POS Cafe vs POS Cafe - Lite

POS Cafe gives you two tiles for selling cafe items in Shopify POS: POS Cafe and POS Cafe - Lite. Staff use exactly the same screens in both. The difference is what each one puts in the Shopify POS cart, and that one difference decides whether Shopify can track stock, report on each product and modifier, and feed loyalty apps. This guide explains both, side by side, and helps you choose.

The short version

Choose POS Cafe if you want Shopify to track inventory, report sales by product and modifier, record cost of goods, or run a loyalty program. This is the right choice for most cafes.
Choose POS Cafe - Lite if you want the quickest possible add to cart and the shortest customer receipts, and you don’t rely on Shopify’s stock, product reports or loyalty for your cafe items.

Whichever you pick, your menu, modifiers, prep areas, printers and kitchen screens work the same way.

What each tile adds to the cart

POS Cafe adds the real Shopify product to the cart, with the chosen modifiers attached. Shopify then prices the line as a bundle: the cafe product plus one component for each modifier that carries a charge. Every part of the sale is a real product in your store, so Shopify treats it like any other product sale.

POS Cafe - Lite adds one custom sale line for the whole item. POS Cafe works out the price on the device (the product plus any charged modifiers) and records the modifier choices as item details on that line. Shopify sees a single custom item with a title and a price, not your products.

Side by side

	POS Cafe	POS Cafe - Lite
What goes in the cart	The real Shopify product, with modifiers attached. Shopify prices it as a bundle of the product plus each charged modifier.	One custom sale line per item, priced on the device. Modifier choices are saved as item details.
Inventory	Tracked. Stock comes off the product and each charged modifier, and staff are warned when an item is out of stock.	Not tracked. Custom sales have no stock to deduct.
Shopify reports	Sales by product and by variant show your cafe items and each modifier. SKUs on modifiers are used.	Reports show each sale as a custom item by its title. Nothing is attributed to a product or SKU.
Cost of goods and margin	Works. Each component carries its own cost.	Not available. Custom sales have no cost.
Loyalty and rewards apps	Work as they do for any product sale: the app sees the products sold.	Apps that look at products sold can’t see cafe items. Apps that only use the order total still work.
Returns and exchanges	Standard. Refunds can restock the products.	Refunds work, but there is nothing to restock.
Customer receipt	Longer: the product and each charged modifier print as separate lines.	Shorter: one line per item, with the modifier details beneath it.
Speed at the counter	A moment slower. Shopify’s bundle pricing runs after each add.	A little quicker. The line is added fully priced in one step.
Order tickets and kitchen screens	Same.	Same.
Editing items in the cart	Via the POS Cafe tile’s Edit item button.	Via the POS Cafe - Lite tile’s Edit item button.

What’s the same in both

Both tiles share every screen and setting, so switching between them doesn’t change how staff work:

Your cafe collections, product search, modifier sets and required modifiers.
Customer name and notes on each item.
Order types and cafe discounts.
Tables, open tabs and the Send to prep tile.
Order tickets to Epson and Star printers, Shopify POS printers and Fresh KDS, routed by prep area.
Translations, general settings and refreshing the menu.

Things to know before you choose

Pick one tile per cafe. You can add both tiles to the Home screen, but mixing them splits your reporting: some sales attach to products and others don’t. Each tile can also only edit the items it added, so staff would see two Edit item buttons. See Editing Items in the Cart.

Switching later is easy. Both tiles read the same menu and settings. To switch, add the other tile to the Home screen and remove the first one. Sales already made keep the form they were recorded in.

Modifier SKUs only count with POS Cafe. SKUs you record on modifier options (see App Overview) appear in reports and inventory only when the real products reach the cart.

Inventory is optional with POS Cafe. Using the POS Cafe tile doesn’t force you to track stock. Most cafes leave inventory tracking off for options like milks and syrups and turn it on only for items they count, such as bottled drinks or pastries.

Receipt length. With POS Cafe, Shopify prints the product and each charged modifier as its own receipt line, so a drink with three extras takes four lines. Shopify no longer lets merchants customise the receipt layout, so this can’t be changed in Shopify POS.