Custom software for cannabis dispensaries, cultivators, and cannabis tech startups whose compliance obligations, inventory complexity, or customer experience requirements have outgrown what generic retail tools and entry-level cannabis SaaS platforms can handle. When your operation spans multiple licenses, multiple states, or a product mix that the standard POS platform wasn't designed to model, we build the system around how your business actually runs.
Dispensary POS software built around your product catalog, purchase limit rules, and budtender workflow, not a generic retail template
Seed-to-sale tracking with real-time Metrc and BioTrack API integration so your state reporting is automated, not assembled by hand
Online ordering and delivery platforms that show live inventory, enforce per-customer purchase limits, and route drivers efficiently
Inventory management that reconciles your physical counts against your state tracking system automatically and flags discrepancies before a compliance audit does
The problem
Manually reconciling your POS inventory counts against your state seed-to-sale system every day because the two systems don't sync automatically?
Compliance reports taking hours to prepare by hand because your software can't pull the data your state regulator needs in the format it requires?
Losing sales to competitors whose customers can browse menus, order online, and schedule delivery while yours still pick up the phone?
Short answer
The cannabis tech market reached $6.75 billion in 2024 and is projected to hit $59 billion by 2033 (SkyQuest, 2025). RaftLabs builds custom cannabis software for dispensaries, cultivators, and cannabis tech startups in US legal markets: seed-to-sale tracking, dispensary POS, online ordering, and compliance reporting with Metrc and BioTrack integration. A focused v1 launches in 10 to 14 weeks, then grows.
Cannabis software covers the purpose-built platforms that licensed dispensaries, cultivators, manufacturers, and distributors use to track inventory, report to state regulators, sell to customers, and run their operations inside each legal state market. Generic retail or ERP tools don't model seed-to-sale traceability, purchase-limit enforcement, or state-specific reporting formats. Cannabis software is built around them.
The cannabis tech market reached $6.75 billion in 2024 and is projected to hit $59.23 billion by 2033 (SkyQuest, 2025). The growth is real. So are the constraints that set cannabis apart from every other retail vertical. Software that ignores them fails an audit, risks a license, or leaves money on the table.
Seed-to-sale traceability is mandatory, not optional. Most legal states require every plant and package to carry a state-issued RFID tag and report to a track-and-trace system, usually Metrc (live in more than 20 states) or BioTrack. Every propagation, harvest, split, transfer, and sale has to post to that system. Your software automates this, or your team keys it twice a day.
IRC Section 280E makes accurate cost tracking a survival issue. Because cannabis is federally Schedule I, dispensaries cannot deduct ordinary operating expenses. Only cost of goods sold is deductible, which pushes effective tax rates far above a normal retailer's. Software that tracks COGS precisely, by product and category, is the difference between a defensible return and an audit liability.
Banking and payments run on workarounds. Cannabis is federally illegal, so most banks and the major card networks won't touch it, and the SAFE Banking Act has stalled in Congress for years. Dispensaries stay cash-heavy or lean on PIN debit, ACH, and closed-loop wallets. POS and inventory software has to handle serious cash reconciliation and the payment rails that actually clear in your market.
Age and eligibility checks are enforced at every touchpoint. Recreational sales need 21+ ID verification. Medical sales need a valid patient or caregiver card. Purchase limits vary by state, customer type, and product category. Those rules have to hold at the register and online, configured per jurisdiction so a regulation change is a settings update, not a rewrite.
What is coming next. A federal move to reschedule cannabis to Schedule III would lift the 280E burden overnight, and the August 2025 Metrc-BioTrack partnership is already redrawing the state-integration map. Both change what your software has to model. We build the compliance layer to be configurable, so a rule change stays a settings update.
01 Diagnosis
Your state reporting takes hours to prepare because your POS and your seed-to-sale system don't talk to each other
When your POS records a sale and your Metrc or BioTrack account still needs a separate manual entry, you're doing the same work twice. Every package adjustment, every return, every end-of-day close becomes a dual-entry exercise. At low volume that's an annoyance. At 200 transactions a day across two locations it's a compliance risk: the longer the gap between your POS data and your state system, the larger the discrepancy that needs correcting before the next audit.In August 2025, Metrc and BioTrack announced a strategic partnership to advance cannabis technology solutions (Metrc, 2025). The move reshapes how state track-and-trace data connects to commercial POS and ERP platforms. For operators, it means the integration layer between your POS and your state system is a moving target. The right design eliminates dual-entry by posting every transaction to your state system in real time, and adapts when the integration map shifts.
Inventory counts don't match your state tracking system and fixing discrepancies consumes your ops team
Cannabis inventory discrepancies aren't just operationally painful. They're a compliance violation waiting to be found. When your physical count and your Metrc package record diverge, your compliance team has to trace every movement that could explain the gap: packaging runs, waste events, customer returns, staff errors. That investigation can take days. If the auditor finds it first, the consequences range from a warning to a license penalty.The root cause is usually a gap in the workflow: a budtender who forgot to log a package adjustment, a weighing error that never got corrected, or a return processed in the POS but not reflected in the state system. The fix is process-level. An inventory system that forces every movement to be logged before it can proceed, and syncs that movement to your state platform in real time, closes the gap. It beats end-of-day manual reconciliation.
Customers buy from competitors with better online menus and delivery while yours call or walk in
Legal cannabis markets have matured fast. Customers in recreational states now compare dispensaries the way they compare restaurants: online menu, price, estimated wait time, and whether delivery is available. A dispensary without a live online menu and an ordering workflow loses the sale before the customer gets in the car.The problem for most operators isn't a lack of online presence. The menu doesn't reflect live inventory. A customer who orders a product online and arrives to find it out of stock doesn't come back. Building an ordering platform that pulls live inventory from your POS, enforces per-customer purchase limits at checkout, and routes delivery orders to drivers in real time turns your online presence from a static catalog into a revenue channel.
Your existing POS can't handle your product catalog, your license types, or the market you're expanding into
Generic cannabis POS platforms cover the common case: a single recreational retail license, a standard product mix, one state's rules. The ceiling shows the moment your operation gets more complex. Medical and recreational sales share a floor under different purchase limits. A delivery-only license needs its own transaction flow. A second state brings a different seed-to-sale system and a different package tag format.Most off-the-shelf POS tools can't be configured to handle multiple license types cleanly, can't switch state compliance rules at the location level, and can't be extended to support a product line or workflow your vendor didn't anticipate. A custom POS built around your specific license structure, product catalog, and state obligations runs your operation without workarounds.
02 What we ship
Dispensary POS software designed for the cannabis compliance environment, not retrofitted from a retail template. Every sale enforces state purchase limits by customer type (medical, recreational, caregiver), applies the correct tax rates for your jurisdiction, and posts the transaction to your state tracking system through the Metrc or BioTrack API in real time.
Budtender-facing screens show live product availability pulled directly from your inventory system, so staff never quote a product that isn't on the floor. Cash handling reconciliation, end-of-day close reports, and manager dashboards give your operations team the data they need without exporting to a spreadsheet.
Built for single-location and multi-location dispensaries that have outgrown their current POS, delivery-only license holders who need a mobile-first transaction flow, and cannabis retail groups that need one platform to cover multiple state license types with different compliance rules.
Seed-to-sale tracking software that follows every plant, package, and product through your operation from propagation to final sale, with automated reporting to your state's mandated tracking platform. Metrc API integration posts plant counts, harvest weights, package splits, lab test results, and sales data as each event occurs, so your state account stays current without manual entry at any step.
Cultivation tracking covers plant batches, growth stages, harvest events, and destruction records. Processing and manufacturing workflows cover conversion from plant material to finished products with accurate input and output weights. Lab result ingestion pulls COA data from your testing partner's system and attaches it to the correct package record automatically.
Built for cultivators, processors, and vertically integrated operators who need accurate, real-time inventory data across the grow, production, and retail sides of their business without a manual reconciliation step between them.
Online menu and ordering software that shows live inventory pulled from your POS in real time so the menu your customers see reflects what's actually on your shelves. Checkout enforces per-customer purchase limits for medical and recreational orders, verifies age at account creation, and calculates the correct jurisdiction-specific tax before the customer pays.
Delivery management covers driver dispatch, route optimization across multiple orders, real-time driver tracking for the customer, and the electronic delivery confirmation your state may require. A single operations dashboard lets your team manage in-store pick-up queues and delivery runs from the same screen.
Built for dispensaries adding a delivery service, delivery-only license holders building their customer acquisition channel, and multi-location operators who want one ordering system feeding all their locations.
Compliance reporting software that generates the state-required reports your regulators need in the exact format and cadence each state mandates, pulling directly from your operational data rather than requiring a staff member to assemble numbers from multiple systems. Metrc and BioTrack reporting is automated on a schedule you control.
Discrepancy detection compares your internal inventory records against your state tracking account continuously and flags any gap before it grows into an audit finding. Audit preparation tools pull the full transaction history, package movement log, and waste event record for any date range in minutes rather than days.
Built for multi-location operators whose compliance team spends days each month preparing manual reports, cultivators and processors facing state audit timelines, and cannabis businesses that have received a compliance violation and need better controls before the next inspection.
Inventory management software built for the cannabis compliance environment, where every package has a state-issued RFID tag and every movement must be logged. Real-time stock levels across all storage areas, product categories, and locations give your operations team accurate data without a manual count cycle. Reorder alerts trigger when a SKU falls below the threshold you set, so you restock before you run out rather than after.
Receiving workflows scan incoming package tags, verify weights against the transfer manifest, and post the receipt to your state tracking system in one step. Waste and destruction logging captures the required witness verification and automatically records the event in Metrc so your destruction records are always current.
Built for high-volume dispensaries where manual inventory counts create daily discrepancies, vertically integrated operators managing stock across grow, production, and retail locations, and cannabis businesses preparing for a state license renewal or inspection.
Customer loyalty and CRM software built around the restrictions that apply to cannabis marketing. Points-based reward programs, spend-based tiers, and birthday offers drive repeat visits without relying on advertising channels that cannabis businesses can't access. Customer profiles store purchase history, product preferences, and medical program status so your budtenders can make relevant recommendations at the counter.
Targeted SMS and email campaigns reach opted-in customers with promotions and new product alerts at the cadence you control. Cohort analytics show which customer segments buy most frequently, which products drive the highest average basket, and where customers drop off between their first and second visit so you can act on the data rather than guess.
Built for dispensaries competing on customer experience in mature markets where price alone doesn't differentiate, multi-location operators who want to recognize customers across all their stores, and medical cannabis retailers who want to track patient preferences and support program compliance.
03 How we work
Trusted by
04 Track record
Cannabis is a newer vertical for us, so we won't attach a cannabis logo we haven't earned. What we can point to is closely related delivery in the same shape: compliance-heavy, multi-location, audit-bound.
For a US retail operator running more than 40 locations, we built a platform with an offline-first sync engine that keeps every site's inventory reconciled against a central system and integrates the operator's existing POS. For a UAE fintech operator, we shipped a mobile POS that processed more than 10,000 transactions in its first three months and passed a 2025 PCI DSS audit. Multi-location reconciliation, existing-POS integration, and passing a formal compliance audit are the exact problems a dispensary build turns on.
07 Why us
08 Questions
Yes. Dispensary POS software with Metrc API integration is a specific type of project we build. Every sale, refund, and adjustment posts to Metrc in real time so your state reporting stays current without manual data entry. If you have an existing inventory system or ERP, we scope the integration during discovery so your POS, inventory, and compliance data stay in sync across all three.
Yes. Multi-state cannabis operations require software that enforces each state's purchase limits, package tag formats, and compliance report structures independently while sharing product catalog, customer records, and operational data across locations. We architect the compliance layer per-jurisdiction so the same platform runs correctly in California, Colorado, Michigan, or whichever states your licenses cover.
The smallest useful slice, one module or one workflow, starts around $30,000. A focused single-license build, such as a dispensary POS with Metrc integration or seed-to-sale for one cultivator, runs $30,000 to $65,000 and launches a validated v1 in 10 to 14 weeks, then grows from there. A multi-state platform covering POS, online ordering, delivery, and compliance reporting grows to $75,000 to $150,000 as you add locations and states. Fixed cost is agreed before development starts.
Yes. Age verification at checkout, per-transaction purchase limit enforcement for medical and recreational customers, and product restriction rules by license type are built into every consumer-facing and POS-facing touchpoint we develop. Medical program rules, caregiver purchase allowances, and state-specific limits are configured per jurisdiction, not hardcoded, so they can be updated when regulations change without a software rewrite.
Yes. Online menu and ordering systems that pull live inventory from your POS or seed-to-sale system, enforce purchase limits at checkout, and route delivery orders to drivers are cannabis software products we build. The menu reflects actual stock in real time so customers never order a product that isn't available. Driver dispatch and route optimization reduce delivery time per order and let your team manage a larger delivery area with the same headcount.
Tell us what you are building and we will scope it out together.
Stay on topic
Service
IoT Application Development Company
See the service
Service
Legal Software Development
See the service
Service
Laundromat Management Software Development
See the service
Service
Association Management Software Development
See the serviceProof
50+ clinics expand access to remote care after building a HIPAA-compliant telehealth platform with FDA-approved diagnostic peripherals
Read the case studyTry it yourself
Build vs Buy Calculator
The real cost of building in-house (most teams miss 40%).
Open the free tool