Both Jewel360 and CaratIQ are cloud-based POS platforms built for jewelry retail.
They share a lot of the same feature categories, and both are marketing to the same audience.
But the comparison goes deeper than feature lists. It comes down to what actually works when you're live, how you get help when something breaks, and whether the demo matches reality.
None of these businesses exist as jewelry stores online. Meanwhile, CaratIQ has 0 reviews on G2, 0 reviews on Capterra ("Be the first to review!"), no Trustpilot listing, and no Google Reviews.
We're biased, and we'll say that upfront. Jewel360 is our product. But our customers are real, and they leave reviews on platforms we don't control.
Cloud-based POS software lets you access your store from anywhere.
User caps and inventory limits affect what you pay as your store grows.
Every piece in your store is unique. Your POS needs to track each item individually with its specific attributes.
Repairs and custom orders are a significant revenue stream for most jewelry stores.
Appraisals generate revenue and build trust with your customers.
Buying estate jewelry, handling scrap, and managing consignment pieces are daily operations for many jewelers.
Direct connections to your suppliers keep pricing current and ordering simple.
Your best customers come back for anniversaries, birthdays, and milestones.
Selling online and in-store from a single system keeps your inventory accurate.
High-ticket jewelry purchases often need flexible payment options.
Tracking each of your employees' sales and earned commission can be tough — which is why you should rely on your POS system to do the calculations.
Knowing what's selling, what's sitting, and where your margins are strongest helps you make better buying decisions.
Cloud-based POS software lets you access your store from anywhere.
User caps and inventory limits affect what you pay as your store grows.
Every piece in your store is unique. Your POS needs to track each item individually with its specific attributes.
Repairs and custom orders are a significant revenue stream for most jewelry stores.
Appraisals generate revenue and build trust with your customers.
Buying estate jewelry, handling scrap, and managing consignment pieces are daily operations for many jewelers.
Direct connections to your suppliers keep pricing current and ordering simple.
Your best customers come back for anniversaries, birthdays, and milestones.
Selling online and in-store from a single system keeps your inventory accurate.
High-ticket jewelry purchases often need flexible payment options.
Tracking each of your employees' sales and earned commission can be tough — which is why you should rely on your POS system to do the calculations.
Knowing what's selling, what's sitting, and where your margins are strongest helps you make better buying decisions.
Feature lists tell you what a system can do. They don't tell you what it's like to use every day.
Here's what jewelers report after going live with CaratIQ.
CaratIQ demos an AI feature that scans supplier invoices and auto-populates inventory. Looks like a massive time-saver on screen. In practice, invoices don't parse correctly, fields need manual correction, and the time savings shrink with real-world documents.
Jewel360 pulls inventory directly from Stuller's catalog by style number, auto-filling images, descriptions, and pricing from the source. No scanning, no hoping the AI reads it correctly.
CaratIQ's interface covers a lot of ground, but jewelers who have gone live describe it as clunky and hard to navigate. Uploading merchandise, processing payments, and managing the CRM all take more effort than the demo suggests. Steep learning curve for staff who aren't tech-savvy.
Jewel360's register screen is designed so most employees never have to leave it. Transactions, customer lookup, repairs, layaways, and special orders all start from one screen.
CaratIQ has no knowledge base. No written guides, no step-by-step articles. Roughly 10 high-level training videos. When your employee has a question mid-transaction, the answer is "schedule a Zoom call."
Some jewelers have switched away from CaratIQ within weeks of going live.
Jewel360 has a full, searchable knowledge base with detailed articles on every feature. Your staff can look up the answer in 30 seconds. Live phone support is included on all plans.
Switching POS systems is disruptive.
The right support shortens the learning curve and gets you back to selling faster.
CaratIQ's website promises "comprehensive onboarding and ongoing support." Onboarding is delivered through Zoom calls with their team.
There is no published onboarding timeline, and specific details about what's included in each plan are not available on their website.
For ongoing support, see the Demo vs. reality section above. The short version: no knowledge base, limited training videos, and support that runs on their schedule.
Jewel360 provides dedicated onboarding with a Customer Success Manager who handles hardware setup, software training, and inventory import. The support team understands jewelry retail specifically, not just general retail issues.
For jewelry stores, this matters more than it sounds. Importing a serialized jewelry inventory with stone attributes, GIA certificates, and vendor catalogs isn't something you want to figure out through help articles.
The Jewel360 team handles the data migration and configures the system for your specific workflows, including repairs, consignment, and vendor integrations.
Once you're live, your staff has a full knowledge base for self-service and live phone support on all plans.
