ThriftCart vs ThriftFlowPOS
Both are built for thrift stores and ReStores. The difference is in how the price is put together. ThriftCart publishes one tier and quotes the other two, with a setup fee tied to its payment processing. ThriftFlowPOS is one number with everything in it. Here is the side by side, taken from ThriftCart's own pricing page.
ThriftCart is part of Rain Retail Software of Utah, which acquired it in 2022; Rain's own retail POS uses the same Startup, Core and Plus structure with the same two quoted tiers. ThriftCart sells three plans. Only the first has a published price. The things a thrift store actually needs, round-up, color-tag discounts, barcode labels, donation scheduling, arrive in the second plan, and marketing beyond texting arrives in the third.
Assume a ReStore that wants round-up, color-tag discounts, barcode labels and email marketing. That is ThriftCart Plus. Its price is not published, so the box below uses the one number ThriftCart does publish and notes what is missing at that price.
Taken from ThriftCart's product pages. Where a feature lives in a ThriftCart tier, the tier is named.
| Feature | ThriftCart | ThriftFlowPOS |
|---|---|---|
| Runs on the tablets, scanners and printers you own | Yes, Mac and PC, desktops and tablets | Yes, in a browser, about 95% of counter hardware carries over |
| Round-up at checkout | Core tier | Included, plus the ask on the customer display |
| Color-tag rotation and automatic markdowns | Core tier | Included |
| Barcode tags and label printing | Core tier | Included, with condition boards, presets per department and type, photo pricing and voice tagging |
| Donation drop-off and tax receipts | Yes | Yes, plus donor segments and year-end statements |
| Donation pickups and routing | Core tier | DonorDispatch, $50 a month more |
| Sell by weight | Core tier | Yes, per-pound items with the weight keyed or read from a scale |
| Loyalty points and a customer balance page | Yes | Yes, plus store credit, gift cards and a scannable customer barcode on the phone |
| Layaway | Not on their pages | Included |
| Consignment with statements and payouts | Yes | Included |
| Buy outright from the public | Not on their pages | Included, with cash or store-credit offers |
| Text marketing | All tiers | Through your Brevo account, about a cent a text, fed nightly with your customer data |
| Email and birthday marketing | Plus tier | Included: Brevo for email, birthday discount at the POS |
| AI | Campaign writer, product descriptions, support chat, cashier monitoring | Photo pricing at the tagging station, voice tagging, Huddle team assistant, grant writing, campaign writing inside Brevo |
| Multi-location | Plus tier | Included |
| QuickBooks | Plus tier, QuickBooks Online | Included, daily export |
| Online store | Core tier | Included, items delist themselves when they sell in store |
| Staff training | Not on their pages | Practice Mode with fake money, Familiar Mode that mimics the system you came from |
| Team chat, scheduling and call-out cover | Not on their pages | Huddle, included |
| Grants, impact reports, business-donor prospecting | Not on their pages | Included |
| Support | In-house, unlimited from Core tier | Email and scheduled calls, no tier |
| Setup fee | $750, rebated after go-live with their processing | None |
| Payment processing | Integrated, required for the setup rebate; card terminals may need to be bought | Included with the POS at competitive rates, PIN pads free; cash discount or surcharge can bring the cost near zero |
| Price | $99 Startup, Core and Plus by quote | $50 per store, everything |
Comparison based on ThriftCart's public pages (thriftcart.com/pricing, /thrift-store-pos, /production-management, /donation-tracking, /thrift-store-marketing, /integrations) as read on September 30, 2026. ThriftCart and Rain are marks of Rain Retail Software. Plans, prices and features change; confirm current terms with each vendor before deciding. "Not on their pages" means the feature is not described on the pages above, not that it is impossible to obtain.
ThriftCart has been in thrift stores for years and has reviews to show for it. Its support team answers the phone. If you want your website and your POS from one vendor on one invoice, and the quote fits your budget, it does the job. We built ThriftFlowPOS for the store that would rather pay one small number, keep the hardware it owns, get its PIN pads free, and have a POS that learns the way its volunteers work. Try it on the live demo and decide for yourself.
The live demo resets every night. Sign in with admin and admin and ring a sale, tag a cart, run a report.