Free POS Software UK 2026: No Monthly Fee, No Commission

Most UK till and EPOS systems come with a monthly bill. Square, SumUp, Zettle, Loyverse, Epos Now, Lightspeed, Shopify POS — each has a free or cheap entry point, but the moment you want more than the basics you are usually on a subscription, and every card tap carries a processing fee on top. For a corner shop, a one-person café, a market stall or a takeaway running on thin margins, those small recurring costs add up fast.

digabloPos takes a different line: the core till is free for life. Unlimited sales and products, receipts, end-of-day reports, staff — no monthly fee, and no commission taken on the software. It runs on any device — an old Android phone, a tablet, a laptop in the browser — and it keeps working offline when the broadband or the mobile signal drops. You only ever pay for a processor when a customer actually pays by card, and you choose that processor yourself.

Card is now the default in the UK — contactless, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and increasingly Open Banking pay-by-bank — while cash keeps declining. You do need a way to take the tap, and you almost certainly already have one. The trick is to keep the card reader and the till software as two separate, free-to-start layers.

For the tap itself, pair an inexpensive reader from a pay-as-you-go processor — there is no monthly fee on the entry tiers, you only pay per transaction:

- SumUp — around 1.69% per in-person transaction (pay-as-you-go), reader from about £25. - Square — 1.75% for contactless and chip, free reader options. - Zettle by PayPal — 1.75% in-person, low-cost reader.

(Rates change — always check the provider's current pricing before you commit.)

Then use digabloPos as your free till and reporting layer on top. Ring up the basket in digabloPos, take the card on your SumUp / Square / Zettle reader, and record the tender as "Card" in the till. Cash sales get logged as "Cash", pay-by-bank as its own method. The result: digabloPos charges you nothing for the software, while your end-of-day report cleanly splits card from cash from bank transfer — exactly what you need to reconcile your payout statements against the drawer.

digabloPos is free for life on its core POS:

- No monthly fee, no software commission. Unlimited sales and products, receipts, reports, two staff — free. Optional paid modules only if you grow. - Native pounds sterling (£, GBP). Prices, receipts and reports in pounds and pence, formatted the British way. - Records every tender cleanly. Card, cash, Apple/Google Pay, pay-by-bank, account/credit — each kept as a separate payment method, so your daily report adds up. - Works offline. Sell, track stock and print receipts with no internet; everything syncs when the connection returns. No more dead till when the broadband drops mid-rush. - Any device. An old Android phone, a tablet, or a laptop in the browser — no proprietary terminal to buy or lease. - Your processor, your choice. Pair whichever card reader gives you the best rate; switch any time. No lock-in to a single payments company.

The UK market has strong, well-known options — most lean toward either payments or paid subscription tiers. Here is a fair read of where they sit:

- digabloPos — free for life core till, offline-first, pounds, records every tender, on any device, no lock-in to a payment processor. Best when your priority is zero software cost and selling even when the signal drops. - Square — excellent free POS app with slick hardware; you pay 1.75% per in-person tap, and richer features (Square for Restaurants/Retail Plus) sit on paid plans. Tightly tied to Square payments. - SumUp — great low-cost readers and a simple free app; ~1.69% pay-as-you-go, with a cheaper rate on a paid Payments Plus plan. Strong for the smallest sellers. - Zettle by PayPal — solid free POS app at 1.75% in-person, well suited if you already use PayPal. - Loyverse — genuinely free, capable POS app like digabloPos; advanced staff/inventory features move to paid add-ons. - Epos Now — full-featured EPOS popular in UK retail and hospitality, sold with hardware bundles and a subscription.

The payment-first tools (Square, SumUp, Zettle) are mainly about taking the card; digabloPos and Loyverse are about running the shop for free. digabloPos's distinctive points are zero software cost, true offline operation, and no lock-in to any one card processor.

The same free core adapts to most British trades:

- Corner shop / newsagent. Barcode scanning, real-time stock, fast cash-and-card service, clean daily totals to reconcile against your card payouts. - Café / coffee shop. Quick item buttons, modifiers (oat milk, extra shot), send orders to the kitchen, take contactless at the counter. - Market stall. Everything on a single phone, offline, no fixed hardware — you keep selling with no signal and it all syncs later. - Pub / bar. Fast rounds, open tabs by table, split payments, staff sign-in — card and cash kept separate end of night. - Takeaway. Counter and phone orders, kitchen tickets, optional QR code ordering so customers order and pay from the table or the queue.

You start with the free till and only switch on a module (kitchen, tables, multi-store, QR ordering…) the day you actually need it.

Be clear about what a free till does and does not do. In the UK there is no fiscal-receipt or certified cash-register mandate — unlike France's NF525 rule, you are not legally required to use a "certified" till. That keeps things simple.

What you do need to get right is VAT. The standard VAT rate is 20%, and you must register for VAT once your taxable turnover passes the £90,000 threshold (raised from £85,000 on 1 April 2024) on a rolling 12-month basis — you can also register voluntarily below that. Once registered, you fall under Making Tax Digital (MTD) for VAT: you must keep digital records and file your VAT returns through MTD-compatible software.

Here is the honest part: digabloPos is a POS and reporting tool, not MTD-filing software. It does not submit your VAT return to HMRC. What it does is give you clean, exportable sales records — every sale, every tender, VAT-aware totals — that feed straight into your MTD-compatible accounting software (or your accountant). Think of digabloPos as the tidy sales ledger at the front of the shop, and your MTD software as the thing that actually files. Always confirm your obligations on GOV.UK or with your accountant.

1. Open digabloPos in your browser or download it on an Android phone or tablet. 2. Add your products (or import a list) and set the currency to pounds sterling (£, GBP). 3. Add your payment methods — Card, Cash, Apple/Google Pay, pay-by-bank. 4. Pair your existing SumUp / Square / Zettle reader for the tap, and make your first sale.

No contract, no monthly fee, no commission on the software — and it keeps selling when the internet drops.