How much does a POS system cost? A plain-English breakdown of every line item
POS pricing is deliberately hard to compare. The monthly fee is the number on the website; the processing rate is where the real money goes; and the add-ons are where the quote you accepted becomes the bill you didn't expect. Here's every line item, in order.
Wemu Team
Product
Ask what a POS costs and you'll get a monthly figure. That figure is usually the smallest part of the bill. For a business turning over $40,000 a month on card, processing fees will dwarf the subscription by an order of magnitude — which is why the honest way to compare systems is total cost per year at your actual volume, not the price on the pricing page.
The five things you actually pay for
| Line item | Typical range | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Software subscription | $0–$300/month | Often per-location, sometimes per-register — check which |
| Card processing | 1.2%–2.9% + fixed fee | The big one. Applies to every card sale, forever |
| Hardware | $0–$3,000 up front | Tablet, stand, drawer, printer, scanner — or use devices you own |
| Add-on modules | $10–$100/month each | Loyalty, marketing, advanced reporting, extra terminals |
| Payment terminal hire | $0–$50/month per device | Avoidable if your POS supports Tap to Pay on the phone or tablet |
Why processing rate matters more than subscription
Run the arithmetic once and the priority becomes obvious. Take a business doing $40,000 a month in card sales:
- At 1.5% processing: $600/month in fees
- At 1.9%: $760/month — a $1,920 difference a year
- At 2.6%: $1,040/month — $5,280 a year more than the 1.5% option
A $50/month difference in subscription is $600 a year. A 0.4% difference in processing on the same business is over three times that. When you compare quotes, convert everything to annual cost at your real volume — the ranking usually changes.
Ask for the all-in rate
Quoted rates often exclude interchange, scheme fees, or international cards. Ask: "What percentage of my total card volume left my account as fees last month?" — the answer is the only rate that matters.
Hardware: what you actually need
Hardware is where the quoted cost balloons, and it's the easiest place to save. Most small venues need far less than the bundle they're sold.
- Essential: a device to sell on. A tablet you already own is fine for most cafés, salons, and shops.
- Essential for cash: a cash drawer ($100–$250) and a receipt printer ($200–$400) if you print.
- Usually needed for retail: a barcode scanner ($80–$300).
- Often unnecessary: a dedicated payment terminal — if your POS supports Tap to Pay on iPhone or Android, the phone is the reader.
- Rarely necessary at the start: branded stands, customer-facing displays, kitchen printers where a kitchen display screen would do the job better and cheaper.
Beware of hardware bundled into a long contract. A "free" terminal on a 36-month term at an elevated processing rate is a loan, and usually an expensive one.
The add-ons nobody quotes you
- Per-register or per-terminal fees — a second till can double your subscription on some plans
- Extra locations charged as separate accounts
- Loyalty, email marketing, or SMS as paid modules, sometimes with per-message costs on top
- Advanced reporting or inventory gated behind a higher tier
- Payroll or timesheets sold separately
- Chargeback fees, PCI compliance fees, monthly minimums, and early termination charges
A realistic annual total
| Business | Card volume/yr | Software | Processing | Rough total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single-chair salon | $120,000 | $0–$600 | $1,800–$3,100 | $1,800–$3,700 |
| Café, one register | $400,000 | $600–$1,800 | $6,000–$10,400 | $6,600–$12,200 |
| Restaurant, three terminals | $900,000 | $1,800–$5,000 | $13,500–$23,400 | $15,300–$28,400 |
Questions to ask before you sign
- 1What is my all-in effective processing rate, including every scheme and interchange cost?
- 2Is the subscription per location or per register, and what does a second device cost?
- 3Which features are on my tier, and which are paid add-ons?
- 4Is there a contract term, and what does exiting it cost?
- 5Do I own my customer and sales data, and can I export it?
- 6What happens to sales when the internet drops?
- 7Is there a payout delay, and what is it?
The offline question is not academic
Ask what happens during an outage before you buy, not during your first busy Saturday. A POS that stops selling when the connection drops costs more in one bad afternoon than a year of subscription difference.
Simple pricing, one platform
Wemu includes POS, bookings, inventory, team management, and marketing on every plan — no per-module upsells. See the plans and what's included.
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