Best Cash Registers for Small Businesses in 2023

The flagship Square POS is free to use; all you pay for are processing fees for credit and debit card purchases. It can run on consumer-grade tablets like iPads, and Square sends you a free magstripe card reader when you open an account. So, if you already have an iPad, you can get started completely for free. This is one of the cheapest cash registers available for small businesses.

Square also has specialized POS offerings for retail, restaurant, and appointment-based businesses. All of these systems have a free entry-level subscription, with additional features like customizable user permissions available for a monthly software fee of $60 to $69.

See a breakdown of Square POS fees below, and check out our complete guide to Square POS pricing for more.

Square Hardware

Square Register	Square Stand	Square Terminal
$799 (or $39/mo over 24 months)	$149 (or $14/mo for 12 months)	$299 (or $27/mo over 12 months)
Square designed touch-screen terminal with customer-facing display and built-in card reader	iPad stand with built-in card reader	Handheld POS and card reader
Purchase from Square	Purchase from Square	Purchase from Square

Square Processing Fees

• Card present: 2.6% + 10 cents
• Keyed-in: 3.5% + 15 cents

Square POS Monthly Software Fees

• Basic Square: $0
• Square for Retail: $0–$60 per month
• Square for Restaurants: $0–$60 per month
• Square Appointments: $0–$69 per month

• Free online store: Square supports online sales via its free Square Online Store website in addition to in-person sales. You can receive online orders for pick up, delivery, or shipping directly in your Square register.
• Taxes and reporting: You can add and manage taxes from your Square online dashboard or the Square app on your register. Taxes automatically tally per set rules.
• Offline functionality: Square’s register allows you to record sales and process cash payments without an internet or cellular connection. You can also spool credit card payments that will run automatically when you regain an internet connection.
• Detailed customer profiles: Unlike the ECRs on this list, Square saves customer contact information and tracks sales by customer. You can use this information to help guide customers to items they might like on future visits or use it to feed customized marketing and promotions.

Square is extremely user-friendly, but you can’t bring your own payment processor. And unless you process more than $250,000 annually, you can’t get a custom rate. If you want to keep an existing processor or shop for rates, consider any of the electronic registers on this list. If you want an iPad-based register with more payment integrations, check out Lightspeed.

Unlike Toast and Square, Lightspeed does not offer a $0 monthly software subscription. But it does offer a 14-day free trial of the retail POS, so you can try it before committing.

Lightspeed Hardware

Vault iPad stand	Verifone 400m	Epson TM-M30II-NT
iPad POS or Kiosk stand	Tap, Swipe, dip, and PIN-enabled mobile card reader	Bluetooth and USB-Network tethered thermal receipt printer
Purchase from Lightspeed

Lightspeed Processing Fees

• Card present: 2.6% + 10 cents
• Keyed-in: 2.9% + 30 cents

Lightspeed POS Monthly Software Fees

• Lightspeed Retail
  • Lean: $89
  • Standard: $149
  • Advanced $269
• Lightspeed Restaurant
  • Starter: $69
  • Essential: $189
  • Premium: $399

• Sales and checkout: Lightspeed supports touch-screen or computer-controlled checkout screens and barcode scanning for item entry. You can also program discount codes and coupons to apply via code entry or barcode scan and handle open tickets and tabs for restaurant sales. Your Lightspeed register saves customer data and transaction history for quick returns. As with Square, you can print receipts or send them via email and SMS message.
• Reporting: Lightspeed’s reporting is the most detailed of any system on this list. You can print standard reports for sales, labor, and stock counts and integrate your performance data with accounting software to automate administrative tasks. The system contains hundreds of preset reports you can view by custom time frames to drill into your store’s key performance metrics.
• Inventory management: Users can store detailed inventory lists, track parts and ingredients, and sync inventory with an online store and multiple locations. Lightspeed also has granular ingredient-level stock tracking, features to manage product variants and custom orders, and sophisticated inventory reporting. Your system will alert you when inventory runs low, complete purchase orders, and track your vendors.

If you otherwise like Lightspeed’s touch-screen register but hate monthly fees, check out Square (which offers free register software). Restaurants should check out Toast’s pay-as-you-go plan. If you want to go electronic, the SAM4S SAP-630R is your best bet.

Toast has two options for new users that only need one to two POS stations:

1. You can purchase your register equipment upfront, or
2. You can pay $0 for your hardware and opt for higher credit card processing fees.

Prices and fees for both options, for Toast’s three hardware kit offerings, are itemized below:

Toast Hardware

Countertop Kit	Handheld Kit	Guest Self-Service Kit
Countertop Terminal Starter Kit	Handheld Terminal Starter Kit	Self-service Kiosk
Pay upfront: $875 + $69 per month or Pay-As-You-Go: $0 and 2.99% + 15 cents per in person transaction	Pay upfront: $627 + $69 per month or Pay-as-You-Go: $0 and 2.99% + 15 cents per in-person transaction	Pay upfront: $1099 + $99 per month or Pay-as-you-Go: $0 and 2.99% + 15 cents per in-person transaction

Toast Processing Fees

• If you pay for hardware upfront: 2.49% + 15 cents
• If you pay as you go for hardware: 2.99% + 15 cents

Toast POS Monthly Software Fees

• Quick Start Bundle (for up to 2 POS stations): $0
• Core: $69
• Growth: $165
• Build Your Own: Custom quote

• Restaurant-grade hardware: Restaurant POS systems take a lot of damage, but Toast is ready for anything with an IP54 spill-proof rating, fast processing times, and sleek minimal design to fit any brand.
• Tableside service: With order-ready notifications, tableside payments, and guest feedback portals at checkout, your staff will be able to deliver better and faster service.
• Menu management: Sync your menu with your inventory so that you can stay on top of diminishing ingredients and view what items are low with inventory countdowns.
• Online ordering: Integrate your online orders onto your POS device so the kitchen doesn’t miss a thing—and neither do your inventory controls.
• Order with Google: Through an integration with Order with Google, Toast restaurants can accept online orders directly from Google. The Order with Google menu syncs seamlessly with your Toast Online Ordering menu and hours of operation, so you don’t need to update another online menu.
• Training and installation: All Toast account holders will get free installation of all POS systems, in-person training, and 24/7 phone support.

Toast’s biggest drawback is the required two-year contract. It also doesn’t have tools for retailers. If you need something more short-term, consider Square. If you want a POS-driven register for retail, consider Lightspeed.

Touchbistro doesn’t list hardware or payment processing fees; you’ll need to contact them for a custom quote. Below are some of the available options.

TouchBistro Hardware

TouchBistro Terminal Kit	Kitchen Display Screen	Customer-facing Display
iPad stand, cash drawer, card reader, and receipt printer	Kitchen display stand	POS stand with customer-facing display
Contact TouchBistro for Pricing

TouchBistro Processing Fees

TouchBistro payment processing fees are custom-quoted. You can choose from TouchBistro Payments, Worldpay, Square, or TSYS for processing.

TouchBistro POS Monthly Software Fees

TouchBistro starts at $69 per terminal monthly. If you need more than one terminal, you can get a custom quote for monthly software. The per-terminal cost is typically lower if you need multiple stations.

• Sales and checkout: TouchBistro operates like a big iPhone and supports customizable speed screens for order combos. You can attach a second iPad to create a customer-facing display, and purchase cash drawers, barcode scanners, and card readers separately for custom-quoted prices.
• Interconnectivity: TouchBistro terminals easily network to one another, and you can self-configure your hardware by following the system’s detailed tutorials. The POS also integrates directly with popular tools for online ordering and delivery, loyalty, and automated inventory tracking.
• Inventory management: TouchBistro includes ingredient-level inventory management in the baseline POS for no extra cost (unlike Toast and Lightspeed, which charge extra). You can manage stock levels directly from the POS.
• Employee Management: TouchBistro includes an unlimited number of employee log-ins with customized permission levels. The terminals also act as your time clock so you can track employee hours and tips for payroll reporting. You can pull detailed reports for employee productivity, showing how often they apply voids and discounts alongside their sales and tip data. Time sheet reports are detailed, showing your paid and unpaid breaks, overtime, and even penalties accrued for New York State’s Spread of Hours law.

Need more robust tools? Toast and Lightspeed both have deeper reporting capabilities than TouchBistro. Lightspeed’s ingredient-level inventory is also much more automated (though only available with the priciest monthly subscription). If you need a register without monthly subscription fees, check out Square or any of the ECRs on this list.

The Sam4S 180U can be purchased from multiple retailers for between $200 and $300. This is a one-time payment with no ongoing monthly fees, making this system one of the cheapest register options on the market.

SAM4S ER-180U Hardware

SAM4S ER-180U Payment Processing

You will need to secure a separate credit card processor to accept card payments. You’ll also need to purchase a separate card reader to run card payments, as the 180U does not have a built-in card reader. This allows you the flexibility to choose whatever merchant services provider you like, but using a non-integrated card reader can increase your transaction times.

• Simple checkout: You can get your 180U with either a standard greyscale, numerical keyboard or a programmable, color-coded keyboard. This register tracks cash, check, or credit card payments, though you must run cards on an external card reader. You can also accept split tender payments (i.e., cash and charge). Change due will show on the cashier and customer-facing displays for cash payments.
• Tax tracking: You can program up to four different tax rates into your 180U. Tax can be applied as an additional line item on the receipt, or you can set the register to roll the tax into the item price.
• Basic reporting: The 180U tracks and stores up to 2,000 lines of sales transactions in an electronic journal, and it includes some basic built-in reports, such as a financial report and those for cash declaration, price code look-ups, and sales by cashier. You can also print your entire electronic journal to use that information to complete other reports.
• Simple inventory management: While it is not exactly inventory tracking, you can use the information from your electronic journal to update your inventory. If you need real-time inventory tracking, you’ll be better served by Square or Lightspeed.

If you need detailed, real-time inventory tracking, you’ll need a POS-driven register like Square or Lightspeed. If you need ingredient-level inventory tracking for a food service business on a budget, TouchBistro is your best bet. Though, if you don’t mind spending a little more for advanced tools, both Toast and Lightspeed’s restaurant inventory modules are even more robust.

The SAM4S SAP-630 register is available in retail (SAP-630R) or food service (SAP-630F) models. You can purchase it through various online and brick-and-mortar retailers that sell registers. Prices vary by vendor and configuration but typically range from $1,700–$1,799. This is a one-time price. There are no monthly software fees unless you choose to enroll in the cloud reporting app (which we discuss in the Features section).

SAM4S SAP-630 Hardware

SAM4S SAP-630 Payment Processing

Like the other ECRs on this list, the SAP-630 does not include built-in credit card processing by default. You’ll need to secure a payment processor and obtain a peripheral card reader to accept card payments on this register. You get the benefit of shopping for the lowest available processing rates, but this also increases your setup and transaction times.

• Sales and checkout: The SAP-630 includes a keypad for quick entry, a touch screen for deeper-level functions like product searches, a cash drawer, and a digital customer-facing display. The only thing you’ll need to attach is an optional card reader and a barcode scanner if you use one. On the touch screen, you can search products by UPC or item description.
• Cloud reports: You can navigate reports on the register using the report mode on the touch screen. Or—like the POS-driven models on this list—you can access reports via the cloud on your smartphone. Though unlocking mobile reporting functions on the SAP-630, you’ll need to pay an extra fee for the SAM4POS app. Unlike the other SAM4S registers, the SAP-630 does not clear your data whenever you print a “Z” report. You can pull reports for custom date ranges from the register or the reporting app, just like a POS.
• Flexible connections: You have the option to connect a handheld tablet via Wi-Fi, so you can process payments on the sales floor or count inventory. Additionally, you can network multiple SAP-630 registers via ethernet connection and communicate with remote label printers via Wi-Fi.
• EBT Payments: This register can accept EBT payments and integrates with tobacco company loyalty programs to drive tobacco sales.

The SAM4S SAP-630’s combination configuration is a fascinating option for small businesses, but it requires an authorized dealer to configure it. If you prefer simple self-installation with options for built-in processing, check out Square or Lightspeed.

From $629–$789 (price varies by vendor and add-ons)

SAM4S ER-925 Hardware

SAM4S ER-925 Payment Processing Fees

You will need to get a separate merchant services account. Rates will vary.

• Efficient checkout: Dual displays show transactions to customers and cashiers in real time. You can accept cash, check, EBT, gift cards, and credit/debit card payments, split tenders, and process voids, returns, and discounts in the register. Busy shops may also want to attach the optional second cash drawer so two cashiers can work out of the same register.
• Expanded reporting: The ER-925 supports X reports (which display totals without resetting your system) and Z reports (which reset your register when printed). This register includes a number of reports that its sister register, the 180U, lacks. In addition to basic sales and financial reports, you get stock reports, discount and void reports, and segmented sales reports by category or tender type. The register’s PC utility lets you transfer your reporting information to a desktop computer via an internal SD card or direct PC link for deeper reporting and further analysis.
• Works offline: The register does not require an internet connection for cash transactions and reporting. However, if you accept credit cards, you’ll need an ethernet connection to feed the integrated card reader.

If you want to automatically collect customer emails for your marketing efforts, the ER-925 is not a great fit. Both Lightspeed and Square offer much more robust customer management tools (and Square’s are priced based on your actual use). Both also offer built-in payment processing, which speeds up your setup process.

Given the limited features of electronic cash registers, these devices will be most useful only for very small businesses that are limited to cash transactions. For accepting other payment methods and using features like in-depth reporting and multilocation or multichannel selling, modern POS systems are the better choice.

If you accept a large volume of cash, the best register will include lockable cash drawers and possibly even dual cash drawers so two cashiers can use the same register. If you accept card payments, you’ll need a register with an integrated or attached card reader. You’ll also want a register that tracks transactions by cashier so you can easily identify errors or suspicious transactions.

Depending on your business type, you can use a smartphone, iPad, or other touch-screen tablet as a cash register. All you need to do to turn one of these devices into a register is download a POS or payment app and attach a cash drawer or bank account to receive cash and digital payments.

For solopreneurs, mobile business, and service businesses that accept card payments, a smartphone, card reader, and attached bank account is all you need. Brick-and-mortar stores that want to securely accept cash will want a stationary tablet with an attached cash drawer.