The main form factors
Everything on the market is a variation of these.
- Full station: large screen, printer, cash drawer — high-volume counters
- Compact terminal: small footprint, built-in printer — tight spaces
- Handheld: battery-powered, mobile — tableside, floor, field
- Kiosk: customer-facing self-order — lines and upsells
- Reader only: phone or tablet paired — markets, pop-ups, low volume
Peripherals worth buying
A barcode scanner if you have more than a few dozen SKUs. A cash drawer if you take cash. A kitchen printer or display if food goes to a back-of-house station. Everything else is optional.
How many devices
Count your simultaneous checkout points at peak, not on average. One station and two handhelds beats three stations for most restaurants; two lanes beats one for most busy retail.
Buy for the environment
Kitchens are hot and greasy. Markets are outdoors. Trucks vibrate. Consumer tablets are cheaper up front and don't always survive. Factor replacement cycles into the comparison.
Purpose-built terminals vs. tablet stands
A dedicated POS terminal is built and rated for the job — commercial-grade touchscreen, sealed ports, a form factor designed to survive years of daily use. A tablet in a stand is often just a consumer iPad with an accessory clipped on. Both work; they wear differently.
Wired vs. wireless
Wired connections (ethernet) are the most reliable for a stationary station and worth using wherever a cable can reach. Wireless is necessary for handhelds and mobile setups but is more exposed to interference in a crowded space — plan your Wi-Fi coverage before install day, not after.
Redundancy for busy locations
If one register going down means a line out the door, a second device — even a basic backup terminal — pays for itself the first time it's needed. This is cheap insurance compared to lost sales during a peak hour.
What's included with Digital Harvest
We provide the hardware at no cost as part of setup — the equipment stays ours, and if you ever leave you simply return it. We help size the right combination of stations, handhelds and peripherals for your actual counter and peak traffic, not a generic package.