Kaspa vs Loyverse: which free POS wins in Sri Lanka?
Loyverse and Kaspa are both free POS systems used by Sri Lankan shops. Here is the honest, side-by-side comparison — price, offline mode, AI, setup.
If you run a small shop in Colombo, Kandy, Galle or anywhere in between and you have been hunting for a free POS, you have probably found Loyverse. It has been the default answer in WhatsApp groups for years — “Loyverse eka damanna, free eka”. It is a solid product. We are not going to pretend otherwise.
We built Kaspa because we thought a shop owner shouldn’t have to download an app, sign up with an email, and click through fifteen settings screens just to ring up a sale. So this article is the honest comparison between the two — what Loyverse does well, where it falls short for shops in Sri Lanka and the rest of South and Southeast Asia, and where Kaspa is genuinely different.
No marketing fluff. If Loyverse is the right call for your shop, we will say so.
The short answer
If you want the fastest possible “open the link, start selling” experience and you sell in a place where the internet is flaky, Kaspa is the simpler choice. No download. No account verification email. Phone number sign-in. Works fully offline. AI does the setup for you. Free, forever, unlimited.
If you have already set up Loyverse, your staff are used to it, and you do not need an AI assistant or full offline product editing, stay where you are. There is no urgency to switch.
Below is the long answer.
The 30-second matrix
| Feature | Kaspa | Loyverse |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free, unlimited | Free tier with feature limits |
| Install | Browser, no download | Android / iOS app download |
| Works offline | Full — sales and product edits | Partial — sales yes, new products need internet |
| Time to first sale | About 60 seconds | 15–30 minutes |
| Sign in | Phone number | Email + password |
| AI assistant | Yes — full setup, reports, inventory | None |
| Settings screens | Zero — it’s all conversation | Several |
| Multi-device sync | Free | Free |
| Sinhala / Tamil UI | Yes, plus 20+ more | Limited |
| Receipt printer | Any 58 / 80 mm thermal | Yes |
| CSV import | AI auto-maps any format | Fixed template |
Price: both free, but “free” means different things
Loyverse’s free tier covers a single store, sales, and basic inventory. The moment you want employee management, advanced inventory features, a kitchen display, or restaurant-grade table service, you are on a paid plan. That is fine — Loyverse is a real company with real bills. Their pricing is honest about it.
Kaspa is free across the board. Unlimited sales. Unlimited products. Unlimited devices. Unlimited cashiers with PINs. Unlimited AI assistant messages. Multi-device sync, inventory tracking, sales reports, voids, returns, and 23+ language support are all included on day one.
We can offer this because we are a small team and we do not have a sales floor in San Francisco we need to pay for. A premium “Pro” tier with optional photo-to-products and advanced analytics is on the way. The core POS — the part you actually need to run a shop — stays free forever. See our pricing page for the full list of what is included.
Setup: 60 seconds vs 30 minutes
This is where the gap is most visible.
To start with Loyverse, you go to Google Play or the App Store, download the app, install it, open it, sign up with an email, verify the email, set your store name, set your currency, decide which features you want enabled, and then — finally — add your first product. Most shops take 15 to 30 minutes before they ring up a sale. On a budget Android with patchy data, it can be longer.
With Kaspa, you open pos.trykaspa.com in Chrome. You type your phone number. You enter the SMS code. The AI assistant greets you and offers to set up your shop. You can say “Add rice for 1600” out loud or type it, and you are selling in about a minute.
We do not say “60 seconds” because it is a nice round number. We say it because the slowest part of the flow is the SMS — and once the code arrives, you are in.
Offline: where Kaspa goes further
Loyverse handles a dropped connection well — your sales keep working, and they sync when the internet returns. Many cloud POS systems cannot say that. So credit where it is due.
Where Kaspa goes further: in Kaspa, you can also add and edit products while offline. You can change a price, add a new product, mark something out of stock, set up a cashier — all without internet. Try doing any of that in Loyverse with the WiFi off.
That sounds like a small thing until you live it. You are at the bakery before the doors open, the router has not come back from yesterday’s outage, you got a fresh delivery, and you need to add the new SKUs. Kaspa lets you do it. Most cloud POS systems make you wait.
This is a deliberate architectural choice. Every Kaspa action — sale, edit, inventory adjustment — completes on the device first and syncs as a delta when the network returns. There is no “sync now please” button. There is no spinner. It is just always working.
The AI assistant — there is no equivalent in Loyverse
The biggest single difference between the two is that Loyverse has settings screens and menus. Kaspa has none. Every configuration in Kaspa is a conversation:
“Add Coca Cola 500 ml for 200 rupees” “Set tax to 8%” “How much did I sell this morning?” “What’s running low?” “Add a cashier named Kamal with PIN 1234” “Increase all dairy prices by 10%”
The assistant speaks Sinhala, Tamil, English, and 20+ more languages, and it handles code-switching — “mama 5 kg rice ekak add karanna one, price eka 1600” works fine. It also proactively surfaces things you would otherwise miss: “Sales are up 15% from last week. Three products are running low: rice, milk powder, sugar.”
For a shop owner who is not a software person — which is most shop owners — that is a real productivity gap. You stop learning the software. You just tell it what you want.
Want to see the assistant in action before reading more? Open Kaspa free, open the chat, and try “Add three products: rice 1600, milk 350, sugar 280.”
Hardware: the same printers and scanners, no lock-in
Both Kaspa and Loyverse support any 58 mm or 80 mm thermal printer. Both work with USB and Bluetooth barcode scanners. Both kick the cash drawer. Neither one ties you to proprietary hardware (this is the main reason we recommend either over Square or Shopify POS for shops in Sri Lanka).
If you already bought a thermal printer for Loyverse, it will work with Kaspa. If you have not bought one yet, see our features page for the supported hardware we have tested.
CSV import — the migration story
If you are switching POS systems, the worst part is moving your product list. Most systems give you a fixed template and tell you to format your spreadsheet exactly so. If you have 600 products and your columns are in Sinhala or named “ITM_NM” and “PRICE_RS”, you spend an evening cleaning it up.
Loyverse uses a fixed CSV template. You map your data to their columns.
Kaspa’s import is AI-powered. Upload any CSV — any column order, any language for the headers, any format — and the AI reads it, figures out which column is the name, which is the price, which is the stock, shows you the mapping in an editable dropdown, and asks you to confirm. Re-upload the same file later and it bulk-updates prices and stock from your supplier’s latest list.
This is the “switching is hard” objection, solved.
Sinhala, Tamil, and code-switching
Loyverse has UI translations for some languages. The AI conversational interface in Kaspa is on a different level: it understands when a customer-facing screen needs to be in Sinhala but your barcode export is in English, when you mix Sinhala and English mid-sentence, and when you write “mama” instead of “I have”. The assistant does not just translate labels — it understands how shop owners actually talk.
For the 23 languages we support today (and the long tail we add as users ask), that is a genuine first.
Reports: dashboards vs conversations
Loyverse has a reports section. You open it, you pick a time range, you scroll. It is fine.
Kaspa lets you ask. “How much did I sell today?” “Compare this week to last week.” “Best seller this month?” “Sales by cashier for March.” You can also print any report to your thermal printer. No dashboard to learn.
That is the philosophy in a sentence: stop making shop owners learn dashboards.
Where Loyverse is genuinely fine
Let us be fair.
- Familiar. Loyverse has been around. If your staff already know it, switching costs you something.
- App-first works on weak browsers. If your phone is genuinely too old to run Chrome smoothly, Loyverse’s installed app may feel snappier. (Caveat: most phones from the last six years are fine for Kaspa.)
- Restaurant features. Loyverse has kitchen display screens and table service on its paid tier. Kaspa’s table service is on the roadmap but not shipped yet. If you run a sit-down restaurant today, Loyverse may still be the better fit. If you run a takeaway, food truck, cafe, or counter-service spot, Kaspa is ready.
We will keep updating this comparison as both products evolve. If we get something wrong, please tell us — we want to be honest about it.
How to decide
Three questions:
- Do you need to start in the next 10 minutes? Kaspa. Open the link, sign in with your phone, you are selling.
- Do you want an assistant that handles setup and reports in Sinhala or Tamil? Kaspa. Loyverse has no equivalent.
- Are you already running a busy restaurant on Loyverse’s paid plan with KDS and table service? Stay on Loyverse for now. We will catch up on restaurant features and tell you when it is worth switching.
For everyone else — corner shops, pharmacies, hardware stores, groceries, cafes, takeaways, bakeries, market stalls — Kaspa is the simpler, cheaper, faster answer in 2026.
Try Kaspa in 60 seconds — no risk
You do not have to switch today. You do not have to migrate yet. Open pos.trykaspa.com on your phone right now. Sign in with your phone number. Add one product. Ring up one test sale. If it is faster and simpler than Loyverse, switch when you are ready. If it is not, you lost 60 seconds.
That is the whole pitch.