Lightspeed POS Review — Is Lightspeed Commerce Worth It in 2024?

Lightspeed Commerce is an established retail-focused POS that expanded to the hospitality industry in 2014. The point-of-sale re-branded from Lightspeed POS to Lightspeed Commerce in 2021 and is currently being used by over 160,000 businesses in the US, including household names like Marriott, Five Guys, and Salesforce.

The success of Lightspeed is hardly surprising. Its advanced stock management and commerce features paired with its reliable support center, make it ideal for large retailers and newer ventures alike. However, while its iPad system is highly portable and relatively user-friendly, Lightspeed Commerce’s lack of hardware options will rule it out from being used by a broad range of businesses.

Our research-led review unpacks the main features to expect from the Lightspeed point of sale system — including why it’s one of the best POS for retail businesses — before examining the support options available and how its price plans work. We’ll also discuss the different versions of Lightspeed available, including the X-series – which used to be Vend POS.

In this review:

• Lightspeed POS: At a Glance
• The Lightspeed Family: Explained
• Lightspeed POS Plans and Pricing
• Is Lightspeed POS Good Value?
• Lightspeed POS: Core Features
• Lightspeed POS Setup and Customer Support
• Lightspeed POS Alternatives
• Lightspeed POS – The Verdict

Lightspeed POS: At a Glance

Not sure if Lightspeed Commerce is a good fit for you? Take a look at these deciding factors:

• Lightspeed’s paid plans start at $69 per month, but if you’re after advanced tools like ecommerce and analytics you’ll need to get its Standard package ($119 per month)
• Lightspeed has granular stock control tools, making it ideal for stores with big inventories of barcoded items.
• Lightspeed doesn’t offer fractional quantities or expiry dates on products. It doesn’t integrate with weighing scales either, making it unsuitable for stores that need these features.
• Lightspeed offers detailed reports and sales forecasting capabilities, like multi-store stock reports and custom reports.
• Lightspeed’s standard contract term is 14 months, which is longer than most POS providers like Square and Clover.
• Lightspeed offers 24/7 support via phone, email, and live chat, making its support center stronger than most POSs including Square and Vend.
• Lightspeed’s user experience is a little clunky and unintuitive, in comparison to ultra user-friendly systems like Clover.
• Lightspeed doesn’t offer a free POS plan like fellow providers Square and Zettle, but it does offer a free 14-day trial if you want to test out its software for free.

Who should be using Lightspeed Commerce?

Lightspeed’s powerful inventory control tools make it a shoo-in for businesses with large or specific barcoded inventories, including:

• Sports stores
• Jewelry stores
• Clothing stores
• Toy and hobby stores
• Pet stores
• Furniture sellers
• Pharmacies

Who shouldn’t be using Lightspeed Commerce?

The POSs lack of scheduling fractional quantities features, and weighing scale integrations make it less suitable for the following businesses:

• Hairdressers
• Tattoo parlors
• Grocery stores, florists
• Antique stores
• DIY stores
• Warehouses
• Dropshipping companies
• Storage facilities

Learn more about some top POS systems for pharmacies here.

The Lightspeed Family: Explained

Lightspeed offers a range of different retail and restaurant POS systems, which are categorized into different X, known as ‘Series’. Since each retail POS Series showcases slightly different features and is better suited for different types of businesses, we outline how Lightspeed’s different retail systems compare below.

• Lightspeed X-Series – Formally known as Vend POS, Lightspeed Retail X-Series is a POS system that was designed for small to medium-sized, inventory-based retailers. Specifically, its excellent stock management tools make it ideal for specialty food and clothing stores, or businesses with multiple locations.
• Lightspeed S-Series – Lightspeed S-Series, which used to be the POS Shopkeep, caters to retail stores, and food service businesses. While the system is more versatile, its stock and ecommerce features are slightly more limited than Lightspeed X-Series, making it more preferable for small brick-and-mortar locations than online retailers.
• Lightspeed R-Series – Standing as one of Lightspeed’s most established plans, Lightspeed R-Series is older than other systems in this list. However, the platform will still be a good fit for businesses that are able to make do without frequent software updates and cutting-edge POS features.
• Lightspeed E-Series – Formerly known as Ecwid, Lightspeed E-Series is an ecommerce POS packed with useful features like multi-location stick tracking and social media selling. Due to the POSs useful ecommece features, it’s specifically tailored towards businesses looking to establish or improve their online presence.

Lightspeed also offers a variety of different POS systems for restaurants, including an L-Series, U-Series, and O-Series. Learn more about the provider’s small business food and beverage-focused system in our Lightspeed Restaurant U-Series review.

Learn more about some top POS systems for pharmacies here.

Lightspeed POS Plans and Pricing

Lightspeed offers four pricing plans – Lean, Standard, Advanced, and a bespoke option with custom quotes, Enterprise.

Lightspeed is relatively expensive compared to its competitors. We’d suggest that the Standard plan is likely to be the best fit for most businesses – retail ecommerce sales are more essential than ever, so it pays to have a POS that can integrate with your website.

Lightspeed Pricing Plans Comparison

Lightspeed Basic plan

The entry-level Basic tier is aimed at small businesses. It costs $69 per month when billed annually, or $89 when billed monthly. For that, customers get a retail POS and payments system with a free terminal included.

In past years, Lightspeed charged a flat $29 per month rate across all plans to add each additional register beyond the first one. Now, however, they recommend that those running multiple locations get in touch for a quote.

You’ll also have to decide whether your business uses the Lightspeed Payments system to process payments. Sticking with Lightspeed’s own processor will make life easier, but if you choose to switch from Lightspeed at any point, there might be a bit more legwork involved. Lightspeed charges 2.6% + 10¢ for every transaction, which is fairly standard for the industry (Card-not-present rate: 2.6% + 30¢). These transaction fees remain the same across all plans.

You can generate a graph that displays important data using Lightspeed’s accounting software, which integrates seamlessly with the POS system. Source: Lightspeed

Lightspeed Core plan

The Lightspeed Core plan allows you to hook up your online store sales to your in-person sales with it’s ecommerce features. You’ll also get the ability to integrate a third-party accounting platform into Lightspeed. This should cut down on manual paperwork for you, though you’ll have to pay $149 per month or $179 per month, depending on whether you choose annual or monthly billing.

Lightspeed Plus plan

For $289 per month (paid annually) or $339 per month (paid monthly), you’ll get the Plus tier. This plan adds omnichannel customer loyalty features, including a rewards program. This means Lightspeed will track your customers’ purchases, and prompt you to reward your biggest fans with discounts, free gifts, or other nice treats. This plan is also the first one to let you access and analyze sales data, which can help you optimize your operation.

It’s easy to track and store customer data in Lightspeed, and this makes implementing customer retention strategies – and rewarding loyalty – that little bit easier. Source: Lightspeed

Lightspeed Enterprise plan

There is also an Enterprise tier, which is aimed at large businesses. It is a bespoke package that will be designed around your business and one that Lightspeed will price up for you on request.

The big benefits to this plan are its many consultation services: Unlimited personalized onboarding and launch services, general consultation, and API consultation and support. Enterprises with this plan will get both a dedicated premium support team and a dedicated customer success manager. Finally, they’ll get “preferred Lightspeed Payments rates,” although the company does not make these rates public.

Don’t forget that there is a 14-day free trial that you can check out before committing to Lightspeed long-term. You can get permanently free POS systems, too, but that isn’t always the best idea as their feature sets tend to be limited and they charge steeper transaction fees.

Lightspeed Hardware Costs

Lightspeed offers hardware kits for iPads, MacOS devices, and Windows PCs, as well as selling compatible items individually.

However, it doesn’t make the prices for these packages (or even the individual items) public – you’ll have to head to the company directly for a quote.

Find out more about Lightspeed Commerce hardware below.

Lightspeed POS Pricing vs Competitors

Lightspeed isn’t the only POS company out there. In fact, the market is awash with POS companies claiming to offer you the best option for less.

So how does Lightspeed compare? It’s a bit more expensive than some of its competitors, sure, but its quality of features and UI still make it a strong choice.

Lightspeed has also recently acquired ShopKeep and Upserve, two more specialized POS providers, which should see it bring some more features to the table soon.

Is Lightspeed free?

Sadly, Lightspeed is not free – if you want to use the Lightspeed POS long-term, you’ll need to pay upwards of $69 per month. However, the cost is justified for the features on offer, and Lightspeed does provide a 14-day free trial and a free terminal with all plans.

Is Lightspeed POS Good Value?

Since Lightspeed doesn’t offer a free service and the price of its plans are generally a little steeper than similar alternatives – we don’t think its value offering is great. Ecommerce features aren’t available in its cheaper ‘Essentials’ tier either, making the POS even more pricey for omnichannel retailers.

However, this isn’t to say Lightspeed’s value isn’t strong across the board. If your business manages large or complex inventories, Lightspeed’s state-of-the-art stock management features will provide you with a great return on your investment by letting you handle the process with the same platform.

Lightspeed POS: Core Features

Sales

When using Lightspeed eCommerce you can create or search for a customer profile, before inputting the items you’re buying or simply scanning them with a barcode scanner.

Once ready, you can ring up the order for credit, debit, check, cash, PayPal, or a combination. Then to create a sale reference, you can either print or email the receipt.

Lightspeed also offers PCI-compliant payment processing, and a fully integrated system to protect from human error and fraud.

Lightspeed Commerce gives customers tons of options when it comes to payment, including cash, card, layby, and store credit. Source: Tech.co testing

Ordering

Lightspeed lets users apply automatic discounts on products to increase sales activity. The POS also allows you to add manual discounts, whether you’re docking a price by percentage or by dollars.

Like other leading POSs like Square and Clover, Lightspeed makes it easy for you to issue refunds, exchanges, or store credit, so you’re able to keep customers happy without spending ages fiddling about on the back end.

When we tested out Lightspeed ourselves, we were impressed at how easy it was to add order notes to specific items. We were able to add notes in a couple of taps, so customers could have a record of any specific changes or amendments in their sales receipt.

Lightspeed let me add notes to specific sales receipts to keep customers informed about changes. Source: Tech.co testing

Inventory

Lightspeed is at the top of its game when it comes to stock control. It offers extremely granular levels of control, earning it a solid research score of 4/5 for inventory management.

You can quickly import products from a CSV or Excel file, and add additional style, size, and color specifications to each item. In addition, pre-loaded catalogs available on the Lightspeed Commerce POS allow you to restock their inventory directly from the system. You’re also able to check inventory from the mobile app while on the go.

What’s more, Lightspeed has created its own Supplier Network, which allows businesses to access products from a number of dedicated suppliers. Products will be automatically integrated into your POS upon order, and you might even get them at reduced rates.

However, for all of Lightspeed’s strengths, it doesn’t offer a cost-profit management tool for inventory products like Epos Now. This makes it slightly less beneficial for businesses that are looking for extra help with their pricing strategy.

Customers

Customers can be tracked via Lightspeed’s suite of CRM tools, allowing stores to give individual customers statuses like “VIP” or “regular”, and to create email lists for targeted marketing campaigns.

An individual customer’s sales history allows managers to make smart decisions about which items are most popular, or which future purchases to suggest to a specific customer. Support for a customer loyalty or gift card program is also available. The support is also omnichannel, meaning it will work for in-store and online sales, and work across email and direct messaging.

Lightspeed’s CRM toolkit is nothing to be sniffed at, but it does charge a premium for customer loyalty features. Therefore, if you want to unlock advanced customer loyalty functions like customized rewards without paying extra, you’d be better off going for its rival, Clover POS.

Learn more about Lightspeed’s alternative in our Clover POS review.

Lightspeed let me add a new customer profile easily, and even allowed me to group them into specific categories. Source: Tech.co testing

Ecommerce Integrations

A single-store inventory can be sold both in-person and through an online storefront, for a consistent brand experience.

Customer data can be tracked across both channels as well, giving managers an accurate picture of their shopping habits. Websites can be set up easily through Lightspeed, thanks to the ready-made templates on offer. Integrations make it possible to sell directly through Facebook as well.

Of course, if ecommerce really matters to you and your POS, Shopify might be a better fit than Lightspeed. This is because Shopify offers an in-house ecommerce platform, making it easier for businesses to synchronize data and sell goods online and through social media.

Check out our Lightspeed vs Shopify guide to learn more about how the systems compare.

Lightspeed and WooCommerce Integration

Lightspeed has strong integration with ecommerce platform WooCommerce. It costs $149 per year to integrate the services but, in return, you’ll have a seamlessly linked online store (through WooCommerce) and point-of-sale system (through Lightspeed).

Your inventory and sales will be automatically tracked, meaning that operating your online and offline businesses is far easier. Plus, it will make your business more defensible in the face of potential restrictions on in-person sales.

Reports

Data about customer and employee habits can be tracked and logged, meaning that trends will appear in the data over time. This allows managers to make intelligent decisions, with specific insights on factors including which employees clock in and out on time, which customers buy the most, and which items sell best on which day of the week. Accounting data can be automatically processed with integrations available from Lightspeed, and all reports can be exported to PDF or Excel.

Video: How to Make a Sale in Lightspeed Retail

Lightspeed Hardware

Lightspeed Commerce is an iPad-based POS with terminal options too. For example, its iPad hardware kit includes a LAN receipt printer (with paper), a cash drawer, a Bluetooth scanner, and a branded iPad stand. Meanwhile, the desktop hardware kit includes a USB receipt printer, a cash drawer, and a USB scanner.

If you aren’t a fan of the humble iPad set-up, you’ll also be able to access Lightspeed’s software with a MacOS device, or a Windows PC.

Lightspeed doesn’t offer an in-house POS terminal like most other POS providers, which could deter businesses that are looking to build a new hardware setup from scratch. The POS also lacks a customer-facing display as part of its Retail POS package, which may be an inconvenience for stores that want to display order information during the checkout process.

Sadly, Lightspeed doesn’t make its prices for these packages available publicly – you’ll have to head to the company directly for a quote. It’s also worth noting that Lightspeed does not offer integration with weighing scales, so if you’re looking for that kind of hardware – for a grocery store or similar – you’ll be better off finding another provider like Square or NCR.

Lightspeed Commerce Alternatives

Of course, Lightspeed isn’t the only POS system on the market – it’s going head-to-head with some of the biggest names in the business.

If you’re looking to get started for cheap, Square is our best-rated POS system overall, with a generous free plan, excellent payment features, and a shallow learning curve for beginners.

Shopify POS, on the other hand, offers the best ecommerce features we reviewed, with unique social media integrations and digital marketplaces. Vend POS is another top competitor, with a slightly lower entry price than Lightspeed. However, Vend’s falls short of Lightspeed when it comes to till and business development features, making it less suitable for large businesses.

Check out our table below to see how Lightspeed compares:

Lightspeed is more expensive than its competitors, which might put some people off.

However, while you will have to pay extra, Lightspeed does bring fantastic till features and excellent inventories. Plus, the company is continually bringing extra features to bear with its recent acquisitions.

Verdict: Lightspeed Commerce POS

Lightspeed’s pricing might be a little above the norm, but its strong feature set and ease of use still make it a viable option.

Lightspeed would make a decent choice for any retail business with a complex inventory that needs an easy-to-set-up POS system.

To make sure Lightspeed Commerce is the best fit for your business, why not try its 14-day free trial. You’ll be under no obligation to stick with it if it doesn’t work for you, either.

Lightspeed POS FAQs

Let’s take a look at the internet’s most widely asked questions about Lightspeed.