Custom Software or Off-the-Shelf POS? A Kenyan Business Owner's Guide

Picture a pharmacy in Thika with a counter, a barcode scanner and a handwritten stock book in a drawer. The owner asks: do I buy a POS or have one built?

The real question is smaller. Does my business work the way most shops work? If yes, someone else has already built what you need, and you can rent it. If no, you will fight the tool every day.

This guide gives you a way to answer. It is part of our series for buyers: the budget for a build is in how much it costs to build an app in Kenya. We build custom software, so we also say plainly when you should not buy it from us.

We have not named or compared specific POS brands here. Prices and features change quarterly, and a list we cannot check on the day would mislead you. Use the checklist to judge any product you are shown.

• You sell items at a counter, take cash, M-Pesa and cards, and print or send a receipt.
• You track stock by item and want a daily sales report.
• You have one outlet, or a few that work the same way.
• Your staff turn over often and you need a screen anyone learns in an hour.
• You want the vendor to handle updates, backups and tax changes.

The big advantage is that someone else carries the upkeep. When KRA changes an eTIMS rule or Safaricom changes a payment step, the vendor updates the product for all its customers. With custom software, that update is your bill.

Tax compliance deserves a check before you buy. KRA says all persons engaged in business must onboard eTIMS and issue electronic tax invoices (KRA eTIMS FAQ, checked on 3 November 2026). Ask any POS vendor, in writing, how their product issues eTIMS invoices and which KRA route it uses. Our guide to eTIMS integration for restaurants and shops explains the options.

Custom software pays when the thing you sell is hard to fit into a box.

• Your process is your edge. A SACCO with its own loan rules, a school with fee structures per term, a matatu owner tracking each vehicle's daily target.
• Several systems must share data. A till, a delivery app, a WhatsApp ordering flow and an accounting system that each hold half the story.
• You sell in a way a POS does not support. Prepaid tabs, split payments to vendors, deposits, memberships, or tickets with a QR check-in.
• You have outgrown the tool. Staff export to spreadsheets to finish the job every night.
• The software is the product. If customers pay to use your platform, you need to own it.

Some of our own products fit this pattern. TabFlow handles prepaid dining for co-working spaces with automatic split payments to vendors, which no ordinary till does. HackHouse Events sells tickets with M-Pesa and card payments and checks people in by QR code at the door.

Tick the column that matches you on each line. If most ticks fall in the right-hand column, a build is worth a conversation.

Question	Leans to off-the-shelf	Leans to custom
How standard is your sale?	Items, a price, a receipt	Deposits, tabs, quotes, memberships, split payouts
How many systems must agree?	One till and one report	Till, app, WhatsApp, accounting, stock
How fast must you start?	This week	You can wait weeks for the right thing
Who maintains it?	The vendor	You, or a studio on retainer
How unusual are your rules?	The same as other shops	Rules a competitor would not copy
How much can you spend upfront?	A monthly subscription	A build and then upkeep
Do you need to own the data model?	Export is enough	You build features on top

If the table leans right and you want a second opinion on the scope, you can scope a custom build with Mctaba Labs.

1. Does it issue eTIMS invoices, and by which KRA route? Ask for a sample.
2. Does it take M-Pesa on the till, and does it match each payment to a sale?
3. What happens when the internet drops at lunch?
4. Can you export all your data, in a usable file, on the day you leave?
5. What does the plan cost per outlet, per till and per user, and what is extra?
6. Who answers the phone when the till will not print?
7. Can the vendor add the one custom field or report you need, and at what price?
8. Does it work on the hardware you already own?
9. Can you try it for a week with real sales before you pay for a year?
10. Can you speak to a shop like yours that has used it for a year?

If a POS fails checks 1 to 4, move on. If it passes all ten, buy it and spend your money elsewhere.

For the payment side, what it costs a business to integrate M-Pesa shows what a good M-Pesa link must handle, and you can hold a vendor to the same standard.

You do not have to choose one extreme. Many Kenyan businesses keep a ready-made till for the counter and have a studio build one small piece around it.

• A WhatsApp ordering flow that feeds orders into the till.
• A dashboard that pulls daily sales from several outlets.
• A report that matches M-Pesa statements to sales.
• An AI helper that reads supplier invoices and enters them for you. See seven jobs an AI agent can take off a small business.

This costs a fraction of a full build and keeps the vendor's updates. It depends on the POS offering an export or an interface, which is one more reason to ask check 4 before you buy.

We would tell these buyers to buy a ready-made product and not call us.

• A single shop or kiosk with ordinary sales. A subscription costs less than a build, and the vendor carries the upkeep.
• A business that must be selling next week. Custom software cannot beat a trial that starts today.
• An owner with no one to manage a project. A build needs decisions every week. If you cannot give them, a packaged tool is kinder.
• A business whose process is still changing. Run on a POS for a few months and learn what you really need. A later build will be cheaper and better aimed.
• A business that cannot budget for upkeep. Custom software needs a monthly plan for fixes and changes.

When you outgrow the POS, come back with a list of what hurts. By then the scope writes itself.

At the start of a conversation we ask three things: what you sell, what your staff do at the till, and what breaks. In some calls the answer is a build. In others, it is a ready-made product, and we say so.

If we do build, the questions to ask any studio, including us, are in 12 questions to ask before you hire a software studio in Africa. And if you will build software every month for years, hiring an in-house developer or a studio compares those costs.

For a sector example, software for matatu and boda boda SACCOs shows why transport groups often outgrow a ready-made tool.

Run the decision table on your own business, then run the ten checks on the POS you like. If the POS passes, buy it. If your table leans to custom, bring the list of what hurts to a scoping call.

When you are ready, scope a custom build with Mctaba Labs.