Square is rapidly becoming the small business system of choice for pay-as-you-go credit card processing with powerful, free Point of Sale (POS) software. Shopkeep is also a well regarded POS solution that, while not free, can be more economical for larger businesses. In this guide, we’ll compare Square vs ShopKeep in depth and explain when it’s best to use each.

Square vs ShopKeep – Who Wins

If you are processing less than $15,000/month in card sales, we recommend Square for their easier setup, and free POS tools that would otherwise cost $69/month from ShopKeep. However, if you process more than $15,000/month, ShopKeep is generally a better value due to their lower credit card processing fees.

Summary Table: Square vs ShopKeep

	Square	ShopKeep
Software cost Learn More	Free	$69 per month per register
Credit card processing costs Learn More	2.75% for all swiped transactions	Around 1.9 - 2.4% of transaction
Ease of Use / Setup Learn More	Very easy to use, fast setup	Very easy to use, longer setup
Key Features Learn More	Basic POS features (barcode scanning, receipts, tipping, refunds) Basic Inventory Management Customer Database w/ Email Marketing (add-on) Add-ons for employee management, Ecommerce, Payroll, Loyalty rewards & more	Basic POS features (barcode scanning, receipts, tipping, refunds) Advanced Inventory Management (including raw materials management) Customer Database w/ Free Mailchimp integration for up to 2500 customers Employee Management included Add-ons for e-commerce, payroll and loyalty management
Integration with Accounting Software Learn More	QuickBooks Online, Xero, Kashoo Accounting, Zoho Books, OneUp, Shogo, and TaxJar (see full list)	QuickBooks Online and AppCard (see full list)
Customer support Learn More	World class knowledge base plus phone, email and live chat support. Mon-Fri, 6am-6pm EST Sat-Sun, 6am-6pm EST	Phone, email and live chat support. Mon-Fri, 8am-9pm EST Sat-Sun, 8am-8pm EST 24/7 text support
	www.SquareUp.com	www.ShopKeep.com

When to use Square

We recommend Square to small businesses because it’s quick and easy to set up, includes great free POS tools and has no hidden fees: You simply pay a flat fee to process credit card transactions (2.75% per swipe).

Most retailers require point of sale (POS) software in addition to credit card processing in order to do things like scan barcodes, manage inventory and process refunds/coupons. One of the major perks to Square is that this software is provided for free, and it has the added benefit of e-commerce: You can create an online store and accept payments using your same Square account. With ShopKeep, POS software costs $69/month per register, and there’s no native e-commerce support.

Square is very easy to get up-and-running thanks to their integrated credit card processing service. Once you have your hardware, all you need to do is sign up online and you can immediately start swiping credit cards. While ShopKeep also has an integrated card processing service, you’ll need to negotiate rates before you can get started.

On the flipside, the ability to negotiate means you can get lower credit card processing fees from ShopKeep. Whereas Square charges a fixed 2.75%, ShopKeep generally ranges from 1.9% – 2.4%. This, along with the fact that ShopKeep has some more advanced POS features (like raw materials management) and phone support available can make it more suitable for larger retailers.

In general, however, Square is still going to be the simplest and most economical option for those processing less than $15,000/month in credit card sales.

Visit Square

When to use ShopKeep

If you are processing more than $15,000 per month in card sales we recommend ShopKeep. Because ShopKeep charges roughly 0.5% less than Square in credit card processing fees, the savings at this point begin to outweigh the $69/month cost of ShopKeep. In addition, you will now be at a scale where you can take advantage of the extra features ShopKeep provides, like raw materials management and employee management.

Unlike Square, ShopKeep includes email marketing and employee management in their base price. With employee management, you give each employee a login at the register. This allows you to track their hours/commission for payroll, and maintain a level of oversight on who’s working the register at any given time. Because Square offers this feature at a price of $5/employee/month, ShopKeep becomes more economical the larger your staff.

The main disadvantage of ShopKeep is the cost. Not only does ShopKeep cost $69/month, but every time you add a cash register you will have to pay an additional $69/month. Additionally, the ShopKeep setup process is a little more tedious, since you’ll need to negotiate rates with ShopKeep (or integrate a 3rd party merchant processor) to begin accepting credit cards.

Visit ShopKeep

In-Depth Review: Square Register vs ShopKeep

Now let’s take a look at the key features and other factors, like cost and ease-of-use, that you should take into consideration when comparing Square vs ShopKeep to decide which solution is best for your business.

Software Costs

There’s two components to pricing when comparing Square vs ShopKeep:

Software costs
Credit card processing costs

Software cost is the price of POS software. For Square, this is free (except for some optional add-ons). For ShopKeep, this is $69/month per register.

Square: Square POS software, unlike ShopKeep, is completely free. You can process cash and credit card transactions, manage inventory, process refunds, collect customer data, and more. There’s also a few optional POS add-ons: Employee management ($5/employee/month), which allows employees to clock in and out for reporting and monitoring purposes, and email marketing ($15/month), which allows you to send coupons and promotional messages to customers.

Shopkeep: ShopKeep POS software costs $69/month per register. This means that every time you add a new register to your store, or open a new location, you will have to pay an additional $69/month. On the plus side, email marketing and employee management (for an unlimited number of users) are included in the base price. So if you need these features, ShopKeep’s price tag is more justified.

Credit Card Processing Costs

The other major component in pricing for Square and ShopKeep is credit card processing fees. Square charges a flat 2.75% of the transaction value, whereas ShopKeep varies depending on the type of card processed, and depending on the rates negotiated with their particular client. Generally, ShopKeep is around 1.9 – 2.4% of the transaction value, which is a bit cheaper than Square.

Square: Square charges 2.75% for all swiped in-store transactions. While this is by far the most common type of transaction for brick and mortar shops, Square also lets you key-in cards, or accept payments online, for slightly higher rates:

Keyed-in (or card on file) transactions: 3.5% + $0.15
Online transactions: 2.9% + $0.30

Shopkeep: ShopKeep has no standard credit card processing rate. Their rates not only vary from client to client, but will vary for each type of card that you process (e.g. Visa Credit, Visa Debit, Mastercard Credit), and how you process it. Generally speaking, their rates are lower than Square, with most clients paying between 1.9 – 2.4% of the transaction value.Unlike Square, ShopKeep also gives you the option to integrate an outside provider for credit card processing. This means you have the potential to find some of the lowest possible rates in the industry. For example, the lowest we found is Payline, which charges 1.71% + $0.20 on a Visa swipe. Just be aware, there may be extra setup or subscription costs to integrate a 3rd party processor.

Total Cost: Square vs Shopkeep – Who is Better Priced?

Adding software and credit card processing fees together, we can begin to see when Square or ShopKeep becomes more economical. Below, we compare the total cost of Square vs ShopKeep at 3 different revenue points ($10K, $15K and $25K in credit card sales):

Note: Because ShopKeep does not have a standard card processing rate, we used an approximate rate of 2.2%. Your own rate from ShopKeep will vary depending on your revenue, industry, and average order value, among other factors.

	Software Fees	Total Cost: $10,000/monthin sales	Total Cost: $15,000/month in sales	Total Cost: $25,000/month in sales
Square	None	$275	$412.50	$687
ShopKeep	$69/month per register	$289	$399	$619

Below $15,000/month in credit card sales, Square is generally a better value thanks to the lack of monthly fees. Above $15,000, ShopKeep is likely cheaper because of their lower processing fees. However, it’s important to note the exact cut-off will vary depending on the rate you get from ShopKeep, and the number of cash registers in your store.

Ease of use

To assess how easy Square and ShopKeep are to use, we took a close look at how easy it is to process payments, manage inventory and use the other core features of each system. We found both were very easy to use, as both an administrator and an end-user.

Square: Square has a very good reputation for being easy-to-use. Manually adding products is quick and simple. Or like ShopKeep, you can bulk upload via spreadsheet. The register interface is intuitive and you and your employees should have no problems getting started.While Square is increasingly adding advanced features, we’ve found them all to be user-friendly. For example, Square’s advanced analytics can be customized via drag and drop to create your own dashboard.

Shopkeep: Like Square, ShopKeep’s user experience is very simple, contemporary and intuitive. Like all well designed software, it’s actually fun to use. When you log on, you’re guided through a setup process, which includes a rundown of basic features. Then you are shown how to add in your inventory, which you can do manually or via spreadsheet bulk upload. Once fully set up, you can do all your reporting, employee management, inventory management and many aspects of customer management in one, simple and intuitive system. Thereafter, most of your interactions with ShopKeep will be via the iPad app.

Inventory Management

Both systems give you the essential inventory management features, including the ability to upload products via spreadsheet (with their associated description, tax rates and barcode), track your inventory in real-time, and receive alerts when stock is running low.

ShopKeep, however, shines through with stronger bulk-editing tools and a unique raw goods management feature for complex inventories (like food service). Square, meanwhile, is ideal for stores that sell both online and offline thanks to their inventory sync feature.

Square: Square has strong inventory management that should be well-suited for small retailers. You can save and categorize all your products— either via spreadsheet or manual entry— with details like item add-ons/modifications, photos, written descriptions, applicable tax rates (e.g. excise tax) and more.Square also works especially well for brick and mortar stores that also want to sell products online: You can set up an online store via Square for free, and Square will automatically track online sales in your inventory. To do this with ShopKeep, you would need to integrate a 3rd party e-commerce system.

Shopkeep: ShopKeep has a slightly more advanced inventory system than Square, which really starts to become relevant when your stock volume increases. For instance, bulk management allows you to add, edit, or delete entire groups of items. ShopKeep also has raw goods management, which allows you to track your stock of ingredients that go into a product— like a coffee shop’s quantity of beans, filters, cups and lids.This high-level inventory management is ideal for larger retailers (over $15,000 in monthly sales) and/or food service businesses.

Employee Management

As you start to hire employees, it’s useful to be able to set up each employee on your POS system to track their hours worked and monitor how they’re performing— both in terms of sales performance and so you can track any payment or stock discrepancies back to the employee responsible.

Both Square and ShopKeep offer employee management, but Square charges an extra $5/month per employee for it.

Square: Square’s employee management includes all of the above features. Employees can punch in when they start and finish work, and you download this data as a CSV timesheet, or send it automatically to Square Payroll if you wish to use their optional add-on payroll service.Unlike ShopKeep, which includes employee management in their base price, Square considers this an add-on. Employee management costs $5/month per employee. Square payroll starts at $30/month.

Shopkeep: ShopKeep’s employee management also includes all of the above features: Employees can clock-in and out, and managers can view reports on their sales performance, and track who was working the register at any given time. ShopKeep does not have an integrated payroll system, but you can export time sheets as a CSV. Employee management is included in ShopKeep’s base price ($69/month) for an unlimited number of employees.

Source: Max Pixel

Customer Management and Marketing

Both Square and ShopKeep let you build a database of your customers, including their purchase history, shopping preferences, and preferred contact email. You can use this to send coupons and other marketing emails. Square offers email marketing as an add-on ($15/month) while ShopKeep integrates with Mailchimp.

Square: Square lets you track basic customer information, like their contact details and birthdates. You can also sort customers based on their behavior, like how frequently they visit, or how much they spend.While the above mentioned tools are free, Square also offers email marketing for $15/month, and loyalty rewards for $25/month. The former involves smart email campaigns that sends automatic messages based on a customer’s number of visits, birthday coming up, etc. The latter is a customizable digital rewards system customers can follow using their cell phone.

Shopkeep: Like Square, you can track customer information. But, because ShopKeep allows you to capture a little more information about your customers that Square does not, for example ingredient preferences, this enables you to auto-populate email marketing campaigns and loyalty programs based on more criteria. ShopKeep integrates with MailChimp for email campaign delivery.

Analytics and reporting

A big benefit of using POS software is the insight it can provide into how your business is performing— not only in terms of overall store or product revenue, but also customer buying patterns and what you can do to improve them. Both Square and ShopKeep offer advanced, customizable reporting:

Square: Square provides a powerful and advanced visual analytics package. Like ShopKeep, you can generate sales and employee reports by the hour, day, week, month, or year from your dashboard. Some examples of reports include:

Sales by item
Specific item categories
Sales by staff member
Average customer spend
Sales by payment method

Many of the reports can be exported by spreadsheet. What’s also really neat is that you can customize your analytics dashboard by dragging and dropping each of the widgets.

Shopkeep: ShopKeep also has advanced analytics tools. Like Square, real-time analysis of your sales data is available to help you make better business decisions in the moment. You can go deep into details, such as sales on a specific day, hour or based on a specific product line. You can also setup daily sales reports, product comparisons, salesperson comparisons, most profitable items and top-selling products.

Integrations with Accounting Software

When your cash and card transactions start go beyond $1,000 per month, it makes sense to integrate your POS system with your accounting software. This not only allows you to more-easily transfer data to your accounting system, but you can also benefit from better financial reporting, like real-time cash-flow forecasts. Both Square and ShopKeep integrate with a range of accounting programs.

Square: Square integrates with QuickBooks Online, Zoho Books, Xero, Kashoo Accounting, Commerce Sync, OneUp, Shogo and TaxJar. View all Square integrations here.

Shopkeep: ShopKeep integrates with QuickBooks Online and AppCard. View all ShopKeep integrations here.

Customer support and service

If your POS software is not working properly and you have no way of getting this resolved quickly, then your business will quickly grind to a halt. This is why customer service for POS systems is so important. While both Square and ShopKeep have a range of support options, only ShopKeep has a phone support line.

Square: Square provides a number of methods of support. There’s email support, an active community forum, a wide range of video tutorials and a blog. One of the ways Square has revolutionized customer self-service in recent times is through creating a very extensive self-service customer support knowledge base.If Square does have an Achilles heel, it is a less than perfect track record in terms of customer service. This is because it accepts most new merchants and then puts accounts that it considers to be high-risk on hold. For example; direct marketing services, travel agency services and inbound or outbound telemarketers. To avoid this, it’s worth reading Square’s T&Cs and list of excluded high risk enterprises. If you are not a high risk enterprise and you follow their terms, you should be delighted with Square’s service like the vast majority of Square’s customers.

Shopkeep: ShopKeep offers comprehensive customer support, which seems to be well regarded in customer review forums. You get support via phone and email or live chat support if you prefer. There’s also; video tutorials, a knowledge base, a comprehensive FAQ, a community forum, a ShopKeep blog and a POS University where you can learn how to get the best out of your system.

Square vs Shopkeep – The Bottom Line

If you are not a high risk business and you are processing less than $15,000 per month in card sales we recommend Square. This is because the higher cost of ShopKeep ($69/month) outweighs the benefits of a more competitive credit card processing rate — at least until you’re earning above this amount. In addition, until you reach this size, the free Square software has all the features you are likely to use (and more).

If you are processing more than $15,000 per month in card sales we recommend ShopKeep. At this point, the savings you’ll get from their lower credit card processing rate will likely outweigh the monthly cost. In addition, you can take advantage of extra features, like advanced inventory management, customer tracking and a mailchimp integration. However, keep in mind, ShopKeep does charge $69/month per register, so it can add up fast for larger stores.

Visit Square Visit ShopKeep

Comments (14) Post Your Comment

christian

October 12, 2017 at 7:01 am

Hello, wife and i own a convinience store and have about 2000 skus. Tested VendHQ, squareup, and Shopkeep. VendHQ was the best reports wise, although high monthly fee turned off off. Their cc company (Vantiv) quoted us Interchange + .07 swipe +.07% rate, no monthly fee servicing fee. However even with this low effective rate, considerably lower than squreup, but higher than shopkeep’s quote, we decided not to use vendhq because barcode scanners are not as streamlined and there is no tipping. Plus its $79 per a month if you pay yearly, $99 month to month.

Squareup was great, and we decided to use the free version for our deli, only does about $3000 a month in cc. Which is great because at that amount the 2.75% flat rate is awesome. However neither the paid version nor the free version works well with barcode scanners (you have to approve each item you scan which is annoying when ringing up 30 items. So the free version is working great for our deli side of the store.

For the convinience store we went with shopkeep. after reading some of the reviews here i hope i didnt make a mistake however the reporting is good and i can be logged into the dash board on my laptop and see real time reporting. Also barcode scanning is great, looking up items manually is best on squareup but i can scan 30 items in seconds on shopkeep which is what i wanted. Also, dont buy the recommended items they have with the exception of the printer, do buy a ethernet printer, star micronics or epson. For the cash drawers any will work as long as it has a rj12 port. Also, any bluetooth barcode scanner will work with squareup or shopkeep, no need to drop $200 on a socket mobile 7ci unless you really want one. I got mine for $69 and it works great.
For cc peocessing, shop keep quoted us Interchange + .07 swipe fee and 0% rate. However there is a $9.95 monthly fee. If we do over $12,000 a month in cc sales this is lower than VendHQ and way lower than squareup.

I have not used loyalty programs yet but I will post again in a month. We are still in testing phase.

- Krista Fabregas
  
  October 13, 2017 at 8:15 pm
  
  With that many skus it’s good you did your homework, and thanks for the tips on the peripherals, other readers will find that valuable. Square is great for certain inventory needs, but with barcode scanners and advanced inventory needs, ShopKeep & Lightspeed are definite winners, especially for the price. Let me know which loyalty program you go with, I’d be interested to hear which one came out on top in your testing. Thanks for sharing! Cheers, Krista

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Square vs ShopKeep – Who Wins

Summary Table: Square vs ShopKeep

When to use Square

When to use ShopKeep

In-Depth Review: Square Register vs ShopKeep

Software Costs

Credit Card Processing Costs

Total Cost: Square vs Shopkeep – Who is Better Priced?

Ease of use

Inventory Management

Employee Management

Customer Management and Marketing

Analytics and reporting

Integrations with Accounting Software

Customer support and service

Square vs Shopkeep – The Bottom Line

About the Author

Mark Sallows

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