Stackably runs on Sunmi hardware. Sunmi is our primary hardware partner, and every device below runs the Stackably app. This guide walks through each piece of hardware we offer, what it is best at, and how to choose the right setup, whether you are a merchant planning a station or an agent putting together a quote.

One thing to know up front: all of our terminals do the same things. Everything the software can do on the T3 is also packed into the P3H and P3 MIX. You are not choosing features; you are choosing the screen size and form factor that fit the way the business works.

All of our devices connect to the internet over Wi-Fi or a wired connection. That is how they run in almost every business.

Inside the business, no SIM card is needed. If a restaurant wants staff to walk around with a P3H or P3 MIX, the Wi-Fi works fine.

A SIM card is only needed when the device leaves the Wi-Fi. Trade shows, food trucks and other mobile businesses are the typical cases. When a SIM card is needed, we set it up before the device ships.

With our current Sunmi partnership, we can support only one MID per device. We are working towards a full multi-merchant solution and this will be made available soon.

This matters most for businesses where more than one merchant account operates under the same roof. Today, each merchant account needs its own device.

The P3H is our smart terminal for countertop use. It has a 6.75-inch touchscreen, a built-in receipt printer, and takes tap, chip and swipe payments. Running the Stackably app, the P3H can:

What's in the box: the P3H comes with a charging cradle and a wrist strap.

Best for: a terminal that sits at the counter. That is its primary use case.

Using it as a handheld: the P3H can also be carried around the business, for example for line busting when a queue forms at the counter, or for taking orders at an event. It stays on the Wi-Fi, so no SIM card is needed. Battery life is 4 to 6 hours of use, so staff set the terminal in the included cradle whenever it is not in use, which keeps it charged without plugging and unplugging a cable all day.

Away from Wi-Fi: the P3H can take a SIM card for trade shows, food trucks and other mobile situations.

No add-on accessories. The P3H does not support scanners, cash drawers or external printers. If the business needs any of those, choose the P3 MIX, D3 Pro or T3.

More details: Sunmi P3 Family product page.

The P3 MIX does everything the P3H does, on a larger 10.1-inch screen, with a comfortable hand hold on the back that makes it feel natural to carry around. Like the P3H, it has a built-in receipt printer.

Best for:

Swivel cradle included. Every P3 MIX comes with a swivel cradle. At the counter, the merchant swivels the device around to face the customer for things like the tip prompt.

Optional customer-facing display (CFD). For an additional charge, a compact 6.7-inch display can be wired into the P3 MIX to face the customer. This suits retail, where you just want to show the total before the customer pays.

This is not the CPad Pay. The P3 MIX has its own customer display, made for the P3 MIX. The CPad Pay and the 10.1-inch CFD, described below, are different devices for the T3 and the D3 Pro. They are not interchangeable.

Accessories: the P3 MIX can add the label printer, a network printer by USB, the Blink 2 scan box, the handheld scanner, a MAX or third-party cash drawer, and the Brecknell scale.

More details: Sunmi P3 MIX product page.

The T3 is our flagship station for restaurants and larger retail businesses that want a big screen to work through a large menu or product set. It has a 15.6-inch touchscreen on an elevated stand, in a very clean form factor, and a built-in high-speed 80mm receipt printer with auto-cutter, so no separate receipt printer is needed.

Because all of our hardware does the same thing, the benefit of the T3 is not extra features. It is the larger screen and the elevated screen position, which make a large menu or catalog faster and easier to navigate.

Best for: bar stations, quick-service restaurant counters, and larger retail checkouts. For restaurants, the T3 is the right fit for the majority of situations.

Customer-facing device included. The T3 does not take payment by itself. Every T3 comes with either the 11-inch CPad Pay or the 10.1-inch CFD with a P2 SmartPad, described next.

Accessories: the T3 can add the label printer, network printers (by USB beside it, or on the network elsewhere), the Blink 2 scan box, the handheld scanner, a MAX or third-party cash drawer, and the Brecknell scale.

More details: Sunmi T3 PRO Family product page.

Every T3 and D3 Pro comes with one of two customer-facing setups. Both take the payment, and both show a detailed view of every item being purchased using our compliant dual-pricing display: two columns with the cash price and the card price for each item, and the cash total and card total at the bottom. The choice is preference and budget.

Each station has its own version. The CPad Pay and the 10.1-inch CFD each come in a T3 version and a D3 version with different connectors, so one cannot be moved to the other station.

Sunmi has a short clip that shows the CPad Pay sliding into the back of the station: watch the docking clip.

More details: Sunmi CPad Pay product page.

The D3 Pro is a desktop station with a 15.6-inch full-HD touchscreen and an aluminum body. Its stand and base are designed to keep cables out of sight, so it sits cleanly on a counter.

No built-in printer. The D3 Pro does not print on its own, and no printer is included in the bundle, so every D3 Pro is paired with a printer. Beside the station, plugged in by USB: a network printer for receipts, or the label printer for receipts and labels. Neither needs the Stackably network. If the printer is placed away from the station instead, it runs on the Stackably network and the network is required (see below).

Customer-facing device included. Every D3 Pro comes with either the 11-inch CPad Pay or the 10.1-inch CFD with a P2 SmartPad, in the D3 version.

Accessories: the D3 Pro can add the label printer, network printers, the Blink 2 scan box, the handheld scanner, a MAX or third-party cash drawer, and the Brecknell scale.

More details: Sunmi D3 PRO product page.

Whether a printer needs the Stackably network comes down to where it sits and how it connects, not which printer it is.

The Sunmi 80mm network printer (the Sunmi 80mm Kitchen Cloud Printer) is our receipt and ticket printer. It is built for a working kitchen: Sunmi rates it for fast printing (up to 250mm per second), resistance to water, dust and grease, and it has a sound and light alert so the kitchen notices a new ticket.

Two ways to use it. By USB beside the terminal, it is a receipt printer and needs no network. On the Stackably network, it can sit anywhere in the building and print tickets for the kitchen, bar, prep or expo; that use requires the network ($10 per month per location).

No limit on printers. A location can have as many as it needs. Each product is sent to the right printer with Print Configuration. See the article Print Configuration in Shop+: choosing which printer or kitchen display each product is sent to.

More details: Sunmi 80mm Kitchen Cloud Printer product page.

The Sunmi 80mm label printer prints receipts, price tags, barcode labels and linerless labels, and has a built-in barcode scanner, so a retail counter with a label printer usually needs no separate scanner. It connects by USB to the terminal or by Ethernet to your own router; neither needs the Stackably network. It can be added to the P3 MIX, D3 Pro and T3. See Printing price tags and barcode labels. More details: Sunmi 80mm Label Printer product page.

A kitchen display screen (KDS) replaces or supplements paper kitchen tickets with a screen in the kitchen. Every order sent to the kitchen appears on the screen with all of its variants and modifiers, staff bump items as they are made, and tickets change colour as they age so nothing gets missed. An expo screen can be added to stage completed items before they go out.

Printers, a KDS, or both. Many quick-service kitchens run on printers alone. Assembly-line kitchens and busier lines usually prefer a KDS at each station, often with a printer at the expo for a paper slip. Each product is routed to the right screen or printer with Print Configuration, the same way as a printer.

Setup. The KDS always runs on the Stackably-provided network ($10 per month per location) and arrives pre-configured, so there is no on-site installation for most locations. Ticket colour timing is set in Shop+ › Settings › POS › Kitchen › KDS Transition Time. See the articles Adding, linking and removing POS devices in Shop+ Settings and KDS Transition Time in Shop+ Settings.

Whenever a network printer is placed anywhere a USB cable to the terminal cannot reach, or a kitchen display screen is used, we require the location to use a Ubiquiti network that we provide. A printer plugged into the terminal by USB and sitting beside it does not require it.

What it costs. The basic network is $10 per month per location. It appears as its own line on the merchant's proposal, separate from the hardware, so it is clear that this particular setup needs a network rather than the cost being built into the printer. The 5G internet backup ($20 per month) is recommended with every network.

Some locations need additional networking. A kitchen far from the counter, walls that block Wi-Fi, a large or multi-room space, or cable that needs to be run to the kitchen can call for additional access points or onsite work. This carries an additional cost, quoted per location before anything ships or is scheduled. See Networking at Stackably.

We program the network for the location before it ships, so it works out of the box however many printers and screens the location has. Setup looks like this:

That is it. The printers and screens work out of the box with no network configuration required.

Why we require it: printers and screens away from the terminal receive orders over the network, so they need reliable coverage exactly where they sit. The hardware arrives already configured for this network, so nothing has to be set up on site, and our support team can remote into the network if a problem comes up. Our support team is able to remote into any device, and into any Ubiquiti network that we place.

Our hardware has a retail mode: scan an item and it goes straight into the cart. There are three ways to add scanning, all available with the P3 MIX, D3 Pro and T3.

If the store prints price tags, the label printer's built-in scanner usually covers checkout scanning too, so no separate scanner is needed.

A handheld scanner for checkout counters, which comes with its base. Point, pull the trigger, and the item is in the cart. Sunmi lists it as reading 1D and 2D barcodes and QR codes, with a light, beep and vibration to confirm the scan. More details: Sunmi 2D Handheld Scanner product page.

A countertop scan box that connects to the terminal by USB. The cashier passes the item over the scanner and it is added to the cart, with no handheld scanner needed. More details: Sunmi Blink 2 product page.

For businesses that take cash, we offer the full-size Sunmi MAX cash drawer and a third-party cash drawer. Either can be added to the P3 MIX, D3 Pro or T3, and connects to the terminal by cable. The Sunmi Mini drawer is no longer offered; merchants who already have one are supported as before. See Hooking Up Cash Drawer to Terminal for setup. More details: Sunmi MAX Cash Drawer product page.

For businesses that sell by weight, the Brecknell 6702U-30 bench scale (30 lb capacity, NTEP approved) can be added to the P3 MIX, D3 Pro or T3.

Stackably is built for quick-service and counter-service restaurants, bars, cafes, food trucks and retail. It does not offer table management: there are no tables and rooms, no table maps or seating, no seat-based ordering, and no order and pay at the table. Full-service and fine-dining restaurants that need those are not a fit for Stackably.

Staff can still carry a P3H or P3 MIX to take an order away from the counter, because that does not depend on a table being selected, but the order is handled as a counter order.

What hardware should I use for my bar station? A T3 with a CPad Pay or a CFD + SmartPad. The large, elevated screen makes a long drink menu quick to navigate. For a smaller bar, a P3 MIX on its swivel cradle also works well: swivel it to the customer for the tip prompt.

Can the T3 take payments on its own? No. That is why every T3 comes with a CPad Pay or a CFD + P2 SmartPad.

Does a bigger device do more? No. The P3H, P3 MIX, T3 and D3 Pro all run the same Stackably functionality. Choose based on screen size and how the device will be used.

Do I need a SIM card to walk around my restaurant or shop with a terminal? No. Inside the business the P3H and P3 MIX run on your Wi-Fi. A SIM card is only needed when the device is taken away from Wi-Fi.

Is the customer display the same on the P3 MIX and the T3? No. The P3 MIX can add its own small 6.7-inch customer display for an additional charge. The T3 and D3 Pro come with the 11-inch CPad Pay or the 10.1-inch CFD + P2 SmartPad, which also take the payment.

Does the D3 Pro come with a printer? No. It is paired with a network printer or label printer by USB beside it, which needs no network, or a network printer elsewhere on the Stackably network.

Do I need to buy a cradle? No. The P3H comes with a charging cradle and wrist strap, and the P3 MIX comes with a swivel cradle.

Can I add a scanner, cash drawer or printer to a P3H? No. The P3H does not support add-on accessories. Choose the P3 MIX, D3 Pro or T3 if the business needs them.

Do you offer a label printer? Yes. The Sunmi 80mm label printer, with a built-in scanner, can be added to the P3 MIX, D3 Pro and T3, and needs no Stackably network.

Can one device take payments for more than one merchant account? Not today. We support one MID per device. A full multi-merchant solution is in the works.

Can a location have more than one network printer? Yes. A location can have as many printers as it needs. There is no limit.

Do you offer a KDS (kitchen display screen)? Yes. A kitchen display screen can be added to any location, on its own or alongside network printers, and an expo screen can be added as well. It runs on the Stackably-provided network ($10 per month per location) and arrives pre-configured.

Does Stackably support table management? No. Stackably does not offer tables and rooms, table maps, seat-based ordering or order and pay at the table. It is built for quick-service and counter-service businesses; full-service restaurants that need table management are not a fit.

Does Stackably support recipes and ingredient tracking for restaurants? Yes. Menu items can carry a Recipe Map of their ingredients, including ingredients tied to modifier options, and the Inventory Hub supports recipe-type bills of materials, costing reports and a waste log.

Do I have to use the Stackably network? Yes, whenever a network printer is placed away from your terminal (anywhere a USB cable cannot reach) or you use a kitchen display screen. A printer plugged into your terminal by USB does not require it. It arrives pre-configured and works out of the box.

How much is the network? $10 per month per location for the basic Ubiquiti network, shown as its own line on your proposal. If your location needs additional networking, such as extra access points or cabling to a kitchen far from the counter, that carries an additional cost, quoted for your location.

Not sure which setup is right? Contact our team and tell us about the business, including where each printer and screen will sit. We will help you put the right hardware and network together.