Clover vs Square

Fees, tax handling, payouts and coverage side by side, plus how many verified RevMRR startups use each.

The short version

Neither is a merchant of record, so with either one you register for and remit sales tax and VAT yourself.
Pick Clover for: small and medium retailers, coffee shops, and restaurants that want an all-in-one, customizable POS with an app marketplace and integrated payments — especially those comfortable negotiating their processing agreement..
Pick Square for: small and new businesses, mobile and seasonal sellers, and anyone who wants to take cards today without negotiating a merchant account — retail, food trucks, salons, and pop-ups especially..

	Clover

RevMRR Score	C50	C64
Type	POS & Retail	POS & Retail
Standard fee	Quote-based	3.3% + $0.30
Monthly fee	$84.95	None
Merchant of record	No	No
Sales tax / VAT	You handle it	You handle it
Subscriptions	Not supported	Not supported
Payouts	Standard schedule	Next business day
Who can sign up	Founded in 2010, based in 415 N. Mathilda Ave, Sunnyvale, CA 94085	Founded in 2009, based in San Francisco, California, USA
Payment methods	Cards (Tap & Chip), Apple Pay, Google Pay, Contactless	Cards (Tap & Chip), Apple Pay, Google Pay, Contactless
Best for	Small and medium retailers, coffee shops, and restaurants that want an all-in-one, customizable POS with an app marketplace and integrated payments — especially those comfortable negotiating their processing agreement.	Small and new businesses, mobile and seasonal sellers, and anyone who wants to take cards today without negotiating a merchant account — retail, food trucks, salons, and pop-ups especially.
Used on RevMRR	Not connectable yet	Not connectable yet

Clover

Clover is a capable, genuinely flexible POS platform with Fiserv's scale behind it — but the buying experience is the risk. Because it's sold through banks and resellers as well as directly, your rates, fees, and contract terms depend on who signs you up, and the review-site complaint pattern (billing disputes, held funds, uneven support) tracks that variability. Buy the platform if it fits; scrutinize the specific merchant agreement harder than the hardware.

+ Comprehensive, modular POS ecosystem combining hardware, apps, and payments
+ App Market lets merchants add functionality without custom engineering
+ Strong developer platform with REST APIs and sandbox testing
+ Backed by Fiserv, with a large acquiring network and reliability at scale
+ Broad payment acceptance including Apple Pay, Google Pay, and JCB
– Pricing and contract terms vary widely by reseller and acquiring bank, making quotes hard to compare
– Hardware and some add-on apps can be costly compared with competitors
– Public complaints about support responsiveness, held funds, and disputes appear frequently on consumer review sites

Clover pricing ↗

Square

Square remains the easiest on-ramp to card payments for a small business: flat, transparent pricing, no monthly fee or contract, free software that punches above its price, and next-business-day payouts. The A grade comes with two genuine cautions — account holds are common enough to be the top complaint about the company, and support is weak precisely when a hold happens. Stable, low-risk businesses rarely hit either problem.

+ Transparent flat-rate pricing with no monthly fee, contract, or early-termination fee
+ Free, genuinely good POS software with inventory, reporting, and customer management built in
+ Wide hardware selection, from a free magstripe reader to full register setups
+ Next-business-day payouts standard, with instant transfers available for 1.95%
+ Strong fraud and security features handled for you, with chargeback dispute management included
– Account holds and frozen funds are the dominant complaint theme — instant approval means underwriting happens after you start processing
– Customer support is hard to reach and slow to resolve exactly the problems (holds) that matter most
– Flat rates get expensive at volume, and keyed-in transactions cost a steep 3.5% + $0.15
– Many capabilities are paid add-ons, and offline functionality is limited

Square pricing ↗