Shopify VS Square: Comparison

Shopify’s POS and Square’s free Point of Sale app are both available for iOS and Android smartphones and tablets. You’ll need an iPad to make the best use of either app, as many of the best features are only available there. Let’s review what each provider offers in terms of POS software features.

• Industry-Specific POS Apps: As mentioned earlier, Square offers specialized POS packages for restaurants, retailers, and appointment-setting along with its standard free POS. Square even offers a slimmed-down kitchen display system for eateries that don’t need a full POS. Shopify does not; it only offers one POS system (albeit a very capable one).
• Receipts: Both Shopify and Square let you offer receipts to your customers via print, email, and SMS (text).
• Offline Capabilities: Only Square lets you process payments while in offline mode. Shopify’s offline mode is much more limited. Points for Square here.
• Tax Rate Calculation: Here’s an area where Shopify wins out — taxes are auto-detected based on your store’s location, whereas with Square, you have to enter tax rates manually.
• Team Management: Shopify includes team management features at all subscription tiers. Square offers basic team management at all levels, while advanced team management (Team Plus) will cost you $35/month/location.
• Gift Cards: We like that Square lets you sell gift cards at all subscription levels. With Shopify, you’ll need a higher-tier $79/month subscription (confusingly titled the “Shopify Plan”) to sell gift cards.
• Payment Method Acceptance: Both Shopify and Square POS let you accept credit/debit cards, mobile wallet payments, and just about any other payment method a customer might present (including cash and checks).
• Reporting: Shopify POS gives you reporting capabilities, but you’ll need at least a $79/month Shopify subscription to get advanced reporting. Likewise, Square POS offers reporting, but it’s not terribly deep. Square’s industry-specific POS packages offer more advanced reporting.

eCommerce has always been Shopify’s bread and butter, so it’s no surprise that Shopify’s eCommerce capabilities are second-to-none. Square is no slouch in this regard either, though we have to give the overall edge to Shopify here.

• For most businesses, selling online with Shopify will cost more than Square due to Shopify’s inescapable monthly fees and pricier premium plans. However, Shopify’s highest-tier plan (Advanced Shopify) offers processing at just 2.4% + $0.30 per transaction — lower than the Square Premium plan rate of 2.6% + $0.30. If your sales volume is high enough, you may save enough with Advanced Shopify over Square Premium to cover the higher monthly fee ($299/month vs. $72/month).
• Square offers most of the same eCommerce features as Shopify, but Shopify’s tools tend to be more scalable. Successful online businesses tend to grow, and Shopify’s selling tools are generally better equipped to keep pace with you as your sales volume increases.
• As you’ll see in the next section, Shopify offers more eCommerce features than Square’s free store. However, some of Square’s supported shopping cart integrations — BigCommerce and 3dcart (now Shift4Shop) in particular — are on par with Shopify’s offerings.

Shopify offered its online store builder from the beginning, while Square’s eCommerce website capabilities were limited until it acquired Weebly’s website builder (now Square Online) in 2019. Overall, Shopify’s websites are superior in terms of web design.

• With Square Online, your eCommerce website is automatically generated based on your color palette and style choices, whereas Shopify offers a whole library of online store templates (a few of which are free; the rest are paid) and more advanced site customization. Advantage: Shopify.
• Hosting is free with both providers, and when it comes to domains, you can use a free Square or Shopify subdomain, or you can purchase one — Shopify’s domains start at $15/year, while Square’s domains start at $19.95/year. With a Plus subscription or above, you can get a custom domain from Square and use it for free for one year.
• Both Shopify and Square let you connect your current domain for no extra charge. Doing this with Square requires a Plus plan subscription — you can’t do it with the free plan. (Of course, Shopify doesn’t have a free plan.)

Both Shopify and Square support multichannel sales, but Shopify has a higher channel count. Here are the channels supported by each:

Shopify is known for its great CRM (Customer Relationship Management) features. You can create profiles for your customers, allowing you to send them receipts via email and build an email list for marketing. With these profiles, you can group customers by location, shopping tendencies, and demographics. Shopify also offers a number of customer loyalty apps (which tend to have both free and paid versions), so you can offer rewards and personalized bonuses to your customers.

For its part, Square offers a loyalty program that starts at $45/month/location and offers similar customer relationship benefits. Customers can earn loyalty rewards and discounts automatically, and that information gets stored on their customer profile. However, you can provide digital gift cards under Square’s standard system without paying extra and easily store and search customer balances and other information.

Both Square and Shopify are awash in integrations. Both companies’ eCommerce platforms have integrations for just about any function you can think of. However, in comparing Square Online Store vs. Shopify, I have to give the edge to Shopify here, and the reasons are twofold.

First, Shopify integrates with over 2,000 eCommerce apps, while Square offers a choice of more than 300 integrations covering everything from form building to restaurant tools, delivery & ordering, and even healthcare. Second, with Shopify, you can integrate more than 100 payment gateways with your POS app. With Square, you must use Square’s in-house payment gateway.

Shopify’s inventory features are pretty impressive. In addition to tracking your stock levels across every channel where you sell, you can print barcodes and more. Multilocation inventory management is only available with a Shopify Standard or Advanced plan.

Square has a solid free inventory management system. You can also upgrade to Square for Retail Plus ($60/month/location) for more features or integrate with other inventory services, such as Shopventory.

Shopify offers coupons, gift cards, and discount features with its paid plans (starting with Basic Shopify). Users can create coupon discount codes and coupons, including BOGO, that apply to specific products or categories. You can also limit those to a specified number of users, certain groups, or a minimum order total.

Square offers some marketing tools, such as customer insights and statistics, customer profile management, and tools that let customers sign up for your mailing list. For more advanced marketing features, you’ll need a subscription to Square Marketing, which starts at $15/month for up to 500 customer contracts.