Square Online is best for shops and restaurants already using Square in person: the free plan puts your catalogue online in an afternoon. A custom store you own costs more to build but has no monthly plan or platform rate, a brand-level design, and offers Square cannot run. Pick Square to add online, own the store to grow online.
| Square Online | Custom store you own | |
|---|---|---|
| Up front | $0 | A one-time build, typically $10,000 to $40,000 from a studio |
| Monthly plan | $0 Free, about $49 Plus, about $149 Premium | No platform fee, only hosting |
| Online card rate | About 2.9% + 30¢, higher on the Free plan | Your gateway's rate, often negotiable as you grow |
| Design | Square themes with limited layout control | Designed around your brand |
| In-store sync | Built in with Square POS | Connects to your POS through its API |
| Where it works | US, Canada, UK, Australia and a few other countries | Anywhere, with any gateway |
If you already take payments with Square in a shop or restaurant, Square Online is the quickest way to sell the same items online, with stock and orders in one place. Pickup and local delivery work out of the box.
Square Online sites look like Square sites. Layouts, product pages and checkout have limited room for a brand to stand out, and offers beyond discounts and coupons are not there. You also cannot use another payment processor, so you take Square's rate on every online order. Square is not offered in India.
Many shops keep Square at the counter and run an owned store online. The store pulls stock from Square through its API, so the shelf and the site agree, while the online side gets its own design, offers and a lower payment rate.
See the TitanCommerce case study
A full online store and admin panel the brand owns outright, with no monthly platform fee
The Free plan has no monthly fee, but Square takes a card rate on every online order, which at the time of writing is higher on Free than on paid plans, and the site shows Square branding. Plus and Premium remove branding and add features for a monthly fee.
No. Square payments and Square Online are not offered in India. Indian stores use gateways like Razorpay, PayU or Cashfree, which an owned store can connect directly.
Yes. Square has an API for catalogue, stock and orders, so a custom store can read stock from Square and send online orders back, keeping the counter and the website in step.
