Zettle
Depends
Confidence: Medium
Buy it if you're a solo or very small seller wanting the cheapest simple card payments with free software.
New check
Comparison
Zettle vs Square
Zettle and Square both land on Depends.
Square
Depends
Confidence: Medium
Buy if you're a small or new seller who wants a free, easy POS and can tolerate flat fees and occasional account reviews.
| Compare | Zettle | Square |
|---|---|---|
| Verdict | Depends | Depends |
| Best for | Solopreneurs and market traders | Pop-ups, markets, and mobile vendors |
| Who it's not for | Businesses that can't tolerate slow support | High-volume merchants . flat-rate fees erode margin |
| Privacy | No known public vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.13 | Payments encrypt card data, but parent company Block's Cash App breach exposed 8M users and Square-linked WordPress plugin CVEs exist. |
| Support quality | Trustpilot and Reddit complain heavily about support | Reviews report difficulty reaching support |
| Public sentiment | Users like the low flat fee and simple app, but Trustpilot and Reddit carry loud complaints about support, trust, and devices.¹ | Sentiment is polarized: G2 users consistently praise Square while r/smallbusiness threads brand it the worst, citing holds, fees, and support. |
| Biggest gotcha | Low fee is the hook; post-signup complaints center on support and trust, not pricing⁷ | Account reviews can hold your funds for days before you can process |
Pick Zettle when
- Solopreneurs and market traders
- Small cafés and pop-up shops
- PayPal sellers adding in-person payments
- Anyone avoiding monthly POS fees
When Zettle is not a fit
- Businesses that can't tolerate slow support
- Teams needing ERP or Odoo integrations
- Merchants burned before by locked card readers
- Guess: high-volume chains needing advanced inventory
Pick Square when
- Pop-ups, markets, and mobile vendors
- Small retail and cafés starting out
- Sellers wanting in-person plus online in one system
- Anyone wanting a free POS with no monthly fee
When Square is not a fit
- High-volume merchants . flat-rate fees erode margin
- Businesses that can't tolerate sudden fund holds
- Full-service restaurants . use Toast instead
- Teams needing reliable, reachable support
Sources
- Trustpilot . Read Customer Service Reviews of zettle.comtrustpilot.comreview
review
review
- TechRadar . Zettle POS reviewtechradar.comreview
- BusinessExpert . Zettle Review 2026: 1.75% Flat, No Monthly Feebusinessexpert.co.ukreview
review
review
- Reddit . Odoo and PayPal POS integrationreddit.comreview
- MerchantSavvy . Is The Zettle 2 Card Reader The Right Choice?merchantsavvy.co.ukreview
- Zettle . Pricing and fees (official)zettle.comofficial
official
- Zettle . Payments security (official)zettle.comsecurity
- PayPal . Bug Bounty Program on HackerOnehackerone.comsecurity
- Wikipedia . Zettleen.wikipedia.orgnews
- PayPal Newsroom . PayPal Zettle US launch, June 2021newsroom.paypal-corp.comnews