Compared with the other vendors
Your software should not belong to your card processor.
RB Retail and Service Solutions was first sold to pool and spa dealers in 2003 and is now owned by Fullsteam, a payments company. Retavon is built for the browser from day one, costs one flat price per store, takes no cut of your sales, and your team's ChatGPT and Claude work inside it.
Software should make you money, not take a cut of it
RB's owner is Fullsteam, a company that buys software businesses and bundles its own card processing with them. RB Smart Pay packages the software with processing and terminals, so the software's job is to keep the processing. Every spa, pool and patio set you sell then pays a percentage to the people who sold you the software.
Retavon charges one flat price per store. We take no cut of your sales and add nothing to your processor's rate. Stripe today, your processor next, and card readers that come from the processor rather than from us.
Built for the browser, not ported to it
Retavon runs in the browser on any Mac, PC, iPad or phone, with nothing to install, no remote desktop client and no server in the back room. A technician's day is a screen on their phone that keeps what they entered when the signal drops in the customer's backyard. Shared counter computers switch between staff by PIN. New capability ships every week and reaches every store without anyone doing anything.
Ask any vendor whose software predates the iPhone to show you the technician's screen on a phone, in the parking lot, with the Wi-Fi off. Then ask what happens to the job they were writing.
The service desk in Retavon, in a browser tab. The same screens run on a phone in the van.
Your salesperson already uses Claude. Your technician already uses ChatGPT.
In Retavon, each person plugs in the assistant they already use, and it writes the quote, looks up the warranty history or builds the route for them, with exactly their permissions, on the same live numbers as everyone else. No copy and paste between a chat window and the software. Everything it does is in the audit trail beside their own work.
A system built in 2003 was built for one person at one keyboard. Ask whether your team's ChatGPT or Claude can act in it at all, and what the API costs if so.
Side by side
Retavon's column is what the product does. RB's is what RB and the trade press have published, with a source each; where they publish nothing, it is the question to ask in their demo.
| Retavon | RB Retail and Service Solutions | |
|---|---|---|
| Runs in | The browser, on any computer, tablet or phone. Nothing to install. | Ask: a browser tab, or a remote desktop client to a hosted Windows session? |
| Price | One flat price per store per month. No sign-up fee, no seats to count. | Not published. $785 per user, one time, in an older directory listing 1; current terms by quote. |
| Card processing | Your processor, with no markup and no cut of sales. Stripe today, your processor next. | Owned by Fullsteam, a payments company 2; RB Smart Pay bundles the software with processing and terminals 3. |
| ChatGPT and Claude | Each person plugs in their own. It acts with their permissions, on the audit trail. | Ask whether an assistant can act in the system, and what API access costs. |
| Your data | A full export, one file per table, whenever you ask. | Ask what an export contains, in what format, and what it costs. |
| On the phone | The technician's day, the crew's route and the counter, in the phone's browser. Drafts survive a lost signal. | Ask to see the technician's screen on a phone, in the parking lot, with the Wi-Fi off. |
| Updates | Weekly, to every store at once, with nothing installed. | Ask when the last release shipped and what it added. |
| First sold | 2026 | 2003 2 |
Moving from RB
Export what RB holds and send it to us, or let your own ChatGPT or Claude run the migration. Your customers, their spas with serial numbers and warranties, your catalog, stock on hand, house account balances, gift cards, store credit and open orders with their deposits come over under your own SKUs and customer numbers, and your staff check every record on screen before your first day. How switching works.
Sources
Read on October 9 and 14, 2026.
- Capterra listing for RB Retail and Service Solutions, the one-time per-user price: capterra.com/p/158830
- AQUA Magazine on RB Control Systems, founded 2003, and its acquisition by Fullsteam: aquamagazine.com
- Patio and Hearth Products Report, "RB Pool and Spa offers new Smart Pay": patioandhearthproductsreport.com
RB Retail and Service Solutions, RB Propel and RB Smart Pay are their owners' marks. A figure here that RB has since published or changed can be sent to hello@retavon.com and the page will be corrected.
See it with your own store in mind
Retavon is in open beta for pool and spa dealers. Write to us with your store's name, how many locations you run, and whether you are on RB today.