Key Takeaways
- 1How much does POS billing software cost in India
- 2Subscription POS vs one-time custom POS: what you are paying for
- 3POS hardware costs in India: printer, scanner, terminal and drawer
- 43-year total cost: a 1-outlet shop and a 3-outlet chain
- 5Restaurant POS cost in India
Quick Answer
POS billing software in India costs roughly ₹6,000 to ₹30,000 per outlet per year on a hosted subscription, or ₹45,000 to ₹3.5 lakh one-time for a custom POS that you own, plus ₹15,000 to ₹50,000 of hardware per counter. Over three years a single-outlet shop pays about ₹95,000 on a mid-tier subscription against ₹1.5 lakh for a custom build; at three outlets the two come within 10% of each other, and from five outlets custom is usually cheaper. The tables below show every line.
This guide is for shop owners, pharmacists, restaurant operators and small chains in India who want a real number for POS software before they call a vendor. By the end you will be able to compare a subscription quote with a custom quote on a three-year basis, budget the hardware separately, and know which five factors move a custom price up or down.
How much does POS billing software cost in India
There are two ways to pay for POS software in India, and the prices are not comparable until you put them on the same three-year timeline.
- Hosted subscription: ₹6,000 to ₹12,000 per outlet per year for a basic billing plan, ₹12,000 to ₹30,000 per outlet per year for a plan with inventory, multiple users and reports. Add-ons such as WhatsApp message credits, e-invoice API access and extra users typically add ₹3,000 to ₹10,000 per year.
- Custom POS, one-time build: from ₹45,000 for a single-counter billing system to ₹3.5 lakh for a multi-outlet system with central control, with hosting of ₹6,000 to ₹15,000 per year and an annual maintenance charge from year two of 15% to 20% of the build cost.
The custom bands we quote most often, by scope, look like this.
- Basic counter billing POS: ₹45,000 to ₹90,000. Item master, GST invoice, thermal print, UPI QR, day-end cash, basic sales reports, offline billing.
- POS with inventory, purchases and customers: ₹90,000 to ₹1.8 lakh. Adds purchase entry, batch and expiry, reorder alerts, customer credit, loyalty, WhatsApp invoices.
- Multi-outlet POS with central control: ₹1.5 lakh to ₹3.5 lakh. Adds head office item and price control, stock transfers, outlet-wise reports, role-based access.
- Restaurant POS with KOT and tables: ₹1.2 lakh to ₹3 lakh. Covered in its own section below.
- POS connected to an ERP, e-commerce site or accounting package: ₹2.5 lakh onwards, depending on the integrations.
All figures are for the software. Hardware, SMS and WhatsApp gateway charges, and e-invoice API charges from a GST Suvidha Provider are separate under both models.
Subscription POS vs one-time custom POS: what you are paying for
A subscription price buys you access to a shared product. You pay per outlet, sometimes per user, every year, for as long as you bill. The vendor hosts it, updates it and supports it, and you can start the same afternoon. The trade-off is that features you need but the product lacks either cost extra or cannot be added at all, and the data belongs to the vendor's platform until you export it.
A custom price buys you a system built to your counter and owned by you, including source code and database. You pay once for the build, then a small hosting fee and an annual maintenance charge. Changes are possible because the code is yours. The trade-off is a 4 to 10 week build before go-live and a higher first-year outlay.
The honest comparison is not year one. It is year three, with hardware, add-ons, hosting and maintenance all counted, per outlet, which is what the next two sections do.
POS hardware costs in India: printer, scanner, terminal and drawer
Hardware is the same whichever software you choose, so budget it separately. Prices below are typical retail prices in Gujarat for reliable mid-range units, not the cheapest listing online.
| Item | Typical price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Thermal receipt printer, 58 mm | ₹2,500 to ₹4,500 | Enough for kirana, pharmacy, cafe |
| Thermal receipt printer, 80 mm | ₹5,000 to ₹12,000 | Wider bills, auto-cutter, faster |
| Barcode scanner, 1D wired | ₹1,200 to ₹2,500 | Standard product barcodes |
| Barcode scanner, 2D | ₹3,000 to ₹6,000 | Reads QR codes on e-invoices and UPI |
| Cash drawer | ₹2,500 to ₹5,000 | Opens from the printer port |
| Label printer for barcodes | ₹8,000 to ₹15,000 | Garments, electronics, own-brand items |
| Android tablet as terminal | ₹10,000 to ₹18,000 | Lowest-cost counter setup |
| Windows desktop as terminal | ₹25,000 to ₹40,000 | Best for keyboard-heavy billing |
| All-in-one touch POS terminal | ₹30,000 to ₹60,000 | Restaurants, premium retail |
| Customer display or second screen | ₹2,000 to ₹5,000 | Shows bill and UPI QR to the buyer |
| UPS for printer and terminal | ₹3,000 to ₹5,000 | Keeps billing through short power cuts |
A lean single counter (tablet, 58 mm printer, 1D scanner, UPS) lands near ₹18,000. A full desktop counter with an 80 mm printer, 2D scanner, drawer and display is closer to ₹45,000 to ₹50,000. Use ₹25,000 per counter as a planning figure for a standard shop.
3-year total cost: a 1-outlet shop and a 3-outlet chain
The table uses a mid-tier subscription at ₹18,000 per outlet per year with ₹5,000 of add-ons, and a custom build of ₹75,000 for one outlet or ₹1.6 lakh for three outlets with central control. Hardware is ₹25,000 per counter, one counter per outlet. Maintenance on the custom build starts in year two.
| Cost line (3 years) | 1 outlet, subscription | 1 outlet, custom | 3 outlets, subscription | 3 outlets, custom |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Software | ₹54,000 | ₹75,000 (once) | ₹1,62,000 | ₹1,60,000 (once) |
| Add-ons or maintenance | ₹15,000 | ₹24,000 (years 2 and 3) | ₹45,000 | ₹50,000 (years 2 and 3) |
| Hosting | Included | ₹24,000 | Included | ₹36,000 |
| Hardware | ₹25,000 | ₹25,000 | ₹75,000 | ₹75,000 |
| Setup, data import, training | ₹3,000 | Included | ₹9,000 | Included |
| Total over 3 years | ₹97,000 | ₹1,48,000 | ₹2,91,000 | ₹3,21,000 |
| Year 4 onwards, per year | ₹23,000 | ₹20,000 | ₹69,000 | ₹37,000 |
Three things stand out. For one outlet in a standard trade, a subscription is cheaper over three years by about ₹50,000, and it remains cheaper unless you need features the plan does not include. At three outlets the gap shrinks to about ₹30,000, and from year four the custom system costs roughly half as much per year. At five or more outlets, or when a subscription plan needs paid add-ons for batch tracking, multi-outlet or offline mode, custom is cheaper from year two.
Change the assumptions for your case: a basic ₹8,000 plan makes subscription cheaper for longer, while a ₹30,000 plan with multi-outlet add-ons makes custom cheaper from the second outlet.
Restaurant POS cost in India
Restaurant POS is priced higher than retail because the billing model is different: tables, KOT tickets to the kitchen, item modifiers, running bills, captain devices and QR ordering.
- Subscription: ₹10,000 to ₹36,000 per outlet per year, with online order aggregation and QR ordering often on higher tiers.
- Custom: ₹1.2 lakh to ₹3 lakh one-time for tables, KOT, kitchen display or printer, modifiers, recipe-level stock consumption and QR ordering from the table.
- Extra hardware: a kitchen printer at ₹6,000 to ₹12,000, one Android tablet per captain, and a customer-facing QR stand per table.
A 40-cover restaurant with one counter, one kitchen printer and two captain tablets should budget ₹60,000 to ₹80,000 for hardware on top of the software.
What drives a custom POS quote up or down
When we price a custom POS, five variables explain most of the difference between a ₹45,000 quote and a ₹2 lakh quote.
- Number of outlets and counters. Central control, stock transfers and outlet-wise reporting add ₹40,000 to ₹80,000 over a single-shop build.
- Inventory depth. Simple stock deduction is included in the basic band. Batch and expiry, variants, serial numbers and purchase schemes add ₹25,000 to ₹60,000.
- Integrations. E-invoice and e-way bill APIs, WhatsApp gateway, payment gateway, the accounting package your CA uses, or an e-commerce site each add ₹10,000 to ₹40,000.
- Devices. Windows only is cheapest. Adding an Android app for a second counter or a manager's phone adds ₹20,000 to ₹50,000.
- Data migration and training. Importing a clean item file is included; cleaning 8,000 items with duplicate names and missing HSN codes, and training staff at three locations, is priced separately.
Ask for these five as separate lines on the quote. If a vendor gives one number, you cannot tell which of them you are paying for.
What we have seen on real POS projects in Rajkot
JK Tech Hub has delivered POS and billing systems for retailers across Saurashtra since 2018, and the cost conversations repeat. A two-outlet pharmacy in Rajkot was paying for two subscriptions plus a batch tracking add-on and WhatsApp credits, about ₹58,000 a year. A custom POS with batch and expiry in the core cost ₹1.35 lakh including hardware for a new second counter, and the yearly running cost dropped to under ₹20,000 from year two.
A single kirana store near Mavdi asked us for a custom POS and we advised a ₹9,000 subscription instead; their needs were standard and the custom build would not have paid back inside four years. A garment chain with four showrooms across Rajkot and Jamnagar was quoted ₹1.1 lakh a year for a subscription with multi-outlet and variant add-ons; a custom system at ₹2.4 lakh plus hardware was cheaper by the end of year three and gave the owner a stock transfer flow the subscription did not have.
The pattern is consistent: below two outlets with standard needs, subscribe. Above three outlets, or with any non-standard need, build.
How to decide
Write down your outlet count for the next three years, not today. List the features you cannot live without and check which subscription tier includes each one. Put both options in the three-year table above with your own numbers. Then pick the lower total, unless the difference is under 15% and the custom option gives you ownership of code and data, in which case ownership is worth the difference. For a rough custom figure before you speak to anyone, the software cost calculator gives a band by module in two minutes.
Related reading and next step
- POS billing software: modules, trades and pricing bands
- Inventory management software for multi-outlet stock
- Accounting and GST billing software
- Software cost calculator for POS, ERP and apps
- Software company in Rajkot: how we work with local retailers
Send your outlet count and must-have list through the contact page or on WhatsApp at +91 7265004040 and you will get a fixed, itemised POS quote with hardware listed separately, usually within three working days.
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