License & Deployment Mix: 15 tools – 3 OSS, 12 SaaS. (OSS and SaaS counts can overlap when an open-source tool also offers a vendor-hosted edition.)

What Is Point of Sale?

Point of Sale (POS) is the hardware and software combination at which a retail or restaurant transaction occurs. A POS system records the sale, processes payment, updates inventory, and optionally manages loyalty rewards – all at the moment and location of purchase.

Modern POS platforms go well beyond a cash register:

• Payment terminal integration – EMV chip, contactless (NFC/tap), magstripe, and mobile wallet acceptance (Apple Pay, Google Pay); PIN pad management
• Inventory at point of sale – real-time stock deduction on each sale; low-stock alerts; multi-location inventory visibility from the register
• Customer-facing displays – secondary screens showing item list, totals, and promotions to the buyer during checkout
• Receipt printing – thermal receipt printers (USB, Ethernet, Bluetooth); email/SMS digital receipts; custom receipt templates and branding
• Barcode scanning – 1D/2D barcode and QR code scanning via integrated scanner, USB scanner, or camera-based mobile scanning for item lookup
• Cash management – cash drawer control, opening float tracking, end-of-day reconciliation, blind close support, cash drop recording
• Table management (restaurants) – floor plan editor, table status, server assignment, table turn tracking, merge/split table, cover counts
• Kitchen display systems (KDS) – ticket routing from POS to kitchen displays by prep station; bump-and-recall workflows; timing and expediting
• Loyalty programs – points accrual, tier management, rewards redemption, gift cards, digital punch cards, and customer profile history at checkout
• Multi-location management – centralized menu or product catalog management pushed to all locations; per-location pricing and tax configuration; consolidated reporting across all sites
• Offline mode – local transaction processing during internet outages with synchronization on reconnect

Retail vs Restaurant POS

The POS market divides into two primary verticals:

Retail POS focuses on inventory integration, barcode scanning, variant management (size/color/style), purchase order management, and e-commerce sync. Square, Lightspeed Retail, Clover, and Shopify POS are common examples.

Restaurant POS adds table management, course management, modifier and combo support, kitchen display routing, tip management, and split-check workflows. Toast, TouchBistro, Oracle MICROS, and NCR Aloha are common examples. Some platforms (Clover, Square, Revel) address both verticals.

Hardware Ecosystem

POS systems typically include or certify specific hardware:

• POS terminal – tablet (iPad, Android), all-in-one touchscreen terminal, or traditional PC
• Receipt printer – thermal roll printer; common standards: ESC/POS (Epson), Star Micronics
• Cash drawer – RJ12/RJ45 connection from printer; automatic-open on sale
• Card reader / payment terminal – integrated or paired standalone terminal (Verifone, Ingenico, PAX, Dejavoo)
• Barcode scanner – fixed mount, handheld, or presentation scanner
• Kitchen display – ruggedized touchscreen or bump-bar display in kitchen environment
• Customer-facing display – secondary screen on counter or pole mount

Most cloud POS vendors lock hardware certification to specific models; OSS platforms allow open hardware selection.

The information on these pages was researched by a combination of human review and large language models. To suggest an addition or correction, please contact us. Prepared by Rhodium Systems Inc., author of the ResorsIT platform — a unified IT operations management platform for IT teams and MSPs that integrates a curated suite of open-source, commercial, and SaaS applications into a single system with shared identity, single sign-on, access control, and a common audit trail. Use this catalogue only as a starting point for your own research, and review any tool carefully against your own requirements before relying on it. Catalogue data version 2026.197.

Comparison

SSO / OIDC Comparison

POS back-office management consoles require SSO for enterprise MSP deployments. Front-of-house cashier interfaces typically use PIN or badge-based local authentication rather than SSO.

* = requires Odoo OIDC module (community or enterprise)

Best SSO support: Oracle MICROS (SAML + SCIM via Oracle Identity Cloud), Lightspeed (OIDC + SAML)

No external SSO: Square, Clover, Shopify POS, TouchBistro, Heartland, Epos Now, and all OSS tools except Odoo POS

Note: POS back-office consoles (management, reporting, configuration) are the relevant SSO target. Cashier-facing interfaces use POS-native PIN, badge, or biometric authentication.

API Comparison

Best API: Square (broadest SDK language support, comprehensive REST API, reliable webhooks)

Shopify POS has GraphQL via the Shopify Admin API (shared with e-commerce); most POS-specific operations use REST.

No public API: Floreant, uniCenta, Chromis (desktop Java applications with no network API); TouchBistro (limited, undocumented API only)

Deployment Comparison

On-premises options: Odoo POS (Docker), Floreant, uniCenta, Chromis, NCR Aloha, Oracle MICROS

Hybrid architecture: Revel Systems and TouchBistro use local iPad apps with a cloud sync hub for offline resilience; NCR Aloha and Oracle MICROS use on-prem servers with cloud management consoles.

Pure SaaS (cloud-only, no self-hosting): Square, Toast, Clover, Lightspeed, Shopify POS, Heartland, Epos Now

Monitoring Integration Comparison

Monitoring integration covers Telegraf metric collection, Fluent Bit log collection, Grafana dashboards, and health check endpoints for a Telegraf / Fluent Bit / Grafana monitoring stack.

Monitoring notes by deployment type:

• OSS self-hosted (Odoo POS): Full Telegraf/Fluent Bit/Grafana integration; Telegraf HTTP input reads Odoo health endpoint; Fluent Bit collects application and Nginx logs; Grafana dashboards available from community
• On-prem enterprise (NCR Aloha, Oracle MICROS): Telegraf and Fluent Bit run on POS server host; application-level metrics via exec or HTTP input plugins; custom Grafana dashboards
• SaaS platforms (Square, Toast, Clover, etc.): No server to instrument; the monitoring stack watches the surrounding infrastructure (network, payment terminal connectivity); API polling via Telegraf HTTP input for operational metrics (transaction counts, error rates from webhook payloads)
• Hybrid platforms (Revel, TouchBistro): Local sync hub can be monitored at host level; cloud management console is SaaS-only

For MSP customers: Regardless of POS vendor, MSPs should monitor the host network connectivity, payment terminal reachability, and local printer/ scanner status. These are infrastructure-level checks that the monitoring stack handles independently of POS application monitoring.

Tools

15 tools.

Chromis POS

Chromis POS is a GPL-3.0 fork of uniCenta oPOS, branched to take the project in a different direction with additional focus on restaurant and hospitality use cases alongside retail.

License: GPL-3.0-only (OSS) · Kind: web · Deploy: native · SSO: none

Website · Source

Clover

Clover is a cloud-based POS platform owned by Fiserv, one of the world’s largest payment processing companies.

License: Proprietary (proprietary) · Kind: web · Deploy: saas · SSO: none

Website

Epos Now

Epos Now is a UK-based cloud POS company serving retail and hospitality businesses across the UK, US, Australia, Canada, and Ireland.

License: Proprietary (proprietary) · Kind: web · Deploy: saas · SSO: none

Website

Floreant POS

Floreant POS is a free, open-source Java restaurant point-of-sale system with table management, kitchen ticket printing, split checks, and menu management, running standalone or with MySQL/MariaDB.

License: MPL-2.0 (OSS) · Kind: web · Deploy: native · SSO: none

Website · Source

Heartland

Heartland Payment Systems is a payment technology company and wholly-owned subsidiary of Global Payments Inc., one of the world’s largest payment technology companies.

License: Proprietary (proprietary) · Kind: web · Deploy: saas · SSO: none

Website

Lightspeed

Lightspeed is a Montreal-based commerce platform providing cloud POS for retail and restaurant businesses.

License: Proprietary (proprietary) · Kind: web · Deploy: saas · SSO: none

Website

NCR Aloha

NCR Aloha is one of the most widely deployed enterprise restaurant POS systems in the world, with a history stretching back to the 1980s.

License: Proprietary (proprietary) · Kind: web · Deploy: saas · SSO: none

Website

Odoo POS

Odoo POS is the point-of-sale module within the Odoo ERP ecosystem. It is a browser-based POS that runs in any modern browser and is tightly integrated with Odoo Inventory, Accounting, CRM, and eCommerce modules.

License: LGPL-3.0-only (OSS) · Kind: web · Deploy: native, saas · SSO: none

Website · Source

Oracle MICROS

Oracle MICROS is the flagship restaurant and hospitality POS system from Oracle’s Food & Beverage division, descended from the MICROS Systems product line acquired by Oracle in 2014.

License: Proprietary (proprietary) · Kind: web · Deploy: saas · SSO: none

Website

Revel Systems

Revel Systems is a San Francisco-based enterprise iPad POS platform serving retail, restaurant, and enterprise quick-service restaurant (QSR) businesses.

License: Proprietary (proprietary) · Kind: web · Deploy: saas · SSO: none

Website

Shopify POS

Shopify POS is the physical retail extension of the Shopify eCommerce platform. For businesses already using Shopify for online sales, Shopify POS provides unified inventory, customer data, and order management across online and in-store ch…

License: Proprietary (proprietary) · Kind: web · Deploy: saas · SSO: none

Website

Square

Square is one of the most widely adopted cloud-based POS platforms globally, serving small to mid-size businesses in retail, food service, and professional services.

License: Proprietary (proprietary) · Kind: web · Deploy: saas · SSO: none

Website

Toast

Toast is a cloud-based POS platform designed exclusively for the restaurant industry. Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Boston, it serves over 120,000 restaurant locations across the United States and internationally.

License: Proprietary (proprietary) · Kind: web · Deploy: saas · SSO: none

Website

TouchBistro

TouchBistro is a Toronto-based, restaurant-only cloud POS built natively for iPad. Founded in 2010, it serves over 29,000 restaurants globally across full service, quick service, bars, cafes, and food trucks.

License: Proprietary (proprietary) · Kind: web · Deploy: saas · SSO: none

Website

uniCenta oPOS

uniCenta oPOS is an open-source retail point-of-sale application built in Java. It evolved from the Openbravo POS codebase and has been actively developed by unicenta.com as a free GPL-3.0 product with optional paid support and commercial a…

License: GPL-3.0-only (OSS) · Kind: web · Deploy: native · SSO: none

Website · Source