory management tasks, which can save businesses a lot of time. For example, you can set your system up to send low-stock alerts to your phone when supplies of a particular ingredient or product line are running low.
• Staff management: This isn’t available with all POS systems, but many offer built-in time tracking software, so employees can clock in and out directly through terminals, making it easier to calculate salaries. High-end systems even let you run individual performance reports so you can make informed decisions about staff training and task allocation.
• Software integrations: This is what really separates POS systems from electronic cash registers. Most can integrate with third-party apps and software, extending their suite of features. Popular integrations include accounting software, online stores, shift management platforms, and reservation tools.

Our Methodology

The Expert Market team tested and assessed 15 different POS systems to bring you this list. We spend around 160 hours researching POS platforms, and over 20 hours testing them. During that time, we used our learnings to evaluate how each POS system fared in six categories that are important to businesses, broken down into between four and 12 subcategories, in order to get an impartial ranking.

Here’s what we looked at:

• POS software: the breadth of features included in the POS 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 report, or applying a discount.
• Help and support: how effective and reachable the customer support teams are, with bonus points given to POS 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 POS 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

By investing in a cash register, you’ll take better care of both your money and your customers.

If you’re looking for an upgrade, you should consider investing in a modern POS system, since these are quickly becoming the norm, and can automate a lot of processes, saving you time.

If you’d like to receive free quotes from leading POS suppliers, then all you need fill in our quotes form, and we’ll match your business with suppliers that best suit your requirements. They’ll then be in touch with no-obligation quotes for you to compare.