Best POS Systems for Small Business in 2025

Using point-of-sale (POS) software can help businesses streamline on-premise sales processes and integrate sales data into other related processes such as inventory. Moreover, the best platforms around have extended features for accounting, reorders, and monitoring purchasing behaviors. Given the comprehensive and well-rounded nature of these tools, it is easy for small business owners to think that they are quite advanced and, therefore, costly. Fortunately, however, there are POS systems for small business with powerful capabilities while being affordable at the same time. In this guide, you will get to know the best POS systems designed for small business use through their features and the general benefits they can provide. In this way, you will be better equipped in choosing the right software for your company.

After creating a short list of the products that are most likely to fit your needs, it would be time to choose which product to adopt. The best way to do this is to actually give each of your chosen platforms a try. By doing this, you’ll have a first-hand experience of their features and have a good feel of each of their user interface. Hence, you would know which one would fit your operational requirements and preferences better. Also, consider that more heads can do better than one. So, it is also recommended that you let others in your product research—especially the end users. This way, you won’t only get useful feedback from the right people but also instill a sense of ownership that can streamline software adoption.

To start creating a shortlist, we suggest that you try products that did well in both customer and expert reviews—receiving the highest SmartScores and Customer Satisfaction Ratings. These include Toast POS, Lightspeed Restaurant, Cova, KORONA, and Grindless, among others.

POS tools are highly recommended for small businesses with on-premise sales operations. These not only help track sales and revenue but also put these data to bear on inventory status. As such, businesses can save time and resources on doing menial things such as manual inventory tracking. Plus, having these automated will increase the accuracy of your records. Of course, this is provided that you have set the system up correctly. Typical small businesses that use POS systems include:

Retail Shops. These stores use POS systems to track two important polar aspects of business—sales and inventory. Using this data, these businesses make forecasts for reorders and the like. Retail users range from those selling food and books to electronics and pet supplies.

Restaurants and Food Trucks. Businesses in the food industry need a quick and accurate way of tracking orders and ingredients on hand. To do so, they use POS systems designed specifically for restaurants that have more accurate ingredients-based inventory management systems.

Travel and Hospitality. Hotels, travel services, rentals, and the like use POS systems to track and balance sales and available customer affordances. With a good POS system, they will have a birds-eye-view of their available amenities and services in real-time.

Multi-Service Establishments. Salons, massage parlors, and gyms usually track sales and inventory across multiple products and services, from membership and per-service transactions to loyalty programs and retail. POS tools help them categorize and track their earnings vis-a-vis availability.

Toast POS: This is probably the most comprehensive POS solution for restaurant management. It helps improves visibility, process transactions smoothly, and streamline inventory management. It also supports loyalty programs and digital gift cards. Plus, it has robust payroll and team management features.

Lightspeed Restaurant: This cloud-based software offers advanced and specialized POS tools for restaurants. Key features include an adjustable menu and floorplan, tableside ordering and payment, and a self-order menu.

Cova: This unique POS system is specifically designed for cannabis retail. It helps businesses enforce compliance and regulations like verifying customer IDs. Of course, it provides easy-to-use POS and inventory management solutions. Key features include those for managing customer queues, discounting, and cannabis touch-screen menus.

KORONA: A versatile platform, KORONA can be configured for any type of business. It is easy to use and sports useful workflow automation. Hence, it is a go-to solution for small businesses across a wide variety of industries. Unique features include those for managing commissions and time tracking.

Grindless: This is a POS-based total business management solution. It has modules for customer service, booking, and employee management. The product is intuitive to use, thanks to its clean design. Moreover, it’s cleverly-designed tiered plans make it highly scalable. Grindless can grow with you, from running a single store to managing a large enterprise.

As you can see from the examples listed above, there are different types of POS systems for small businesses. There are general ones that you can fashion to fit whatever needs, while others are quite specialized—designed for specific use cases. In terms of deployment, however, there are three general categories.

Mobile POS Systems. These software tools’ main purpose is to help users manage payment through a mobile app on a tablet or smartphone. Top-tier software providers, however, usually integrate inventory tracking capabilities. So, for small businesses, these tools can help streamline workflows while cutting down on man hours.

Terminal POS Systems. Digital software has modernized the traditional point-of-sale terminal. Generally, both hardware and software-based, these systems are sold together and may be bundled with other tools such as cash drawers and barcode scanners. Today, there are more streamlined space-saving options available that still retain the traditional functionality. A real advantage, however, of modern terminal POS systems over traditional ones is better-controlled employee access and options for backing up your data on the cloud.

Cloud-Hosted POS Systems. These systems are becoming more popular nowadays. These are more affordable options as they allow users to access POS functionalities on the web. Plus, users can choose not to have any additional hardware as these products work on common browsers and mobile phones. As such, they have become the go-to POS systems for small businesses and startups.

It is good to note that there is no universal set of features since platforms are usually designed to provide for different requirements. Surely, there are generalist ones that can be highly customizable for any use case. However, it would seem that you can save more time in setting up your software if you choose a product that is designed specifically for your industry or type of business. Nevertheless, there seem to be features that top software providers tend to and plan to provide. These are:

Inventory Tracking. The best POS systems for small business include inventory tracking capabilities with the must-have point-of-sales module. This inventory tracking feature is highly useful, not only in retail but also in restaurant operations. It can help you balance your sales and inventory statuses so you can make better forecasts and will never reach below critical levels.

Sales Reporting & Analytics. Good POS systems for small business normally come with advanced sales reporting and analytics features. These allow users to capture, visualize, and drill down into specific aspects of sales data. With these, users will be able to monitor KPIs such as revenue rates and ROI. As such, they can optimize their operations by making better data-informed decisions.

Customer Management. Modern platforms have a customer management feature that tracks historical purchases and other data. This enables businesses to better personalize services and align service prioritization with profitability.

Employee Management. There are top platforms out there that provide employee management modules. These are especially helpful in managing shifts, tasks, and payroll. Employee management modules are typically included in POS systems for restaurants. Of course, there are also retail POS software tools that carry this type of feature.

Robust Reporting. Business reporting doesn’t just end with sales. Fortunately, software providers now understand this. This is why they offer other reporting features that put point-of-sales data to bear on other business aspects such as inventory, CRM, and financial management. However, not all POS systems for small businesses have advanced reporting tools. These are usually reserved for higher-tiered plans.

Mobile Access. Having mobile access can help users track and manage sales and inventory processes on the go. What’s more, is that many leading platforms have mobile apps for inventory tracking such as digital barcode scanners. Now, businesses can save on costly hardware while also being more agile from the get-go.

Powerful Integrations. This seems to be a universal requirement now for any business software to have. No business process is an island. Therefore, each software platform handling one specific aspect is needed to communicate with digital solutions employed for other processes. Hence, when choosing a POS system for your small business, make sure it can integrate with other platforms in your software stack. The top POS solutions can usually integrate with a host of different software types, including those for ecommerce tools, CRM, accounting, marketing, and analytics.

Today, as you have noticed from other features and software examples before, modern POS systems are not just glorified cash registers. They can sometimes come as total business solutions using the point-of-sale process as a base. Hence, this comes with a lot more benefits than what traditional tools offer. Granting that you use these tools well, general benefits would include:

A more accurate business. Build and maintain more accurate business records. Eliminate human errors and hasten reconciliation processes.

Analysis. With the reporting tools that POS systems possess, businesses will be able to base mission-critical decisions on accurate data. These can reveal trends and otherwise hidden patterns that one can use to inform strategic directions or just in managing daily operations.

Networking to other terminals. A POS system can centralize your network of terminals across different locations. With this, you can manage and monitor processes on a single platform in real-time

Shrinkage Security. This is probably the biggest advantage provided by modern POS systems. As the sales function is integrated with inventory, businesses will minimize shrinkage. They come with powerful SKU tracking solutions that can follow orders and promotions across different periods, including employee shift data for accountability.

Affordability. POS software solutions, including enterprise-level platforms and advanced plans, usually don’t belong to the most expensive tier of software categories. Hence, small businesses have fewer reasons not to adopt a POS solution. Moreover, there are free POS software solutions available as well that can be perfect for small business use.

The Age of Self-service. Businesses, especially in the restaurant industry, have started replacing servers and attendants with self-service kiosks. This trend does not only reflect the optimization in businesses but also reveals a preference for contactless transactions, especially when person-to-person interactions aren’t really needed. Think of them as your on-premise ecommerce shopping cart. Also, these all-in-one machines can not only take and relay orders but also accept payment. Hence, they reduce man hours and can help you save on costs. Plus, they can reduce human-related errors in ordering and inventory tracking. If you don’t have them yet, maybe it’s time to try.

Personalization. In our most recent compilation of POS software trends, we’ve found that 80% of consumers prefer brands that offer personalized services. POS software tools, as you may already know, can help users improve service personalization by tracking customer behavior. Also, as most leading platforms support promotions such as loyalty programs, POS solutions can help enforce and manage these processes.

AI-Enabled POS. About 15% of businesses already have AI-enabled POS systems. Around 40% indicated that they are planning to adopt solutions with AI capabilities. This shows us that more and more companies are looking to incorporate AI technology to optimize different aspects of their POS operations. These include payment processing, service personalization, and inventory control.

Security Concerns. This is a real issue even if it’s imagined. Most POS solutions have enterprise-grade security. But, as you may have heard in the news that even large enterprises can get hacked. So, a dark cloud can really exist over one’s head about getting hacked. And, truth be told, there are many ways to compromise such operations through backdoor integrations or direct data theft. The vulnerability may not really be from your POS solution. As such, practice due diligence on things that you can control and on your different solutions in your software stack such as the regular changing of passwords.

Charge issues. So, how would a system deal with completed orders but with incomplete payments? How about incorrect charges? Well, these are common issues that many businesses deal with. Hence, there are common failsafe and solutions available to users that come from their vendors. These include the right configurations from the get-go and third-party integrations options. Just make sure to be aware of these solutions right from the start.

Connectivity. The complexity of connectivity really depends on the type of POS system you need and the nature of your business. However, what you cannot escape is that you must have a POS solution that integrates with your already set software architecture and workflows. Put another way, this means you have to customize the product to work for you instead of the other way around. And such can require a ton of software and hardware integrations. So, before paying for a digital POS software subscription plan, work out the details with the software provider.