If your POS has a customer-display app, a spare tablet facing the customer is the cheapest and best option. Loyverse, Shopify POS and Lightspeed all offer one. Pole displays, the little two-line screens on a stick, still sell, but none of the systems we cover uses them.
What a customer display does
It shows the customer what you're ringing up, as you ring it up. That means fewer "sorry, I said oat milk" moments at the EFTPOS terminal, and a clear total before anyone taps a card. Modern displays go further: Loyverse's shows the change due and loyalty points, and Lightspeed's restaurant display shows an order number in takeaway mode, "so that guests can be sure they are paying for the right order".
Which POS systems have one
| POS | Customer display option |
|---|---|
| Loyverse | Free Customer Display System app, "included with every Loyverse POS account". Runs on iOS or Android, and you can pair an iOS POS with an Android display or the other way round. Shows items, modifiers, discounts, taxes, total, change and loyalty points; customers can enter an email for a digital receipt. |
| Shopify POS | Customer View app on an Android tablet (Android 8.0 or later, 7-inch screen or larger, Google Play). Shows line items, customer name, discounts, taxes and totals. Doesn't support signatures. Or the POS Terminal ($509.00 in Shopify's NZ store, GST not stated), which works as a customer display and payment terminal in one. |
| Lightspeed | Restaurant: a customer facing display on "a branded iPad screen" showing the order, subtotal and total. Retail (X-Series): a secondary iPad running the Lightspeed Display app. |
| Hike | Hike CounterTop has a built-in customer display ($1,109 AUD on its NZ page: Australian dollars, so ask for the NZ price); a separate customer display is also sold as an accessory (no price shown). |
| Lazygrid | No customer display listed on its hardware page. |
| Bustle | No customer display in its hardware list. |
| Tabin | No customer display mentioned on its POS page. |
For the last three, "not listed" isn't the same as "impossible": ask the vendor before you rule it out.
Read our Loyverse review · Read our Shopify POS review · Read our Lightspeed review · Read our Hike review
Tablet app vs built-in screen vs pole display
Tablet app. Cheapest if you have an old tablet in a drawer. It needs to be on the same network as your POS: Shopify pairs Customer View "through your local network" (Wi-Fi or Ethernet), and Loyverse needs both devices on the same Wi-Fi. A plus for Loyverse: its display "works offline as long as both POS and CDS are connected to the same local Wi-Fi network". Shopify notes both apps need to stay running in the foreground, so stop the tablet from going to sleep.
Built-in screen. All-in-one units such as Hike's CounterTop have the customer screen built in, so there's nothing to pair. Shopify's POS Terminal does a similar job: the POS Go device sits in a dock and shows the cart to the customer, then takes the payment. (Shopify no longer sells the POS Go on its own.)
Pole display. A dedicated text display on a pole. Epos Now's NZ store sells one at $179 + GST ($205.85 incl. GST), but it only works with Epos Now's own Pro-C15S/W terminal, which shows how tied these are to specific hardware. Epos Now isn't one of the systems we cover; we mention it only as an NZ price point.
Pole displays: what the old ones did
This page used to be a pole display buying guide, and the basics haven't changed much. A classic pole display showed the item and price as each one was scanned, typically "2 rows of text message and 20 characters per row". It connected by serial or USB (some through the receipt printer), used a command set ("emulation") that had to match your software, and came pole-mounted or counter-mounted.
In 2026, if your POS runs on an iPad or Android tablet, a pole display is rarely the right tool: none of the seven systems we cover describes one as a pole display. Hike sells a separate "Customer Display" accessory, but its hardware page doesn't say what type it is, so ask Hike if that matters to you. A second tablet does more, costs less if you already own one, and shows the full order.
For the device running the POS itself, see POS computers. For Windows setups with a separate screen, see touch screen monitors. Running a stall or food truck? Our mobile POS guide covers handheld options.