Square Pricing in May 2026

Square's pricing follows transaction-based model: 2.6% + $0.10 for in-person card payments, 2.9% + $0.30 for online, 3.5% + $0.15 for keyed-in. Square's hardware (readers, terminals, registers) ranges from $0 (free reader) to $799 (Register). Real-world Square fees scale with revenue.

The Free to Start offer is genuinely zero-upfront — no setup fees. The strategic decision: Square's value is the seamless online-and-offline integration: Square Reader plus Square Online Store plus Square Invoices share one product catalog, customer database, and reporting layer. For broader payment processing alternatives, Stripe is the broader payment-processing alternative and dominates SaaS, marketplaces, and online-only businesses — but Stripe's in-person hardware and POS offerings (Stripe Terminal) lag Square's. PayPal handles broad payment processing globally with weaker in-person presence. For pure POS systems, Toast targets restaurants; Lightspeed targets retail; Clover (now Fiserv) targets similar SMB market. Shopify POS bundles POS with Shopify e-commerce — the right choice when e-commerce is the primary channel. For payment processing specifically without POS, Adyen, Braintree (PayPal), and Checkout.com target larger businesses. For specific industries: Mindbody targets fitness and wellness; Vagaro targets beauty; Resy and OpenTable target restaurants. For freelancers and service businesses, Wave and FreshBooks include simple invoicing and payment. For payment-only mobile (sole proprietor scenarios), SumUp, iZettle (now Zettle by PayPal), and tap-to-pay on iPhone/Android handle the basics. Square's specific niche is SMB with both in-person and online sales.