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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Lightspeed Retail

    Score9.2 out of 10
    N/ALightspeed Retail is a retail PoS system from Lightspeed headquartered in Quebec. Core retail POS features are expanded on higher service tiers with ecommerce option and payments gateway, an accounting system, and a customer loyalty program.N/A

    Parse.ly

    Score7.8 out of 10
    N/AParse.ly is a content optimization platform for online publishers. It provides in-depth analytics and helps maximize the performance of the digital content. It features a dashboard geared for editorial and business staff and an API that can be used by a product team to create personalized or contextual experiences on a website.

    $499

    per month

    Pricing
    Lightspeed RetailParse.ly
    Editions & Modules
    Basic
    $79.00 ($69.00)
    per month (when billed annually)
    Starter
    $119.00 ($99.00)
    per month (when billed annually)
    Standard
    $139.00 ($119.00)
    per month (when billed annually)
    Advanced
    $189.00 ($169.00)
    per month (when billed annually)
    Pro
    $259.00 ($229.00)
    per month (when billed annually)
    Enterprise
    Contact Sales
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Lightspeed RetailParse.ly
    Free Trial
    NoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeRequired
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Lightspeed RetailParse.ly
    Considered Both Products
    Lightspeed
    No answer on this topic
    Parse.ly
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    60%
    Would buy again
    6 Answers
    99%
    Would buy again
    78 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    70%
    Delivers good value for the price
    7 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    47 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    70%
    Happy with the feature set
    7 Answers
    96%
    Happy with the feature set
    76 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    70%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    7 Answers
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    36 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    80%
    Implementation went as expected
    8 Answers
    97%
    Implementation went as expected
    37 Answers
    Features
    Lightspeed RetailParse.ly
    Web Analytics
    Comparison of Web Analytics features of Lightspeed Retail and Parse.ly
    Feature
    Lightspeed Retail
    -
    Ratings
    Parse.ly
    7.6
    7 Ratings
    6% below category average
    Lead Conversion Tracking00 Ratings6.23 Ratings
    Bounce Rate Measurement00 Ratings6.85 Ratings
    Device and Browser Reporting00 Ratings8.36 Ratings
    Pageview Tracking00 Ratings8.26 Ratings
    Event Tracking00 Ratings7.85 Ratings
    Reporting in real-time00 Ratings8.46 Ratings
    Referral Source Tracking00 Ratings7.66 Ratings
    Customizable Dashboards00 Ratings7.66 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Lightspeed RetailParse.ly
    Small Businesses
    Square POS
    Score9 out of 10
    Matomo Analytics
    Score9 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    No answers on this topic
    Lead Forensics
    Score8.9 out of 10
    Enterprises
    No answers on this topic
    Chartbeat
    Score9.2 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Lightspeed RetailParse.ly
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.5
    (15 ratings)
    7.8
    (82 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.7
    (32 ratings)
    Usability
    9.5
    (3 ratings)
    7.7
    (35 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.8
    (4 ratings)
    7.8
    (35 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Lightspeed RetailParse.ly
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Lightspeed
    It is perfect for any small business looking for inventory control, Tracking purchase history, and just an all round easy to use software for retail and beyond. I would not use it if I have only a few hundred items or was a larger company that can afford to build my own POS software.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Parse.ly
    Parse.ly is a great tool for publishers who want to track engagement and audience behaviour across websites. With Parse.ly, we can easily track metrics like pageviews, time spent on page, and scroll depth to see which content is resonating with our audience and optimize our content strategy accordingly. Our marketers found Parse.ly to be an excellent tool for tracking the effectiveness of our campaigns. We can use Parse.ly to track metrics like referral sources, conversion rates, and engagement by audience segment to see which channels and tactics are driving the most engagement and conversions.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Lightspeed
    • Lightspeed Retail has great reports that are very easy to read and understand.
    • Lightspeed Retail is great to train new employees on because of its ease of use. There are not lots of different things that you have to learn just basics.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Parse.ly
    • Firstly, the platform is super easy to use, it is user-friendly and easy to navigate through.
    • Secondly, the platform also provides you the option to use filters to your best fit and adjust the filters according to what data you want to look at.
    • Thirdly, it enables the user to have live feedback on their articles and see what can be improved going forward to address the need of the readers.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Lightspeed
    • With a larger SKU assortment size, the software really starts to struggle with doing physical inventory after scanning in a few hundred items.
    • Several times throughout each year Lightspeed went down on us (not our internet connection but actually Lightspeed verified).
    • Special order system could use a lot of modern improvements (ability to schedule ahead of time, etc.)
    • Reports are very basic, and will likely require there Lightspeed Analytics to actually get reports useful for day to day operations.
    • Weak system for receiving purchase orders.
    • Does not handle items and cases for reordering very well. Have used multiple Point of Sale systems in the past 10 years that allow to set reorder points based on single items, but reorder the case automatically, Lightspeed has no support for this.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Parse.ly
    • A more readily understandable visual guide to a visitor's pathway through your site would help understand what keeps a reader on-site.
    • The total page view number for the day should be more readily visible--on the overview page, not just by going to Posts>Historical.
    • Maintain the archive for longer than a year under all plans--it's a shame to lose year-on-year data quickly.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Lightspeed
    No answers on this topic
    Parse.ly
    As an employee, this is difficult for me to comment as I am not directly funding or making these business decisions. However, it is a tool many get on with for surface level data that is useful to editorial teams.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Lightspeed
    Simply well designed with obvious icons per component, making it easy to interface with.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Parse.ly
    The Parse.ly platform is very user-friendly and easy to use. User management is simple, and reporting setup only takes a few minutes. They provide very helpful documentation for implementing the scripts on your site and have great customer support to help with custom development such as implementing their content recommendation engine.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Lightspeed
    I gave the rating of a 9 because ninety percent of the time when I talk to their support they're very helpful. One of the only real issues I have is there are times where the queue will be 7-9 people deep. When you have an error you don't know how to fix, sometimes this is very troubling. But overall their support is usually quick and friendly.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Parse.ly
    I rate this question this way solely because I haven't requested any support. I feel where I will eventually get support would be when we take Parse.ly up on some training that is being offered. We are looking to do that at some point after the first of the year and when our schedules support it.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Lightspeed
    Lightspeed is faster, sleeker and more modern than our previous POS system. I can’t express enough how easy the online store portion of Lightspeed is - it just intuitive and sometimes, is TOO easy, I feel like I have to be forgetting something. Lightspeed is staying modern and current where our previous POS was not
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Parse.ly
    Parse.ly does pretty well compared to Chartbeat, particularly when it comes to historical information and analysis options that are easy for employees to use after some short training. The onboarding for Parse.ly is intuitive, and the scheduled reports take away basically all of the inconvenience associated with regular metrics reviewing. But Chartbeat wins in its social audience tracking because it can source traffic to a specific social post, which can show you exactly how your audience is coming to your content and where you need to put your content to be sure you get that audience.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Lightspeed
    • Certainly has saved money on cash-outs/ accounting due to QuickBooks integration.
    • Faster processing through tills means happier customers and more sales per hour.
    • Expensive product at $5K a year has taken away some profitability for this small business. It's way, way over priced.
    Read full review
    Parse.ly
    • Sometimes in meetings our editorial director will point out stories that didn't perform well. To us, that means readers don't really care about the topic, so we'll pivot away from writing about that in the future. That might not be "business objectives" though.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Parse.ly Screenshots

    Screenshot of Overview in full-screen mode: Many Parse.ly pages, like the Overview, are TV-ready. Keep your entire team up-to-date with live, full-screen dashboards on TVs in your office.Screenshot of Overview screen: See a snapshot of what your audience is paying attention to today so you can make fast decisions about what content to produce or distribute. Customize it to show only what your team cares about by filtering it to a particular author, section, or tag. You can pick what stats and listings are displayed.Screenshot of Real-time posts page: See what’s gathering steam so you can capitalize on attention to every post, campaign, or section.
Real-time data includes the last 24 hours and updates every five seconds. It can be seen, filtered, and sorted on most screens.Screenshot of Historical posts page: Explore historical trends by post, author, section, topic, referrer, or campaign. Compare today’s performance to last week, month, or year.Screenshot of Campaign tracking: Easily tie in your off-site promotion to engagement with your on-site content using UTM parameters.Screenshot of Multi-channel tracking: Track all your content in one place, no matter where it lives.
Compare how your content performances on various distributed channels including your website, AMP, Facebook Instant Articles, and Apple News.