Square POS vs Shopify POS

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Our analysts compared Square POS vs Shopify POS based on data from our 400+ point analysis of POS Software, user reviews and our own crowdsourced data from our free software selection platform.

Product Basics

Square is a cloud-based POS system for retail stores of all sizes. It automatically creates customer profiles and tracks their information and purchase histories. Its key capabilities include sales reports, online payment processing, inventory tracking control, marketing campaigns, digital receipts, sales management, e-commerce and more. It accepts offline payments and automatically syncs payment information when mobile devices reconnect.

It is available on Android and iOS devices and includes optional hardware such as terminals, cash drawers, scanners, scales and card readers. Users can manage order pick-ups from third-party services like DoorDash, Postmates and more.

Pros
  • Easy to use and set up
  • Affordable pricing plans
  • Mobile payments and online ordering
  • Integrates with Square ecosystem
  • Free basic plan available
Cons
  • Limited customization options
  • May not be suitable for high-volume businesses
  • Transaction fees can add up
  • Limited reporting features in free plan
  • Customer support could be improved
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Shopify POS simplifies in-store and online sales management for various business types. Its strength lies in its intuitiveness and seamless integration with the Shopify e-commerce platform, making it ideal for entrepreneurs and small to medium-sized businesses already using Shopify. Key benefits include streamlined inventory tracking, omnichannel customer management, and robust reporting for data-driven insights. Popular features include a user-friendly interface, mobile app for managing sales on the go, and built-in payment processing. Compared to similar systems, Shopify POS emphasizes ease of use and affordability, while some users find its feature set less comprehensive for complex retail needs. Pricing starts at $29 per month, with transaction fees applying to processed payments.

Pros:
  • Easy to use
  • Omnichannel sales
  • Mobile app
  • Good reporting
  • Affordable
Cons:
  • Limited features
  • Transaction fees
  • Not for complex needs
  • Integrations costly
  • Customer support inconsistent
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$29 Monthly, Freemium, Plus Transaction Fees
Get a free price quote
Tailored to your specific needs
$29 Monthly
Get a free price quote
Tailored to your specific needs
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Windows
Mac
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Android
Chromebook
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Mobile
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Mobile

Product Assistance

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In Person
Live Online
Videos
Webinars
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Videos
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Email
Phone
Chat
FAQ
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Knowledge Base
24/7 Live Support
Email
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24/7 Live Support

Product Insights

  • Streamlined Operations: Simplify day-to-day tasks like sales, inventory management, and employee management with an intuitive interface and mobile accessibility. Square POS offers a clean and user-friendly interface that minimizes the learning curve for new users and streamlines operations for established businesses. Additionally, its mobile app allows you to manage your business on the go, whether you're taking inventory, processing payments, or checking sales reports.
  • Omnichannel Engagement: Facilitate seamless omnichannel experiences by offering mobile payments, online ordering, and click-and-collect options. In today's digital age, customers expect a smooth and consistent experience across all channels. Square POS empowers you to meet these expectations by providing omnichannel features that bridge the gap between physical and online storefronts.
  • Scalability and Flexibility: Adapt to your evolving business needs with a range of pricing plans and integrations with Square's broader ecosystem of tools. Square POS doesn't lock you into a one-size-fits-all solution. With its flexible pricing plans and vast ecosystem of integrations, you can tailor the system to your specific needs and budget, whether you're a small startup or a growing enterprise.
  • Data-Driven Decisions: Gain valuable insights into your business performance with sales reports, inventory tracking, and customer analytics. Square POS equips you with the data you need to make informed decisions. Its comprehensive reporting and analytics suite provides insights into sales trends, customer behavior, and inventory levels, empowering you to optimize your operations and marketing strategies.
  • Enhanced Customer Experience: Delight your customers with features like loyalty programs, gift cards, and email marketing tools. Square POS goes beyond just processing transactions. It helps you build stronger customer relationships by offering tools to implement loyalty programs, send personalized marketing campaigns, and offer convenient gift card options.
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  • Seamless omnichannel experience: Bridge the gap between your online store and physical location. Manage inventory, track sales, and engage customers across channels for a unified shopping experience.
  • Effortless inventory management: Real-time stock updates across all channels eliminate overselling and ensure accurate fulfillment. Say goodbye to manual spreadsheets and hello to streamlined inventory control.
  • Data-driven insights for smarter decisions: Gain valuable insights into sales trends, customer behavior, and product performance. Make informed decisions about inventory, pricing, and marketing based on real-time data.
  • Simplified customer management: Create customer profiles, track purchase history, and personalize interactions. Build lasting relationships and encourage repeat business with a focus on customer satisfaction.
  • Mobile agility, anywhere, anytime: Manage your business on the go with the mobile POS app. Process sales, track inventory, and access crucial data – all from your smartphone or tablet.
  • Secure and reliable payments: Accept a variety of payment methods securely with built-in payment processing. Reduce fraud risk and streamline transactions for a smooth checkout experience.
  • Scalability for your growing business: Start small and easily scale your POS system as your business grows. Choose from flexible pricing plans and add-ons to fit your evolving needs.
  • Intuitive and user-friendly interface: Even tech novices can navigate the POS with ease. The clean, organized design and helpful tutorials make it easy to train staff and get up and running quickly.
  • Boost operational efficiency: Reduce manual tasks, streamline workflows, and save valuable time. Automate key processes like inventory management and customer data collection for a more efficient operation.
  • Focus on what matters most: Free yourself from tedious tasks and focus on growing your business. The POS takes care of the behind-the-scenes work, allowing you to dedicate your energy to customer service, marketing, and product development.
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  • Intuitive Register Interface: Easy-to-use touch-screen interface with customizable menu items, modifiers, and employee permissions.
  • Payment Processing: Accept all major credit cards, debit cards, contactless payments, gift cards, and cash.
  • Inventory Management: Track stock levels, set low-stock alerts, and generate purchase orders.
  • Employee Management: Track employee hours, create schedules, and manage payroll.
  • Customer Relationship Management (CRM): Store customer information, track purchase history, and send targeted marketing campaigns.
  • Sales Reporting: Generate reports on sales, inventory, employee performance, and customer behavior.
  • Mobile App: Access Square POS from your smartphone or tablet to process payments, manage inventory, and view reports on the go.
  • Online Ordering: Allow customers to order and pay online for pickup or delivery.
  • Loyalty Program: Reward customers for repeat business with points, discounts, and special offers.
  • Gift Cards: Sell physical and digital gift cards to boost sales and customer loyalty.
  • Integrations: Connect Square POS with other business tools, such as accounting software, payroll providers, and email marketing platforms.
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  • Online Inventory: Sell products online from a scalable, fully-featured eCommerce website. Generate purchase orders, categorize products, adjust stocks, transfer inventory, accept returns, process exchanges and access updated information across stores instantly. 
  • Reporting: Use daily reports based on in-store and online business data on a single dashboard. Gain actionable insights into total orders, customer buying patterns, staff performance, inventory sales, returns, taxes, payments and more to make strategic decisions. 
  • Payments: Track credit and debit card payments, accept multiple payment types for a single transaction, sell gift cards, create custom payment options and integrate with third-party payment providers. 
  • Customizations: Responsive and customizable templates are available for the website with varied layouts, colors, fonts, content and more. 
  • Smooth Checkouts: Provide rebates, BOGO discounts, gift card redemption and other offers at the time of checkout using the smart grid that adapts to actions in the cart and avoids manual calculations. Add taxes, create discount codes, set prices and more for a quick checkout experience. 
  • Staff Management: Track staff performance, assign unique PINs, add new employees, attribute commissions, define job functions, send approvals and grant control permission with on-the-go labor management tools. 
  • Marketing: Boost customer retention and improve sales with robust marketing strategies. Use innovative collections to automatically sort products, start Google Ads campaigns, send customer-specific emails, offer exclusive promotions, optimize campaigns and more. 
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Product Ranking

#13

among all
POS Software

#27

among all
POS Software

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Analyst Rating Summary

92
87
100
100
100
87
100
80
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Compliance and Security
Customer and Loyalty Management
Employee Management
Integration and Extensibility
Items and Service Management
Compliance and Security
Integration and Extensibility
Reporting and Insights
Inventory Management
Sales and Marketing Management

Analyst Ratings for Functional Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

Square POS
Shopify POS
+ Add Product + Add Product
Compliance And Security Customer And Loyalty Management Employee Management Inventory Management Items And Service Management Payment Transactions And Cash Management POS Hardware Reporting And Insights Sales And Marketing Management Store Management Types Of POS 100 100 100 98 100 100 74 100 74 69 100 100 87 80 88 80 87 74 100 88 75 87 0 25 50 75 100
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29%
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44%
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88%
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Analyst Ratings for Technical Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

100%
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User Sentiment Summary

Excellent User Sentiment 2169 reviews
Great User Sentiment 328 reviews
93%
of users recommend this product

Square POS has a 'excellent' User Satisfaction Rating of 93% when considering 2169 user reviews from 3 recognized software review sites.

89%
of users recommend this product

Shopify POS has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 89% when considering 328 user reviews from 2 recognized software review sites.

4.6 (495)
4.4 (241)
4.7 (1637)
4.6 (87)
4.5 (37)
n/a

Awards

SelectHub research analysts have evaluated Square POS and concluded it deserves the award for the Best Overall POS Software available today and earns best-in-class honors for Compliance and Security, Customer and Loyalty Management, Items and Service Management, Payment Transactions and Cash Management and Types of POS. Square POS stands above the rest by achieving an ‘Excellent’ rating as a User Favorite.

Analysts' Pick Award
User Favorite Award
Compliance and Security Award
Customer and Loyalty Management Award
Items and Service Management Award
Payment Transactions and Cash Management Award
Types of POS Award

SelectHub research analysts have evaluated Shopify POS and concluded it earns best-in-class honors for Compliance and Security.

Compliance and Security Award

Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

User-Friendly: 96% of users who reviewed this element said the software is flexible and mobile with a clean user interface.
Economical: According to 70% of users who mentioned this aspect, the pricing is fair and competitive.
Card Payments: 80% of users who reviewed payments said the platform is useful for processing cashless transactions with cards and sending invoices.
Invoicing: Regarding this feature, 95% of users said it’s easy to create, add and send invoices to clients.
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Simplified Inventory Management: Shopify POS automatically tracks inventory levels, reducing manual updates and preventing overselling. Users reported a 40% decrease in time spent on inventory reconciliation thanks to this feature.
Seamless Payment Processing: Accept a wide range of payment methods, including credit cards, debit cards, and popular digital wallets, for faster checkouts. This flexibility helps reduce abandoned carts and boosts customer satisfaction.
Mobile POS Flexibility: Manage your store from anywhere with the mobile app, ideal for pop-up shops or on-the-go sales. This allows for greater business agility and caters to diverse sales environments.
Valuable Sales Insights: Generate detailed reports on sales, product performance, and staff activity to make data-driven decisions. Users highlighted the ability to track individual staff performance as particularly helpful for sales training and staff motivation.
Easy Customer Management: Create customer profiles, track purchase history, and offer targeted promotions for improved customer loyalty. This personalization fosters stronger customer relationships and repeat business.
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Costly for high-volume transactions: The per-transaction fees become significant as your business grows, pushing Square beyond cost-effective for many merchants.
Limited reporting and inventory: Users find Square's reports lack depth and flexibility, making detailed sales analysis and inventory management challenging.
Unreliable customer support: Users report difficulty reaching support, long wait times, and frustrating email-only communication, leaving them feeling helpless when issues arise.
Account holddowns and closures: Square's automated fraud detection can lead to sudden account freezes and closures, causing business disruptions and difficulties resolving the issue.
Clunky hardware: Some users find the Square hardware, particularly the chip reader, clunky and frustrating to use, impacting checkout workflow and customer experience.
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Limited Free Tier Options: Access to basic POS features requires at least the Basic Shopify plan, which may not be budget-friendly for small businesses with low transaction volume.
Transaction Fees for Non-Shopify Payments: Using third-party payment processors alongside Shopify POS incurs additional transaction fees, potentially outweighing the benefits for low-volume merchants.
Learning Curve for Advanced Features: While basic functionality is user-friendly, unlocking advanced features like gift cards or discounts can require extensive setup and troubleshooting, especially for non-technical users.
Limited Customization Options: While themes offer some customization, heavily branded businesses may find the Shopify interface lacks flexibility for achieving a truly unique storefront aesthetic.
Integration Challenges with Specific Industries: While Shopify integrates with many apps, businesses with specific needs like restaurants or salons may experience limitations or require additional paid integrations.
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Square POS shines for its ease of use and affordability for small businesses, especially those starting out. Users praise its intuitive interface, seamless setup, and mobile accessibility, making it a breeze to ring up customers and manage basic sales. It also integrates well with popular tools like email marketing and accounting software, offering a centralized platform for managing various aspects of their business. However, Square's appeal wanes as businesses grow. Users lament its limited reporting and inventory management features, lacking the depth and customization offered by competitors like Shopify POS or Clover. Square's higher transaction fees for larger volumes also become a drawback compared to options like Stripe, which offer lower rates based on monthly transaction volume. Furthermore, Square's customer support receives mixed reviews. While some appreciate its responsiveness, others face frustrating wait times and limited communication channels, especially compared to the dedicated phone and live chat support offered by competitors. Overall, Square POS is a strong contender for solopreneurs and micro-businesses seeking a user-friendly and affordable POS solution. However, its limitations become apparent as businesses scale, pushing them towards more robust and feature-rich platforms. The choice ultimately boils down to prioritizing ease of use and affordability in the early stages versus scalability and advanced features as a business grows.

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Shopify POS emerges from user reviews as a user-friendly and reliable option for basic POS needs. Its tight integration with the Shopify ecommerce platform syncs inventory and customer data seamlessly, saving time and streamlining operations. Users particularly appreciate the mobile app flexibility for pop-up shops and on-the-go sales, a feature lacking in some competitors like Square. However, Shopify POS's limited free tier and transaction fees for non-Shopify payments might deter smaller businesses. While praised for its ease of use, Shopify POS can feel restrictive for advanced features like gift cards and discounts, requiring more technical know-how compared to Square's intuitive setup. Additionally, while offering themes, Shopify's customization options might not satisfy businesses seeking a truly unique storefront aesthetic, especially when compared to Wix's design freedom. Overall, Shopify POS shines for its user-friendliness, ecommerce integration, and mobile flexibility. However, its pricing structure and learning curve for advanced features might push smaller businesses or those with specific industry needs towards competitors like Square or Wix. Ultimately, the choice depends on individual priorities and business size.

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Screenshots

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