Square VS QuickBooks

Square VS QuickBooks At A Glance

Square is best known as a payment processor offering simple, competitive rates for small businesses. Square offers a broad range of products and services that go way beyond just credit card processing.

With just a free Square account, you’ll have access to invoicing, inventory management, an online store, the Square App Marketplace, and other services, such as gift cards and loyalty.

Square’s full suite of small business services include:

• Square POS
• Square POS Terminal
• Square POS Register
• Square Cash App
• Square Loans
• Square Banking
• Square Marketing

QuickBooks is best known as an industry-leading small business accounting software package, but its other compelling products include a full merchant account, business checking, payroll, and more.

Over the years, Intuit has been growing its small business software offerings to provide an integrated one-stop-shop software experience for small to large businesses.

QuickBooks’ full suite of business services include:

• QuickBooks Online Accounting
• QuickBooks Solopreneur (Formerly QB Self-Employed)
• QuickBooks Desktop Accounting
• QuickBooks Payments
• QuickBooks GoPayment Mobile POS
• QuickBooks Online Payroll
• QuickBooks Checking
• QuickBooks Capital
• QuickBooks Money
• QuickBooks Checking
• QuickBooks Time

QuickBooks’ parent company Intuit also offers a few unique services, including Intuit MailChimp for email marketing and Turbo Tax for personal and business tax filing support.

Where Square Wins

Where Square Falls Short

Where QuickBooks Wins

Where QuickBooks Falls Short

What’s The Difference Between Square & QuickBooks?

The big difference between Square and QuickBooks is that Square was a payment processor first that expanded into a full software suite by building out its own Square ecosystem. QuickBooks was an accounting software first that expanded into a full software suite through some proprietary software buildout, but mainly through acquisitions of other successful services.

This difference is important for two main reasons:

1. A Difference In Software Centralization: Square’s services generally become add-ons that can be accessed directly within the Square dashboard, whereas QuickBooks’s products predominantly have separate dashboards that integrate and talk with each other.
2. A Difference In Product Focus: Square’s software expansion began with enhancing its payment services, which resulted in highly advanced POS and hardware offerings. QuickBooks’ software expansion began with its accounting software, which has resulted in more advanced accounting, payroll, tax support, and time-tracking software.

Square VS QuickBooks Pricing Comparison

One of the bigger differences between Square vs. QuickBooks is the pricing structures. Square’s pricing offers a robust free plan. It also has paid monthly plans with additional features if your business needs advanced inventory or reporting.

QuickBooks, on the other hand, sells all of its products separately, though you may find occasional discounts with some services like accounting and payroll.

So, is Square or QuickBooks cheaper?

Square and QuickBooks both offer good value for what they provide. Square caters more to small and mid-sized businesses that may not have a lot of upfront capital by providing many features with its free plan. Square also allows individuals to choose the features they plan on using that are within their budget.

QuickBooks gives you more of what you need initially and comes with a deeper feature set overall while also allowing you to add additional services, such as payroll.

That being said, it can be a bit difficult to compare each Square and QuickBooks product in terms of pricing without diving into the nitty gritty of nearly two dozen small business products. Which company wins out with pricing is going to vary significantly depending on which services you’re looking at, but here are the most important highlights:

• QuickBooks payment processing is cheaper for high-volume merchants
• Square payment processing is cheaper for low-volume merchants
• Square’s basic free plan includes POS, eCommerce, invoicing, and scheduling
• Square Payroll is cheaper than QuickBooks but with fewer features
• Square is cheaper than QuickBooks Online if you only need invoicing services

Square VS QuickBooks Feature & Products Compared

Square and QuickBooks both offer generous feature sets with the option of adding additional services, making them highly scalable products. There is a lot of overlap between the two companies and their offerings, but there are some areas where one offers a service that the other doesn’t.

For example, Square has eCommerce and website builders, whereas QuickBooks hasn’t dived into this realm of software. And while Square offers basic invoicing, it hasn’t touched the accounting landscape that QuickBooks dominates.

But how do the products Square and QuickBooks have in common compare? Let’s dive into the main differences.

Which Is Better For My Business: Square Or QuickBooks?

Square has been the provider of choice for many small businesses in recent years, and with its ever-expanding lineup of services, it’s very close to being a one-stop shop for all your business needs.

Similarly, QuickBooks has been expanding its services for years and is also striving to be a one-stop shop software suite for small businesses, going so far as to acquire numerous popular software like TSheets for time tracking and Mailchimp for email marketing.

Whether Square or QuickBooks is right for your business is going to depend on two factors:

1. Which product services do you actually need? If you need eCommerce, for example, you’ll only find this with Square; whereas, if you need full-fledged accounting, you’ll only find this with QuickBooks.
2. What level of feature depth do you require? If you have basic payroll needs, Square would be cheaper, but if you have complex payroll and HR needs, QuickBooks has more in-depth features. Similarly, Square has great payment processing for low-volume sales, whereas QuickBooks Payments is built for high-volume sales.

Here are some guidelines to consider in choosing between these two platforms:

Choose Square If…

• You want an affordable software suite that could include payment processing, payroll, and checking
• You want free invoicing, eCommerce, and scheduling
• You need a strong inventory management system
• You need a full-fledged POS system with hardware options available
• You need to take payments online and in person
• You want the ability to collect payments through hardware, email, or SMS
• You need an eCommerce site that integrates directly with other Square products

Choose QuickBooks If…

• You want a full business software suite that could include accounting, payroll, payment processing, and checking
• You want capable, full-fledged accounting software with numerous integrations
• You want a stable, full-service merchant account
• You want to negotiate a custom processing rate plan
• You want a basic mobile POS for occasional payments

Should You Use QuickBooks & Square Together?

While Square and QuickBooks are both trying to be an all-in-one small business software suite, neither has hit that mark entirely yet, so there is another option: you can use both instead of choosing one or the other.

QuickBooks and Square integrate with each other, so you can use them together to get the best of both worlds. But when would using QuickBooks and Square together be a better choice than sticking with just one software suite?

Square’s accounting services are lacking, so if you need in-depth reporting and analytics, using the QuickBooks integration can be very valuable. Likewise, you may be happy with QuickBooks, but if you want to add payment processing (especially for low-volume processing), a point-of-sale system, or an eCommerce site to your small business, adding a Square integration could be the right choice.

Choose QuickBooks & Square If…

• You want simple processing to go along with robust accounting
• You use QuickBooks and want an affordable POS
• You want a free online Square store with the excellent bookkeeping of QuickBooks
• You have a food service establishment with in-depth accounting needs