Square POS Review 2026: Honest Costs, Real Trade-offs

Affiliate disclosure: We earn a commission if you sign up through our links. This does not affect our scores — Square’s 8.5 reflects what we actually found when we tested it.

What Square actually costs

The marketing page says “£0/mo”. That is technically accurate for the software. What it omits: every card payment costs 1.75% in the UK (in-person). At £20,000/month card volume:

• Software: £0/yr (free plan)
• Processing: £4,200/yr (1.75% x £240,000)
• Hardware: £19–£429 one-time

Year-one all-in: approximately £4,219–£4,629.

Compare that to Toast at the same volume: software £828/yr + processing £5,976/yr + hardware £799–£1,799 = £7,603–£8,603 year one. Square wins on year-one cost — but only because of the hardware delta and contract-free start.

The Gate-20 insight applied to Square

Square recovers margin on processing rate. The “free plan” is not free — it’s a subscription-free entry point into a 1.75% processing relationship. At under £5,000/mo card volume, 1.75% = £87.50/mo, which is genuinely cheap. At £20,000/mo it’s £350/mo — more than Toast Essentials’ software fee.

The take: Square is cheapest for low-volume operators and mobile traders. It is not cheapest above £15K/mo card volume once you factor in interchange-plus alternatives.

Hardware

Square’s hardware ecosystem is the least locked-in in the market. You can use the £19 magstripe reader, the £49 contactless reader, the £149 Square Terminal, or the £429 Square Register. None of these are proprietary in the sense that your data is portable — you can export everything and move to another POS without writing off hardware. That is the meaningful lock-in comparison to Toast and Clover.

Features that actually work

• Dashboard and reporting: genuinely good. Sales by item, by hour, by staff member, all real-time.
• Inventory: solid for under 2,000 SKUs. Matrix inventory (size x colour) is supported in Square for Retail but clunky for more than 3 attributes.
• Online ordering: Square Online works. First-party online ordering for restaurants requires Square for Restaurants (free or £49/mo).
• Offline mode: works for card-present payments up to £200; queues sync when connectivity returns.

Features that disappoint

• Kitchen display system (KDS): Square’s KDS is functional but thin compared to Toast’s. For a high-volume restaurant, Toast’s kitchen workflow is materially better.
• Multi-location: works above 1 location but consolidated reporting feels bolted on rather than native.
• Accounting sync: QuickBooks integration exists; Xero via third-party connector only.

Who should use Square

• Single-location cafe, QSR, or boutique retailer
• Mobile trader or market stall (Square Reader at £49)
• Anyone who wants to start this week with zero upfront commitment
• Shopify migrants who want to stay platform-agnostic

Who should not use Square

• High-volume restaurant (Toast or Lightspeed Restaurant wins on kitchen workflow)
• Multi-location chain (Lightspeed or Toast Pro handles consolidated reporting better)
• Anyone processing above £40,000/mo card volume (interchange-plus through Lightspeed or a third-party processor will undercut Square’s flat 1.75%)

The verdict

Square is the right starting point for 70% of the businesses that read this review. It is not the right endpoint for businesses that grow beyond £20K/mo card volume or past 3 locations. Start on Square, validate your business, then switch — Square makes that exit easy. That is its competitive advantage over Toast and Clover.