Square Online is an extremely popular ecommerce website builder that’s well-known in the industry for letting its users sell for free. But, besides the free plan, how much does Square Online cost to use? Its premium plans range from $49 to $149 per month when billed annually.
In this guide, I’ll walk you through Square Online’s website builder plans and highlight any additional costs you’ll need to consider.
- Premium pricing for Square Online ranges from $49 to $149 per month (billed annually)
- You can sell for free with Square Online, but you’ll still have to pay a processing fee of 3.3% + $0.30 per transaction
- If you sell in person, Square Online provides your first POS card reader free of charge, even on the free plan
How Much Does Square Online Cost?
Square Online has a free plan which lets you sell an unlimited number of products without charge. After this, it has two premium plans to choose from, priced at $49 and $149 per month, when billed annually.
|
Plan name
|
Monthly price (paid annually)
|
Transaction fee
|
Storage space
|
Displays ads on your site
|
Ecommerce
|
Custom domain
|
Recommended for
|
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
|||||||
|
Square Free |
Square Plus |
Square Premium |
|||||||
|
$0 |
$49 |
$149 |
|||||||
|
3.3% + $0.30 |
2.9% + $0.30 |
2.9% + $0.30 |
|||||||
|
|
|
|
|||||||
|
|
|
|
|||||||
|
|
|
|
|||||||
|
Getting started selling |
Small to medium stores |
Large and growing stores |
|||||||
| Try Square | Try Square | Try Square |
Is Square Online Good Value for Money?
As the only ecommerce platform with a free selling plan, it’s no surprise that we found Square Online to be great value for money. That said, its features are limited and you can unlock more advanced sales features with other builders, such as Shopify and BigCommerce for the same price point.
For this reason, Square Online is a good option for budget-conscious businesses, but not for stores looking to seriously grow online.
Square Free: $0 – Sell Online for Free
While Square Online’s free plan comes with limitations, it does let you sell for free. It also comes with basic ecommerce features, such as:
- Sell unlimited products
- 3.3% + $0.30 processing fee
- Basic website builder tools
- Sell on search and socials
- Access to Square Online’s POS systems for in-person selling
- Accept multiple payment options, including Google Pay and Apple Pay
- Advertise your products through Facebook
- Delivery and shipping options, including pickup
- Built-in SEO tools
- Create coupons
I only recommend using Square Online’s free plan to test out the website builder to see if it’s right for you, ahead of committing to a paid plan. This is because the following limitations make it difficult to grow, stand out online, and be taken seriously as a business:
- Banner ads
- A .square.site domain name
- No website templates
- No analytics
- Lack of advanced sales features, such as abandoned cart recovery
Square Plus: $49 – For Managing an Online Store
The Square Plus plan costs $49 per month (billed annually), and removes ads, upgrades the bandwidth, and gives you the ability to use a custom domain name.
Plus, it upgrades the sales features considerably. On top of everything from the free plan, you’ll get:
- Lower processing fees: 2.9% + $0.30
- Customer membership areas
- Website themes, custom fonts, and custom widgets for more store personalization
- Site statistics and advanced ecommerce reporting so you can track your progress
- Automatic abandoned cart recovery emails
- Sell subscriptions
- Item badges, such as low stock and selling fast
- Request reviews and publish them on product pages
- Gift options
- Offer free shipping
- Schedule discounts and product launches in advance
Square Online’s Plus plan is the best option for small to medium stores, since the price jump from the Free plan is offset by the reduced processing fees, and the added automation and loyalty tools optimize workflows for busy stretched teams.However, if customization is important for you, Square Online’s design tools are weak across the board. You do get access to website templates with Square Plus, but I was pretty underwhelmed by the options, especially in comparison to other ecommerce website builders, like Wix.
Square Premium: $149 – For Larger Online Stores
The Square Premium plan costs $149 per month (billed annually). As Square Online’s most advanced ecommerce plan, you get all the features on Square Plus, as well as a few new ones:
- Real-time shipping rates
- 24/7 phone support
- No in-house delivery fees
The Square Premium plan caters towards large and growing stores. Still, due to the sharp price increase, I’d only recommend it if you really need better shipping options or you want to save money on transaction fees.
Additional Square Online Costs
With the recent restructure to Square Online’s plans, a lot of previously additional features have been integrated into the core subscriptions. However, there are still a few extra costs to consider:
- Domain names: It’s important to budget for a Square Online domain (starting from $19.95 per year), since you’ll be charged after the first year on Square Plus and Square Premium plans.
- Processing fees: You’ll be charged a small fee for each transaction made online (starts at 3.3% + $0.30 per transaction).
- Square Payroll: A payroll service to simplify salary and benefit payments, support bookkeeping, and help with taxes and compliance. This is particularly useful in 2026 amid complex regulatory changes and the ongoing labor crisis. (starts at $6 per month per payee).
- Square POS Hardware: For in-person selling, you’ll need to purchase POS hardware. The new Square Handheld is a pocketable device, costing $399.
How We Test Ecommerce Builder Pricing
We put Square Online to the test against 11 other website builders through over 300 hours of testing. Our research process looks at a variety of categories, including website features and ease of use. But, for pricing, we look at three key areas in particular.
- Plan prices: How much does each plan cost, what discounts are on offer, and how steep is the price jump between plans?
- Features vs pricing: We look at the quality of features compared to the price point to find out the value for money.
- Free options: Does the website builder have a free trial or a free plan?
Square Online Pricing: Is It Worth the Money?
Overall, Square Online is a good budget-friendly ecommerce platform, especially if you’re looking for tools specifically related to restaurants or retail. Its well-integrated POS systems really make it stand out from other ecommerce competitors, leading to Square Online having a favorable offering for users seeking to have both online and brick-and-mortar representation.
While selling for free is an attractive prospect, the free plan isn’t sustainable for long-term selling. Instead, if your heart is set on Square Online, I’d recommend choosing the Square Plus plan for $49 per month (billed annually). This plan comes with all the sales features you need for an online store, but it doesn’t feel overpriced for what you get.
That said, try out Square Online’s 30-day free trial or free plan to get a feel for the builder and see if it’s the right fit for your online store.
0 comments