Start from the limit, not the feature list
Every tool below has a free or cheap tier, and every one of them is limited somewhere. The useful question is not which has the longest feature list — it is which limit you will hit first, because that is the one that will make you migrate a year from now.
The limits that actually bite, roughly in the order shops encounter them:
- Staff accounts. Many free tiers include exactly one user. The moment you hire, you are on a paid plan, and shared logins destroy every accountability report in the system.
- Locations. Single-location free tiers are the norm. A second shop is usually a significant price step, not a small one.
- Offline capability. Not negotiable in Nigeria, and the most misrepresented item on any feature list.
- Reporting depth. Free tiers frequently show you totals but not margins, which is the number you actually needed.
- Data export. Rarely mentioned until you want to leave.
Everything below is organised around those.
Square — strong where cards dominate
Square built its reputation on hardware and an unusually easy interface. The basic POS carries no monthly fee; the business model is a percentage of card transactions.
Where it wins: ease of setup, a mature ecosystem, and a genuinely good online store integration if card payments are most of your revenue.
What to check: the deeper inventory features sit in a paid retail tier rather than the free POS, so compare on the plan you would actually need, not the free one. More importantly for readers here, availability in Nigeria is the first thing to confirm — Square's supported-country list is short, and a tool you cannot legally onboard to is not a shortlist candidate regardless of quality. We cover that specifically in Square POS availability in Nigeria.
The percentage-of-transaction model is also worth arithmetic rather than instinct. It is cheaper than a fixed fee at low volume and more expensive above a crossover point that depends on your turnover and card mix. Calculate yours.
Loyverse — the most generous free tier
Loyverse has a devoted following among small cafés, bars and counter retail, and the reason is straightforward: the free plan is unusually complete for a free plan.
Where it wins: free POS with loyalty built in, works well on cheap Android hardware, and multi-store management is not immediately paywalled.
What to check: the model is free core plus paid add-on modules, so the features you eventually want — deeper employee management, advanced inventory — arrive as separate line items. Owners who start free and add three modules can end up paying more than a flat-rate competitor. Price the configuration you expect to need in a year, not the one you need this week.
Zoho Inventory — for multi-channel selling, not a busy counter
If you are an e-commerce brand selling across marketplaces and your own site, Zoho is a serious tool with serious multi-channel syncing and shipping management.
Where it wins: order and shipment management across channels; a well-built free tier for low monthly order volumes.
What to check: complexity and fit. This is not a plug-and-play POS for someone standing at a counter with a queue forming — setup takes real time, and the free tier's order cap is easy to exceed. There is a fuller assessment in our Zoho Inventory review for Nigerian businesses.
Sortly — an asset tracker, not a selling tool
Sortly is genuinely good at what it does, and what it does is not retail.
Where it wins: visual, photo-led tracking of equipment, tools and high-value items. Excellent for a construction firm's tools or a studio's equipment.
What to check: the free item limit is low, and there is no meaningful selling workflow. If your "inventory" is things you own rather than things you sell, look here. If you are ringing up customers, look elsewhere.
Zeneva — built for the Nigerian counter
We make this one, so treat the section as a statement of intent rather than an impartial review, and check the comparison table against the vendors' own pages.
Where it is aimed: offline-first selling so the counter keeps working through outages, naira pricing without a currency conversion, bank-transfer reconciliation at the till, multi-branch stock with transfers, batch and expiry tracking for pharmacies and supermarkets, and audit logs that record who did what. The free tier covers one user with no trial clock.
What it is not: the strongest social-commerce storefront in this market — that is a fair characterisation of Bumpa, which we set out honestly in the Zeneva vs Bumpa comparison. If your orders mostly arrive as Instagram DMs, that is a different shape of problem to the one we optimise for.
How the free tiers actually differ
| What free includes | First limit you hit | Offline selling | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Square | POS, no monthly fee | Retail inventory features are paid | Limited; verify in your market |
| Loyverse | POS + loyalty | Add-on modules for depth | Yes |
| Zoho Inventory | Low monthly order cap | Order volume | No |
| Sortly | Small item count | Item count | Yes |
| Zeneva | One user, full POS | Staff accounts | Yes |
Free-tier limits change several times a year. Confirm against the vendor's own pricing page before you commit — including ours.
Choosing in four questions
Skip the feature comparison and answer these instead.
- Can you legally sign up in your country? Eliminates more shortlists than anything else, and people discover it after investing hours.
- Does it sell offline — tested, not claimed? Turn data off, complete a sale, close the app, reopen. If it fails, nothing else about the tool matters here.
- What does it cost with the staff accounts you will need in twelve months? Not today's headcount. Free-for-one-user is a different product to what you will be paying for after one hire.
- Can you export your own sales history to CSV without asking support? Ask now. The answer is frequently no, and sales history is the part you cannot rebuild.
If a tool passes all four, the remaining differences are matters of taste and you should pick the one your counter staff prefer after ringing up ten sales on it.
The part no comparison table captures
The best software is the one that is still being used in month six.
The systems that get abandoned are rarely abandoned on features. They are abandoned because the catalogue was never finished, because staff found the counter flow slower than the notebook, or because nobody set up per-person logins so no report ever told anyone anything useful.
That means the setup work matters more than the choice between two reasonable tools. Load your fast movers first rather than trying to complete the catalogue before you start, enter cost prices from invoices at intake, and give each person their own login on day one. Our getting started guide walks through the order, and signs you need a new POS covers the opposite question — whether the problem is your software at all.
Zeneva's free plan has no trial clock and no card requirement if you want to test the offline behaviour for yourself.
Inventory and POS Software Compared (2026)
| Software | Best for | Free plan | Offline selling | Online store |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zeneva | Nigerian retail, multi-branch | Yes — 1 user, no trial clock | Yes, full | Built in |
| Square | Card-heavy retail, supported markets | Yes — POS, no monthly fee | Limited; verify locally | Yes (Square Online) |
| Loyverse | Cafés, bars, small counters | Yes — generous | Yes | Limited |
| Zoho Inventory | Multi-channel e-commerce | Yes — order cap applies | No | Strong integrations |
| Sortly | Equipment and asset tracking | Yes — low item cap | Yes | No |
Operational FAQ
Continue reading
All articlesZeneva vs Bumpa: An Honest Comparison for Nigerian Retailers
Both tools sell offline and sync when the network returns. The real differences are billing cadence, staff seats, and how deep the stock control goes. Verified pricing, August 2026.
Can You Use Square POS in Nigeria? The Direct Answer
Square operates in eight countries and Nigeria is not one of them — nor is anywhere else in Africa. Here is why, what actually happens if you try, and what to evaluate instead.
Zoho Inventory in Nigeria: Where It Fits, Where It Breaks
Zoho is a genuinely capable inventory suite that bills in USD and meters your orders per month. For a busy Nigerian counter, those two facts decide everything. Verified pricing, August 2026.
Run this on Zeneva
Stock, sales, staff and receipts in one place — on the shop PC, on your phone, and offline when the network drops. Start free and move up only when the shop outgrows the caps.
Starter
Free forever
50 products, 1 user, 20 Zen AI questions a day. No trial clock, no card.
Pro
Most picked₦10,000 / $10 a month
1,500 products, 5 staff accounts, 100 Zen AI questions a day.
Business
₦30,000 / $30 a month
Unlimited products, unlimited staff, 500 Zen AI questions a day.