Retail POS · 2026 reliability ranking
Most Reliable Retail POS Systems (2026)
We ranked 16 retail POS systems by real-world reliability over the last 90 days, using 51 status page incidents and our own around-the-clock uptime checks. A retail point-of-sale system handles checkout, card payments, inventory counts and often the sync with an online store, so an outage can leave a shop unable to ring up sales or take cards. Problems hurt most on busy days like weekends and holiday sales, when lines build, customers walk out and stock levels drift out of step with what is actually on the shelf. Most retail POS products now rely on cloud back offices and payment services, so a vendor's incident history is worth checking before you commit to its hardware and contract.
Last updated Nov 1, 2026 · How we score
| # | Vendor | Score | Uptime (90d) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Shopify POSShopify POS is the in-person point-of-sale app of the Shopify commerce platform, used mainly by retail merchants and some food and beverage businesses. | 99.6 | 100% |
| 2 | LoyverseLoyverse is a point-of-sale app for small retail and food-service businesses with a free core tier and paid add-ons. | 90.4 | 99.91% |
| 3 | CloverClover is a point-of-sale hardware and software platform owned by Fiserv. | 87.8 | 99.88% |
| 4 | Epos NowEpos Now is a UK-based provider of cloud point-of-sale hardware and software for hospitality and retail businesses. | 85.9 | 99.86% |
| 5 | Revel SystemsRevel Systems is an iPad-based point-of-sale platform for restaurants and retailers that is now part of Shift4. | 82.9 | 99.84% |
| 6 | Zettle by PayPalZettle, branded as PayPal Point of Sale in some markets, is PayPal's card reader and point-of-sale service for small businesses. | 78.1 | 99.82% |
| 7 | SumUpSumUp is a London-headquartered payments company offering card readers and point-of-sale software, including a restaurant POS. | 54.2 | 98.98% |
| 8 | Square for RetailSquare for Retail is the retail point-of-sale software from Block, Inc.'s Square, covering checkout, inventory and payments. | 53.3 | 98.92% |
| 9 | Lightspeed RetailLightspeed Retail is the retail point-of-sale product line (X-Series, formerly Vend; R-Series; S-Series) of Montreal-based Lightspeed Commerce. | 37.5 | 97.96% |
Retail POS reliability at a glance
- Across the 9 ranked retail POS systems, average 90-day uptime is 99.46%. Reliability scores range from 99.6 (Shopify POS) to 37.5 (Lightspeed Retail).
- Together they published 51 incidents in the last 90 days, 12 of them partial or major outages.
- The typical vendor takes 9h 24m to resolve an incident. Clover is fastest, at 1h 55m on average.
- Lightspeed Retail reported the most incidents (14 in 90 days).
What to check before you choose a retail POS system
- Check whether sales and card payments keep working offline, and how transactions sync once the connection returns.
- If you also sell online, inventory sync outages cause overselling. Look for incidents affecting inventory.
- Look at incidents during November and December, when an outage costs the most.
- Your POS is only as reliable as its payment processor. Check the processor's ranking too.
90-day uptime history
Each bar is one day. Hover a bar for that day's uptime and incidents.
1. Shopify POS
100% uptime · 1 incidents · avg resolve —2. Loyverse
99.91% uptime · 2 incidents · avg resolve 1h 56m3. Clover
99.88% uptime · 6 incidents · avg resolve 1h 55m4. Epos Now
99.86% uptime · 6 incidents · avg resolve 2h 30m5. Revel Systems
99.84% uptime · 2 incidents · avg resolve 6h 54m6. Zettle by PayPal
99.82% uptime · 2 incidents · avg resolve 12h 51m7. SumUp
98.98% uptime · 5 incidents · avg resolve 19h 59m8. Square for Retail
98.92% uptime · 13 incidents · avg resolve 11h 54m9. Lightspeed Retail
97.96% uptime · 14 incidents · avg resolve 20h 38m- No incidents
- Degraded
- Partial outage
- Major outage
- No data
Being tracked (not ranked yet)
These vendors join the ranking once we have enough evidence: at least 14 days of data, and for vendors with a quiet status page (silent for a year, or for 90 days while their competitors report several incidents), 30 days of our own independent monitoring.
- Rain POS · quiet status page, awaiting our own monitoring
- Erply
- KORONA POS
- eHopper · no public status page
- Heartland Retail · no public status page
- Hike POS · no public status page
- POS Nation · no public status page
Recent Retail POS incidents
Investigating a possible issue affecting some Epos Now services
Unable to contact Support team
Affected: UK, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands +6 more
Some merchants encountering error messages within their admins
Affected: Point of Sale, Kitchen Display System (KDS)
Investigating a possible issue affecting some Epos Now services
Affected: EPOS NOW HQ BACK OFFICE
Lightspeed Retail (R/C-Series) Latency or outage
Affected: Retail POS, Retail API
POS Order Syncing & Database Upload Failures
Affected: Core Services, Customer Support
Head-to-head comparisons
- Shopify POS vs Loyverse reliability
- Shopify POS vs Clover reliability
- Shopify POS vs Epos Now reliability
- Shopify POS vs Revel Systems reliability
- Loyverse vs Clover reliability
- Loyverse vs Epos Now reliability
- Loyverse vs Revel Systems reliability
- Clover vs Epos Now reliability
- Clover vs Revel Systems reliability
- Epos Now vs Revel Systems reliability
Related rankings
Frequently asked questions
What is the most reliable retail POS system?
Based on the last 90 days of data, Shopify POS is the most reliable retail POS system we track, with a reliability score of 99.6/100 and 100% uptime.
How do you measure retail POS system reliability?
We poll each vendor's public status page every few minutes, record every incident, and run our own uptime checks against each vendor's login and customer-facing pages. Uptime (40%), incident frequency (20%), average time to resolve (20%) and transparency (20%) combine into one score out of 100.
How often are these rankings updated?
Continuously. Status pages and uptime checks run every five minutes and scores are recalculated several times an hour.
Can vendors pay to rank higher?
No. Sponsored placements are clearly labelled, shown separately from the rankings and never change a vendor's score.