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Complete pricing breakdown for Square including all plans, hidden costs, and limitations.
Pricing score: 55/100
User limit: Unlimited
User limit: Unlimited
User limit: Unlimited
Since April 2023, Square no longer returns processing fees when merchants issue refunds to customers. On a $1000 online order that gets canceled, merchants lose $29.30 in fees permanently. This policy change was criticized on Hacker News and affects merchants with high return rates significantly.
Square raised their rates in February 2025. In-person transactions went from 2.6% + $0.10 to 2.6% + $0.15 per transaction. Card-not-present rates jumped to 3.50% + $0.15. For high-volume merchants, these increases add up to significant additional costs annually.
Square pushes merchants toward expensive proprietary hardware. Square Terminal costs $299, Square Register is $799, and the Register Kit is $1,339. While basic readers are free or cheap, businesses needing full POS setups face significant upfront costs that competitors don't require.
While Square's base offering seems affordable, there's a fee for almost every additional feature that could benefit a business. Advanced design features on Square Online are locked behind paywalls. Loyalty programs, advanced reporting, and marketing tools all cost extra beyond the monthly subscription.