ShopKeep by Lightspeed vs. Square: Price, Features, & What’s Best in 2019

In a ShopKeep by Lightspeed vs. Square POS review, both clearly deliver essential retail point-of-sale functionality, including barcode checkout, iPad registers, and inventory, staff, and customer tracking, plus both offer a free version. ShopKeep by Lightspeed offers impressive inventory tools and supports various payment providers while Square’s all-in-one product delivers convenient built-in payment processing, ecommerce, payroll, and marketing features.

ShopKeep by Lightspeed vs. Square At-a-Glance

**Via third-party providers with added fees

When to Use ShopKeep by Lightspeed

Store owners who want to use their own credit card merchant account processor should use ShopKeep by Lightspeed. This is the standout difference between ShopKeep by Lightspeed versus Square. With Square POS, you must use Square’s built-in payment processing service to accept credit cards. ShopKeep by Lightspeed lets you connect your own payment service, so you can shop for the lowest fees.

Visit ShopKeep by Lightspeed

When to Use Square

Startups and small retailers looking for an economical POS that delivers all-in-one convenience and growth potential should use Square. It’s ideal for any bootstrap startup and easily expands to support million-dollar, multi-location businesses. The caveat is you can only use Square as your payment processor to enjoy its many built-in POS, payroll, ecommerce, and marketing features.

Visit Square

When to Use an Alternative

If you want a POS that lets you bring your own credit card processing provider like ShopKeep by Lightspeed and is easy to set up and use like Square, try Vend. It works on iPads, Macs, or PCs so you’re not limited to a single system or forced to buy extra equipment. You also get features right out of the box that other POS providers offer as addons, including custom loyalty programs, easy ecommerce integration, multiple location and channel management, and more.

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How We Evaluated ShopKeep by Lightspeed vs. Square

Store owners comparing ShopKeep by Lightspeed versus Square are generally interested in finding the right POS system to help streamline sales, checkout, inventory tracking, and overall store management. Most users are budget-minded, yet are looking for a system they won’t outgrow. Advanced inventory tools, employee management, and ecommerce and accounting integrations are also important factors.

Based on these user requirements, we closely examined the following criteria in our in-depth evaluation of Square versus ShopKeep by Lightspeed:

• Pricing – Both Square and ShopKeep by Lightspeed offer free and paid versions of their POS software, and we compared the available features in the free versus paid plans.
• Ease of Use – Both Square and ShopKeep by Lightspeed are simple to set up and operate, but we also explored which POS delivers the most seamless solution.
• Credit Card Processing – We looked at how credit card processing options and fees differ between Square and ShopKeep by Lightspeed.
• Register Hardware – We explored the in-store and mobile register options, plus web-based access to back-end management dashboards.
• Sales & Inventory Management – We compared key POS functionality, including register options, checkout processes, and inventory, customer, and employee management features.
• Marketing & Loyalty Programs – We examined how Square and ShopKeep by Lightspeed help you actively market your business to new and existing customers.
• Employee Management – We compared the employee time tracking, login, and permissions functions, and how each helps you streamline payroll.
• Ecommerce & Accounting Integrations – We looked at connectivity options between each POS system and various online sales platforms and accounting solutions.
• Reporting and Analytics – We examined the sales, inventory, and business reports that each POS provides in free and paid plans.
• Customer Service – We compared the customer support and online knowledge base options for each POS.
• User Reviews – We searched for reviews and comments from actual Square and ShopKeep by Lightspeed users.

After an exhaustive review, we find that Square’s economical, yet highly expandable POS system delivers a better overall value than ShopKeep by Lightspeed . Square offers a greater set of business management features than ShopKeep by Lightspeed for free. Plus, in most cases, its features, registers, and locations can be expanded at a lower cost compared to paid ShopKeep by Lightspeed plans.

However, unlike ShopKeep by Lightspeed, Square locks you into its own credit card payment service. ShopKeep by Lightspeed lets you shop various merchant services providers to find the lowest rates. If you’d rather have control over your credit card processing destiny, then ShopKeep by Lightspeed is the better option.

ShopKeep by Lightspeed vs. Square: Pricing & Features

ShopKeep by Lightspeed versus Square POS reviews show that each delivers a POS software, plus extended features for monthly fees. Square’s expandability is module-based, so you can add the specific features you need when you need them. ShopKeep by Lightspeed’s extended features are unlocked by upgrading to its monthly plan, with fees based on the number of registers you operate.

If you use Square POS, you must use its built-in payment processing service to accept credit cards—you don’t have a choice like you do with ShopKeep by Lightspeed. But the only cost of using Square’s free POS package is the credit card processing fee that Square charges when you accept a credit card payment. We cover these processing fees below.

In terms of basic POS sales, inventory, and staff management features, the Square versus ShopKeep by Lightspeed matchup is quite close. The differences really arise when comparing what’s available in free versus paid options and, of course, how credit card processing is handled.

ShopKeep by Lightspeed Pricing & Features

ShopKeep by Lightspeed offers a free single-user, single-outlet version of its POS system, plus a paid plan that supports unlimited users and unlocks advanced reporting features. ShopKeep by Lightspeed does not publish any pricing online—its POS fees are all quote-based. However, we found that most small businesses are looking at about $69 per register per month to use the full version of ShopKeep by Lightspeed. To get an accurate idea of what it will cost you, contact ShopKeep by Lightspeed for a quote.

ShopKeep by Lightspeed POS Software Costs & Features At-a-Glance

ShopKeep by Lightspeed POS Hardware Costs

ShopKeep by Lightspeed is an iPad-based POS system, so you can’t download the POS software to various Apple and Android phones and tablets like you can with Square. You need an iPad running iOS 9.3 or above to operate a ShopKeep by Lightspeed checkout. Like Square, you can build a ShopKeep by Lightspeed iPad checkout using various stands and card readers, but these all tend to be more costly than Square’s budget-friendly register options.

ShopKeep by Lightspeed POS Credit Card Processing Fees

Unlike Square, ShopKeep by Lightspeed doesn’t lock you into one credit card processing service. You can connect your own merchant services account to ShopKeep by Lightspeed, or use one of its partner providers. You can also get a quote from ShopKeep by Lightspeed’s processing service, ShopKeep by Lightspeed Payments, which uses competitive interchange-plus pricing.

ShopKeep by Lightspeed’s merchant account integration feature is far more flexible than Square’s and enables you to shop around for the best rates, like interchange-plus. Depending on your business, these can be far lower than Square’s flat-rate processing fees. However, it does take you more time to shop for a merchant services solution, apply for an account, and connect it to ShopKeep by Lightspeed. With Square’s built-in processing service, you can start accepting credit cards as soon as you set up your free Square account.

ShopKeep by Lightspeed POS Inventory Management & Purchase Orders

Inventory management is where ShopKeep by Lightspeed really shines. Its inventory features are very advanced and you get access to all inventory tools in the free version. With ShopKeep by Lightspeed, you can:

• Record item SKU numbers and descriptions
• Print barcode labels from your SKU numbers
• Categorize items and track by category
• Track items with advanced and multiple variant combinations
• Track item modifiers, like add-on items or condiments
• Track product quantities and split items into partial units
• Track raw goods and ingredients
• Create low-stock alerts and suggested reorder amounts
• Track price points and sale prices
• Track inventory across multiple locations (in the paid plan)
• Item wholesale cost tracking and cost-of-goods
• Track vendors and suppliers per item

Since you get all of these features in ShopKeep by Lightspeed’s free version, it beats Square in this matchup. To meet this inventory functionality, you’d need Square’s paid Retail or Restaurant module—though at $60 per month, they’re still less costly when compared to ShopKeep by Lightspeed’s paid plan, which starts around $69 per month.

It’s also important to note that ShopKeep by Lightspeed’s free version is limited to sellers processing under $5,000 in monthly sales. If you outgrow that, you’ll need the paid plan to continue with ShopKeep by Lightspeed—not so with Square.

There is also one glaring drawback to ShopKeep by Lightspeed—there is no Purchase Order function at all. ShopKeep by Lightspeed supports reorder alerts and even suggested reorder quantities, but you have to create and manage your purchase orders outside of ShopKeep by Lightspeed. Square tops this with integrated Purchase Order features in its paid Retail and Restaurant modules. This is something to consider when comparing Square versus ShopKeep by Lightspeed—if you need streamlined built-in purchasing, only Square delivers.

ShopKeep by Lightspeed POS Sales & Checkout Features

Checkout is another area where ShopKeep by Lightspeed shines, with a POS checkout screen that you can set up and modify to meet your needs. However, one major difference between Square and ShopKeep by Lightspeed screens is the use of images. ShopKeep by Lightspeed offers nice color-coded buttons for item selections, but Square lets you incorporate actual images into its modern interface.

ShopKeep by Lightspeed, left, uses color-coded item buttons while Square, right, incorporates images for easy item selection during checkout—or you can use color-coded buttons—it’s your choice with Square.

This might matter to your operation and staff, so it’s something to consider when comparing ShopKeep by Lightspeed versus Square. Other than that, ShopKeep by Lightspeed offers a quick and easy checkout process for all types of operations.

• Checkout on countertop registers or mobile iPad tablet
• Barcode scanning for checkout
• Cash drawer and receipt printer integration
• Percentage and dollar-amount discounts
• Track cash, check, and credit card payments
• Tip tracking and tips on digital and printed receipts
• Tab tracking for food service needs (if using Serverless sync)
• Gift receipts
• Add sales tax using single or multiple Sales Tax Groups

Unlike Square, ShopKeep by Lightspeed’s offline mode does not support credit card processing. If you lose your internet connection, you can complete check and cash sales in ShopKeep by Lightspeed, but you can’t run a credit card and get the approval later when the connection is re-established—like you can with Square.

ShopKeep by Lightspeed POS Customer Management, Marketing & Loyalty Features

Like Square, ShopKeep by Lightspeed tracks your customer contact information and purchasing history, so you can easily look up past purchases if needed for refunds or shopper queries. However, putting this data to work in email marketing and loyalty promotions isn’t as streamlined as it is with Square’s built-in marketing features. You need to connect your ShopKeep by Lightspeed account to outside providers to add this functionality.

AppCard is ShopKeep by Lightspeed’s integrated loyalty program, which can be added to your paid ShopKeep by Lightspeed plan for an added fee. You’ll need to contact ShopKeep by Lightspeed for this pricing for your operation. For email marketing, you can connect ShopKeep by Lightspeed to Mailchimp. Mailchimp has a free version, but if your email list exceeds 2,000 names, you might need to upgrade to a paid version to make the most of your email marketing in the long run.

ShopKeep by Lightspeed POS Staff Tracking, Permissions & Payroll

ShopKeep by Lightspeed’s free version supports just one user, so staff tracking in the free version is nonexistent, unlike the multi-staff tracking features in Square’s free POS. ShopKeep by Lightspeed’s $69 per month paid plan includes employee login, time tracking, and sales-per-employee features for unlimited employees. However, Square’s employee management add-on delivers similar staff tracking tools for $5 per employee per month. So, you’ll need to do the math to see which is the best value for your staff management needs.

Unlike Square, ShopKeep by Lightspeed does not offer a built-in payroll service. The most direct option is to use QuickBooks Online with Payroll and integrate that with ShopKeep by Lightspeed . This works by connecting ShopKeep by Lightspeed’s staff tracking data to QuickBooks Payroll, but it adds many fees. QuickBooks Online with Payroll starts at $59 per month, plus ShopKeep by Lightspeed charges a monthly fee of around $29 to support the integration with QuickBooks—and the setup is quite a process.

At $29 per month plus $5 per employee, Square’s built-in Square Payroll feature tops ShopKeep by Lightspeed in simplicity and cost. However, if you’re already a QuickBooks user, then ShopKeep by Lightspeed can be a good pairing.

ShopKeep by Lightspeed POS Ecommerce & Accounting Integrations

Speaking of pairings, ShopKeep by Lightspeed supports very few integrations with ecommerce and accounting platforms—just two, in fact. As stated above, ShopKeep by Lightspeed integrates with QuickBooks Online Simple Start, Essentials, and Plus versions, but not the lowest-cost Self-Employed version. Along with QuickBooks Online account monthly fees, ShopKeep by Lightspeed charges an added monthly fee to support the integration. This fee is part of your account quote and tends to average about $29 per month in our research. Unlike Square, ShopKeep by Lightspeed does not integrate with other accounting programs.

For ecommerce, ShopKeep by Lightspeed directly integrates with BigCommerce, which starts at $29 per month. This is a well-supported integration but, unlike Square, which works with a variety of ecommerce solutions, this is the only direct-connect choice you have with ShopKeep by Lightspeed.

So, while ShopKeep by Lightspeed does integrate with top-rated accounting and ecommerce platforms, you have far fewer options—and added integration costs—compared to Square.

ShopKeep by Lightspeed POS Reporting & Analytics

ShopKeep by Lightspeed offers better overall reporting and analytics than Square. In the free version, you get more inventory-related reports than Square delivers. However, as a single-user system, you can’t track sales by different staff logins, like you can in Square’s free POS. For staff-level tracking, you must be on a paid ShopKeep by Lightspeed plan.

If you’re on the paid plan, ShopKeep by Lightspeed’s back-office reporting and analytics dashboard does give you reporting tools for everything under the sun, including:

• Sales Reporting – by category, item, line, vendor, discounts, register, location
• Inventory Reporting – including cost-of-goods and quantity-on-hand reports
• Customer Reporting – trends, sales per customer, goods per customer, and top customers
• Staff Reporting – sales per staff login, tips, and time tracking
• ShopKeep by Lightspeed Pocket Reporting – iPhone app delivers reporting to your mobile

Reporting really isn’t a deal-breaker between ShopKeep by Lightspeed versus Square. Both offer a good set of reporting in both the free and paid plans, but ShopKeep by Lightspeed’s free version inventory reporting is better, although staff tracking is non-existent. If you’re comparing the free versions of each POS, this is something to keep in mind.

Square POS Pricing & Features

Square delivers an impressive set of POS sales and business management tools for free. Its free POS system supports basic inventory tracking, in-store, mobile, and online sales, customer management tools, and unlimited user access and locations. You can even manage invoices, recurring payments, and single-user appointments for free.

If you need extended features, like email and loyalty marketing, vendor management, employee tracking or payroll, or detailed inventory tracking, you can add these for low monthly fees.

Here’s a complete rundown of Square’s free and paid POS costs and features:

Square POS Software Pricing & Features At-a-Glance

Note: Square has recently changed its flat-rate fee of 2.75% to 2.6% + 10 cents per transaction. We will update the pricing and our ranking of providers in the next update of this article.

Square POS Hardware Costs

Since individual sellers and small businesses can run Square’s powerful free POS system on an iPhone, iPad or Android smartphone or tablet using just a card reader, Squares hardware costs can be as low as $0. Or, you can pair an iPad with the budget-friendly Square stand or opt for the sleek, all-in-one Square register.

Square POS Credit Card Processing Fees

Seamless, built-in credit card processing is a notable feature of Square. From the moment you sign up for your free Square account, you can start accepting credit cards online and via keyed-in and virtual terminal payments. Square even sends you a free magstripe card reader that you can use on Apple and Android mobile devices for mobile, sales floor, and tableside sales. Plus, there are absolutely no monthly or cancellation fees with your Square account.

Your only cost is Square’s payment processing fee, which is based on the type of sale—in-store, mobile, online, or virtual terminal—and whether you use one of Square’s paid modules, which lowers your in-store and mobile sales rate, as shown below:

Square POS Credit Card Processing Fees

Note: Square has recently changed its flat-rate fee of 2.75% to 2.6% + 10 cents per transaction. We will update the pricing and our ranking of providers in the next update of this article.

Unlike ShopKeep by Lightspeed, you can’t use your own credit card processor with Square POS or its many other business management services. This means you can’t shop around for a lower rate from another merchant account provider. However, Square does offer custom pricing for sellers that process more than $250,000 in credit card sales per year. So, as you grow, you can get lower rates from Square and still enjoy its streamlined, all-in-one POS and payment system.

Square POS Inventory, Vendor & Purchase Order Features

Inventory, vendor, and purchasing management is an essential part of any modern POS system. Square’s free POS software starts you out with a good set of basic inventory management tools, including:

• Record item SKU numbers, descriptions, and images
• Connect barcodes to SKUs for scanner checkout
• Categorize items and track by category
• Track items with variants, like size and color
• Track item modifiers, like add-on items or condiments
• Track product quantities to the variant
• Create low-stock alerts
• Track items with different price points
• Track inventory across multiple locations
• Bulk import and export inventory items via CSV file

Advanced inventory features are available with the Square for Retail and Square for Restaurants modules, which start at $60 per month. These expand the basic set to include:

• Item wholesale cost tracking
• Cost-of-goods reporting
• Vendor and supplier tracking
• Create, track, and receive purchase orders
• Print barcode labels (in Square for Retail)
• Track raw goods/ingredients and split stock into partial units (in Square for Restaurants)

ShopKeep by Lightspeed’s free version delivers more inventory features than Square’s free offering—such as supplier, cost of goods, and ingredient features for free. However, there are other limitations to ShopKeep by Lightspeed’s free plan—namely one user/one location and a $5,000 per month sales limit. If you exceed those limitations, you must move to the paid plan, starting at $69. This is something to consider when comparing Square versus ShopKeep by Lightspeed for your needs.

Square POS Sales & Checkout Features

Checkout and sales tracking is another essential function of any POS system, and Square’s sell-anywhere POS app lets you turn any number of devices into a register—Apple and Android smartphones and tablets, computers can run virtual terminal payments, and iPads become registers with Square’s budget-friendly stands.

Both the free and paid Square options deliver:

• Checkout on registers or mobile device
• Barcode scanning for checkout
• Cash drawer and receipt printer
• Percentage and dollar-amount discounts
• Track cash, check, and credit card payments
• Tip tracking and tips on digital and printed receipts
• Tab tracking for food service needs
• Gift receipts and emailed and printed receipt options
• Offline mode for sales and credit card processing
• Virtual terminal checkout via the online dashboard
• Add sales tax using single or multiple Sales Tax Tables

Both Square and ShopKeep by Lightspeed deliver the checkout functions that most sellers need. However, only Square lets you accept credit card payments without an internet connection and processes them when your connection is restored. ShopKeep by Lightspeed lets you record cash and check sales without a connection, but you can’t process card payments.

Square POS Customer Management, Marketing & Loyalty Features

Square lets you record your customer contact information and tracks your customers’ purchase history. This is a great feature that helps you provide good customer service for returns or customer queries. It also helps you create targeted marketing campaigns using Square’s optional add-on email marketing and loyalty program features.

Square email and loyalty program features are built into your Square POS software; you simply need to turn them on for monthly fees starting at $15 for email marketing and $25 for loyalty features. Once activated, these marketing modules connect to your customer data so you can easily target marketing efforts to specific customer groups based on their past purchases.

ShopKeep by Lightspeed integrates with outside services to enable marketing functionality, which comes with added fees and integrations. For this functionality, Square’s streamlined solution is much more user-friendly than ShopKeep by Lightspeed.

Square POS Staff Tracking, Permissions & Payroll

Square supports unlimited users in its free POS software, and you can somewhat limit what these users can do using Square’s Mobile Staff functionality. For example, you can let staff have unique email logins and limit whether they can accept certain payments, like offline payments, or process refunds. You can also track sales per staff login.

However, for more control over staff logins into common registers, time tracking, and detailed system permissions and sales tracking, you need to add Square’s Employee Management add-on for $5 per month per employee. And to streamline your payroll tasks, Square Payroll connects to your Employee Management data and handles all of your payroll tasks for $29 per month and $5 per employee per month.

ShopKeep by Lightspeed’s free version allows only one user, so there’s no added staff tracking or functionality to compete with Square at that level. However, the paid ShopKeep by Lightspeed plan does include staff logins, permissions, sales, and time tracking for no additional fees—but payroll, again, is only available via an outside service integration. It’s not as seamless and tidy as Square’s all-in-one solution.

Square POS Ecommerce & Accounting Integrations

Square integrates with a number of top-rated ecommerce platforms for sellers who want to combine in-store and online sales into a streamlined, multichannel operation. Many ecommerce platforms—from Wix and Weebly to OpenCart and Miva, integrate with Square for payment processing, but others, including WooCommerce, BigCommerce, and Ecwid, integrate payments, products, sales, and inventory to Square POS for a true multichannel sales tool.

Square even offers all account holders a fully-integrated free online store. If you want to dip your toe into ecommerce with little effort and no added costs, you can easily do that in just a few clicks using Square.

For accounting, Square connects to QuickBooks Online and Xero with no integration costs, and many more—like Zoho, TaxJar, and Kashoo—via Square’s app marketplace.

Square POS Reporting & Analytics

Square delivers an impressive set of sales and business reports that can be easily accessed from Square’s POS dashboard via mobile device or computer:

Square’s free POS reporting delivers key data to track the health of your business, including:

• Sales summaries and sales trend reports with dates you set
• Payment method reports
• Employee sales reports and tip reports
• Item sales reports with drill-down reports into variant sales
• Item category sales reports
• Sales tax reports
• Cash drawer session reports and history

The optional Square for Retail and Square for Restaurants modules deliver even more detailed reports, including:

• Cost of goods reports
• Projected profits report
• Restaurant shift reports
• Tip detail reports
• See more retail and restaurant-specific advanced reporting features

ShopKeep by Lightspeed delivers a very thorough set of advanced sales and inventory reporting tools in its paid plan. However, its free plan is very limited compared to the array of detailed reports that Square’s free POS provides.

ShopKeep by Lightspeed vs. Square: Ease of Use

Comparing ShopKeep by Lightspeed versus Square in terms of setup and ease of use, Square easily wins the setup side, and ongoing ease-of-use is essentially a tie. Both POS platforms have stellar reputations for being easy to use and having very intuitive screens and processes for quick staff training.

ShopKeep by Lightspeed POS Review: Ease of Use

ShopKeep by Lightspeed’s user experience is very simple, contemporary and intuitive, but there is more initial setup compared to Square. For setup, you need to define how you want your screens—from register checkout, inventory lookup, and back-office analytics—to appear, and it is not auto-populated like it is in Square. However, this is nice, since you can create the screen setups that work for your operation.

Once set up, ShopKeep by Lightspeed’s color-coded categories make it easy to look up and add products to sales, and you can set up your back-end dashboard to deliver the numbers you want to see.

ShopKeep by Lightspeed’s drawback compared to Square is easy expandability. Integrations for ecommerce, accounting, and marketing are limited, and what is available requires setup and accounts with outside services.

Square POS Review: Ease of Use

Square’s fully-integrated payments, POS system, and optional add-ons are simplicity itself. The touch-screen iPad register interface is intuitive and you and your employees should have no problems getting started. Adding products, tracking goods, completing sales with image-enabled touch screens, and running reports is as simple as it gets using intuitive iPad register and back-office computer interfaces.

Plus, unlike ShopKeep by Lightspeed, you can expand Square’s POS with the touch of a button. Loyalty, email marketing, payroll, and even a free online store can be launched with Square’s built-in features—no integration or external account set-up needed.

ShopKeep by Lightspeed vs. Square: Customer Service

If POS software is not working properly, you need to resolve this fast or business will grind to a halt. This is why customer service is very important. In comparing Square versus ShopKeep by Lightspeed, both deliver excellent online support resources and phone support, though ShopKeep by Lightspeed’s is 24/7, whereas Square is available via phone during set hours.

ShopKeep by Lightspeed Customer Service

• Phone, Live Chat, and Email: 24/7
• Complete self-help forum and online knowledge base

ShopKeep by Lightspeed has excellent customer service and you can reach them 24/7. We found the service reps to be friendly and they clearly know the system in-depth. 24/7 access is an especially great perk for businesses that operate outside of normal hours, like bars and restaurants. ShopKeep by Lightspeed has won many customer service awards over the years and remains a top-rated iPad POS app on Apple’s App Store, even with increased app-based POS competition in recent years.

Square Customer Service

• Phone, Live Chat, and Email: Monday through Friday, 6 a.m. – 6 p.m. PST
• Online form, forums, and a complete online knowledge base

Square’s phone service is code-based, so you need to have an account to access the code needed to get them on the phone. We have an account and used it to get the code via Square’s Contact Us page. Upon calling, we found that Square is fast to answer the phone and customer service reps take the time to understand your problem and provide a solution. Since credit card processing is directly tied to your Square account, any questions about the system or POS processing can all be answered by Square.

ShopKeep by Lightspeed vs. Square: Customer Reviews

Square is a much bigger company than ShopKeep by Lightspeed. Unlike ShopKeep by Lightspeed, which is primarily a POS service, Square is used by a wide variety of online, retail, and service-based businesses. So it follows that you can find more customer reviews—and complaints—for Square. However, when you dig into user reviews related to POS features, both deliver an overall positive performance.

ShopKeep by Lightspeed Customer Reviews

ShopKeep by Lightspeed’s easy interface and excellent customer service keep users happy, as proven in many ShopKeep by Lightspeed POS reviews.

Robert Hepler of the Stanton Daily Grind says, “ShopKeep by Lightspeed made it easy for us to launch our brand-new coffee shop this year. Its ease of use allowed staff to quickly become effective. A new employee walked in on opening day when we were extremely busy and began serving customers immediately using ShopKeep by Lightspeed’s self-teaching screens. The template for product entry and cost of goods tracking has been helpful for our manager, and bookkeeping and timekeeping has been seamless.”

Where users show dissatisfaction is in its higher costs compared to a solution like Square, more setup and integration processes, and limited expandability options for ecommerce, accounting, and marketing services. However, its integrations are very reliable and if they suit your needs, then ShopKeep by Lightspeed is a good pick. See what ShopKeep users have to say.

Square POS Customer Reviews

Square POS reviews show that users appreciate its simple, budget-friendly system, ease of expansion, and many built-in features.

Kelsey Witherow, Square POS user and founder of DOUGHP says, “I use Square for virtually everything. It’s amazing as a small business owner to get one tool that can provide so many services. I talk to other small business owners and they’re using a different tool for payroll, another for time cards, and different one still for their POS. Square works across the board for us—and does it all with one simple system. Square is our provider for POS, credit card processing, time cards, payroll, and even email marketing—which integrates splendidly when a customer gives you their email at checkout!”

In perusing Square POS reviews, a major source of user frustration centers on having to get an access code to call Square. However, the code is provided in your Square account dashboard and calls are answered quickly by knowledgeable service reps. Beyond that, withheld funds is the major source of negative Square POS reviews—mainly from users who experienced account suspension due to excessive returns or chargebacks.

For sellers of high-risk or high-value goods, pairing ShopKeep by Lightspeed with a traditional merchant services account designed for high-risk sales is a better option. However, for standard sales and payment processing needs, Square meets or exceeds user expectations.

Bottom Line

The Square versus ShopKeep by Lightspeed matchup is pretty even in terms of features, benefits, and ease of use. Both have a few pros and cons, but each gets the job done in terms of in-store POS sales, inventory, staff, and sales tracking. Both also deliver a free basic POS system, offer expanded features for added costs, and deliver integrations for ecommerce and bookkeeping solutions.

Square pulls ahead with its simple startup, sell-anywhere payment processing, and a wide variety of seamless add-on features and integrations. However, ShopKeep by Lightspeed soundly beats Square in one important area for some sellers: choice of credit card processor.

Overall, the most flexible and budget-friendly option for small businesses is Square POS. You get more features for free, like multiple staff access, a free online store, and the ability to run your entire business from an Apple or Android smartphone if you wish. Plus, you can start selling and processing credit cards the minute you sign up for your zero-cost, risk-free Square account. If you’re ready to start selling anywhere your business takes you, give Square a try for free.

Visit Square

Do you use Square or ShopKeep by Lightspeed, or another small business POS system? We’d love to hear what works for you in the comments below.