A register built for fingers
The sales screen has been reworked for a touchscreen: an on-screen keypad, larger targets, and a numeric pad for weight and quantity. The underlying sale logic is untouched.
For OSPOS users
OSPOS, without the server
poSell runs Open Source Point of Sale for you. It is the same register, the same item list and the same reports you would get by installing it yourself. The difference is that the server, the database, the certificate, the backups and the updates are our problem instead of yours.
The honest arithmetic
What running it yourself really costs
We are not going to tell you a server is expensive. It is not. A virtual machine that runs PHP and MySQL without complaining costs about four dollars a month, and ours is one of them.
| Your own server | poSell | |
|---|---|---|
| Machine | About $4 to $8 a month | Included |
| Setting up Docker and MySQL | You | Done |
| TLS certificate and renewal | You remember it | Done |
| Daily backups | You arrange and test them | Included |
| OSPOS updates and migrations | You read the notes and run them | We apply them |
| When it breaks on a Saturday | You | Us |
| Second shop | Second server, second everything | $9, new subdomain, separate database |
| Monthly total | $4 to $8 plus your time | $9 |
So it is not cheaper. It is nine dollars and a Saturday you get back.
The server is the small number in that table. The large number is the evening you lose to a failed upgrade, or the morning the shop cannot ring up a sale because a certificate expired. If running servers is something you enjoy and are good at, self-hosting OSPOS is a perfectly sensible choice and the project is there for exactly that. Most shopkeepers are not in the server business.
The differences
What we changed, and what we left alone
Signup, licensing, billing
Creating a shop, verifying an email address and renewing a subscription are ours. None of it exists in plain OSPOS, because plain OSPOS is not a service.
Everything else, as it is
Items, item kits, receivings, suppliers, customers, gift cards, taxes, cashups and the whole reporting section are the project's own. We did not fork the product away from upstream.
Credit where it belongs
About the project this is built on
Open Source Point of Sale is a long-running open source project with its own maintainers and its own roadmap. poSell is an independent commercial service built on it under its licence. We are not affiliated with the project and we do not speak for it.
That licence asks for the project's signature to stay visible on every page of the software, and it does, inside every poSell store. The source is public, and nothing here is a secret: what you pay for is the part that is not in the repository, which is somebody keeping it running.
Questions
Questions from people already running OSPOS
Is poSell the same software as OSPOS?
Yes. poSell runs Open Source Point of Sale, the same project you would install yourself. The register, the item list and the reports are the ones you already know. What we add is the part around it: the server, the database, the TLS certificate, the backups and the updates.
What does self-hosting OSPOS actually cost?
The server itself is cheap. A virtual machine that runs PHP and MySQL comfortably is around four to eight dollars a month. What is not cheap is everything after that: getting it installed, getting a certificate and remembering to renew it, arranging backups and testing that they restore, applying updates without breaking the shop, and being the person who fixes it when it goes down on a Saturday afternoon. poSell is nine dollars a month with all of that included.
Can I move my existing OSPOS database to poSell?
Usually yes, because underneath it is the same software. It is not a button you press; we move your data into your new store by hand and check that it opens correctly. Write to [email protected] before you sign up and tell us which OSPOS version you are on.
Do I still get OSPOS updates?
You get them without doing anything. We track the upstream project and apply updates to every store. You never run a migration or read a release note unless you want to.
What have you changed compared with plain OSPOS?
Three things, mainly. Each shop is a separate store at its own address, kept apart from every other one. The register screen has been reworked for touch, with an on-screen keypad and a numeric pad for weight and quantity. And there is a signup and licensing layer that plain OSPOS does not have, because plain OSPOS assumes one installation for one shop.
Can I leave and take my data?
Yes. Ask and we send you a full export you can load into your own install. We do not hold it hostage and there is nothing locked to us.
Why should I trust a hosted version instead of running it myself?
If you enjoy running servers, run it yourself. It is good software and the project is open. Most shopkeepers are not in the server business, and the failure mode of a self-hosted till is that it stops working on the busiest day of the week, when the person who set it up is not available.
Is poSell affiliated with the OSPOS project?
No. poSell is an independent commercial service built on Open Source Point of Sale under its licence. The project keeps its own maintainers and its own roadmap, and its signature stays visible on every page of the software.
Ninety days, no card
If it does not beat your own install, you have lost nothing.