Rain POS vs AIM

Epos Now

Shopify

RetailEdge

Epos Now is a leading global cloud-based point-of-sale and payment system that specializes in helping US retail and hospitality businesses trade efficiently.

Thanks to a selection of tools, and an extensive app store, users can create bespoke systems that make running a business simple.

Shopify is a commerce platform that allows anyone to easily sell online, at a retail location, and everywhere in between

RetailEdge is a point of sale solution that helps retail businesses manage inventory and sales orders. Key features of the platform include barcode scanning, item listing, customer history tracking, credit card processing, price management, invoicing, secure data storage, and gift card distribution.

Rain is a cloud-based point-of-sale system designed to help retailers save time and sell more by seamlessly integrating in-store inventory with eCommerce websites.

Sales Reports

Inventory Management

Barcode/Ticket Scanning

Pricing Management

Gift Card Management

Returns Tracking

Touch Screen

Proprietary

Rain POS

Web-based

Windows

Square Point of Sale

Shopify POS

Lightspeed Retail

Clover

Owner

The support failed to highlight some options like multiple versions on 1 product. If they focused on some basics like sorting fields, better reports you can print it would be a really good replacement for the Intuit Quickbooks POS..

They charged a ton of money to do no website design and then presented a trashy website builder that does not let you edit the style/design of your site.

Administration

You don’t really need to call support in the beginning because you are new and learning the system but once you get setup and start noticing glitches you cannot get a hold of anyone.  

Their program to enter work orders and remove product from inventory was amazing!  

I ran this system in my shop for a year, it was expensive ($100 more than the system I went back to).

The beginning experience was great, but now we are running into problems and there is really minimal help.  

owner

at first, they are great but once they figure u are too far to turn back they seem to vanish trying to get answers call one day it might be two days later you get a call back no one seems  to care how things are going i my self have a issue with my favorites list the acknowledge there is a problem yet to get it fixed  6 weeks latter

I also like the ease in which we can automate customer payments for services and rentals.

Was very UN user friendly, I had no control over any aspects of ringing up a sale.  

Coordinator

The site is a little laggy to start and then everything works super fast.

It took longer to get set up than we had hoped, as the integration team was swamped.

I just don't have the time to set up and implement these features so overall the price has not been worth it for me.  

The onboarding cost was kind of high and I don't feel like I got that much out of it.

There customer support is ok, but lengthy.

Operations Director

We were a new business and needed to find companies to design a website, provide eCommerce and POS solutions, and a platform for customer communications.

I really, really, really hate the website builder.

Managing Member

They promised the world and delivered nothing.

I use it daily and can easily do transactions and input new products, or change information on existing products.

owner/artist

I like the extra things I get for my website with the marketing package, but most of what the package does for me has not worked and they keep trying to make it work and it does not.

So I either have to call and ask you guys to fix stuff or wait till I get home on my Mac. If it can wait, I’ll make notes as to what I need to do then, wait till I get home, but if not, I call you)

The sending email address for receipts/invoices could not be changed and either went to spam or never arrived at all.  

Store Owner

inventory tracking is helpful in ordering - Notions is my largest ordering partner and great to bring over products automatically.

Occasionally there are glitches in the system when it interacts with outside programs, such as shipping or payment companies.

President/Owner

Sales screen has a few deficiencies that make it easy for staff to create fraudulent transactions.

President

The integration of product sku codes, inventory, customer tracking, re-order points, everything was top notch and an added value for the cost.

Ability to track sales & purchases on a daily basis if needed

You can run those reports in two areas and the numbers don't match.  

We need the ability to sale fractional quantities of products and Rain allowed that.  

I had to pay someone to help me with Quickbooks and it took longer/cost more because of the way RAIN set up the integration.

IT Manager

I think they want to sit back and collect processing fees and don't really care about the actual efficiency or user experience of the product.

We only have one register, but someone could be logged in making quotes or receiving inventory.

The comprehensive nature of having a website, an online store, a point of sale terminal, rental/rent to own terminal makes this a great foundational tool to work with.

The automatic emails would be useful if I could choose the products that were shown - like what is on sale.

You can't setup customer groups for reporting or special pricing.  

I would like to be able to take custom orders, invoice the customer, and have the customer be able to make payments/purchases with that option.  

Rain Point of Sale has allowed us to expand our online sales exponentially, and allowed our inventory to be accurate and dependable.

Co-Owner

The only major issue we have with Rain is when the system crashes - either because our internet goes out (in which case we are able to use our iPads on cellular to ring up customers) or because Rain goes down.

Length of time that it takes to make requested changes in the software

You can't edit an invoice once it is saved.  

Sales Manager

Some updates can be slow to roll out and these can be on critical issues.

There are some things inherent in our business that it does not accommodate AND they have not updated.

They only integrate with one credit card merchant.  

Some features need to be changed buy the software team, I can't change them myself.

putting products on the website was easy but switching where they go throughout the website is not

I had to purchase a business email and the integration was rather difficult.

Website Management

Pricing

Phone Support

Customer Support

Product Improvements

Reporting

Bugs and Issues

Sales Management

Invoicing and Payments

Mid-size Business

Small Business

Freelancers

Rain Retail Software

Odoo 

Odoo is an all-in-one, open-source business platform covering CRM, Sales, Accounting, Inventory, Manufacturing, and Projects. It’s fully integrated, customizable, and scalable for companies of any size or budget.

Lightspeed is a unified point of sale and payments platform designed for retail, restaurant, and golf course businesses. The software offers inventory management, omnichannel sales capabilities, real-time reporting, and integrated payment processing. It includes features such as cloud-based operations, API connectivity for third-party integrations, wholesale buying tools, and multilocation support for businesses operating across multiple sites.

AIM offers retailers a way to manage inventory, customers and sales but also offers fully integrated add-on modules such as Accounts Payable & General Ledger, Purchase Orders, Repair & Service, Lesson/Appointment Scheduling & Billing, Short Term Rentals, Rent & Sales Contracts, and much more.

Point of Sale (POS)

Payment Processing

Loyalty Program

Linux

Base Package

Frequent crashes and errors

76% of reviewers feel negative about AIMsi’s Bugs and Issues. Users report the software frequently crashes, freezes, or becomes unresponsive, often resulting in lost work and the need to restart. Reviewers indicate that error handling is poor, making it difficult to recover from mistakes or correct entries, and some say the process for making corrections is tedious or impossible. They find that numerous small glitches and bugs disrupt daily operations, while support for resolving these problems is sometimes slow or ineffective. Some users feel the software’s design flaws and lack of a comprehensive user guide add to their frustration.

Comprehensive inventory control tools

79% of reviewers feel positive about AIMsi’s Inventory Management. Users think the system’s real-time tracking and robust reporting features help them monitor stock levels, sales, and transfers efficiently across multiple locations. Reviewers appreciate being able to conduct spot checks, manage serialized inventory, and generate detailed inventory and sales reports, which they say supports better purchasing decisions and forecasting. They find the integration of inventory with accounting and sales modules valuable for streamlining backroom operations. Some users say the ability to access inventory history and organize sales processes simplifies daily management and improves overall business operations.

Sales

The Vortx web platform that integrates with AIM comes with a lot of limitations & the custom report tool is difficult to use.  

School Director

That being said, the version we are currently using is not online integrated as far as the lesson module goes. If that has changed with the newer version, then I have no cons

Retirement Plan (Front Room Manager)

The worst part about this POS was the set up. Although I believe that is mostly the fact that we were transferring information from a system that was very VERY old and outdated system. But the service team was there for me whenever I had questions; and boy I had a lot of them.

Special Projects Manager

The AIM team is generally responsive to our requests though we do tend to have issues due to the large database size that difficult to diagnose.

Manager

I guess at this point I like least is we have no way to print a claim check when customers drop off their vacuum.  

Assistant to Everything

It allows us to manage daily sales, keep current track of our inventory, and to update, receive, and transfer inventory as needed.

Integration between our website, payment processing, shipping, etc. make our life easier.  

The fact that I was charged for software and data transfer and received software without data transfer so it is useless.

I can barely turn a computer on and they were able to set it up for me so that I could start using it immediately.  

VP OPERATIONS

Inventory management, pricing and the repair shop module all need some help.  

Other software we've had has limited the backend data to you where as AIM absolutely encourages you to use it.  

I believe the repair and rental contracts are the strongest features of the software.  

Controller

Canned Reports are often minimal, but I summarize them in complex Xcel worksheets

A&D book price tracker, scaner, and the of customer tracking

Lessons Coordinator/Accounts Receivable

I do feel that the system is a little over complicated with so many pop up windows.

Office Manager

I find that it is hard to find a credit card company that is compliant with AIM.  

Retail POS, Service, Rental programs all in one program.

Also,  tranactions seem to have too many steps for simple procedures.

Library Assistant

Our experience has been good. When we have an issue or a problem, tech support is helpful in solving the issues we have.

President 

There is a 60 day period that you will deal with using the software until you are proficient with it.

We are a musical instrument store that is run by musicians, and it took us all a bit of time to learn to "think like the software" in more complicated processes.

The software has been just what we were needing for our sales and service business.   

Be prepared to watch a lot of videos to learn how to set up and use AIM.  

The straight forward menus and feature with in each module is user friendly.

Also, if you are a company with over a million different SKU's, beware.  

Owner/Vice President

Seems to need a lot of updates to fix issues.

Usually it is just my lack of computer skills causing the problems.

I enjoy the easy of being able to create things and customize the POS easily.

OWNER

Running my retail store with AIM has been a blessing.

Manager/Inventory Specialist

Our music store thrives from rentals and the use of having the contracts and payments all set up through AIM is so easy and finely setup to use.

We love the button feature to make everyday use easy.  

The software is great with all the different features that it has and offers.

Also support is crucial and they have that covered well.

There are tons of features but some have issues.   

They answer the phone and stay with you until you understand.  

Tech support is useless as none of them have done their job yet.

After a year and $50,000 later that failed.

While the program itself has given us some trouble, the customer support is excellent!!

He has been extremely helpful especially when it comes to the scheduling module.

AIM was discovered and did everything that we needed.

I have been waiting so long it was called AIMsi when I bought it.

Easy to navigate through the menu options.

I do like that there are many features available.  

Additionally, rather than treat me as a generic customer, he listened attentively, was compassionate and did not close the discussion until he identified a path forward for which he could properly resolve my issue.  

Thereafter, [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN] registered me for training sessions, at no cost, and followed up with me repeatedly (2-3 times weekly) until I was comfortable with using the software.

In essence the ease of being able to fix the barcodes that are being printed on the labels themselves

Rain POS vs AIM Comparison (2026)

Rain POS

AIM

Overview

Video & Screenshots

Pricing

User reviews

Key features

Integrations

Alternatives