Ringing up sales. Tracking inventory. Driving traffic. As a small retailer, your point of sale (POS) system pulls double-duty — or triple-duty. The right software keeps your day-to-day operations running smoothly while providing analytics to grow your business strategically over the long run.
You’ve heard one name tossed around in retail point of sale systems — Lightspeed — but you’re unsure if they fit your business. Whether you need a different pricing plan, alternate customer support options, or features they don’t offer, if Lightspeed isn’t the right fit for your business, you aren’t alone. Thankfully, there are other options on the market.
This post covers six Lightspeed alternatives for small retailers. We’ll cover features, pricing, and reviews for each.
Essential Considerations for Lightspeed Alternatives
Before we dig into our list of Lightspeed alternatives, let’s talk about Lightspeed itself. Lightspeed is a popular cloud-based point of sale system built for retailers, restaurants, and golf courses. It offers features like inventory management, customer relationship management (CRM), reporting, and omnichannel sales capabilities. However, Lightspeed also has complex pricing structures and contracts that may not suit all small businesses.
Related Read: Lightspeed vs. Square: Which POS Is Best for Your Retail Store?
Any retailer seeking an alternative to Lightspeed should keep a few key features in mind. Ensure any alternative you consider offers these critical features for small retailers:
- Flexible Payment Processing: Your point of sale system should integrate with various credit card processors and payment gateways. Look for a solution that accepts contactless and mobile payments.
- Advanced Inventory Management: Implement a POS system that tracks stock levels in real time across multiple locations. A robust system lets you set reorder points that automatically alert you when running low.
- Prebuilt Reports: Your POS system should make sales, inventory, customer, and other reports easy to generate, empowering you to make data-driven decisions.
- Customer Loyalty and CRM Features: Seek a point of sale solution with tools to track purchase history and shopping habits, segmented email marketing, automated loyalty programs, and other CRM capabilities.
- Shrinkage and Theft Prevention: Find a system with robust reporting for identifying shrinkage and potential theft and measures like register off-line alerts.
The right POS software is invaluable for small retail businesses. While Lightspeed is popular, it has some drawbacks that merchants should consider before choosing this platform. Taking time to identify needs and research alternatives with the above features can lead to more tailored, budget-friendly solutions.
With this in mind, let’s examine our list of the top Lightspeed alternatives for small retailers.
1. POS Nation
POS Nation provides a complete point of sale solution for small and medium-sized retail businesses. Our all-in-one system includes the hardware, software, payment processing, and customer support needed to streamline checkout and grow your business.
Our software is feature-rich yet easy to use, with inventory management, customer loyalty programs, employee management tools, detailed reporting, and more. It's customized for your specific industry, whether you run a liquor store, smoke shop, clothing boutique, or other retail operation.
POS Nation offers a wide range of hardware, from cash drawers to receipt printers to POS terminals. Our dedicated customer service team will help you choose the right components and ensure we set you up for success.
With industry-specific POS solutions, excellent customer service, and flexible payment options, POS Nation aims to help small and mid-sized retailers optimize operations, increase sales, and deliver better customer experiences.
According to one customer, “Working through a POS project in one of our stores, and have had to call support multiple times a day to get things sorted out. I had the pleasure of being helped by both Eren and Harry today, and our issues were solved quickly! POS Nation support is amazing at taking care of your issue while showing you how to fix it yourself in the future. As someone who wants to fix everything possible without having to call support, this is an invaluable aspect of the customer service their team provides.”
Pricing: Get your custom price using our transparent build and price tool.
2. KORONA POS
KORONA POS offers a retail POS system built for small stores. Key capabilities include inventory management, employee time tracking, customer loyalty programs, and robust reporting.
The software is designed specifically for retail operations, with tools to track sales, inventory, staff activities, and back office functions. KORONA POS enables fast transaction speeds to minimize checkout lines and delivers an impressive customer experience.
KORONA POS scales up as your business grows to accommodate multiple locations and higher transaction volumes. It provides the flexibility to add POS hardware like cash drawers, receipt printers, and barcode scanners.
KORONA POS claims to deliver an all-in-one solution with the features, functionality, and support small shops need as they expand their customer base and product offerings over time.
According to one user, “Speed, reliability, and robust feature sets are critical for a retail business. KORONA has an amazing architecture that enables these key concepts, plus a solid discipline in releasing new improvements on a regular basis without any interruption in business.”
Pricing: KORONA POS’ Retail package starts at $69 per month.
3. Epos Now
Epos Now offers a complete retail POS system designed for various store types. Key features include inventory and employee management, sales analytics, loyalty programs, and omnichannel selling across brick-and-mortar and online stores.
The software reports your top products, sales trends, and staff productivity. You can identify bestselling items, create targeted promotions, and optimize inventory levels. Epos Now integrates with various business apps for accounting, payroll, marketing, and more.
You can use Epos Now to buy online, pick up in-store, and sync product availability and loyalty points between channels. Robust payment processing handles all major cards, contactless payments, and digital wallets.
Epos Now best suits retail, hospitality, service businesses, and nonprofits. Solutions are completely customizable via an app marketplace with industry-specific features. Available POS hardware includes touchscreen terminals, receipt printers, cash drawers, barcode scanners, and iPads.
One customer says, “I like the interface of Epos, which makes it easy to navigate. I also like how it gives me a report of the information I want to get from it. It is a very reliable retail tool.”
Pricing: Contact sales for a custom quote.
4. NetSuite
NetSuite offers an integrated cloud-based system combining ERP, financials, e-commerce, inventory and order management, HR, project management, supply chain, and CRM. Offered by tech giant Oracle, this solution targets enterprises and larger-scale startups.
Key features range from finance and accounting to omnichannel sales and fulfillment. NetSuite helps medium to large B2C and B2B companies that sell products and professional services. Typical users include retailers, manufacturers, distributors, and service organizations.
The SuiteCommerce InStore module adds robust point of sale functionality for transaction processing, inventory lookups, customer profiles, dynamic merchandising, and mobile checkout. This omnichannel solution unifies online and offline sales channels.
NetSuite offers a complete business management suite, including ERP, CRP, commerce, and human capital management features. The platform is scalable for large enterprises but can be overwhelming for smaller retailers.
According to one user, “Netsuite has a lot of potential when automating processes. It is a great ERP for big Companies or big startups.”
Pricing: Contact sales for a custom quote.
5. Paladin
Paladin Point of Sale provides a robust retail management platform targeted toward hardware shops, lumber yards, and a few other retail verticals.
Key capabilities include inventory forecasting and reorder management driven by sales trends, expedited checkout with mobile and contactless payments, and customizable loyalty programs to increase repeat business. Hundreds of integrations connect the POS system with tools for online selling, workforce management, loss prevention, and total store protection.
Paladin POS offers tailored solutions for independent stores for hardware shops, lumber yards, pharmacies, grocery stores, and specialty retail. The system is designed for ease of use with minimal training required. Users can be up and running to ring up sales within hours after setup.
With automated inventory control, integrated e-commerce channels, security protections, and robust management features, Paladin POS aims to help independent retailers optimize back office workloads and grow their stores.
According to one customer, “Paladin POS made it seamless for our family-owned hardware store to change from our previous POS, which was geared more for big box stores to their Paladin POS.”
Pricing: Contact sales for a custom quote.
6. Clover
Clover offers a cloud-based POS system with capabilities for payments, ordering, inventory, marketing, and reporting. Multi-store businesses can manage locations across one unified dashboard.
Key features include mobile and contactless payments, automated rewards programs, CRM, employee scheduling, sales analytics, and integrations with popular business apps.
Clover’s main appeal lies in its straightforward setup and unified business dashboard for accessing real-time sales data and back office features. For retail and restaurants seeking an integrated payments solution, it eliminates some integration challenges common with a standalone software subscription paired with a third-party processor.
However, in return for that convenience, merchants have constrained flexibility in components like POS devices, payment and accounting systems integrations, and software capabilities more broadly as they scale up. While quick to deploy out of the box, customization options can be more limited than other SaaS platforms.
One customer says, “It's a very reliable platform for handling a small business, I would say, keeps inventory in order and is easy to use on a daily basis during sales, returns, and such.”
Pricing: Clover’s Standard package costs $135 per month for 36 months.
Finding the Best Lightspeed Alternative for Your Store
If you’re looking for a robust, modern point of sale solution for your store, you have more options than you think. While Lightspeed is popular, it comes with complexities that don’t work for all retailers. The alternatives highlighted here offer more tailored features for small and mid-sized stores.
Ultimately, identifying the right retail management software hinges on understanding your business’ unique needs and growth goals. If you run a small to mid-sized retail store and want a solution with flexible payment processing, robust inventory management, reporting, and customer loyalty capabilities, POS Nation is worth considering.
Ready to explore if POS Nation is the right fit for your evolving operations? Schedule a free personalized software demo today.
