Comparison

The software is cheap because the percentage pays for it

Square is a good product and the reason it feels inexpensive is not a trick: the card processing carries the cost of the software. That works well at small turnover. This page is about what happens to the arithmetic as the turnover grows, and about the things Square does that we do not.

The arithmetic

Two bills, not one

Square charges for software and takes a share of each card sale. poSell charges for software only and is not in the payment chain at all. Comparing the two means keeping both lines visible.

Square plan prices and in-person rates as published by Square on 6 October 2025, “Square Simplifies Commerce Software with New Unified Plans & Pricing”. Check them yourself before deciding.
 SquarepoSell
Software, per location$0 Free · $49 Plus · $149 Premium per month$9 per store per month
Share of each card sale2.5% + 15¢ in person on Plus, 2.4% + 15¢ on PremiumNone — we are not in the payment chain
Card processingIncluded, from SquareNot provided — you keep your own processor
Staff loginsVaries by planIncluded, no limit
Stock controlVaries by planIncluded
What happens when turnover doublesThe percentage doublesNothing

A worked example, so you can substitute your own numbers

Say 1,200 card sales a month at an average of $25. That is $30,000 through the terminal. On Square Plus the processing is 2.5% of $30,000, which is $750, plus 15¢ on each of 1,200 sales, which is $180. Call it $930 a month in processing, plus $49 for the plan.

With poSell the software line is $9 and the processing line is whatever deal you have with your own provider. We cannot tell you that number, and any page that pretends to is guessing. The honest claim is narrower: your till software stops scaling with your turnover.

If you take $3,000 a month rather than $30,000, the percentage is small and Square Free may well cost you less overall. That case is real. Do the arithmetic with your own figures before moving anything.

Both directions

Where each one actually wins

Square: one company, one settlement

Software, terminal and money all come from the same place. One support line when something goes wrong, one deposit in the morning. With poSell the till is ours and the payments are someone else's, which is one more relationship to hold.

Square: hardware built to match

Readers, stands and terminals designed for the software. poSell runs on the computer and scanner already on your counter, which is cheaper to start but is not a matched set.

Square: it keeps selling offline

The connection drops and the till carries on. poSell runs in the browser and needs a connection to sell. If your internet is unreliable this outweighs everything else on this page.

Square: phone and tablet apps

Native apps for selling away from the counter. poSell is browser only, so a market stall or a delivery round is a genuine gap on our side.

Square: an ecosystem around it

Payroll, banking, loans, marketing, an app marketplace. poSell is a till, a stock room and a set of reports. That is the whole product and it is meant to be.

poSell: the bill does not follow your turnover

Nine dollars per shop per month, whatever passes through the till. A good December costs the same as a quiet February.

poSell: you choose the processor

Because we are not in the payment chain, you are free to shop for a rate, change provider, or keep the terminal your bank already gave you. The till does not care.

poSell: a deeper stock room

Goods receiving with weighted average cost, several stock locations, variants, product kits and serial numbers. See what the stock side does.

poSell: profit is a column

Purchase price beside sale price, so margin per product and per category is read rather than worked out. Twenty reports, exportable to Excel. See the reporting.

poSell: you can read the code

Built on Open Source Point of Sale. Nothing about your data is proprietary and you can run the same engine yourself if you ever want to. See what that means.

Straight answer

Do not switch if

You want software and payments from one company. Your connection drops more than rarely. Your staff ring up sales on a phone or tablet away from the counter. You depend on Square hardware or on something in its ecosystem, such as payroll or banking. Or your turnover is small enough that a percentage genuinely costs you less than a flat fee.

Switch if your turnover has grown to the point where the percentage is the largest line on your bill, you already have a card processor you are happy with, and what you actually want from the till is stock control and margin per product. That is the case where nine dollars flat changes the answer.

Questions

Questions people ask before switching

What does Square actually cost?
Two bills, not one. The software plan and the card processing. On 6 October 2025 Square announced unified plans at $0 per month per location for Square Free, $49 for Square Plus and $149 for Square Premium. Plus quotes a reduced in-person rate of 2.5% + 15¢, Premium the lowest at 2.4% + 15¢. The processing is usually the larger of the two bills, and it grows with your turnover.
So is poSell cheaper?
The software is: $9 per store per month against $0, $49 or $149. But poSell does not process card payments, so you will still pay a processor separately. What changes is that your till software stops taking a cut of every sale. Whether the total is lower depends on the processing deal you can get.
Why does the percentage matter if the rate is small?
Because it is a share of turnover rather than a price for software. A shop taking $30,000 a month on cards pays about $750 at 2.5%, plus the per-transaction fee. Double the turnover and it doubles, while the software does not get any better. A flat $9 does not move.
Does poSell take any percentage of my sales?
No. We charge $9 per store per month and nothing else. We are not in the payment chain at all, so there is nothing for us to take a share of.
How do I take card payments with poSell then?
With whatever terminal or processor you already use. poSell records how a sale was paid, including split payments, but it does not talk to the card terminal. You ring the sale up in poSell and take the card on your own machine.
Where is Square genuinely better?
In several places, and it would be dishonest to skip them. Payments and software come from one company with one settlement and one support line. There is a full hardware range built to match. Square keeps selling when the connection drops, and poSell does not. There are phone and tablet apps. And there is an ecosystem around it, from payroll to banking, that a small independent product does not have.
Where is poSell better?
The shape of the bill, and the depth of the stock side. Nine dollars covers every member of staff, all of your history and all of your stock control. Goods receiving uses weighted average cost, and there are multiple stock locations, variants, product kits and serial numbers. Purchase price sits beside sale price, so margin per product is read rather than calculated.
Can I move my data across?
Products and customers can be brought in from a spreadsheet. Sales history cannot be moved, because the two systems store it differently. Most shops switch at a month boundary and keep the old account readable for a while.
Who should not switch?
Anyone who wants one company for both software and payments. Anyone whose connection is unreliable, because poSell needs one to sell. Anyone selling away from the counter on a phone or tablet. And anyone whose turnover is small enough that a percentage costs less than a flat fee, which is a real case and worth doing the arithmetic on.

Ninety days is long enough to know

No card, nothing to cancel. Keep taking payments the way you do now and run the till side in parallel.