Clover is an integrated hardware and software POS system built on the Android operating system (OS). Small- or medium-sized businesses (SMBs) can run transactions, access reports, and manage inventory through a single POS solution. The real power of Clover comes from its powerful set of developer APIs and capabilities. Clover is an open platform, which means as a third-party developer you can build apps and integrate external POS systems with Clover devices.

Clover platform

You can select how you want to build apps on our flexible Clover platform. Your apps are published on the Clover App Market.

On the Clover platform, you can:

• Use the Clover Android SDK to build Android apps for Clover devices. Your apps can leverage rich business data and Clover device hardware capabilities.
• Use the Clover REST API to build web apps on the Clover platform. You can make authorized Clover REST API calls and help merchants manage their business better.
• Use the Ecommerce API to integrate with Ecommerce services tailored to the needs of merchants.
• Use the Clover Android Payments API to process payments from your Android app on different Clover device configurations without the need to be device-aware.
• Integrate your point of sale (POS) with Clover devices and accept Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliant dip, swipe, and tap payments.

Solutions on the Clover platform

The Clover platform provides a basic set of point of sale (POS) applications (apps) for restaurants and retailers. You can build solutions and apps for:

• Cloud-based point of sale (POS) service and the Clover REST API
• Android-based point of sale devices
• Android-based remote services (AIDL), content providers, and broadcasts through the Clover APK
• Standard set of Android Intents that Clover and third-party apps can implement
• Clover App Market for third-party developers to publish their apps

We encourage developers to build specialized applications for particular types of establishments; for example, full-service restaurants have different needs from food trucks or yogurt shops. Our goal is to facilitate and encourage third-party developers to create apps for Clover.

Clover services

Clover offers the following services:

Clover App Market and apps for Clover

The Clover App Market is a unique store with apps for both brick-and-mortar and digital businesses. Third-party developer apps are approved by Clover and published to the App Market once all prerequisites are met.
Your app for Clover can take many forms:

• Android app that runs natively on a Clover point of sale (POS) device
• Android or iOS app that runs on a consumer device
• Server-supported web app that integrates with the Clover REST API
• Pure HTML/JS web app using CORS (Cross-Origin Resource Sharing)
• Server-to-server app

A Clover app can be any or all of the above. For example, a table reservation app can perform server-to-server calls to take consumer reservations. You can provide an Android app that runs on the merchant's Clover device to view and manage those reservations, as well as an iOS app to provide reporting and analytics to the restaurant owner. An approved app is published in the Clover App Market, letting merchants install it and grant your app access to their data.