Vend vs Square: Which Retail POS Is Right for Your Business in 2022?

Square and Vend offer user-friendly point-of-sale (POS) software that help retailers manage in-store and online operations. Both can process sales, manage customers, and generate reports. Vend, however, offers stronger and more detailed features and works with more payment processors. Square, on the other hand, is a free POS system with simpler features.

To help you find the right retail POS for your business, we compared Vend vs Square for Retail in pricing, hardware, and features. Here are our recommendations:

• Vend: Best for managing large databases of product and customer information; also a good fit for fashion boutiques, gift shops, sports retailers, health and beauty stores, and other retailers with complex inventories
• Square for Retail: Best for smaller businesses with more straightforward inventories or craftspeople who do fewer sales; also recommended for startups, mobile vendors, coffee shops, food trucks, and solo service providers needing an easy and reliable way to accept payments, manage customers, and view basic reports

Vend vs Square Quick Comparison

	Visit Vend	Visit Square for Retail
Best for	Businesses with a large inventory and customer base	New or small businesses, brick-and-mortar shops, businesses on a budget
POS basic software monthly fee	$119–$299 (monthly billing); custom plans available	$0–$60 (monthly billing); custom plans available
Ecommerce software monthly fee	Third-party platform needed	In-house website builder: $0–$72 (annual billing)
Payment processing fees	Varies depending on processor	Square Payments: 2.6% + 10 cents to 3.5% + 15 cents per transaction
Available sales channels	Integrates with Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, and BigCommerce	Square Online store, payment links, add checkout to an existing site, Facebook, Instagram, mobile POS, in-store, and local delivery
Inventory management	Included (advanced)	Included (basic); advanced available in higher plans
Customer management	Included (advanced)	Included (basic)
Loyalty	Included	Add-on
Reporting	Included (basic); advanced available in higher plans	Included (basic)
Ease of use	Excellent	Excellent
Customer support	24/7 email or live chat, online support center, courses, and ask-an-expert	Monday–Friday phone support, 24/7 automated chat support, seller community, and resource library
	Our Vend Review	Our Square for Retail Review

Most Affordable: Square

Monthly POS subscription	$0–$299 (with add-on options included)	$119–$299
Monthly ecommerce subscription	$0–$72	Third-party only
Card reader pricing	$0–$49	Varies depending on processor
Terminal and register pricing	$299–$799 (all-inclusive)	$440–$1,066 (all-inclusive)
Card-present transaction fees	2.5% + 10 cents to 2.6% + 10 cents	Varies depending on processor
Ecommerce transaction fees	2.9% + 30 cents	Varies depending on processor
	Visit Square for Retail	Visit Vend

Square is by far the most affordable POS option, with an entirely free online store platform and POS system for any one location. Anyone can sign up for a free Square account in minutes and start selling through an online store and mobile device with Square POS’s mobile app. Square POS also has premium plans with more advanced features that start at $60 per month and add-on products, like payroll and loyalty, that you can tack on to your POS plan for a monthly fee.

Whereas Square has a free plan for a single location, Vend has a basic plan (Lite) that costs $119 per month for one location and one register. It also has a Pro package at $159 per month for one location/register (but has additional features) and an enterprise pricing option where you work with a sales rep to create a custom plan and monthly price.

Square vs Vend: Payment Processing

Square’s free plan makes it attractive for the budget-conscious entrepreneur, but if you do steady sales, you should consider the costs for payment processing when doing a price comparison.

Square requires you to use its in-house payment processor. It charges simple flat rates with no extras or surprises tacked on and also offers discounted rates for high-volume sales. This makes the provider very attractive to the new business person or the casual solopreneur. Square Payments even works with Apple Pay and other contactless payment options.

Square’s in-house payment processor is a great solution for many businesses. (Source: Square)

While Square’s payment processor is straightforward and competitive, you can find better rates if you shop around for alternate payment processors as Vend allows. Depending on your sales volume and the kind of sales you do, you may find a better deal—and it might even make up for the cost of the Vend system.

Best for Retail Sales: Tie

Best for	Established on-location businesses, businesses with large or complex inventories	Startups, small shops, solopreneurs, hobbyists, mobile sales
Register features	Menu with photo and quick keys, customer search, sales notes, discounts, custom receipts, refunds and store credit, split tender, layaway	Menu with photos; digital receipts, offline mode, split tender, discounts
Barcode scanning	Included	Included
Customer relationship management	Personalized marketing, loyalty program	Personalized marketing, loyalty program, card-on-file
Online ordering	Through third-party apps only	Free. Syncs with POS, can upgrade to paid plans, sell through Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok
Employee features	Role-based access and permissioning, track sales per employee	Timecard reporting, permissioning
Multilocation features	Stock transfer, central customer database and loyalty program, trend assessment across stores	Cross-location returns and exchanges
Reporting features	20 sales and inventory reports, custom reporting	19 sales and transaction reports, inventory reports custom reporting
	Visit Vend	Visit Square for Retail

In our evaluation of the best retail POS systems, Square’s retail POS, Square for Retail, scored the highest (4.54 out of 5). Price was a major deciding factor in our evaluation, and with Vend being one of the pricier systems on the market, it lost lots of points for its steep price tag, earning a 3.66 out of 5 in total.

While Square beat Vend in terms of price, Vend outscored Square in the ease of use of register and checkout features. In our evaluation, Vend came out with better order and return management, inventory tracking, and dashboard customization options.

Square for Retail Is Best for New & Small Shops

Square for Retail is Square’s barcode-based software built specifically for retailers. (Source: Square)

Square earns high marks from our on-staff reviewers and real-world users because it is so easy to use, handles in-store and mobile payment processing, and works great for solopreneurs or hobbyists with just a few items and brick-and-mortar stores. Its low price point, streamlined interface, business management add-ons like payroll, and integrated online ordering make it the best option for any new shop or store with simple inventory needs.

Vend Is Best for Established Businesses

Vend offers in-depth reporting on all of your inventory performance metrics. (Source: Vend)

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It’s easy to manage your catalog of inventory with Vend’s stock controls. (Source: Vend)

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Vend dedicates an entire section of its reporting to inventory reports and allows you to assess performance and understand your levels. (Source: Vend)

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Vend has a user-friendly selling dashboard with the ability to add custom quick keys and process easy returns. (Source: Vend)

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Vend’s pricing and more advanced features makes it a better choice for established businesses with a high sales volume and large inventory. The system is highly rated for ease of use, and its resource library is fantastic. You will find videos, training guides, and even classes on running a great retail business through Vend University.

Vend also has an intuitive, streamlined register with programmable quick keys (something Square lacks). With this tool, you can add your top products or checkout actions right to your checkout screen dashboard for easy access when checking customers out. Vend also makes it easy to issue store credit instead of refunds, offer discounts, handle layaway, set up gift cards, add customers to your database, and set up and manage multiple registers—connecting everything from stock levels to customer purchase records across all locations.

One major area where Vend is lacking compared to Square, however, is its absence of an in-house website builder—you’ll need to integrate a separate solution for that. This also leads me to another area where Square is the better option.

Unlike Square, Vend does not have in-house add-on tools like you find with Square Payroll, Square Online, Square Loyalty, etc. With Vend, you will have to look for third-party apps that are compatible with the POS system and can be integrated. However, if Vend does not already have an API, it offers you the ability to create one yourself.

One interesting thing about Vend is that its loyalty program does come included with your POS subscription, unlike with Square where it is an add-on feature with an extra cost. With Vend’s customer management features, in addition to a customer database and tracking capabilities, you can also run a custom loyalty program with rewards points, shopper tiers, and marketing campaigns.

Best for Inventory Management: Vend

Our Inventory Feature Score	4.17 out of 5	3.83 out of 5
Modifiers	Included	Included
Barcode scanning	Included	Included
Bulk import	Included	Included
Low-stock alert	Included	Included
Multistore functions	Included	With Pro (paid plan)
Reconciling count	Partial and full	Unspecified
Vendor management	Included	Included
Item lookup	On register, on the backend, via Vend Scanner app on mobile	On register, on the backend, manually via mobile app
	Visit Vend	Visit Square for Retail

Vend is the better choice if you need a POS system that works great with a large or complex inventory. In our evaluation of the best POS systems for inventory management, it earned a lower overall score (4.20 out of 5) than Square (4.35 out of 5)—but that’s because price was the biggest deciding factor, making Square the obvious winner with its free plan.

But for inventory features alone, Vend received a higher mark than Square (4.17 vs. 3.83). For the richness of Vend’s features and the granularity of its management tools, it is the clear choice for more sophisticated inventory management features that can better handle variants, bundles, and multiple locations.

Expand to watch our video on Vend Inventory Management

Inventory management is one of Vend’s top strengths as a POS system. You can add products via Vend’s interface or bulk upload products, set up modifiers for size and color, track live stock levels, create bundles, set low stock alerts, order and receive shipments, manage vendors, run a multitude of reports, and perform inventory counts all from your POS system.

Vend allows for more granular product management and lets you manage orders from your POS interface. (Source: Vend)

One of Vend’s standout features is the Vend Scanner mobile app. It allows employees to take quick stock counts, receive orders, and look up items on mobile devices.

While the price for all these features is higher than Square’s, Vend really does offer some of the most advanced inventory management features out there, making its hefty price tag well worth it for businesses managing large inventories.

Square Is a Good Budget Solution for Managing Few SKUs

Square lets businesses easily set up product pages for in-store and online ordering. (Source: Square)

When it comes to inventory management, Square is a great solution if you are on a strict budget or have a smaller inventory.

Unlike Vend, Square lacks many of the customization features for classifying stock that you see with Vend. Square’s inventory tools do, however, let you create a product catalog with images, some modifiers, item count, and low stock alerts even with the free plan. The Pro plan includes bulk transfer across locations, barcode printing, vendor management, and bulk inventory intake. It also allows barcode scanning and stock adjustments.

Best Hardware: Square

Terminal prices	$600–$1,035 (includes tablet)	$169–$799 (includes tablet)
Third-party hardware compatible	Yes	Yes
Models available	Star Micronics MPOP All-in-One in different configurations, accessory options	One terminal, but multiple accessory options
Card reader prices	None	$0–$299
Compatibility	iOS and Android devices	iOS, Android, and Square devices
Card-present transaction fee	Requires payment processor	2.6% + 10 cents
Keyed-in transaction fee	Requires payment processor	3.5% + 15 cents
	Visit Vend	Visit Square for Retail

Square beats Vend, however, because it offers two things Vend does not: dedicated registers and a card scanner you can use with your phone for mobile sales. This makes Square more versatile because it gives you the option to conduct mobile sales outside of your store and gives you options to use your own tablet for your register.

Square Mobile Card Readers

Square Reader for Magstripe	Square Reader for Contactless and Chip	Square Terminal
First free, additional $10	$49	$299 (or $27 per month for 12 months)
Available with lightning or audio jack input. Accepts payments via magstripe (swiped).	Connects via Bluetooth. Accepts payments via EMV (chip), or NFC (Apple Pay, Google Pay).	All-in-one credit card machine with POS, card reader, and receipt printer.
Buy Magstripe Reader	Buy Contactless Reader	Buy Square Terminal

Square Terminal

Square Register	Commercial Tablet with Stand Kit
$799	$600–$1,035
Fully integrated POS system with a detachable customer display. Accepts chip cards and contactless payments.	Square can be run on iPads and Android tablets using the online application. Stands work with 10.2” and 10.5” tablets.
Buy Square Register	Buy Square Hardware Kit

Vend Terminals

Star Micronics MPop	Vend Pro Hardware Kit	Vend Starter Kit
$600	$1,066.49	$673
Choice of configurations: mPOP and stand, mPOP and scanner. Accept chip, swipe, or tap payments. Tablet sold separately.	Full POS with iPad, barcode scanner, receipt printer, and cash drawer.	Barcode scanner, receipt printer, and cash drawer.
Buy Star Micronics MPop	Buy Vend Pro Hardware Kit	Buy Vend Station Pro

Bottom Line

Unless budget is your primary concern, you will probably be satisfied with either Square or Vend. Vend is the more powerful system and good for busy, multilocation businesses and high-volume businesses that prefer to use a separate payment processor. Meanwhile, Square is better for smaller businesses that want an affordable system that will grow with them.

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