Best Free POS Software

If you run a retail shop in India and need GST-compliant billing plus inventory in one place, Retail Daddy is the strongest fit — though it’s worth knowing upfront that it isn’t free-forever. It runs on a paid annual plan with a free demo, unlike Square, Loyverse, or Zoho Invoice, which have genuine $0 tiers. If you want a true free-forever POS and you’re outside India, Square or Loyverse are the more realistic “free” picks. This guide walks through both categories so you can pick based on what “free” actually means for your business.

What is free POS software, and what’s the catch?

Free POS software is billing and sales software you can start using without paying a licence fee. But “free” shows up in three different shapes, and knowing which one you’re getting matters:

• Free-forever software with paid transaction processing — Square, Loyverse’s core plan, and PayPal POS don’t charge a monthly fee, but you pay a percentage on every card transaction, and hardware isn’t included.
• Free tier with feature caps — eHopper, Zoho Invoice, and Vyapar’s mobile app give away a genuinely usable core product, then gate things like multi-device sync, advanced reports, or invoice volume behind a paid plan.
• Paid software with a free trial or demo — this is where tools like MyBillBook (most retail tools sit behind a paid plan) and Retail Daddy (paid annual licence, free demo) actually sit, even though they show up in “free POS software” search results.

None of this makes these tools bad — it just means the honest question isn’t “is it free,” it’s “what does this specific business actually need, and what will it cost once I’m past the free tier.” A shop doing high card-payment volume will feel a 2.6% processing fee far more than a flat annual licence fee.

How we put this guide together

We compared each tool against five criteria that matter for a retail counter: total cost (software plus transaction fees plus required hardware), core billing and invoicing features, GST or regional tax compliance, inventory and barcode support, and how well it fits offline or spotty-connectivity environments. Pricing and feature claims below are pulled from each vendor’s own website or pricing page as of August 2026; where sources disagreed — which happened with a few Indian billing tools — we’ve noted the range rather than picking one number. We did not run these tools ourselves for this guide, so we’ve avoided first-hand claims we can’t back up. Treat the feature lists as a starting point and confirm current pricing on the vendor’s site before you commit.

Free POS software compared

Here’s how the nine tools in this guide compare at a glance.

Tool	Free plan limits	Key features	Best for	Pricing beyond free tier
Retail Daddy	No permanent free tier — free demo only	GST billing, GSTR-1/3B, barcode + thermal printing, offline-first, vertical modules	Indian retail shops needing GST + inventory in one tool	From ~?6,000/year (third-party listings)
Square	$0/month, unlimited use, pay per transaction	POS billing, online store, invoicing, virtual terminal, gift cards	General retail & food businesses (non-India)	Plus ~$49/mo; Premium ~$149/mo; Retail Plus ~$89/mo/location
Loyverse	$0/month, no monthly fee	Multi-store, weighted barcodes, loyalty, offline sync, low-stock alerts	Grocery, deli, and weight-based retail	Advanced Inventory add-on, priced separately
PayPal POS (Zettle)	$0/month, pay per card transaction	Sales, inventory, customer records, Tap to Pay	Mobile sellers, pop-ups, small counters	Reader from ~$29/£29; no monthly fee
eHopper	Free tier on Windows/Android/iOS	Basic inventory, sales tracking, CRM, order management	Small teams using mixed devices	~$15–$40/month for restaurant tools
Vyapar	Free, permanent mobile app tier	GST invoicing, basic inventory, barcode generation	Indian traders billing mainly from a phone	Desktop/sync plans reported ~?3,000–?4,500/year
MyBillBook	Limited free tier	GST invoicing, e-way bill, inventory (on paid plans)	Small Indian businesses needing full billing	From ~?199/month (varies by listing)
Zoho Invoice	Free, capped invoice volume per year	GST-compliant invoicing, templates, payment reminders	Freelancers & service businesses (India)	No POS/barcode tools — invoicing only
Open-source (OSPOS, uniCenta, Floreant)	Free, self-hosted	Core POS billing, varies by project	Technically confident owners avoiding vendor lock-in	Free software; you cover hosting & support

Retail Daddy

Retail Daddy, built by Raintech Software, is billing and inventory software aimed specifically at Indian retail shops — supermarkets, footwear stores, hardware shops, bakeries, pharmacies, and garment retailers. It handles GST billing including CGST/SGST/IGST, generates GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B reports, and supports barcode generation with thermal printer output for counter billing. It’s built offline-first, so billing continues during an internet outage and syncs once you’re back online. The vendor states it’s used by over 1.5 lakh retailers in India.

Worth being upfront about: Retail Daddy is not free-forever. Third-party pricing trackers list plans starting around ?6,000 a year, with a free demo rather than an ongoing free tier — so if a permanent $0 plan is a hard requirement, this isn’t it. But for a shop that specifically needs GST compliance and vertical-specific tools (weighing-scale integration for supermarkets, SKU management for garments) in one package, it’s a purpose-built option worth weighing against the licence cost.

Square

Square’s free plan costs $0 a month and includes core POS billing, an online store, invoicing, a virtual terminal, gift cards, and a customer directory. You pay per transaction instead of a subscription: roughly 2.6% + 10–15¢ for in-person card payments, higher for online or manually keyed transactions, and rates vary by country. Square for Retail adds a free-per-location tier with a paid Plus tier (around $89/month/location) for advanced inventory and vendor management. It’s a solid general-purpose pick for small retail and food businesses outside India, with a wide range of supported hardware from basic readers to full countertop terminals — though hardware beyond the basic reader costs extra, and support quality on the free tier is mixed by most accounts.

Loyverse

Loyverse is free with no monthly fee and includes real multi-store management, sales reporting, a built-in loyalty program, and inventory tools that go further than most free competitors — weighted barcodes, bulk inventory tracking, low-stock alerts, and offline sales that sync when you’re back online. It supports standard POS hardware: receipt printers, barcode scanners, and cash drawers. The catch is that Loyverse doesn’t process payments itself, so you still need a separate payment processor and hardware to take cards, and deeper inventory tools — purchase orders, stock transfers between stores, inventory valuation reports — sit behind a paid Advanced Inventory add-on. For food retailers, delis, and grocery-style shops that weigh products, it’s one of the more capable free options available.

PayPal POS (formerly Zettle)

PayPal POS is a free app with no monthly fee; you pay only when you take a card payment, at roughly 1.75%–2.29% depending on the country and how the card is presented. A card reader starts at about $29/£29, and Tap to Pay lets you accept contactless payments from a phone with no extra hardware at all. It covers the basics well — sales, inventory, customer records — but it lacks an offline mode, has fewer integrations than Square, and has no built-in loyalty or marketing tools. It suits mobile sellers, pop-ups, and small counters that mainly need simple, reliable card acceptance rather than a full retail management system.

eHopper

eHopper’s free tier supports basic inventory management, sales tracking, and CRM across Windows, Android, and iOS, which makes it a reasonable pick if your team uses different devices. Paid plans run from roughly $15 to $40 a month for restaurant-specific tools like table management, a kitchen display system, and online ordering — though eHopper also offers advanced plans free if you route at least $5,000 a month in card sales through its own payment processing, which is worth knowing if you’re already planning to switch processors anyway.

Vyapar

Vyapar’s mobile app has a genuinely free, permanent tier built for Indian shops and traders — GST invoicing, basic inventory, and barcode generation, all without a subscription. Where it starts costing money is the desktop edition and multi-device sync: paid plans are reported in the ?3,000–?4,500-a-year range depending on the source and edition, so confirm current pricing directly on Vyapar’s site before assuming a number. For a small trader who mainly bills from a phone, the free tier alone may be enough; retail counters that need desktop billing or barcode-heavy checkout will likely need to upgrade.

MyBillBook

MyBillBook offers a free tier, but most of what a retail counter actually needs — full inventory tracking, e-invoicing, e-way bills, multi-device access — sits behind paid plans. Pricing across vendor listings ranges from about ?199 a month to roughly ?3,600 a year depending on the plan and where you check, so, again, verify directly with the vendor rather than assuming the lowest figure applies to your use case. It’s a capable GST billing app for small and medium Indian businesses, but budget for a paid plan if you need more than basic invoicing.

Zoho Invoice

Zoho Invoice is a genuinely free invoicing tool from Zoho, with GST-compliant invoices for Indian businesses and no monthly fee for the free tier. Reported invoice limits on the free plan vary by source — some list 500 invoices a year, others list higher — so treat this as “generous but capped” rather than fully unlimited until you confirm the current figure. It’s built for invoicing rather than full retail POS: there’s no barcode scanning, thermal printer support, or counter-billing workflow, so it suits service businesses and freelancers better than a supermarket or footwear shop.

Open-source options (OSPOS, uniCenta oPOS, Floreant POS)

If you’re comfortable self-hosting software, tools like Open Source Point of Sale, uniCenta oPOS, and Floreant POS are free with no vendor lock-in and no per-transaction cut. The trade-off is that you’re responsible for setup, hosting, updates, and support yourself — there’s no vendor helpline to call when something breaks. This category fits technically confident owners more than a shop that just wants to plug in a scanner and start billing on day one.

How to choose the right free POS software for your business

Start with what “free” needs to mean for you. If you can’t take on any recurring cost at all, look at Loyverse or Square’s free tiers and budget for the transaction fee instead of a subscription. If you’re an Indian retailer that specifically needs GST compliance, barcode printing, and vertical-specific tools like weighing-scale or FIFO/FEFO tracking, weigh Retail Daddy’s paid plan against Vyapar’s free tier — Vyapar costs nothing but does less; Retail Daddy costs something but is built for retail counters specifically. If you sell mainly online or through invoices rather than at a physical counter, Zoho Invoice’s free plan may cover you without needing a POS at all.

Match the tool to how you actually sell: a bakery weighing bread needs weighted barcode support (Loyverse, Retail Daddy); a footwear shop managing SKU by size and colour needs inventory depth (Retail Daddy, Square for Retail); a mobile stall mostly needs reliable card acceptance (PayPal POS, Square). And whatever you pick, read the free-tier limits before you build your workflow around it — the gap between “free” and “what you’ll actually need to pay for” is usually where these tools differ most.

FAQ

Is POS software really free, or are there hidden costs?

Rarely fully free. Most “free” POS software charges a transaction fee on card payments instead of a subscription, or caps free-tier features (invoice volume, device count, report depth) so you eventually need a paid plan. A few tools, like Retail Daddy, are more accurately described as paid software with a free demo rather than free software with limits — check which category a tool falls into before assuming your costs will be zero.

What features should free POS software include?

At minimum: sales billing, basic inventory tracking, and a receipt or invoice you can print or send digitally. For a retail counter, barcode scanning and thermal printer support matter a lot; for India specifically, GST-compliant invoicing and GSTR report generation are close to non-negotiable.

Which free POS software is best for retail shops in India?

For a genuinely free tier, Vyapar’s mobile app and Zoho Invoice cover basic GST invoicing at no cost. For a fuller retail POS with inventory, barcode, and vertical-specific tools, Retail Daddy is built specifically for Indian retail, though it’s a paid annual licence rather than free-forever.

Does free billing software support GST invoicing?

Yes, several do — Vyapar, Zoho Invoice, MyBillBook, and Retail Daddy all support GST-compliant invoicing, though the depth varies: some generate GSTR-1/GSTR-3B-ready reports, while more basic tools only handle the invoice itself.

Can free POS software handle barcode and thermal printing?

Some can. Loyverse and Retail Daddy both support barcode generation and thermal printer output on their core offerings. Zoho Invoice and PayPal POS are invoicing/payment-focused and don’t cover barcode-driven counter billing.

Do I need separate payment-processing hardware for free POS software?

Usually, yes, unless the software processes payments itself. Square and PayPal POS handle both software and payment processing, so a card reader is often the only extra hardware needed. Loyverse and most Indian billing tools rely on a separate payment processor or bank terminal.

Conclusion

There’s no single “best” free POS software — there’s the tool that matches how your business actually sells and what you can’t compromise on. If GST compliance and retail-specific inventory tools are non-negotiable and you’re comfortable paying a modest annual licence after the free demo, Retail Daddy is the strongest fit among the tools in this guide for Indian retail shops. If a genuine $0 plan matters more than depth of features, Loyverse and Square remain the more realistic free-forever options, with the trade-off of transaction fees or a separate payment processor. Whichever you choose, read the free-tier limits closely before you build your counter workflow around a tool — the difference between “free” and “free until you actually need it” is where most of these systems quietly start charging.