EPOS is a till system: software that knows your products and prices, hardware to run it on, and a way to take the money. A card reader takes payments. An EPOS system runs the shop. The practical test is simple: if you are typing totals into a card machine by hand and writing the day's takings in a book, EPOS is what you are missing.
The three things EPOS actually saves
Rekeying, counting and guessing. The till knows the price so nobody types it twice; the day end report is produced rather than reconstructed; and stock and staff figures exist without being remembered. For a single operator on low volume none of those are worth a monthly fee. For anything with staff and a stock room they usually pay for themselves in hours.
Tablet EPOS and what it changes
Most current UK EPOS runs on a tablet, which drops the hardware cost sharply and makes the software the main expense. It also makes the till portable, which is what lets a restaurant take orders at the table and a market trader run a proper catalogue. The trade off is that a tablet is a consumer device: plan for spares and for a wifi failure.
Prices you can actually read
storekit prints a free tier, 99 pounds a month and 199 pounds a month in pounds. SumUp's Point of Sale Pro prints from 49 pounds a month with a zero pound tier beside it. Loyverse prices the core at nothing and charges for sales history and employee management. Against those, Cybertill and AirPOS publish no figure at all, and a comparison with them starts with a phone call.
Questions people ask about what is epos
What is an EPOS system in simple terms?
A till that runs on software. It holds your products and prices, records each sale, takes the payment and reports the day, and usually connects to a printer, a cash drawer and a card terminal.
What is EPOS in business use rather than in theory?
In practice it is the system your staff use all day. That makes speed of use, offline behaviour and how quickly a new starter learns it matter more than the feature list, which is why a trial on a real shift beats a demo.
Can I run EPOS on a tablet I already own?
Often yes, if the supplier's app runs on your platform and the tablet is recent enough. Check whether the supplier requires certified hardware for the card terminal or the printer, because that is where an own device plan usually breaks.