On software and commitment Square wins by a mile: $1,764 for three years of Plus against $6,444 for three years of Clover's Starter, and Square has no contract to exit. On the card rate Clover wins — 2.3% + 10¢ against 2.5% + 15¢ — and on a busy floor that gap pays back Clover's subscription at about $35,000 a month in card-present sales. Both answers are true, which is why this page prices both instead of picking a winner. What neither will do is give you the website: Clover's is a menu page inside the subscription, Square's cannot be exported. $199 once takes that line off both bills.
Clover prices a whole system, not a licence. The 14-inch Station Solo, the cash drawer and the receipt printer are inside the monthly, with the Restaurant Growth software plan on top: $179 a month for 36 months on Starter, $239 with a handheld for tableside ordering, $354 with a customer-facing screen. The same bundles can be bought the other way — $1,799, $2,548 or $4,447 down and $89.95, $109.90 or $129.85 a month — which puts three years at $5,037, $6,504 or $9,122 and leaves the hardware yours, while the software fee keeps running.
Square's three plans are per location and there is no contract at all — its pricing page says cancel or switch anytime. A basic online site, an item library and an online ordering profile are included from Free; Plus adds the restaurant features, loyalty and email and SMS for $49; Premium adds 24/7 phone support and the lowest rate for $149. The hardware is bought once — $299 for the Terminal, which prints, $399 for the Handheld, $899 for the Register, or $149 for a Stand you put your own iPad in — and Tap to Pay on a phone needs none of it. The price of that freedom is the card rate: 2.6% + 15¢ in person and 3.3% + 30¢ online on Free, 2.5% and 2.9% + 30¢ on Plus.
The subscription is a lease in everything but name. Clover's own pricing FAQ answers "Can I cancel my subscription?" with "Subscriptions are non-cancelable and ineligible for refunds" — a term that can be paid off early, or broken by a buyout or an upgrade, but not walked away from. At the end of the 36 months you buy the equipment or return it, and if you tell Clover nothing the term extends at the same monthly charge; the purchase price is quoted only after you give notice. Clover is Fiserv's brand, and the same FAQ is explicit that a Clover device bought elsewhere cannot be used with another processor: the terminal, the software and the card rate are one contract.
What the lease does buy is real, and worth saying: an Equipment Protection Program that covers defects, accidental damage and theft or loss for the life of the contract, free hardware replacement on an upgrade, no money down, and a rate that a shop buying its own till usually pays a warranty for. If your floor is rough on hardware, that is a line in Clover's favour and it belongs on the page.
The site is where Square's freedom stops. A Square Online site is assembled in Square's editor and hosted by Square; Square's own support guidance says there is no website backup or download, sites cannot be moved between Square accounts, and what the Dashboard exports is your item library, orders and customers as spreadsheets. Leave and you keep the items and the domain — not the pages.
Software and hardware only, before a single card is taken. Both vendors charge processing separately, so it gets its own paragraph rather than being folded into a number that flatters us.
The rate wash, and where the line falls. Clover is 0.2 points and 5¢ cheaper per card: on a $30 ticket $0.79 against Square Plus's $0.90. That is small per sale and large per year. On $39,000 a month in card-present sales — 1,300 tickets at $30 — Clover charges about $1,027 and Square about $1,170: $143 a month, or $5,148 across three years, against Clover's $130-a-month subscription premium ($4,680). The two lines cross at about $35,000 a month in card-present sales: below it Square's cheaper subscription wins even after the rate, above it Clover's rate pays for the subscription. At $20,000 a month Clover is about $1,700 behind over three years; at $60,000 it is about $3,500 ahead.
Online runs the other way. Square charges 2.9% + 30¢. Clover publishes no separate online rate and its FAQ puts "an online sale or phone order" on the higher, typed-in rate, 3.5% + 10¢. Those cross at $33.33 an order: below it Clover is a few cents cheaper, above it Square is. A $45 online order is $1.68 on Clover and $1.61 on Square. Neither of those differences decides the purchase; the contract does.
The pricing pages are honest about the amounts and quiet about the two sentences that matter. They are different sentences, which is why this is not one trap written twice.
Clover's FAQ: "Subscriptions are non-cancelable and ineligible for refunds." The term runs 36 months; it can be paid off early or broken by a buyout or an upgrade, and at the end you buy the equipment or return it. Say nothing and it extends at the same monthly charge. A restaurant that finds out in month five that the terminal does not fit its floor plan is not choosing another vendor, it is paying for two.
Square asks for no commitment at all — and offers no exit with the pages. A Square Online site lives in Square's editor and on Square's hosting; its support guidance states there is no website backup or download, sites cannot be transferred between accounts, and the export is your item library as a spreadsheet. That is a fine trade for a shop that intends to stay; it is a rebuild for one that does not.
The domain is the tell on both sides. Either vendor will host a site on a domain you own, and the domain stays yours; what does not come with you is the thing the domain points at. A shop that changes register — and over ten years most do, because hardware ages and contracts end — pays for the website twice: once inside the subscription and once in the rebuild. That rebuild is the only line on either bill this site exists to remove.
The same job on the left, two very different commitments in the middle, and the part that survives a change of register on the right.
| Clover (full-service) | Square (Free / Plus / Premium) | ShopLaunch | |
|---|---|---|---|
| List price today | $179 / $239 / $354 a month for 36 months, hardware inside | $0 / $49 / $149 a month per location, hardware $149-$899 | $49 / $199 / $499, once |
| What you pay in year 2 | $2,148 at Starter · $4,248 at Advanced | $588 at Plus · $1,788 at Premium, or $0 | $0 |
| Contract | 36 months, non-cancelable and ineligible for refunds | None — cancel or switch anytime | None |
| Leaving early | Pay the term off, or break it with a buyout or an upgrade; no refunds | Nothing beyond the month | Nothing to cancel |
| Hardware | Station Solo, cash drawer and receipt printer inside the subscription; buy or return at the end; no notice means it extends | $299 Terminal (prints), $399 Handheld, $149 Stand plus your iPad, $899 Register; Tap to Pay needs none | None. Your phone and your printer |
| Card rate, in person | 2.3% + 10¢ tapped, swiped or inserted | 2.6% / 2.5% / 2.4% + 15¢ | We process nothing |
| Card rate, online or typed in | 3.5% + 10¢ — Clover's FAQ puts "an online sale or phone order" on the typed-in rate | 3.3% / 2.9% / 2.9% + 30¢ | We process nothing |
| A register for a full-service room | Table map, open tabs, bill splitting, contactless QR order-and-pay; tableside ordering from Standard; kitchen printer accessory | Floor plans and coursing on Plus; no kitchen display of its own and no caterer-grade tooling | No POS, ever |
| Online ordering with payment | Included in all three bundles, no per-order fee | Included from Free — 3.3% + 30¢, 2.9% + 30¢ on Plus | No. We do not take orders or payments |
| The website | An online menu page inside the app; a designed site means BentoBox, now sold only to Clover customers, in a quote with no published price | A Square Online site included from Free — you build and maintain it | Built for you in 24 hours |
| Can the site leave with you | The menu page stops with the subscription; on the BentoBox site, ask in writing | No — no site export, only the item library as a spreadsheet | Yes. The HTML, the CSS and the images are the deliverable |
| Three-year software + hardware | $6,444 at Starter · $8,604 Standard · $12,744 Advanced (or $5,037 / $6,504 / $9,122 bought) | $1,764 at Plus · $5,364 at Premium, plus $149-$899 of hardware | $199 |
Clover: clover.com/pricing/restaurant read 11 November 2026 — Starter $179, Standard $239, Advanced $354 a month for 36 months, or $1,799 + $89.95, $2,548 + $109.90 and $4,447 + $129.85; 2.3% + 10¢ tapped, swiped or inserted, 3.5% + 10¢ typed in; online menu page and no-fee online ordering included. The non-cancelable, buy-or-return and auto-extension wording, the equipment protection terms and the "cannot be used with other payment processors" line are from clover.com/pricing, read 11 November 2026; that page also says terms and termination fees vary by the financial institution selling the system, so a partner quote can differ from Clover Direct. Square: squareup.com/us/en/pricing and squareup.com/us/en/hardware read 11 November 2026 — Free $0, Plus $49, Premium $149 per location; 2.6% / 2.5% / 2.4% + 15¢ in person and 3.3% / 2.9% / 2.9% + 30¢ online; Terminal $299, Handheld $399, Stand $149 plus an iPad, Register $899. The no-export rule is Square's own support guidance. Card-volume examples in the text are our worked numbers, not vendor figures. Prices are US list, before tax; both vendors price by country and change prices without notice.
Not a template you fill in, and not a replacement for a register. We take your hours, prices and photos, build each piece, and hand back files and a live link.
One form, five minutes. Live the next business day. No app for you or your guests, no monthly fee, and no cut of anything you sell.
The page and the menu are the Local Pack. No register required, nothing recurs, and nothing to buy out at the end of a term.
About one month of Clover Starter, and then nothing at all.
The one most shops order.
Everything, plus 30 days of us on call.
Payment is taken by Polar Software, Inc., our merchant of record, on their checkout page — we never see your card. By ordering you agree to our terms and refund policy. The files are yours to keep and reprint.
It depends on one number: your monthly card-present sales. In software Square is far cheaper — $1,764 for three years of Plus against $6,444 for Clover Starter — and it asks for no contract. In processing Clover is cheaper, 2.3% + 10¢ against 2.5% + 15¢. The two cross at about $35,000 a month in card-present sales: below that Square is cheaper overall even after its higher rate, above it Clover's rate pays back its subscription and keeps going. At $60,000 a month Clover is roughly $3,500 ahead over three years; at $20,000 it is roughly $1,700 behind.
Clover's own pricing FAQ says so: "Subscriptions are non-cancelable and ineligible for refunds." It adds that an agreement can be paid off at any time, or broken by a buyout or an upgrade, and that at the end of the 36-month term you either purchase the equipment or return it — and if you do nothing, the term extends at the same monthly charge. The purchase price is quoted once you give notice, so the number to ask for in writing before you sign is the buy-out price at month 12 and at month 36. Clover also says terms and termination fees vary by the bank or reseller selling the system.
A full-service room that wants the terminal, the drawer and the printer in one bill, a lower card rate and a warranty that covers theft, and that can live with a 36-month commitment, is Clover's customer. A café, counter-service shop, bakery or food truck is Square's: $0 to $49 a month, no contract, hardware from $149 plus an iPad, Tap to Pay with no hardware at all, and the freedom to leave in a month. If it is a full-service room with a bar, look at Toast as well — that comparison is on this site too.
Not as a site, on either. Clover's online menu page is part of the subscription and stops with it; a designed Clover-affiliated site means BentoBox, which is now sold only to Clover POS customers in a quote with no published price — ask what happens to it at the end of the term, in writing. A Square Online site cannot be exported at all: Square's support guidance says there is no backup or download, and the Dashboard exports your item library, orders and customers as spreadsheets. What you keep is the material — words, photos, items, domain — and the rebuild from it is the work nobody quotes at the start.
No. A page with your hours, your menu and your phone number needs no terminal, no account and no card reader behind it — ours is one HTML file and a stylesheet, with no platform between the guest and your hours. If you are buying a register this month, buy the register on its own terms and buy the page from someone who does not sell hardware.
Polar Software, Inc., our merchant of record, takes it on their checkout page. Your card details are entered there, never on this site, and they handle the receipt and the tax. We never see your card number.
Both price ladders, the three-year totals, where the card rate crosses and the contract terms that do not appear on a quote, on one printable A4 page.
Sixteen more, each priced over three years from the vendor's own page — restaurant POS, ordering, booking apps and the DIY builders.
Everything on one page: the 2026 cost comparison · the fee calculator · barbershops & salons.
Send your shop once. We build the page, the menu, the posters and the posts, and hand it back the next business day — with the files. Nothing to cancel, nothing welded to a terminal, and nothing that stops working when you change POS.