-Manage employees
-Easy report viewing
-Manage inventory
-ShopKeep Backoffice
Choosing a point of sale (POS) system for your business is more important than you might think. How many times have you, as a customer, gone to check out at a store and experienced long lines, glitchy systems, or some other issue? So many of these problems can be prevented by exploring and comparing the best POS systems—like ShopKeep and Clover POS.
Which of these top solutions is right for your small business? In this review, we’ll compare ShopKeep vs. Clover so you have all the information required to determine which, if either, of these options can meet your needs.
| ShopKeep | Clover | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Starting at $49 per month | Starting at $9.95 per month |
| Software Options | Basic, Essential, and Advanced plans | Register Lite and Register plans |
| Hardware | Tablet-based system; can use one you own, purchase from third party, or buy bundle from ShopKeep | Go, Flex, Mini, or Station options; must use Clover proprietary hardware |
| Payment Processing | Can choose between flat-rate (2.5% + $0.10 per in-person transaction) and interchange-plus pricing | Included with Clover software; rate depends on which of the two software plans you choose |
| Top Features | -Sell online or in-person -Manage employees -Easy report viewing -Manage inventory -ShopKeep Backoffice | -Customizable point of sale |
| Customer Service | 24/7 customer support via phone, text, or chat with all plans | 24/7 customer support with both plans |
| Best For | Retail businesses; businesses that sell in-person and online | Restaurants and other food service businesses |
Both ShopKeep and Clover are two popular POS solutions among small business owners across different industries.
ShopKeep is a tablet-based POS system best known for features like inventory tracking and real-time sales reporting. Although ShopKeep can now be operated on both Android and iOS devices, it’s perhaps one of the most well-known iPad-based POS systems.
Clover, on the other hand, is known for their Android-based POS system—in particular, their proprietary hardware focused on table- and counter-service restaurants. In addition, whereas ShopKeep POS is mainly purchased directly from the ShopKeep brand, Clover POS (owned by First Data) is sold through many third-party organizations, including Payment Depot, Wells Fargo Merchant Services, Bank of America Merchant Services, Dharma Merchant Services, and more.
With this overview in mind, let’s take a closer look at the features ShopKeep and Clover have to offer. As you’ll see, both ShopKeep and Clover go well beyond basic functionality and provide a long list of features that benefit small business owners as well as their customers.
With ShopKeep, both ecommerce and in-person businesses can utilize the POS system. If you’re an online seller, you can sell using your online store or on social media, and even set up delivery.
With in-person selling, ShopKeep accepts all forms of payment, even cash and contactless payments, on your tablet register.
You can choose what access to give your employees so they don’t see anything they’re not supposed to. With their access, employees can keep track of their hours and productivity.
They can also clock in and out of their shift directly through the POS system.
You can view sales reports with ShopKeep and view by at-a-glance or filter by date, department, employees, and more categories. The inventory value report also shows the total value of the inventory you have on hand.
Within the ShopKeep POS system, you can organize your inventory in any way that is easiest for you to understand.
The platform will tell you how many of any given product you have on hand—so you never sell something you don’t have, or run out of a popular product. ShopKeep also offers open priced items so you can sell items that aren’t priced until the time of purchase.
With the Backoffice aspect of ShopKeep, you can manage staff by tracking hours and performance, as well as identifying top customers and finding ways to keep them coming back with CRM tools.
You can also add more registers as the business grows, print barcode labels from any Mac or Windows computer, customize paper and email receipts, and manage your billing.
With Clover, you can choose the stationary or portable POS hardware devices that work best for your business, customize your software features, and even add Clover accessories to make the POS experience even better. Clover accepts credit and debit cards, gift cards, and NFC payments.
Depending on the type of business you run, you can set orders for in-house, pickup, or delivery and check customers out with open tabs, split bills, or order combining.
With Clover POS, you can view customer order histories and other info (provided by the customer) in order to create customer profiles. You can then create loyalty programs to keep your customers coming back and send promotions and other marketing campaigns through email or text.
As a business owner, you can manage your staff by creating schedules, setting individual employee permissions, and viewing employee sales, tips, and refunds.
You can list your products, services, or restaurant menu items on Clover to be available for online purchasing. There’s no extra fees for online orders and Clover will automatically build your online ordering page for you.
If you’re a restaurant, the orders are sent directly to your kitchen and POS. If you’re a retail business, the orders will be sent to the POS.
When choosing a POS system, the best option for your business could come down to price. The pricing structures for Clover POS vs. ShopKeep are a little different, so you’ll want to consider which one might be right for your business now—and as your business grows.
ShopKeep offers three different software plans, each with plenty of features for you to efficiently operate the sales and management aspects of your business. Let’s take a closer look.
As you can see, ShopKeep’s pricing is focused on their software plans. In terms of hardware, ShopKeep does not require that you purchase hardware from them or use any specific device.
You can run their software on both Android tablets and iPads, so you can use a device you already have, purchase one from them, or buy one from a third-party seller. In this way, the cost of hardware varies—it’s really up to you.
If you’re interested in purchasing hardware directly from ShopKeep, they do offer hardware bundles, as well as peripherals—such as barcode scanners, receipt paper, iPad enclosures, and more.
Finally, in terms of payment processing, ShopKeep includes integrated credit card processing for all of their business owners. Business owners can choose from two pricing options—flat-rate or interchange-plus.
If you choose flat-rate, your standard in-person processing rate will be 2.5% + $0.10 per transaction, if you choose interchange-plus, the ShopKeep team will work with you to find a customized rate for your business.
If you look at the Clover website, you’ll see that their pricing differs in that it’s displayed based on their individual POS hardware options. Unlike ShopKeep, you have to use a Clover hardware device in order to operate the Clover POS software (in most cases).
That said, it can be difficult to determine exactly how Clover’s pricing works. Not to mention, Clover’s pricing may differ depending on where you’re purchasing their POS system. You may find different pricing if you’re purchasing directly from Clover than if you’re purchasing from a third-party seller or merchant service provider.
With this in mind, let’s break down Clover’s pricing in greater detail:
Register Lite Plan
Register Plan
Go
Flex
Mini for Any Business
Station
Finally, it’s worth noting that Clover also offers some advanced plans for counter service and table service restaurants—available for the Mini and the Station. In addition, whereas the Register plan is available on any of the Clover POS hardware options, the Register Lite plan is not available on the Station hardware device.
Looking at the various customer reviews for a service you’re thinking of using can be a great way to get a sense of what working with the company is really like. To help you sort through those reviews, we’ve summarized some of the positive and negative reviews for both ShopKeep and Clover below:
The users that gave ShopKeep an above-average rating love the Backoffice feature. It’s easy to understand and makes inventory tracking and management seamless for many users. These reviews came from owners of boutiques, bakeries, and other food service businesses, so while it contradicts what some said in negative reviews (as you’ll see below), there are always two sides of a coin.
In addition, the ecommerce aspect has been a huge plus for users. The setup of the site is very easy and gives business owners the chance to increase revenue and broaden their audience. A lot of five-star reviewers also note how long they’ve been using ShopKeep, and some have been using it for upwards of six years and say they’ll never use anything else.
Those who gave ShopKeep a below-average rating noted a few key points in common. The main thing is that ShopKeep isn’t ideal for the food industry. Customers ran into issues where if two orders were placed at the same time, only one would print in the kitchen, causing orders to not be fulfilled. The gratuity feature isn’t as seamless as advertised, and many found their customers confused by the process of adding a tip.
The customer service, or lack thereof, was another big pain point for reviewers. Customers receive a sales rep, but that person is apparently rarely the one dealing with any issues or complaints about the service.
Customers also noted being given the run-around trying to get in touch with someone who could actually help them, and each time they needed customer service, they basically had to start at square one and go through the chain of command.
To start, some users had great experiences with Clover. These people noted that their sales reps went above and beyond for them and explained everything with great detail and helped them through the process of getting everything set up.
Others noted how happy they were with the device itself, saying that while no credit card processor is perfect, this one comes really close.
Although the positive reviews make up just 36% of Clover’s reviews on Trustpilot, there’s no denying that some people really enjoy the service.
On the other hand, users who thought Clover delivered below-average service and features have a lot to say. One of the common themes is that the credit card processor consistently fails or is very slow, causing frustration for both customers and employees.
Customer service was also lacking for a lot of users. The agents they came in contact with weren’t knowledgeable and were constantly trying to upsell instead of assisting with the issue at hand. Many users felt misled by all the other fees associated with using Clover and claim they were never notified of the fees until they noticed them on bank and credit card statements.
When it comes down to it, there’s a lot to take into consideration when breaking down the pros and cons of both ShopKeep and Clover. As you can see, both of these systems have significant advantages—so it’s very likely that many of the pros and cons will be specific to your business, what you’re looking for, and what you need in your point of sale system.
That said, here are some overarching points to keep in mind as you compare Clover POS vs. ShopKeep:
Knowing what other POS systems are out there will only strengthen your ability to make the best decision for your business. Below we’ve provided some details on alternatives for both ShopKeep and Clover.
| Alternative | Pricing | Key Features | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
|
| Small businesses that want the features of a full-service POS system, but don’t want to pay the price for it | |
| Between $69 and $189 per month |
| Small food service businesses that want everything from payment processing to payroll management | |
| Between $69 and $229 per month, when paid annually; or between $79 and $259 per month, when paid monthly |
| Businesses that run an online and in-person retail operation that want seamless POS across both | |
|
| Restaurants that want to pick and choose what is controlled by their POS system so they don’t pay for things they don’t use |
Both ShopKeep and Clover are POS systems aimed at helping small businesses streamline their checkout service, whether it’s online or in-person. With both platforms able to accept all payment types and offer features like inventory tracking, employee management, and customer relationship building, these two services have a lot in common.
Where they differ, though, is that Clover tends to focus more on restaurants and other food service businesses, while ShopKeep tends to focus on retail. ShopKeep does work with food service, but reviewers noted that it’s not as functional of a restaurant POS system as they would like.
With all of this in mind, hopefully, you’re closer to deciding which POS system is right for your business.
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