A till on its own, or a till that belongs to the whole business?

In short: classic till systems like Vectron, orderbird or Lightspeed are mature tills. They ring up sales reliably, they are tailored to hospitality or retail, and they have years of polish behind them. They just stop at the cash drawer. Accounting, inventory, the customer record and the online shop are separate programmes you have to connect and maintain. aYOUne flips that around. The till is one of many areas in the same product. A receipt becomes a posting straight away, a sale removes the item from stock, and the regular customer sits in the same record as your newsletter.

What a classic till system is, and what aYOUne is

A classic till system is built for one job: ringing up sales quickly and in line with the rules. Vendors like Vectron, orderbird or Lightspeed deliver a well-thought-out interface, table and item management, receipt printers and the matching till hardware. Whatever comes after that, the accounting, the inventory across several sites, customer care, the webshop, you handle with more programmes and interfaces.

aYOUne covers the same till, but does not stop there. A sale at the till becomes a posting, a stock movement and a line in the customer record within the same system. On top of that come areas a pure till simply does not have: bookkeeping, inventory management, purchasing, marketing, an online shop and its own line of devices with a till terminal, scanner and display. 28 business areas in one product instead of a till plus four neighbouring programmes.

Side by side

What the difference means day to day

With a classic till system the journey of a sale ends at the till. At month end you export the takings, feed them into accounting, reconcile stock in another programme and keep your regulars somewhere else. Every handover is an interface that has to work, and a place where the numbers drift apart.

With aYOUne the sale stays in the same system. Sell a pair of glasses at the till and it leaves stock automatically, the posting appears in accounting right away, and the customer is known for the next newsletter. Nobody types anything twice. To be fair: a specialised till system that has done this one thing for years often has more polish at the till itself, especially for demanding hospitality with table plans, bill splitting and particular receipt flows.

What the till systems cost

The prices come from the vendors' public listings, as of July 2026.

• Lightspeed: from 89 € per month (Basic), 159 € (Core), 249 € (Pro with click & collect and delivery); each extra till terminal around 49 € per month.
• Vectron: the Smart POSPOSPOS (Point of Sale) is the checkout where a sale is rung up and paid — in store or mobile. The aYOUne POS posts each sale straight into stock and accounting. 7 app plan from 39.90 € per month; the classic setup combines a software base fee of around 34.90 € with hardware rental of 24.90 to 39.90 €, so the real entry point is around 59.80 € per month.
• orderbird: orderbird PRO from 99.90 € per month (package S with one licence, 12-month term), 139.90 € (package M) and 169.90 € (package L); the small orderbird MINI from 29 € per month.

On top of that comes the till hardware, which market overviews put at a one-off 150 € (a tablet with a Bluetooth printer) to 2,500 € (a fully equipped till with a card terminal). (Sources: kassensystemevergleich.de, tradingtwins.com, public vendor prices, as of July 2026.)

aYOUne charges per module and per user, not per till. You pay for the areas you switch on, and you get the concrete figure tailored in a conversation. Our reasoning is on the pricing page.

When a classic till system is the better choice

If you need maximum depth at the till for a very particular hospitality or retail concept, if table management, bill splitting and industry-specific till flows are the main event, and accounting, inventory and customer care already run well elsewhere for you, then a specialised till system is a proven, mature choice.

When aYOUne is the better choice

If the till is only one part of your business and you would rather stop maintaining accounting, inventory, the customer record and the shop separately, if devices in the shop are part of it, or if you want to pass the software on under your own brand, then aYOUne is built for that, a pure till is not.