Square for Retail Review 2025: Features and Pricing
Square is a great POS solution for small to midsize retailers and offers both a free and low-cost software plan.
Overview
The bottom line:
Square for Retail is a top-rated POS system known for being intuitive, simple to use and affordable. Its inventory management features let business owners sync inventory across multiple channels, both in-store and online. Square offers free and paid versions of its POS software for retailers, and all plans come with a free online store. Pricing is transparent, and no contract is required.
Software details
Payment processing fees
In-person: 2.6% + $0.15
Online: 3.3% + $0.30
Monthly fee
$0
For Free plan; $49 Plus plan; $149 Premium plan.
Pros & Cons
Pros
Free software plan available.
Built-in payment processing.
Easy to set up and navigate.
Clear and transparent pricing.
Extensive list of features and add-ons.
Cons
Not a great fit for larger retailers, especially those with high sales volumes.
Doesn’t accept cross-border card payments.
Full review
Square for Retail is Square’s standard point-of-sale (POS) system with retail-specific features such as the ability to add inventory in bulk, print barcode labels and manage purchase orders and vendors. It runs on Android and iOS mobile devices and tablets, and on hardware by Square.
Square’s straightforward and transparent pricing for software and payment processing services and its easy-to-use user interface are among the reasons it’s NerdWallet’s pick for best POS system
Square for Retail is best for businesses that:
- Value pricing transparency and freedom from contracts. These are two of Square’s many selling points and help the company stand out among much of the competition in POS systems and
payment processing - Want an intuitive system that’s quick on setup and onboarding. Square is designed for easy setup and has a wealth of resources in its online help library. It’s a strong system for newer and small to midsize businesses, but larger, more established retailers may want to look elsewhere for richer inventory management features and more specialized retail capabilities.
- Already have or want to start an online presence . Both free and paid versions of Square’s retail plans allow you to create an e-commerce website with access to additional online selling features. If you already have a website for your store, you can easily integrate it with the
retail POS
Deciding factors
| Payment processing model | Flat rate. |
| Payment processing fees |
|
| Monthly fee |
|
| Hardware cost |
|
| Contract length | No contract. Upgrade, downgrade or cancel at any time without penalty. |
| Customer support | Phone support 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Pacific time, Monday to Friday, for the free version. |
Where Square for Retail stands out
Easy-to-understand pricing and no hidden fees
Signing up with Square is fairly simple and there are no setup fees. The pricing tables are easy to understand — no opaque promises to provide pricing details only if you speak to a sales representative. Square is entirely transparent with all its fees, going so far as to publish a page in its support library that lists and explains all the fees it charges as well as the many that it doesn’t (but that many competitors do).
Deep lineup of POS features and related services
The wide range of services that build on Square’s POS system reduces the need to find, learn and navigate multiple providers. For example, the POS system includes features for inventory management and shipping, add-on services such as loyalty and marketing programs, and a payroll service that integrates directly with the Square dashboard.
Square offers three versions of its retail POS software: a free version, a Plus plan and a Premium plan. Plus plan features include:
- The ability to forecast when you’ll need to reorder items.
- Barcode printing.
- Adding of inventory in bulk.
- Access to cost-of-goods-sold and profit-margin reports.
Built-in payment processing with competitive rates
Square processes every card transaction that’s run through its POS system. Its flat-rate fees are some of the most competitive in the space. Square reduces the transaction rate slightly if you use the paid Plus plan and offers custom (reduced) rates if you process a sales volume of $250,000 or more annually.
Where Square for Retail falls short
Doesn’t work with every business type
Square does not accept cross-border payments, meaning that you can't process card transactions outside the country in which you created your Square account. There is a workaround for this since you can have more than one Square account and select a different country for each, but identification information like email address and other details needs to be different across each account. Square also doesn't work with certain types of businesses, including high-risk merchants
Larger retailers might outgrow Square
Square’s ability to do a lot on one platform is a selling point, but larger businesses might be able to manage more specialized services for different areas of business operations. For instance, dedicated inventory software
Alternatives to Square for Retail
Lightspeed Retail POS
Lightspeed
Lightspeed POS
NerdWallet Rating
Monthly Fee
$89
and up.
Why we like it: Lightspeed stands out for the depth of features on its retail POS system. If you like wringing insights from the data your store generates, you’ll benefit from the dozens of reports Lightspeed creates. Larger retailers that engage in wholesale buying and/or selling could benefit from Lightspeed’s B2B trade network, NuORDER. Read our full Lightspeed Retail POS review
Monthly fees
Payment processing fees
Hardware
Shopify POS
Shopify
Shopify POS
NerdWallet Rating
Monthly Fee
$29
and up for e-commerce plans with POS Lite; Can upgrade to POS Pro for an extra $89.
Why we like it: There are stores that have a website, and there are e-commerce sites Shopify POS review
Monthly fees
Payment processing fees
Hardware
Compare POS providers
To compare POS options, check out NerdWallet’s list of point-of-sale systems
Frequently asked questions
Frequently asked questions
Square for Retail is Square’s five-star POS system with the addition of retail-specific features and optional add-ons designed with brick-and-mortar and online retailers in mind.
Square for Retail, particularly the paid Plus plan, offers a wealth of tools and features for retailers. Both the free and paid plans enable you to sort items into categories, receive alerts when your stock is running low, track stock numbers across multiple locations, build and make sales through a business website, process exchanges, manage refunds, access sales and product reports and more.
Square for Retail has a free software plan that includes quite a lot of basic retail POS functionality. However, even with the free monthly plan, you'll still have the cost of hardware and payment processing fees.