The best point-of-sale platform for small businesses

Square's pricing page lists a Free plan at $0 per location a month and says hardware is not required, with invoices, payment links, a virtual terminal and Tap to Pay on iPhone or Android named as ways to take a payment without it. Square is our pick for small businesses starting with a free POS software plan and optional hardware if the order confirms plan fees and processing rates, cancellation and financing terms, hardware compatibility, added-station and location costs, and export access around closure. The Free plan's card rates are listed by payment method on the same page, and Square's General Terms of Service let a seller cancel a paid subscription from account settings at any time.

Toast suits a restaurant that wants its order-taking and kitchen workflow on hardware Toast approves and accepts a contract term, a processing quote and termination terms defined in its order under Toast's Merchant Agreement. Clover suits a merchant who wants its point of sale through a named bank channel such as PNC Merchant Services and who puts that seller's processing agreement, devices, software and exit provisions into the order.

What should a small business weigh in a point-of-sale platform?

A point-of-sale budget sits across hardware, software, transaction processing, setup and add-ons, business.com's cost guide says, and it directs buyers to estimate processing from their own transaction volume and average ticket. A free software plan settles one of those lines. For a business that is just starting, it also sets what the software costs in a month with few sales, so check whether the price on a plan card is software alone or a bundle that includes a device.

Toast's processing-fee explainer counts a swipe, dip or tap as card-present and an online order, a phone order or a typed-in card as card-not-present, and says the second group costs more. Ask each seller for the in-person rate, the keyed rate and the online rate on the plan and channel you would sign, and use those rates to price your phone and website sales.

IROA North America, an association for Indian restaurant owners in the United States and Canada, describes software, hardware financing and processing as arrangements that can have different owners, term lengths, cancellation rules and end dates. Business.com's cost guide adds that some multi-year agreements carry cancellation charges. A monthly price describes the billing cycle and the term comes from the agreement behind it, so get the end date and the exit charge for each agreement in writing.

A proprietary terminal can be tied to its software platform and a standard tablet needs a compatibility check before purchase, according to business.com's hardware guide, updated September 22, 2026. A buyer who wants to start with a phone or an existing tablet should confirm that the plan takes payments without the seller's device. Hardware that works with one processor becomes a replacement cost if the business changes processors.

TechRadar's buying guide, updated February 10, 2026, advises choosing for the business type and checking whether the system can add devices and a second location. Price each added register or site as its own line: the software fee, the device and the network it needs. TechRadar describes transaction exports as feeding accounting and tax work, so ask how long those exports stay available once the account closes. The IROA guidance tells owners to establish which sales, menu and customer records can be exported, in what format and at what cost.

Square, Toast and Clover side by side on cost and exit terms

Square: a Free plan with published rates and optional hardware

Square's pricing page sets Plus at $49 and Premium at $149 per location a month and gives each a 30-day free trial. The same page turns multi-location management on for Plus and Premium, and Square's plan-switching article says Free cannot use the Kiosk and KDS apps, which carry monthly per-device fees. A business that starts on Free and later wants those features moves to a paid plan fee for each location.

On Free, the pricing page charges 2.6% + 15¢ for a tapped, dipped or swiped card, 3.5% + 15¢ for a manually entered card or a card on file and 3.3% + 30¢ for an online payment. Plus and Premium carry lower card-present and online rates and the same keyed rate. Square's fee list names account inactivity and early termination among the items it does not charge for.

Square's General Terms of Service, last updated September 14, 2026, charge subscription fees on the first of each month until the seller cancels, and a seller can cancel from account settings at any time. Access runs to the end of the current billing period, and Square gives no refund or credit for a subscription fee already due or paid. The same terms let Square end or suspend an account or any service at any time for any reason, and its Payment Terms let it end payment services and hold funds on closure while an investigation is pending.

Hardware installment purchases on Square's hardware page are credit sale plans issued by Block, Inc., subject to credit approval, at a printed APR of 15% over 3, 6, 12 or 24 months according to the purchase amount, and they are not offered to merchants in AL, DE, MO, MS, NH and TN. Canceling a software plan is a separate step from that credit agreement, so get its prepayment and default terms with the purchase. Square's hardware policy accepts a return within 30 days of delivery in original condition and bars partial returns of an installment purchase. Its restaurant page says hardware is not included in a subscription. Confirm with Square whether your existing iPads, kitchen printers, receipt printers, cash drawers and routers work with the plan you choose, and ask in writing whether a Square reader or terminal works with any other processor.

Square's plan-switching article says the three plans carry no per-device point-of-sale fee and that a Free seller can create multiple locations without an extra charge. On Plus and Premium the plan fee applies to each location, and deactivating an unused location lowers the monthly cost. Those are software fees, so price the device, the network connection and any installment balance for each added station as separate lines. Square's case study on The Juicery says adding a location takes no more than 15 minutes.

Square's deactivation article tells sellers to export payment history, the item library and the customer directory before deactivating. A deactivated account cannot be reactivated, and its payment history, account information and tax forms are no longer accessible. The same article says a seller can keep an account open at no charge and keep access to sales history, reports, tax forms and the customer directory. Dashboard reports export to CSV, and the customer directory exports separately. Square's card-on-file article says saved cards go only to a processor that is PCI DSS Level 1 compliant, after the account owner calls Square Support to verify ownership, and gives an average time of up to two weeks.

Toast: restaurant hardware kits with a term set in the order

Toast's pricing page, last updated August 20, 2026, describes a Starter Kit starting at $0 a month for single-location restaurants that need 1 to 2 terminals, a Point of Sale plan starting at $69 a month and a Build Your Own plan priced by quote. A footnote limits the starting prices to new customers and single locations. Toast's retail page describes Toast Retail as its own product and points retail buyers to a personalized quote, so a shop that is not a restaurant starts with a sales conversation.

With the Basic feature pack selected, Toast's countertop Starter Kit page shows a Pay-as-you-Go summary with nothing due today, no monthly software fee and 3.09% + $0.15 per card transaction, and a Traditional summary with $1,153 due today, a monthly software fee and 2.49% + $0.15. Both summaries label the rate a card transaction fee, so ask Toast which rate applies to a keyed card and to an online order. Toast's payments page says it builds a custom rate for the business, which puts the Point of Sale and Build Your Own rates in the quote.

Toast's posted Merchant Agreement, last updated September 10, 2025, runs for the initial term outlined in the order and then renews for successive one-year terms unless either party gives at least 30 days written notice before the term ends. The merchant agrees to pay all hardware and software fees in the order for the entire term. A merchant who terminates early owes the remaining software subscription fees for the current term or, on a Pay-as-you-Go subscription, $150.00 for each month remaining, plus any processing fee related to software financing. A footnote on Toast's comparison page with Square, last updated September 15, 2026, puts Pay-as-you-Go under a two-year agreement, so read the initial term for your plan in the order itself.

Software fees stay unchanged during the initial term under the same agreement, and Toast can change card processing rates on prior written notice. A merchant who objects in writing before a rate change takes effect can terminate without the early termination fee, apart from any software-financing processing fee. Toast's help article on removing a product lets a merchant cancel individual modules and device subscriptions from the Subscriptions page and treats closing the whole account as a written-notice step through customer care.

Toast's pricing FAQ says its services run only on devices Toast identifies as compatible, and its Payment Processing Terms make Toast the merchant's exclusive provider of payment processing services. Starter Kit hardware is owned by the purchaser on either payment plan, the Starter Kits page says. Toast's payment options page, last updated July 16, 2026, describes Easy Pay as a 180-day lease with an option to purchase at the end, offered in the United States only. The U.S. return policy covers hardware bought directly from Toast for 90 days from shipment and excludes Pay-as-you-Go and Easy Pay purchases.

Each further device carries its own software subscription, and Toast's device subscription guide lists separate line items for the first terminal, additional terminals, handhelds, kitchen display screens and kiosks. The guide says a device without an active subscription keeps working for a period after the first login and then locks until one is purchased. The Merchant Agreement states fees for the locations named in an order, so price a second location with Toast before signing for the first. In Toast's offline article, last updated September 29, 2026, kitchen display tickets arrive during an outage only when multicast is enabled on the router and at least one hardwired device acts as the local hub.

Toast's U.S. help article on downloading data, last updated July 9, 2026, says reports can be downloaded from Toast Web before closing, that the data covers the last 48 months and that it stays accessible for 60 days after closing, with no single export of all data. The Merchant Agreement sets a separate window: a merchant that cannot otherwise access its information can ask within 30 days of termination to retrieve a copy, unless Toast terminated for the merchant's uncured material breach, and Toast has no obligation to retain merchant data. The order should name the export procedure and the access period that apply to your account.

Clover: bundles on Clover.com and contracts set by the seller

Clover's pricing page says the prices it displays are available only through Clover.com and that contract terms and termination fees vary by service provider. Its monthly subscription pricing combines POS access with devices and accessories, and transaction fees are charged separately. The same page says devices can be bought or leased through other sellers and that Clover POS devices cannot be used with another processor.

The retail plan grid on Clover.com prices Basic two ways, as a monthly figure over a fixed term or a one-time amount, and pairs Basic with the Starter software plan and Standard and Advanced with Retail Growth. Its card-present rate is 2.6% + 10¢ on Basic and 2.3% + 10¢ on Standard and Advanced, with 3.5% + 10¢ for typed card data on all three plans. Ask Clover for the online rate on those plans and for the monthly software fee that follows an upfront Basic purchase. Clover.com keeps separate grids for quick-service restaurants and full-service restaurants, and the full-service grid directs buyers to contact sales in all three plan columns.

Clover's payment-options terms on those plan pages describe the device-and-plan subscription as a 36- or 48-month agreement that cannot be canceled during its term. At the end of the term the merchant buys the device, returns it or keeps renting it monthly, and the pricing FAQ asks for 30 days notice before the subscription ends to avoid the month-to-month rental. Buying the devices upfront carries no fixed device term and gives ownership from day one, with a monthly plan fee after the purchase. Clover's general service terms, last updated April 17, 2025, run until either party terminates the Clover account on 30 days notice, and they are separate from the merchant processing agreement a seller signs with the business.

PNC Merchant Services lists 2.60% + $0.10 for standard card-present debit and credit, 3.45% + $0.15 for non-swipe retail phone or manual entry and 2.90% + $0.30 for online-only e-commerce purchases on its small-business page, and says customized transaction pricing is also available. Those rates exclude equipment, chargebacks, apps and third-party charges, and PNC says a separate Clover software package and a direct Clover agreement with its own fees are required. PNC Merchant Services Company sells the Clover devices, and purchased devices cannot be returned or refunded. PNC describes a third-party equipment lease as a separate agreement the merchant cannot cancel. The offer requires a PNC Merchant Services account and a signed PNC merchant agreement, so read the processing term, renewal and early termination fee in that agreement before ordering devices.

After termination, Clover's general service terms provide a reasonable extraction window for account data stored on Clover's servers and then describe deletion subject to law and card-association requirements. PNC's reporting page says historical transaction information in its Commerce Control Center is available for up to seven years. That is payment history on PNC's side, so ask Clover for the customer and item export route and for the length of the extraction window.

Capterra's Clover page, last updated September 28, 2026, shows an overall 3.8 from 583 reviews, with a 4.0 usability rating and a 3.2 support rating. A restaurant owner with 2 to 10 employees described an unresolved service issue there on June 23, 2026, and an apparel and fashion owner of the same size wrote on June 5, 2026: "We have had no trouble at all with the processing quickness, or accuracy." Those reviews describe the product, and the processing contract comes from whichever seller signs the merchant.

Which point-of-sale platform should a small business choose?

Square is our pick for small businesses starting with a free POS software plan and optional hardware if the order confirms plan fees and processing rates, cancellation and financing terms, hardware compatibility, added-station and location costs, and export access around closure. We weight the Free plan, its card rates listed by plan and payment method, and the payment methods that need no Square hardware most for a small business starting at that scope, because they put the monthly software fee and the cost of each sale in writing before a device is bought. The cancellation clause in the General Terms gives the same buyer a named route out of a paid plan. The pick holds when the order settles the rest: the plan you are on, any Block installment plan, the devices you own or buy, the fees for each added device and location, and the exports you take before deactivation. Total cost at your sales volume comes from completed quotes, so collect one from each seller before you commit to devices.

Toast's U.S. help article describes continued access to data after an account closes, and Square's deactivation article says payment history, account information and tax forms are no longer accessible once an account is deactivated. Toast's Merchant Agreement carries its own conditional request and deletion window, so a Toast order has to settle which access and exports apply. We still weight Square's published starting terms above that article for this buyer, because the Square seller exports before deactivating and can keep the account open at no charge until the records are saved.

Toast is the better pick for a restaurant that wants order taking on Toast-approved terminals, handhelds and kitchen display screens and accepts the initial term, processing quote and termination terms defined in its order. Have that order state the rate for each payment method and the export access that follows closure.

Clover is the better pick for a merchant who wants its point of sale through a named bank channel such as PNC Merchant Services. That buyer's order carries the bank's processing agreement, the device purchase or lease, the Clover software package and the exit provisions, each from the party that sells it.

Other point-of-sale providers