Posnic

Posnic is a free, offline first point of sale and billing system for shops and restaurants that want sales, stock, customers, taxes, and reports under local control. Posnic can run as a desktop app on Windows, macOS, or Linux, and it also has a documented self hosted server path for Ubuntu so staff can use it from browsers on tills, tablets, or phones around the shop.

The local edition is the draw. It needs no account for normal use, works without internet, and keeps sales data on the machine or server you control. The server install uses Node.js and MongoDB, with guidance for TLS, firewalling, systemd, backups, and recovery. That makes it more transparent than many small business POS tools, especially for owners who do not want every sale tied to a hosted platform.

The caution is age and operational risk. Posnic’s public repository is new, visible adoption is still small, and POS software touches money, tax records, staff access, and trading continuity. Its own source is AGPL 3.0, while packaged builds include separately licensed components, including MongoDB Community Server. Treat it as a promising self hosted POS, not a proven replacement for Square or Lightspeed in a busy shop without testing hardware, receipts, backups, and recovery first.

Features

• Offline first desktop POS for Windows, macOS, and Linux
• Self hosted server mode for browser access on a local network
• Sales, billing, inventory, customers, tax, staff access, and reporting
• Works without a required cloud account for local use
• Optional paid cloud service for sync, off site backups, remote dashboard, and support
• Ubuntu server install path using Node.js, MongoDB, systemd, and reverse proxy TLS
• Backup and password recovery documentation for self hosted installs
• Signed release installers, checksums, and release provenance notes