It comes as no surprise that business owners are always on the hunt for ways to improve their bottom line and get ahead of the game.

In the mobile payment-processing industry, SQUARE – an all-in-one solution is one of the most popular yet powerful players.

It’s a free POS (point-of-sale) system that facilitates many small businesses, including retailers, restaurants, and service providers.

What sets SQUARE apart from other electronic POS systems? It abandons you from all monthly pricing plans. Yes, you read it right! With the Square POS system, you just have to pay the processing fee per transaction, saving you a lot of dollars in the long run.

Whether you wish to upgrade your POS system from Square or evaluate other best options prior to investing in one, this guide is all you need.

Top 10 SQUARE Competitors and Alternatives – Turn Your Passion into Empire

There are many point-of-sales firms in the market – giving you an edge to harness the power of smart devices to turn them into functional POS (point-of-sale) systems.

Is Square really the best tool, or should you consider some other absolute best options? Let’s find out the Square biggest competitors and how they are creating challenges for it.

ShopKeep

• Founded: 2008.
• Headquarters: New York, United States of America.

If you are operating small retail, golf course, or restaurant business, you can’t go wrong with opting for ShopKeep. It is one of the strong and top competitors to Square as it comes packed with essential features. From tracking sales to marketing to inventory to managing staff to accepting payments – all through one single dashboard.

ShopKeep is a cloud-based POS system that offers three plans; you can choose whatever fits the need of your business. From Basic Plan (starts at $69/month) to Essential Plan to Advanced Plan (goes up to $179/month).

Also, it comes with various features that help you run the business effectively and efficiently. It’s because, with the inventory tool, you can track how much stock you have in hand or what products are selling. This, in turn, helps businesses avoid running out of stock and losing sales.

Since not everybody is tech-savvy, its interface is straightforward and provides real-time sales data so the business owners can make informed decisions.

If you are seeking customization and better customer support, then ShopKeep can be the answer to your woes as compared to Square.

LightSpeed

• Founded: 2005.
• Headquarters: Canada.

LightSpeed – a feature-rich point-of-sales system that caters to the need of retailers and restaurants. Do you have a growing store that has outgrown Square’s management tools? It’s probably the time you need to switch to LightSpeed.

Not only does it offer advanced features such as e-Commerce integration, CRM, order and inventory management tools but customer loyalty and marketing campaigns.

It’s a cloud-based solution that starts at $69 per month that can be accessed on iPad, mobile devices, and web browsers.

The biggest plus, LightSpeed’s inventory tools make an ideal choice for bakery point-of-sales with various locations and quick-service restaurants.

Clover

• Founded: 2010.
• Headquarters: Sunnyvale, California, United States of America.

Clover is a POS system that is specifically tailored to meet the needs of retailers and restaurants. The POS system offered by the Clover is highly customizable and offers other advanced features as well. From employee scheduling to proprietary hardware to customer loyalty programs.

Moreover, you can purchase the solution through various merchant account providers; Unlike Square. Hence, if you already have a merchant account or want to choose your own payment processor – Clover might be all you need.

Although the company offers a pared-down plan with zero monthly charges, the majority of Clover’s plans require a monthly fee for every device that goes from $99 for Clove Go all the way to $1,649 for Clover Station Duo.

Intuit QuickBooks GoPayment

• Founded: 1983.
• Headquarters: Mountain View, California, United States of America.

QuickBooks is one of the prominent plays in the game of small businesses. Intuit GoPayment is it’s one of the major contributions to meet the ever-growing needs of mobile POS options.

By using GoPayment Card Reader and Intuit GoPayment app, you can turn your smart devices into a fully functional POS system.

The company offers two types of card readers. It offers a free chip and magnetic stripe reader when you first open your account. However, the additional reader will cost around $19.

Also, you will have to pay a processing fee like Square. For instance:

• 2.4% + $0.25 for every magnetic stripe reader, chip, and contactless payment process.
• 3.4% + $0.25 for camera-scanned and keyed-in payments.

When compared to Square, Inuit QuickBooks GoPayment’s price structure will work the best for businesses that process large transactions.

Also, it seamlessly integrates with QuickBooks accounting software.

SumUp

• Founded: 2012.
• Headquarters: London, United Kingdom.

SumUp is a third-party payment processor that might not provide you with as many features as Square does. However, if you are looking for a basic and straightforward mobile point-of-sale system, you can do without those bells and whistles.

Also, SumUp Plus is basically the company’s entry-level card reader that facilitates swiped, PIN, contactless, and chip payments for only $19. On the flip side, Square doesn’t offer such a versatile method of payment.

Cash reporting, multiple tax rates, tipping, refunds, quick sale mode, and item library are some of the key features offered by SumUp.

PayPal Here

• Founded: 1998.
• Headquarters: San Jose, California, United States of America.

PayPal Here is one of the many heavy-hitting competitors of Square that allows business owners to accept credit cards using smartphones or tablets. The app is straightforward; customers just need to swipe the card in the reader, enter the PIN code, and there you go! See, it was that easy.

Moreover, there are no monthly or annual subscription charges, and what’s more, processing fees range from 2.7% to 3.5% plus 15 cents. PayPal’s mobile card reader will cost you only $14.4 and comes with four card reader options.

On top of that, with PayPal Here, you can export the entire history of transactions into CSV or Excel files. PayPal Here makes a great choice for business owners who rely on PayPal for payment processing.

CDG Commerce

• Founded: 1998.
• Headquarters: Chesapeake, Virginia.

Are you up for the transition from Square to a Merchant account? If yes, CDG commerce is your go-to place for merchant accounts and can address your sales concerns. From mobile sales to e-Commerce to retail point-of-sale.

The company provides three different point-of-sales systems, including Echo (tablet-based), PastePay Cloud (provides customer management relationships), and Vital (provides inventory management).

The company caters to the needs of every brick-and-mortar business while maintaining the security of a merchant account with no setup fee, gateway fee, monthly minimums, compliance fee, and month-to-month contracts.

Hence, CDG commerce will help you save thousands of dollars in the long run over other point-of-sales companies like Square. In terms of mobile compatibility, the company offers iOs and Android App for free.

Shopify

• Founded: 2004.
• Headquarters: Ottawa, Canada.

Shopify is one of the leading eCommerce giants existing in the market. It offers a complete business solution that offers you all you need to sell products both offline and online.

The company offers multiple packages catering to the needs of businesses of all sizes. From Lite to Basic to Regular to Advance to Plus – with all of them, you have access to a payment gateway from both your business website and social media accounts.

Also, it provides you with a versatile point-of-sales system that unifies both online and in-store sales. Currently, Shopify offers five packages that range from $9 and go up to $2000 for a plus plan. Choose what works the best for you.

Besides the monthly fee, you will have to pay an additional 2.7% for in-person transactions and 2.9% plus 30 cents for online transactions.

Nonetheless, our main focus is on point-of-sales, so the in-processing fee of Shopify is far better than Square only if your average transaction is less than $100.

Furthermore, Shopify’s Bluetooth-enabled chip card reader will cost you just $29, while tap and chip reader costs $49.

Stripe

• Founded: 2009.
• Headquarters: San Francisco, California, United States of America.

Stripe is a hub of point-of-sales solutions that offer seamless integration with websites and mobile apps. Perhaps it’s the only and most prominent competitor of Square and is used by large businesses including Amazon, Shopify, Google, and many more.

The company provides a versatile point-of-sales system, an ideal choice for business owners who want to have full control over the customer’s buying journey.

Also, if you have technical resources in-house, you can create an embedded checkout on your website that can be both branded and customizable to your specifications.

It’s a powerhouse payment solution for both mobile and online payments and is on our top list for B2B companies.

Payment Depot

• Founded: 2013.
• Headquarters: Orange, California, United States of America.

Payment Depot is one of the strong competitors of Square that works on a subscription-based model. Retailers are supposed to pay monthly charges in exchange for discounted wholesale payment-processing rates. For instance, you can get the cheapest credit card for payment processing if your business has a sale of over $10,000 a month.

The monthly fee charges of the software range from $79 to $199, and plus 5 or 15 cents for each transaction. Besides, it doesn’t offer dedicated point-of-sales solutions and works more like a payment processor.

The Bottom Line

The point-of-sale system is the nerve center for almost every business entity. With so many POS companies existing in the market, it makes sense to do your own calculation and do the due diligence before opting for one. However, determining the main channel of your sales (be it online, in-store, multichannel), features that are your top priority (inventory tools, marketing, etc. plays a crucial role in deciding POS system.

Albeit there will be times when Square won’t fit the needs of your business, overall, it still has a dominant position in the market. It is indeed one of our top-recommended point-of-sales and payment processing solutions.