Over three years, at list prices read 7 September 2026: Loyverse about $1,620, Square Plus $1,764, Toast $2,484, Lightspeed Retail Basic $3,204, Shopify Basic with POS Pro $4,104 — and a custom POS from BengalTech $7,864 to $16,744 including hosting and support. Subscription POS is cheaper at one till and at three. Build when a requirement makes renting impossible, not to save money.
According to BengalTech's 2026 price list, a custom single-counter POS costs Starts at $2,200 one-time and a multi-branch POS with cloud sync costs Starts at $5,900 one-time, both with unlimited staff logins and no per-location fee.
Every third-party figure below is on the vendor's own page on the date named beside it, and the Sources block repeats the links. Prices move, so check the link before you quote one. Card processing fees are handled in their own section rather than mixed into the table, because a custom build does not remove them.
Three-Year Software Cost at 1 and 3 Locations, 7 September 2026 Prices
| Option | Price basis | 3 years, 1 location | 3 years, 3 locations | What it locks you into | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Loyverse (free core + add-ons) | Apps free; Unlimited Sales History US$5 per store/month, Advanced Inventory US$25/month, Employee Management US$5 per employee/month | $1,620 | $4,860 before the unpublished 3+ store rate | Your data lives in Loyverse; card processing is a third-party integration you arrange yourself | Loyverse pricing |
| Square Free | US$0 software; 2.6% + 15¢ card-present | $0 | $0 | Square is the processor — the 2.6% + 15¢ is not optional; offline payments are declined if the till does not reconnect within 24 hours | Square pricing |
| Square Plus | US$49 per location/month; 2.5% + 15¢ card-present | $1,764 | $5,292 | Same processor lock-in, plus per-location billing as you grow | Square pricing |
| Toast Point of Sale | "Starting at" US$69/month, new customers and single locations only | $2,484 | Not published — the quoted price covers one location | Restaurant-shaped workflow, Toast hardware, and Toast payment processing | Toast pricing |
| Lightspeed Retail Basic | US$89/month; 1.5% card-present | $3,204 | Not published — extra locations and registers are line items without prices | Lightspeed Payments for the quoted rate; inventory and supplier data in their catalogue model | Lightspeed pricing |
| Lightspeed Retail Core | US$149/month (Plus is US$289); 1.5% card-present | $5,364 | Not published — same reason | As above; the tier you need is set by which reports and automations you use | Lightspeed pricing |
| Shopify Basic + POS Pro | Store from US$25/month (Grow from US$65), plus POS Pro US$89 per location/month billed yearly | $4,104 | $10,512 | Your storefront and your till are the same subscription; leaving the POS means leaving the ecommerce platform | Shopify POS pricing |
| Custom POS (BengalTech, single counter) | Starts at $2,200 once; hosting about US$24/month; optional support contract US$200–$380/month | $7,864 to $16,744 | Wrong tier — see the row below | Nothing. You hold the code, the database and the choice of acquirer | BengalTech 2026 price list |
| Custom POS (BengalTech, multi-branch cloud sync) | Starts at $5,900 once for every branch; hosting about US$24/month; optional support contract US$200–$380/month | Over-specified for one till | $11,564 to $20,444 | Nothing. Adding a fourth branch costs hosting, not another subscription | BengalTech 2026 price list |
Assumptions: software only, no card processing and no hardware; 3 staff logins per location for the per-employee add-ons; Shopify on the Basic store plan with POS Pro on every location; Loyverse with Unlimited Sales History and Advanced Inventory per store; the custom column takes the build once, hosting on a US$24/month DigitalOcean Droplet for all three years, and BengalTech's support contract from year two at the low end or every month at the high end. Cells marked "Not published" are vendors who do not publish a multi-location price; we do not guess one.
What Does Each POS Actually Lock You Into?
Square: free software, priced processing
Square's pricing page (read 4 September 2026) lists Free at US$0 and Plus at US$49 per location per month, with card-present processing of 2.6% + 15¢ on Free and 2.5% + 15¢ on Plus. Three years of Plus at one location is $1,764; at three it is $5,292.
The software price is not the deal. Square is the processor, and that rate is the price of the product; you cannot shop it. The other line worth reading twice is on the same page: offline payments are declined if the device does not reconnect within 24 hours. If your shop loses internet for a day, that is a design constraint, not a footnote.
Lightspeed Retail: the deepest inventory, with an unpriced growth path
Lightspeed's retail pricing page (read 7 September 2026) lists Basic at US$89, Core at US$149 and Plus at US$289 a month, with a 1.5% card-present rate. Three years of Basic is $3,204 and of Core $5,364.
It is the strongest of these products for stock-heavy retail: purchase ordering, supplier management, multi-location stock. The catch is that the same page shows "Extra locations" and "Additional registers" as line items with no published price, and says prices vary by business and industry. You cannot budget three years of a three-shop chain from the public page, which is exactly the moment a one-time build becomes worth pricing.
Shopify POS: only sane if your storefront is already Shopify
Shopify's POS pricing page (read 7 September 2026) starts the store subscription at US$25 a month on Basic and US$65 on Grow, and prices the POS Pro upgrade at US$89 per month per location billed yearly. Basic plus POS Pro is $4,104 over three years at one location and $10,512 at three, because POS Pro is the line that multiplies.
One catalogue across web and counter is genuinely valuable, and it is the reason to pick this. It is also the lock-in: the till and the storefront are the same subscription, so replacing the POS means replacing the ecommerce platform.
Toast and Loyverse: the two ends of the range
Toast (page states last updated 20 August 2026) starts at US$69 a month, $2,484 over three years, and is shaped around restaurant service: coursing, kitchen tickets, tips. That price applies to new customers and single locations only.
Loyverse (read 7 September 2026) gives the POS, dashboard, kitchen display and customer display away, and charges US$5 per store a month for unlimited sales history, US$25 a month for advanced inventory and US$5 per employee a month for employee management. With 3 staff that is $1,620 over three years at one location — the cheapest serious option on this page, and the right answer for a great many small shops in Bangladesh, the Gulf and anywhere else. It is also the one with the least support behind it when something breaks at 9pm on a Thursday.
Custom POS: bought for a requirement, not for a discount
BengalTech's single-counter tier is Starts at $2,200 one-time and the multi-branch cloud-sync tier is Starts at $5,900 one-time, both with unlimited staff logins. Ongoing cost is hosting (a 2 vCPU / 4 GB DigitalOcean Droplet is US$24 a month) and an optional support contract of US$200 to US$380 a month. Three-year totals: $7,864 to $16,744 for one counter, $11,564 to $20,444 for a synced multi-branch system.
Those are larger numbers than Square's or Loyverse's, and we are not going to dress them up. What you get for the difference is that the bill stops growing with locations, the data is in your database, the tax format is whatever your authority requires, and the acquirer is a decision you can revisit. See the POS service page for what each tier includes.
Do Card Processing Fees Change the Answer?
They change the size of the bill, not the direction of this comparison — and any custom-development guide that implies building your own till saves you the processing fee is wrong. Card processing is a service from an acquirer or payment service provider. You pay it whoever wrote the software.
What changes is whether the rate is negotiable. Square's 2.6% + 15¢ card-present rate is the price of using Square; Lightspeed quotes 1.5% with Lightspeed Payments. On a system you own, the processor is a contract you can put out to tender, and in Bangladesh it is often several — a card acquirer plus bKash or Nagad — which is itself a reason the local integrations exist as named line items on our price list rather than as a bundled rate.
The one arithmetic point worth keeping: on a subscription POS the software fee is the small line and processing is the large one, so a shop comparing US$49 a month against a build is comparing the wrong two numbers. Compare the three-year software total above, then compare processing rates separately, then decide.
When Does Building a Custom POS Actually Make Sense?
- A tax authority format the vendor does not ship. Saudi ZATCA Phase 2 e-invoicing and Bangladesh NBR Mushak 6.3 are the two we are asked about most; neither arrives in the box on any product above. See the ZATCA Phase 2 POS requirements guide and the UAE e-invoicing guide.
- Tills that must sell through a long outage. Square's own page says offline payments are declined if the device does not reconnect within 24 hours. If your branches lose connectivity for hours at a time and must still sell and then reconcile, that is a build requirement.
- An integration nobody sells. A specific weight scale, a hospital or pharmacy system, a local courier, a factory floor. On a closed product the answer is an app that does not exist.
- A workflow the product refuses. Batch-and-expiry registers for pharmacies, room-and-cover logic, production stages. See the super shop POS feature guide for the shape of these.
- Enough locations that per-location billing dominates. Shopify POS Pro at US$89 per location per month is $10,512 over three years at three locations; the same arithmetic at ten locations is the whole argument.
If none of those is true for you, buy the subscription and spend the money on stock. If one is, the next question is what the build costs for your scope: our custom POS development cost guide breaks it down line by line, its POS cost estimator names the tier for your business, and the POS software price guide covers the Bangladesh market specifically. Integrations that are their own line item — barcode and QR work at US$400 – US$700, for instance — are priced on the pricing page rather than hidden in a tier.
Sources
External references behind the figures and claims on this page. Rate bands and vendor pricing move — check the source before quoting a number.
- Square Point of Sale — pricing (read 4 September 2026)
Block, Inc.
Square Free at $0 and Plus at $49 per location per month; card-present fees of 2.6% plus 15¢ on Free and 2.5% plus 15¢ on Plus; offline payments are declined if the device does not reconnect within 24 hours.
- Lightspeed Retail — pricing (read 7 September 2026)
Lightspeed Commerce
Lightspeed Retail Basic at $89, Core at $149 and Plus at $289 per month with a 1.5% card-present rate; "Extra locations" and "Additional registers" appear as line items with no published price, which is why the three-location column cannot be computed.
- Shopify POS — plans and pricing (read 7 September 2026)
Shopify
Shopify Basic from $25 a month and Grow from $65 a month, with the POS Pro upgrade at $89 per month per location billed yearly — so the per-location cost is the POS Pro line, not the store subscription.
- Loyverse — pricing (read 7 September 2026)
Loyverse
Loyverse POS, Dashboard, KDS and CDS are free; the paid add-ons are Unlimited Sales History at $5 per store per month, Employee Management at $5 per employee per month and Advanced Inventory at $25 per month, with unpublished special pricing above three stores.
- Toast POS — pricing (page states last updated 20 August 2026)
Toast, Inc.
Point of Sale "starting at" $69 a month, with that price applying to new customers and single locations only and additional charges for further devices, which is why Toast has no three-location figure here.
- Droplet pricing
DigitalOcean
The $24 a month 2 vCPU / 4 GB Droplet used as the hosting line in the custom-build column.
Frequently Asked Questions
No, not at one or three tills. Over three years at list prices read 7 September 2026, Loyverse's paid add-ons come to about $1,620 at one location, Square Plus $1,764, Toast $2,484, Lightspeed Retail Basic $3,204 and Shopify Basic with POS Pro $4,104. A custom POS from BengalTech is $7,864 to $16,744 over the same three years including hosting and the support contract. You buy a custom POS for a requirement the subscription cannot meet, not for a saving.
According to BengalTech's 2026 price list, a custom single-counter POS is Starts at $2,200 one-time and a multi-branch POS with cloud sync is Starts at $5,900 one-time, both with unlimited staff logins. Ongoing cost is hosting of about US$24 a month plus an optional support contract of US$200 to US$380 a month; there is no per-till or per-location fee.
Square's own pricing page, read 4 September 2026, lists Free at US$0, Plus at US$49 per location per month and Premium at US$149 per location per month, with card-present processing of 2.6% + 15¢ on Free and 2.5% + 15¢ on Plus. The same page states that offline payments are declined if the device does not reconnect within 24 hours, which is the constraint that matters most for a shop with unreliable internet.
Because neither vendor publishes one. Lightspeed's pricing page, read 7 September 2026, shows "Extra locations" and "Additional registers" as line items in the comparison table without a per-unit fee, and adds that prices vary by business and industry. Toast's page, which states it was last updated 20 August 2026, says the "starting at" US$69 figure applies to new customers and single locations only, with additional charges for further devices. Any three-location figure for either would be a guess, so this page leaves those cells empty.
No, and any comparison that implies it does is wrong. Card processing is a service from an acquirer or payment service provider, not a feature of the till software. What a custom build changes is that the processor becomes a choice you can renegotiate or replace, rather than a fixed part of the product: Square's 2.6% + 15¢ card-present rate is the price of using Square at all. On a subscription POS, the software fee is the small line and processing is the large one.
Five situations, in the order they come up: a tax authority format the vendor does not ship, such as ZATCA Phase 2 e-invoicing in Saudi Arabia or NBR Mushak 6.3 in Bangladesh; tills that must keep selling through hours of no internet and reconcile afterwards across branches; an integration nobody sells, such as a specific weight scale, a hospital system or a local courier; a workflow the product refuses, such as a pharmacy batch-and-expiry register or a garment factory floor; and the case where you are told the price per location and you plan to have twenty. Outside those, take the subscription.
Not sure which side of the line you are on?
A free scoping session gives you a fixed quote against the tiers above — and an honest answer if Square, Loyverse or Lightspeed is the better buy for you, which for a single shop it usually is.