Clover POS Review: User-friendly Square Alternative

Clover POS is a popular hardware and software bundle used by small businesses—including retailers, restaurants, and service businesses. Inconsistency in pricing, contracts, and limitations in Clover’s management features prevent it from earning a spot on our list of the best POS systems.

However, Clover’s combination of software and hardware is adaptable, easy to use, and highly versatile, earning a respectable 3.78 out of 5 in our evaluation.

Clover is owned by Fiserv (formerly First Data) but allows third-party resellers to program other payment services into the system. This makes Clover unique because businesses that already have a merchant account they like, or want to shop around for the lowest processing rates can purchase Clover POS from their preferred merchant account.

Clover POS

Overall Score: 3.78 / 5

RATING CRITERIA	Pricing		3.94 / 5
	Register and Checkout		4.13 / 5
	Management Features		3.06 / 5
	Ease of Use		3.88 / 5
	Expert Score		3.75 / 5

What We Like

• Can be programmed to integrate with other payment processing service
• Affordable plans with access to proprietary hardware
• Can process card payments while offline

What's Missing

• No built-in vendor management tools
• Hardware tied to the merchant account (Cannot be reprogrammed)
• Little oversight of third-party resellers means contracts vary in quality

When to Use Clover

If you need a:

• Square alternative: Clover leads our top recommendations for alternatives to Square
• Mobile POS: Clover is a top choice for best mobile POS systems
• Stand-alone mobile payment app: Clover Go is our recommended mobile payment app for age-restricted products and Clover users

When to Use an Alternative:

• Businesses with no preferred merchant account: Choose one of our recommended POS with built-in payment processing
• Businesses with fast-moving inventory: Opt for a provider with better inventory management control system
• Casual sellers: Look for free POS software you can use with any hardware

Visit Clover

Fiserv, which owns Clover and is the direct seller, does not have a very favorable reputation when it comes to providing merchant services to small businesses (learn more about that in our Fiserv review).

If you are considering the Clover POS system and do not already have a compatible merchant account, we recommend that you look into the following resellers:

• Payment Depot: One of our top recommendations for cheapest merchant services for small businesses
• Dharma Merchant Services: Best for restaurants and small storefronts
• National Processing: Affordable and reliable option for small businesses, particularly when accepting ACH and e-check payments online.

Each of the processors above offers competitive rates, transparent pricing, and decent customer service.

Clover POS Deciding Factors

Clover POS Alternatives

Visit Lightspeed	Visit Square	Visit Toast	Visit Loyverse
Best for: Businesses with large-volume inventory	Best for: Businesses needing mobile and in-store POS	Best for: Restaurants	Best for: Small hybrid restaurants
Monthly fee from: $69	Base monthly fee: $0	Monthly fee from: $0–custom	Monthly fee from: $0 plus $0–$25 add-ons
Hardware kit from: $500	Hardware from: $49	Hardware from: $0– custom	Hardware: Varies
Lightspeed Retail Review	Square POS Review	Toast POS Review	Loyverse POS Review

If you’re not sure which POS is right for you, check out our reviews of the top Clover alternatives.

What affected our evaluation of Clover’s pricing overall is clarity. While the basic subscription plan is quite attractive, missing features that require add-on costs, and flat-rate transaction fees can quickly eat away at your revenue. Also, note that Clover has little control over how resellers price and set terms of use so these many options can be overwhelming for those who are not familiar with Clover.

Its subscription plans will differ based on your business type and the Clover hardware you use. And, within each subscription plan is a different set of software plans whose available functionalities vary depending on the hardware as well. Thus, the price of your system will be a combination of these factors, which can easily get confusing.

We took a step-by-step approach to help you find which Clover setup is best for you. The first thing to do would be to choose your business type.

Retail & Services

Notice that the monthly subscription plan determines the software plan and payment processing rates. Choose a monthly subscription and note the available hardware for each before moving to the next table.

Clover Cash Registers & Hardware

The next step would be to click on the tab below for the available hardware in your chosen subscription plan. This will provide you with the software features included in each plan for the particular hardware.

• Clover Go
• Clover Flex
• Clover Mini for Retail
• Clover Mini for Restaurants
• Station Solo
• Station Duo

Price: $49   Features: Chip, dip, or tap payments, including Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, and Google Pay Connects to Wi-Fi and cellular networks but takes offline payments as well Syncs with Clover web dashboard Lets you create orders, process transactions, manage employees, update inventory, and more Encryption and tokenization View open, pending, and completed transactions Buy Clover Go

	Starter	Standard
Monthly Fee	$0	$14.95
Software Plan	Payments	Essential
Invoice Management	✓	✓
Bookkeeping Integrations	✓	✓
Real-time Sales Tracking and Detailed Sales Report	✕	✓
Cost Tracking by Item	✕	✕
Inventory Management (stock-tracking, itemized order creation, item- or order-level discounts)	✕	✓
Item Variants, Returns, and Exchanges	✕	✕
Website Builder	Add-on	Add-on
Website Integration and Multichannel Sales Management	✓	✓
Employee Individual Permissions and Shift Management	✕	✓

Price: $499 or $166/month for 3 months   Features: Accept most payments, including touchless payments like Apple Pay, Google Pay, WeChat Pay, or Alipay Built-in receipt printer Built-in camera/barcode scanner Fingerprint login for up to 50 unique fingerprints Fully mobile Full-fledged POS, terminal, and business management: Use as a stand-alone or with other Clover systems Wi-Fi and LTE connectivity Lithium battery Buy Clover Go

	Starter	Standard	Advanced
Monthly Fee	$0	$14.95	$44.95
Software Plan	Payments	Essential	Register
Invoice Management	✓	✓	✓
Bookkeeping Integrations	✓	✓	✓
Real-time Sales Tracking and Detailed Sales Report	✕	✓	✓
Cost Tracking by Item	✕	✕	✓
Inventory Management (stock-tracking, itemized order creation, Item or order-level discounts)	✕	✓	✓
Item Variants, Returns, and Exchanges	✕	✕	✓
Website Builder	✕	Add-on	Add-on
Website Integration and Multichannel Sales Management	✓	✓	✓
Employee Individual Permissions and Shift Management	✕	✓	✓

Price: $799 or $266/month for three months   Features: Compact display Pre-loaded with Clover software of your choice Swipe, chip, and tap payments Syncs with Clover web application Can connect to cash drawers, barcode scanners, and printers Accepts traditional and contactless payment methods Sends out digital receipts Process payments even when offline Buy Clover Mini

	Starter	Standard	Advanced
Monthly Fee	$0	$14.95	$44.95
Software Plan	Payments	Essential	Register
Invoice Management	✓	✓	✓
Bookkeeping Integrations	✕	✓	✓
Real-time Sales Tracking and Detailed Sales Report	✕	✓	✓
Cost Tracking by Item	✕	✕	✓
Inventory Management (stock-tracking, itemized order creation, Item or order-level discounts)	✕	✓	✓
Item Variants, Returns, and Exchanges	✕	✕	✓
Customer Record Tied to Payments	✓	✓	✓
CRM (client database, private feedback, promotions, loyalty program, digital/physical Clover gift cards)	✕	✓	✓
Employee Individual Permissions and Shift Management	✓	✓	✓
Payroll Integrations	✓	✓	✓

Price: $799 or $266/month for three months   Features: Compact display Pre-loaded with Clover software of your choice Swipe, chip, and tap payments Syncs with Clover web application Can connect to cash drawers, barcode scanners, and printers Accepts traditional and contactless payment methods Sends out digital receipts Process payments even when offline Buy Clover Mini

	Quick-Service	Full-Service
Monthly Fee	$0	$14.95
Software Plan	Payments	Essential
Scan to Pay QR code on receipt	✕	✓
Bookkeeping Integrations	✓	✓
Real-time Sales Tracking and Detailed Sales Report	✓	✓
Cost Tracking by Item	✓	✓
Order Management (contactless dining/QR-code ordering, open tabs with card pre-authorization, item and order-level discounts, remote order firing, tipping)	✓	✓
Table Mapping and Bill Splitting	✕	✓
Online Ordering	✓	✓
Centralized Menu Management (item and category management, color-coded categories, stock tracking and marking “sold out” by item, item modifiers and labels)	✓	✓
Third-party Menu Integration	✓	✓
CRM (client database, private feedback, promotions, loyalty program, digital/physical Clover gift cards)	✓	✓
Employee Individual Permissions and Shift Management	✓	✓
Payroll Integrations	Add-on	Add-on

Price: $1,349 or $450/month for three months   Features: 14” touch screen, swivel display to accept signatures Pre-loaded with Clover software of your choice Built-in barcode scanner Four USB 2.0 ports and two cash drawer ports Fingerprint login Includes a stand-alone receipt printer with 4.3" customer-facing visual display Integrates with barcode scanners, scales, kitchen printers, and other accessories Accepts traditional and contactless (NFC) payments Buy Clover Station

	Advanced	Full-Service
Monthly Fee	$0	$14.95
Software Plan	Payments	Essential
Accept Swipe and Dip Payments	✓	✓
Real-time Sales Reporting and Detailed Reports	✓	✓
Single Dashboard for Online and Offline Sales	✓	✓
24/7 Live Support	✓	✓
Table Mapping and Remote Order firing	✕	✓
Open Tabs with Pre‑authorization and Bill Splitting	✕	✓
Clover Online Menu Page and No-fee Online Ordering	✕	✓

Price: $1,799 or $599/month for three months   Features: 14” HD touch screen, swivel display 7” customer-facing touch screen Dual 5MP cameras with Zebra scanning software Pre-loaded with Clover software of your choice Built-in barcode scanner Four USB 2.0 ports and two cash drawer ports Fingerprint login Includes touch screen with a swipe, high-speed receipt printer, and cash drawer Integrates with barcode scanners, scales, kitchen printers, and other accessories Buy Clover Station Duo

	Advanced	Quick-Service
Monthly Fee	$44.95	$74.95
Software Plan	Register	Counter Service
Accept Swipe, Dip, Tap, QR Code, and Keyed‑in Payments	✓	✓
Inventory Management and Itemized Orders	✓	✓
Item Variants and Itemized Returns and Exchanges	✓	✕
24/7 Live Support	✓	✓
Item Modifiers and Labels	✕	✓
Stock Tracking and Marking “Sold Out” by Item	✕	✓

You can purchase Clover hardware from Fiserv, Amazon, or any of over 3,000 resellers—that may give you a better price. Some may even lease the hardware, though we do not recommend this.

Clover Payment Processing

Fiserv, one of the largest merchant services companies in the world, owns Clover. However, it allows other merchant services to resell the POS system. It lists 65 approved resellers on its website, but you can find Clover systems elsewhere, even on Amazon. They all use Fiserv as their backend payment processor but can impose their own terms and pricing.

This means you may be able to find more equitable payment processing rates and cheaper hardware—or you may find yourself in a bad deal. Fiserv has a list of trusted resellers but does not monitor them all. Do your research to find the most reputable merchant service.

Regardless, the software remains the same. As long as your reseller can process the payments, you can accept credit, debit, gift cards, and contactless payments like Apple Pay

That said, Clover’s default payment processing fees (with Fiserv) are listed as follows:

• For Retail and Services: 2.3% + 10 cents to 2.6% + 10 cents per card-present transaction and 3.5% + 10 cents per card-not-present transaction
• For Restaurants: 2.3% + 10 cents per card-present transaction and 3.5% + 10 cents per card-not-present transaction

Setup & Application

Regardless of whether you sign up directly with Clover/Fiserv, or with a reseller, the first thing you need to do is to choose a hardware to purchase. If you sign up with a partner, they will link your merchant account with Clover in the background and you will have access to a Clover account for customer support and software management.

Similarly, if you sign up directly with Clover, you will also be directed to first choose a hardware. The process will include a step where you will be asked to fill up information for a merchant account before completing your purchase.

Signing Up via the Clover Website

Clover can assist you with looking for the nearest reseller in your area
(Source: Clover)

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Clover partners with numerous banks and other financial institutions, which makes it easier to get approved for a merchant account.
(Source: Clover)

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Choose your Clover hardware, open a Clover account, and apply for payment processing all in one go.
(Source: Clover)

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Signing Up via a Reseller

Look for Clover POS on your preferred merchant services provider’s website. Alternatively, you can call Clover at (888) 338-9095 for assistance if you wish to use the POS system with your existing merchant account.
(Source: National Processing)

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Always compare pricing from resellers to ensure that you get the most out of your budget.
(Source: Dharma Merchant Services)

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Some merchant services providers like Payment Depot can offer better transaction rates for businesses that regularly process large volumes of transaction
(Source: Payment Depot)

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Once you receive your Clover hardware, you also get an instruction packet and manual to help set up your device. Your Clover device is payment-ready and will automatically connect to your wireless network to update its software.

Contract & Terms of Service (TOS)

Your terms of service for using payment processing with Clover will depend on your chosen merchant service provider. Because Clover partners with over 30,000 resellers, it’s important to ensure that you’re getting the best deal.

To give you an idea, here is a brief overview of our recommended Clover partners’ merchant services terms:

While Fiserv does advertise Clover POS system on its website, it does not disclose any of its terms and conditions. Clover general TOS also does not say much about fees and contract length. Therefore it’s important to go over the merchant agreement with a Clover account manager.

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Clover POS Terms of Service

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Virtual Terminal

If you prefer not to use Clover hardware, you can sign up for a Clover merchant account and use the virtual terminal to start accepting payments over the phone, in person, or with an invoice. It comes with end-to-end encryption to meet PCI compliance and is preloaded with your Clover dashboard.

Clover Virtual Terminal monthly fee: $14.95/month, 3.5% + 10 cents keyed-in rate (Fiserv)

Clover virtual terminal in deskstop and mobile view.

Overall, Clover is an intuitive, versatile, and feature-rich system, offering several configurations and add-ons to quickly streamline your checkout process and improve customer experience. It allows you to ring up sales, run taxes automatically, input (or suggest) gratuities, program discounts by the hour or time of day (e.g., Happy Hour), and apply service or delivery charges automatically.

Many of these features are available with the basic paid plan ($14.95), but note that some features, like the website builder function, are paid add-ons. These add-on costs prevented Clover from scoring higher.

Other POS, like Square, offer these features with their free plan.

Here are a few things you can do with a Clover register:

• Accept swipe, dip, or tap payments using credit and debit cards, as well as contactless payments like Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, and Venmo
• Process expanded payment methods such as scan-to-pay, store credits, layaways, gift cards, and Buy-Now-Pay-Later options
• Add mobility with Clover Flex handheld device, and Clover Go mobile card reader
• Print or email receipts—or with Scan and Pay, add a QR code to allow customers to pay with their phones. You can include feedback coupons as well.

Clover lets you customize your screen with hotkeys and shortcuts. The search bar lets you find products by menu, bar code, or text.
(Source: Clover)

Customer Management

Clover’s customer management tools let you set up customer profiles automatically from credit card sales. It enables you to garner sales histories, names, and birthdays and to save photos so that your employees can recognize and greet customers by name. Also, tracking contact and marketing preferences is easy.

Create a data-driven rewards and loyalty program and promote it to customers and your social media. Send promotions via email, text, or social media. Develop segmented lists to focus on customer preferences, track customers who have not been back in a while, and tempt them in with a special deal. Finally, request customer feedback on receipts and set up a coupon reward. There’s also a reply function for following through on customer feedback.

Clover offers a customer management feature that allows you to create a detailed profile for customers right at the checkout counter. (Source: Clover)

The customer-facing loyalty app is free and gives your customers the ability to engage more through online sales including buying online and picking up in-store or curbside. It has a 4.9/5 rating from over 41,000 users.
(Source: Apple App Store)

Upgrade your customer engagement strategy with additional tools such as unlimited outreach, targeted promos, birthday rewards, and automated win-back campaigns with Clover’s Customer Engagement Plus add-on ($99/mo.)
(Source: Clover)

Online Ordering

With online ordering, you can design an online menu and let customers order, pay for their purchase, and arrange for a delivery or pick-up. You can also set it up so that even your dine-in customers can order and pay through their mobile devices. Clover’s omnichannel feature ensures that you get alerted to your online orders directly on your Clover terminal and that inventory is always updated for both your online and in-person orders.

Give your customers a fully contactless dine-in experience with scan-to-order and scan-to-pay features.
(Source: Clover)

Ecommerce

Clover can easily integrate with your existing website, or Clover can help you create one through its partner ecommerce platform, BigCommerce. It updates your inventory data in real time as transactions happen both in-store and online, letting you manage everything from a single platform.

You can also find other ecommerce platforms such as WooCommerce, Shopify, and appointment scheduler apps for service-based businesses. Developer tools are also available for those who want a highly customized website.

BigCommerce is Clover’s primary partner for creating websites.
(Source: Clover)

While not the best in class, Clover’s business management tools are robust enough to handle fast-growing businesses, particularly restaurants. You can track ingredients, items, and variants, manage employee access and shift schedules, create and track invoices, and generate detailed reports.

However, Clover does not have built-in vendor management tools. Also, most of the advanced features are gated in its higher subscription plan. And, while this is still within a competitive price range ($14.95–$74.95), adding more third-party integration fees can quickly increase your monthly cost.

Inventory Management

Clover’s inventory management feature includes bulk editing, stock tracking, enhanced filtering, multi-location stock transfers, and itemized order creation for special work orders. It also automatically adjusts stock levels when processing returns and exchanges. For restaurants, Clover supports color-coded categories, marking “sold out” by item, and item modifiers and labels.

However, one black mark on Clover is that it does not hold images for items like so many POS software. This is a much-requested feature by Clover customers.

Clover offers third-party integrations with a number of inventory management apps such as Thrive’s Shopventory, although it comes with a hefty price tag ($99/month).
(Source: Clover)

Invoice Management

Clover now has an invoice management function that comes with the virtual terminal. This feature lets you create simple, professional-looking invoices with pay now buttons for frictionless payment. You can send via email and track the status until it gets paid. You can also automate sending of recurring payments, client notifications, and payment receipts.

Encourage clients to settle their invoices faster by adding a pay now button on your invoice.
(Source: Clover)

Employee Management

Clover allows you to have unlimited employees on a single console and set permissions to limit access to what each worker needs for their job. It also links with apps—some free and some for an extra charge—to help you manage employees.

Clover offers the free app, Time Clock by Homebase. However, with a paid Homebase account (which starts at $20/month), you can also manage performance, get health and safety screening, job costing, and even dedicated HR advisers. Homebase is one of our recommended free employee scheduling apps.

Clover gives you total control of your employees’ login, permissions, and shift schedules. Source: Clover
(Source: Clover)

Reporting & Analytics

Clover’s cloud-based reporting dashboard can be accessed on any desktop or a mobile device. The dashboard features a quick summary of overall business performance including end-of-day reports and inventory analysis. Most Clover reports are available only for paid plans. This includes real-time sales tracking, inventory movement, employee performance, and tax reporting tools. You can also build customized reports to match your growth goals.

The smart reporting tools allow you to analyze inventory movement, identify sales opportunities, and generate sales forecasts to help you reach your goal.
(Source: Clover)

• 24/7 customer support by phone/email
• Personalized setup support
• Concierge-level setup available
• Over 200 third-party integrations

One advantage of the Clover system is that it comes with all the tools you need, and as you grow, you can add features from its list of apps. You can also get support in setting up your business, including a concierge-level setup.

The software itself gets above-average points for this category. Its interface is clear-cut; click on what you need to do in the menu bar, then follow the directions. When inputting inventory, you can create it for online ordering and for the console. You can also import inventory from a spreadsheet rather than adding items individually.

Two things detract from its ease of use: one, the lack of images, which can make finding an item faster, and two, the lack of low-inventory alerts, which means you need to keep track of when to reorder items.

Once you receive your Clover hardware, you can download the setup guide from the Clover website to help you get started.
(Source: Clover)

Overall, we find Clover a solid POS with sophisticated features to run a busy retail or restaurant business. Subscription plans advertised on its website are within reason and user feedback of the system is generally positive.

However, given that you need to have the right merchant account to maximize Clover’s potential as a POS system, it may not be the best software for new, small business owners with no preferred merchant services provider to start with.

Additionally, the price structure can be confusing. It has also been mentioned more than once in the user reviews that they had to sign up for a few third-party integrations to access additional tools—something that could easily alarm anyone working on a budget.

What Users Think of Clover POS

It’s surprising to see that given how widely distributed Clover is (through over 3,000 partners), there are still not a lot of user reviews. Since our last update, only a handful contributed their opinion about Clover and the overall score even slightly went down. That said, most of the new feedback is positive but since the number of reviews are low, a couple of poor scores easily affected the results.

Overall Clover POS User Ratings:

• Capterra: 3.9 out of 5 stars from more than 350 reviews
• G2: 3.9 out of 5 stars from more than 50 reviews

Meanwhile there are a lot of new Clover app reviews from Apple users, raising the score to 4.8 out of 5 from over 7,000 reviews. Android users, on the other hand, rated it at 4.1. Finances Online’s Customer Satisfaction Algorithm that gathers reviews, comments, and opinions from users still maintains a 99% user satisfaction rating for Clover POS.

These are some of the trends we noticed when reading through Clover’s reviews:

Methodology – How We Evaluated Clover POS

To evaluate Clover, and all POS systems, we test each system ourselves. We start by looking at affordability along with a core set of features every POS should have, including easy transaction and order management, robust and flexible payment processing tools so you can affordably accept your customers preferred payment method, along with core business management features like inventory tracking, sales reports, and team management.

Of course, each system also needs to be easy to use, offer good value, and be able to grow with your business.

We use these criteria to examine the best overall POS systems. However, when looking at specific use cases, such as for retailers, complex inventory management, or mobile POS, we adjust the criteria to match the needs of those business types, which is why every POS has multiple scores across our site depending on the use case you are looking for.

Click through the tabs below for our retail POS evaluation criteria:

Bottom Line

With a customized software and hardware package designed specifically for your business, it’s hard to find something not to like about Clover. For savvy retail and restaurant business owners, it’s worth checking out. However, note that Clover can be purchased from thousands of resellers, and the system cannot be reprogrammed so it can get tricky if you have not worked with a merchant account before. Our suggestion: find the best merchant service for you, then ask about Clover. Alternatively, you can also go straight to Clover and ask for a demo today.

Visit Clover POS