by Block, Inc.E-commerce platforms
An online store tied to Square’s POS and payments, with a free plan that takes real orders and Square Plus at $49 a month per location.
An online store that shares one catalog, customer list and payments account with Square POS, free to start and taking real orders.
A Square account includes the online store at no monthly fee: unlimited items, pickup, local delivery and shipping, discounted labels, gift cards, coupons, Facebook, Instagram and free Google listings, with the same items and customers as Square POS. Card payments run through Square with no gateway to set up, and Square covers PCI compliance in its processing rate. Square Plus, at $49 a month per location, adds a custom domain, abandoned cart emails, subscriptions, reviews and inventory tracking and lowers the online rate to 2.9% + 30¢.
Against 3 other products we reviewed in E-commerce platforms: what you pay for with each, the five access facts, the plan limits we recorded and each review's bottom line. The note under the table says how each one was checked.
| Metric | Square Online | Shopify | Ecwid | BigCommerce |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What you're paying for | Worth the priceAn online store that shares one catalog, customer list and payments account with Square POS, free to start and taking real orders. | Built-in reachA store, its payments, in-person selling and the main sales channels in one admin, with card rates that fall as you move up a plan. | Worth the priceA store you can add to the website you already have, with no Ecwid transaction fee and abandoned cart emails and subscriptions from $49 a month. | Built-in reachA hosted store with unlimited staff and products on every plan, marketplace channels built in and ISO 27001 behind it. |
| Overall score | 7.7Best | 7.5 | 6.1 | 6.0 |
| Free option | Free plan | 3-day free trial | Paid only | 15-day free trial |
| Card to start | –Not measured | No card needed | –Not measured | No card needed |
| Getting access | Self-serve | Self-serve | Self-serve | Self-serve |
| Starter priceCheapest paid plan | $49/location/mo | $29/mo | $5/mo | $29/mo |
| Pricing model | Flat rate | Flat rate | Flat rate | Tiered |
| Pricing page | Public prices | Public prices | Public prices | Public prices |
| Billing unit | Monthly plan per location, plus card processing | Flat monthly plan per store, plus card processing | Flat monthly plan per store, plus card processing | Flat monthly plan per store, tied to annual sales (GMV caps), plus card processing |
| Free option | Square Free with real orders (unlimited products, square.site address); 30-day trial of Plus or Premium | No free store plan; 3-day trial, no card, then $1/mo for 3 months on most plans | No free plan for new sign-ups; no trial listed; Starter $5/mo | No free plan; 15-day trial, no card |
| Reference scenario ($10K/mo, 2 staff, annual) | $399/mo on Square Plus ($49 + $290 + $60), computed; monthly billing only | $409/mo on Grow ($79 + $270 + $60), computed | $399/mo on Business ($49 + $290 + $60), computed | $598/mo on Scale ($299 + $239 + $60), computed; Growth’s $100K sales cap is exceeded |
| Month-to-month price | $0 / $49 / $149 per location for Free, Plus and Premium | $39 / $105 / $399 for Basic, Grow and Advanced | $5 / $35 / $65 / $149 for Starter, Venture, Business and Unlimited | $39 / $105 / $399 for Core, Growth and Scale |
| US online card rate | 3.3% + 30¢ (Free), 2.9% + 30¢ (Plus and Premium) | 2.9% + 30¢ (Basic), 2.7% + 30¢ (Grow), 2.5% + 30¢ (Advanced) | 2.9% + 30¢ on Lightspeed Payments, every plan | 2.89% + 30¢ (Core), 2.59% + 30¢ (Growth), 2.39% + 30¢ (Scale) |
| Fee with another payment provider | Checkout lists only Square payments | 2% / 1% / 0.6% (Plus 0.2%) | $0 on Ecwid pages; Lightspeed agreement sets a monthly fee for eligible customers | 2.0% / 1.0% / 0.6% on Open Payment Providers; 0% on 21 embedded providers |
| Products and staff | Unlimited items; team members on every plan, no limit stated | Unlimited products; staff 0 / 5 / 15 / unlimited | 10 / 100 / 2,500 / unlimited products; staff 0 / 0 / 2 / unlimited | Unlimited products and staff accounts on every plan |
| Abandoned cart recovery | Square Plus and up | Every plan | Business and up | Growth and up |
| Selling channels | Square POS, Facebook, Instagram and Google listings on every plan | POS, Google, Meta, TikTok on every plan; Amazon, eBay, Walmart via Marketplace Connect | Facebook, Instagram, Google listings; marketplaces through third-party apps; mobile POS | Amazon, eBay, Walmart built in; Google and Meta through Feedonomics; POS through apps |
| PCI / SOC 2 / ISO 27001 | PCI DSS Level 1; SOC 2 not stated on a public page; ISO 27001 | PCI DSS Level 1; SOC 2 Type II; ISO 27001 not stated | PCI DSS Level 1; SOC 2 Type II (Lightspeed E-Series); ISO 27001 not stated | PCI DSS Level 1; SOC 2 (type not stated); ISO/IEC 27001:2022 |
| Data export | Items and customers to CSV; order export not stated; Square APIs and webhooks | CSV of products, orders and customers; Admin API on every plan | CSV of products, orders and customers from Venture; REST API on paid plans | CSV or XML of products, orders and customers; API and webhooks on every plan |
| Data after closing | No fixed retention period stated | Kept 2 years after deactivation | Erased when the account is deleted; $12.50/mo Suspension plan | Deleted 30 days after cancellation |
| Bottom line | From its public pages, Square Online offers the most complete free start here: a store with unlimited items that takes real orders and shares Square’s POS and payments, with Plus at $49 for a custom domain and cart emails. Live shipping rates need Premium, and payments are in one currency. | From its public pages, Shopify has the broadest set of selling features here on the plan our scenario needs, with PCI Level 1, SOC 2 Type II and a 2-year data window. Staff accounts start on Grow, and a store that uses another payment provider pays Shopify a fee on top. | From its public pages, Ecwid is a low-cost way to add a store to an existing site, with cart emails, subscriptions and full CSV export from $49 a month. There is no free plan or trial, and whether Lightspeed’s monthly fee for other payment providers applies to Ecwid stores is worth asking. | From its public pages, BigCommerce puts unlimited staff, reviews and marketplace channels on every plan and lets you keep your own processor. Plans are tied to sales, so our $10,000-a-month store lands on Scale, and several pages disagree on trial and billing details. |
Evidence: Square Online: facts checked 2026-10-16 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run; Shopify: facts checked 2026-10-16 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run; Ecwid: facts checked 2026-10-16 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run; BigCommerce: facts checked 2026-10-16 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run. Prices in USD as listed, excluding tax. "–" means not recorded.
Review from public pages
Written from Square Online's public pages (pricing, security or privacy, and docs) as read on Oct 16, 2026. We did not sign up, and no hands-on run is published yet.
We read Square's online store and online store plans pages, with the plan data file the plans page loads, Square's payments fee page, the security page, the General Terms, Payment Terms, DPA, EEA/UK data terms and HIPAA terms, Square's December 2025 blog post on its plans, the developer docs on payment pricing, webhooks, OAuth and the Sites API, and help center articles on the plan switch, team permissions, two-step verification, abandoned carts, shipping, digital items, translation, currency, exports, domains and site deletion on Oct 16, 2026. We did not sign up for this review.
Square Online no longer has plans of its own. The plans page now sells account-wide plans priced per location: Square Free at $0, Square Plus at $49 and Square Premium at $149 a month, billed monthly. The plan cards load prices by script, so we read them from the page’s fee table and data file; Square’s blog gives the same figures. The online-store FAQ says Square Online has been renamed websites.
A few points need a question. Many help articles still refer to Square Online Free, Plus and Premium next to the new plan names, and several older Square Online articles, including PayPal at checkout, order export and tax rates, now lead to the help center home. The Trust Center loads only with JavaScript, so we could not confirm a SOC 2 report on a public page.
Square Free has no monthly fee and unlimited items, with shipping, pickup, delivery, gift cards, coupons and social and Google listings; it pays 3.3% + 30¢ per online card payment.
vs BigCommerce: Shopify, BigCommerce and Ecwid have no free plan for new stores; Big Cartel’s free plan allows 5 products.
The store sells from the same item catalog as Square POS, POS discounts can apply at online checkout, and in-person card payments are 2.5% + 15¢ on Plus.
vs BigCommerce: BigCommerce connects in-person selling through third-party POS apps.
Online card payments cost 2.9% + 30¢ on Plus and Premium, with American Express at the same rate and no platform fee on top.
vs Shopify: Shopify charges business cards and American Express a premium rate, 3.3% + 30¢ on Grow.
The help center says team members who have not set up two-step verification are required to on their next sign-in, on every plan.
vs Ecwid: Ecwid and Big Cartel document no native two-factor login.
Square Free uses a square.site address; a custom domain, abandoned cart emails, subscriptions, reviews and inventory tracking need Square Plus at $49 a month per location.
Workaround: Plus and Premium can be tried for 30 days.
Live carrier rates at checkout are a Premium feature ($149 a month per location); other plans use flat or custom rates, with discounted labels on every plan.
Payments are processed in the country’s currency only, and the current pages list no Amazon, eBay or TikTok Shop connection.
Plus and Premium are billed monthly with no annual option, and the fee applies to each active location.
Workaround: Square Free can create multiple locations at no cost.
Square bills each paid plan per active location per month, with no annual option. For our scenario, a custom domain and abandoned cart emails need Square Plus: $49 a month plus 2.9% of $10,000 ($290) and 30¢ on 200 orders ($60), $399 a month (computed). On Square Free the store would pay $0 plus 3.3% + 30¢, $390 a month (computed), but without a custom domain or cart emails. Cards issued outside the US add 1.5%, Afterpay is 6% + 30¢, gift cards carry a 2.5% load fee below Premium, and processing fees are not returned on refunds. Real-time shipping rates need Premium at $149 per location.
Items export to CSV or Excel and customers to CSV on every plan, and Square’s APIs and webhooks are documented with no plan limit stated; the order-export article now leads to the help home, so the current order export is not stated. A purchased domain can be transferred out with an EPP code. On termination Square may delete account data, with no fixed period stated.
From its public pages, Square Online offers the most complete free start here: a store with unlimited items that takes real orders and shares Square’s POS and payments, with Plus at $49 for a custom domain and cart emails. Live shipping rates need Premium, and payments are in one currency.
| Limit | As recorded |
|---|---|
| Billing unit | Monthly plan per location, plus card processing |
| Free option | Square Free with real orders (unlimited products, square.site address); 30-day trial of Plus or Premium |
| Reference scenario ($10K/mo, 2 staff, annual) | $399/mo on Square Plus ($49 + $290 + $60), computed; monthly billing only |
| Month-to-month price | $0 / $49 / $149 per location for Free, Plus and Premium |
| US online card rate | 3.3% + 30¢ (Free), 2.9% + 30¢ (Plus and Premium) |
| Fee with another payment provider | Checkout lists only Square payments |
| Products and staff | Unlimited items; team members on every plan, no limit stated |
| Abandoned cart recovery | Square Plus and up |
| Selling channels | Square POS, Facebook, Instagram and Google listings on every plan |
| PCI / SOC 2 / ISO 27001 | PCI DSS Level 1; SOC 2 not stated on a public page; ISO 27001 |
| Data export | Items and customers to CSV; order export not stated; Square APIs and webhooks |
| Data after closing | No fixed retention period stated |
Read from the vendor's public pages on Oct 16, 2026. No hands-on run is published yet. How we check
We have not published a sign-up run for Square Online yet. The access facts above were read from its sign-up and pricing pages on Oct 16, 2026.
We have not published API calls for Square Online yet.
Square Online lists 3 plans. The cheapest paid plan, Square Plus, costs $49/location/mo.
Prices as listed, USD, excluding tax; observed 2026-10-16.
Source: squareup.com pricing page. Prices change; the observed date above is when our agent read them.
We read the pricing, payments, trust, legal and help center pages of three online-store platforms on the same day and scored them on the same six indicators. What a store selling $10,000 a month pays, where staff, cart emails and shipping rates sit, and who should pick which.
