Every time a shopkeeper taps a total, prints a receipt and hands you your change, a point of sale system is doing the work. It is some of the most useful software in any small business — and some of the least understood, because the famous names bundle it with monthly fees and card-processing contracts until it is hard to tell what you are actually paying for. This guide separates the two halves — the software and the hardware — and then shows the free, open-source POS systems real shops run instead.
Key takeaways
- Point of sale (POS) software is the digital till: it rings up sales, tracks stock, prints receipts and reports what sold. The screen, printer and scanner are separate hardware.
- Paid POS brands charge a monthly fee per location and earn again from your card payments. Open-source POS software charges nothing — you provide the hardware and the setup.
- The strongest free options on GitHub: Open Source POS for a classic shop till, ERPNext when the business needs stock, accounts and POS together, and simple modern tills like NexoPOS and Lakasir.
- Card payments are handled by your payment provider's terminal alongside the POS — that is true for paid and free systems alike.
What point of sale software actually does
"Point of sale" simply means the place where a sale happens. The software behind it does five jobs:
- The checkout: add items (typed, searched or scanned), apply discounts and tax, take payment and give change.
- Stock tracking: every sale reduces inventory automatically, and low-stock items get flagged before you run out.
- Receipts and refunds: printed or digital receipts, returns and exchanges handled against the original sale.
- Reports: what sold today, this week, by product, by staff member — the numbers you run the shop on.
- People: staff logins with different permissions, and in some systems, customer records and loyalty points.
That is the whole job. Everything else — the touchscreen, the beeping scanner, the receipt printer, the cash drawer — is hardware, and it works the same whichever software sits on top of it. Shops are often surprised to learn that the modest tablet by the till is not "the POS"; the software is.
What the paid systems charge for this
Well-known POS brands such as Square, Lightspeed and Shopify POS typically charge a monthly fee for each location, sell or rent you the hardware, and take a percentage of every card payment. For a busy shop that can be fair value — support is a phone call away. But plenty of small shops pay those fees for years to use five basic jobs, and discover only later that their sales history lives inside someone else's system. Open-source POS removes the software fee and the lock-in; in exchange, setup and backups become your responsibility. For the full maths on swaps like this, our $0 Software Stack tool shows what common subscriptions add up to per year.
The best free open-source POS systems at a glance
| System | Best for | Runs as | License | GitHub stars |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Open Source POS | A classic small-shop till | Web app (your server or local network) | Open source | 4,472 |
| ERPNext | POS plus stock, accounts and invoicing together | Web app (self-hosted or cloud) | GPL-3.0 | 40,835 |
| NexoPOS | A modern till with inventory and multi-store options | Web app (Laravel) | GPL-3.0 | 1,300 |
| Store-POS | A desktop till that works across a shop's local network | Desktop app (Electron) | Open source | 1,052 |
| Lakasir | The simplest possible setup | Web app (Laravel) | GPL-3.0 | 917 |
Star counts are GitHub's own and change daily — we show them as a popularity signal, not a quality score. Every system below is listed in our Point of Sale category, where you can compare the full set of 50.
The systems in detail
Open Source POS — the classic shop till
The project's own description calls it a web-based point of sale application, and that plainness is its charm: sales, stock, customers, suppliers and reports, in a browser, with no monthly bill. It has been used by small retailers for years and asks very little of the computer running it.
Best for: a single shop that wants a dependable till without features it will never touch.
The strength: maturity and simplicity — it does the five core jobs and very little else.
The catch: the interface is workmanlike rather than beautiful, and you (or a helpful technician) handle installation and backups.
★ 4,472 on GitHub · See Open Source POS on RepoEasy
ERPNext — when a till is not enough
ERPNext is a complete business system — accounting, inventory, invoicing, HR and more — with a point of sale module inside it. If the till is only one of your headaches, this is the open-source heavyweight: over 40,000 GitHub stars and a large company (Frappe) maintaining it.
Best for: growing businesses whose stock, accounts and sales must live in one system.
The strength: everything connects — a sale at the till updates stock and the books automatically.
The catch: it is a business platform, not just a till; expect a real setup project and a learning curve.
★ 40,835 on GitHub · GPL-3.0 · See ERPNext on RepoEasy
NexoPOS — the modern middle ground
A Laravel-based POS with inventory management and sales processing, designed for shops that want something more current than the classics without adopting a whole ERP. It supports the multi-register, multi-store direction small chains grow into.
Best for: shops that have outgrown a basic till but are not ready for ERPNext.
The strength: modern design and an active feature set aimed squarely at retail.
The catch: a younger, smaller community than the two above it — check its recent activity before committing.
★ 1,300 on GitHub · GPL-3.0 · See NexoPOS on RepoEasy
Store-POS — the desktop till
Most POS software lives in a browser; Store-POS is a desktop application built on Electron, with a React till screen and support for several terminals on the shop's local network. Sales keep flowing on your own machines, in the building, without depending on an outside server.
Best for: shops with a few counters and unreliable internet.
The strength: local-first design with a modern till interface.
The catch: a small project — lovely for a single shop, but test it thoroughly before a busy opening day.
★ 1,052 on GitHub · See Store-POS on RepoEasy
Lakasir — deliberately simple
Lakasir's own motto is that simple things only need simple solutions. It is a compact POS built on Laravel, aimed at small outlets that want sales and stock without ceremony.
Best for: kiosks, stalls and first-time computerised shops.
The strength: the shortest path from installation to first sale on this list.
The catch: simple means simple — growing businesses will outgrow it, which is what NexoPOS and ERPNext are for.
★ 917 on GitHub · GPL-3.0 · See Lakasir on RepoEasy
The payments piece, honestly
One misunderstanding causes most disappointment: a POS does not process your customers' bank cards by itself. The sale is recorded by the POS; the card payment travels through your payment provider's terminal or app, the same arrangement paid POS brands use — they simply bundle the two bills together. If your shop takes cryptocurrency, BTCPay Server (7,877 stars, MIT) is the open-source specialist: a self-hosted Bitcoin payment processor with no middleman fees. For ordinary cards, choose any provider whose terminal you like, and let the POS above handle the shop.
How to choose
One shop, one till, keep it simple: Open Source POS or Lakasir. Several counters or a second branch planned: NexoPOS or Store-POS. The till is one symptom of a bigger paper mess: ERPNext, and budget a weekend for setup. In every case, ring up a week of test sales before opening day — entering your real products is the step that takes the time, whichever system you pick.
Still comparing? Our full Point of Sale category lists every qualifying system with difficulty and cost labels, and our guide to free alternatives to paid software covers the rest of the shop's subscriptions.
A day in a shop running a free POS
Picture a small clothing shop that switched from a notebook and a calculator. The owner installed Open Source POS on the shop's existing PC over an evening, typed in her products with their prices and stock counts, and plugged in a second-hand barcode scanner and a receipt printer. The next morning the first customer was rung up by scanning instead of mental arithmetic; the receipt printed with the shop's name on it. At closing time, instead of counting the notebook, she opened the day's report: 43 sales, the best-selling items highlighted, and two products flagged as nearly out of stock — reorder noted for tomorrow. Nothing about the day required a subscription; it required one evening of setup and the decision to start. That trade — a little of your time instead of a fee every month, forever — is the entire open-source POS bargain.
Frequently asked questions
Is open-source POS software really free for my shop?
Yes. Open-source licenses allow commercial use, so a shop can run these systems legally at no software cost. Your real costs are the hardware (a tablet or computer, receipt printer, scanner) and the time to set it up — or a small hosting bill if you put it online.
What hardware does a POS system need?
At minimum, a computer or tablet to run the till screen. Most shops add a receipt printer, a barcode scanner and a cash drawer. Because the systems above are mostly web-based, they run in the browser of hardware you may already own.
Can a free POS keep selling if the internet goes down?
Usually yes, if it is installed on your own machine or local network — Open Source POS and Store-POS keep working on the premises. A system hosted online needs a connection, so shops with unreliable internet should choose a local setup.
Can these systems accept card payments?
The POS records the sale; the card payment itself is handled by your payment provider's terminal or app, which sits alongside the POS. That separation is normal — even paid POS brands process cards through a payment partner. For cryptocurrency payments, BTCPay Server is the open-source specialist.
Is my sales data safe in a self-hosted POS?
Your data lives on your own machine or server, which means no vendor can lock you out or raise the rent on it — but backups become your job. Keep a regular backup of the database on a second device.