Here’s an updated list of POS companies with cloud capabilities, compiled by the good people at WhatsBusy and POS Advice. We’ve expanded this list with new fields.
There are multiple types of “cloud” POS so we sought to clarify. The easiest way to cobble cloud functionality is to replicate data above store. The benefits here are that merchants can view their data without needing to be physically present on-site. A further iteration of data replication was two-way, so a merchant might make a price change remotely and see that change reflected in their POS. The benefits to these systems are typically local redundancy since the POS software and data run on a local server not compromised by internet stability but the drawbacks are the software deployment limitations as discussed below.
A true cloud POS system enables the POS company to make software updates and push them down across all installations. This is beneficial for bug fixes and version control. With legacy POS systems a new software version had to be locally installed by a “man in the van” and would take hours of time. The benefit of true cloud is better remote data transfer while drawbacks can be local operations: if the internet goes down, features can be hobbled depending on the thickness of the client. True cloud companies have started adding local servers for data redundancy and 4G failover for internet outages.
Keep in mind that most legacy POS systems do not offer data replication without an additional module or expense. The forward-thinking legacy POS companies have rightfully subsumed the trivial cost of replication and viewed it as an investment to make their systems more relevant.
We’re also defining enterprise at >100-location groups in the vertical and segment of interest. While some POS companies are moving beyond traditional SMB (< $500K/year merchants), we thought adding a mid-market column would just confuse the graphic. A good rule of thumb is that a POS solution offered by a payments company is much more SMB than mid-market, and almost certainly not enterprise.
Here’s a downloadable excel sheet. Last update: 5/12/20.