Loyverse is a popular free POS for small retailers. Budy is a cannabis-first POS that also runs coffee shops — purpose-built, AI-powered, offline-first. Here is how they compare.
The short version
Loyverse is a solid general-purpose free POS. But cannabis retail is a different game: you need strain/terpene/THC tracking, weight-based pricing with Bluetooth scales, age verification, and dispensary-grade compliance. Budy gives you all of that — plus breezy onboarding with access to a master catalogue of millions of products, so you skip manual entry entirely. If you sell cannabis in the US or Thailand, Budy is the right tool — not a generic POS retrofitted for it.
Pick Budy if…
You sell cannabis and need strain, terpene, THC/CBD tracking out of the box
You price flower by weight and need native Bluetooth scale integration
You want onboarding in minutes — no manual product entry, ever
You want access to a master catalogue of millions of products via AI scanner
You need a voice assistant for hands-free budtending
You want thermal labels that print automatically from scale weight
You plan to run online ordering for your dispensary
Pick Loyverse if…
You run a generic retail shop (not cannabis)
You only need basic inventory + receipts
You do not need industry-specific compliance features
Feature-by-feature
Feature
Budy
Loyverse
Pricing
2 months free, then $98 a store a month
Free tier + paid add-ons
Cannabis strain tracking
Native (terpenes, THC/CBD, effects)
Not available
Bluetooth scale (weight-based pricing)
Native Acaia integration
Not available
AI product scanner
Built-in
Barcode only
Voice assistant
Built-in
Not available
Offline mode
Full POS offline with auto sync
Limited offline
Cannabis compliance (age verify, limits)
Built-in
Requires custom workarounds
Label printing from scale weight
Automatic (Niimbot)
Manual
Multi-language interface
Nine languages
Yes (no Thai cannabis context)
Online store
Coming soon — integrated
Basic eCommerce
Industry support
Cannabis + coffee + specialty retail
Generic retail
Where the two actually differ
Generic retail POS versus cannabis workflow
Loyverse is a capable, genuinely well-built POS for general small retail, and that is exactly the constraint. Cannabis is not a general retail category: flower is priced by weight off a scale, products carry terpene and THC/CBD attributes buyers ask about by name, age has to be checked before payment rather than after, and the state expects a report that ties back to individual sales. In Loyverse each of those becomes a workaround — a custom field, a manual step, a spreadsheet on the side. In Budy they are the default path.
Selling by the gram
This is the hardest thing to retrofit. Loyverse has no Bluetooth scale integration, so weight-based selling means weighing on a separate scale and typing the number in — every sale, every time, with a transcription error waiting at the end of a long shift. Budy reads an Acaia Pyxis or Lunar live: the price moves as the budtender adjusts the pile, the final weight lands on the receipt and the label together, and nobody types a decimal.
What free actually costs
Loyverse has a genuinely free tier, and for a small shop with simple needs that is a real advantage worth naming. The cost shows up as add-ons — the features a dispensary needs tend to sit behind paid modules — and as the manual work the generic model pushes onto your staff. Budy is two months free with everything unlocked, then $98 a store a month flat, with no per-transaction cut. Which is cheaper depends entirely on whether you need the cannabis half.
Setting up the catalogue
Loyverse expects you to build your product list. Budy ships a master catalogue of millions of products plus an AI scanner that reads a barcode or photo and fills the product in — name, brand, category, image. For a menu that changes with every drop, that difference repeats itself weekly rather than only at launch.
Moving from Loyverse
The honest version: if you run a coffee shop or a corner store and Loyverse is working, it is working — do not switch for the sake of it. The case for moving is specific. If you have started selling anything by weight, if you are tracking strains or COAs in a spreadsheet beside the till, or if age verification is a thing your staff remember to do rather than something the software enforces, you have outgrown a generic POS. Budy runs on the hardware you already have, so you can trial it on one register for two free months before committing.
Budy vs Loyverse — common questions
Can Loyverse be used for a cannabis dispensary?
It can be made to work, but nothing in it is built for cannabis. Weight-based pricing, strain and terpene attributes, age verification before payment and state compliance reporting all have to be improvised through custom fields and manual steps. Budy treats those as the default workflow.
Does Loyverse support Bluetooth scales?
No. Weight has to be read off a separate scale and typed in by hand on every sale. Budy integrates natively with Acaia Pyxis and Lunar scales, so weight streams into the sale and the price updates live.
Loyverse has a free tier — why pay for Budy?
If your shop needs a straightforward general-retail till, Loyverse being free is a genuine advantage. Pay for Budy when you need the cannabis half: scale pricing, strain tracking, compliance reporting, age gating and offline reliability. Budy is also free for the first two months with every feature unlocked.
Can Budy run a coffee shop as well?
Yes — the same app runs coffee shops, dispensaries and specialty retail, including weighing beans on the same Bluetooth scale integration used for flower. Operators running more than one format use one system rather than two.
What happens to my existing product catalogue?
You rebuild it faster than you exported it. Budy pulls from a master catalogue of millions of products and its AI scanner fills in details from a barcode or a photo, so most of the list assembles itself rather than being imported field by field.
Does Budy work offline like Loyverse?
Yes, and more completely. Loyverse offers limited offline capability; Budy runs the full POS offline — catalogue, pricing, scale, receipts — and syncs automatically once the connection returns.
Loyverse is great for many small shops — but cannabis is different. If you are selling flower by weight, tracking strains, or want AI to handle product setup, Budy was designed for exactly what you do. Try it free.