Free POS software in Uganda, with no expiry date
Stem’s Free plan is a plan, not a trial. It costs nothing, it does not expire, and it does not ask for a card. One person gets offline selling, the full product catalogue, stock with batches and expiry dates, the customer credit book, shifts and the day’s report. The two things it leaves out are extra staff logins and the restaurant features.
- Price
- USh 0
- Expires
- Never
- Card required
- No
- Works offline
- Yes, like every plan
- Product limit
- None
- Users
- One
What does the free plan include?
Almost the whole offline feature set. Free is a starter, not a crippled demo, and the list below is what it grants today rather than what it might grant later.
Selling that works with no internet
The till keeps a full local copy of your shop, so it rings up sales at full speed with no connection and syncs when one returns. Registration and the first sign-in need internet; after that, the counter is yours.
Your products and your stock
Your whole catalogue, with stock counts that move as you sell. Nothing is held back to a paid tier here.
Batches and expiry dates
Stock arrives in batches with dates on it, and the till sells the oldest first. Perishable stock without an expiry date is refused rather than quietly accepted.
The credit book
Who bought on credit, what they owe and what they have paid back, kept against the customer rather than on a page in a notebook.
Shifts and the day report
Open and close a shift, count the drawer, and see what the day actually did. Analytics are included, not withheld.
Thermal receipts and barcodes
Print to a thermal printer and sell by scanning a barcode. Neither needs a paid plan.
What does the free plan not include?
Two things, and they are worth knowing before you move your catalogue in rather than after.
One person, one login
Free covers the owner. There are no additional staff accounts, so you cannot give a cashier their own PIN or see which of two people rang a sale.
Basic, USh 20,000 a month→No restaurant features
Kitchen tickets, dish modifiers, recipes that deduct ingredients, and table tabs are not part of Free. A restaurant can still sell on it, but it will be selling like a shop.
See what restaurant mode adds→Why pay for a licence to start?
POS software is widely sold in Uganda as a one-off licence you buy up front. That can be a reasonable purchase later. It is a strange way to answer the question you have now, which is whether a till suits your shop at all.
Running Free for a month answers that for nothing. If the answer turns out to be no, you have spent no money and moved no data.
We have written up what POS machines, receipt printers, scanners and licences actually cost in Uganda, with every figure dated and attributed, including the cases where buying outright works out cheaper than paying us.
What a POS machine costs in Uganda →Questions about the free plan
Is the free POS plan really free, or is it a trial?
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It is a plan, not a trial. It does not expire, there is no countdown, and you are not asked for a card to start. You can run a shop on it indefinitely. If you outgrow it, the reason will be staff logins or restaurant features rather than a date passing.
What is the catch with free POS software?
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With Stem the boundary is people and restaurants: one user with no extra staff logins, and none of the kitchen, modifier, recipe or table features. Everything else in the offline feature set is included, and your data is yours. More generally, the catch with free POS software is worth asking about directly, because some free tools cap your products, hold your data or stop working offline.
Does the free plan work without internet?
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Yes. Every Stem plan is offline-first, including Free. The till holds a full local copy of your shop and sells at full speed with no connection, then syncs when one returns. You need internet to register and to sign in the first time.
How many products can I have on the free plan?
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Your catalogue is not capped on Free. Products, stock, batches and expiry dates are all included. The Excel catalogue import, which brings in up to 5,000 rows at a time, is a Standard feature, so on Free you would add products from the app.
Can I download the free POS software for Windows?
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Yes. The Windows till is a free download and runs on any ordinary Windows PC, so you do not need to buy a POS machine to start. There is also a browser till that needs nothing installed at all.
What happens to my data if I upgrade or stop paying?
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Your shop, products, sales history and credit book stay yours. Upgrading unlocks features on the same data rather than moving you to a new system. If a paid plan lapses, the data does not disappear.
Do I need a card to sign up for the free plan?
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No. There is no card on file and nothing to cancel. Paid plans, if you ever want one, are paid by MTN or Airtel mobile money from inside the app.
Open your store for nothing
Registration takes a few minutes and needs a connection. After the first sign-in the till runs offline, on the computer you already have.
Page updated 9 August 2026