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POS & Payments Cost Calculator

POS and payments tools usually charge in several ways at once: a plan price, fees for extra staff accounts and terminals, hardware, and a fee on every card payment. This calculator adds them up into one total 12-month cost for each tool, using the vendor’s published prices. Each result shows “checked <date>” or “not yet checked”.

Pick your business in the Business menu, or leave it on Any Business, then enter your numbers.

No tools with pricing data yet · How We Calculate

Your Business

Hardware
Features You Need
Contract
Billing

No sign-up needed. Results update live.

Real Cost Over 12 Months, Ranked

Software Card Fees Hardware Add-Ons & Setup

Breakdown Per Tool

How We Calculate

Software price (base plus extra staff, locations and terminals), plus card fee % and fixed fee per payment on your card sales, plus hardware (bought once or rented monthly) and any required add-ons. Hardware purchases and setup fees are added once to the 12-month total.

Where the Data Comes From

Public pricing pages and fee schedules, re-checked regularly. Each tool shows its own last-checked date and source. Sponsored tools are labeled and ranked by cost like every other tool.

Found a Wrong Price?

Tell us and we will re-check it.

Report Wrong Data

How to Use

Fill in the details that describe your business. The form starts with the defaults shown below.

Inputs:

  • Locations (sites, default 1)
  • Registers or Terminals (terminals, default 2): many vendors include some terminals in the plan and charge for the rest.
  • Staff Accounts (people, default 5): the staff who need their own login.
  • Monthly Card Sales (USD, default 20000)
  • Average Card Payment (per sale, default 25): what a customer typically pays in one card payment.
  • Hardware: choose Buy New or Use My Own (default Buy New).
  • Contract: Any (default) or Monthly Only. Monthly Only hides tools that require an annual or custom contract, with the reason “needs a contract”.
  • Billing: Pay Monthly (default) or Pay Yearly. Pay Yearly applies each tool’s annual discount to the subscription part of the price, where the tool has one, and never hides a tool.

Features (tick the ones you need): Inventory, Gift Cards, Online Ordering and Staff Commission. Tools without a feature you tick are hidden from the results.

Business: the menu starts on Any Business, which applies no filter. You can instead pick a specific business, grouped by industry. The calculator then keeps only tools listed for that exact business. A tool listed only for a whole industry doesn’t match a specific business.

What We Count

12-month total = (monthly total × 12) + one-time and yearly extras. The one-time extras here are hardware you buy and the setup fee. The monthly figure shown is the average per month.

The monthly total is the sum of:

  1. Software plan – the plan’s base price, plus the published charge for each staff account beyond the number included, each location after the first and each terminal beyond the number included.
  2. Card fees – your Monthly Card Sales times the vendor’s published percentage, plus its fixed fee for every card payment. We estimate your number of card payments as Monthly Card Sales ÷ Average Card Payment.
  3. Hardware rental – the number of terminals times the vendor’s monthly hardware price, if it publishes one.
  4. Other monthly fees – any other recurring monthly fees the vendor publishes.

One-time costs are added once to the 12-month total: the hardware purchase price times the number of terminals, and any setup fee the vendor publishes. If you choose Use My Own, both hardware costs are zero, and the rows show “Own device”. The Pay Yearly discount doesn’t apply to hardware.

If a vendor doesn’t publish its card processing rate, we use a fallback of 2.9% + 30¢ per payment. The figure is marked (est.), and the tool shows the note “card rate not published – estimated at 2.9% + 30¢ (your own processor)”, so you can see it’s an estimate, not the vendor’s actual rate.

With Pay Yearly, the vendor’s official annual discount applies to the subscription part only. Only the costs listed above are counted. Taxes and promotional discounts are not modelled in any version of the calculator. The calculator is an estimate, not a quote. Always confirm final pricing with the vendor before you sign up.

How Filters Work

Tools that don’t match your choices are hidden from the results. A note under the results names each hidden tool and why, in this form: “N tool hidden: Name (reason, reason); Name (reason).” The word is “tools” when more than one is hidden. Reasons are lowercase, and the common ones come first:

  • “custom quote only”: the vendor publishes no price, only custom quotes.
  • “not listed for this business”: you picked a specific business in the Business menu and the tool isn’t listed for that exact business. With Any Business, no tool is hidden for this reason.
  • “needs a contract”: you chose Monthly Only and the tool requires an annual or custom contract.
  • “no inventory”, “no gift cards”, “no online ordering” and “no staff commission”: you ticked the feature and the tool doesn’t have it.

Pay Yearly never hides a tool. A tool that requires an annual contract shows the tag “12-Month Contract”, even when Contract is set to Any.

If tools exist and none is hidden, the note instead reads: “Sponsored tools are labeled and ranked by cost like every other tool.” This shows whether or not any tool is sponsored.

If tools exist but all of them are hidden, the results say: “No tool matches all your filters. Try removing a required feature.” If you picked a specific business, it ends “Try removing a required feature or choosing Any Business.” The note still lists every tool.

If no tools of this type have pricing data yet, the form and the Business menu still show, and the results area says: “No tools with pricing data yet. Results will appear here as soon as tools are verified.”

Results are ordered by lowest 12-month total first, and nothing is boosted.

FAQ

What Does the 12-Month Total Include?

The software plan for your staff accounts, locations and terminals, card fees, hardware (rental each month and purchase once, unless you choose Use My Own), other published monthly fees and any setup fee. Taxes and promotional discounts are not included.

How Is Hardware Counted?

If you choose Buy New, the vendor’s published hardware prices are counted for every terminal you enter: a monthly rental price each month and a purchase price once. If you choose Use My Own, hardware costs nothing in the calculation.

What Does “(est.)” Mean Next to a Figure?

It means the figure uses our fallback card rate of 2.9% + 30¢ per payment because the vendor doesn’t publish its own card processing rate. The vendor’s actual rate may be higher or lower.

Why Is a Tool Missing From My Results?

It was hidden by one of your choices, or the vendor only offers custom quotes. Each hidden tool is named below the results with its reason. Try leaving Features unticked, or set Business to Any Business.

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