For most retail businesses today, the point-of-sale (POS) system enables you to manage store inventory and staff, check out customers, accept payments, and route those funds to your bank account. It’s your retail store’s mission control. 

But POS features vary from one provider to another, and so do the POS system costs per month. How much does a POS terminal and hardware cost? What about the software? Are there payment processing fees? With hidden costs, setup fees, and unclear pricing, it’s not always easy to know exactly what you’re signing up for. 

Modern POS systems come with both fixed and variable costs, and the price will vary depending on your provider, your business type, how many stores and employees you have, and the features you need. 

Before you decide which POS is right for you, let’s go over the factors that influence how much POS systems cost with POS fees comparisons.

Understanding the 3 core components of POS system costs 

POS system costs fall into three main buckets: software, hardware, and payment processing. Add up these components to get your platform’s total cost of ownership—the total amount you’ll spend on the system. 

POS software costs: What are you paying for? 

When you’re shopping for point-of-sale software, ensure it has the built-in features you need to run your business, like inventory management, reporting and analytics, and integration with your ecommerce platform. 

Most POS software often has either a monthly or annual fee, as well as different subscription tiers at different price points. Pricier software plans typically come with more advanced POS features, such as:

• Unified customer profiles
• Appointment booking 
• Workforce management systems 
• Detailed analytics
• Customer loyalty programs 

PRO TIP: Shopify POS integrates your online store and retail data into one back office—including customer data, inventory, sales, and more. View easy-to-understand reports to spot trends faster, capitalize on opportunities, and jump-start your brand’s growth.

Common POS software pricing models 

Most POS software is charged per user, per register, or per location. Some providers offer discounts for annual contracts—negotiate this with your shortlisted vendors before locking in a longer contract. 

Some platforms also offer free basic POS software with payment transaction fees and add-ons. Known as a freemium plan, the low cost often lures in smaller retailers, but it becomes expensive as you scale. Premium features are locked behind monthly subscriptions and inflated transaction fees quickly eat into profit margins. 

Typical software cost ranges

Here’s an overview of average POS software costs for different types of retail stores:

• Basic plans for pop-ups and market sellers: $0 to $50 per month.
• Standard retail/restaurant plans: $60 to $150 per month. 
• Enterprise/multilocation plans: $150 or more or custom pricing.

POS hardware costs: one-time or leased expenses 

Essential hardware components and average costs

POS hardware allows staff to ring up purchases, accept payments, print receipts, and manage transactions efficiently at the point of sale. Costs range depending on the retail tech you’re using:

• Cash drawers and card readers. While contactless payments are on the rise, you may want to invest in a cash drawer, as well as a credit card reader that takes tap, chip, swipe, and PIN payments. Shopify’s cash drawers cost $129 or $139, and card readers cost $49 or $349, depending on the model you choose.
• Receipt printer. Depending on whether you want a Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, or wired receipt printer, they can cost between $249 and $369. Alternatively, opt to send digital receipts via email—a great way to organically collect customer contact information at checkout and build an email list to fuel your email marketing. 
• Barcode scanners. Barcode scanners can cost between $199 and $289. If you want to have a minimal setup, Shopify POS turns your tablet or smartphone’s camera into a barcode scanner and saves you from purchasing another piece of hardware.

Buying vs. leasing hardware: pros and cons 

You can buy, lease, or rent POS hardware, depending on your needs. For instance, if you want to open a pop-up shop, you can rent Shopify POS hardware to accept card payments, without sinking funds into hardware you don’t want to keep. 

The biggest advantage of leasing hardware is that costs are lower since you’re not buying technology outright. Lease agreements also often include upgrades and maintenance, which helps you avoid sinking cash into keeping your existing tech running.

That said, leasing POS hardware usually costs more in the long-term than buying outright. Consider buying if you plan to use the technology for years.

GET STARTED: Ready to start shopping for POS hardware? Head to the Shopify POS hardware store to shop for hardware designed to help you check out customers at the counter, curbside, and everywhere in between.

Payment processing fees: the biggest variable cost 

Some POS systems come with integrated payment processing, while others require you to manage separate contracts, fees, and payments with a third-party provider. 

Choosing a POS system with integrated payment processing simplifies your monthly fees, streamlines the retail customer experience, accelerates payouts, and reduces inaccuracies in your reporting due to human errors. Integrated payments also mean you’ll spend less time reconciling charges. 

Contrarily, when you partner with a third party to handle payment processing, you’ll have to manually reconcile payments accepted from your card reader with your POS system, and it may take longer to receive payouts. 

How transaction fees are calculated 

Payment processors use one of two POS transaction cost models:

• Flat-rate processing. A predictable, fixed percentage plus fee per transaction.
• Interchange-plus pricing. A more complex model with lower margins, often used by larger businesses.

PRO TIP: Shopify Payments is included in all Shopify POS plans, no sign-up or setup fees required. Control your cash flow better and pay the same pre-negotiated rate for all credit cards: 2.7% plus $0 for the Basic plan and 2.4% plus $0 for the Advanced or Plus plan.

Other payment-related fees to watch for 

Before you choose a payment processor, understand what you’re signing up for. Be mindful of any long-term commitments or hidden fees. Also, make sure the payment provider’s transaction pricing is clear and straightforward.

Additional fees to be aware of when evaluating a POS contract include:

• Monthly statement fees. Extra administrative or account maintenance charges that some payment processors add on top of your standard processing fees.
• PCI compliance fees. Costs charged to ensure your business meets required payment security standards, often bundled as “security,” “non-compliance,” or “annual PCI” fees.
• Chargeback fees. A per-incident fee applied when a customer disputes a transaction, covering the processor’s handling and investigation of the claim. These can range from $15 to $100. 
• Early termination fees. Penalties for canceling a POS or payment processing contract before the agreed term ends—often including remaining monthly costs or a flat cancellation charge.

One-time setup and implementation costs 

When evaluating POS solutions, look beyond annual subscription fees to understand the true financial impact. A solution’s initial price point often tells only a small part of your overall total cost of ownership (TCO). 

Based on findings from a recent POS Market Report, the following analysis examines one-time costs retailers face when choosing a POS solution. 

Implementation and integration 

As retailers expand their operations, they often face increasing complexity in POS implementation and integration costs. This is due to the growing number of back-end systems that need to be connected and integrated seamlessly.

Enterprise retailers face particular challenges when introducing a new POS system. The process requires extensive coordination across complex system configurations, customization requirements, testing phases, quality assurance processes, and compliance standards. Total implementation costs can run into the hundreds of thousands and take between six and 12 months.

Shopify brings your online store and in-person sales together in one system. It’s built to integrate and work immediately, so you can manage everything in one place without worrying about complicated setups or extra tools. With Shopify, you get:

• 20% faster implementation than competitors
• Quick scaling to additional locations
• 13% lower implementation and integration costs

Data migration

Switching POS solutions comes with significant transition costs, determined by how long it takes, how complex the data migration is, and how long you need to run both old and new systems simultaneously.

Retailers who switch to Shopify POS report faster implementation and launch times than other solutions. The platform cuts data migration and transition costs by 53%, minimizes the time spent running both old and new systems at once, and simplifies the entire migration process.

“In a period of rapid growth, the ability to set up and control a store’s POS system with a single click was a game-changer,” says Corey Hnat, director of marketing, at Pepper Palace. “It allowed us to open 60 new locations in a year.” 

Staff training and onboarding

The success of your new POS depends on good training and onboarding. These costs vary with POS complexity, staff size, and training approaches. 

While ease of use doesn’t factor into a POS system’s costs, it will absolutely impact your team’s productivity. If a POS system feels complicated, it will take longer to train staff on how to use it, and can make in-store operations take longer than they have to. 

User-friendly platforms like Shopify POS minimize the investment by reducing training requirements for permanent staff, seasonal workers, and management. A general estimate for training breaks down to:

• Small business (5–10 staff): $200–$1,000
• Medium business (10–50 staff): $1,000–$5,000
• Enterprise (more than 50 staff): $5,000–$10,000 or more

Shopify POS has proven to reduce upfront training and onboarding costs by 21% per retail store, while requiring minimal training time for basic functions. This leads to faster results, better employee experience, and smoother integration with existing Shopify systems.

Ongoing and long-term costs 

To understand your total cost of ownership, you have to include ongoing fees. Traditional solutions frequently mask these costs, whether through custom development needs, maintenance requirements, or complex integrations. 

According to the POS Market Report, retailers using Shopify POS report 16% lower ongoing costs on average through three key areas:

Software maintenance and support 

Every POS system comes with recurring software costs, but the amount varies dramatically based on features, service levels, and most importantly, system architecture. 

Modern, well-designed solutions require less maintenance and technical support, which lowers long-term expenses. Despite being a robust POS solution, Shopify POS needs minimal maintenance and support. Retailers using other platforms typically spend 33% more on annual software subscription and maintenance costs compared to Shopify POS.

Middleware and app subscriptions

One of the biggest hidden costs in traditional POS systems comes from middleware, or the software needed to connect your POS with other business systems like your ecommerce platform. These expenses include not just the software itself, but also the ongoing maintenance and technical support needed to keep everything running smoothly. 

Shopify eliminates these costs by unifying POS and ecommerce on a single platform. The native integration makes Shopify POS up to 47% more cost-effective for annual middleware expenses, with users spending 37% less than those using competitor platforms on average.

Third-party developer costs

Traditional POS systems often rely on developers for even small changes, which can drive up cost and slow you down. Shopify POS breaks this pattern with powerful built-in features and access to thousands of apps, so you can customize your setup and add new tools without needing technical help.

With more than 8,000 pre-built applications, you can adapt your POS as you need to. If you need to hire developers to further customize your setup, they can build them more efficiently with Shopify POS’s developer-friendly architecture. On average, retailers using other platforms spend up to 8.5 times more on annual third-party support compared to Shopify users.

“When all sales are coming through Shopify, you don’t have to maintain the integrations required when you use different systems to manage each channel,” says Alexandra McNab, chief operating officer of Bared Footwear. “We can re-invest where it matters: delighting customers with impeccable products and service, and growing the business.”

How POS costs vary by business type

For retail stores

A traditional brick-and-mortar store uses a POS system as the hub of their business operations, but the costs to operate this hub depend on:

• Number of staff profiles
• How many terminals you have
• Hardware requirements 

For instance, an ecommerce merchant on Shopify’s Basic plan gets Shopify POS software for free—it’s included in the plan ($39 per month, or $29 per month for annual billing) and gives them the tools they need for occasional in-person selling via pop-up shops or kiosks at events. 

Alternatively, merchants with permanent brick-and-mortar stores who need more advanced features, like reporting and analytics or greater control over staff and user permissions, can sign up for Shopify POS Pro for $89 per month (or $79 per month paid annually), per store location.

For service-based businesses

Service-based businesses lean on appointments to bring customers in-store. For example, a hair salon might need a POS system with integrated appointment booking apps, calendars, and client profiles to store customer details for a personalized service. 

Hardware costs don’t have to rack up if you opt for a mobile POS system. Tap to pay, for instance, can turn your smartphone into a POS system without the need for an external card reader. You can retrieve appointment details, store customer data, and process payments from your smartphone. 

For restaurants and cafés

Food service businesses need a POS system that allows them to ring up orders quickly, send items directly to the kitchen printer, manage table turnover, and process tips. Managers also need detailed POS reports to track top-selling menu items and identify peak hours to optimize staff rotas.

Aside from these features, you’ll need specialist POS hardware to handle these activities, which make restaurant POS systems slightly more expensive than the average brick-and-mortar or pop-up store. That includes a mobile POS terminal to carry throughout the restaurant, a mobile card reader, and a kitchen display system.

How much does Shopify POS cost? 

You might be wondering how much Shopify POS costs. We offer two POS plans: Shopify POS Lite and Shopify POS Pro. 

Shopify POS Lite cost

Shopify POS Lite is included with all Shopify plans and is best for on-the-go sales and opening temporary stores like pop-up shops. Shopify plans start from $39 per month. If you’re already selling online with Shopify, you can start using Shopify POS Lite to sell in-person right away, at no cost. 

Shopify POS Pro cost

Shopify POS Pro is an add-on subscription for $89 a month that unlocks additional POS features. 

If your retail business has multiple locations, tiers of staff, a large product catalog, or high sales volume, consider upgrading to POS Pro. The advanced monthly subscription fee gives you faster workflows for inventory management and checkout, greater control over staff permissions and access, and deeper reporting and insights into your business.

Shopify POS system costs at a glance 

Choosing a POS system that fits your budget 

Depending on the POS you choose, there are other factors that can affect its cost. Here’s a checklist of things to consider when shopping for a POS system:

• Number of POS terminals or locations. Some POS systems charge merchants per terminal (also referred to as a cash register). Paying per register is usually more expensive than paying per location—even for merchants with multiple store locations. 
• Number of users. Some plans may come with only one user license, while others offer unlimited users. Ensure that the POS you choose will let you create as many staff logins as you need to keep your store running smoothly. 
• Product catalog. Some POS systems let you sell an unlimited number of products, while others will give you a maximum number of stock keeping units (SKUs) to sell depending on the POS pricing plan you choose.
• Contract length. Monthly plans are flexible and give the merchant more control, whereas annual plans might lock you into a legally binding agreement that is non-refundable and non-cancellable unless you pay a break fee. Be sure to read the fine print of your agreement and know what you’re signing up for.
• Scalability. Know what features you need to run your business effectively and to ensure the POS plan you choose includes those features. You want a system that can support your business’s growth, no matter how big you get. 
• Customer support. When you need help, you want a POS system with support you can count on. Find out what kind of support is included in your plan, what its operating hours are, and what channels you can use (email, live chat, or phone).