PayPal Zettle vs. Square POS

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
PayPal Zettle
Score 7.6 out of 10
N/A
PayPal Zettle (formerly PayPal Here) is a POS and payment processing system that includes either a mobile card reader or a chip reader (hardware), and is powered by the mobile PayPal Here app. Admins can add up to 1,000 users per account, and the app also includes invoicing, reporting, and inventory management features. The pricing structure for payment processing is: 2.7% per US card swipe. 3.5% + $0.15 to key in cards. 2.9% + $0.30 to invoice. 1% for cross-border transfers.N/A
Square POS
Score 10.0 out of 10
N/A
Square POS is a point-of-sale software solution with features such as accept credit cards with your iPhone, Android, and iPad along with the flexibility to accept credit card payments anywhere, from Square headquartered in San Francisco, California.
$10
per each additional reader; first reader free
Pricing
PayPal ZettleSquare POS
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Each Transaction
2.6% + $0.10
per transaction
Square Reader for magstripe
$10
per each additional reader; first reader free
Square Stand for contactless and chip
$16
per month
Square Terminal
$27
per month
Square Register
$39
per 24 months
Square Reader for contactless and chip
$49
per reader
Square Point of Sale
Free
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
PayPal ZettleSquare POS
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
PayPal ZettleSquare POS
Considered Both Products
PayPal Zettle
Chose PayPal Zettle
PayPal Zettle is comparable to these solutions in many ways. Toast and Clover were more expensive solutions that involved more time and hardware commitments than our operation needed. PayPal Zettle has very lite admin and reporting capabilities. It needs to improved these …
Chose PayPal Zettle
We love StoreLIVE, it is right up there with PayPal Zettle! Again, though, it is not as much of a well known name to the non-business owner. But WooCommerce is not at all even close to Paypal Zettle! It is complicated and exclusive to WooCommerce on the web and less in store.
Chose PayPal Zettle
The main selection criteria were ease of use and the presence of a plugin for WooCommerce. However, in practice it turned out that an important factor is also the availability of the product for purchase in a small batch and at an affordable price. I chose PayPal Zettle because …
Chose PayPal Zettle
Paypal's rates are slightly higher than my rates with Square or Stripe. While I can accept card payments with the Stripe app it isn't a true POS system.
Chose PayPal Zettle
It doesn't appear on the list but i used clip from mercadopago it is great but i trust more in paypal for their service and agility to solve issues. In clip i had a problem and it take weeks to solve it so i was a little disapointes for that and i decide to look for another …
Chose PayPal Zettle
They are both comparable and honestly could not say one is better than the other. I suggest looking at both options and picking what works best for you!
Chose PayPal Zettle
1) Square has a much more expensive startup cost in purchasing their hardware.
2) Square POS is not tailored for eCommerce
3) Square is not as easy to work with and has terrible customer service.
Chose PayPal Zettle
I actually use both but for the purchases where I'm on the go and at a concert, PayPal Zettle is better for me. Stripe works great for my courses online but again if I'm selling a product or service that is a one time deal and in the moment, it's so much easier for me to simply …
Chose PayPal Zettle
Square has good software and is relatively easy to use. The Square payment screen is more advanced than the basic model that PayPal uses. However, PayPal was a service that I already used-- and the company made it easy to integrate it into our business. Convenience and ease of …
Chose PayPal Zettle
It's been a while now since I've compared the two, but PayPay and Square were relatively similar for what we needed them for. I think the physical PayPal product at the time was a little bit more of what we needed, but I don't remember it being a very large margin between the …
Chose PayPal Zettle
Ultimately we selected PayPal Here because PayPal is such a trusted and well-known name, because of the easy-to-navigate user interface, because the card reader was inexpensive but performs well, and because the organization was already using PayPal to collect donations through …
Chose PayPal Zettle
I received my Square reader faster and it does its job well but, but the reader itself is small and very easy to lose. Unlike PayPal, I had to create a new account that would only be used for that single purpose. PayPal Here is an extension of PayPal so set-up was flawless and …
Chose PayPal Zettle
The PayPal Here app and the PayPal Here card reader are the only solutions we have ever used for manual processing of credit card payments or performing transactions where we physically accept payment via credit cards in person. We have never tried the Square credit card reader …
Chose PayPal Zettle
Square POS is substantially similar to PayPal Here in cost and function, but it doesn't allow us to collect the necessary data for campaign finance reporting and compliance. In past campaigns we would have to process a card donation and then still make donors fill out an …
Chose PayPal Zettle
Compared to Square, PayPal Here is less much less reliable. I have never struggled to take a payment with Square whether I was swiping the card or manually entering the card information. I feel like our customers are more accustomed to seeing the Square card reader as well …
Chose PayPal Zettle
I have used Square. It worked okay most of the time. The card reader went bad a couple times and happened pretty fast. It was not the best for how many cards we needed to swipe on a daily basis.
Chose PayPal Zettle
Paypal here is the mobile app that allows you to take credit cards on the spot. With the card reader you can get lower merchant service fees. I'd recommend picking up a card reader for your phone. It's definately worth it when you're billing thousands of dollars to a client and …
Chose PayPal Zettle
I find that PayPal Here works better as a self-employed or non-profit; it's simple, clean cut, and is a recognised brand throughout places like Etsy and eBay. PayPal Here feels like it's geared more towards the every person, especially artists and artisans. While I do use …
Square POS
Chose Square POS
In our experience, every solution we tried in the past never fully met our needs. They always came with shortcomings and / or compromises. Square POS is the first solution we have tried that offers everything our business needs and provides us with enough room for our business …
Chose Square POS
I think Square POS was the most universally adopted by peers and had the easiest interface to learn. Costs were also competitive, so we decided on the brand we'd heard the most about.
Chose Square POS
I didn't look at others. Square POS was the best option because it is so widely recognized and a robust option. There was no start up fee. Just the credit card processing fees that they accept. We do also use apple pay and venmo for business, but these are set up to supplement …
Chose Square POS
Square POS is easier to use and more efficient in a general sense, but the other products I've used can also be better suited for different types of events (such as an auction, where they link up to and integrate into the other software you are using). The Square mobile device …
Chose Square POS
Square POS is just the easiest to use and therefore the easiest to onboard new users to. I'd also like to point out, that if you're missing or lost one of the readers it's so easy to buy one at an Apple store or even other merchants like T-mobile or Verizon. WePay had less fees …
Chose Square POS
I use Stripe, Paypal and Payoneer but they don't have the actual hardware (that I am aware of). I use them to either get payments or send payments online. I use both Stripe and Paypal Payments Pro on my websites and Payoneer to recieve pay from contracts for work I do.
Chose Square POS
Square was chosen over Stripe.com as it was much easier to set up out of the box. Stripe was geared toward larger organizations.
Chose Square POS
Square was the most recognized platform out there and I decided to go with them because of the brand and marketing I was targeted with as a business owner. Also, Square POS was the only tool with multi-factor security and integrated with a lot of other tools that I use for the …
Chose Square POS
Square and paypal are very similar, both work well and are trustworthy. Both also charge small service fee for payments received but I prefer the ease of Square.
Chose Square POS
Square is what I’m most used to and seems to be great for the cross between invoices, single sale items, and things in between. In comparison to Clover, I probably like them equally. In comparison to Honey Book, I appreciate the ease of setting Square up for as few sales a …
Chose Square POS
Used Payal swipe card, doesn't have options for tips, and had a monthly fee at the time.
Chose Square POS
We only used Square POS while we were getting set up with Authorize.net. It isn't as flashy or recognized by the general public, but in our industry, that isn't a priority. We do very large transactions so the higher rates and fees from Square add up insanely quickly making the …
Chose Square POS
We moved to Square POS from ShopKeep after using ShopKeep for several years because Square integrated more seamlessly with our HR package (Homebase, owned by Square) and our various banking providers. In addition, at the time ShopKeep required us to have a third-party payment …
Chose Square POS
As mentioned we wanted a solution that fit the bill of our needs and one of the solutions we had looked at was Loyverse. While it offered modularity and was customizable to different industries, we ultimately chose Square POS because we felt the learning curve would not be as …
Chose Square POS
Square has been the easiest to setup and easiest to use in comparison to others I've tried. Stripe is more complicated. As well, other systems that I've had experience with through client projects tend to be more "clunky" and less intuitive. I feel like Square is doing a …
Chose Square POS
I have found Square to be quite reliable and easy to use. The reports that Square has to offer where you can check your sales daily, weekly, or monthly is also a positive perk. The feature that you can create an invoice or estimate on the spot and email or text it helps to …
Chose Square POS
The only other real competitor that we looked at was Paypal Here and we went with Square because the fee structure felt fairer, and because our customers were much more familiar with the Square hardware and ecosystem, rather than trying to convince them that Paypal was a viable …
Chose Square POS
Square has so many upgrades and additional features that you can customize it to whatever works best for you!
Chose Square POS
Square was a rapid deployment product that allowed minimal intervention from the Square support team allowing us to open up much sooner than anticipated.
Chose Square POS
I personally prefer Stripe and PayPal as payment options for my appointment-based coaching business. Both integrate seamlessly with my Squarespace website, my Acuity Scheduling software, and the Quickbooks Self-Employed software I use. Though Square POS is perfectly adequate, I …
Chose Square POS
While PayPal Here had lower fees for swiped transactions, we often had issues which could not be resolved quickly and caused us to have to invoice customers instead of take payments while on site. I prefer Square POS because it is reliable. Additionally, we may eventually …
Chose Square POS
We chose Square because the simplicity of setup and reduced fees over its competitors. We liked the ease of setting up inventory alerts, tracking and sales reports. Its competitors had good functionality and even some things that Square does not, but in overall respect, Square …
Chose Square POS
We actually began using Square and loved it so we have not used any other POS.
Best Alternatives
PayPal ZettleSquare POS
Small Businesses
Square POS
Square POS
Score 10.0 out of 10
Shopify
Shopify
Score 9.1 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Epicor Eagle
Epicor Eagle
Score 7.9 out of 10
Epicor Eagle
Epicor Eagle
Score 7.9 out of 10
Enterprises

No answers on this topic

No answers on this topic

All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
PayPal ZettleSquare POS
Likelihood to Recommend
7.9
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(0 ratings)
9.6
(0 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
10.0
(0 ratings)
8.7
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
PayPal ZettleSquare POS
Likelihood to Recommend
Despite the time that you have to wait to be able to receive the money for each transaction made through the PayPal Here POS system, I consider that it is a system that has a lot of potential and that, without a doubt, allows companies to obtain a lot of POS system cheaper, no need to pay for a bank POS system that is much more expensive and requires a more complex process to configure and register at the bank branch. I would definitely recommend PayPal Here for any small, medium or large company, it has excellent potential, the reading of the NFC chips is instantaneous and allows each credit or debit card to be recognized immediately and the transaction to be completed in a few seconds. It is a very advanced system, easy to use and very easy to configure, if you are looking for a system that is not so complicated to add a POS to your company, PayPal Here is the best option.
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Square was absolutely fantastic when I first started using it. Easy to set up, use, changing settings, and the like. It has evolved over the years, almost too much, to an insane amount of options, apps, settings, et cetera. I would like to see options for just utilizing specific parts, such as invoices, versus the entire system being set up for daily sales. It makes the tracking side of things a little wonky when you only send 2-5 invoices/month for larger projects. Overall, I like that it’s familiar to me, which is why I continue to use it
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Pros
  • Our customers can check out no matter where we are.
  • It is incredibly easy to use. Training new retail employees and volunteers takes almost no time.
  • When we were shopping around for solutions, Paypal Here was very cost effective.
  • Implementation with our current systems went very smoothly. The Paypal support team was great.
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  • After you set a daily processing deadline time, charges processed by that time are deposited the next business day.
  • The reporting dash board looks overwhelming but that's because it has all of the the information that you've processed before. That was invaluable when we recently went to look at the detail on a two year old transaction and were able to find the information by ourselves.
  • The ability to use multiple devices is great. We can process charges on a computer, a tablet, or even a smartphone.
  • Receipts are automatically sent to the customer's preferred email or texted to their phone.
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Cons
  • The fees are a little bit high, although all POS and payment systems do charge fees.
  • Sometimes signing in and getting things to connect through our web store can be a challenge. It is great once it is set up but downloading plug ins and setting up initially is a challenge.
  • We have in-store pick up items that customers pay for at pick up and shipped items which customers pay for through the PayPal Zettle portal at checkout. This was very confusing to set up. I wish there was an easier way to mark items as payment upfront and payment later.
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  • The cost of the hardware (specific scanners and receipt printers) was prohibitive for my company, and whilst we managed without them, they would have been nice to have. The range of scanners and printers that integrate with Square is small, so despite our devices' capabilities to read barcodes (we used ipads) and the Zebra receipt/label printers we had, we couldn't use either as the system wouldn't integrate with them.
  • Whilst Square's credit card reader is nifty in design, it's a bit small and lacking substance to have as a customer-facing reader so it really needs the dock the company offers. The dock is awkward to open to reset or pair the reader. We often found pairing the reader with the device running the system tricky and confusing, relying on pressing one button and then interpreting a sequence of lights that often caused confusion. The pairing process might have been clearer presented through the device rather than the reader.
  • Truly can't think of any more!
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Likelihood to Renew
There are no monthly costs, the only expense is the card processing fee which is lower than nearly everyone else out there.
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I don't really foresee anything being able to dislodge Square from our organization—we're not evangelists or anything like that—it's just the best solution we've found for our use case. Being able to quickly handle transactions from customers and then track all of those sales for analysis/bookkeeping later on.
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Usability
The overall usability was good for our organization. We rarely experienced much downtime or errors when using PayPal Zettle for business transactions. Some of our IPhone users had login and security issues a few times. That was the exception to the rule and we have been able to operate consistently for the majority of the time.
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We find Square POS is very user friendly. Its interface is customizable to our needs and very easy to use. Before we adopted Square POS, we used a combination of solutions from different manufacturer to try and achieve a portion of the functionality that Square POS provides under only 1 login
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Reliability and Availability
Adding skus was down for 1hr one day, otherwise have never experienced an outage.
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No answers on this topic
Performance
Everything is very fast. Adding products, selling products, processing cards, and receiving funds.
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No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Support hasn't been needed in the 2 years of using PayPal but I have received calls from the company in the past asking about my experience with the device that was sent to me and they were pretty helpful with advice. Support is all over the internet if needed but for emergencies, so it is best to contact them during business hours.
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Square POS support is good, I would not say they are great. There is a good knowledge base that you can access and there are other service providers who support Square POS who can assist you, but I find that the lack of help and support for setting it up for different industries is a let down. We had to research for hours just to find a solution to fix our need for a billing option for services for example. It would be great if Square POS broadened its support and solutions for various industries.
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Implementation Rating
It went very smoothly.
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No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Square has good software and is relatively easy to use. The Square payment screen is more advanced than the basic model that PayPal uses. However, PayPal was a service that I already used-- and the company made it easy to integrate it into our business. Convenience and ease of use were key.
Read full review
Square POS is just the easiest to use and therefore the easiest to onboard new users to. I'd also like to point out, that if you're missing or lost one of the readers it's so easy to buy one at an Apple store or even other merchants like T-mobile or Verizon. WePay had less fees but was harder to onboard new users to. Eventbrite had really high fees.
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Scalability
Have not run into any limitations as of yet, with 500 SKUs entered and counting.
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No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
  • One positive impact that PayPal here has had on our business is the ability to accept credit card payments which in itself increases our customer basis by 50%.
  • When PayPal fails, we have to pay higher fees to other processors, although I don't have an exact dollar impact.
  • When we struggle to take a payment using PayPal Here it makes our customers uneasy.
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  • The transaction fees and charge rates are much higher than other options available. We only used this system for a short time while we were switching to a MUCH cheaper option (Authorize.net).
  • I have also used this system with a charity that I volunteer with who only uses it during a couple of fundraisers a year when they have a small gift shop set up to sell donated goods to raise money. For such low volume, the fees aren't as big of a deal and the convenience of being able to take cards no matter where the event is located makes it worth it.
  • This is a system your average consumer will recognize and trust, so there's that.
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