Hotchows POS Software Is Free for Your First Year
— Bring Your Own Processor

Here's the short version: Hotchows POS software is free for your entire first year. Card processing is separate: bring your own processor, pay that provider directly, and avoid processor lock-in.

For a full twelve months, you get the Hotchows POS software platform without paying Hotchows a software subscription fee. When you are ready to take cards, connect your selected processor and pay that processor directly for merchant setup, readers, transaction fees, interchange, chargebacks, processor fees, and bank fees.

Everything the POS software includes for 12 months

Your free first year isn't a stripped-down trial. It's the full Hotchows POS, with nothing held back behind a paywall:

• Point of sale on any phone, tablet, or computer — no proprietary hardware
• In-store and online card-payment workflows when you connect your own processor
• Kitchen display system, table management, and open tabs
• Inventory tracking with low-stock alerts
• Full double-entry bookkeeping — P&L, balance sheet, expenses, and invoicing
• An online ordering page and QR digital menus
• Team roles, permissions, and time tracking
• Loyalty & rewards and the multi-platform delivery hub

Bring your own processor and your own reader

Hotchows has always been a "bring your own processor" platform, and that hasn't changed. The free first year covers the Hotchows POS software — it does not replace or pay for a merchant account.

You connect your own processor — Helcim, Stripe, Square, or Fiserv — and supply your own card-reader hardware (a Helcim card reader, for example, is a $99 one-time purchase). Card-processing and transaction fees are paid directly to your processor at their published rates. We never mark up your processing, and we never sit between you and your money. Keep the rates you already negotiated; keep the hardware you already own.

This is the opposite of processor-locked models where the processor is mandatory. With Hotchows you choose the processor, you keep the relationship, and for the first year you do not pay us for the POS software.

Who this is for

This is built for independent restaurants, cafes, food trucks, and retail shops that:

• Want to test a full POS + bookkeeping stack with zero upfront cost
• Already have, or want to choose, their own payment processor
• Are tired of per-swipe markups and locked-in hardware
• Need card acceptance through a processor they choose and pay directly

If you're switching from Square, Toast, Clover, or a discontinued system like QuickBooks POS, you can import your catalog by CSV and run Hotchows alongside your current setup while your team gets comfortable.

What happens after 12 months

Nothing auto-charges at the end of your free year. When the twelve months are up, you can:

There's no contract and no cancellation fee. You decide when — or whether — to start paying for Hotchows POS software. Processing and transaction fees always go directly to your own processor, in year one and beyond.

How to start

Create your account at pos.hotchows.com/register. No credit card is required to sign up. Add your business details, import or build your menu, connect your processor when you're ready to take cards, and start selling — usually in under 30 minutes.

FAQ