Lifetime licence or subscription: the real five-year cost of a POS system

Two ways to pay for your POS system

POS software is paid for in one of two ways: as a lifetime licence, paid once, or on subscription, paid every month for as long as it is used. Both models exist on the market. This guide compares their cost over five years, using ZP Suite's public prices for the licence and a generic, costed example for the subscription.

At ZP Suite, every POS licence is paid once, in CHF excluding VAT (excl. VAT), as shown on the Pricing page. POZTEK Cloud, the suite's cloud back office, will be offered on subscription: it is the only part of the suite that follows this model.

ZP Suite's public prices, as a lifetime licence

Each licence is a fixed amount, paid once, per till or device, in CHF excl. VAT:

• ZP POS: CHF 590 per till
• Till options (stock management and labelling, customers and loyalty, variant management): CHF 390 each, per till
• ZP selfCheckout: CHF 590 per kiosk, same options available
• ZP mobileOrder: CHF 490 per device
• ZP kDisplay: CHF 390 per screen
• kCallScreen: CHF 190 per call screen
• ZP Stock: CHF 490 per terminal

These amounts are ZP Suite's public prices, published on the Pricing page. Hardware, such as the touchscreen till, the receipt printer or the payment terminal, and installation by an authorised reseller, are not included in these amounts: they are separate items, to be requested in your reseller's quote.

Working out the cost of a typical installation

Take a shop with two tills, with the stock management and labelling option on each. The sum is simple and checkable:

2 × (590 + 390) = CHF 1,960 excl. VAT, one-off.

This amount covers the licence for the two ZP POS tills and their stock and labelling option. It covers neither the hardware nor installation by your reseller: these are separate items, to be requested in the quote.

Another example, for a restaurant with three ZP POS tills and no additional option: 3 × 590 = CHF 1,770 excl. VAT, one-off.

Over five years, an amount that no longer moves

Once paid, a lifetime licence is not paid again. Over five years, the two-till shop in our example will therefore have spent CHF 1,960 excl. VAT on the software for its two tills, regardless of how long it keeps using it beyond those five years.

A subscription, as a hypothesis

ZP Suite does not sell a subscription for ZP POS: this section is a calculation exercise, not a comparison with a competitor, and not a price announced by any provider. It exists solely to show what a hypothetical monthly subscription for the whole shop in our example, both tills included, would come to over the same five-year period, that is, 60 months.

Even the lowest assumption in this table, CHF 50 per month, comfortably exceeds the cost of our example's lifetime licence, CHF 1,960 excl. VAT, after five years. These three amounts are calculation assumptions, built for this guide, not the prices displayed by any market provider.

What this calculation does not include

Neither the lifetime licence nor the subscription example above includes hardware: touchscreen till, printer, payment terminal, tablet or kiosk. Nor do they include installation and set-up by an authorised reseller. These items are added on top of either model, licence or subscription, and are requested in your reseller's quote.

POZTEK Cloud: the only part of ZP Suite sold on subscription

The whole POS system, ZP POS and its modules, is sold as a lifetime licence at ZP Suite. POZTEK Cloud, the back office that centralises figures, catalogue and reports for one or more sites, will be offered on subscription: a choice consistent with how it works, hosted and continuously updated. Its price is not yet public.

The point at which the licence becomes cheaper than the subscription

With a lifetime licence, the amount paid once no longer moves, whatever the length of use. With a subscription, each month adds to the last, and the total keeps climbing beyond five years for as long as the till is in use. In our two-till shop example, the CHF 1,960 excl. VAT licence is overtaken by the lowest subscription assumption in the table, CHF 50 per month for the whole shop, at month 40: 39 months add up to CHF 1,950, still under the licence price, and month 40 brings the total to CHF 2,000. Past that point, every extra month of subscription adds to an amount already settled for the licence.

This reasoning says nothing about what any given market subscription actually includes: maintenance, updates, hosting or support may be included, or billed separately. That is a question to ask every provider, licence or subscription, before comparing two offers.

A calculation to redo for your business

The calculation above is based on a two-till shop. Yours might have a single till, or several, with or without the stock, loyalty or variant options. The principle stays the same: add up the price per till and the number of tills at your business to get your amount in CHF excl. VAT. An authorised reseller can then add hardware and installation, for a complete quote, costed for your shop or restaurant.

The subscription amounts in this guide are calculation assumptions, not the prices of any market provider.