Square vs Clover: what each costs a restaurant in 2026

Clover charges less per in-person card payment: 2.3% + 10¢ against Square’s 2.4% to 2.6% + 15¢. Square charges less to start: $0 a month on Square Free, no contract, and a $299 Terminal, against Clover’s cheapest restaurant bundle at $135 a month for 36 months. On a counter-service month of $30,000 at the register plus $9,000 online, Square costs $1,330 to $1,400 and Clover $1,245 to $1,340, before hardware bought up front.

What do Square and Clover charge?

These are the prices on each company’s own site on November 9, 2026.

Clover’s pages say its prices are “only available on Clover.com.” Clover is also sold by Citi, PNC, Wells Fargo and thousands of other financial institutions (its FAQ gives both 1,000 and 3,000), and its FAQ says contract terms and termination fees vary by provider. Clover devices, wherever you buy or lease them, cannot be used with another payment processor, by the same FAQ.

Square’s hardware is optional: its FAQ says you can take payments with Tap to Pay on an iPhone or Android phone. The closest Square device to Clover’s Mini, a card machine with a built-in receipt printer, is the Square Terminal at $299. Square Stand, for an iPad you already own, is $149.

What does a month cost on each?

Say a counter-service restaurant takes $30,000 a month in card payments at the register, 1,200 payments averaging $25, plus 300 online orders at $30, or $9,000. We keep online orders before tax and tip, and use Clover’s quick-service bundles.

Over 36 months, Square Free with one Terminal comes to $48,791 and the Clover Starter subscription to $46,440, so Clover saves $2,351 on this restaurant. Bought outright, the Clover Starter comes to $45,667.20 with its $849.

The Starter bundle is one Mini with a built-in printer. Clover’s quick-service Standard bundle swaps the Mini for a Station Duo with a customer screen and adds a cash drawer, plus the customer database, loyalty and gift cards that Starter leaves out.

Which ticket size favors which?

At the counter, Clover is lower on both parts of the fee, so it costs less on every ticket. Online, Square’s 30¢ is three times Clover’s 10¢, but Square Plus takes 0.6 points less, so Plus wins above $33.33 an order. Square Free only beats Clover online above $100.

Clover’s lower rate has to cover its monthly fee first. At a $25 average ticket, Clover saves 12.5¢ a payment against Square Free, or 0.5% of counter sales. Counting counter sales only, and Square on your own phone, the $135 subscription pays for itself above $27,000 a month in card sales. The bought Starter at $89.95 does above about $18,000, or about $22,700 with its $849 spread over 36 months. Against Square Free with a $299 Terminal spread the same way, the points are about $25,300 and $21,000. Smaller tickets bring them down and larger ones push them up, and online orders at $30 also cost a little less on Clover, so a restaurant with both reaches them sooner.

What about a full-service restaurant?

Take the same $30,000 at $60 checks, 500 payments. Square Free costs $855 a month, but split checks, preauthorized bar tabs and tableside ordering need Plus, at $874. Square Premium, the plan Square lists with coursing and seat management, comes to $944.

Clover’s full-service Starter, a Station Solo with a cash drawer and receipt printer, is $179 a month on subscription, so the month comes to $919, or $829.95 after $1,799 if you buy it. It includes table mapping, open tabs with card preauthorization and bill splitting. Clover’s chart lists tap cards and mobile wallets such as Apple Pay as not included on that Starter bundle, and tableside ordering starts on Standard, which adds a Flex handheld at $239 a month for a $979 month.

What else is different?

• Getting started. Square Free has no monthly fee and no contract, and Plus and Premium have a 30-day free trial. Clover subscriptions cannot be cancelled. Through December 31, 2026, Clover offers a $450 statement credit to merchants who have never had a Clover or First Data account, buy a Mini, Flex, Flex Pocket, Station Solo or Station Duo on clover.com, are credit approved by January 31, 2027, activate within 30 days and process $10,000 in cards within the first four billing cycles. The fine print says it requires a 3-year contract. Our totals above leave it out.
• Fees to guests. Square lets you add a service charge on every plan, shown as a line item to you and the guest. At two Square Online stores we checked on October 31, the cart had a “Service fee” line at $0.00 for pickup. At one Clover ordering page we checked on October 26, the checkout for a pickup order showed tax and tip and no service fee. Before adding a fee, read how a restaurant service fee is taxed.
• Getting paid. Square transfers to your bank the next business day for free, or instantly for a fee. Clover offers Rapid Deposit, funds within minutes for 1.75%; the pricing pages we read do not give its standard deposit time.
• Gift cards. Square charges a 2.5% load fee on Free and Plus and none on Premium. Clover includes gift cards on its quick-service Standard and Advanced bundles.
• Warranty. A Clover subscription includes Clover’s Equipment Protection Program, covering accidental damage, theft and loss; hardware bought outright gets a one-year limited warranty.

Which one fits your restaurant?

• You are opening small, or not sure yet. Square Free: no monthly fee, no contract, and a phone or a $299 Terminal to start. At a $25 average ticket, if you take less than about $25,300 to $27,000 a month at the counter and few online orders, it costs less than the Clover Starter subscription.
• You take more than that at the counter and expect to stay three years. Clover’s 2.3% + 10¢ wins: on our counter-service example the Starter subscription costs $57 a month less than Square Free and $40 less than Plus.
• You want QR code ordering at the table. Clover includes it on every restaurant bundle, from $135 a month; on Square it needs Plus at $49 a month. Our guide to QR code ordering compares both with Toast and ChowNow.
• You run full service with split checks and tabs. Clover’s full-service Starter includes them for $179 a month; Square needs Plus. Check that you are fine without tap payments on the Clover Starter, or price Standard.

Toast is the third common choice. Our Toast vs Square comparison and Toast vs Clover comparison run the same $30,000 month on Toast’s plans.

Where Expresso fits

Expresso is not a POS, so it replaces neither Square nor Clover. It takes online and table orders for an independent restaurant and runs beside whichever POS you use, with orders ringing on its own kitchen tablet ($149 once), not inside your POS. It has no delivery and no loyalty program.

There is no monthly fee and no contract. The restaurant pays card processing of 3.2% + 30¢ on the order total, and guests pay a 2.5% convenience fee on the food subtotal, shown at checkout. On the same 300 orders at $30, before tax and tip, that is about $385 a month to you and $225 in guest fees.

If you run Square or Clover, its own ordering page costs you about the same or less: $351 to $387 on Square and $345 on Clover, against Expresso’s $385 plus $225 from guests. Orders go straight into the POS, and the carts and checkout we checked showed no extra fee to guests, so use it. Expresso makes sense when your POS has no ordering of its own, or you want table ordering on Square Free without moving to Plus. Our comparison of online ordering systems prices the other options.