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Shopways vs Qashier: An Honest POS Comparison for Singapore Cafés

12 Nov 2025 • 9 min read

Choosing a POS is one of the few software decisions a café makes that touches every single sale, every shift, for years. Switching later is painful, so it's worth getting right. If you're weighing up Shopways and Qashier, this guide compares them honestly across the things that actually matter to a small Singapore café — not just feature checklists.

First, how to compare any café POS

Before any brand names, judge a POS on five practical dimensions:

• Total cost — subscription plus hardware plus payment fees, not just the headline price.
• Speed at the counter — how many taps to ring up a flat white and take payment during a lunch rush.
• Staff learnability — can a new part-timer run it on day one without training?
• Local fit — PayNow, SGQR, GST, and Singapore support hours.
• Lock-in — are you tied to proprietary hardware, or can you walk away?

Keep these in mind as we go.

What each one actually is

Qashier is a broad, all-in-one platform built around its own smart payment terminal. It serves many industries — F&B, retail, salons, services — with a wide feature catalogue and integrated payments on Qashier hardware.

Shopways is deliberately narrower: a sleek iPad POS, a web admin, and a live web order board (KDS), built specifically for small F&B who want something that works on hardware they already own, without a thick manual.

Pricing

Shopways is one flat plan — S$88/month, or S$880/year (two months free) — with every feature included and no per-feature upsells. Qashier's pricing varies by plan and is generally bundled with its payment terminal and processing; the headline figure depends on the package and hardware you take. The honest point: with an all-in-one terminal model, more of your cost is tied to the hardware and payment rails; with an iPad model, you can often reuse what you have. Read our full iPad POS pricing guide for how to compare total cost properly.

Hardware

Shopways runs on a standard iPad and prints to common receipt printers (see our Epson printer setup guide). If you already have an iPad and a Bluetooth or LAN printer, you can start this week. Qashier centres on its own all-in-one device, which is neat and integrated but means buying into that hardware. For a small café watching cash flow, "use what you already own" is often the difference between starting now and putting it off.

Payments & PayNow

Both support PayNow, which is essential in Singapore. The difference is philosophy: Qashier wants payments to run through its terminal (convenient, one bill, but tied to their rates); Shopways keeps payments flexible — show the PayNow QR, accept what you already accept, and record it cleanly in the POS so your daily totals and GST stay correct.

Features that matter for a café

Support & onboarding

For a small café, onboarding is where most POS projects stall — entering the menu, setting categories, training staff. Shopways helps set up your menu and keeps support on email and WhatsApp. Qashier, being larger, has structured support across many verticals. Ask either vendor the same question: "Will you set up my menu for me, and how fast can I go live?"

So which should you pick?

• Choose Qashier if you want one vendor for everything — hardware, payments, and a deep feature catalogue across multiple business types — and you're happy to standardise on their terminal.
• Choose Shopways if you're a small café or F&B that wants a clean iPad POS, a live order board for the kitchen, one honest price, and the freedom to run on hardware you already own.

FAQ

Can I keep my current iPad and printer with Shopways? Usually yes — Shopways runs on a standard iPad and common receipt printers.

Do both support PayNow? Yes. The difference is how flexibly payments are handled — see our PayNow guide.

How long to go live? With your menu ready, a small café can typically be taking orders the same day.

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