TechRadar Verdict
Epos Now is a reliable point-of-sale system for businesses. But, there’s not much that differentiates it from the competition; it’s just another POS system that you can choose.
Pros
- +
Easy to use
- +
Customizable
- +
Good reporting features
Cons
- -
UI needs improvement
- -
Customer service complaints
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Epos Now is the product of ePos Inc, a UK-based technology company. ePos was founded in 2011 and unveiled its POS (point of sale) system built for small and mid-sized retailers in the same year.
Epos offers a flexible system for different types of businesses. The company offers different types of hardware that make it easy to receive payments from customers and run your business. It is based out of Norwich, England.
Epos Now also have a multi-purpose Epos Now Order & Pay POS system.
Unsure which POS to choose? Read our guide on how to choose the right POS system for your business,
So let’s take a closer look at this UK-based POS outfit to see how it stacks up against the competition, and find out whether it’s the right fit for your business.
Epos Now POS: Plans and pricing
Epos offers specialized hardware to its customers, and you can buy them separately or in a single bundle. The company provides what it calls "The Complete Solution" and this bundle includes a Pro-C15 payments terminal, Epos Now software, a receipt printer, and a cash drawer. The typical cost of this bundle is £399, but Epos was running a discount when we reviewed it that brought down the price to £84.
If you don’t want to buy the bundle as a whole, you can pay separately for just the devices you need. A barcode scanner on the website was listed for £95. We found printers priced between £155 and £300. Weight scales were priced from £600 above and staff swipe cards were priced from £39 and above.
Some devices were listed for rent rather than outright purchase, including the Epos handheld POS terminal starting from £19 per month and a kitchen display system starting from £15 per month. Renting is a preferable option for businesses that don’t want to pay a significant price upfront. However, note that an upfront purchase is ultimately cheaper than renting the device for a long time (renting is best reserved for short-term use).
The good thing about Epos is that you must not use the company’s hardware. You can use your point-of-sale hardware and pay for the Epos software system. If you buy hardware from Epos, you can expect it to arrive between 5 and 10 business days after the order, and you can get help to install Epos Now on the hardware.
For transactions, Epos charges a flat fee of 2.6% + $0.10. Larger businesses can negotiate a smaller fee if they have such a high volume that Epos is willing to compromise on its fees to have them as a customer.
| Region | Monthly | Annual |
|---|---|---|
| US | $39 | $449 |
| UK | £25 | £399 |
| Australia | NA | $999 |
| Canada | $55 | $549 |
| Ireland | €29 | €399 |
| New Zealand | NA | $999 |
Epos Now: Features
Hardware
Epos offers different hardware options including
The Complete Solution
This is a bundle that includes
- A Pro-C15 terminal running the Windows operating system. It has a water-resistant screen and solid-state drive to keep information.
- An all-metal cash drawer where you can safely keep your cash payments.
- A thermal printer to print customer receipts automatically.
- Epos Now payments software
This bundle is called “The Complete Solution” but in reality, it’s actually not. You have to get a separate device to accept payments from customers’ cards to make it complete. In that case, you can choose from one of Epos’s card machines; Link, Pro, and Pro+.
- Link is a compact machine where customers can insert, swipe, or tap their cards to pay you.
- Pro is a device that allows customers to pay you by inserting, swiping, or tapping their cards. It has a built-in receipt printer, unlike Link.
- Pro+ allows you to both accept payments and access complementary features like sales reports.
Epos does not sell its hardware upfront. Instead, it rents them out starting from £15 per month. If you’re not comfortable with renting, then you can buy your own hardware upfront and connect it to the Epos platform.
Payment Processing
Epos offers software to collect payments from your customers. You can charge all major credit and debit cards including the likes of Visa and Mastercard, or your customers can use digital wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay. The platform's payment processor uses encryption to protect customers' details and is PCI-compliant.
The fee for processing payments is a flat 2.6% + $0.10 on every successful transaction. All transactions are collected at the end of each day and wired to your bank account after 2 days.
Integrations (App Store)
Epos lets developers build apps to add functionality to its software. You can download these apps from the official Epos App Store. Examples of such apps include LoyaltyDog to create and manage customer loyalty programs, Xero for accounting, and Appointedd for restaurants to take bookings.
Epos Now: Interface and use
One of the things you’ll hear Epos customers often talk about is the user interface, and not really in a positive way. We observed many complaints of the system being difficult to set up and understand. Epos needs considerable changes to make its system more user-friendly and intuitive.
Epos Now: Support
Epos offers direct customer support through email and live chat. You can send a message to the company's support email address or login and get connected via live chat between 9 am-6 pm GMT on working days. There's also the Support Centre where you can access a plethora of articles and user guides concerning all the platform's features. Likewise, there's an official online community where you can seek help from other users.
Epos Now: The competition
There’s no shortage of point-of-sale systems rivaling Epos. Toast POS and Shopify POS are two major competitors that we’ll highlight. Toast is designed specifically for restaurants and hospitality businesses and offers much more features than Epos in that arena. Shopify is a general point-of-sale solution that’s more intuitive and offers more features than Epos but costs more money.
Epos Now: Final verdict
Epos is a run-of-the-mill point-of-sale system that’s suitable for all kinds of businesses; retail, hospitality, barber shops, etc. It lets you accept payments from your customers with ease and reasonable fees. Yet, there’s not much differentiating Epos from the competition. It’s just yet another point-of-sale system that you can adopt.
Further reading
You may also like our articles on the best POS systems for restaurants, small businesses, and retail, or How to choose the right POS system for your business and 9 inspiring ideas on how to use POS system customer data.
