Clover POS Review (2024): Pros, Cons, and Features

This Clover POS review offers a comprehensive insight into the features, pros, and cons of the Clover Point of Sale solution.

Clover offers an advanced range of capabilities to companies from various industries, including restaurant and retail brands.

Here’s everything we’ve learned by experimenting with Clover POS, as well as reading the reviews, testimonials, and case studies of other companies.

Quick verdict

Clover POS is an excellent option for businesses in search of advanced point of sale, payment processing, inventory management, and other tools in various industries.

It supports retail companies, professional services brands, and restaurants, and features a fantastic range of integrations. However, Clover POS may be a little too pricey and complex for some businesses.

Clover Pros & Cons

Clover POS Features

Designed primarily as a pos for small businesses, Clover is a flexible point of sale system, with solutions for omnichannel retailers, restaurants, and service-based businesses.

The fully-featured solution comes with a host of built-in features, delivered via the cloud.

What’s more, Clover takes a unique approach to customization, allowing companies to build the point of sale system that makes the most sense for their needs.

The company is owned by Fiserv, a financial technology, and payments provider. You’ll need to sign up for a merchant account with Fiserv to use the system, and they’ll handle the payment processing aspects of your business.

Like most POS solutions, Clover offers variable features depending on the package or service you choose. However, the primary capabilities include:

Payment Processing

As mentioned above, Clover’s parent company “Fiserv” handles the payment processing parts of the Clover POS solution. Vendors can accept all major credit and debit cards with the platform, as well as mobile and card chip contactless payments.

There’s also support for one-touch tipping (ideal for restaurants), gift cards, and online ordering.

You can also use Clover to manage cash and cheque transactions, so it’s easy to keep track of all of your financial records in one place. All digital payments are PCI compliant and secured, and Clover even offers features for fraud protection.

Inventory and Order Management

Like most flexible cloud-based POS systems, Clover offers an extensive backend where you can import and manage inventory information, and sync data between different channels.

You can automatically sync order numbers and inventory counts between your online store and brick-and-mortar locations. There’s also support for automatic stock alerts and purchase orders.

When it comes to managing customer orders, you can take requests for in-house, pickup, and delivery transactions. Clover also supports open tabs, split bills, and combined orders, which is helpful in the food service landscape. Plus, you can apply discounts and taxes to orders automatically.

Customer Management

Building a community of engaged customers is simple with the Clover ecosystem. The software comes with a CRM-style dashboard, where you can create comprehensive customer profiles, storing order histories, birthday information, and even contact info.

There’s also the option to reach out to customers and requests reviews, testimonials, and feedback.

To boost your chance of repeat purchases, Clover allows companies to set up comprehensive loyalty programs, with customizable rewards (points and cash discounts).

There’s even a built-in customer engagement app for managing these loyalty programs. Plus, you can communicate with customers directly through the Clover POS, sending custom messages via email, text, or the Clover app.

Employee Management

While other simple and affordable POS systems often have limited capabilities for employee management, Clover is relatively advanced. The POS system comes with an employee module, where you can manage teams and schedules according to your team’s needs.

There’s also the option to set individual access permissions for different employees, improving security and compliance.

Within the reporting section of the platform, you can even keep on top of your employees’ performance, viewing their individual sales numbers, tips, and refunds.

This makes it easy to rapidly identify and reward top performers in your team.

Reporting and Analytics

Employee performance isn’t the only thing you can monitor and manage within the Clover POS platform. The solution also includes a variety of other reporting tools, offering insights into your top-selling products, cash flow, and other factors.

You can access real-time and historical sales data, depending on the plan you choose, and download reports to share with your accountant or bookkeeping system.

Customization Options

As mentioned above, one thing that separates Clover POS from other solutions in the market is its customization options. The company offers dedicated “modules” and add-ons for different types of businesses.

For instance, you can access appointment scheduling and calendaring tools if you’re running a service-based business.

There are tipping tools, menu management, and tableside ordering tools available for restaurants and food service businesses. Plus, you can integrate your ecosystem with third-party delivery companies, giving you more ways to serve your audience.

There’s also a fantastic integration app marketplace available through Clover. Here you can find connectors for accounting, marketing, ERP, and business management tools, among other things.

POS Hardware

One particularly impressive aspect of the Clover ecosystem is its hardware range, which offers solutions to suit virtually all kinds of businesses.

The Clover POS hardware includes everything from dedicated tap and chip card readers, to full registers and self-service kiosks.

Companies can access Clover Station systems for all-in-one cash and payment processing management, as well as accessories, such as barcode scanners, receipt printers, and cash registers. There are even portable POS tools, like the Clover Flex system.

Bonus Services

Alongside all of the standard POS solutions mentioned above, a virtual terminal and a range of hardware options, Clover also offers access to add-on services, such as Clover Capital. This allows companies to rapidly access financial support to help maintain consistent cash flows.

The Clover Capital solution makes it easy to get approved for financing quickly, and it can deliver money into your bank account within 2-3 business days. Plus, Clover Capital payback is based on your sales, so you pay more when you’re business is thriving, and less when sales numbers drop.

Where Clover POS Stands Out

Low Payment Processing Rates

Although some aspects of the Clover ecosystem are quite expensive, such as the monthly costs for advanced tools, and the hardware, the payment processing fees are quite competitive.

While your fees will vary depending on various factors (like where you’re selling), they’re usually lower than those offered by well-known alternatives like Square.

Additionally, Clover’s software fees aren’t too bad when you consider the level of advanced functionality available. Most packages are less than $100 per month.

Excellent Features with Extensive Customization

Clover provides a comprehensive point of sale software solution to businesses of all sizes. The solution includes all of the built-in capabilities you need, from inventory and order management, to employee management, and even a valuable toolkit for increasing customer loyalty.

Plus, the ecosystem is highly customizable. You can add-on modules for things like gift cards and invoicing, or access advanced solutions for restaurant and service-based businesses.

Clover also supports a wide range of useful apps and integrations. You can even connect the system directly with your existing ecommerce store.

Fantastic Hardware Options

While most POS solution providers offer their own hardware, Clover delivers some of the best options in the business. Alongside standard card readers, there are mobile POS solutions that are excellent for table-side ordering.

You can also access comprehensive registers and kiosks, a wide range of accessories, like receipt printers and barcode scanners, and more.

You also have the option to run the entire system on your tablet or smartphone, thanks to Clover’s virtual terminal options.

Customer Service

Clover is committed to delivering an excellent level of support to all of its customers. There are fantastic sales teams on hand to help you find the right technology for your needs, and you can contact the team at any time via chat, email, or phone.

Clover also maintains an extensive help center on its website, where users can find helpful guides, articles, FAQs, and other solutions.

Pricing

Clover’s POS solutions are charged according to your specific needs. You’ll need to contact the team to get a quote. The payment processing fees are quite competitive, but there isn’t any free plan for beginners or smaller businesses.

Where Clover POS Falls Short

The Pricing

Although Clover’s payment processing fees are competitive, and the software subscription costs are reasonable, considering the features you get, there’s no free plan.

This makes Clover less appealing to small businesses and beginners than alternatives like Square and Zettle.

They’re also not particularly transparent about their costs either. You’ll need to contact the team to get a quote based on the software, hardware, and modules you need. What’s more, Clover’s advanced hardware options can be quite expensive, with tools like the Clover Go starting at $49.

Some Complexity

Clover does offer businesses various resources to help them get their system up and running quickly, but there’s still some complexity to overcome. Because there are more features on the platform, and more advanced capabilities on offer than you’d get from other vendors, there is a learning curve.

If you’re looking for something you can quickly get up and running with minimal effort, you might be better served by a solution like Square.

Alternatives to Clover POS

For many business leaders, Clover represents a powerful and feature-rich POS solution, ideally suited to a range of industries. However, there’s no free plan for smaller companies, and some of the costs for things like subscriptions and hardware can be expensive.

It’s also not the simplest solution on the market for beginners, which could mean you’d prefer to look at some alternatives. Some of the top alternatives to Clover include:

1. Square

One of the most highly recommended point of sale systems for small businesses, Square POS is a flexible, cloud-based solution, which can adapt to suit a range of needs.

There are Square options for both retail and restaurant brands. Plus, the company offers access to a variety of hardware tools.

Square, like Clover, offers secure payment processing, with support for a wide range of popular payment methods. It also offers robust inventory management, customer engagement tools, and a built-in website builder, which you don’t get with Clover.

Square also sets itself apart with a free software subscription plan, and transparent, flat-rate payment processing costs.

Even the hardware offered by the company is extremely affordable, with some options starting at as little as $10.

2. Shopify POS

Although Shopify POS isn’t as advanced as Clover, particularly if you’re looking for a restaurant or food-service focused solution, it is an extremely powerful tool.

There are tons of built-in features within the platform, including inventory and order management tools.

Plus, with Shopify POS, you’ll have the opportunity to link a robust Shopify store with your brick-and-mortar location. If you’re thinking of running an ecommerce business, Shopify POS is probably the best option around.

Like Clover, Shopify POS doesn’t offer a free plan, but it is possible for businesses to get started with a relatively affordable Shopify ecommerce package, and the POS Lite service. There are also various flexible hardware options available, like the Shopify POS Go.

3. Zettle POS

If you don’t need all of the advanced bells and whistles offered by the Clover POS system, PayPal’s beginner-friendly Zettle solution could be a great choice.

This straightforward POS system combines online and in-person selling, and offers fantastic inventory and order management tools.

Zettle can securely process all kinds of payments, and comes with built-in reports and analytics to help you accelerate your growth.

It can also integrate seamlessly with your marketing tools, ERP systems, accounting apps, and other software.

Zettle offers a free plan for beginners, though the payment processing fees are a little more expensive than you’d expect from Clover.

Additionally, there are basic hardware options to choose from, though nothing as advanced as what’s on offer from Clover.