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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Lightspeed Retail

    Score9.2 out of 10
    N/ALightspeed Retail is a retail PoS system from Lightspeed headquartered in Quebec. Core retail POS features are expanded on higher service tiers with ecommerce option and payments gateway, an accounting system, and a customer loyalty program.N/A

    Square POS

    Score9 out of 10
    N/ASquare POS is a point-of-sale software solution for restaurants, retail, or appointment-based businesses. It features numerous inventory (or menu) management and control features, and options that allow customers to pay in any way they want or can.

    $10

    per each additional reader; first reader free

    Pricing
    Lightspeed RetailSquare POS
    Editions & Modules
    Basic
    $79.00 ($69.00)
    per month (when billed annually)
    Starter
    $119.00 ($99.00)
    per month (when billed annually)
    Standard
    $139.00 ($119.00)
    per month (when billed annually)
    Advanced
    $189.00 ($169.00)
    per month (when billed annually)
    Pro
    $259.00 ($229.00)
    per month (when billed annually)
    Enterprise
    Contact Sales
    Each Transaction
    2.6% + $0.10
    per transaction
    Square Reader for magstripe
    $10
    per each additional reader; first reader free
    Square Stand for contactless and chip
    $16
    per month
    Square Terminal
    $27
    per month
    Square Register
    $39
    per 24 months
    Square Reader for contactless and chip
    $49
    per reader
    Square Point of Sale
    Free
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Lightspeed RetailSquare POS
    Free Trial
    NoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Lightspeed RetailSquare POS
    Considered Both Products
    Lightspeed
    Chose Lightspeed Retail
    Fantastically due to its powerful components combined with ease of use, support, help center, and intuitive interface. Made the choice easy to make!
    Incentivized
    Chose Lightspeed Retail
    The challenge with this is that because Lightspeed has such poor reporting with their POS, and the ability to actually see your data, it is nearly impossible to move to another POS without a very expensive integration process. So while I have explored these other options, I …
    Incentivized
    Chose Lightspeed Retail
    Vend was terrible for inventory management, as was Square. Neither worked with Shopify. We selected Lightspeed when it was still MerchantOS based on cost and functionality, and haven't left because we haven't had time to research migration costs or alternatives.
    Incentivized
    Block, Inc (Square)
    Chose Square POS
    Square is cheaper to begin using, Lightspeed costs more with setup and monthly fees in addition to fees per transaction. Rates per transactions are variable which makes everything harder to track right off. Does allow for setup of individual transaction types for speed in use …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    60%
    Would buy again
    6 Answers
    98%
    Would buy again
    39 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    70%
    Delivers good value for the price
    7 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    39 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    70%
    Happy with the feature set
    7 Answers
    95%
    Happy with the feature set
    38 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    70%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    7 Answers
    94%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    32 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    80%
    Implementation went as expected
    8 Answers
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    37 Answers
    Best Alternatives
    Lightspeed RetailSquare POS
    Small Businesses
    Square POS
    Score9 out of 10
    Clover
    Score8.9 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Enterprises
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Lightspeed RetailSquare POS
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.5
    (15 ratings)
    9.0
    (61 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Usability
    9.5
    (3 ratings)
    9.0
    (11 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.8
    (4 ratings)
    8.7
    (18 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Lightspeed RetailSquare POS
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Lightspeed
    It is perfect for any small business looking for inventory control, Tracking purchase history, and just an all round easy to use software for retail and beyond. I would not use it if I have only a few hundred items or was a larger company that can afford to build my own POS software.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Block, Inc (Square)
    Square POS is by far the easiest POS software to use at events and train additional team members on - even with temporary or first-time employees. It's easy to see how each event is doing in live time. It gives the event manager a real-time view of revenue earned. Its really easy to create/manage/delete users to keep the platform secure.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Lightspeed
    • Lightspeed Retail has great reports that are very easy to read and understand.
    • Lightspeed Retail is great to train new employees on because of its ease of use. There are not lots of different things that you have to learn just basics.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Block, Inc (Square)
    • Mobile transactions (not like from a phone, but in terms of the ability to physically relocate rapidly).
    • Simple setup.
    • Generally uncomplicated pricing.
    • Widespread customer familiarity: because it's so regularly in use in our industry (musicians/entertainment professionals), people know and trust it in a way that you might not with a different provider.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Lightspeed
    • With a larger SKU assortment size, the software really starts to struggle with doing physical inventory after scanning in a few hundred items.
    • Several times throughout each year Lightspeed went down on us (not our internet connection but actually Lightspeed verified).
    • Special order system could use a lot of modern improvements (ability to schedule ahead of time, etc.)
    • Reports are very basic, and will likely require there Lightspeed Analytics to actually get reports useful for day to day operations.
    • Weak system for receiving purchase orders.
    • Does not handle items and cases for reordering very well. Have used multiple Point of Sale systems in the past 10 years that allow to set reorder points based on single items, but reorder the case automatically, Lightspeed has no support for this.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Block, Inc (Square)
    • Too much going on for simple users. There are so many different apps and pages now that I get lost almost every time I log onto Square
    • The high percentage of fees taken from sales
    • The difficulty in changing default settings
    • The layout of the “website” you can create is truly a nightmare
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Lightspeed
    No answers on this topic
    Block, Inc (Square)
    I don't really foresee anything being able to dislodge Square from our organization—we're not evangelists or anything like that—it's just the best solution we've found for our use case. Being able to quickly handle transactions from customers and then track all of those sales for analysis/bookkeeping later on.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Lightspeed
    Simply well designed with obvious icons per component, making it easy to interface with.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Block, Inc (Square)
    We find Square POS is very user friendly. Its interface is customizable to our needs and very easy to use. Before we adopted Square POS, we used a combination of solutions from different manufacturer to try and achieve a portion of the functionality that Square POS provides under only 1 login
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Lightspeed
    I gave the rating of a 9 because ninety percent of the time when I talk to their support they're very helpful. One of the only real issues I have is there are times where the queue will be 7-9 people deep. When you have an error you don't know how to fix, sometimes this is very troubling. But overall their support is usually quick and friendly.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Block, Inc (Square)
    An admission - I have NEVER had to use Square POS support. The system is seamless, it just works! I have never had any queries about how the system worked as everything is so clearly laid out. I have never had any problems with payments. If their support systems are anywhere near as good as their software, I think we'll be in good hands.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Lightspeed
    Lightspeed is faster, sleeker and more modern than our previous POS system. I can’t express enough how easy the online store portion of Lightspeed is - it just intuitive and sometimes, is TOO easy, I feel like I have to be forgetting something. Lightspeed is staying modern and current where our previous POS was not
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Block, Inc (Square)
    We only used Square POS while we were getting set up with Authorize.Net. It isn't as flashy or recognized by the general public, but in our industry, that isn't a priority. We do very large transactions so the higher rates and fees from Square add up insanely quickly making the lower rates and fees from Authorize.Net the nail in Square's coffin for us.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Lightspeed
    • Certainly has saved money on cash-outs/ accounting due to QuickBooks integration.
    • Faster processing through tills means happier customers and more sales per hour.
    • Expensive product at $5K a year has taken away some profitability for this small business. It's way, way over priced.
    Read full review
    Block, Inc (Square)
    • The opportunity cost of waiting for payments and manually bringing them to a bank means that we don't have to visit our bank branch. That alone saves us several hours each month.
    • We can use ordinary computers and mobile devices with Square instead of paying for expensive software or terminals.
    • Our clients appreciate not having to process payments to us, and anything that helps our clients and makes them happy carries more import than I can explain in this space.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots