POS costs
How much does a POS system cost? Where every pound and dollar goes.
The price on a POS website is rarely the whole cost. This guide splits a POS system into its five cost lines, shows published prices from well-known providers and works through examples so you can price your own shop.
In short
A POS system costs the sum of five parts: the software subscription (from £0 to over £100 or $100 a month among major providers), card processing fees (usually a percentage of each card sale), hardware (from a £19 card reader to a £699 register at Square's UK prices, ex VAT), paid add-ons, and any contract or exit fees. Card fees grow with your takings.
Search for POS prices and you will find "free" next to "from £299" next to "$89 per location". The figures are real, but they measure different things: a software fee, a hardware bundle tied to a contract, an add-on on top of a plan you already pay for.
To compare fairly, work out the total cost over a year or two on your own sales. The prices below were checked on 5 November 2026 and exclude VAT or sales tax unless stated. They change often, so confirm them before you buy.
Published prices
What well-known providers charged on 5 November 2026.
A sample of headline prices, not a full price list. Each provider has more plans and conditions.
| Provider | Software | Card fees (in person) | Hardware and terms |
|---|---|---|---|
| Square (UK) | Free plan £0; Plus from £29 a month. | 1.75% for UK cards. | Reader £19, Terminal £149, Register £699. No long-term contract. |
| Square (US) | Free $0; Plus $49 and Premium $149 a month per location. | 2.6% + 15¢ on Free, 2.5% + 15¢ on Plus, 2.4% + 15¢ on Premium. | Own hardware range. No setup fees or contracts. |
| SumUp (UK) | Free POS £0; POS Plus £39 and POS Pro £49 a month. | 1.69% pay as you go, or Payments Plus at £19 a month for a 0.99% headline rate. | Own hardware. POS Pro states no long-term contracts. |
| Zettle / PayPal Point of Sale (UK) | App free, no monthly fee. | 1.75% per card transaction. | Reader from £29 for new users, Terminal from £149. No contracts. |
| Epos Now (UK) | Bundles need a payments and support subscription from £25 a month. | Not published on the pricing page. | Promotional bundles from £299. 12-month terms that renew automatically. |
| Shopify POS | Needs a Shopify plan (UK Basic £25, US Basic $39 a month). POS Pro £69 or $89 a month per location. | UK from 1.7%; US 2.6% + 10¢ on Basic. | Card readers sold separately. |
| Lightspeed Retail (UK) | Basic £75, Core £149, Plus £189 a month, billed annually. | Lightspeed Payments required for new customers. | 12-month minimum, as reported by startups.co.uk. |
| KORONA POS (US) | $59, $79 or $99 a month per terminal. | Your own processor; no percentage of sales. | Month to month, cancel any time. |
| POS2026 | Subscription. Plans and prices are shown in the app; free trial. | Not a card processor, so no cut of your card sales. Your card provider's fees apply. | Nothing to buy: runs in a web browser. 30-day money-back guarantee on the first payment. |
Checked 5 November 2026 on each provider's UK or US pricing pages and terms, except Square US (Square press release, 6 October 2025), Lightspeed UK (startups.co.uk, 26 August 2026) and Shopify US (Shopify blog, 23 April 2026). Many prices are promotional; confirm with the provider. All names are trademarks of their owners, and POS2026 is not affiliated with any of them.
POS monthly fees: the software subscription
The software subscription is the number most POS websites lead with. Among the providers above it ranges from nothing on payments-led free plans to well over £100 or $100 a month for advanced retail tiers. Some charge per location or per terminal, so a second till or a second shop multiplies the fee.
A free plan is not the same as free. Payments-led providers earn their money from card fees, and free tiers can hold features back. Loyverse's free plan, for example, shows the last 31 days of sales analytics, with full history a paid add-on at $9 a month per store.
Add-ons can cost more than the base plan. SumUp POS Pro (UK) lists extras such as Advanced Stock, Loyalty and Promotions at £19 a month each, and Shopify adds a fee of 0.2% to 2% per sale if you use a payment provider other than its own.
Card fees: the cost that grows with you
The payment provider charges a fee on each card sale: a percentage, sometimes plus a fixed amount per transaction. You pay it whether the POS software is free or not. What differs is whether you can choose the provider.
Because the fee is a percentage, it scales with your takings. On £10,000 of card sales a month, 1.75% is £175 and 0.99% is £99, a gap of £76 a month or £912 a year. At SumUp's UK prices, the same £10,000 costs £169 at 1.69% pay as you go, or £118 on Payments Plus: £99 at the headline rate plus the £19 monthly fee.
With a payments-led POS you take the provider's rate. With a software-led POS such as POS2026, which is not a card processor, you choose your own card provider and can change it later without changing your till. Our Square comparison looks at that trade-off in more detail.
Hardware: buy, lease or use what you have
Hardware is what most people mean when they ask how much a till system costs. It ranges from nothing, when the software runs on a computer, tablet or phone you already own, to a full counter set-up. At Square's UK prices a card reader is £19 and a countertop Register £699, excluding VAT. In the US, Clover lists its Compact at $349 outright or $16 a month over 36 months.
Bundles and leases spread the cost but can add conditions. Epos Now's UK terms say that on zero-upfront plans the hardware stays Epos Now's property and must be returned within 45 days of the plan ending. Scanners, printers and cash drawers are usually optional. For the cheapest end of the market, see our comparison of a cash register vs a POS system.
Contracts and exit fees
The cheapest-looking deal can be the most expensive to leave. Epos Now's UK terms (version 2.43, effective 1 November 2026) show what to look for: plans default to 12 months, renew for the same term unless cancelled with 30 days' written notice, and leaving early costs a fee equal to all the remaining monthly charges. Square, Zettle and KORONA, by contrast, state that they have no long-term contracts.
POS2026 is a subscription billed through Stripe, and new accounts are covered by a 30-day money-back guarantee on their first payment.
Worked example: two UK shops
These use the published prices above and each provider's standard in-person rate, leaving out VAT and cards charged at other rates. Use them as a method, then put in your own figures.
- A gift shop taking £4,000 a month on card. On Square's free plan, 1.75% is £70 a month, so with a £19 reader the first year costs about £859. Zettle at the same rate with a £29 reader comes to about £869. SumUp Free POS at 1.69% is £67.60 a month, or £811.20 a year plus hardware.
- A convenience store taking £20,000 a month on card. At 1.75%, card fees alone are £350 a month, or £4,200 a year. On SumUp Payments Plus at the 0.99% headline rate, they are £198 plus the £19 fee: £217 a month, or £2,604 a year.
- The same store on a bundle. Epos Now's promotional offer from £299, with a payments and support subscription from £25 a month, costs at least £299 + (12 × £25) = £599 in year one, before card fees, which its pricing page does not publish.
At low volume the free plans are cheap. As takings grow, the card rate matters far more than the software fee.
Worked example: a US store
A US store takes $15,000 a month on card across 750 transactions, an average of $20 each.
- Square Free: 2.6% of $15,000 is $390, plus 15¢ × 750 = $112.50, so $502.50 a month in fees.
- Square Plus: $49 + $375 (2.5%) + $112.50 = $536.50 a month. On fees alone it costs more than Free, so the upgrade has to pay for itself in features.
- Clover Starter: $0 software and 2.6% + 10¢, so $390 + $75 = $465 a month, plus the Compact device.
How to work out POS costs for your shop
- Take your monthly card takings and number of card transactions from your card statements.
- For each system, add the software fee, any per-location or per-device charge and the add-ons you need.
- Work out card fees on your own volume at each provider's rate, plus any monthly fee for a lower rate.
- Add hardware: bought outright, financed, or nothing if you can use what you have.
- Total it over two years, including any exit fee, then weigh it against what each system actually does.
To see how a percentage fee eats into the profit on a single sale, try the profit margin calculator. For the questions that are not about price, read our guide on how to choose a POS system.
Questions
Common questions.
Straight answers for shop owners, based on what POS2026 actually does.
How much is a till system?
A basic electronic cash register is a one-off purchase. A POS or EPOS system usually combines a monthly software fee, card fees on each card sale, and hardware ranging from a £19 card reader to a £699 register, excluding VAT, at Square's UK prices on 5 November 2026.
Is a free POS system really free?
The software can be, but the provider usually earns its money from a percentage of each card sale, and some features are paid add-ons. Work out the card fees on your own takings before you decide.
How much does POS2026 cost?
POS2026 is a subscription billed through Stripe. Plans and prices are shown in the app when you create an account, there is a free trial, and new accounts get a 30-day money-back guarantee on their first payment. Your card provider's fees are separate.
Do I have to pay for POS hardware?
Not always. Browser-based systems such as POS2026 run on a computer, laptop, tablet or phone you already own. You need a card terminal from your payment provider, and a barcode scanner and receipt printer are optional.
Price POS2026 against your own numbers.
Start a free trial to see the plans in the app and test the system on your own products before you pay.
