Square

Who Square is for

Square is the default choice for businesses just getting started with card payments. No monthly fee, no contract, no application process. You sign up, plug in a $49 reader, and start accepting cards. For businesses processing under $10,000 per month, that simplicity has real value.

Square also has the broadest POS ecosystem of any flat-rate processor. There are dedicated apps for restaurants, retail, appointments, and online stores, all integrated with the same payment processing. If you need a POS system and a processor in one package with zero setup friction, Square is hard to beat.

Square just got more expensive

In January 2026, Square raised online processing rates on the Free plan from 2.9% + $0.30 to 3.3% + $0.30. That is a 14% increase. For a business processing $10,000/month in online sales, that is an extra $40 per month ($480/year) in fees.

Square also quietly increased the per-transaction fee from $0.10 to $0.15 across all in-person plans. On its own, $0.05 per transaction sounds small. At 500 transactions per month, it adds up to $25/month ($300/year).

To get the old rates back (or close to them), Square now wants you to pay for a Plus plan at $49/month or a Premium plan at $149/month. The Plus plan lowers in-person rates to 2.5% + $0.15 and online rates to 2.9% + $0.30. But the math does not work out for most small businesses. You need to process roughly $49,000/month before the Plus plan’s 0.1% rate reduction pays for its $49 monthly fee. At that volume, you should not be on Square at all.

The pricing math

Estimated monthly processing costs for in-person payments (assumes 1.8% average interchange, $40 average ticket):

At $5,000/month, the difference is about $29/month. That is a real number, but for some businesses the simplicity of Square is worth $29. At $25,000/month, you are overpaying by $144/month ($1,728/year). At that point, the simplicity argument stops making sense.

For online-only businesses, the gap is even wider since Square’s Free plan now charges 3.3% + $0.30 per transaction.

Bottom line

Square earns its popularity for a reason. For new businesses, micro-businesses, and anyone processing under $5,000-$10,000 per month, the zero-friction setup and free POS software are genuinely valuable. No other processor matches Square’s onboarding experience.

But Square’s pricing trajectory is heading in the wrong direction. The January 2026 rate increases, combined with the push toward paid monthly plans, make Square increasingly expensive for growing businesses. If you are processing more than $10,000 per month, run the numbers against an interchange-plus processor like Helcim. A statement audit can show you exactly what you would save. For most businesses above that threshold, the answer is hundreds to thousands of dollars per year.