Square vs Clover: POS Comparison 2023

When it comes to Square vs Clover, Square wins hands down, being one of the best all-round POS systems on the market and offering an impressive free version (just transaction fees apply). In contrast, Clover's lowest monthly price is $14.95 (with fees), and it can’t quite cut the mustard with its online-focused features, either. Square also offers 24/7 support, which Clover doesn't, making Square almost always the better choice for a small business.

However, Clover gives Square a run for its money when it comes to restaurant features, and its customer loyalty tools are the best we've researched, making the POS a great choice for expanding businesses.

Our researchers at Tech.co have sunk thousands of hours into studying the POS market, the needs of businesses, and which providers are the best on the scene. Let’s take a look at the findings.

• Major Differences: Square vs Clover
• Best Value for Money: Square
• Best POS Hardware: Square
• Best Software Features: Draw
• Best Ease of Use: Square
• Best for Omnisellers: Clover
• Best Help & Support: Square
• Alternatives to Square and Clover
• The Verdict
• Research and Methodology
• Square vs Clover FAQs

Major Differences Between Square and Clover

• Payment structure – Square doesn’t charge any monthly fees. Instead, you pay transaction fees on each sale – 1.75% on card-based transactions, and 2.5% on manual keyed-in sales. Clover, meanwhile, charges for its POS software packages, as well as charging transaction fees on top of those monthly payments.
• Hardware packages – Square’s hardware packages tend to be cheaper than Clover’s as well, which might make a big difference if your business is just starting out. It may seem too good to be true, but you can even get your first Square card reader for free.

Where Does Clover Stand Out?

Clover's POS is strong across the board, but it really shines when it comes to customer loyalty. Scoring an impressive 4.5/5 for business development features, Clover's one-of-a-kind mobile app lets businesses tailor their reward program to their needs, and gives customers multiple ways to redeem perks.

Unlike Square's loyalty program, Clover's basic program is completely free too — but this doesn't mean it sacrifices quality. According to the provider's data, this helps to drive up purchases by up to 90%, making the POS a reliable option for businesses looking to expand their audience and bottom line.

Where Does Square Stand Out?

Consistently ranking #1 in our research, with an overall research score of 4.5/5, Square is our top pick for retail and food service businesses. However, the POS is especially suited for smaller vendors like food trucks or market stalls because of its intuitive software and its affordable software and hardware. With a perfect value score of 5/5, the provider even chucks in a free Square card reader for new customers, making the POS a non-negotiable for businesses just starting out.

Best Value for Money: Square

While both Clover's and Square's paid plans start at $60 per month, businesses can get started with Square for absolutely free. This is why we've determined Square is better bang for your buck overall.

There's lots to discuss when it comes to Square's and Clover's pricing plans though, so read on for a granular breakdown of their different pricing plans and additional fees.

Find out more – How Much Does a POS System Cost?

Square vs Clover Pricing Plans

Square and Clover offer retail and restaurant-specific packages. We break them down below:

For retail

Square and Clover both offer three different options for retail businesses. Square plans include Free, Plus, and Premium plans, while Clover’s packages are named Starter, Standard, and Advanced. 

Both Square and Clover offer advanced POS capabilities like team management, retail reporting, and enhanced inventory controls. However, our research suggests that Square's retail features are slightly stronger overall, with the provider scoring a 4/5 in the category compared to Clover's 3.8/5. All of Clover’s retail plans include built-in advanced loyalty tools including customer databases and feedback functions though, making the POS better for growing food businesses. 

Clover’s plans include hardware too, which bumps up their overall price. Despite this, we think Square is much better value for retail businesses because vendors can get started with the POS for absolutely free.

For restaurants

While Square’s restaurant pricing structure is straightforward, with the provider offering a Free, Plus, and Premium plan for food businesses, Clover’s is a little more complex. Clover offers software and hardware six plans in total: a Starter, Standard, and Advanced tier for counter service businesses, and a Starter Standard and Advanced tier for full-service restaurants.

Clover and Square offer a broad range of restaurant-specific features including order management, menu management, and online ordering. Both providers cater to different food businesses too, with Clover offering different hardware and software options to counter style and full-service businesses, and Square letting you select your specialty, even catering for takeaway businesses and ghost kitchens.

Both providers offer competitive packages, but with a free option available and a slightly stronger feature offering for food businesses — with a restaurant feature score of 4.8/5 compared to Clover’s 4.6/5 — we think Square’s slightly stronger in this category.

Transaction fees

Square and Clover actually charge pretty similar transaction fees, with Square charging businesses 2.6% + 10¢ for card-based transactions, and Clover’s Payment and Essentials plan doing the same. This rate, however, drops to 2.3% +10¢ for users of Clover’s more premium Payments Plus, Register, Quick-Service, and Full-Restaurant plans. 

Square charges a slightly higher 3.5% +15¢ for manual keyed-in sales, while Clover’s fees rise to 3.5%+10%. However, if your business processes more than $250,000 in card sales and an average ticket size of more than $15, you might be eligible for custom rates from Square.

Add-ons

Many of Square’s features, including important scheduling, marketing, loyalty, and payroll tools, are only available as add-ons. The price of these apps will vary depending on their function, but prices can exceed $35 per month. Unfortunately, Clover charges you for lots of features too, with the provider charging  $99 per month for its full loyalty program, and many other tools only being unlocked at a premium. 

Best POS Hardware: Square

We think Square takes the edge when it comes to hardware. Read on to find out why.

Card readers

Clover charges businesses $49 for its Go chip and contactless payment reader, whereas Square's Card Reader is available for free to all new customers. This is a great perk for businesses just getting started. Beyond this, Square card readers for magstripe cost as little as $10 per go, and plug directly into iPads, while standalone readers for contactless and chip transactions cost $49.

Terminals

For smaller businesses looking for an all-in-one POS device, Clover Flex carries out register, terminal, and printer functions, all for $499. Also, The Clover Mini, which costs $779, functions both as a touchscreen interface for you and your employees to enter transactions, as well as a chip and contactless reader (pictured below).

The Square Terminal is a similar device that also takes payments and takes receipts, and is available to businesses from $299. Although, you’ll need to pay an extra $39 if you want to connect it to the internet using an ethernet cable.

Hardware kits

For slightly larger businesses, Clover offers two hardware main kits, Clover Station Solo and Clover Station Duo. Station Solo features a 14″ display screen, and a cash draw and receipt printer and is available for $1,349. Station Duo, on the other hand, is a two-screen POS system with an additional receipt printer, cash draw, and card reader. This kit will cost businesses $1,799.

Alternatively, Square's Stand Kit starts at $619 and includes a Square stand, cash draw, receipt paper, and printer, while Square's Register Kit features a register, cash draw receipt printer for $1,389 (pictured below).

As Square POS runs best on an iPad, though, you’ll need to have one of those to get started, if you don’t already – with the cheapest new iPad starting at $329.

All told, Square and Clover are pretty similar when it comes to hardware – but in our opinion, Square is still the provider to go for, especially if you already own an iPad.

Best for Omnisellers: Clover

Square is a solid option for omnisellers, offering a dedicated ordering platform that lets businesses accept orders both online and in person. However, if your business takes online orders, we would opt for Clover over Square. Clover Online Ordering makes the process streamlined and easy by building your online ordering webpage for you and even providing end-to-end ordering management. The process for customers is easy to navigate too, limiting potential profit loss from card abandonment.

Best Software Features: Both

While both providers offer an excellent array of POS features, Clovers excels at customer loyalty and Square offers more integrations. Read on to see how they compare side by side.

Sales

Both Clover and Square allow you to accept the same payment methods, including Visa, Mastercard, and American Express cards all at the same rates — and even Apple and Google Pay contactless transactions. The two systems also allow you to process refunds and returns easily and accept online orders and digital gift cards.

However, with a research score of 4/5 for till features compared to Square's 3/5, Clover is slightly more capable of carrying out advanced sales functions like bill splitting and receipt customization.

Analytics and reporting

Both POS providers excel in performance monitoring, with Square and Clover scoring full marks (5/5) for business management in our independent research.

Square's handy dashboard (pictured below) lets you track various important metrics from your sales and profit margins to your inventory levels. Similarly to Square, Clover’s analytics tools also allow you to analyze sale data in real-time, while also letting you track sales across locations and check tips.

Customer loyalty

Both Clover and Square let businesses reward customers through their custom loyalty programs. However, Clover goes one step further by giving customers access to ‘Clover Rewards', a unique app that tallies points automatically and lets buyers earn perks in multiple ways. Clover lets businesses create robust customer databases too, consolidating its position as the best POS loyalty system on the market.

Third-party integrations

Both Square and Clover have some of the best app marketplaces in the industry. Square’s App Marketplace has a seemingly limitless range of apps that you can connect to your POS, including from Wix and BigCommerce to Mailchimp to Ecwid. Clover's app store also covers everything from payroll apps such as Gusto to recruitment apps such as JazzHR, but restricts access depending on the pricing plan, making its potential more limited than Square's.

Best User Experience: Square

Both POSs pride themselves on being extremely customer-focused, but Square's system is slightly more user-friendly overall.

Square’s iPad and iPhone-based setup make it a breeze for most people to get their heads around. Like its hardware, Square’s software is also incredibly minimalist and sleek. You won’t find yourself confronted with loads of options on every screen – instead, things are pared back and digestible. However, while this makes everyday tasks super easy, it can mean that more advanced jobs can require a fair amount of tapping through different menus.

How Square's backend looks on a tablet

Clover’s UI is slightly more complex, but should be eminently digestible for most people.

All told, there’s not a lot to choose between the two providers. However, we think Square will likely be easier for most people to get to grips with quickly.

How Clover works on two of its terminals

Best Help & Support: Square

With an unbeatable support score of 5/5, compared to Clover's lackluster 2.8/5 Square is better than Clover when you're in a pinch. Not only does Square offer 24/7 live chat options and phone options, but it also gives users access to a robust library of resources through its support center. In contrast, Clover lacks live chat tools and while it does offer phone support, it's only available from 8 am to 9 pm Monday to Saturday.

Clover and Square POS Alternatives

Clover and Square aren’t the only POS providers on the market. In fact, there are more POS options for growing businesses than you can count.

For Restaurants

If you're a smaller vendor looking to dodge monthly payments, Zettle is another user-friendly POS that only charges businesses as they earn. Alternatively, for large hospitality businesses with advanced needs, TouchBistro is another solid option — matching Square's restaurant features with a research score of 4.8/5.

See how our top restaurant POSs compare in our table below:

For Retail

If Square or Clover aren't cutting it for you, Vend is another great retail POS system with a great range of affordable plans (including a completely free version), fantastic sales and payment features, and CRM tools on all of its pricing plans. Moreover, if its customizable software and reliable help and support you're after, SpotOn is another worthy contender.

Check out the table below to see how they compare in full:

Want to know more? Check out our guide to the Top 10 Retail POS Systems

Research and Methodology

We don't just throw out verdicts at Tech.co. All of the products we feature have been researched extensively by our in-house team of experts, so we're able to provide you with the most valuable information possible. We shed a little light on our research process below.

Before we make POS recommendations, we identify the top solutions on the market and compare them across six main areas. They are as follows:

• Till features – How strong is the providers till features? Do they offer advanced functions like transaction processing and bill splitting?
• Business management features – What business management tools does the software offer and are they of a high quality?
• Stock management features – Does the system allow businesses to manage their inventories effectively? Do they offer barcode features and account for product variants?
• Business development features – How equipt is the system at helping businesses grow? I.e, does it offer good loyalty, CRM, and ecommerce tools?
• Price – How much is the provider's average price plan? Does it offer a free plan or a temporary trial?
• Customer score – How competitive are the system's help and support options? Are customers happy with the product?

After researching the providers against these main criteria, we award each POS system an overall 5-star rating and issue them scores for each category. By doing so, we're able to see which solutions are stronger for businesses of different sizes and across different industries. These scores can also be used to help businesses decipher which POS system might best fulfill their requirements.

FAQs