Business.com aims to help business owners make informed decisions to support and grow their companies. We research and recommend products and services suitable for various business types, investing thousands of hours each year in this process.
As a business, we need to generate revenue to sustain our content. We have financial relationships with some companies we cover, earning commissions when readers purchase from our partners or share information about their needs. These relationships do not dictate our advice and recommendations. Our editorial team independently evaluates and recommends products and services based on their research and expertise. Learn more about our process and partners here.
Shopify POS Review and Pricing 2026
Written by:
Jeremy Bender, Senior Writer
Editor verified:
Sandra Mardenfeld,Senior Editor
Last Updated Jun 01, 2026
Business.com earns commissions from some listed providers. Editorial Guidelines.
Table of Contents
Editors Score:9.4/10
Shopify POS is a free POS tool within the Shopify environment for extending sales into the physical space. Shopify POS syncs seamlessly with Shopify, is easy to set up and allows payments directly through one’s compatible mobile device.
Pros
Shopify POS offers a wide range of hardware kits depending on your needs.
Shopify POS offers tap to pay on iPhone and Android mobile devices, making setup easy.
Shopify POS provides a wide selection of integrations to customize your retail experience.
Cons
Shopify POS is part of the overall Shopify ecosystem and cannot be used independently, locking retailers into the platform.
Some advanced POS features are locked behind POS Pro, which costs an additional $89/month per location.
Determining which Shopify features and plans you want can be confusing.
Looking for more options?
Check out The Best POS Systems of 2026 business.com recommends.
Shopify POS is a built-in, free POS service within the Shopify environment. Shopify POS requires the use of a Shopify plan, which may present a barrier of entry for businesses looking solely for a payment processor. However, we were highly impressed by the experience of using Shopify POS, how well it syncs within the wider Shopify environment, and the options available within and across the platform. With Shopify’s wide range of plans and features, we find Shopify POS as the best POS system for scalability.
Shopify POS Editor's Rating:
9.4 / 10
Pricing/Value
9.7/10
Features
9.7/10
Customizations, Add-Ons, and Integrations
9.3/10
Ease of Use
9/10
Customer Support
9.4/10
Why We Chose Shopify POS as the Best POS For Scalability
Shopify POS requires the use of a Shopify plan. For businesses new to Shopify, this can represent a challenge at first understanding the various offerings. However, this initial complexity also is what makes Shopify and Shopify POS the best POS system for scalability.
Shopify’s POS offering allows a business to set up exactly the type of payment processing it may need. For small retailers, pop-ups, and those just getting started, Shopify POS can run on its mobile app on compatible Android devices and iPhones, allowing payment directly through a phone with no other hardware. More established businesses can purchase cash drawers, card readers, and other hardware through pre-made or pick-your-own bundles.
Finally, fully established businesses can opt for POS Pro, which features in-depth analytics, customer tracking, staff management and more. This range of options allows Shopify POS to grow with a business, offering unrivaled flexibility and scalability.
Shopify POS allows for Tap To Pay through iPhone and Android mobile devices, allowing for easy payment for merchants with more limited options (Source: Shopify).
FYI
Shopify POS comes in two tiers — POS Lite, a free addition to a Shopify plan, and POS Pro, which features a range of advanced features but costs $89 per month in addition to a Shopify plan.
Ease of Use
During our testing, we found Shopify POS to be responsive, fully functional and easy to use. Shopify POS sits within the overall Shopify environment, which means it does require the use of the wider Shopify ecosystem. For businesses that also want a dedicated online presence, or are happy using Shopify for inventory management, Shopify POS works very well.
Shopify POS is accessible directly through the main Shopify dashboard. Within the Point of Sale dashboard, users can track gross sales, discounts and returns; customize the overall POS experience, including the views of customer-facing displays; shop POS hardware; and create retail-first customer segments. POS Pro users can also create and manage staff roles and permissions.
We found managing staff through the POS dashboard a breeze. Each POS user is assigned a role in their account creation, which is templated by Shopify to provide certain permissions and abilities for the employee. Admins can also create custom roles allowing granular control over what each employee can or can’t do.
A view of the process to add Users to Shopify POS Pro. Shopify POS Pro comes with pre-built roles and permissions, but you can create a new role and add granular permission controls (Source: Shopify POS).
Most importantly, Shopify POS makes it quick and easy to actually start taking payments, including credit card payments and digital payment methods, including near-field communication mobile payments like Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay, as well as cash. While Shopify POS works alongside a wide range of hardware — we were pleased to see that this system can work with as little as an iPhone or Android mobile device and the Shopify POS app. This turns a compatible mobile device into a full fledged POS device, as long as you first activate Shopify Payments.
Did You Know?
Shopify POS’ focus on interoperability with the Shopify ecosystem, its granular role and pregenerated templates, and ability to take payments from a mobile device makes Shopify POS extremely flexible and scalable, fit for a merchant just starting out doing pop-ups to full blown, multi-store retailers.
Shopify POS Features
Shopify POS offers numerous features that we were impressed with, making it a strong contender for SMBs to consider — especially if they are also looking to run an online store. Here are some notable features of Shopify POS we found particularly impactful.
Integration into Shopify’s Environment
Shopify POS is a free, add-on feature within the wider Shopify environment that allows for physical sales. This can cut both ways; for businesses already using a different system for inventory management, online sales or customer data management, this integration can be redundant.
However, for businesses just starting off or looking for a single source of truth, Shopify POS’ integration into Shopify is ideal. It allows your Shopify marketplace to become a single source of truth keeping inventory, customer data, orders, and more in sync between online and in-person sales.
We were particularly pleased that Shopify POS also works alongside Shopify Starter, Shopify’s most basic plan. While this plan lacks functionality, it has a low price point ($5 per month) and allows for in-person and online sales, just without a full online store. Transaction fees are 5 percent. This is an ideal option for new retailers or extremely small businesses looking for a cheap but functional POS and inventory management system.
Third-Party Integrations
We were impressed by the range of integrations available for Shopify POS. Currently, there are a wide selection of integrations available. These integrations greatly expand the functionality of Shopify POS through capabilities like customer loyalty programs, product bundling features, pickup and delivery options, and more.
While Shopify offers integrations for accounting tools like Quickbooks, Shopify POS is missing some larger integrations such as Doordash, such as we found in our review of Clover POS. This largely speaks to different use cases; Clover POS is particularly well-suited to dining while Shopify is more suited for retail.
Tip
Pay attention to how many integrations you install and whether you truly need them, as the costs of integrations can rapidly add up.
Hardware Flexibility
Unlike some other POS systems, Shopify POS offers large-scale hardware flexibility and scalability. We were particularly impressed by the fact that businesses do not need to invest in any POS equipment at all and can instead operate solely through the Shopify POS app and “Tap to Pay” on compatible iPhone and Android devices.
More established businesses are likely to find Shopify’s wide range of hardware ideal. Shopify offers build-your-own kits that can be tailored for your specific business environment, ranging from simple card readers all the way to connected cash drawers, barcode scanners and more.
Shopify offers a wide range of proprietary hardware for the POS system, including card readers, cash drawers, and barcode scanners (Source: Shopify).
Mobile App
As mentioned, payments can be taken through just the Shopify POS mobile app, as long as you enable Shopify Payments. Once activated, the mobile app allows compatible Android and iPhone devices to function like POS devices.
We were particularly impressed, though, with the additional features added throughout the app. The main page of the app can be fully customized with tiles related to your needs across a wide range of features, including opening a cash drawer, adding a customer, adding collections to the grid and more.
A view of the main page of the Shopify POS app on iPhone. It features rich customization based on user need, as well as a suite of built-in functionalities (Source: Shopify POS).
The app also features a suite of business management tools, such as the ability to add or manage staff and change their roles and permissions (for POS Pro users), a quick view of sales analytics, the ability to add new products on the fly, scan barcodes and more.
POS Experience Customization
Within the POS dashboard is a full featured customization manager, which allows for customizing the POS app, customer-facing displays and printed receipts.
We appreciated how simple to use the customization features were. While you can get deep into the nitty gritty of customizing displays to fully embrace the feel of your store, the process never felt complicated or bogged down.
A view of the customization screen and options available for customer displays (Source: Shopify POS).
User Customization
Shopify POS Pro features a robust user customization system. We were impressed by how Shopify POS features templates for pre-determined roles, complete with relevant permissions. These features are crucial for keeping payment and inventory security in place.
At the same time, Shopify POS balances this with the ability to create new roles outside of the provided templates. This allows for a granular breakdown of permissions based on the new roles you create, allowing your business to function in the way you want.
Shopify’s Sidekick
While Shopify POS is easy to quickly set up, it can be daunting to finesse it the way you want. We were momentarily overwhelmed by the abundance of choices to make within the overall Shopify environment. Shopify’s new AI assistant, Sidekick, however, made the process much simpler.
Sidekick is trained on Shopify’s internal documentation. It functions just as we hoped a smart assistant would, answering setup questions we had by going through Shopify’s own, internal resources and providing clear answers complete with links to the cited documents.
Shopify POS Pricing
Using Shopify POS requires a Shopify plan. We’ve found that Shopify POS’ pricing is comparable to many other POS system costs. At the Starter and Basic plans, its prices align with the lower end of expectations; however, Shopify’s advanced plans do become more expensive, especially if you want to add integrations or the POS Pro Add-on.
The package pricing is as follows:
Starter
$5/month
Allows for basic online and in-person retail sales without creating a full, online store
Transaction fees are 5 percent
Basic
$39/month
Allows for sales online, in person and in AI chats
Implementation and onboarding onto Shopify and the POS system is incredibly smooth. We were amazed that within the span of five minutes, we were able to create an account, start a free trial, install the mobile app, and turn on Tap to Pay on iPhone. While it would still take additional work to actually set up a store and inventory through Shopify, we could have hypothetically begun selling through our phone within five minutes.
At the time of writing, Shopify was also offering a three-day free trial, followed by three months for $1/month. This low-pressure start is great for businesses considering making a switch to the Shopify environment.
When creating an account, Shopify also features a tutorial to help you select the ideal package you may need. We found this process easy to understand, while helping us get set up with a Shopify package we’d actually need — in this test case, running a small, in-person retail store that was interested in conducting some amount of online sales, without e-commerce being a focus.
Shopify walks you through an account creation process when you first make an account, helping to tailor your setup to your actual business needs. Based on our criteria, Shopify ended up setting us up with a Shopify Basic account (Source: Shopify).
Tip
For individuals just beginning to sell, merchants with small footprints, or those focused on pop-ups, a Shopify Starter Plan (includes POS Lite) only costs $5 a month and allows for a fully functional POS environment — at the cost of not having more advanced features.
Customer Support
Shopify features a wide customer support network. Beyond the basics — like 24/7 chat support, a call center hotline and email support — we were impressed by Shopify’s other support methods. Shopify features a free academy, featuring learning paths and standalone courses, detailing everything from customizing your POS to apps and admin support.
We were also impressed by Shopify’s well rounded knowledge base and collection of guides. The knowledge base is also fully integrated with the AI assistant Sidekick, allowing for quick support through a search bar in the Shopify dashboard.
Limitations
While we were impressed with Shopify POS, there are some potential pitfalls that potential customers should be aware of:
Potentially high prices: An extremely basic Shopify setup can run for as low as $5/month through the Starter package. However, retailers who are interested in more advanced features or the need for multiple staff accounts could see costs dramatically increase to $105 per month for the Growth plan. This doesn’t include potential costs through third-party app integrations or POS Pro, either. Businesses looking to conserve their budget should check our Square review.
Shopify ecosystem lock in: Shopify POS requires the use of the wider Shopify ecosystem. While this works great if you are already using Shopify or are planning on opening an online store, it can be unnecessary for a straight brick-and-mortar establishment. For retailers unconcerned about ecommerce, the reliance on being part of the wider Shopify ecosystem can add unnecessary complexity and complications. Businesses looking for more flexibility in terms of third-payment processors and other vendors should read our Epos Now review.
Methodology
As part of our broader review to determine the best POS systems, we have researched and tested dozens of POS services. For Shopify POS specifically, we opened a test store, downloaded the app, set up test products and attempted to conduct test sales. We also thoroughly queried Sidekick, read through documentation, and watched Shopify POS product videos and read Shopify guides. For this review, we focused on hands-on experience to determine how it actually feels to use Shopify POS as a small retailer starting off with a new POS system.
Shopify POS FAQs
Shopify features an in-built POS system, called Shopify POS. Shopify POS extends Shopify’s experience into in-person retail spaces through the use of dedicated hardware or the Shopify POS app on compatible iPhone and Android mobile devices. As it is part of a Shopify plan, Shopify POS automatically syncs with a store’s overall Shopify dashboard
Shopify POS is a free add-on for all Shopify plans. The cheapest plan, Shopify Starter, includes Shopify POS functionality and starts at $5 per month. Shopify POS also features a Pro version for advanced analytics and other features for $89 per month, in addition to the base Shopify plan costs.
Bottom Line
We recommend Shopify POS for…
Businesses that already use Shopify for online sales and are looking to expand into in-person sales
Small businesses or retailers just starting out with in-person sales
Businesses looking for an “all-in-one” solution across payment processing, inventory management and customer analytics
We do not recommend Shopify POS for…
Businesses that already use a product for inventory management with which they are happy
Businesses that want to use a third-party payment processor
Restaurants that want robust online ordering features
Did you find this content helpful?
Thank you for your feedback!
Share Article:
Written by: Jeremy Bender, Senior Writer
Jeremy Bender is a proven cybersecurity expert with a Certified Ethical Hacker credential from the EC-Council and a CompTIA Security+ ce certification. He has spent nearly 10 years studying and advising on intelligence reports and threat analysis.
At business.com, Bender covers topics related to cybersecurity, like credit card fraud, remote access software and data minimization, as well as other IT subjects, such as laptop performance and internet connectivity.
Bender's background in geopolitics gives him a unique perspective on the global security threats affecting small and midsize businesses. His insights on emerging cybercrime trends and mitigation strategies are invaluable for business owners.
Looking for more options?
Check out The Best POS Systems of 2026 business.com recommends.
