8 open source point of sale systems
Running a small business isn't easy, and especially so for retailers, restaurant owners, and others who have a brick-and-mortar storefront. Managing purchases and cash flow, keeping inventory stocked, making sure your employees are happy, and above all else serving your customers needs requires dedication, a solid business plan, and a bit of luck to be successful.
In between all of these demands, it can be difficult to dedicate the time to fairly evaluate solutions to various business needs, including software. For businesses with a retail component, your choice of point of sale (POS) system may be the most important technical decision you make, and yet, an overwhelmingly confusing one.
There are simply so many choices on the market today, and no one decision is going to be right for every business. Do you want a point of sale system which ties in with your inventory management, or do you just need to keep track of purchase numbers? Does it make sense to host everything locally, or would a cloud-based solution work for you? And if it's cloud-based, what happens when you inevitably lose Internet connectivity from time to time?
As if these kinds of factors don't make the decision difficult enough already, it's also worth considering what kind of support you need. Do you know the technical know-how to fix a system if it breaks, or customize it when your business needs change, or do you need that support from a vendor? And, importantly, if your tech support vendor disappeared tomorrow, would you be able to find a new one tomorrow? Is your system open enough for a new vendor to easily take over and fix problems and make changes?
For these reasons, open source point of sale systems might be a good option to consider for some businesses. In particular, they may appeal to those with some technical knowledge on staff who are looking to save costs by managing their own systems, as well as businesses who may need or desire significant customization from their system's default which require source code access to modify.
So what are the open source options available for retailers looking for a new point of sale system? There are a quite a few, and they vary widely in their features, maturity, and size of community.
See the selection at https://opensource.com/tools/point-of-sale
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8 open source point of sale systems | Opensource.com Retail businesses, restaurants, and other users of point of sale systems have quite a few open source tools to choose from. |