# Square POS review for restaurants

> Canonical: https://maple.inc/blog/square-pos-review

*By Maple Team · Published 2026-09-26*

What Square does well for restaurants, which plan each feature needs, the terms you accept, the offline limits in its help center, and what to test.

Shortlist Square if you run a café, counter-service spot or small dining room and want every price in public, monthly plans you can cancel, and devices you can order today. Know two things first: split checks, bar tabs and the kitchen display app start on Square Plus, and the Square Handheld needs Wi-Fi.

Below: what Square's own pages say it does well, which plan each restaurant feature needs, the terms you accept, the limits its help center lists for offline payments, and a test list for your free trial. Prices are for the United States. For every fee and a worked month, see our [Square POS pricing guide](https://maple.inc/blog/square-pos-pricing).

    Square setup Price as Square prints it What you get Start here if
  Square Free with a reader Square Free: $0/mo. per location; Reader: $59 POS app, online site, item library, menu sync, delivery-app orders in one place You run a cart, stall or truck and want to start with no monthly fee
  Square Plus with Terminal Square Plus: $49/mo. per location; Terminal: $299 Split checks, preauthorized bar tabs, floor plans, tableside ordering, sold-out marking across channels You run a counter or a small dining room
  Square Premium with Register Square Premium: $149/mo. per location; Register: $899 Course management, seat positions, Send & Stay, drive-thru workflow, OpenTable and SevenRooms integrations, 24/7 phone support You course dinners, run a drive-thru or take reservations
  Square Handheld Handheld: $399, or $37/mo over 12 months Pocket POS with a scanner and camera, rated IP54, on Wi-Fi Servers take orders at tables inside your Wi-Fi range
  Square KDS and Kiosk apps KDS app: $30/mo. per device on Plus, $20 on Premium; Kiosk app: $50/mo. on Plus, $30 on Premium Kitchen screens and self-order kiosks; neither app is on Square Free You want kitchen screens or guest self-ordering

## What does Square do well for restaurants?

You can price a whole setup before you talk to anyone. Square's [pricing page](https://squareup.com/us/en/pricing) prints each plan and card rate, and its [hardware page](https://squareup.com/us/en/hardware) prints each device. Plus and Premium start with a free 30-day trial.

Menus stay in one place. The pricing page says menu changes sync to the POS, online ordering, kiosks and delivery apps, and every plan brings delivery-partner orders such as Grubhub and DoorDash into one list. From Square Plus, you can mark an item sold out across every channel.

Square's [restaurant page](https://squareup.com/us/en/point-of-sale/restaurants) FAQ describes an online ordering page with no monthly fees or commissions. It says you can load your menu from a PDF or from Uber Eats, DoorDash or Grubhub, and may be able to reuse iPads, kitchen printers, receipt printers, cash drawers and routers. Square also lets you pause a subscription, with no bill while paused.

For dinner service, Premium adds course management, seat positions for each dish, and Send & Stay, which fires items to the kitchen before payment. The KDS app routes tickets, times them and texts guests when an order is ready.

The [Square Handheld page](https://squareup.com/us/en/hardware/handheld) lists a built-in barcode scanner and camera, a battery designed to last a shift, and an IP54 rating against splashes and dust. It prints receipts and kitchen tickets to a network printer over Wi-Fi.

## What does Square cost?

Square Free is $0/mo., Square Plus $49/mo. and Square Premium $149/mo., each per location. A tapped, dipped or swiped card costs 2.6% + 15¢, 2.5% + 15¢ or 2.4% + 15¢ by plan. An online card costs 3.3% + 30¢ on Free and 2.9% + 30¢ on Plus and Premium. A typed-in card, such as one read out over the phone, costs 3.5% + 15¢ on every plan.

Square says a business processing over $250,000 a year can ask about custom pricing. Our [Square pricing guide](https://maple.inc/blog/square-pos-pricing) lists every fee and add-on, and [Toast vs Square](https://maple.inc/blog/toast-vs-square) sets Square's plans beside Toast's.

## What terms do you accept?

Square's pricing page says there are "No hidden fees or locked-in contracts. Cancel or switch anytime." Its [general terms](https://squareup.com/us/en/legal/general/ua), last updated September 14, 2026, add the detail:

1. **Billing:** subscription fees are charged on the first of every month until you cancel.
2. **Cancelling:** you can cancel from your account settings at any time. You keep access to the end of the billing period, with no refund for a fee already due or paid.
3. **Price changes:** Square will give reasonable advance notice before it changes a subscription fee.
4. **Account closure:** Square can suspend or end your account at any time for any reason, and you can deactivate yours at any time.
5. **End of trial:** the restaurant FAQ says that if you do not pick a plan when the 30-day trial ends, Square moves you to the Free plan.
6. **Hardware on installments:** Block, Inc. issues the plans at a 15% APR, for purchases of $49 to $10,000, subject to credit approval. They are not offered in Alabama, Delaware, Missouri, Mississippi, New Hampshire or Tennessee.

## What limits does Square's help center list?

Square's help article on [offline payments](https://squareup.com/help/us/en/article/7777-process-card-payments-with-offline-mode) sets out what works when the internet drops:

1. Offline payments do not work on the Square Kiosk app, or on Square Kiosk hardware running it.
2. You cannot take manually entered cards, Square Gift Cards, Afterpay, Cash App Pay or Tap to Pay offline.
3. New online orders, including those from platforms such as Uber Eats, may not show on your POS until the disruption ends.
4. Square Register, Terminal and Handheld must upload offline payments within 72 hours, and Square recommends 24. Readers and Square Stand get 24-hour offline sessions. Payments not uploaded in time expire and cannot be recovered.
5. You carry the risk of expired, declined or disputed offline payments, and Square cannot give you contact details for those guests.
6. Close-of-day reports do not run offline, and loyalty points from offline payments must be linked by hand afterward.
7. You can set a maximum per offline payment between $1 and $50,000.

The Handheld page adds that the device needs a Wi-Fi network with high-speed internet. Square sells networking hardware for coverage.

## What should you test during the free trial?

1. Import your real menu and ring your busiest order with all its modifiers.
2. Open a preauthorized bar tab, add a round from the Handheld, then split the check by seat.
3. Walk the Handheld to your farthest table and patio. Note every spot where Wi-Fi drops.
4. Turn off the internet. Take a tapped card under and over your offline limit, then try a typed-in card and a gift card. Reconnect and check each payment.
5. Send an online order and a delivery app order. Check both reach the KDS with their modifiers.
6. Mark an item sold out and check it disappears from online ordering and the kiosk.
7. Split last month's card sales into in person, online and typed in, and price each at its own rate. Add the KDS and Kiosk app fee for each device.
8. Put the trial end date in your calendar and pick your plan before it arrives.

If you take phone orders, Maple Pro lists Square among the POS systems it writes phone orders into. The [Square integration page](https://maple.inc/integrations/square) lists what to test with your own menu.

*Published by Maple. This AI-assisted review combines Square's own US pricing, hardware, restaurant, terms and help-center pages with an original setup table and trial checklist. It does not use third-party review scores, report a quote from Square, or claim anyone tested Square hardware.*

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