Shopify vs Square: Counter First or Online First

The short answer: if most of your takings come over a counter and the website is a side window, Square Free costs $0 a month and 2.6% + 15¢ per tap, with online orders at 3.3% + 30¢. If the website is where most orders land, Shopify Basic at $39 a month on monthly billing charges 2.9% + 30¢ online and 2.6% + 10¢ in person (US rates, checked on 26 October 2026 on Square's fee article and Shopify's pricing page). Choose Square if your job is running a café, salon or shop counter with a simple online add-on. Choose Shopify if your job is an online catalogue that also sells at a counter or a pop-up.

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Square started at the card reader and grew outward: point-of-sale software it describes as free, hardware from $59, payroll, banking and a website builder for its plan subscribers, per its pricing page and website help. Shopify started with the online store and grew toward the shop floor: checkout, catalogue and channels first, then a point of sale on every plan and POS Pro at $89 a month per location for a full retail setup, per its POS pricing. Both now do both. Each still does its first job with less effort.

Price your own month first:

1. A worked month across both channels. For example, $10,000 in person over 400 sales and $2,000 online over 40 orders. Square Free: 0.026 x $10,000 + 400 x $0.15 = $320, plus 0.033 x $2,000 + 40 x $0.30 = $78, so $398 with no plan fee. Shopify Basic: 0.026 x $10,000 + 400 x $0.10 = $300, plus 0.029 x $2,000 + 40 x $0.30 = $70, plus $39 for the plan, so $409. Square Plus comes to $310 + $70 = $380 before its per-location plan price. Rates from Square's fee article and Shopify's pricing page.
2. What is already on the counter. Card readers, a till, an item library, staff logins. Hardware you own and staff already trained on it count toward staying where you are.
3. The rate to check next month. Square shows processing fees by location under Settings > Account & Settings > Pricing & subscriptions, per its fee article; Shopify shows yours in its finance reports. Divide all fees by all sales, both channels together.

Rates by the way the customer pays

US rates read on 26 October 2026 on Shopify's pricing page and Square's fee article. The monthly prices of Square Plus and Premium load on the pricing page behind a business-type selector that could not be read that day; Square's plan article confirms they are charged per active location.

Where the choice turns

Which side of the counter the system grew from

Square's free plan gives a counter everything it needs to take money, and charges at the moment of payment. Shopify's Basic plan gives an online shop everything it needs to sell, and its in-person tools on Basic are deliberately light: limited staff access to POS, simple customer profiles, returns at the original location, per its POS pricing. If the counter is the business, you would be buying POS Pro to get what Square includes.

Staff and locations

On Shopify, Grow adds unlimited POS logins and POS Pro adds staff roles and permissions, in-store inventory and pickup at $89 a month per location (POS pricing). On Square, the paid plans are priced per location and include all point-of-sale modes. Three shops change the sum on both sides; price them before choosing.

What leaving costs

Square says it has no locked-in contracts and charges no early termination fee (pricing page, fee article). Shopify lets you cancel at any time, except a one or three-year Plus term, per its pricing FAQ.

Read your payment mix with Square's MCP server

Square runs a Model Context Protocol server, in beta, that connects an AI assistant to the Square API: customers, orders, items and payments. It recommends the remote server at https://mcp.squareup.com/mcp, where you sign in with OAuth and authorise only the scopes the job needs.

1. Connect it and grant read access only. The remote server reaches live production data, and Square advises testing prompts against a Sandbox account first.
2. Ask for the last 90 days of payments split into card present, online and keyed in, with counts, totals and fees, month by month.
3. The human check: someone compares the totals with the sales and fee reports in Square Dashboard for the same dates before the numbers go into the sheet from point 1.

Shopify's assistant, Sidekick, can run the same summary on Shopify's side once a store exists there.

The free numbers come first

Square Free costs nothing to start, and Shopify gives three days free and then $1 a month for three months (pricing page). The worked month above, done with your own statements, decides more than either trial.

Look closely at what the $0 plan charges online. Square Free takes 3.3% + 30¢ on an online or invoice payment where Plus takes 2.9% + 30¢, per the fee article: the free plan is paid for at the checkout, one order at a time, and the gap grows with every online sale you add. Once online orders pass a few thousand a month, ask Square for the Plus price at your locations and compare.

Square, when the business is

• A café, salon or shop where most sales are taps at a counter.
• One or two locations with a simple website for orders or bookings.
• A team that wants no contract and no plan fee to start.

Shopify, when the business is

• An online catalogue, with in-person sales at a counter, market or pop-up.
• Stock across several places, up to 10 inventory locations on Basic.
• Selling on marketplaces, social and AI chats from one admin.

The Shopify entry covers its plans and card rates, and answering store questions with an AI agent shows a Shopify store's chat run by an agent. Square has no entry on this site.

If the comparison began because the till runs on one system, the web shop on another and stock is reconciled in a spreadsheet each weekend, the tool is not the problem. A one-week stack review, the Startup Fixer, which I sell, maps the systems and that weekend job before you swap anything.

FAQ

Does Square charge a monthly fee?

Not on Square Free, which charges only when you take a payment. Square Plus and Premium are priced per active location, per Square's plan article.

Can Shopify take payments in a shop?

Yes, with a phone or a card reader on every plan, at 2.6% + 10¢ on Basic. Staff roles, in-store inventory and pickup need POS Pro at $89 a month per location (POS pricing).

Does Square include an online store?

Yes. Square Free, Plus and Premium subscribers can build a website that sells their items and uses Square's payment processing, per Square's website help.