Plaid vs. Square Invoices

Plaid is extremely well suited to be your payment API if you're a start-up looking to scale your banking connections fast and securely. Their API is fully functional upon integration. Most end-users have encountered Plaid before so it's a trusted platform for many consumers so even if you're a new app, users feel comfortable connecting their bank through Plaid.

Incentivized

Square Invoices is the best service that I have found for what it does: it's easy to use, nice to look at, and never seems to go to spam or be lost by clients. Clients mention that the setup is easier than services my competitors use. You can even attach your contract to the invoice, which is wonderful in case there are questions later on. Unfortunately, not being able to have clients alter quantities or select add-ons means for half of my services, I have to use a different, inferior service.

Incentivized

• Plaid connects with 100s of US consumer banks.
• Plaid continuously updates its software to meet the requirements of individual banks.
• Plaid can get your company's payment processing up and running faster than traditional methods.

Incentivized

• Very easy-to-use. Even non-technical users can very easily figure out how to send an invoice.
• Notifications of payment. You can see if the invoice has been viewed, and you can include attachments to the invoice (such as a contract)!
• Quick payouts straight to your bank account make life easy.
• Easy to use mobile app for on the go.

Incentivized

• Consumer feedback or troubleshooting typically comes back to us because Plaid doesn't have an easy way of re-routing support once a user encounters a problem.
• Update timelines could be clearer when they are working on updating a connection with a certain bank.
• The search functionality for the user to find their bank could be a little more robust.

Incentivized

• I wish there was a way to automatically calculate credit card processing fees based on an invoice's amount, and add that to the invoice

Incentivized

The only time I had a problem was a false chargeback from a client. Square Invoices referenced our contract and ruled in my favor, and they did so in a timely manner. I sent them the contract and my email history with the client, and they quickly unfroze the amount of money.

Incentivized

I feel that for what it does, Square Invoices outperforms its competition. Because we have used the program for several years, we have seen how they continue to improve their service - making it user-friendly and accessible for a variety of needs. Other platforms are not as easy to set up, add items, and access funds after payment is received.

Incentivized

• Plaid got us up and running with most US-based and even some international banks with minimal engineering effort.

Incentivized

• The fee for invoicing is extremely reasonable for how easy it is. At 2.75% per transaction, it's well worth it.
• I like that invoices can be printed and mailed or sent via email for easy online payment.
• I have a 100% collection rate on my invoices, and they are often paid within 24-48 hours of being sent, which saves me the time of chasing down checks, which can be especially cumbersome when I have multiple clients.

Incentivized