Open source POS is worth its weight in gold as it can adapt to the needs of varying business types. Therefore, it’s little wonder that many business owners choose an open POS to help operate and manage their retailing, restaurants, and more. Their most prominent benefits are the following.
- Open source POS is often free of charge or cheaper than common commercial POS systems, so you can reduce a considerable amount of fees and expenses for purchasing and licensing.
- These POS systems are easy to customize, so you can access the source code to modify and expand their functions.
Being highly adaptable, open source POS software with source code is best for startups, small, and mid sized businesses on a budget who are tech-savvy enough to handle the software on their own. Besides, companies that wish to build a POS solution to meet their business-specific requirements also tend to pick these POS for their customizability.
In this post, we compile the list of the top 7 open source point of sale software based on our experts’ research, POS features, and customer reviews. This list includes 4 free open source POS and 3 paid ones. Let’s dive in!
Comparison of top 7 open source POS
The table below compares the 7 best open source POS systems in use cases, features, pricing, and customer reviews.
POS | Best use cases | Key features | Pricing | Customer reviews |
Magestore POS | Small to large retailers |
| Custom pricing | 4.7/ 5.0 on Capterra
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Floreant POS | Small restaurants, pizzeria, and cafes |
| $0 – $14.990/ month per terminal | 4.8/ 5.0 on GetApp
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Open Source POS (OSPOS) | Small and medium restaurants, spas, bookstores, retailers |
| $8.99 – $28.990/ month | 4.6/ 5.0 on SourceForge
|
uniCenta POS | Small retailers, restaurants, and bars |
| Free | 5.0/ 5.0 on GetApp
|
Chromis POS | Small retailers, food shops, and restaurants |
| Free | 5.0/ 5.0 on Capterra
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Odoo POS | Small and medium retailers, restaurants |
| Free | 4.2/ 5.0 on GetApp
|
Wallace POS | Small and medium retailers, restaurants, coffee shops |
| Free | 3.0/ 5.0 on Capterra
|
3 paid open source POS
These paid POS systems are arranged in ascending order of prices.
1. Magestore POS: Best for Magento retailers of all sizes
Magestore Magento POS is an open source web POS for Magento retailers of all sizes. The POS has earned the trust of worldwide merchants thanks to its functionality and customizability which can scale up with your business growth. Its ability to sync customers, orders, and inventory across channels in real time gives you a comprehensive view of your ongoing business situation for optimal decision making.
As a POS and inventory system open source, Magestore POS facilitates easy multichannel and multi-location inventory management, from tracking stock quantity to monitoring purchase orders. Besides, this Magento POS open source can quicken the checkout process by creating orders and processing transactions in less than 1 minute and works well on any device, even when there’s no Internet connection.
Key features
- Can run on any device like iPad and Android tablets, and work in offline mode
- Quickly create orders and process checkout within 1 minute
- Sync cross-channel customers, orders, and products in real time
- Support multichannel and multi-location inventory management
- Accept various payment methods and support refunds, returns, and exchanges
- Provide customers with self checkout services
- Facilitate many omnichannel order fulfillment options like store pickup
- Offer customer loyalty programs, like reward points, store credits, gift cards
- Compatible with different POS hardware
- Deliver real-time reports for detailed business insights
- Compatible with numerous 3rd-party services, including ERP (NetSuite, SAP), accounting (Xero, QuickBooks), marketplaces (Amazon, eBay, Etsy), shipment (ShipStation, FedEx), payments (Adyen, Stripe, Square)
Pricing
Magestore offers custom pricing which depends on your business complexity, the number of stores, and the level of support and services you want to have. You can contact Magestore to get the pricing details for your business.
Pros and cons
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2. Floreant POS: Best for small restaurants
Floreant POS has long become a popular open source POS restaurant software for food service-related businesses. This on-premise POS comes with many features that a restaurant, cafe, bar, or pizzeria needs to operate their business productively. It offers kitchen displays and printers so the kitchens can receive and fulfill orders easily. Besides, the POS also allows users to manage available tables, table orders, and status, control tip payouts to employees, and support multiple printers.
Key features
- An offline POS software open source that can work without Internet connection
- Run on diverse platforms, including Windows, Mac, Linux, and Raspberry PI
- Allow users to assign different kitchen printers for each item
- Offer separate kitchen displays and printers
- Manage table availability, table ticket numbers, and status
- Enable users to set maximum modifiers for each item
- Deliver reports on sales, productivity, hourly income, tips, and card transactions
- Provide additional plugins for floor, inventory, and customer management
Pricing
Floreant POS with basic features is free. To get more features like inventory plugin, customer plugin, or floor planning, you’ll have to pay for Floreant Plus with the pricing as follows.
- Annual subscription: $14.99/ month per terminal
- 1-year license: $179.99/ terminal
- 3-year license: $399.99/ terminal
- 5-year license: $499.99/ terminal
You can also choose to upgrade the POS to a premium version called ORO POS with a price from $17.49/ terminal per month.
Pros and cons
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3. Open Source POS: Best for small retailers and service businesses
Many restaurateurs, booksellers, and retailers find this open source cloud POS a good choice to help run their small businesses. Its range of features enables you to actively oversee your business, from managing sales, inventory, and customers to supporting loyalty programs for regular customers. The POS also boasts many functions specifically catering to restaurant operations like table management and delivery orders.
Key features
- Run well on any operating system, including Linux, Mac, Windows
- Support tracking sales, inventory, and customer behaviors
- Manage orders, payments, inventory, and update inventory
- Deliver reports on sales, inventory, and expenses
- Support barcode generating and printing, and receipt emailing
- Provide loyalty programs, reward systems, and gift cards
- Assist in restaurant table management and delivery orders
- Support multiple users with permission control
Pricing
Open Source POS offers you 3 different pricing plans as follows.
- Lite Plan: Free for 3 months
- Basic plan: $8.99/ month for 1 employee, 1,000 PLU
- Standard plan: $18.99/ month for 2 employees, 5,000 PLU
- Premium plan: $28.99/ month for 5 employees, +100,000 PLU
Pros and cons
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4 free open source POS
These free POS apps are put in descending order of customer ratings.
4. uniCenta: Best for small retailers and hospitality businesses
uniCenta is a cloud-based and on-premise POS that is ideally suitable for hospitality businesses like bars, restaurants, and retailers. This multi-store POS open source allows you to connect different stores to one central database for easy management. Plus, uniCenta also has many other useful features like managing inventory in different warehouses, tracking employees, and accepting partial payments.
Key features
- Can run on operating systems like Windows, Linux, and Mac OS
- Offer open source mobile POS for Windows and Linux tablets and smartphones
- Accept multiple payment types, including cash, card, coupons, and more
- Support partial payments and split receipts
- Allow users to manage floor and table plans
- Assist in managing inventory in many warehouses
- Control stock levels per category and supplier in each location
- Provide customizable GUI to change the display screens
- Record customer information and transaction history
- Track employees’ attendance and performance
- Offer a wide range of reports on sales, customers, inventory, and more
Pricing
The uniCenta POS software is free to use. However, if you want to get constant updates and fixes, online forums along with access to their support and knowledge base, you’ll have to pay fees. There are 2 plans as follows.
- Base plan: £60/ year
- Plus plan: £136/ year
Pros and cons
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5. Chromis POS: Best for small retailers and food shops
This open source POS software for retail and food shops suffices to cover the common needs of small retail businesses. The POS allows you to import products in bulk using CSV lists and manage your stocks. More noticeably, Chromis POS offers kitchen screens and supports embedded barcodes with prices and weights for greater convenience. The POS also provides built-in reporting functionality, loyalty systems, and electronic gift cards.
Key features
- Run on Windows and Linux operating systems
- Work with a wide range of hardware, including USB printers
- Enable importing product list with CSV files
- Assist kitchen screens, barcodes embedded with variable prices and weights
- Support multi-sale mode and remote kitchen printing
- Provide built-in reports and customer database
- Offer loyalty systems and electronic gift cards
- Allow users to manage stocks, suppliers, and supplier ordering
- Support many open source database platforms
- Can migrate from Derby database to MySQL and PostPostgreSQL
- Allow users to customize with built-in scripting language
Pricing
Chromis is a totally free POS software, so you don’t have to pay for using it.
Pros and cons
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6. Odoo POS: Best for small and mid sized restaurants and retailers.
Mainly built for retailers and restaurants, Odoo supports open source iPad POS to process checkouts anywhere in your store. Besides, the POS also tracks daily sales, monitors cash flows, and manages cashier accounts. With the help of Odoo POS, you can easily identify loyal customers and reward them with gifts or discounts. In addition, this open source POS restaurant also has industry-specific features like self-ordering, custom floor plans, and seating management to help you operate your business effectively.
Key features
- Can work on iOS, Android, Microsoft Windows, Apple OS X, Linux devices
- Work in offline mode and automatically sync orders when the connection resumes
- Accept payment types like credit cards, and allow adding new methods
- Support customer loyalty programs (loyalty points, gifts, discounts)
- Manage stocks in real time across locations
- Support seating management, self-ordering, and table transferring
- Assist split bills and self service
- Let users process many orders at the same time
- Offer dynamic barcodes for identifying product prices, weights, and loyalty programs
Pricing
Odoo POS is free with unlimited users on the condition that you use no other Odoo apps. If you wish to use other Odoo apps, the Standard and Custom plans are available.
- Standard plan: $8.95/month per user if paid yearly, $11.20 if paid monthly
- Custom plan: $13.60/month per user if paid yearly, $17.00 if paid monthly
Pros and cons
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7. Wallace POS: Best for small and medium retailers and restaurants
Wallace is an open source web based POS that can work with popular operating systems like Android, macOS, Windows, and Linux. Not only operating well on any device with a browser, but Wallace also transfers order and product data between POS terminals in real time, thus speeding up order processing and increasing convenience. What’s more, this web-based POS system lets users track stock levels at each location and warehouse, assign roles to employees, and collect customer information for future promotion programs.
Key features
- Work on major operating systems, including Windows, macOS, Linux, Android
- Allow processing transactions in offline mode and on any device
- Compatible with standard POS hardware, including barcode scanners, cash drawers
- Send orders between devices in real time to complete orders faster
- Support split payments, email receipts, and refunds
- Generate detailed reports and customizable graphs for business insights
- Track and manage stocks at each retail store and warehouse
- Transfer stock updates and changes between POS terminals in real time
- Enable users to give employees specific access to the admin dashboard
Pricing
Wallace is a free POS system, so you don’t have to pay for it. Even so, if you find the POS helpful, you can make some donations to the development team.
Pros and cons
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What is the best solution for your business?
The best solution varies by your business needs, sizes, and technological resources. The best open source POS is the one that possesses enough functions to help you deal effectively with your common business issues without exorbitant expenses. Besides, most open source point of sale systems can indeed be customized to meet specific requirements. However, it’s worth considering whether you plan to scale your business in the future and whether you need professional support to modify the POS as you want.
For example, if you’re a small local coffee shop that only needs some basic functions to manage your business, free Chromis or Floreant POS is a good choice. On the other hand, if you’re selling offline and wish to expand online or want a more full-fledged solution, open source retail POS like Magestore or Open Source POS with their additional addons can generate huge benefits in the long run.
Methodology: Why should you trust Magestore?
Working with numerous merchants of different types on their business issues for over 10 years, Magestore has accumulated abundant hands-on experience and deepened our insights into practical challenges that business owners face.
To help business owners choose the most suitable solution to their issues, our experts have produced a list of the best open source POS software based on our expertise and reviews from customers who use these POS systems for their businesses. On that basis, merchants of different sizes and types can find the most optimal solution for their use cases.
FAQs
What is an open source POS system?
An open source POS system refers to a highly customizable POS which lets users access its codes to tailor the POS to their specific needs.
What are the disadvantages of using open source POS software?
Using open source POS apps requires you to have the technological expertise to modify the POS to your business requirements, or to fully exploit the POS capabilities. Besides, some open source POS providers don’t provide free support.
How can I identify the right open source POS solution for my business?
To determine which is the best open source POS for your business, you should consider what POS features and services you need to operate your business in your size effectively, the expansion plan, and the technical resources to customize the POS.
What are the must-have hardware components of a POS system?
A POS system often includes software and hardware. Some must-have POS system devices are as below.
- Tablets
- Monitors
- Customer-facing displays
- Card readers
- Cash drawers
- Barcode scanners
- Receipt printers
- Self-service kiosks
- Scales
