Best Free POS Systems 2026: 6 Options Compared

No point-of-sale system is truly free. The honest question is where the money comes from. Square, SumUp, PayPal Zettle and Helcim charge no monthly fee for the software and earn their money from card processing rates, so the cost grows with your sales and shows up as a percentage of every transaction. Loyverse keeps the core register free and charges for add-ons per store. Open Source Point of Sale costs nothing in licence fees, but you install it on a PHP and MySQL server yourself, which suits a technical owner and nobody else. The practical test is volume. A market stall that takes a few hundred dollars a month will pay less on a processing-only model than on any subscription. A shop doing tens of thousands a month should compare the processing rates listed below, because a half-point difference on that volume is real money. Also check whether you are locked to the vendor's card reader and whether your rates are quoted for the United States only. Hardware is the other hidden cost: readers, receipt printers and tablets are bought separately, and prices on these pages were only partly listed. Read the rate lines carefully and confirm them before you sign up.

Square

No monthly fee on the free plan. In-person payments cost 2.6% + 15¢ and online 3.3% + 30¢, so you pay per sale. Paid Plus and Premium plans lower processing rates; check the pricing page for their monthly prices.

Price: Free (Free plan with no monthly fee; in-person 2.6% + 15¢, online 3.3% + 30¢, keyed-in 3.5% + 15¢) (Square pricing, checked 2026-10-22).

Platforms and license: Web, iOS, Android. Proprietary.

Best for: Shops that want a widely used free register.

Compare: Square alternatives

Loyverse

The core POS is free and paid add-ons are priced per store; the unlimited sales history add-on is $5 a month per store. Processing rates were not listed on the pricing page, so check what card payment costs in your country.

Price: Free (core POS free; paid add-ons per store); paid from $5 per month per store (unlimited sales history add-on) (Loyverse pricing, checked 2026-10-22).

Platforms and license: Web, iOS, Android. Proprietary.

Best for: Small shops that start with a free core register.

SumUp

The free plan is $0 a month, with in-person payments at 2.6% + 10¢, a lower fixed fee than Square. The POS Plus plan is $49 a month, and the card reader is a separate one-time cost.

Price: Free (Free plan at $0/month; in-person 2.6% + 10¢, online or manual entry 3.5% + 15¢); paid from $49 per month (POS Plus plan) (SumUp pricing, checked 2026-10-22).

Platforms and license: Web, iOS, Android. Proprietary.

Best for: Mobile sellers who take mostly card payments in person.

Helcim

No monthly, PCI or statement fees, with interchange plus 0.40% + 8¢ in person up to $50K monthly volume. Interchange-plus pricing gets cheaper as you grow, but Helcim is only for US and Canada merchants.

Price: Free (no monthly, PCI or statement fees; interchange plus 0.40% + 8¢ in person and 0.50% + 25¢ online at $0-$50K monthly volume) (Helcim pricing, checked 2026-10-22).

Platforms and license: Web, iOS, Android. Proprietary.

Best for: Shops with higher card volume in the US or Canada.

Worth knowing: US and Canada merchants.

PayPal Zettle

PayPal Zettle lists no monthly or setup fees, with in-person card rates of 2.29% + 9¢. It runs only on iOS and Android, and the first card reader costs $29.

Price: Free (no monthly or setup fees; in-person card payments 2.29% + 9¢, manual entry 3.49% + 9¢) (PayPal Zettle pricing, checked 2026-10-23).

Platforms and license: iOS, Android. Proprietary.

Best for: Stalls and pop-ups run from a phone.

Open Source Point of Sale

A web-based open-source POS with stock, sales, quotes, invoices and gift cards, and no software fee. You host it on PHP 8.2 and MySQL or MariaDB, and the license adds a footer-attribution condition to MIT.

Price: Free (free web-based POS you host yourself; no paid tier listed) (Open Source Point of Sale pricing, checked 2026-10-23).

Platforms and license: Web, Self-hosted. MIT with an added condition that the footer signature stays visible.

Best for: Technical owners who want no vendor at all.

Worth knowing: Needs PHP 8.2 or newer and MySQL or MariaDB; Docker files are included. The README adds a condition to the MIT terms requiring the footer signature to stay unmodified, so it is not plain MIT. A public demo exists at demo.opensourcepos.org.

Which one to pick

• You want the biggest free feature set and can accept per-sale fees: Square
• You track stock across items and stores: Loyverse
• You sell from a phone at markets and events: PayPal Zettle
• You take large card volume in the US or Canada: Helcim
• You have a developer and want to own the software: Open Source Point of Sale