Shopify vs Square Pricing: Store Plan and Payment Fee Worksheet

If you are comparing Shopify vs Square pricing, do not stop at the headline monthly fee. The real bill is plan subscription plus payment processing plus POS locations plus website features plus any apps, hardware, staff tools, shipping, marketing, and accounting workflow you need.

Short version: choose Shopify when the store is ecommerce-first and needs a full owned storefront, deep checkout, products, inventory, shipping, social and marketplace channels, apps, email/SMS/customer segments, abandoned checkout recovery, and room to scale into more complex commerce. Choose Square when the business is local-retail-first, wants a lower-friction way to connect POS, payments, item library, invoices, a basic online store, staff tools, and in-person operations.

This page is built from official Shopify and Square pricing/product pages checked during this run. It is a source-review pricing worksheet, not a product lab review, market-wide fee promise, or claim that one processor wins every cost scenario. Pricing pages localize and change, so verify live plan and payment terms before committing.

Fast answer

Use Shopify if your cost question is really about building a scalable ecommerce operating system: owned online store, checkout, products, inventory, shipping, customer accounts, campaigns, app ecosystem, multiple sales channels, and optional POS.

Use Square if your cost question starts at the register: in-person payments, item library, invoices, staff workflows, local services, appointments, restaurants, retail POS, and a simple online store that can sync with Square’s point-of-sale setup.

For many small businesses, Square can look cheaper at the starting line because its online-store page includes a Free plan with no monthly fees beyond processing when a sale happens. Shopify can look more expensive early, but the plan includes a broader ecommerce stack. The correct comparison is total cost per workflow, not cheapest landing page. Tiny spreadsheet, giant consequences.

Shopify vs Square pricing worksheet

What the official sources support

Shopify’s pricing page supports the ecommerce-platform framing. The captured source set showed plan labels including Basic, Grow, Advanced, and Plus, with plan features around a full online store, themes/templates, unlimited products, checkout, social and marketplace selling, inventory management, shipping, marketing contacts, customer segments, email campaigns, SMS campaigns, abandoned checkout recovery, and third-party transaction fee language when not using Shopify Payments.

Shopify’s POS pricing page supports the omnichannel cost framing. It describes total Shopify POS cost as a combination of the Shopify plan, transaction fees, and POS Pro locations. The captured source also ties the plan foundation to point of sale, online sales, payment processing, marketing, analytics, shipping tools, and more.

Square’s pricing page supports the local-operations framing. The captured source showed Free, Plus, and Premium plan families, in-person tap/dip/swipe card-rate examples, online and invoice card-rate examples, and modules for POS, invoices, online ordering profiles, websites, retail, restaurants, appointments, staff, payroll, loyalty, marketing, and banking.

Square’s online-store page supports the low-friction site framing. Its structured page text describes Square Websites as an ecommerce website product that connects in-person and online sales, manages inventory, supports products, payments, shipping, and syncs with Square POS. It also states that the Free plan has no monthly fees or startup costs beyond processing when a sale happens.

Total cost template

Use this before comparing screenshots from two pricing pages:

Monthly commerce cost = platform plan + payment processing + POS location fees + hardware + apps/modules + shipping tools + marketing tools + staff/accounting/admin tools + implementation time

For a fair Shopify vs Square pricing comparison, estimate three scenarios instead of one average store.

When Shopify pricing is easier to justify

Shopify’s plan cost makes more sense when ecommerce complexity is real:

• The owned website is the main sales channel, not an afterthought.
• Checkout conversion, product pages, collections, discounts, campaigns, abandoned checkout recovery, and analytics matter every week.
• You expect to use apps for subscriptions, bundles, returns, shipping, tax, reviews, loyalty, wholesale, marketplaces, or accounting.
• The business needs social and marketplace selling alongside its own store.
• POS matters, but online commerce is still the operating center.
• You are willing to pay for a larger ecommerce system so you do not rebuild the stack every time operations get more serious.

When Square pricing can make more sense

Square deserves the first look when the business is already local-operations-first:

• The register, staff, invoices, appointments, restaurant, retail, or service workflow drives revenue.
• A free or lower-cost website is enough to start taking pickup, delivery, shipping, or basic online orders.
• You want payments, POS, item library, online ordering, invoices, staff tools, and banking-style workflows in one familiar local business stack.
• The product catalog is simple, and the site does not need a deep app ecosystem.
• The monthly subscription matters more than long-term ecommerce extensibility.
• You would rather add online selling to the POS system than add POS to an ecommerce platform.

Fee comparison checklist

Do not compare one Shopify card rate to one Square card rate and call the job done. Run this checklist:

1. Set the country and currency. Shopify pricing localized to Canada during this fetch, while Square pages were U.S. pages. Match your live market before using exact numbers.
2. Split online and in-person payments. Online card-not-present rates and in-person card-present rates can differ materially.
3. Count every location. POS Pro, staff permissions, hardware, returns, and reporting can change the math.
4. Add website feature requirements. Blog, SEO, domains, themes, custom code, checkout, shipping, pickup, delivery, coupons, and abandoned checkout recovery are not interchangeable.
5. Add operations modules. Square can add industry software, loyalty, marketing, payroll, appointments, restaurant, or retail features. Shopify can add apps, themes, shipping, automation, reporting, and B2B features.
6. Model volume sensitivity. A lower monthly fee can lose to a better workflow at higher volume, while a richer ecommerce plan can be overkill for a small local shop.

Recommended decision path

FAQ

Is Square cheaper than Shopify?

Square can be cheaper at the starting line if a business only needs a basic online store plus payment processing, because Square’s online-store source describes a Free plan with no monthly fees or startup costs beyond processing when a sale happens. Shopify can be the better value when the business needs a fuller ecommerce system: checkout, products, inventory, shipping, marketing, apps, channels, analytics, and scaling paths.

Is Shopify better than Square for ecommerce?

Shopify is usually the stronger first shortlist for ecommerce-first stores. Its official pricing page is built around online store, checkout, products, inventory, shipping, marketing, customer segments, campaigns, apps, and multiple selling channels. Square is stronger when online selling is attached to an in-person POS workflow.

Which has lower payment processing fees?

It depends on country, plan, card type, online versus in-person mix, and payment setup. The captured Shopify page localized to Canada, while the captured Square pricing pages were U.S. pages. Do not copy one rate from each page and decide. Compare live rates in the same country and model your actual card mix.

Do Shopify and Square both support POS?

Yes. Shopify has Shopify POS, and the captured POS pricing page frames total POS cost as the Shopify plan plus transaction fees plus POS Pro locations. Square is POS-native and its pricing/product pages include POS, item library, payments, invoices, staff, loyalty, marketing, retail, restaurant, and appointments workflows.

Which should a local retailer choose?

A local retailer should start with Square if the register, staff, local inventory, invoices, loyalty, and basic web orders are the main workflow. The same retailer should compare Shopify seriously if online sales, SEO, product pages, shipping, subscriptions, apps, marketplaces, or customer retention are becoming the main growth engine.

Recommended Next Step

Build a two-column cost worksheet before choosing: one column for Shopify, one for Square. Add plan fee, online processing, in-person processing, POS location costs, hardware, website features, shipping, apps/modules, staff tools, loyalty/marketing, accounting, and implementation time.

If the worksheet says “most revenue still starts at the register,” inspect Square first. If it says “most growth depends on the owned ecommerce site,” inspect Shopify first. If the answer is split, run a one-month channel test and compare total cost per profitable order, not just the prettiest pricing card.