NCR Silver POS

NCR Silver POS Review

Updated as of June, 2023

My NCR Silver review will take an in-depth look at everything this POS has to offer. If it’s time for you to upgrade your current point of sale system, it’s critical to ensure that you choose the right option. With so many modern POS platforms to choose from, is this software and hardware combo the perfect option for your business? Let’s find out below!

Overview of NCR Silver POS

NCR Silver is the point of sale product for small businesses offered by technology giant NCR Corporation. While you may not have heard of NCR Corporation, it’s a multi-billion-dollar organization that provides a range of software and payment technologies to customers around the United States. The company is located in Atlanta and is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the trading symbol NCR.

NCR has a dedicated product for restaurants called NCR Silver Pro Restaurant. They also offer a less expensive option called NCR Silver Essentials, best suited to a wide range of small business environments, including restaurants, retail, service providers, and franchises.

While NCR Silver Essentials is designed for small businesses of all types, we’ll be taking a closer look at the restaurant-specific features available with the software for this review. We will provide pricing information for both product offerings below. For large restaurants or enterprise environments, you’ll want to read our Aloha POS system review. Aloha is better equipped to handle a high-volume, multi-location business.

While smaller technology companies now dominate much of the modern point of sale industry, you shouldn’t shy away from this product because of its large parent company. Its resources have allowed substantial investment into this unique platform — and it’s beginning to show.

Here’s a highlight of some of the features:

• Great for businesses of all types
• Inventory management
• Employee management
• Built-in email and promotional tools
• Integrated loyalty programs
• Multi-store management
• Automatic updates included
• Concierge setup service

With the software app, you can easily import menus and products to build an intuitive platform for your staff. You can manage tabs, process payments, split bills, take your POS platform on-the-go, access reporting data, and much more we’ll explore below.

NCR Silver is a cloud-based system that operates on a range of touchscreen hardware systems, including iPads and NCR PX10 Android tablets. Let’s explore the finer details of what the NCR Silver POS System has to offer below.

Pros vs Cons

Pricing

Pricing is critical if you want to choose a point of sale system suitable for your business and its needs. NCR Silver has recently changed their pricing structure. Silver Essentials (iPad version) was $79 per month, and Silver Essentials Plus (Android version) was $99 per month.

The new prices start at $108/mo for NCR Silver Essentials and $178/mo for NCR Silver Pro Restaurant. The new pricing model includes software and hardware with a 24-month subscription.

NCR Silver Essentials (Any small business):

It starts at $108/mo.

• Software subscription
• NCR PX10 commercial grade terminal with 10” touch-screen display
• 7” Customer Facing Display
• Scanner
• Printer
• Magstripe Reader
• Cash Drawer
• Requires 24 Month Contract
• Additional stations start at $48/mo
• iPad hardware bundle available (iPad not included)

NCR Silver Pro Restaurant:

Starts at $178/mo.

• Software subscription
• iPad Stand (iPad not included)
• Card chip reader
• Printer
• Cash Drawer
• Requires 24 Month contract
• Additional stations start at $64/mo

For each POS bundle, the 24-month contract includes software, hardware, concierge service, upgrades, training, device warranties, all for one price. These prices appear to be available for NCR Payment processing customers only.

When comparing the two software products, NCR Silver Pro Restaurant has the following features included:

• Happy Hours
• “86” List
• Takeout
• Split Checks

So if you don’t need those features, you can save some money by going with the Essentials version.

Previously advertised processing rates on their website were 2.4% + .15 cents for standard transactions. As of the last update to this review, processing rates are not mentioned on their website any longer. Since this is subject to change at any time, be sure to check their website for updated prices and processing fees.

There are also fees for additional services that you will need to factor into the platform’s cost. Since the company isn’t completely transparent about this, you’ll need to ask for full clarification and read their agreement before making any commitments.

NCR Silver doesn’t offer the best prices in the industry. Honestly, for a small business POS, I think these prices are too high, especially considering the 24-month commitment. Keep in mind; a long contract commitment may drastically reduce the platform’s value over time, rather than just buying the equipment upfront and using your own processor.

NCR will periodically offer discounted prices for its Silver product line. If you want to take advantage of a promotional offer, it’s essential to check the company’s website regularly.

Testimonial Video

Key Features

To get a better idea of what the product has to offer, it’s time to take a more in-depth look at its core features.

Data Reporting

One of the key benefits of working with a new point of sale platform is your access to a wide range of reporting features. If you’re someone who likes to understand your business and its health truly, it’s critical to get a grip on the sales and staffing data in your restaurant. With the software, you have complete access to all the information you need to make more informed FOH and BOH decisions.

The POS reporting breaks reporting data into two subsections: a single location and multi-location. If you’re running a single site, you can tap into your restaurant’s sales data, inventory data, staff data, margins, accounting information, and more.

If you’re running multiple locations, you can view all of your restaurants or outlets from a single site. You can use this to understand better your business’s overall health and how your locations contribute to the broader picture. Remember: you can also dive deep into each site if you’re a multi-location user.

An add-on named ‘NCR Console’ can do the trick for those who want extra reporting power. It allows you to integrate calendars, build sales intelligence, manage servers, auto-schedule, provide sales reports, forecast inventory, and more.

The reporting suite offers a clean interface to view every part of your business. Useful graphics and graphs can help you quickly digest a snapshot of your business’s performance.

Deployment Type

NCR Silver advertises itself as a cloud-based technology. And while this is true, it’s also important to note that the software is physically installed and operated on a hardware system. In many ways, this can be considered a ‘hybrid’ restaurant management solution.

Hybrid POS is the standard form of POS platform for most modern point of sale companies – this allows users to have a fully functioning hardware system that facilitates transactions and a cloud storage system that retains data and provides for external controls and access.

Industries Served

As mentioned earlier in this review, NCR Silver is a point of sale system that can be used in a wide variety of different niches, but it’s really designed for small businesses.

NCR Silver Pro Restaurant might be suitable for a restaurant of almost any size, but it’s probably better suited if you’re opening a new small restaurant. While it doesn’t have the same in-depth features as some of the other major players in the game, it does have an extensive support system that can help you run a complex organization without many issues.

While I recommend NCR Silver for small restaurants with a few terminals, the sky is the limit with this platform. It’s capable of scaling as your restaurant grows! For larger, high-volume restaurants, we recommend NCR Aloha POS.

Ease of Use

If you’re going to spend time and money investing in a new point of sale platform, you better make sure that it’s easy to use. One of the key benefits of using a modern POS system is that it offers much better usability options than older competitors. Many people assume that NCR Silver’s association with such a well-established company may be a disadvantage for its usability.

Fortunately, there are no signs that the company hasn’t invested heavily in ensuring its platform is intuitive. You can easily navigate through menus, and it takes no time to set up new products and items. You can mass-import menu items and other data to help speed the setup process – this is a secure platform to use.

You can even automate marketing emails to let customers know about promotions or seasonal offerings; this is an excellent feature if you want easy access to your database of loyal visitors.

The only minor downside is that its interface design isn’t quite as sleek as some competitors. While this isn’t a big deal, it’s still important to note that NCR Silver could probably do a better job of improving its aesthetic appearance.

Hardware

While they still offer NCR Silver Essentials on the iOS platform, you can also purchase the PX10 (Android tablet) bundle. For the iOS version, you’ll need to purchase an iPad, and you’ll need the additional hardware components to accept payments.

NCR Silver Essentials PX10 full bundle is ideal for retail and small businesses. The bundle comes with the NCR PX10 commercial-grade terminal with a 10″ touch-screen display, cash drawer, thermal printer, scanner, magstripe reader, and credit card reader. A core version and an iOS version are also available if you don’t need a scanner. You can find NCR Silver pricing here.

NCR Silver Essentials Hardware Bundle

NCR Silver Restaurant Pro, the iPad version (iPad not included), comes with a card swipe reader, printer, sturdy vault stand, and cash drawer. While iPads aren’t the cheapest hardware systems for business owners, it gives you the flexibility of purchasing the product on your terms — you don’t have to buy your iPad through the company.

NCR Silver Pro Restaurant Hardware Bundle

If you need additional terminals, you will have to purchase an extra hardware bundle from NCR, which provides tons of useful tools (such as an iPad stand, printer, and card swiper). You can also directly purchase an Android-based touchscreen hardware system from the company.

Integrations

Like most modern POS platforms, integrations and add-ons can help you obtain the software’s full features. We’ve taken a look at a few of the add-ons in the previous section, but there’s also plenty more on offer when you dive a little deeper.

With NCR Silver, integrations and add-ons can help you streamline accounting, manage staff, process mobile orders, and more. Some integrations include Xero, QuickBooks, LevelUp, and PayChex. You can even add weight scales and a range of other hardware integrations that improve the way you conduct business with your customers.

Using these various options can help you upgrade your NCR Silver platform and improve what you offer your customers and staff members.

Payment Processing

New merchants have to use NCR Payments for their credit card processing under a merchant agreement. We prefer when POS companies allow flexibility when using a merchant provider.

Always read the fine print on pricing when signing a merchant contract. The advantage of having one processor is getting all the hardware and support you need from one provider. NCR supports EMV and NFC, so you can accept all payment types that are popular today.

Customer Service

Reliable customer support is necessary if you want to have peace of mind that your POS platform won’t crash when you need it most. Fortunately, NCR Silver POS provides its users with 24/7 customer support that helps avoid issues, no matter what time of day or night. You can contact customer support on the phone, live chat, and by email. It’s safe to say customer support is a significant advantage.

But it’s not just about the customer support team; it’s also about customer satisfaction. You can read hundreds of reviews and websites, but if past customers don’t like a product, you might run into similar problems as well. So, what type of common issues do current customers highlight on consumer watchdog groups? Let’s take a look.

Most of the negative feedback from customers results around glitches and hidden fees. While these fees don’t come out of anywhere, apparently, you have to pay a bit extra to secure everything you need. For this reason, it’s a good idea to clarify costs and request a demo before you make any commitments. The NCR Corporation receives a C- on the Better Business Bureau with nine complaints closed in the last three years.

Our Verdict

There’s plenty to work with at NCR Silver. Whether you’re managing a busy restaurant or small business, the features on offer in this platform can help you improve efficiency in your workplace. The platform is easy to use — you won’t have to spend days training staff on using this intuitive system.

There is plenty to like about the hardware options (iOS and Android), added integrations, hybrid cloud, and more. I enjoy how you can access everything from the central user interface.

While its pricing isn’t the most affordable in the industry, it might be worth the splurge if you can afford it. Harbortouch has a similar subscription model with software, hardware, and credit card processing; however, it’s much less expensive and a better value, in our opinion.

The company’s lack of pricing transparency and positive customer feedback is a bit of a letdown, but it’s nice to know it’s managed by one of the industry’s largest companies.

If you’d like to try out this unique platform, you can request a demo, but we recommend comparing POS systems before making any commitments.

Before you decide, compare 2023‘s best POS systems fast & save

Compare POS Systems

FAQ