WHICHpos › How we test
How we test and score POS systems
TL;DR
Every system gets the same six-category grid, weighted toward total cost and lock-in — because that's where POS buyers actually get hurt. Pricing comes from vendor pages we verify on a stated date; anything quote-only is labeled. We operate POS hardware ourselves, and we score our own product (JET) on the identical grid, cons included.
Who is doing the testing?
WHICHpos is operated by Solvr Solutions Inc. — the company behind JET POS. That means two things you should weigh. First, the obvious conflict of interest, which we disclose on every page and manage with a fixed public grid. Second, the reason this site exists at all: we build, sell, configure, and support point-of-sale hardware and software for real merchants. We've set up receipt printers at 11 p.m., debugged cash-drawer kicks, and watched checkout lines stall on slow hardware. Most POS "review" sites have never unboxed the products they rank.
The scoring grid (identical for every system)
Each system is scored 0–10 in six categories. The overall score is the weighted average:
| Category | Weight | What we look at |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing & total cost | 25% | Software fees over 3 years, hardware cost, add-on creep, pricing transparency (published vs quote-only), promo-pricing games. |
| Software features | 20% | Depth for the system's target vertical: menu/inventory management, reporting, taxes, discounts, multi-register, offline behavior. |
| Contract & lock-in | 15% | Contract length, early-termination fees, payment-processor lock-in, whether hardware survives switching providers. |
| Hardware | 15% | Build quality, fit for the counter (screens, printers, drawers, scanners), price-to-quality, what happens when it breaks. |
| Ease of use | 15% | Setup time, staff training curve, day-to-day speed at the register. |
| Support | 10% | Channels (phone/chat/email), hours, languages, and the complaint record on BBB/Trustpilot/Reddit. |
Why weight cost and lock-in at a combined 40%? Because that's the shape of real-world POS regret. Feature gaps annoy; contracts and processing rates compound. A restaurant doing $40,000/month in card sales pays roughly $12,000–$15,000 a year in processing — the single decision of who processes your payments and at what rate outweighs every software feature combined, and several major systems take that decision away from you.
Where do the prices come from?
Published US pricing on vendor websites, captured on a stated date (shown at the top of every review). When a vendor doesn't publish a price — Toast hardware, Lightspeed hardware, TouchBistro processing — we say "quote only" rather than guessing. When only third-party numbers exist, we mark them as such and tell you to confirm on your quote. Prices in this industry shift quietly and often (Square's card-present rate went from 2.6% + 10¢ to 2.6% + 15¢ in 2025; Lightspeed introduced a $400/month third-party-processing fee in late 2025), so every page carries a "last updated" date and gets re-verified on a roughly 90-day cycle.
How do we handle reviewing our own product?
Three rules, all checkable:
- Same grid, same weights. JET's score comes out of the identical six categories. It wins where the math wins (cost, lock-in) and loses where it honestly loses — its review lists email-only support, an Android-only app, and a smaller integration ecosystem as cons, in the same pros/cons format as everyone else.
- Disclosure where it counts. Our ownership is stated in full on the About page and noted on the JET review itself.
- No affiliate money. We currently take no commissions from any vendor on this site — not from competitors, and JET doesn't pay us per click either; same company, same pocket. There is no ranking we can sell.
What the scores mean
| Score | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 8.5–10 | Excellent — a top pick for its target buyer; trade-offs are minor or clearly priced. |
| 8.0–8.4 | Very good — strong choice with one or two real caveats. |
| 7.0–7.9 | Good with reservations — works well, but the cost, contract, or lock-in needs eyes-open acceptance. |
| 6.0–6.9 | Situational — only worth it in specific cases; read the cons first. |
| Below 6 | Hard to recommend at current pricing/terms. |
Corrections
If we got a price or term wrong, tell us and we'll fix it with a visible note: [email protected]. Vendors are welcome to flag stale pricing — corrections get priority over everything else we do.