The 5 Best Wireless POS Systems for Retailers

Point-of-sale (POS) systems are an essential part of taking payments and automating business tasks. Wireless POS systems give retailers and staff the flexibility to conduct transactions anywhere in the store and on the go—at a farmers market or beside a customer’s car.

These systems vary in levels of complexity. Some are a smartphone with a wireless card reader, while others are entire mobile POS systems that can take all forms of payment and perform business management tasks on the go.

These mobile solutions have changed POS forever and Square is leading the pack. It was one of the first to design mobile POS solutions for small businesses and it is, to this day, still one of the best providers.

If you have a smartphone and an email address, you’re already most of the way to getting your wireless POS system up and running with Square. Square offers a free mobile card reader to all new customers. With that mobile reader, you can accept credit card payments anywhere that your smartphone has service.

Plus, Square comes with numerous built-in point-of-sale features like employee management tools, inventory tracking, and loyalty programs. This makes it easy to get a bundle of great features without having to spend a dollar. You only pay the 2.6% + 10¢ processing fee whenever you charge a card.

Payment Depot is an all-around great processing provider, offering lower processing rates than any of our other recommendations. In addition to those low rates, Payment Depot also offers some of the best wireless POS hardware with its Clover terminals.

Payment Depot offers the Clover Flex terminal, for example, a wireless handheld device that can easily be transported around your shop and around town. This device also features a plethora of POS features like accounting and inventory management solutions.

Pairing the cheapness of Payment Depot processing with the POS power of a Clover terminal makes for one of the most powerful mobile POS solutions on the market today. That’s why we recommend Payment Depot so highly.

Shopify is a longtime player in the online shop game, but did you know it also has solid POS options for small businesses? Shopify lets you combine the power of online and in-store in powerful, time-saving ways.

You can, for example, synchronize the inventory of all your store locations so that your customers can always have access to your entire inventory no matter where they meet you. For example, let’s say a customer wants to purchase something but can’t find it at the store they’re in. You can order that item from one of your other stores and ship it right to their home. It’s that simple.

And, best of all, Shopify runs on Apple iPads, so you can easily help your customers on the go. Whether that be on the sales floor or in a temporary local market, just pick up your iPad and ring up the sales.

AccuPOS is a classic POS solution for businesses. It’s meant to be a workhorse, handling restaurant and retail workflows with ease.

AccuPOS also makes a wide range of POS hardware for both retailers and restaurants. It offers traditional cash register-based options in addition to wireless POS systems for iOS and Android devices. You can use AccuPOS’s Mobile POS devices to boost the efficiency of your restaurant, for example, by allowing waitstaff to send orders directly from the table to the kitchen.

In addition to the wireless capabilities, AccuPOS also offers line item integration with many popular accounting packages, including QuickBooks, Peachtree, and Sage Simply Accounting. PCI compliant credit card processing functionality is included in the AccuPOS Cash Register module. This is a flexible POS system with many features, making it attractive to the small retail business or restaurant.

NCR is one of the most long-standing and notable POS providers. Founded in 1884, NCR has managed to keep its services relevant to small-business owners for over a century.

Its POS system features a complete inventory management package that helps you manage both product inflows and outflows. NCR also offers online ordering and contactless payments so that you can offer takeout and curbside service that customers can access from their own device—sometimes the most mobile POS is the one the customers already have in their hands.

NCR also makes it easy to manage your kitchen and staff with both kitchen and employee management tools. Oh, and of course it has plenty of mobile POS options that utilize your smartphone or tablet.

WIreless POS isn’t just the future anymore, it’s the standard, and it’s here to stay. Businesses want to reach their customers in unique and convenient ways. Wireless POS makes that possible.

Square is leading the pack by offering businesses the convenience of portable sales without the hassle of commitment to long-term contracts. Our other providers each offer their own unique take on the wireless POS as well:

• Payment Depot offers incredibly low processing fees for the wallet-conscious entrepreneur
• Shopify makes it easier than ever to run a mixed online and in-store operation from the convenience of an iPad
• AccuPOS takes the headache out of accounting with Quickbooks integration
• NCR offers time-tested service in addition to loads of time-saving features like inventory management tools

Whether you’re just looking to get started with a wireless point of sale or you’re ready to unleash a fleet of mobile POS devices, our top picks can get you where you need to go.

Are you still looking to compare more POS options? Check out our top picks for the best POS systems on the market today.

We found and examined 25 different POS providers that offer wireless solutions. We then narrowed those brands down to our top five by examining what we thought were the most relevant use cases and essential features that businesses may need in a wireless POS system. These features included mobile processing options, available hardware, and software integrations.

The main alternative to mobile POS are digital wallets like Venmo or Apple Pay. These apps allow for easy peer-to-peer transactions. Digital wallets are best for single-person businesses and freelancers because they don’t offer a unified system for registering and tracking payments.

You can’t build a product catalogue on a cash app, you can’t manage and track inventory, and you can’t set up logins for employees to make sales. Additionally, many who use digital wallets for their sales will also use them for personal transactions, making it more difficult at tax season to separate expenses.

Disclaimer

At Business.org, our research is meant to offer general product and service recommendations. We don't guarantee that our suggestions will work best for each individual or business, so consider your unique needs when choosing products and services.