TrustRadius Insights
Square POS has proven to be an invaluable tool for a wide range of businesses and organizations. Users rely on Square POS to handle …
Starting at $10 per each additional reader; first reader free
View PricingOverview
What is Square POS?
Square POS is a point-of-sale software solution with features such as accept credit cards with your iPhone, Android, and iPad along with the flexibility to accept credit card payments anywhere, from Square headquartered in San Francisco, California.
Recent Reviews
Awards
Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards
Pricing
Each Transaction
2.6% + $0.10
On Premise
per transaction
Square Reader for magstripe
$10
On Premise
per each additional reader; first reader free
Square Stand for contactless and chip
$16
On Premise
per month
Entry-level set up fee?
- No setup fee
Offerings
- Free Trial
- Free/Freemium Version
- Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Product Details
- About
- Tech Details
- FAQs
What is Square POS?
Square POS Video
The TrustRadius team goes over some of the best free POS software and services, which includes Square POS.
Square POS Technical Details
| Deployment Types | On-premise, Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based |
|---|---|
| Operating Systems | Mac |
| Mobile Application | No |
Frequently Asked Questions
Square POS is a point-of-sale software solution with features such as accept credit cards with your iPhone, Android, and iPad along with the flexibility to accept credit card payments anywhere, from Square headquartered in San Francisco, California.
Reviewers rate Usability highest, with a score of 9.6.
The most common users of Square POS are from Small Businesses (1-50 employees).
Comparisons
Compare with
Reviews and Ratings
(90)
Community Insights
TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!
- Business Problems Solved
- Pros
- Cons
Square POS has proven to be an invaluable tool for a wide range of businesses and organizations. Users rely on Square POS to handle transactions on the go, whether it's at festivals, events, or remote locations. It has simplified the process of accepting payments and making sales at various venues such as cash bars, concerts, weddings, and sporting events. The reliability and convenience of Square POS have made it a preferred choice for on-site payments.
Additionally, Square POS has been utilized by digital marketing agencies for charging clients, saving card information, and authorizing monthly payments. Retail businesses find it beneficial for accepting credit card payments, tracking sales and inventory, and issuing receipts. Independent stylists and makeup artists have also found value in Square POS for appointments, invoicing, inventory management, and sales.
Organizations and departments use Square POS for events, fairs, and merchandise fees. With its intuitive customer database and marketing strategies, Square POS helps analyze store traffic, manage inventory, and improve bookkeeping and accounting tasks. Moreover, Square POS is being used for online credit card payments on e-commerce sites as well as in-person sales using the Square reader for iPhones.
Business owners from various industries appreciate the ease of processing payments, availability of data for reporting and tax accounting, and the user-friendly interface of Square POS. Whether it's selling clothing and branded merchandise or collecting dues for organizations, users have found that Square POS streamlines their transactions, manages inventory effectively, and generates comprehensive reports. Additionally, Square POS caters to therapists collecting credit card payments easily without delays while providing a secure solution for fundraising events.
Clean and Intuitive Interface: Many users have praised Square POS for its clean and intuitive interface, stating that it is easy to use and navigate. Customers appreciate the simplicity of the user interface, which is clearly laid out and familiar to anyone with experience using smartphones, computers, or tablets.
Real-Time Sales Tracking: Numerous reviewers have found Square POS's real-time updates on tickets sold and revenue made to be invaluable. This feature allows businesses to easily track their sales performance and analyze their business metrics. Users appreciate having up-to-date information at their fingertips, enabling them to make informed decisions about their operations.
Customizable Options: Several customers have expressed appreciation for the variety of customizable options offered by Square POS. They like being able to tailor the system to their specific needs and business requirements. This flexibility allows them to adapt the software to their unique business models, making it a versatile solution for different types of businesses.
Clunky hardware design: Some users have found the hardware of Square POS to be clunky, particularly the chip reader when paired with phones. This has led to difficulties in using the device effectively and may impact the overall user experience.
Limited sales reporting flexibility: The software lacks flexible categorization in sales reports, making it challenging for users to drill down into their data and gain specific insights. Users have expressed frustration with this limitation as it hinders their ability to analyze sales performance thoroughly.
Inconvenient access to sales summaries: Users have reported difficulty accessing sales summaries on the phone app and are required to download an additional app, Square Dashboard, which adds an extra step and can cause inconvenience. This issue has been mentioned by several reviewers and may disrupt the seamless workflow for some users.
Attribute Ratings
Reviews
(26-50 of 58)Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
September 19, 2020
Super Easy to Train Employees to Use
- Easy for new employees to learn how to use.
- Awesome reporting for accounting and business metrics.
- Easy to use with customers no matter their age.
- Switching between employees could be better, employees get confused what account is signed in for the register so that is a problem and causes commission issues.
- Pricing is a flat rate which is expensive when you are just starting out.
September 19, 2020
Open your Business with the well-known and reliable Square POS
- Quick easy setup of items
- Banking connection is quick and payments processed timely
- Employee management is a great addon.
- Cost of goods sold
- More fluid reporting
September 18, 2020
Square POS: Easy to use anywhere, anytime!
- Ease of use for customer
- Ease of use for the business
- Low cost of use for the business
- Free Square POS unit
- Separating charges was complicated at first, so it's not entirely user-friendly until you become familiar with the system.
- The card reader didn't always function properly and we had to manually put the customer information into the system, but it worked most of the time.
- Easier to navigate
January 29, 2020
Works Fine, But Not The Best Fit
- Easy to use on the spot for an instant transfer.
- Square Reader is just one piece of hardware to use.
- I have several customers that don’t trust the Square POS system.
- Doesn’t integrate with the Acuity Scheduling software I use.
December 02, 2019
Super Easy to Use Square POS Suitable for Any Environment
- Super easy to use.
- Works just as well from my iPhone as it does on an iPad or anything else.
- Reporting functionality is great.
- The website builder functionality on the desktop version is difficult to navigate but looks super clean
November 20, 2019
A very versatile business payment solution
- The fee structure is very easy to understand and is fair.
- Swiped transactions and keyed transactions are equally easy.
- There are many employee management features inside of the app.
- None
November 13, 2019
If you sell anything, take payments, have inventory, want to track sales, or anything related to business - use Square.
- Inventory
- Sales tracking and predictions
- Ease of setup
- Simple payment processing
- The Bluetooth device, chip reader/tap, would disconnect frequently.
- They just increased the per transaction fee from a fixed percentage to a lower percentage + flat cost.
November 12, 2019
Big benefits for small business
- Easy navigation of the dashboard.
- Tons of options for what types of data I want to view.
- Ability to look at trends within a variety of parameters such as dates and times.
- I do not like the new fee per transaction because we are a business with a lot of small transactions so it hits us hard.
- Difficulty getting the app to connect on the iPad.
- Wish the interface on the iPhone was similar to that on the iPad for ease of ringing items.
November 12, 2019
Square POS isn't just for squares...great for everyone!
- Creating and tracking invoices. You can develop a database, which helps to ensure that invoices are going to the correct contact person and then notifies me when they are paid or overdue.
- Inventory. Square makes it very easy to keep track of what inventory we have and compare it to what is actually on the shelves.
- Keep your iPad up to date. When the software needs updated, Square gets slow and clunky. It needs the most updated versions of everything.
November 12, 2019
Good value and quick to deploy!
- Invoicing
- Sales processing
- Revenue collection
- Easier workflow
- Better UX
October 15, 2019
Payments right from your phone
- It can easily work from any smartphone or tablet.
- It allows us to use chips, swipe or manually enter the card number.
- It allows set up for recurring payments.
- The recurring payments are tricky to do and storing credit card numbers was easier in the past.
- The card reader does not always connect to the phone creating a delay in payment and sometimes needing to manually enter the number.
October 03, 2019
Square POS a thoroughly recommended POS system
- Very intuitive system - easy to use, clearly laid out
- Excellent reporting capabilities
- Fast payments
- Reasonable fees
- The cost of the hardware (specific scanners and receipt printers) was prohibitive for my company, and whilst we managed without them, they would have been nice to have. The range of scanners and printers that integrate with Square is small, so despite our devices' capabilities to read barcodes (we used ipads) and the Zebra receipt/label printers we had, we couldn't use either as the system wouldn't integrate with them.
- Whilst Square's credit card reader is nifty in design, it's a bit small and lacking substance to have as a customer-facing reader so it really needs the dock the company offers. The dock is awkward to open to reset or pair the reader. We often found pairing the reader with the device running the system tricky and confusing, relying on pressing one button and then interpreting a sequence of lights that often caused confusion. The pairing process might have been clearer presented through the device rather than the reader.
- Truly can't think of any more!
- Easy tracking of payment receipts for the user.
- Easy sending receipts for payors.
- Easy use, particularly with the chip reader.
- Very quick processing time, regardless of connection speed we have had great results.
- Easy to set up quick shortcut options as well as create custom transactions.
- Their old swipe option was very difficult, it rarely correctly reads cards and requires manual input of numbers, chip reader addresses this problem.
- If you don't input customer information, it can be difficult to quickly look at records and know which transaction was for what or whom.
January 04, 2019
Great System
- taking several different methods of credit card payments ie. swipe, tap, chip, and apple/android pay
- Itemized pos system allows us to use a tablet for all our register needs. We do not use the print or cash box functions, but we use it for credit card payments strictly. We hope to eventually switch over completely to Square POS
- Easy to use and great customer support
- If you want to do more than just take credit cards there is a plethora of equipment to choose from. It can get pretty expensive to set up though when purchasing equipment.
- You are only as fast as your internet/cell service signal which can slow things down a bit. They do have an offline mode, but that can be risky because you don't really know if the card went through until you get back to service.
November 12, 2018
Square POS - A Must Have For Small Business!
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
- It keeps track of my earnings & expenses & offers me a variety of ways to view & track the data.
- Provides an easily customizable scheduling interface, which allows me the ability to update my hours from day to day or week to week, see scheduled appointments, & accept or reject potential appointments.
- Provides both text & email appointment confirmation/reminders to my clients, automatically, saving me time.
- I think the menu (both on the app & the online version) is a little disorganized & could stand to be improved/streamlined.
- Would like to see the ability to add more customization to the scheduling website (ie: ability to customize text, insert breaks/paragraphs in service descriptions, etc.)
- Ability to quickly add custom line items to a client's visit when checking out, rather than needing to choose from a pre-set list. Occasionally I need to add on a service or retail item that has not yet been entered into the list. Currently, I am unable to simply add this within the transaction. Instead, I have to go out of the transaction & into my retail or service list, create a new item (adding description, etc.,) save it, then return to the transaction to add it to the ticket.
August 02, 2018
SQUARE - the only POS you'll ever need!
- Simple design. It's simplistic design and minimalist approach is a joy to use.
- Easy set-up. Took around 15 minutes to have it up and running.
- User-friendly. Not difficult to understand how it works because it is designed to be very intuitive.
- Cannot edit how the buttons look on the sales side. While I appreciate the minimalist approach, I wish minor adjustments could be made.
- Square Stand doesn't always stick well to the countertop. We cannot glue or screw down the device (per our preference) but when rotating it to a customer it is usually a two-handed job because the base turns as well and messes up the cord.
- Cables are minimal but not easy to hide. I wish it had a small box to put the cables into that could be secured to a wall beneath the counter. This just causes for clutter and concern that the cables (which are not braided) could easily be torn.
April 12, 2018
Quick & Easy: Square POS
- Cash transactions
- E-receipts
- Quick sales
- Slow transactions: This could be a wifi issue, but sometimes the program freezes.
April 02, 2018
Excellent for on the go payments!
- Mobile payments
- Fast application updates
- Minimizing swipe errors
- Keeping up with changing needs (updated security measures of card company)
- Charge for more employees
- Easier adapted for iPhone 8 model
March 22, 2018
Square POS for My Small Business
- The Square POS software is free to download (the physical card reader was also sent for free). I was happy to sign up for a POS system without having to pay a monthly fee.
- The interface of Square is minimalistic and easy to navigate. Even those who are not very tech savvy will be able to use it with little effort.
- Square POS automatically sends payments to my bank account without my needing to log in and transfer funds. Other bank-to-bank apps I've used don't initiate that transfer automatically.
- I have not been able to find a way to directly contact support for Square POS. It would be good to have some sort of system of support for customers.
- When using the Square app on my phone, I'm not able to access all its features - I need to go online from a computer for this. It would be nice to have more control on my phone.
- If the card reader is unable to read a card, I have to pay a higher fee to enter the card number manually.
- After you set a daily processing deadline time, charges processed by that time are deposited the next business day.
- The reporting dash board looks overwhelming but that's because it has all of the the information that you've processed before. That was invaluable when we recently went to look at the detail on a two year old transaction and were able to find the information by ourselves.
- The ability to use multiple devices is great. We can process charges on a computer, a tablet, or even a smartphone.
- Receipts are automatically sent to the customer's preferred email or texted to their phone.
- There is a lot of unbundling of services that could make it seem like you are always getting pitched for something new. And the company is constantly introducing new services so there is a steady stream of marketing.
- The interface becomes cluttered with those services even if you don't sign up for them.
- The interface with QuickBooks got good reviews, but our experience interfacing QuickBooks Online with Square did not work well and cost us money for our accountant to untangle the mess. Square could have used a good onboarding process there.
November 07, 2017
Square POS is a Yes
- Square is easy to set up and payments are received in the bank in a very timely manner.
- Square has done a great job a creating brand recognition and clients are happy to use it.
- Square fees are reasonable/competitive.
- Square readers are easy to use with our iPhones and iPads - unplug from one, plug into another. GREAT.
- I'm pretty happy with Square. Perhaps adding a carrying case for those of us that frequently work onsite at other people's place of business.
- Having an online button to do Square payments on one's website (like PayPal buy now buttons) would be GREAT.
November 07, 2017
Square makes capturing donations easy too.
- It's simple to use.
- It provides options in the way that donors/customers receive receipts or verification of the transaction.
- It's pretty affordable.
- On occasion, the card reader doesn't function 100% well, but this keeps improving.
November 06, 2017
Square it up!
- The interface is clean and easy to use for both retailers and the customers. Simple instructions and prompts lead the customer through the transaction, and a receipt can be emailed or texted at the end. At the end of the day, or week, or month, it is easy to track what sold, and in what quantities, and total sales.
- Once a customer pays with Square POS (even with another retailer) their email/phone info can be saved for future use, making transactions even quicker. It is easy to apply discounts or change tax settings for another location. Customers can split transactions (say two people each want to pay half) with ease. While not ideal, the ability to take payment offline can be helpful at times if service is poor.
- The ability to manage inventory on the app is very helpful as well. Knowing what the best-sellers are as well as what stock levels are low is very important for a business.
- The transaction fees are very comparable to competitors.
- If you have to enter the card manually, the transaction fee is 1% higher. We keep cards on file for wholesale orders and often run them through this way. Using Square Invoicing (having customers pay on their end) can avoid this problem.
- Using the app on a phone, you can't access sales summaries. You have to download an additional app, Square Dashboard to view these things.
- The chip card reader we use works well sometimes and seems to go in and out other times.
November 03, 2017
Easy, Quick, Professional - Square great for the small business.
- Clients feel comfortable using Square as it is a leader in small business transactions
- Creates a receipt for the customer
- Tracks finances, which is especially nice when attending high volume sales events
- I would like to see some type of incentive or way to eliminate the transaction fees.
- I dont believe there is a way to set up reoccurring payments
- The 1099-K is only eligible for users who process over 20,000 which is a lot for a small business who only uses Square occasionally
November 03, 2017
Square POS is Simply Awesome!
- You're able to organize your products and services neatly in your POS in order to easily track or change pricing and inventory.
- Customers can choose between digital and printed receipts to save money on paper.
- You can track and analyze your sales by item, category, etc. and see what’s working/selling for your business and what's not.
- I wish Square was able to take the e-gift cards online instead of in-store only.
- I wish you were able to copy a product (and its modifiers) in the case that you have a lot of options for one specific item. (flavors, scents, etc.)
- I wish their was a phone app that you could easily manage inventory and complete open sales through. For example... sending tracking # for a completed item via phone app.