Square Online vs Shopify: Which Is Better for Your Store?

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If you mostly sell in person at markets or a shop and want a simple online store on the side, Square is the better start: its Free plan has no monthly fee, so you pay only processing. If your online store is the main business, Shopify becomes cheaper once you sell more than roughly $7,000 to $10,000 a month online, and it is built around ecommerce rather than point of sale.

Quick comparison

	Square (Square Online)	Shopify
Free plan	Yes, no monthly fee	No (3 days free, then $1/mo for 3 months)
Paid plans	Plus $49/mo, Premium $149/mo, per location	Basic $39/mo ($29 yearly), Grow $105 ($79), Advanced $399 ($299)
Online card rate	3.3% + 30¢ on Free; 2.9% + 30¢ on Plus and Premium	2.9% + 30¢ Basic, 2.7% Grow, 2.5% Advanced (+ 30¢)
In-person card rate	2.6% + 15¢ Free, 2.5% + 15¢ Plus, 2.4% + 15¢ Premium	2.6% + 10¢ Basic, 2.5% + 10¢ Grow, 2.4% + 10¢ Advanced
What scales the price	Plan per location, plus processing	Plan level, staff accounts, apps, plus processing
Free trial	30 days of Plus or Premium	3 days, then $1/mo for 3 months
Standout	Free plan with pickup, local delivery and shipping	Commerce-first platform and app store

Prices are US prices from Square's and Shopify's pricing pages, read in November 2026.

Pricing compared

Square: The Free plan has no monthly fee. Plus is $49 a month and Premium $149 a month, and Square says "the monthly fee applies to each location you run." Processing rates from Square's pricing page:

	Free	Plus	Premium
Online	3.3% + 30¢	2.9% + 30¢	2.9% + 30¢
In person	2.6% + 15¢	2.5% + 15¢	2.4% + 15¢
Manual entry or card on file	3.5% + 15¢	3.5% + 15¢	3.5% + 15¢

One inconsistency to know about: Square's online store plans page says card processing is "just 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction," while its main pricing page lists 3.3% + 30¢ for online payments on Free. We used the higher main-page rate for Free in our examples. Square's online store page also lists delivery fees of 50¢ per order for in-house delivery and $1.50 per order for on-demand delivery.

Shopify: Basic is $39 a month or $29 billed yearly, Grow $105 ($79), Advanced $399 ($299) and Plus from $2,300. Through Shopify Payments, online card rates are 2.9% + 30¢ on Basic, 2.7% + 30¢ on Grow and 2.5% + 30¢ on Advanced; in person they are 2.6% + 10¢, 2.5% + 10¢ and 2.4% + 10¢. If you use a different payment provider, Shopify adds 2% on Basic. Full detail is in our Shopify pricing guide.

What it costs at two sales levels

Online sales only, standard US cards, average order $40. Shopify uses Shopify Payments.

$2,000 a month online (50 orders):

Square Free: $66 + $15 = $81
Shopify Basic, yearly: $29 + $58 + $15 = $102 (monthly billing: $112)
Square Plus: $49 + $58 + $15 = $122

$10,000 a month online (250 orders):

Square Free: $330 + $75 = $405
Shopify Basic, yearly: $29 + $290 + $75 = $394 (monthly billing: $404)
Square Plus: $49 + $290 + $75 = $414

The difference between Square Free and Shopify Basic is the 0.4-point gap in online card rates (3.3% vs 2.9%) against Shopify's plan fee. With yearly billing, Shopify Basic becomes cheaper above about $7,250 a month in online sales; with monthly billing, above about $9,750. Below that, Square Free costs less.

Square Plus only lowers the online rate to the same 2.9% + 30¢ Shopify Basic charges, at $49 a month per location, so for online sales alone it costs more than Shopify Basic billed yearly. Plus earns its fee through the online store features below and its lower in-person rate.

Online store features

Square (from its online store plans page):

Free: shipping, local delivery, free in-person pickup, and Afterpay, Apple Pay and Google Pay.
Plus: website themes, branded experiences, layout and design controls, customer accounts, pre-orders, item quantity limits, gifting, subscriptions and time-based categories.
Premium: real-time shipping rates at checkout.

Square's pricing page also lists abandoned cart emails, product reviews, bundles, shipping label printing and discounts, SEO tools and custom domain connect among its online store features, but the text we read did not show which plan includes each one. The online store plans page says connecting a custom domain requires a paid plan billed annually. Check the plans page before you count on any of these.

Shopify is an ecommerce platform first: hosted store and checkout, Basic, Grow and Advanced plans, the Shopify App Store for add-ons, and Shopify POS for in-person sales. Every plan includes 10 inventory locations (Plus up to 200). Basic has no additional staff accounts; Grow has 5 and Advanced 15.

Where Square is stronger

A real free plan. You can run an online store and take payments with no monthly fee.

In-person first. Square is a payments and point-of-sale system first, so the online store sits on top of the same system you use at markets or a counter.

Local selling built in. Pickup and local delivery are on the Free plan.

Watch out: online card payments cost 3.3% + 30¢ on Free, the highest standard online rate in this comparison. Paid plans are priced per location, so multiple locations multiply the fee. Square's own pages disagree on the Free plan's online rate, and its plans page does not map every online store feature to a plan.

Where Shopify is stronger

Lower online rates as you grow. Shopify's online rate drops to 2.7% on Grow and 2.5% on Advanced. Square's online rate stays at 2.9% + 30¢ on both paid plans.

Commerce depth. The Shopify App Store covers reviews, email, subscriptions, shipping and more, and the pricing page lays out every plan's fees in one place.

Lower fixed fee in person. Shopify's in-person rates carry a 10¢ fixed fee against Square's 15¢, at the same percentage on each matching tier.

Watch out: there is no free plan, Basic has no extra staff accounts, and using a payment provider other than Shopify Payments adds 2% on Basic.

Who should choose Square

Market, pop-up and café sellers who already take payments in person and want a basic online store.
Very small online stores selling under about $7,000 a month that want to avoid a monthly fee.
Local businesses that rely on pickup and local delivery.

Who should choose Shopify

Online-first brands where the website is the main sales channel.
Stores selling more than about $7,000 to $10,000 a month online, where Shopify's plan fee is cheaper than Square Free's higher card rate.
Owners who want to add apps for email, reviews, subscriptions or shipping.

Which one should you choose?

Choose Square if you sell mostly in person, sell modest amounts online, or want to start with no monthly fee.
Choose Shopify if online sales are the business, you expect to grow past about $7,000 a month, or you want the Shopify App Store.
Compare against other builders in our best ecommerce platform for small business roundup.

Common questions

Is Square Online really free? Square's Free plan has no monthly fee. You pay processing on each sale: 3.3% + 30¢ for online payments and 2.6% + 15¢ in person, per Square's pricing page.

Is Square cheaper than Shopify? For small online sales, yes. With our assumptions, Square Free is cheaper than Shopify Basic billed yearly below about $7,250 a month in online sales, and more expensive above it.

What does Square Plus add for online stores? Square's plans page lists themes, design controls, customer accounts, pre-orders, subscriptions and gifting on Plus, and online card payments drop to 2.9% + 30¢. It costs $49 a month per location.

Can I sell in person with Shopify? Yes. Shopify POS handles in-person sales, with in-person card rates from 2.6% + 10¢ on Basic.

How we put this together

We did not test Square or Shopify hands-on. Prices, rates and features come from Square's pricing page and online store plans page, and from Shopify's pricing page, all read in November 2026. The cost examples are our arithmetic on published US rates for standard domestic cards. Square's two pages list different online rates for its Free plan, so we used the higher one. Prices change, so confirm them before you choose.