Now that you know what Square Register is, let’s talk about pricing.
The Square Register can be purchased either on its own for $799, which works for businesses that already have printers, cash drawers or barcode scanners. Or you can buy it as part of a kit for $1329, if you need additional hardware for your business. Regardless of which you choose, you’ll also have the options to pay for your Square Register using payment installments for as low as $39/mo for 24 months.
If you take a look at the Square Register features, you’ll notice the transaction pricing is different than transactions processed when you connect a Square Reader to your device or slip an iPad into Square Stand. Here’s the breakdown:
Swiped magstripe cards, swiped or inserted chip cards, and contactless payments processed through the new Square Register have a 2.6% + 10¢ per transaction. The pricing structure for Square Register takes into account the full solution of hardware, software, and payment types, and is designed to better reflect the costs we incur for each seller. With fully integrated software, hardware, and payments, you’ll get even more value: faster transaction times, quicker line speed, more trust between you and your customers, automatic updates, and a single place to turn to for support and troubleshooting.
If you have already negotiated a custom rate with our Sales team, your transaction rates won’t change - this custom rate also applies to transactions taken on Square Register.
Here’s a recap of our other transaction fees (not specific to the new Square Register):
- Payments that are swiped, dipped, or tapped with any other Square Hardware (ie: Square Stand, Square Readers) have a 2.6% + .10 fee.
- Manually keyed-in, transactions processed using Card on File, or processed using Virtual Terminal have a 3.5% + $0.15 fee.
- Invoices cost 2.9% + $.30 or 3.5% + $0.15 if processed using Card on File.
As always, there are no fees for recording cash, check, or gift card payments.
Any payments processed outside of the Square Register will have Square’s standard processing fees. All of your fees, sales, and reports will display in your Square Dashboard.
The real question: is Square Register right for you?
The Square Register is purpose-built (i.e. specifically built to be a point of sale device vs. a multi-purpose tablet) to work well for a wide variety of businesses, but it does have a few distinctive features that will make it work best for businesses that need a customer facing display, have unique countertops and/or have 3 or more pieces of hardware connected, like printers, cash drawers, etc.
The Square Register is also ideal for businesses that prefer to use an ethernet connection rather than Wi-Fi (Wi-Fi is also an option). Or if you need a point of sale that won’t take up a lot of your counter space.
Square Register might not be the best solution for your business if you need a battery-powered device since the Square Register needs to be plugged in at all times.
Let us know what questions you have about pricing - we know this can be a confusing topic, but we want to make it as straight-forward as possible for you!
Note: This article was updated in 2019.