A free POS system, hardware and switch included

It is free. Esplanda POS has no monthly software fee, no per-terminal fee, no setup fee, no contract and no per-user fees. The register, the catalog, reports, loyalty and gift cards, purchasing and invoice capture, forecasting, the owner brief and email and chat support all cost $0. Paid tools are separate, each priced on its own, and you add one only when you want it.

The business model is in plain view. Esplanda earns from optional card processing, resold for First American Payment Systems, and from the paid tools a store chooses to add. The register is free either way, and every software price is the same on the processor you already have. The one thing that follows processing is free hardware: hardware is cash Esplanda cannot get back, so it is free only when your processing with Esplanda clears our threshold.

Yes, when you process card payments with Esplanda and your projected processing clears our threshold, worked out once when you sign up. Then the hardware set for your kind of store and its freight are free, up to about $3,455 a location, and above that cap you pay the difference. Below the threshold, or on another processor, you buy the same hardware at list price, bought once and never leased, and we show you the sums first: a Volcora terminal is $739 to $1,099 and a cash drawer starts at $39.95. You can also run the register on hardware you already own. The migration and 30 days of parallel running are free either way.

Migration is free: products, customers, sales history, purchase orders and suppliers come across from your old system. Then your old register keeps running alongside Esplanda for 30 days, and the two are compared every night, so there is no cutover day and your staff learn the new register before the old one goes.

No. Payments are optional: Esplanda POS runs on the processor you already have, at the same $0. Processing with Esplanda makes extra locations $0 instead of $49 a month each and phone support $0 instead of $129 a month, and it is what makes the hardware free: below our processing threshold you buy hardware at list price, with the sums shown to you first. If processing moves elsewhere, phone support and the location charge return at the next billing date, with 30 days' notice.

Rates start at 2.79% + $0.10 in person and 2.89% + $0.30 online. Esplanda processes card payments as a reseller for First American Payment Systems, a Deluxe company, which approves, funds and owns your merchant account. Your rate is set when First American approves your account, from your current statement.

It is built for independent stores that sell at a counter: liquor and wine, grocery and convenience, cafés, delis and bakeries, hardware and general retail. Deposits, case breaks, mix-and-match and ID scans are built in, and the register keeps ringing sales when the internet drops. Service businesses use it to take payment against a booking and keep it on the customer's record.

You keep it. You can export all of your data at any time: products, customers, sales, purchase orders and suppliers. There is no contract and no early termination fee.