As payment terminals have evolved into full-fledged point-of-sale (POS) systems, numerous companies are vying to become the preferred choice for small business owners. While one POS system may currently lead the market, the highly contested field suggests the race is far from settled.
In his latest report, 2025 Small-Business Point-of-Sale Scorecard, Don Apgar, Director of Merchant Payments at Javelin Strategy & Research, examined the use cases of the leading POS solutions, evaluating their scalability and ability to support small merchants as they grow.
The Breadth of Features
As technology wars have played out in the payments industry, competition has also spread to small business POS providers. There is a clear connection—of the 10 companies Apgar reviewed, all were either owned by payments companies or sold their own payment solution as a reseller for a bank.
For example, Clover is owned by Fiserv and is distributed through all the fintech’s independent sales organizations. These resellers were the target audience for the report—the scorecard was not designed to identify the best system for the end user, but rather to determine which POS system was the best for a payments reseller to sell.
In that spirit, the platforms were evaluated based on two key criteria: the breadth and depth of their features.
“Breadth of features refers to how many kinds of businesses can use this POS system,” Apgar said. “The three main categories are food service or dining, retail, and then there’s the service-based stuff. The reason there are only 10 companies in the report is that in order to qualify, you had to have at least a basic offering for all three of these business types.”
Though there are only three categories, the range of features that POS systems must accommodate can vary widely. For example, the dining category includes everything from a local bagel shop, where patrons pay at the counter, to fine dining establishments, where customers pay at the table.
Retail settings present even more payment scenarios. A single bicycle shop, for example, might handle not only sales but also consignments, used bikes, repairs, and rentals—all of which the POS system must support.
The service category is equally diverse, covering businesses such as lawn care companies, salons, and self-storage providers. Some accept payments in person, while others bill customers monthly.
The breadth of features rating in the scorecard took stock of how many types of businesses and uses cases each leading point-of-sale system could handle.
The Depth of Features
Just because a system can be sold to a certain type of business doesn’t mean it has all the functionality they need. While this depth of features might not be as important for small businesses just starting out, its importance will quickly become apparent over time.
“Let’s say you have the pizza place where the guy’s making the best pizza in town, so all of a sudden he’s got another location on the east side of town,” Apgar said. “As the business starts to grow, it’s not just a matter of figuring out which toppings go on the pizza. Maybe he has a delivery thing now, or a website where people can go and order a pie for pick up. As businesses grow, they need more and more sophistication.”
The pizzeria owner may have initially bought a Clover, and it worked well. However, as the business expands and adds more services, gaps are likely to emerge. At some point, the merchant may transition to a POS system like Slice, designed specifically for independent pizza companies. Other types of restaurants might shift to Toast’s POS as they grow.
This demonstrates a direct correlation between the depth of features and customer retention.
“If I sign up your pizzeria and I get your credit card processing business and payment processing business and I sell you a Clover, when you outgrow that Clover, you’re probably not going to call me back,” Apgar said. “If you go to Toast, you’re going to want to put in their payments program. So, once you outgrow my platform, you’re pretty much gone as a customer.”
Part of the Payments Continuum
Some of the best small business POS systems are those that cater to a wide range of business types while offering the depth of features merchants need as they grow.
Among the 10 companies reviewed, most were competitive in terms of feature breadth. The top two systems, Clover and Square, were neck-and-neck in the types of business they could serve.
Where Clover distinguished itself—and secured the top spot on the scorecard—was in the depth of features, outperforming competitors in nearly every category. However, even though Clover may lead for now, the race is just heating up.
“There’s always room to go broader,” Apgar said. “There’s always room to go deeper. With the speed at which these developments are coming out, it’s nothing less than an arms race in small business POS. Nobody is selling standalone payment terminals anymore, which is why you see banks buying POS companies, like U.S. Bank bought Talech and PNC bought Linga. The small business POS market will expand as payment terminals continue to be replaced.”
Beyond competition in the space, new technologies are also emerging, such as tap-to-phone, also called tap-to-pay, which allows merchants to accept contactless payments directly on their mobile devices.
“With the whole tap-to-pay, you now can turn your phone into a terminal,” Apgar said. “If you’re too small, you’re a gig economy guy or a creator guy or someone at the flea market or the farmers market, maybe you don’t need a Clover, but you could certainly use tap-to-pay. It’s all part of the payments continuum.”
