Quick answer:
Paladin and Rundoo both build POS software for hardware and LBM dealers. The main differences between the companies involve industry experience, industries served, design and business model.
Choosing a point-of-sale system is one of the biggest long-term decisions a retailer makes. Rundoo is a relatively new entrant among POS providers, so we put together the following resource in case you’re wondering how their products, philosophy and so on compare with Paladin.
What are the major differences between Paladin and Rundoo?
| Paladin | Rundoo | |
| Founded | 1980 | 2021; first live client December 2022 [1] |
| Ownership | Employee-owned, no outside investors | Venture capital-backed [1] |
| Offices | Bend, Oregon and Tempe, Arizona | Redwood City, California and Chicago |
| Deployment | Hybrid: In-store server and terminals, plus cloud and local backup; remote PC and mobile device access | Cloud only: Browser-based, Chrome recommended |
| Works during an internet outage | Yes | No [5] |
| Industries served | Hardware, LBM, feed and seed, pharmacy, general retail | Hardware, paint, lumber, farm and feed, lawn and garden |
| Supplier EDI integrations | Ace Hardware, Cencora, Associated Food Services, Associated Wholesale Grocers Inc., Benjamin Moore, Blish-Mize, Bostwick-Braun, Buttery, Cardinal Health, Do It Best, Emery Jensen (EJD), Farmer’s Co-op Society, Hi-School, Horizon Distribution Inc., House-Hasson, McKesson, Orgill, Saberis, Smith Drug, True Value, United Hardware, Wallace Distribution Co., and more | Benjamin Moore, Orgill, Emery Jensen, AllPro, House-Hasson, Blish-Mize, and Lancaster; “basic” integrations: Do It Best, True Value [7] |
| Install base | Thousands of independent retailers | Claims 500+ stores [2] |
| Support | 100% U.S.-based support staff; phone, e-mail, and chat; 12.5 hours weekdays plus 24/7 for store-down emergencies | Phone, email, and chat; 12 hours weekdays; after-hours emergency option |
| Mobile | PaladinGo™ for iOS and Android: sell, receive, scan, build supplier POs | Staff and Customer apps for iOS and Android [3] |
| Beyond POS | PaladinShop™ e-commerce, Paladin Pilot™ remote PC access, PaladinGo mobile apps, PaladinMSP™ managed IT and cybersecurity, Microsoft 365 licensing | Staff and Customer mobile apps, e-commerce |
| Agreement | Month-to-month, no long-term contract, no cancellation fees | Annual agreements; no auto-renewal [4] |
Does Paladin or Epicor offer certified EDI connections for Ace, True Value, Do It Best or other major suppliers?
Paladin offers certified EDI integrations for Ace, True Value, and Do it Best along with many other major suppliers (listed below). Rundoo does not list Ace as an EDI partner, and Rundoo’s general FAQ page describes their integrations with Do It Best and True Value as “basic,” advising prospective clients to “ask your sales rep what it covers for your store.” [7]
Paladin’s current list of supplier EDI partners includes Ace Hardware, Cencora, Associated Food Services, Associated Wholesale Grocers Inc., Benjamin Moore, Blish-Mize, Bostwick-Braun, Buttery, Cardinal Health, Do It Best, Emery Jensen (EJD), Farmer’s Co-op Society, Hi-School, Horizon Distribution Inc., House-Hasson, McKesson, Orgill, Saberis, Smith Drug, True Value, United Hardware, Wallace Distribution Co., and more.
Relative to Paladin, the list of suppliers integrated with Rundoo’s system for EDI operations is short. As of this writing, Rundoo lists Benjamin Moore, Orgill, Emery Jensen, AllPro, House-Hasson, Blish-Mize, and Lancaster as “native” vendor integration partners while, again, categorizing Do It Best and True Value as only “basic” integrations.
Is Paladin or Rundoo more proven in the hardware and lumber retail world?
Hardware and lumber demand thousands of unique workflows, requirements, and exceptions that most general retail systems never encounter. Paladin has been serving independent retailers since 1980, and in those decades we’ve built thousands of capabilities directly from customer feedback and real-world business needs, many of them solving problems that only surface after years in this market.
Rundoo has moved quickly for a company that took its first client live in December 2022, with depth in areas independents care about: multi-catalog search, unit-of-measure flexibility down to four decimal places for dimensional lumber, item sets for multi-job orders, and special orders with partial shipment and payment. (With a head start of over four decades, Paladin’s current list of LBM-specific features is considerably longer.)
Every new entrant needs time to discover the nuances of the hardware and LBM markets. When evaluating a newer platform, ask for references from customers who have completed a full implementation, not just signed a contract, and get clear on which capabilities exist today versus which are planned. Age alone doesn’t determine value, but experience matters when choosing a POS system.
Is “AI-first” a good thing? How do Paladin and Rundoo use AI?
Paladin has been using data-driven intelligence to solve real retail problems for years, and we continue to add modern AI capabilities on top of that foundation. We integrate AI into specific capabilities that target inefficiencies, like the optional FastQuery assistant that answers plain language questions based on analysis of your store’s inventory data. In PaladinPOS, the PaladinNSight dashboard [13, 14, 15, 16] and Suggested Order Report automatically analyze inventory to help drive better profit margins, stock levels, and ultimately higher customer satisfaction and profitability. While Rundoo’s philosophy is “AI first,” Paladin’s core values explicitly put our customers and their communities first. We’re deliberately careful about pointing AI at sensitive store data.
Rundoo positions itself as AI-first with its Dooey AI assistant on every screen. Users can ask questions like which products lost margin last month or which accounts are past due and get a ranked answer back in plain language.
When evaluating AI-driven capabilities at any vendor, ask how features are tested before release, who maintains the underlying code, how reproducible the numbers are, and how quickly issues get resolved.
What happens to Rundoo and Paladin when the internet goes down?
Paladin uses a hybrid model. Your server and terminals live in your store on your local network, with online backup through DataWise and SystemWise plus a local backup server. Properly equipped with UPS backup power, your registers can keep ringing through internet outages and even power outages. You can still reach your data remotely through PaladinGo and Paladin Pilot when you’re away from the store.
Rundoo is a cloud computing system. It runs entirely in a web browser, with Chrome recommended and support for Windows, MacOS, iPadOS, and ChromeOS. Aside from their mobile apps, there’s nothing to install and nothing to update on your workstations, and the system is reachable from anywhere. If your connection drops, the system is unavailable.
The tradeoff is straightforward. A cloud-based system can mean less hardware to manage but more dependency on your internet connection. Hybrid means a server in the building and a store that keeps selling when the connection drops. If you’re rural, or you’ve ever lost thousands of dollars in revenue on a Saturday to an ISP outage, weigh that carefully.
Are reviews from Paladin and Rundoo users positive or negative?
Independent user reviews of Paladin tend to praise our US-based support, inventory control, ease of use/training and value. Reviews for Paladin online are more numerous than Rundoo, which makes sense since the latter took its first client live at the end of 2022. While Rundoo-curated reviews praise intuitiveness, the Rundoo mobile app, AI features and easy switching from other systems, verifiable independent sentiments about Rundoo are few and far between.
Most ratings and reviews for Rundoo currently show up in the Apple App Store or Google Play. On Google’s platform, the average rating for the Rundoo POS app (from seven users) is 3.9/5 stars [8], and the average for the customer app is an average of 4.4 stars from seven reviews [9]. In the Apple App Store, 18 users rate the POS app at 5/5 stars [10], and 18 users rate the customer app at an average 4.8 stars [11].
The PaladinGo app, released in mid-2025, features an average rating of 4.5/5 stars from just 8 reviewers on the Apple App Store. On Google Play, PaladinGo has no reviews from that platform. Independent user ratings of Paladin overall are high on average, with Capterra, GetApp, and Software Advice each reporting 4.6/5 stars from 20 reviews, while SourceForge shows a 4.8-star average from 22 users and Slashdot reports a 4.7 average from 22 users.
Ratings of Rundoo are not reported by Capterra, GetApp, Software Advice, SourceForge or Slashdot. Meanwhile, both companies feature arguably anomalous average ratings: Rundoo scores 44/100 in the POS category at Crozdesk [12], and Paladin scores 7.6/10 with reviews and ratings from just two users at TrustRadius.
Rundoo’s marketing clearly positions the company as an AI-led POS system with a modern user interface, in one case showing text-based screens to illustrate “some system that looks like it was built 30 years ago, because it probably was [12].” Some reviews seem to echo that line, but it’s certainly also fair to say that in terms of a verifiable independent review base of the kind Paladin enjoys, when it comes to Rundoo, the jury is still out.
Vocally positive reviews for Paladin call our US-based support “absolutely outstanding…by far the best I have seen in all 30 years of working in IT” and “fantastic,” with one emphasizing, “These people have answers to your questions.” Ease of use, inventory management, value, and a lack of long-term contracts and cancellation fees also show up near the top of the list of aggregated positive feedback, especially on the Paladin page at capterra.com.
The point bears repeating: Rundoo is still a new player and has kept its marketing activities in high gear as they work to build their reputation among POS vendors. In terms of verifiable user reviews, their reputation is clearly still a work in progress. Anyone comparing them to Paladin should bear this relative lack of data in mind and consider the value of user insight based on nearly five decades in hardware and LBM stores.
When and where were Paladin and Rundoo founded? Who owns them?
Paladin Data Corporation started in 1980 in Bend, Oregon, building software for lumberyards and hardware stores. We’re employee owned with no outside investors, so the people building and supporting the product are the same people who own it. Each employee’s ownership stake grows over time, which encourages long careers and keeps accountability close to the customer. There’s no investor exit clock running behind your renewal.
Rundoo started in 2021 with founders who came out of Stanford and time at Apple and Google. It took its first client live in December 2022. The company is based in Redwood City, California, with a second office in Chicago. Rundoo is owned by outside investors from the venture capital industry.
What do you get from Paladin and Rundoo beyond the register?
Rundoo covers inventory, purchasing, customer accounts, accounting, and reporting, with Staff and Customer apps on iOS and Android. Their Customer App lets contractors view invoices and pay statements, and the Staff app offers quoting, customer account history and payments, checkout, PO receiving, pricing, inventory, shelf label printing and AI business insights.
Paladin covers the same core ground and goes further. PaladinGo handles mobile checkout, receiving, inventory, delivery management, PO building and a growing list of integrations (ranging from contactless payment options to FastQuery for AI-fueled business insights) on iOS and Android. PaladinShop provides e-commerce solutions and an online customer self-service portal managed from inside Paladin POS. Beyond software, we offer retail hardware and supplies (printers, labels, etc.) and PaladinMSP managed services: ManagedSecurity, Managed Network, ManagedUpdates, ManagedBackups, Microsoft 365 licensing, and remote access through Paladin Pilot.
Since Paladin can also handle your network, your backups, your security, and your Microsoft licensing, a small team can work with one technology partner instead of a POS vendor plus a separate IT company.
Do Paladin and Rundoo support promotions? Are returns easy?
Paladin’s promotions engine handles BOGO and BOGA, instant savings, and pricing plans by sale item, supplier, class, subclass, date range, or percentage, with minimum margin controls that keep a discount from quietly costing you money. Return workflows are built for how returns actually happen at the counter, including partial returns and returns against house accounts.
Rundoo also supports promotions, quantity price breaks, and per-customer price overrides. If promotions and returns are common in your store, build both into your demo. Run a real promotion on each system, then return an item from it.
What about Paladin and Rundoo’s pricing and contracts?
Paladin is month-to-month with no long-term contract and no cancellation fees, so we earn your business every month rather than locking it in. Rundoo uses annual agreements and states that exact terms are provided in writing before you commit.
From Sales through Project Management and Training, Paladin gives you a clear picture of timelines and costs across your journey as a customer. We charge what we say we’ll charge, do what we say we’ll do, and do it on time. Whichever system you’re evaluating, ask what happens to the schedule and the price if data conversion turns up surprises.
Does a “modern” user interface improve productivity?
A modern design has real value, and some stores tell us that a clean interface makes hiring and onboarding easier, especially in departments with high turnover. Rundoo’s interface is well designed, and they make a specific claim worth testing: “A system your whole team can learn in a day.”
Paladin’s interface was purpose-built for the hardware and lumber store floor and refined over decades with input from the people who use it every day. That shows up as fewer keystrokes and consistent navigation across modules for the employee ringing hundreds of transactions on a Saturday, and exceptionally quick training for cashiers.
Rather than taking either company’s word for it, again, we recommend trying common POS tasks in a demo and comparing the efficiency of each system. Consider whether the “modern” aspects of a POS system equate to current technology and workflows, or just appearance.
How do Paladin and Rundoo’s overall feature lists compare?
Paladin brings feature depth built over nearly five decades in specific industries. Here’s a summary:
- Thousands of features built in and refined since 1980 in partnership with hardware, LBM, feed and seed, pharmacy, and other retailers
- PaladinGo apps take the power of Paladin POS checkout, inventory, ordering, delivery and more beyond the checkout counter
- PaladinShop e-commerce solutions with AI-driven product description and image sourcing
- Specialized tools and supplier EDI integrations for LBM dealers, hardware stores, pharmacies, feed and seed stores, equipment rental, and more
- Integrations with third-party developers range from regulatory tools for pharmacy and gun sales operations to store surveillance, workforce management tools, and accounting integrations with Quickbooks, Sage, and Microsoft, plus dozens of others
- Nationwide and store-branded customer loyalty programs
- Comprehensive customer and job account management and custom pricing tools
- Market Driven Inventory Management, Paladin’s proprietary analytical engine, fuels
- Suggested Order and Order Analyst reports that cut hours of work
- PaladinNsight dashboard flags inventory problems at a glance and improves ordering and pricing decisions
- Dozens of prebuilt reports plus database connectivity, so you or Paladin’s Data team can build custom reports from your own data
- Strong, long-standing supplier relationships. When we say we’re fully integrated with Do It Best, True Value, Ace, PK, QuickBooks, or others, you can trust that integration is live, tested with the partner, and covered by an agreement.
- A full suite of managed services covering offsite backups, antivirus and system updates, network security monitoring, and remote access for your management team
- Much more!
Rundoo’s marketing touts a shorter list of features including multi-catalog search with side-by-side vendor cost comparison, flexible units of measure, quotes that convert to sales, item sets for multi-job orders, deposits and partial takeoffs, contractor charge accounts, tiered pricing and their Dooey AI assistant.
Is Paladin or Rundoo the best POS solution for lumber/LBM retailers?
When considering POS systems, carefully evaluating prospective vendors’ experience and feature depth in terms of your specific industry is vital. The following is a list of tools and features built specifically for lumber dealers over the course of Paladin’s nearly 50-year history.
LBM Specific Sales, Quoting & Invoicing Tools, Lumber Industry Calculators
• Thousand Board Foot (MBF) Calculator: converts mill unit pricing to customer each pricing
• Thousand Square Foot (MSF) Calculator: same logic for sheet goods
• Ton Pricing Calculator: bulk materials priced by ton
• Lineal Foot Tally/Footage Calculator: tally mixed length pieces (feet/inches); accessible via CTRL K or right click; works on POs too
• Square Footage Calculator: width times length times pieces, accessed via right click or Ctrl+S
Buy/Sell Unit of Measure Conversions
• Buy by MBF, sell by the stick: auto calculated stick cost with retail auto update to target margin on PO receipt
• Show MBF/MSF/Ton prices on quotes and invoices via inventory checkbox
• Extended precision on numbers: up to 6 decimals on price, 4 on quantity, real time extension updates
Quote & Invoice Power Tools
• Profit Analyst: real time cost/profit/margin visibility (average and market cost) while building quotes; tune pricing up or down by item
• Weight Analyst: complex weight based SKUs on invoices/quotes
• Discount Analyst: displays which pricing/discount plan applies to any line
• Dynamic subtotals anywhere in a quote, auto recalculating
• Insert items/notes/preexisting quotes anywhere in an invoice or quote
• Detailed notes, descriptions, and special-order instructions as permanent record
• Auto update stale pricing on recalled quotes (blue highlight, one click update single or all)
• Search for any part or value within an invoice or quote
• Sophisticated item family search (e.g., pull entire gutter product family at once)
• View images on anything in the invoice/quote/advanced lookup
• Hide itemized pricing (“Print Unpriced Quote”)
• Stored quotes/orders/on holds recall window
• Stock visibility (on hand, on order, on hold) on every quoted line
• Auto Quote Numbers with sequential IDs
• Integration with Saberis Software (middleware platform that connects supplier ordering systems directly to Point-of-Sale)
Lumber Order Manager (Staged/Partial Fulfillment)
• Convert quotes into orders (F5/Order Manager)
• Order Manager: deliver partial quantities while protecting quoted pricing
• Sell partial orders over time with auto fill quantity and item history
• Auto close on completion
• Auto put items ON HOLD in Order Manager
• On Hold feature: commit inventory without billing to a job yet
• Buy Down Quote Pick List Report (Excel export)
Special Orders
• Built in margin/price calculator for special orders
• Force to large sheet, set percent deposit, add freight, exclude from rewards by class
• Numerous deposit options presented to salesperson
• Automatic PO generation from special order event
• Optional setting to allow special order modifications
Yard Order Forms & Delivery Order Forms
• Yard Order Forms: 4 sizes/types, optional second printer tray, item only or full invoice print
• Confidential pricing at the yard (all sale details except price/payment)
• Delivery Order Forms with “Received by” and “Delivered by” fields
• Yard only Oversold Warning filter
• Yard Order filtering by location
• Yard Order Printing to unique printer
Construction Bundles & Kits
• Construction bundles to boost productivity and simplify checkout
• Full kit: simple, complex, dynamic; line item priced or trigger only priced
Return Wizard
• One scan recall via receipt barcode, customer, or product lookup; supports serial numbers for warranty claims
Contractor & Job Account Management
• Job/project management with on request historical invoices
• Every quote/invoice can be tied to a specific project
• Duplicate – Child (project) accounts under a parent contractor account
• Per project credit limits
• Contractor reports by project/job/address (Excel/PDF export)
• Assign project to invoice for all payment types (not just AR)
• Authorized signers recorded, verified at checkout, printed on receipt
• Custom trade discounts and specialized pricing plans, auto applied by customer
• Project payment management: Open Item AR, applied payment history per project
• Contractor discounts at sale or as prompt payment discount on statement
• AR statement generation (print/email) with transaction reports by project
• Past due balance alerts/limits
• Enhanced Month End Statement (automatic, reversible, Account Summary Report)
• Right click AR access
Rundoo’s webpage promoting its POS for lumberyards lists the following features:
• Dimensional inventory: Track lumber by piece, unit or board foot with up to four decimal places of precision
• Browsable catalogs: Staff can browse SKUs including yard goods with no barcodes
• Attach images and tags to products: Find material on sight instead of relying on SKU
• Special orders with partial shipment and payment
• Convert held quotes to sales; duplicate old orders
• Item sets for multi-job orders: Split one quote or sale into named sets that travel with the ticket
• Deposits and takeoffs (close one part of the quote while the rest stays open)
• Contractor accounts and pricing
• Dooey AI (margin and stock analysis)
Do all of my suppliers and EDI connections support Paladin or Rundoo?
Both systems connect to major hardware co-ops and distributors, but the coverage isn’t identical, and the details matter. For specific details on Ace and Do it Best/True Value, click here to revisit that section of this document. In general:
Rundoo currently advertises native catalog access for seven suppliers (details are in the chart above), and side-by-side vendor cost comparison when the same item appears in more than one catalog. Paladin maintains full EDI integrations with over two dozen suppliers, along with loyalty program support and price and cost file updates that flow straight into inventory.
Supplier integration is far more complex than just transmitting purchase orders. Stores rely on those connections for loyalty programs, electronic ordering, inventory synchronization, rebates, e-commerce, and invoice processing, and keeping them working takes ongoing development, regular testing, and long-term collaboration as supplier systems change.
Ask your suppliers directly:
· Which POS systems do they actively support?
· Which aspects of the supplier integration are supported, and which are not?
· Which vendors do they consider reliable business partners?
· Which POS vendors have kept pace with supplier requirements over time?
Is Paladin or Rundoo the better choice for Ace dealers?
Almost five decades in the hardware retailing industry have enabled Paladin to establish deep Ace integration and powerful inventory management, including Ace EDI ordering, Ace Online Services (AOS) “buy online, pick up in store,” Ace Rewards, in-store customer discounts on acehardware.com, and Ace Remote Stock Check.
Rundoo advertises Emery Jensen Distribution (EJD) integration for stores affiliated with Ace as opposed to full Ace co-op access, so interconnectivity for actual Ace-branded stores is relatively limited when compared with Paladin.
The bottom line
Rundoo is a capable, well-funded system, and stores that want a cloud-first platform with an AI assistant have an option there. Paladin offers nearly five decades of experience in hardware and lumber, employee ownership with no exit clock running, a hybrid system that keeps working when your connection doesn’t, deep supplier integrations, US-based support, and a full set of services beyond the register.
Make experience, uptime, support, supplier relationships, and long-term value part of the conversation, whichever direction you go.
Ready to compare for yourself? Reach Paladin’s Sales team at 800-725-2346 (option 1) or sales@paladinpos.com.
Sources
1: https://rundoo.ai/b/press-release/; 2: https://rundoo.ai/about/; 3: https://rundoo.ai/product/; 4: https://rundoo.ai/pricing/; 5: https://rundoo.ai/faq/; 7: https://rundoo.ai/faq/; 8: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.getrundoo.pos&hl=en_US; 9: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.getrundoo.cxa&hl=en_US ; 10: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/rundoo-pos/id6450727821; 11: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/rundoo/id6464550125; 12: https://crozdesk.com/software/rundoo/ 13: https://portal.paladinpos.com/video-webinars/paladinnsight-take-control-of-your-inventory-investment_/; 14: https://portal.paladinpos.com/video-webinars/paladinnsight-clean-up-your-inventory-with-the-lost-opportunity-tool-2/ 15: https://portal.paladinpos.com/video-webinars/paladinnsight-stop-lost-items-from-draining-your-bottom-line/ 16: https://portal.paladinpos.com/video-webinars/paladinnsight-uncover-and-reduce-non-performing-inventory/
