Square For Restaurants Review

Pros

• Free plan available
• Month-to-month agreement
• Accepts multiple payment options
• Strong user community

Cons

• Occasional fund holds
• Limited inventory management

Overview

Square for Restaurants is an all-in-one cloud-based restaurant POS, complete with online ordering and an iPad kitchen display system. Square has stayed on brand here with an exceptionally simple and functional program. Those with even a passing familiarity with Square or iPads will be able to master Square for Restaurants POS with very little training.

The Square for Restaurant POS system includes restaurant-specific quick-serve and full-service features as well as your own online ordering website, menu management, and employee time tracking — and that’s just on the free plan.

Square’s appeal is always going to be its simplicity and affordability. Are there other great small business POS systems with more bells and whistles for only slightly more money? Absolutely. But in terms of ease of use and functionality, Square has another success on its hands.

Square For Restaurants Pricing

Square for Restaurants’ pricing platform is clearly laid out and separated into three tiers and it’s this simplicity and affordability that helped it receive a strong grade in our scoring system.

Square For Restaurants Extra Costs & Fees

Square has numerous in-house add-ons available for purchase, all of which (naturally) integrate with Square for Restaurants:

• Square Loyalty: The Square Loyalty add-on starts at $45/month per location on the Free or Plus plan; custom pricing on the Premium plan.
• Square Marketing: Square Marketing is from $15-$45/month per location on the Free or Plus plan; custom pricing on the Premium plan.
• Square Teams Plus: $35/month per location on the Free plan; included in Plus and Premium plans.
• Square Payroll: Square Payroll is $35/month + $5/month per employee on the Free and Plus plans; custom pricing on the Premium plan.
• Square KDS: Square KDS is $20/month per device; included in Plus and Premium plans.

Get Started With Square For Restaurants

Square For Restaurants Is Best Suited For…

Square For Restaurants is an excellent and affordable choice for quick-serve and full-service restaurants. Here’s who might benefit most from its services:

• Small business owners looking for free restaurant software that still comes with a fairly robust feature set
• Full-service restaurants looking for simple table mapping
• Restaurant owners wanting strong, proprietary hardware

Square For Restaurants POS Features

Square for Restaurants doesn’t have many holes in its feature set; it has all the essentials for a restaurant POS, minus a few things, such as advanced inventory management. Even the free plan comes with a slew of features and support for unlimited devices and locations that help it receive very strong marks in this category compared to its competitors.

Square has also introduced the Square for Restaurants mobile POS, giving businesses access to a complete POS system in the palm of their hand. Square mobile currently runs on Square Terminal and will soon be available on its mobile POS kit, allowing faster order entries and giving your servers more time to focus on customers.

As of January 2023, the mobile POS add-on will cost you $50/month/location.

Here’s a breakdown of what you can expect under each plan:

Square For Restaurants Free

• Open Checks: Keep checks open in case customers want to add more items to their meal or bar tab. It’s also easy to edit and repeat items on an open check.
• Split Tender: Customers can pay their checks using multiple forms of tender (for example, cash and card) or split checks across multiple credit cards.
• Square KDS For Ghost Kitchen: Square’s integrated iPad kitchen display system is available on the Free plan for $10 per month per KDS device. Square KDS seamlessly integrates with your Square ordering system and includes ticket routing and timers, plus real-time order updates. You also get the ability to sync to multiple devices and kitchen performance reports. Any restaurant can benefit from a KDS, but Square KDS may be particularly interesting to ghost kitchens without physical premises since it does not require a paid monthly POS plan.

• Full Square Register Compatibility: Run your entire POS system on an all-in-one Square Register without the need for an iPad. If you use a Square Register with the Free plan, you’ll also receive 24/7 customer support.
• Multiple Location Management: Manage multiple restaurant locations for no additional fee.
• Square Online Ordering: All Square accounts come with a free mobile-optimized online ordering website that allows you to take online food orders for pickup, delivery, and contactless in-person dining. Online ordering options also include QR code ordering and QR code payments.
• Tableside Ordering & Payments: Use an iPad or Square Terminal for tableside ordering and payments. Note that Square Terminal does not support all restaurant-specific features (it does not include support for conversational modifiers, coursing, seat-tracking, or auto-gratuity).
• Basic Inventory Management: Square’s restaurant inventory tracking includes smart features, such as auto-86ing and inventory alerts that let you know when items are running low.
• Menu Management: Organize your menu from any location with an easy color-coded system and add purchasing and payment options on the interface.
• Table Layout: Lay your tables out according to your specifications and easily move them with a simple click and a drag.
• Auto Gratuity: This feature allows you to automatically add a gratuity, although the free plan does not include party-size thresholds.
• Third-Party Delivery App Integration: In addition to online orders placed on your Square online ordering website, your business can use Square for Restaurants Free to accept online orders from third-party food delivery apps, such as Uber Eats, DoorDash, and others. All delivery orders are automatically sent to your POS and routed to the kitchen with the rest of your orders.

• Advanced Discounts: Set discount prices by item or category for promotions or specials.
• Basic Reporting: The Free plan comes with a solid but basic reporting suite that gives you information on top-selling products and key metrics you can navigate from your dashboard.
• Basic Employee Management: The Free plan of Square Teams includes time tracking, clock in/out, and one set of permissions. You can add Teams Plus for $35/month.
• Customer Support During Business Hours: Customer support hours under the Free plan are M-F, 6 AM to 6 PM PT.

Square For Restaurants Plus

Square for Restaurants includes all features in the Free plan as well as additional features, such as unlimited KDS devices and advanced employee management. Not all Plus features are available on the Square Register, so you’ll need an iPad to take full advantage of Square for Restaurants Plus. Here are the additional features you’ll receive on the Plus plan:

• Unlimited KDS Devices: This is one of the big differences between Square for Restaurants’ Plus and Free plans. Unlimited KDS devices are included in this plan at no extra charge.
• Advanced Table Management: Customize your floor plan layout and use the easy color-coded timer system to see table status. Assign checks either per table or per customer with a simple tap. Since you can assign and track orders per seat, this ensures the correct order is delivered to the right person and makes it easier to split checks.

• Course Management: Higher-end restaurants can plot out coursing, switching items between courses before sending them to the kitchen. You can also track how long customers have been at the table and check on the status of their meals.
• Advanced Reporting: Among other standard reports for managing your business, this plan lets you check exactly what type of discounts are being given to customers and the amounts. You can review sales by floor plan and by bulk or individual modifier sets and review labor costs quickly in a simple-to-process layout. You can also set up various customized reports for your unique needs. Shift reports and close-of-day reports are included, as is a “live sales” view.
• Advanced Employee Management: A major benefit of the Plus plan is that it comes with Square Teams Plus, which gives employees their own login passcodes and lets you assign permissions to give different levels of access to different employees. With Teams Plus, you can track voids and discounts to cut down on fraud, check employee sales reports to review per-labor-hour reports, and reward your top-selling employees. The system also records cash drawer openings and can detect suspicious activity. Employees can sign in at the register, and their hours can be managed from anywhere and transferred to Square Payroll.
• 24/7 Customer Support: Restaurants on the Plus plan can access Square customer support any time, day or night, even outside of standard business hours.
• Party-Size Thresholds For Automatic Gratuity: Automatically add specific percentages for large groups with party-size thresholds.
• Reopen Closed Checks: Under the paid version of the app, you can go back into a closed check to reopen and edit it.

Even under the Plus plan, Square for Restaurants does not include advanced inventory management. If you need advanced inventory features for your restaurant, take a look at our Square for Retail review.

Square For Restaurants Integrations & Add-Ons

Square for Restaurants integrates directly with Postmates, DoorDash, Chowly, and Deliverect, which can pull and consolidate online orders from Uber Eats, GrubHub, and other online ordering apps.

Square App Marketplace also offers numerous other integrations for delivery and order management, restaurant management, inventory management, customer loyalty, employee management, etc. Square even has an open API if you’re feeling enterprising and want to create an app specifically for your business.

Some notable Square for Restaurants integrations include:

• QuickBooks 
• Xero
• TouchBistro 
• PeachWorks
• MarketMan
• 7Shifts
• TapMango
• BevSpot
• Ritual
• OrdrSlip
• Digital Pour
• Fresh KDS

It’s worth checking out Square’s website for a complete listing, as Square adds new integrations practically every week. Square does not charge any added fees to integrate third-party apps (though services typically charge their own fees).

Square For Restaurants Hardware

One of the biggest benefits of Square is that they have excellent hardware options that are all relatively affordable. For smaller restaurants, you can simply use Square Stand, which serves as an all-in-one POS system for your tablet. If you are looking for a mobile credit card reader, Square Terminal is a terrific choice for tableside ordering. And, if you’re a larger restaurant looking for more traditional countertop devices, Square Register is one of our favorite pieces of POS hardware.

Ease Of Use

Square for Restaurants is incredibly easy to use and an ideal product for businesses that don’t want to spend a lot of time training employees. Anyone who has worked in the restaurant industry and has experience with POS systems will find the interface incredibly intuitive. Our ratings system gives it high marks for its simple, customizable color-coded buttons and easy walkthroughs for modifiers and check-splitting.

Table and menu management are equally simple, and you can quickly navigate from page to page. The back end is equally intuitive and keeps all of your most important information right in front of you and easily accessible.

Get Started With Square For Restaurants

Customer Service & Support

Square For Restaurants POS offers 24/7 technical support with its Plus and Premium plans, but on the Free plan, you’ll only be able to access support M-F from 6 AM to 6 PM Pacific Time.* This can be a slight hassle if you have an emergency that needs immediate assistance on the Free plan, but it is one of the bigger benefits of the Plus plan.

Once you get in touch with a live person, Square’s support is friendly and very knowledgeable. They are happy to walk you through any issues you’re having and are committed to ensuring that your problems are completely resolved. During off-hours, email support is also available.

Square also has an impressive customer support page where you can troubleshoot some basic questions. There are dozens of articles on various topics if you have time to do some research. Square also has one of the best community forums I’ve seen and is a place you can look up various topics.

*A notable exception is that if you use Square Register with any Square for Restaurants plan, you will receive 24/7 support.

Payment Processing With Square For Restaurants

Square acts as a processor and is compatible with almost any form of payment available. Square accepts Apple Pay, Android Pay, Cash App Pay, and all major credit cards. With the right hardware, you can accept swipe, dip, and tap payments — Square Register has all three built right into its customer-facing POS screen.

For processing on the Free and Plus plans, Square charges 2.6% plus $0.10 per tap, dip, or swipe. For all online payments, such as QR code payments and orders placed on your Square website, Square charges 2.9% plus $0.30.

Custom processing rates are available on the Premium plan and for businesses that process more than $250,000 per year with an average ticket size of $15 or more.

Square For Restaurants Contract & Commitment

One of the biggest benefits of Square is that there are never any long-term commitments or fees for ending your service. You simply pay month-to-month, and you are not incentivized to sign any contracts.

Square For Restaurants Reviews

Square for Restaurants enjoys overwhelmingly positive reviews. Being a huge processor, Square as a whole definitely has some negative reviews (mainly pertaining to payment processing), but there are a few complaints to be found specifically for Square for Restaurants.

Negative Square For Restaurants POS Reviews & Complaints

Square for Restaurants has a handful of complaints, and a few of the standard issues with Square have cropped up.

• Fund Holds: Many complaints to the Better Business Bureau revolve around Square placing immediate holds on funds when it deems a suspicious transaction has occurred. These holds often come without notice and can take a while to resolve, causing understandable frustration for vendors. Check out our article on avoiding merchant account holds, freezes, and terminations to learn more about preventing trouble accessing your funds.
• Live Customer Service Lacking: This has been something of a recurring theme for Square. While you can now get a live technical support agent 24/7 with a customer code, a few customers haven’t been overly impressed with the support they received. However, more than one customer said that through Square’s troubleshooting resources online, they were able to fix the problem themselves.
• Limited Inventory Management: While Square for Restaurants does include basic item tracking, it cannot track raw ingredients. That means Square for Restaurants users who want raw ingredient tracking will have to integrate (and pay for) a separate restaurant inventory management system. At least one Square Restaurant review has mentioned this issue.

Positive Square For Restaurants POS Reviews & Testimonials

• Ease Of Use: By far, the number one aspect that users are raving about is how easy the system is to use. Multiple restaurant managers were amazed at how simple it was to train even brand-new employees, saving countless hours.
• Cost: Multiple Square for Restaurant reviews from customers have praised its affordable cost. A few customers mentioned shopping around and finding that Square met every one of their basic needs at a significantly lower price than its competitors.
• Online Ordering & Delivery: People particularly love that Square’s online ordering and delivery integrations make it hassle-free to set up delivery and pickup options, a growing necessity for all restaurants.

Alternatives To Square For Restaurants

Square For Restaurants Vs Lightspeed Restaurant

Both of these products are excellent choices for both quick-serve and full-service restaurants. Lightspeed Restaurant has a slightly deeper feature set, particularly in its higher-priced tiers, and may be the better choice for business owners who have a lot of experience with point of sale systems. Both systems are also incredibly simple to use and train employees on with Square opting for a more basic layout while Lightspeed is a little more elegant and customizable. However, Square comes out on top with its hardware selections and its overall cheaper pricing.

Square For Restaurants Vs Toast

Toast is one of the most popular point of sale systems used in restaurants and for good reason. It’s an all-in-one system built for restaurant owners and has some of the best table and menu management around. It also can compete with Square in the hardware department with the incredibly intuitive Toast Go handheld device. Toast is simply some of the best restaurant software we’ve come across, however, there are some caveats. Toast has gotten into the habit of locking customers into long contracts that are difficult and costly to break and is not always entirely upfront with its pricing. Once again, Square is the choice if you’re looking for a simple month-t0-month plan.

Final Verdict

With Square For Restaurants POS, Square has managed to stay true to its brand of being highly intuitive and easy to learn while incorporating some complex elements. However, you will likely find Square for Restaurants lacking if you need a more advanced feature, such as raw ingredient tracking. The POS does have excellent integrations to fill in the gaps in its functionality, but those integrations will drive up your monthly cost.

Still, Square for Restaurants is a pretty amazing value, especially considering it has a free plan that allows unlimited devices and locations. While full-service sit-down restaurants should probably go with the Plus plan, a quick-serve eatery or bar may get by just fine on the Free plan. I also love that the Free plan is now fully compatible with the Square Register, which is ideal for a quick-serve or fast-casual setup and adds 24/7 support to your Square for Restaurants account.

For all that you get, it’s going to be tough to beat Square for Restaurants’ pricing, not to mention the convenience of its built-in processing, online ordering and delivery integrations, and KDS. Best of all, the free price tag means you can try out the POS indefinitely at no cost or take advantage of the 30-day free trial for the Plus plan.

Want to check out some other free POS systems? Read our post on the best free POS systems.

Square For Restaurants FAQs

Restaurant POS Review Methodology

We evaluate and test each software system that we review at Merchant Maverick, placing special emphasis on certain key software characteristics in order to generate our granular product ratings.

For restaurant POS software in particular, we have a 56-point rubric we use to evaluate the system in terms of its pricing, ease of use, features, and user reviews. These points are based on attributes relevant to the restaurant or foodservice POS niche—such as the availability of features like online ordering, ingredient inventory, table management, tipping, and others.

Our rating system also takes into account attributes that are desirable for POS systems and cloud-based software in general, such as the availability of monthly pricing plans, free trials, and transparent software contracts.

The Merchant Maverick Seal of Approval 🏆

Square For Restaurants	Visit Site

After hours of in-depth research and evaluation, we can confidently recommend this brand to our readers. Get started today and see Square For Restaurants for yourself.

The Merchant Maverick Seal of Approval 🏆

Square For Restaurants	Visit Site

After hours of in-depth research and evaluation, we can confidently recommend this brand to our readers. Get started today and see Square For Restaurants for yourself.

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