Payment UpdateWeek of Sep 28
SumUp's new $49 POS Plus. Free POS is free until the shop gets busy
TL;DR
SumUp launched POS Plus in the US on September 23. It is free for 30 days, then $49 a month, and it holds the features a busy cafe needs. Processing stays at 2.6% plus 10 cents. Here is how to price the shop you will be in a year, not the one you open with.
What happened
On September 23, 2026, SumUp launched POS Plus for US restaurants and cafes. The tier is free for the first 30 days and $49 a month after that. It sits between SumUp's free POS and the full SumUp POS, which starts at $99 a month.
The features in the paid tier are the ones a shop needs once it stops being a one-register operation: floor plans with table management, employee PINs with role-based access, multi-printer support, cost of goods tracking, order transfer between devices, barcode scanning, and direct integrations with QuickBooks and Xero. SumUp says it is built for coffee shops, quick-service restaurants and simple full-service concepts.
Processing did not change. SumUp's US pricing page lists 2.6% plus 10 cents in person and 3.5% plus 15 cents for online or manually entered payments, on every tier.
What it means for you
Say you opened a cafe on the free tier. The day you add a second register and want staff logins, you move to Plus. That is $588 a year, and the card rate does not drop to make room for it.
This is the pattern across the market now, not just SumUp. Entry is free or close to it, then a subscription starts once operations get real. The features placed behind the paywall are not luxuries. Floor plans, staff permissions and accounting sync are what a shop needs by month six.
What to do
Before you sign with any POS, write down what you will need six months in: staff permissions, a second device, kitchen printers, accounting sync, a loyalty tool. Find which tier each one lives in. Add that tier's monthly fee to the processing rate on your real volume and compare vendors on the full first year, not the first month.
Then ask two questions in writing. Does the processing rate change when I upgrade or downgrade a tier? And is the hardware mine if I leave?
Questions owners ask
Is SumUp's free plan still free?
Yes. The $0 tier remains. The point is which features moved into the $49 tier.
Does the card rate change on POS Plus?
No. The published rates are the same on every tier: 2.6% plus 10 cents in person, 3.5% plus 15 cents online.
Is $49 a month a lot?
It is $588 a year. On $500,000 a year in card sales, that is the same money as about 12 basis points of rate. Compare it that way.
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