No server, no backups
Cloud POS: one copy of the truth, reachable from anywhere
The old arrangement was a machine in the back office running the shop's database, with tills talking to it over the local network. It worked, and the reasons it stopped being the default are unglamorous: somebody had to back it up, somebody had to update it, and if it failed on a Saturday the shop stopped.
Cloud POS moves that machine to the vendor's infrastructure. The practical consequences are what matter: there is exactly one copy of your data, everyone with permission sees it from anywhere, updates arrive without a visit, and the backup is somebody's full-time job rather than a task you remember quarterly.
The obvious objection — what happens when the internet goes down — is the right question to ask, and the honest answer is that a cloud POS worth buying keeps selling without one.
What you get
What this gives you
Nothing to install or maintain
No server, no local database, no version to upgrade. A new till is a device that signs in, and it is immediately running the same software as every other.
Your numbers from anywhere
Today's takings from home, a branch's stock from another city, the month's margins on a phone. The alternative was being physically present or not knowing.
Offline mode as the safety net
The counter keeps selling, printing and reserving stock with no connection, then reconciles. Cloud storage without offline selling is the arrangement to avoid.
Backups you do not have to think about
Continuous, off-site, and not dependent on anyone remembering. The most common catastrophic data loss in retail is a back-office machine that failed with a backup nobody had tested.
Multiple locations without multiple installations
A branch is a configuration, not a deployment. There is no per-site server, no per-site upgrade schedule and no per-site thing to go wrong.
Security that is maintained
Patching, certificates and access control are handled continuously rather than whenever someone gets round to it — which is the realistic comparison, not an idealised on-premise setup.
The internet question, answered honestly
A cloud system does depend on connectivity for anything that is genuinely remote, and pretending otherwise would be dishonest. What a well-built one does is narrow that dependency to the things that are inherently online, and make everything else work locally.
Selling is not inherently online. Looking up a price, scanning an item, ringing up a basket, taking cash, printing a receipt and reserving stock can all happen on the device. sell.ke does exactly that, holds the transactions locally, and reconciles them when the connection returns.
What genuinely requires a live link: authorising a card or mobile-money payment, because the money moves through somebody else's network; submitting an invoice to a tax authority; and the storefront, which is on the internet by definition. Cash sales, card terminals that authorise independently, and the whole of your stock and reporting continue regardless.
The thing to check when comparing products is not whether the marketing says 'works offline' but what specifically works. Some products queue sales but cannot look up a price or a stock figure without a connection, which means the till technically runs and practically does not.
Cloud versus on-premise, fairly
On-premise still has real advantages in specific situations. If your connectivity is genuinely unreliable rather than occasionally poor, local-first is a different risk profile. If you are in a regulated environment that requires data residency you cannot get from a vendor, that is a constraint rather than a preference. And a paid-for licence has no monthly cost, which matters to some businesses' cash flow.
What it costs you is everything that is now your responsibility: the server, its replacement cycle, backups and their testing, updates and their compatibility, remote access if you want it, and the security posture of a machine in a back room that nobody thinks about. For most independent retailers these are costs paid in risk rather than in money, which is why they are easy to underestimate until the day they arrive all at once.
- Ask exactly what works offline — price lookup and stock, or only queued sales
- Ask how long the device can stay offline before it stops
- Ask what happens to a conflict discovered at reconciliation
- Ask where data is stored and how you export it
- Ask what a new till costs to bring online
What cloud makes possible that on-premise did not
Seeing several locations in one view without a nightly consolidation job. Adding a till in ten minutes because it is a sign-in rather than an installation. Working from anywhere, which turned out to matter to owners far more than anyone predicted.
And the quiet one: the software improving without you doing anything. An on-premise system tends to sit at the version it was installed at, because upgrading is a project with a risk attached. A cloud system is on the current version by default, which over several years is a very large difference in what the business is actually running.
Questions
Cloud POS — questions
What is a cloud POS system?
Point of sale software whose data lives on the vendor's servers and is reached over the internet, rather than on a machine in your back office. In practice it means no installation, no backups to run, updates that arrive on their own, and access to your numbers from anywhere — with offline mode covering the counter when the connection drops.
Is a cloud POS safe?
The comparison that matters is not cloud versus a perfectly maintained local server, it is cloud versus the back-office machine that actually exists — typically unpatched, with an untested backup, in a room anyone can walk into. Against that, continuous patching, off-site backups and role-based access are a substantial improvement. Ask any vendor where data is stored, how it is encrypted and how you export it.
What happens if the internet goes down?
The counter keeps selling. Price lookup, stock, baskets, cash payments, receipt printing and stock reservation all work on the device, and the transactions reconcile when connectivity returns. Card and mobile-money authorisation, tax-authority submission and the online storefront need a live link, because those involve someone else's network.
Do I need a fast internet connection?
No — a modest, reasonably stable connection is enough, because the system moves small amounts of data rather than streaming anything. Stability matters more than speed, and offline mode is what covers the gaps in it.
Can I see my shop's sales from home?
Yes, from any browser or the Android app, subject to your own role permissions. This is the change most owners notice first: the day's position stops being something you have to be in the building to know.
Does it keep working when the internet drops?
The counter does. Offline mode keeps taking sales, printing receipts and reserving stock while the connection is down, then reconciles everything when it returns — so a bad afternoon costs you connectivity, not revenue or a gap in the record. The parts that are inherently online stay online: card and mobile-money authorisation, tax-authority submission, and the storefront itself all need a live link.
Can I run more than one location?
Yes, from the Basic plan up. Locations share one product catalogue but hold their own stock, so moving goods between them is a recorded transfer rather than a re-count at both ends. Reports run per location or across all of them, and staff permissions are set per location — a branch supervisor does not need to see another branch's margins.
What happens to my data if I leave?
You export it. Products, customers, suppliers, stock movements and transactions are all exportable, and the accounting side produces standard statements rather than a proprietary format. We would rather you stayed because moving is not worth it than because moving is not possible — a business whose records are hostage is a business that resents its software.
How much does sell.ke cost?
Plans run from USD 12/month for a single-location till to USD 115/month for unlimited scale, with the online store on your own domain included from USD 23/month. In Kenya the same plans are KES 1,499 to KES 14,999/month, billed in shillings. Every plan starts with a 14-day trial and no card, and there is no per-terminal licence and no commission on your sales. There is no hardware to buy either — sell.ke runs on a phone, tablet or laptop you already own.
Read next
The other pages that answer the question you are probably about to ask.
POS systems explained
What a point of sale system is, what it replaces, and how to choose one.
Mobile POS
A full till on a phone or tablet — on the shop floor, at a market, on a round.
Multi-location inventory
Per-location stock, recorded transfers, and reports that split or combine.
Inventory management software
Stock that updates itself as it moves, instead of a spreadsheet you maintain.
Best POS for a small business
How to judge one honestly, and the trap that catches most first-time buyers.
Omnichannel retail management
Every channel drawing on one inventory, one customer record and one ledger.
Go deeper on a feature
Selling at the counter
Split payments, held orders, manager-gated discounts and a drawer count that reconciles.
Branches, staff and control
Shared catalogue, separate stock, transfers that are movements, and permissions per branch.
Reports and real accounting
Double-entry books — trial balance, P&L, balance sheet — not a CSV export to somebody else's software.
Try it on your own products
Fourteen days, no card. Import your product list or let Amina build it from a photo of your price list, and run it alongside whatever you use now.