Square vs Toast POS

2021. Square acquires buy-now, pay-later company Afterpay for $29 billion



Square has agreed to acquire Australian buy-now, pay-later service Afterpay in an all-stock deal worth around $29 billion, making it one of the biggest acquisitions in Australian history. Square stating that it plans to integrate Afterpay into both Cash App and Seller. Cash App allows customers to make payments and transfer money, while Seller is targeted toward retailers. Once Afterpay is integrated, Cash App users will be able to manage their Afterpay payments within the app, while merchants who use Seller will be able to offer Afterpay to customers.


2019. Restaurant management platform Toast raised $250M



Toast, which has built a popular platform for restaurant management, has raised $250 million on a valuation of $2.7 billion, money that it will use to invest in building technology to help restaurants with marketing, recruitment and operational efficiency, as well as start to think about expanding to more territories outside the U.S. Toast’s products include point of sale services as well as reporting and analytics; display systems for kitchens; online ordering and delivery interfaces; and loyalty programs. It also builds its own hardware, which includes handheld order pads, payment and ordering terminals, self-service kiosks and displays for guests. It also offers links through to a network of some 100 partners, such as Grubhub for takeout food, when a restaurant does not cover those services or functions directly, to help stitch together services to work on its platform.


2018. Square acquired website builder Weebly



Square which is best known for its payment software will acquire Weebly for $365 million. Weebly offers easy-to-use website-building tools and is focused on serving small businesses and e-commerce companies. The company raised $35.7 million in funding Square says that by acquiring Weebly, it can create “one cohesive solution” for entrepreneurs looking to build an online and offline business. And because 40 percent of Weebly’s 625,000 paid subscribers are outside the U.S., the deal will help Square expand globally.


2017. Mobile POS system Square launched Retail app



Square is launching a new Square Retail app that complements a comprehensive backend package of tools that include complete coverage of inventory management, customer relationship management and employee tools. The new offering is designed to really provide a next-level retail solution for merchants and shop owners who need more than just the Square Reader and basic square mobile app. The solution can scale depending on the needs of their clients, but can serve any customers from a one-location shop to a merchant with multiple storefronts and lots of inventory to track. For now the primary type of retailer Square is targeting with this product are those in the “finished goods” business, which means people who have packaged products or things like shirts and clothing that have barcodes, as well as things like wine or games.


2016. Square now allows to charge loyal customers without card swiping



Mobile payment processing service Square launched a new feature called Card on File that allows to charge recurring customers without card swiping (and even without asking for the card). It's also suitable for customers, because they can come to your shop or restaurant without card and money, take what they want and go away. And you quietly charge the appropriate amount from the card. Of course, first these customers have to opt in and enter their card data to your company's Square account. Besides, using Card on File businesses can charge remote customers without internet payment. But this feature is a little more expensive for business: it will cost you 3.5% plus 15 cents, compared to the 2.75% commission for swiping a card.


2015. Square launched a dashboard app for iOS



Mobile payment processing service Square has released its second non-consumer app, a dashboard app for iOS that lets business owners track sales in real-time and allows them to dig into the health of their business with analytics. This app isn’t for the barista at the coffee shop, but it was built for the owner who might be watching over things while they’re not at the shop. With this app, business owners can track how many items are left in stock in multiple locations, for example, which can help them make important decisions on the fly without having to sit down at a computer.


2015. Square launched payroll service for small businesses


Mobile payment startup Square has launched Square Payroll, software for businesses to pay and track taxes and other costs for both hourly and salaried employees. The product is priced at $20 per month, with $5 per employee on top of that. In terms of payroll software, Square is positioning itself — at least for now — as a fairly simple product. It includes timecards, taxes, and the ability to track and pay both salaried and hourly workers, and its price is all-in. Square Payroll is entering a pretty crowded market, competing against the likes of Intuit’s Quick Books, ADP, Paychex and others. A few, like Wave Accounting, offer some but not all the same features: Wave, for example, doesn’t handle tax payments or tax filings — they estimated tax liabilities. It is also less expensive. It starts with two base tiers of $10 and $15 plus $4 per each employee.


2015. Square's new wireless card reader will accept Apple Pay and work with Android



New Square Reader is a tiny square device designed to allow any merchant with a tablet or smartphone to begin wirelessly accepting Apple Pay and contactless mobile payments, as well as payments from EMV (Europay, MasterCard and Visa) chip cards. The $49 device is a bit of an upgrade from Square's previous $29 merchant reader, which was a bit clunky and not wireless. It works with the most recent versions of the iPad, the iPhone (as far back as the iPhone 4S), as well as Android devices from manufacturers such as Samsung, HTC, Asus, Motorola, LG, Dell and Toshiba.


2014. Square adds sales tax reporting through TaxJar



Mobile payment provider Square integrated with TaxJar, which lets companies automatically count and report local and state sales taxes. Users can link up their accounts in two services, but this is not an offer to use TaxJar for free. Businesses doing less than 1,000 transactions per month pay $9.95 monthly, with prices increasing according to volume. Square says that the service is retroactive — meaning, if you activate it now you can set it to calculate sales tax on past transactions, not just those that are in the future. The advantage of adding TaxJar is twofold for Square: on one hand it gives businesses another feature, and one that is usually a pain for businesses to sort out, which may sway more of them to using Square for front-line payments. On the other, if you are an existing business, something like this could help to keep you as a customer of Square’s and choose this route for transactions and other business services.


2014. Square adds analytics tools for small business



Mobile payments provider Square is launching Square Analytics, a free set of tools that tie in to its suite of register products, which already includes Inventory, Invoices, and the recently launched Appointments. Tying in to the data that Square already collects about a small business’s sales, Square Analytics is able to show real-time updates on which products are doing well, when sales are best each day, how many customers are being served, and more. For those retailers who don’t think they need updates for the very latest data, Square Analytics also sends data summaries to your email at your preferred rate; if you want to dig into that data, each email also comes with spreadsheets with all of the data captured by Square’s tools. Square Analytics can also tie into a retailer’s accounting software, letting you connect your account to services like Quickbooks or Xero.