Square Vs. Stripe (2024 Comparison) (2024)

If you’re planning to run a business of any kind, you need to be able to accept payments from your customers. However, finding the right payment platform can often be a challenge—or tedious, at the very least. There’s a lot of information to consider and transaction fees can vary significantly depending on factors like the amount of your average transaction and whether you charge customers in person or online.

Square and Stripe are two of the most popular and well-known payment platforms on the market. Both of these companies give small business owners an easy way to process payments and the ability to accept credit card payments without a minimum monthly revenue or an application process. Both enable merchants to charge customers’ credit cards even when they’re just starting a business—whether it’s bringing in $3,000 or $30,000 in revenue per month.

Stripe and Square are dominant payment processing companies for small businesses. Forbes Advisor compared the two platforms to help you decide the right fit for you.

Square vs. Stripe: At a Glance

The main difference between Square and Stripe is that Square is best suited for in-person transactions while Stripe is a developer-friendly platform best suited for e-commerce, subscriptions and other online payments.

Square vs. Stripe: Credit Card Processing Comparison

Square and Stripe fees for swipe/chip transactions are about the same―2.6% plus 10 cents per transaction for Square, and 2.9% plus 30 cents for Stripe―but Stripe’s fee is significantly lower for keyed transactions―3.5% plus 15 cents for Square and no change in fee for Stripe. However, the transaction fees for both Stripe and Square vary significantly according to several factors, including the amount of each transaction, how much money you process per month and the method of accepting payment. In general, Square is best suited for smaller businesses making less than $5,000 per month. To get a more accurate quote of the fees you’ll be paying for Square, you can look at their fee calculator.

Apart from these differences in transaction fees, there are other variations in fees to be aware of—Stripe charges merchants a fee of 0.40% for chargebacks, while Square does not have chargeback fees. Additionally, Stripe charges an extra 1% for international transactions while Square does not. Finally, Stripe does not refund merchants the transaction fee when a customer issues a return, while Square does return the transaction fee to the merchant. If you frequently issue returns, you’ll want to factor in these additional charges.

Both options ranked well in our comparison of the top 10 credit card processing companies. Overall, Stripe is a leading payment processing platform for e-commerce and online stores. The payment processing platform is specifically suited for developers and comes with extensive customization tools for the checkout process in an online store. Stripe also focuses on subscription payments for software-as-a-service (SaaS) businesses. Square, on the other hand, offers more hardware options and is best suited for in-person transactions.

Square vs. Stripe: Point-of Sale (POS) Comparison

Both Square and Stripe were rated one of our top 10 POS systems in 2024. Square and Stripe are built for different business needs and purposes. Square is better suited for in-person transactions and offers business integration tools for in-store and online payments, including a feature to schedule appointments within the app so that you can integrate your calendar with your payment platform. There’s a feature for customers to book online and you can send them reminders through the app. Square also enables you to keep client credit cards on file and schedule prepayment before visits. In general, Square’s interface is easier to manage and navigate, although there will be less flexibility and ability to customize.

Stripe provides greater flexibility for the customer checkout experience and accepts a wider range of payment options, including more than 135 currencies and popular international payments, making it better suited for e-commerce, tech-based companies and recurring billing for SaaS services.

Top Alternatives

Square and Stripe are exceptionally popular. However, they aren’t the only options on the market. Offerings from Clover, Helcim and other top players offer attractive alternatives that might better fit your business. We recommend checking out our guide to the best credit card processing companies for more details.

Bottom Line

The platform you choose will depend on your business needs. Square is an easy-to-use payment processing platform. It doesn’t require any technical knowledge and there are no startup fees or recurring costs. If you’re just starting a business and still don’t know how much income you will generate, Square is a great choice. At the same time, the transaction fees are slightly higher, making it best suited for merchants who process under around $5,000 in revenue. If your business is bringing in more than $5,000 per month, it may be worth paying a monthly subscription fee with another company, such as Stax by Fattmerchant, in exchange for a lower transaction fee.

Stripe, on the other hand, is an online payment platform specifically for online stores. Because of the number of customization options available with Stripe, it’s suited better if someone on the team has developer experience. However, you can also use the basic features of Stripe without developer knowledge. If you want to customize your online store checkout process and use recurring billing or subscriptions for your business, Stripe is a better choice.