The 6 Best Lightspeed Competitors & Why We Recommend Them

Square is a free POS that can work for just about any industry. Since it’s super easy to get started with and includes credit card processing with no monthly fee or commitment, Square is ideal for newer businesses that don’t have a merchant account set up yet.

Besides restaurants and retail looking for a more affordable, commitment-free solution, Square could be a more affordable solution than Lightspeed for small service-based businesses such as salons and independent hairdressers—Lightspeed requires a third-party software integration to handle appointment bookings.

Unlike Lightspeed, Square is completely free. While Square does have paid add-ons available for purchase, Square POS has enough functionality for many small businesses, even without any paid add-ons. Additionally, Square has free versions of its POS specifically for restaurants, retailers, and appointment-based businesses (as well as paid versions of those plans).

Square’s feature set can suit virtually any type of small business, making this POS a good alternative to Lightspeed Restaurant, Lightspeed Retail, or Lightspeed Golf. Square also integrates with a number of third-party to extend its functionality and adapt the POS to fit various niche industries.

Square has a wealth of in-person selling features for brick-and-mortar small businesses, including basic order management and basic inventory management, as well as online selling options, including online checkout and a free eCommerce store. The features are a little basic compared to Lightspeed, particularly in terms of retail inventory management, but the feature set is better than what you get with any other free POS.

As mentioned, Square also has industry-specific versions of its POS, which include Square for Restaurants, Square for Retail, and Square Appointments, with features tailored toward the food service, retail, and service industries, respectively.

You can use a free Square reader on iPad, iPhone, Android devices, or a countertop hardware kit (pricing varies) with the tablet of your choice. Square also sells a contactless Bluetooth reader (pictured above) for $59, as well as proprietary POS operating systems Square Terminal for $299 and Square Register for $799.

Square does offer its own rewards program, Square Loyalty, but it is not included free with the POS. Nevertheless, the program is affordable and easy to use with effortless onboarding. Pricing starts at $45/location for the first 500 visits.

For most businesses, Square has the same in-person processing rate as Lightspeed’s (2.6% + $0.10) but online transactions (2.9% + $0.30) are slightly higher than Lightspeed’s, which is something to consider if you do a lot of online sales.

If you’re on the paid version of Square for Retail or Square Appointments, you’ll receive a 0.1% discount on payment processing.

Square has no contract, but being a third-party processor, Square can be prone to account instability, making this POS less suitable for high-volume and high-risk businesses.

Clover is a unique, all-in-one POS and one of the most aesthetically pleasing, too, with its sleek, minimalistic POS hardware setup. This POS operates under a different business model than Lightspeed or the other POS systems on this list: Clover exclusively uses its own Android-based proprietary hardware with a built-in credit card and contactless payment reader, and is always sold together with a merchant account. As with Lightspeed, Clover is not for everyone, but many businesses appreciate its app-based customizability and the simplicity of getting a plug-and-play POS with hardware, software, and merchant services from a single source.

Unlike Lightspeed, Clover offers a free plan (though it basically just offers payment processing and nothing else). When purchased through Clover.com, paid Clover plans start at $14.95/month but if you want full POS functionality that compares to Lightspeed’s, you’ll need at least the $49.95/month “Register” plan.

Clover can adapt to any industry, including any kind of retail, restaurant, or service-based business. This makes Clover a suitable replacement for Lightspeed Restaurant, Retail, or Golf. Features like loyalty and order management are accessed as individual apps on the device’s Android-powered home screen.

Like Square, Clover has its own app market with tons of free and paid third-party business software integrations that can expand the system’s functionality.

Clover has several different mix-and-match hardware options, including the Clover Station and Station Duo (Station Duo has a customer-facing display), Clover Mini, Clover Flex (pictured above), and Clover Go. Indeed, many businesses choose Clover due to its snazzy, if somewhat pricey, POS hardware.

The lowest-cost Clover hardware option is its $49 Clover Go contactless reader, which lets you take payments with your own mobile device. Countertop POS setups start at $799 for a Clover Mini, but many businesses will want a complete Clover Station Duo setup, which goes for $1,799 (when purchased from Clover.com).

Clover also gives you the option to pay for hardware monthly.

Clover has its own integrated, easy-to-use loyalty program, Clover Rewards, which is included free on all paid plans.

Depending on your Clover software plan, payment processing costs start at 2.3% + $0.10. So potentially, you could pay a bit less per month using Clover vs. Lightspeed.

Clover does offer contract-free month-to-month plans when you purchase from Clover.com. Another option is to buy through a reputable reseller like Payment Depot or Dharma Merchant Services. However, if you shop Clover from a third-party, you may find that some Clover resellers tack on a lot of fees and sneaky contract terms.

Revel Systems is a powerhouse of an iPad POS system for businesses of any size, even nationwide chains. Revel is suitable for restaurant, retail, and service-based businesses but is especially popular with quick-serve eateries, such as pizzerias and coffee shops. Revel even has some enterprise-level QSR customers, such as Auntie Ann’s Pretzels.

Revel is more pricey than Lightspeed on a per-register basis—Revel starts at $99/month/register with a two-terminal minimum. With that being said, Revel’s feature set is more advanced, so a multi-location QSR might get a better overall value with Revel.

Revel includes loads of features that can be customized for any industry. Some of these features include as advanced reporting, employee management, and inventory management, with options such as a customer display system, online ordering, delivery management, digital menu boards, and self-ordering kiosks.

One feature I especially like is Revel’s Always On mode, which allows you to continue operating your POS normally and process payments in the event of an internet outage. Most cloud POS systems, Lightspeed included, only have a partial offline mode. Revel also has a proprietary ethernet connection for iPad, which allows for a faster connection than WiFi.

Revel runs on iPad POS hardware. You can source your own hardware or buy it directly from Revel (call them for a quote). Hardware offerings include branded iPad stands, mobile order-takers, drive-thru hardware, and more.

Revel offers an electronic points-based loyalty program. Pricing for this paid add-on is not listed on Revel’s website.

Revel includes in-house flat-rate processing through Revel Advantage, but you can use your own processor if you prefer (for a higher monthly charge, similar to Lightspeed). Revel’s standard processing rate for in-person transactions is 2.49% + $0.15.

Revel requires a three-year processing agreement in order to get the best pricing. This is not ideal for businesses looking to test a POS system before making a significant commitment.

Shopify POS combines both eCommerce and POS features to serve multichannel retailers (brands that use a combination of online and in-person sales channels). You can use this versatile POS to sell on an iPad, Android, or even your smartphone, and your sales will sync with your Shopify online store. This is one of the best POS for small businesses to use if you already sell online with Shopify and want to start selling in-person, either from your phone or at a brick-and-mortar store using an iPad POS setup.

All in all, Shopify’s advanced eCommerce features make it a worthy competitor to Lightspeed Retail.

Depending on your plan, Shopify could be a more affordable multichannel retail POS compared to Lightspeed Retail, since the Basic Shopify plan is just $29/month (paid annually). However, the basic plan only offers basic POS functionality. Fr advanced in-person POS features that rival Lightspeed’s, you’ll need the Shopify POS Pro add-on, which adds $79/month (also billed annually) to bring your total monthly spend to $108/month.

Use Shopify to easily manage in-store and online inventory, export reports, create gift cards, manage customers, and more. The Shopify mobile app also makes it easy to sell at events like fairs, markets, and pop-ups.

The main feature where Shopify excels over Lightspeed is its highly customizable online store that comes included in all plans.

Shopify hardware options start at $49 for a card reader that works with Apple and Android. Shopify also sells complete hardware kits for iPad and Android, as well as a proprietary mobile order taker.

Interestingly, Shopify POS also has a free Tap to Pay on iPhone option that lets you accept contactless payments on your iPhone without a card reader.

Shopify POS does not have an in-house rewards program, but there are a plethora of free and paid apps you can add to your Shopify account to add rewards program functionality.

Like Lightspeed, Shopify provides in-house flat-rate payment processing (in-person rates range from 2.4 – 2.7%) and also gives you the option to use a different payment processor for an additional charge. Your payment processing rate depends on your plan level.

If you want to take advantage of Tap to Pay payments using your iPhone, the first 100 transactions per month are processed at Shopify’s standard processing rate (per your plan), and after that, you’ll be charged an additional $0.25 per transaction for the remainder of the month.

Shopify offers month-to-month and annual plans, though you’ll have to subscribe annually in order to get the best price. Like Square, Shopify Payments (powered by Stripe) is a third-party processor, which can result in less account stability compared to a standard merchant account.

Toast is an Android POS designed specifically for restaurants. It is indeed one of the best POS systems for restaurants. While Toast can work great for quick-serve eateries such as a fro-yo shop or food truck, its feature set and restaurant-grade hardware is robust enough to be suitable for busy, full-service restaurants, including restaurants with bars and multilocation restaurants.

Toast offers a pay-as-you-go starter plan for restaurants with one to two terminals, with options starting at $0/month for the pay-as-you-go plan, or $69/month for the standard starter plan. The difference between the two plans is that the pay-as-you-go plan charges a higher fee for payment processing.

Some features you’ll get with Toast include table management, menu management, restaurant inventory management, employee management, and restaurant reporting. Toast also has a complete lineup of digital ordering features, from an online ordering app and e-gift cards, to QR code ordering and handheld tableside ordering.

If you opt for the full feature set, Toast provides more advanced restaurant functionality compared to Lightspeed Restaurant.

You can purchase a Toast Starter kit (pictured above) that includes a Toast Flex POS terminal, a Toast Tap contactless payment reader, and a router for $875. Some other options include a Toast Go handheld ordering kit ($627) and a self-serve kiosk ($1,099). There’s also an option to get your hardware for free in exchange for a higher payment processing fee.

Toast offers a simple but effective customer rewards program that’s linked to the customer’s credit card. This feature costs an additional $50/month on top of your monthly plan fee, or +0.40% per transaction on the pay-as-you-go plan.

Toast’s standard payment processing fee for most in-person transactions is 2.49% + $0.15. However, if you choose the free software plan, you’ll pay 2.99% + $0.15. AMEX cards are also charged at a higher rate.

Toast requires you to use its in-house payment processor, and the processing contract is two years.

This iPad POS for restaurants is unique in that it is locally installed, meaning your data is stored directly on your iPad or a Mac server, rather than in the cloud. Branded as the “The #1 iPad Point of Sale (POS) for Restaurants,” is also used by bars, cafes, and other types of single-location eateries.

The feature set is not overly deep, but TouchBistro is highly affordable, plus you can use your own payment processor without incurring an extra fee.

Pricing starts at $69/month, but you can purchase additional add-ons such as reservation management, gift cards, loyalty, self-serve kiosks, digital menu boards, a kitchen display system, and a customer-facing display.

In addition to POS functions, TouchBistro handles things like seating and table assignments, menu management, wireless transfer of orders to the kitchen, tableside payments, and daily sales reports.

Overall, TouchBistro’s features are comparable to Lightspeed Restaurant in most areas, but it does have in-house reservation management (for an added monthly fee).

For the Standard (single register) TouchBistro subscription, you manage your entire restaurant directly from a single iPad register. If you have two or more iPad registers, you need to run the Pro Server Application on a Mac Mini, which will act as a local server. There are also additional hardware options, such as kitchen display systems and self-serve kiosks.

TouchBistro hardware pricing isn’t listed on the website, so you’ll need to call for a quote.

TouchBistro has an in-house rewards program called TouchBistro Loyalty. The basic package starts at $50/month but to get all loyalty features, you’ll need to spend $189/month.

In addition to providing in-house cost-plus payment processing via TouchBistro Payments, TouchBistro integrates with a choice of payment processors—including Square—at no extra charge.

TouchBistro generally requires a one-year contract, but month-to-month pricing may be available.