What are the major families of POS (point-of-sale) terminals?

 There are three kinds of POS terminals (Point-of-Sale terminals):

• Modular POS terminal. This kind of terminal can be adapted to work in any point of sale, and does consist of a main unit to which several peripherals can be connected. Just like a PC, it has an open architecture with extensive setting possibilities, so that the point-of-sale (POS) system can be set up in order to meet any needs perfectly.
• Semi-integrated POS terminal. Also called Retail PC, it is bigger in size than a modular POS terminal. Some models also include a built-in printer.
• Integrated POS terminal. Less bulky but also more expensive, this type of terminal comes as a single unit, with built-in main unit and display. Many peripherals can be added: programmable keyboard, swipe card readers... 

Please note that it is also possible to categorise POS terminals according to other criteria: whether or not they have a touchscreen display, whether or not they can they be connected to a cloud computing system, and what operating system to they use (Windows, Linux, Macintosh...).

To learn more about point-of-sale terminals, read the article in our guide about POS terminal models.