Square Terminal Review

Pros

• Runs free Square POS app
• Sets up in minutes
• Mobile with long battery life
• Built-in receipt printer
• 24/7 phone support

Cons

• Doesn’t work with Bluetooth peripherals
• Doesn’t work on cellular networks
• Processing rates expensive for higher-volume businesses

What Is Square Terminal?

Square Terminal is a convenient, all-in-one credit card machine. The POS system, card reader, and receipt printer are all contained in a small device with built-in Square credit card processing, designed to allow you to take credit card payments wherever your customers are.

Businesses That Would Benefit From Square Terminal

Nearly any sized business that is looking to give its employees more mobility could benefit from Square Terminal. It can function as both a countertop device and a handheld device.

Square Terminal is particularly useful for restaurants looking for a way to implement tableside ordering to simplify the process of sending tickets to the kitchen.

Square Terminal Pricing & Processing Rates

You can purchase Square Terminal directly from Square’s website for $299 or from third-party retailers for the same price.

Square also offers financing if needed. If you need to attach additional hardware via a USB connection, such as a cash drawer or scanner, you’ll need to purchase the Hub as well. You can also purchase additional accessories, such as the belt clip. These prices are very competitive with Terminal’s top competitors if not slightly cheaper, which helps it receive high marks in our ratings rubric.

There are no long-term contracts or hidden fees, which is something Square prides itself on. Square’s card-present processing rates for Terminal are 2.4% - 2.6% + $0.15, which is competitive but could add up if you’re a high-volume seller. However, businesses processing more than $250K/month can qualify for discounted transaction fees. You’ll also receive reduced rates if you subscribe to a paid Square plan.

Funds are available as quickly as the next business day in most cases or immediately if you have the Square Card.

Finally, Square advertises that you can try Square Terminal “risk-free” for 30 days on its website. What this actually means is that you can purchase the card reader and test it out for 30 days. If you don’t like it, you can return it within 30 days, buy different hardware, or stop using Square altogether.

Find more details on Square Terminal pricing below.

Square Terminal Pricing Overview

Monthly Plans

Extra Costs

Overall Design

As mentioned, Square Terminal isn’t a large machine. It’s got a 5.5-inch screen and measures 5.6 inches long by 3.4 inches wide, with a height of 2.5 inches. It’s not overly heavy, so it shouldn’t be much of a burden if you plan to use it remotely around your store.

Square Terminal supports both Wi-Fi and Ethernet connections. You can keep it plugged in for stationary use, but you can also leave it unplugged because the battery is “designed to last all day.” After keeping Terminal on all night, it only drained about a third of the battery, so even with heavy use, I would imagine the battery would last through most standard workdays. But given the small profile and overall design, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to have a dedicated spot on your counter to plug the Terminal in for charging and then just unplug it and carry it off when you need to go mobile.

Square Terminal supports magstripe, chip cards, and contactless transactions. The magstripe reader is located on the side of the device, while the chip card reader is at the base. Square Terminal lets customers see an itemized list of everything they are paying for rather than just a single, final sum. Signatures can be collected digitally as well as on paper, depending on your preferences. 

Ease Of Use

If I haven’t driven the point home well enough already, Square Terminal is absurdly easy to use, and that is perhaps its biggest selling point. Whether you want to use it as a tidy, out-of-the-way countertop card reading machine or use one (or multiple devices) for employees to operate remotely, you can be up and selling in a matter of moments, not to mention uploading inventory and menu items equally fast.

While the device offers a more professional look than the standard mobile phone and Square Reader you see so often, I’m not overly impressed with how it fits in your hand. It’s not an intuitive feel and is a bit bulky if you have to switch from hand to hand.

I would worry about its durability if dropped (something I imagine would be fairly common if employees were using them remotely throughout the day). I would also worry about them being hit against tables or counters when attached via the belt clip.

That said, the software is remarkably user-friendly, and the processing rates are simple to understand, helping it earn a solid all-around score.

Square Terminal Features

As far as standard Square point of sale features go, many carry over to the Terminal. You can’t mark items for sale online, track sales by employee, or keep a cash drawer history, but Terminal does support item creation, custom tipping, and receipt management.

Square Terminal has its own built-in thermal receipt printer, but you can set up a third-party receipt printer if you prefer.

Some of the software’s more advanced employee and customer management features aren’t available, but if you mainly need tableside ordering or a mobile payment tracker in a busy retail store or salon, Square Terminal has you covered.

There are a couple of additional limitations that I need to make clear. First, Square Terminal doesn’t work with Bluetooth peripherals, including barcode scanners. Instead, you can connect USB-based devices. Certainly, this isn’t ideal for everyone, especially if you don’t like wires. Square Terminal does offer a cleverly designed power cable and USB hub to help contain the chaos and slim down the look. But, with its ability to run all of Square’s major POS software, Square Terminal scores well for overall features.

Square Terminal Features Overview

In addition to all the standard payment types (all credit card types, contactless digital wallets, etc.), Square Terminal can also be configured to let your customers pay with Cash App or Afterpay.

One more special feature I like is that Square Appointments users can manage appointments right from the Terminal, creating, editing, and deleting appointments on the fly.

Customer Service & Support

To me, this is one of the bigger advantages Square Terminal has over just its free app. Access to customer service has been a point of contention with me for a while, as Square always claims it has 24/7 customer support, but this simply isn’t the case for many of its users.

Square Terminal Customer Support Channels

People using the free app have access Monday through Friday from 6 AM to 6 PM Pacific Time with a customer code and some 24/7 access in the case of certain emergencies. However, customers with Square Terminal have access to 24/7 phone support. That’s a big deal, if even just for peace of mind, especially for food service establishments and retailers with weekend hours, and it helps boost its score in this category.

Square’s products are generally so user-friendly that not much customer support is needed. Plus, Square’s website has an extensive FAQ section and a wealth of information and instructional videos online. If you need to talk to Square directly, its representatives have a solid reputation for being friendly and knowledgeable.

User Reviews

Square is BBB-accredited and has an A+ score with the BBB. The company has received more than 3,000 complaints filed with the BBB in the past year, and 937 complaints in the last 12 months (pretty normal complaint numbers for such a large company). On TrustPilot, the company has a score of 4.3/5, with over 5,600 reviews.

Generally, customers like the Square Terminal, though it can be difficult to parse out Square Terminal reviews from reviews about Square in general. In fact, most Square complaints have to do with the payment processing aspect of it.

But here’s what we could find about Square Terminal specifically.

Square Terminal Vs. Other Handheld POS Terminals

There are several other comparable handheld POS terminals on the market. Here’s a breakdown of how these devices compare to Square Terminal.

Final Verdict: Is Square Terminal Worth It?

While I’m not convinced that Square Terminal will revolutionize the point of sale or mobile ordering game, Square has added another impressive option for its customers to its already strong team. It makes sense for small or even mid-sized businesses that like having portability with their credit card machine or those already using Square that would like a bit of an upgrade but don’t want to commit fully to Square Register.

In addition to restaurants of all kinds, Terminal targets service businesses with physical locations and small shop owners who want a professional-looking credit card machine. So, for example, hair and nail salons can bring the Square Terminal right to the customer rather than bringing them to the front of the salon to pay. Kiosks at a mall can save space by switching to Terminal, which has a much smaller footprint than a traditional POS.

It’s less suitable for mobile businesses because Terminal doesn’t work on cellular networks, but if you have a dedicated Wi-Fi connection or a mobile device with tethering, you can take Terminal on the go.

Considering that a decently reliable smartphone will run you a couple of hundred dollars plus the cost of card readers, Terminal offers a pretty good value. It’s lightweight, portable, and guaranteed to work with the Square Point of Sale app, with no need to worry about OS updates or a data plan.

Let’s not forget that Square Terminal also comes with 24/7 phone support. Existing Square merchants should certainly consider upgrading, especially if they’ve had trouble using Square on their mobile devices in the past. For new merchants, Terminal makes the transition from a traditional merchant services provider to Square much easier.

Square Terminal FAQs