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POS & Checkout Systems

Square

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Panel rating · 6 judges · How to read the stars

Category median

Sovereignty: not determined

0–5 in half steps. 5 means the rubric's top anchor is met on the evidence.

by Block, Inc. · squareup.com

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Square: AI-assisted analysis on whats-best.ai Square: AI-assisted analysis on whats-best.ai (dark)

Add ?theme=dark to the image address for dark backgrounds. The badge shows the category and the month of the latest evaluation, and EU-Made where that is the product’s provenance. It never shows a score.

Square at a glance

Vendor
Block, Inc.
Headquarters
Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 1 Nov 2026
Data hosting
Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 1 Nov 2026
Free plan
Yes, per the vendor’s own page source, captured 29 Oct 2026
Panel verdict
The AI panel rates Square 3/5, the mean of 6 judges. Square is a point-of-sale system sold in Ireland, France, Spain and the UK; EU sellers contract with Squareup International Limited, regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. how scores are made
As of
Vendor pages captured 29 Oct 2026 to 1 Nov 2026; evaluated by the panel 30 Oct 2026. all sources

Square alternatives, European ones first →

Read this page as one judge. Each weighs the same scores by what they care about.

The Tax Adviser

Weighted verdict

Looks after the books of sixty restaurants, bakeries and shops and has sat in on more than one unannounced Kassennachschau. Wants the TSE named with its certificate, a DSFinV-K export that opens in the auditor's software, the § 146a registration done, a procedure documentation that exists before it is asked for, a DATEV export with the right revenue accounts, and ten years of records still readable after the client changes tills.

Same scores as the panel view — this lens weights them the way this judge cares.

Scored by The Tax Adviser

Panel median The Tax Adviser This judge’s scores over the panel median. Each label opens its reasoning below.
Scores per criterion, in stars out of 5
Criterion Panel median The Tax Adviser
Checkout, receipts & hardware 3.5 of 5 3.5 of 5
Card payments & fees 3.5 of 5 3.5 of 5
Inventory, tables, staff & locations 3.5 of 5 3.5 of 5
Accounting handoff, DATEV & data export 2.5 of 5 3 of 5
European sovereignty 2 of 5 2 of 5
Pricing transparency 4 of 5 4 of 5

Checkout, receipts & hardware

How this is scored

How a sale is rung up and what it runs on: a fast till on tablet, phone or dedicated terminal, articles, modifiers and discounts, split bills and tips, receipts printed or sent digitally (QR code, email, a digital Bon), returns and cancellations, a customer display, which hardware is supported or sold (receipt printers, cash drawers, scanners, scales), and whether the till keeps selling when the internet is down.

0 — Not a till; sales cannot be rung up or receipts issued in the product.

3 — Sales rung up on one device with a printed receipt; digital receipts, supported hardware and offline operation are basic or not described.

5 — A till app on named devices (iPad, Android or Windows) with articles, modifiers, discounts and split payments, receipts printed or sent digitally, returns and cancellations, a list of supported printers, drawers and scanners, and an offline mode stated.

8 — Several device types and own or third-party hardware with a published compatibility list, offline mode with its limits stated (how long, which payments, how sync resolves), digital receipts meeting the receipt obligation, customer display, scales and barcode labels supported, and hardware rentable or bought with the terms stated.

10 — A till that never stops a sale: offline operation documented including card payments and fiscal signing, hardware open to standard devices rather than locked to the vendor, receipt layouts that meet the legal minimum content in each named country, and a stated uptime or a status page with incident history.

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The Tax Adviser

Sales run on named kit at published prices: the Point of Sale app on iPhone and tablet, Square Stand doubling as a self-serve kiosk, Register with a second customer-facing display, Terminal and a Handheld at €199 + VAT, each with a two-year warranty and 30-day returns; receipts print (a second itemized receipt can print automatically) and digital receipts go out automatically to opted-in customers, with returns and exchanges accepted at any location. Offline payment processing is supported on iOS and Android, with the stated limit that Tap to Pay is not available offline. We found no public information on a published compatibility list for third-party printers, drawers and scanners, on scales, or on how long offline mode lasts and how it syncs. 1 3 4 9 10 12

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Card payments & fees

How this is scored

How the till takes card and mobile payments and what that costs: an integrated terminal and the acquirer behind it named, girocard, credit cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay, tap to pay on a phone, the fee per transaction by card type, monthly terminal fees, payout timing, and whether the merchant may use a terminal or acquirer of their own choice instead. A "free" till paid for by card fees counts here.

0 — No card payment of any kind can be recorded at the till.

3 — Card payments recorded at the till, by an integrated terminal or by typing the amount into a separate one; the acquirer, the fees and the choice of terminal are basic or not described.

5 — An integrated card terminal with the payment provider named, girocard, credit cards and mobile wallets accepted, the transaction fee published for the main card types, payouts with their timing stated, and the amount passed to the terminal without retyping.

8 — Fees per card type and terminal cost published, tap to pay on a phone, tips and split payments on the terminal, several integrated acquirers or terminals to choose from (not only the vendor's own), the regulated payment institution named, and card payments reconciled to the daily closing.

10 — Payments without lock-in: the till works with any of several named acquirers on equal terms, fees for every card type, currency and chargeback published, the merchant's contract with the acquirer separable from the POS licence, and a change of acquirer documented without changing the till.

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The Tax Adviser

The acquirer behind the terminal is Square itself — Squareup International Limited, regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland for payment acquiring — and the published fee schedule is thorough: 1.75% + VAT in person by chip and PIN or contactless, 2% + VAT keyed, 1.4% + 25c + VAT for EEA cards online, 2.9% + 25c + VAT for UK/non-EEA cards, 2.5% + VAT for invoices, Virtual Terminal and card on file, plus 1.5% + VAT for non-EEA cards, with flat fees stated to include interchange, payout as soon as the next working day and terminals priced from €19 + VAT to €699 + VAT. Tap to Pay runs on iPhone XS or newer and Android 9 phones with the device requirements published. We found no public information on girocard, on tips or split payments at the terminal, on reconciling card takings to a daily closing, or on running the till with a terminal or acquirer of the merchant's own choice. 4 5 6 11 12

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Fiscal compliance (TSE, DSFinV-K, RKSV)

How this is scored

Whether the till survives a cash audit: for Germany a certified technical security device (TSE) with its provider and BSI certificate named, hardware or cloud, the DSFinV-K export for the Kassennachschau and the tax audit, the receipt obligation (Belegausgabepflicht), the Kassenbuch and daily closing (Z-Bericht), GoBD-compliant storage for ten years, and help with the § 146a AO registration; for Austria the RKSV signature and FinanzOnline registration; for other countries their named fiscal rules (NF525, Fiskaltrust and similar).

0 — No fiscal function at all; the product is not a cash register in the legal sense, or states that it does not meet the fiscal rules of the markets it sells into.

3 — The till is called compliant ("finanzamtkonform", "KassenSichV-ready") without naming the TSE, the export formats or the closing; the details are basic or not described.

5 — A TSE included or offered with its provider named (hardware or cloud), the DSFinV-K export available, receipts carrying the TSE signature, a daily closing and cash book, and the receipt obligation met on paper or digitally.

8 — TSE provider and BSI certification named with what happens when the TSE fails, DSFinV-K and the GoBD archive for ten years stated, the § 146a AO registration supported, a procedure documentation (Verfahrensdokumentation) template offered, and the fiscal rules of at least one further country (Austrian RKSV or another) named and met.

10 — Audit-proof across markets: fiscal compliance documented per named country with certificates published, the procedure documentation maintained by the vendor, the fiscal journal exportable after the contract ends, and the vendor's handling of a Kassennachschau (what the auditor gets, from whom, how fast) described.

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The Tax Adviser not rated — no public information

On every page captured — the till page, the Restaurants and Retail pages, the hardware and pricing pages, the fee schedule, the point-of-sale terms and the privacy notice — I found no public information on any fiscal function: nothing on a certified technical security device, on DSFinV-K or the Austrian signature, and nothing on a cash book, daily closing or ten-year audit storage, nor on the receipt rules of the markets the vendor does serve. From my chair that is the whole ballgame for a cash-register purchase, and I can only report it as undocumented. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

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Inventory, tables, staff & locations

How this is scored

What the till runs beside the sale: stock and articles with variants, suppliers and purchase orders, recipes or ingredients for hospitality, tables, courses and a kitchen display or kitchen printer, self-order and QR ordering, staff logins with roles and rights, cash differences per employee, reports by product, staff and hour, and several branches or sites managed from one back office.

0 — No articles, stock, staff or reporting beyond the single sale.

3 — An article list and a sales report; stock, staff rights, tables and several locations are basic or not described.

5 — Article and stock management with variants or modifiers, staff logins with roles, reports by product, employee and period, and for hospitality tables and kitchen printing or a kitchen display; several locations or tills under one account.

8 — Stock with suppliers, purchase orders and inventory counts or recipes, a kitchen display and QR or self-order, granular staff rights and a log of cancellations and voids per employee, central articles and prices pushed to several branches, and cross-site reporting.

10 — Multi-site operations run through the product: stock transfers between branches, central menu and price management with local overrides, franchise or group structures, forecasting from sales history, and every change to an article, price or void attributed and exportable.

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The Tax Adviser

Stock is taken seriously: unlimited items with variations, low-stock alerts, counts and forecasts, automatic purchase orders, and vendor and cost recorded when stock is received, alongside kiosks and self-service ordering, a kitchen display at €15/month or included with paid Restaurants subscriptions, OpenTable reservations and Deliveroo/Uber Eats/Just Eat aggregation, plus menus, staff and more managed remotely across multiple locations. Team Management brings timecards and tip distribution. We found no public information on tables and courses, per-employee rights with a log of cancellations and voids, or how reporting splits across sites. 2 3 5 7 14

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Accounting handoff, DATEV & data export

How this is scored

What reaches the books and what leaves with the merchant: an export to DATEV (DATEV format, DATEV Kassenarchiv online, DATEV Unternehmen online) and to named accounting tools, booking with revenue accounts and tax rates, card payouts and fees reconciled, an API and webhooks, integrations with shop, booking or staff tools, and a complete export of articles, customers, sales and fiscal journals when the contract ends.

0 — No export of any kind; the day's figures have to be retyped.

3 — A CSV or PDF report of sales; booking data, named integrations and a full export are basic or not described.

5 — A DATEV export or another named accounting export with revenue accounts and tax rates, several integrations listed, a documented API, and sales and articles exportable.

8 — DATEV Kassenarchiv online or DATEV Unternehmen online named, card payouts and fees booked separately for reconciliation, a public API with webhooks and a developer portal, integrations with named shop, booking and staff-scheduling tools, and a full export of articles, customers and sales stated.

10 — Nothing stays behind: a complete export of all records including the fiscal journal and receipts in documented formats, access to past data after cancellation for the retention period stated, a migration path from and to other named systems, and the API covering every object the back office shows.

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The Tax Adviser

Named accounting links exist — Sage, Xero and QuickBooks among 100+ integrations — and the developer platform is real: catalog, inventory and vendors APIs, webhooks with programmatic key rotation, a pull-based Events API and a Payouts API in general availability, all free to use. We found no public information on a DATEV export or any export that maps bookings to revenue accounts and tax rates, and none on a full export of articles, customers and sales when the contract ends; the online-store terms state that Square may delete all website information after cancellation, which is what keeps me up at night when a client changes tills. 2 5 7 15 16

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European sovereignty

How this is scored

Who the contracting entity and the parent company are, where sales, customer and employee data are hosted, and who the subprocessors are (hosting, cloud TSE, payment processing, receipt delivery, email, analytics). Independently sourced by the sovereignty pipeline; POS data is financial and fiscal at once, holds staff logins and customer cards, and has to stay readable for the tax office for ten years, so the whole chain counts, not only the database.

0 — Non-EU vendor and contracting entity, hosting unstated, subprocessors unnamed, and no data processing agreement offered.

3 — A privacy policy and a data processing agreement exist, but hosting location is unstated or non-EU and the subprocessors are not listed.

5 — EU hosting available and an EU contracting entity or EU representative, but parts of the chain (cloud TSE, payment processing, email, analytics, support) run through non-EU providers without a stated safeguard.

8 — EU hosting on named infrastructure, EU contracting entity, TSE provider and payment institution, subprocessors listed with their locations, a data processing agreement published, and security certifications (ISO 27001, SOC 2) stated.

10 — Sovereign end to end and evidenced: European ownership, entity, TSE, payment institution, hosting and every subprocessor, data export and deletion documented, and certifications published with their scope rather than implied.

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The Tax Adviser

The payments and contracting side sits in Dublin — Squareup International Limited, regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland, is data controller for EU residents with the Irish DPC as lead supervisory authority — but the privacy notice says information is processed and stored in the United States, Japan, the UK, the EU and other countries, with EU standard contractual clauses named for transfers to affiliates outside the EU. Some subprocessors are named — Google Analytics, Facebook, BugSnag, Crashlytics, SendGrid, Register.com — without locations, and the pages place Square inside Block, Inc.'s group. We found no public information on a published data processing agreement or on security certifications such as ISO 27001 or SOC 2. 4 7 8

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Pricing transparency

How this is scored

Whether a buyer can compute the real annual cost from public pages alone: licence per till or per location, which modules (tables, kitchen display, stock, extra tills, DATEV export) cost extra, the TSE and its yearly fee, hardware to buy or rent, card terminal fees and transaction fees, setup and installation, support plans, minimum term and notice period.

0 — No public prices at all; every customer is a sales call or a dealer quote.

3 — A starting price or a free tier exists, but how cost scales with tills, locations, modules or hardware is unclear.

5 — Plans are public with their price per till or location and main inclusions, but at least one commonly needed piece (the TSE, extra tills, hardware, card fees, setup) is unpriced or "on request".

8 — Every plan priced publicly with its scaling rule, the TSE, hardware and add-ons priced, card fees and terminal costs listed, setup and support priced, minimum term and VAT treatment stated.

10 — Complete price computability: annual cost derivable for a given number of tills, locations, modules and card volume, with every add-on, hardware, TSE, setup, support and payment fee and the cancellation and data-return terms published.

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The Tax Adviser

A buyer can price nearly the whole job from public pages: Retail free at €0 with Plus at €49 + VAT per month per location (1.6% + VAT in-person rate on Plus), Restaurants free or €69/mo per location with unlimited devices, online store free or from €14/mo, hardware priced from the €19 + VAT Reader to the €699 + VAT Register with a two-year warranty, 30-day returns and free product support, an exhaustive card-fee schedule with VAT treatment stated throughout and the Irish interchange caps noted, no setup fee or monthly minimum, and cancellation at any time with subscription auto-renewal disclosed. The kitchen display add-on is €15/month. Loyalty and Marketing carry fees per business location without figures, one-on-one training is paid but unpriced, and Premium pricing is a sales conversation above €250k per year. 1 3 4 5 6 7

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European sovereignty — proven facts

0 of 6 dimensions proven

Built only from facts shown on the vendor's own pages. A dimension we could not prove is left open, not scored as zero.

Hosting location Not determined — uncited Report an error
Hosting options Not determined — uncited Report an error
Open source Not determined — uncited Report an error
Data processing agreement Not determined ⚠ unverified — uncited Report an error
Transfer impact assessment Not determined — uncited Report an error

Questions about Square

Is Square European?

No. whats-best.ai classifies Square as Rest of world.

Where does Square store data?

Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 1 Nov 2026.

Does Square have a free plan?

Yes. Square has a free plan, per the vendor’s page captured 29 Oct 2026.

What are the best alternatives to Square?

As of 3 Nov 2026, the panel rates ready2order (3.5/5), Gastronovi (3/5) and LINA TeamCloud (3/5) highest among the other 18 POS & Checkout Systems products evaluated. Ratings that look equal are rounded to half stars; the order uses the unrounded rating, then the name. The highest-rated European alternative is ready2order (EU-Made). Ratings are the AI panel’s opinion, formed from public evidence: how scores are made. The full list, with European products first: Square alternatives.

Where this could be wrong

What we left out

A claim that does not survive our checks costs us the claim, not the page. This is what was taken off this one.

Do you know more about Square? Tell us Report an error on this page

Sources (17)

The pages every claim on this page was read from — each one checked, dated, and kept verifiable.

  1. 1 Vendor homepage (till) squareup.com Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →
  2. 2 Features page (restaurants) squareup.com Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →
  3. 3 Features page (retail) squareup.com Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →
  4. 4 Features page (hardware) squareup.com Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →
  5. 5 Pricing page squareup.com Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →
  6. 6 Pricing page (fee schedule) squareup.com Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →
  7. 7 Terms of service (point of sale) squareup.com Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →
  8. 8 Privacy policy squareup.com Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →
  9. 9 Checkout, receipts & hardware — found from sitemap squareup.com Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →
  10. 10 Checkout, receipts & hardware — found from sitemap developer.squareup.com Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →
  11. 11 Card payments & fees — found from sitemap developer.squareup.com Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →
  12. 12 Card payments & fees — found from sitemap developer.squareup.com Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →
  13. 13 Inventory, tables, staff & locations — found from sitemap developer.squareup.com Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →
  14. 14 Inventory, tables, staff & locations — found from sitemap developer.squareup.com Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →
  15. 15 Accounting handoff, DATEV & data export — found from sitemap developer.squareup.com Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →
  16. 16 Accounting handoff, DATEV & data export — found from sitemap developer.squareup.com Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →
  17. 17 Terms of service — found from the homepage squareup.com Checked 1 Nov 2026 Details →