Why One Till Is £695, And Another Is Free

You've spoken to two EPOS suppliers.

The first was a conventional till company. They quoted £695 for a dedicated commercial EPOS terminal. They explained the specification, the warranty, and why the equipment was suitable for a busy hospitality environment like yours. They may also have quoted separately for the software, installation and support.

They did not ask to process your card payments.

The next day, you meet another provider. They show you what appears to be a similar touchscreen till, a receipt printer, a card machine. This time the hardware is described as free. Or the complete package is offered for £199, £299, £399...

Naturally, you start to wonder whether the first company was trying to overcharge you. Has the second one found a way to buy EPOS equipment for a fraction of its normal cost?

No. The touchscreen, the printer, the card machine, they all have a real cost. The difference is the business model.

The conventional till company needs to recover the cost of the equipment, plus a reasonable profit, when it sells the system to you. The payments-led provider can afford to make very little on the hardware, or none at all, because the real opportunity for them isn't selling you a till. It's processing every card payment your business takes from here on. It may then add further value by selling you software on top.

That doesn't automatically make the free offer a bad one. A combined EPOS and payments package can mean one relationship and one provider responsible when something goes wrong. But the hardware was never free. The provider has simply decided its cost is worth paying to win a much more valuable, long-term payments customer.

Follow the £600 terminal

A suitable commercial EPOS terminal commonly sells for somewhere between £395 and £695, depending on specification: processing power, screen quality, warranty, resistance to water and dust, whether it includes staff sign-on, a printer, a customer display etc. This is equipment built for long hours in a demanding environment, not a consumer tablet on a stand. An iPad might do the job for some businesses, but Apple doesn't give iPads to EPOS providers for nothing either.

A conventional EPOS company buys that equipment and sells it on, often at a gross margin of somewhere around 20-30%. That margin pays for configuration, installation, support, warranty admin, and a reasonable profit.

A payments-led provider treats the same hardware differently. If subsidising a £600 terminal helps secure a customer who'll process hundreds of thousands of pounds in card payments a year, that subsidy is a very good investment for them. The terminal hasn't become free. It's become the cost of acquiring you.

Epos Now is a clear example

At the time of writing, Epos Now advertises its Complete Solution from £299 plus VAT, reduced from a stated £849. Set against a £695 quote from a conventional till company, that looks like a different order of magnitude.

But the discounted price requires a 12-month payments, care and support subscription starting at £54 a month. The lower hardware price isn't a standalone offer, it's tied to the software, support and payments relationship. Epos Now's published terms go further: the payments-linked proposition requires customers to process either at least 75% of transactions or a minimum of £2,000 through Epos Now Payments in every rolling 28-day period. Fall short, and the customer can be moved to a different pricing structure.

The terminal hasn't got any cheaper to manufacture. What's changed is the expected value of your card processing.

The ownership question nobody asks

Before you compare a single price, ask who owns the equipment. It could be sold outright, loaned, rented, financed, or supplied as Hardware as a Service. You can make payments on a till for years and still have to hand it back. Ask whether ownership transfers, whether it must be returned, and what becomes payable if you leave early.

Before you sign, ask this;

Why can this provider offer the hardware for hundreds of pounds less than the till company I spoke to yesterday? Where will that cost be recovered? Do we own the equipment?

A provider offering genuine value should be able to answer all three clearly, and in writing.

Already comparing quotes?

Bring us what you've been offered and we'll go through it, line by line, no charge, no catch. If another provider's proposal genuinely suits you better, we'll say so.

Fact-checking notes

Prices and provider terms were reviewed on 23 July 2026 and may change. Businesses should always review the quotation, order form and contractual documents applying to their own purchase.

1. Epos Now currently advertises its Complete Solution from £299 plus VAT, reduced from a stated price of £849. View source

2. Epos Now’s published terms describe the required payments, care and support subscription, the 75 per cent or £2,000 rolling 28-day processing condition, movement between propositions and its hardware-ownership arrangements. View source