The Shopmate alternative,
for a symbol store.
Shopmate price by the week, so this page does too, and against their Booker terms rather than their general package — which is the only way the two are like for like. Their free hardware is real and it is the first thing on the page.
Looking for a Shopmate alternative
The two till systems side by side on weekly cost, the card rate, what each of us publishes and what the counter actually has to do — every figure taken from their own pages and dated.
Cost, by the week
Symbol store against symbol store.
Shopmate publish a Booker price list, and it is not the one on their main package page. It is a weekly service fee by lane, a thirty-six month contract, and the terminal free of charge because Booker fund it. Ours is the symbol licence from our pricing page. If you are already with them, check your own invoice against it — a published price and a billed price are not always the same number.
| epos-365SYMBOL LICENCE, PUBLISHED | ShopmateTHEIR PUBLISHED BOOKER OFFER, 14 SEPTEMBER 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| Service, a week1 till on one shop | £15.00£65 a month | £15.50£0.50 a week more than ours |
| Service, a week2 tills on one shop | £19.62£85 a month | £23.00£3.38 a week more than ours |
| Service, a week3 tills on one shop | £24.23£105 a month | £25.00£0.77 a week more than ours |
| HardwareWhat the terminal costs you | £399With our card processing. £899 with your own provider | £0Booker provide it free of charge on their offer, up to two systems |
| A third tillBeyond the two | £20 a monthThe same rate as the second | £999Per additional bundle, on their published Booker terms |
| ContractHow long you are committed for | Twelve monthsThirty-six on standard retail | 36 monthsOn their published Booker terms |
| Card rateOn every sale | 1% flatUK debit and credit, published on this site | Not publishedNo percentage on their Booker, pricing, payments or product pages |
Every Shopmate figure here is from shopmate.co.uk/booker-brp/, their published Booker terms, checked on 14 September 2026. Their general ShopMate360 package is priced differently and is not what a Booker symbol store is offered, so nothing from it is used above. We read that page, their Booker page and their ShopMate Pay page and searched their site for a card percentage, and did not find one — if they publish one we will put it here. Our figures are on our own pricing page. Shopmate and Booker are trade marks of their respective owners and are named here to describe what is being compared.
Where they beat us
On hardware, and it is not close. Booker fund the terminal on their offer, so a symbol store takes up to two systems for nothing where ours are £399 each, or £899 with your own card provider. Over a thirty-six month term that is several hundred pounds in their favour before anyone opens the till, and no amount of licence pricing from us closes it. If free hardware is what decides it, take theirs.
What it does not decide is the next three years. Our licence is lower than theirs at every lane count they publish, and the card rate is a bigger number than either. On a shop taking £12,000 a month, 1% is £1,440 a year and £4,320 over their thirty-six month term; half a point more than that is £2,160 on top — several times the hardware. It is the one figure their site does not carry. Get it in writing from both of us, then decide.
What the till does
The jobs a convenience counter actually has.
Every row on their side says what their website advertises on the date we checked it, not what their software can or cannot do — we can verify the first and not the second. If any of these matter to you, ask them directly.
| epos-365WHAT WE PUBLISH | ShopmateWHAT THEIR SITE ADVERTISES | |
|---|---|---|
| More than one cash-up a day | ✓Numbered sessions with their own float and their own name on the record | —Not advertised |
| Scratchcard and lottery packs | ✓Pack entry on the till, so the lines land in the same session take | —Not advertised |
| Age-restricted lines | ✓The sale stops until it is authorised, and the authorisation is recorded | —Not advertised |
| Weighed lines and open prices | ✓On the same screen as the barcodes, with no separate routine | —Not advertised |
| Trading with the broadband down | ✓The till keeps selling and catches up when the line comes back | —Not advertised |
| More than one shop | ✓One back office across all of them, central pricing pushed out from it | —Not advertised |
| Counter-service food | ✓Cafes, bakeries, chip shops, pizza shops and food trucks | —Not advertised — the site describes a retail system |
| Which price file is named | ✓We say which wholesaler file the system processes | —“Major UK wholesalers”, none named |
Checked against shopmate.co.uk/our-services/meet-shopmate/ on 14 September 2026, which is where they set out what the system does. Our side is on the till software and back office pages.
Check your own invoice.
If you are with Shopmate now, last month’s invoice is the only figure that matters and it is already in your email. Check the weekly rate on it against the price on their website, and check whether anything is billed as its own line. Bring it here with a month of card statements and we will tell you which of us is cheaper for your shop — including when it is them.
Been quoted less? Bring it to us.
If another supplier has quoted you a better deal, we would like the chance to match it — and we will tell you when we cannot. Two conditions, both in your favour: we want to see your shop first, and we want to show you the system first. There are things in it a shop your size would normally have to buy an enterprise licence to get, and a price you match blind is a price you never really compared.