Comparison
Free POS or paid POS: what the money is actually for.
There is good free billing software, and for some shops it is the right answer. This page says where — and then says plainly what a paid product is buying, because “more features” is the least honest version of that answer.
Where free is enough
Three shops that should not pay for this.
If you are one of them, take the free one. Come back when the second person starts entering data.
One counter, one person, few lines
A single till run by the owner, with a few dozen products and no credit customers, is genuinely served by a free tool or even a well-kept spreadsheet. Software earns its price at the point where more than one person is entering data, which is also the point where being wrong starts to cost money.
You are testing whether you want a till at all
Learning what you would actually use is worth doing cheaply. Every question on this page still applies afterwards; ask them when you have an opinion rather than before.
A trade with no stock and no credit
If nothing is counted and nobody pays later, most of what paid software is careful about does not apply to you. Take the receipt printer and go.
Where it stops
Four things that are expensive to get wrong.
None of these is a feature. Each is a property of the software you only discover by needing it.
Somebody has to answer on a Saturday
The clearest thing money buys is a person. Free software is supported by a forum, an issue tracker or nothing, and the moment that matters is not when you are choosing — it is the morning the computer will not start and the shop is open in an hour. Ask any vendor for a phone number and a working day before you compare anything else.
Two people entering data at once
The hardest thing in retail software is not the billing screen, it is being correct when two tills touch the same row at the same instant. Overselling the last packet, a credit limit passed by two sales together, a payment recorded twice on a double-click: these are cheap to get wrong and expensive to notice. Ask specifically how each is prevented, and be suspicious of an answer about validation rather than about the write itself.
Getting your own history out
Free hosted software is the category most likely to disappear or change its terms, and the least likely to have built a detailed export. Whatever you use, take a full backup this week and open it. If what comes out is a summary rather than the bills, you do not have your records.
The cost of moving later
Switching a till is not the licence fee — it is re-entering the catalogue, re-training whoever uses it, and losing the history that did not travel. That cost lands whether the first choice was free or not, which is why the question is not what software costs but what it costs to be wrong about it for two years.
The questions
Ask these of anything you shortlist, free or not.
| Ask | What a good answer sounds like |
|---|---|
| Can two tills sell the last packet? | The database refuses the second write — not “it is unlikely”. |
| What happens with no internet? | Nothing. Or: it queues, and here is what is not checked while it does. |
| Show me a full backup. | A file, taken now, that opens and contains individual bills. |
| Who do I call on Saturday? | A number, a name and a working day. |
| Can a cashier change a price? | Only with an approval, and every one is recorded. |
| What do I keep if I stop paying? | Everything, in a file you already hold. |
Questions
The objections worth taking seriously.
Is a free POS unsafe?
Not inherently, and plenty of it is written well. What free rarely funds is the unglamorous half: a support line, a tested restore, correctness under two concurrent tills, and someone to keep it working when the operating system changes.
What about the free tier of a paid product?
Read what it excludes before you build on it. The pattern worth watching for is reports, exports or extra devices sitting one tier up — because those are the things you need most at the moment you are least able to switch.
Is a one-off price better than a subscription?
Not automatically. What matters is whether you keep access to your own history if you stop paying. A subscription that leaves you with your data is a fair rental; one that does not is a lease on your own records.
How do I compare honestly without installing five of them?
Install two, put twenty of your real products into each at your real prices, ring up ten sales including a credit sale and a return, take a backup and open it, and unplug the network. An afternoon settles more than a month of feature tables.
Ask us the six questions above.
We will answer all six in writing, and you can hold SalezFlow POS to the answers. If a free one answers them better for your shop, take it.
Read next
- Cloud POS vs offline POSWhat each architecture actually costs a small shop: what happens with the line down, who holds the data, and what it takes to leave.
- PricingOne price for the whole counter, with every feature in every plan.
- Why offline-firstSix guarantees and the mechanism behind each, plus an honest comparison of an offline till against a cloud POS.
- FeaturesThe twelve things the app does: barcode billing, stock that cannot oversell, credit accounts, batches and expiry, shifts, loyalty, promotions and filable reports.