Square Free Takes 3.3% and Gives You a Store
No subscription, a real online store and a point of sale. The cost is entirely per transaction, which makes the maths depend on how much you sell.
Square's free plan costs $0 a month per location and includes an online store or ordering site, the POS app, item library, invoicing and appointment booking. Processing is 3.3% plus 30 cents for online payments and 2.6% plus 15 cents for in-person card payments. Square Plus is $49 a month per location and lowers those rates.1
This is a different shape of free tier from everything else in the category. There is no storage cap, no page limit and no trial. You pay nothing to have the store and a percentage of everything you sell.
The plans, measured
| Square Free | Square Plus | Square Premium | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly fee | $0 | $49 per location | $149 per location |
| Online rate | 3.3% + 30 cents | 2.9% + 30 cents | 2.9% + 30 cents |
| In-person rate | 2.6% + 15 cents | 2.5% + 15 cents | 2.4% + 15 cents |
| Online store | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| POS app | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Invoicing and booking | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Loyalty and marketing | No | Yes | Yes |
Prices measured on 22 October 2026. Vendor plan terms, allowances and prices change without notice, so treat every figure on this page as a dated snapshot rather than a permanent fact. Where a number here differs from the vendor's own pricing page, the vendor's page is correct and the figure above is simply older than it.
The maths depend entirely on volume
A 0.4 percentage point difference on online sales sounds trivial. It is not, once the volume grows.
| Monthly online sales | Fee at 3.3% | Fee at 2.9% | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| $1,000 | $33 | $29 | $4 |
| $5,000 | $165 | $145 | $20 |
| $12,250 | $404 | $355 | $49 |
| $25,000 | $825 | $725 | $100 |
The break-even against Plus sits at roughly $12,250 of monthly online sales, where the 0.4 point saving exactly equals the $49 fee. Below that, free is cheaper. Above it, Plus is. That is the whole decision, and it is arithmetic rather than judgement.
What the free plan actually includes
A functioning online store with an item library, inventory tracking and order management. Not a demo store with a product limit, the same store software Plus uses.
Invoicing, so you can send a bill with a payment link and get paid without a website at all. Booking, for appointment-based work. And the POS app, which turns a phone into a card terminal if you buy a reader or use Tap to Pay.
What you do not get is the marketing layer. Loyalty, email campaigns, staff scheduling and advanced reporting are all Plus features. For a business that sells and does not market, free covers the whole job.
The in-person rate is competitive on its own
2.6% plus 15 cents for tap, dip or swipe is a normal rate for a card-present transaction, and it does not require a monthly fee. If your business is a market stall or a small counter, Square free is a point of sale system with no subscription at all.
Tap to Pay on a phone removes the need for hardware entirely, which makes the setup cost zero as well as the monthly cost.
When the free plan is enough
Anyone starting to sell and unsure of volume. Anyone whose sales are under about $12,000 a month online. A service business taking deposits and sending invoices. A market trader who wants a card reader and a simple shop.
It is also the right plan for testing whether e-commerce works for a product at all, since there is nothing to cancel if it does not.
When it stops being enough
When volume makes the rate difference larger than the fee, or when loyalty and email marketing become part of how you sell. Those two arrive together for most growing shops.
There is also a threshold above roughly $250,000 a year where Square directs you to custom pricing, so the published ladder is not the end of the road.
How it compares
Against Ecwid, Square has a free plan and Ecwid does not, which makes the comparison short. Against Payhip, both are free-forever with a percentage taken, but Payhip charges 5% on its free tier and Square does not charge a platform fee at all, only processing. Against Gumroad, Square is far cheaper on high-volume physical sales and Gumroad is simpler for digital products.
Against Big Cartel, Square gives unlimited products and Big Cartel gives five, but Big Cartel charges no transaction fee beyond your own payment processor.
Frequently asked questions
Is Square really free?
Yes. There is no monthly fee on the free plan. You pay processing fees per transaction.
What are Square's online fees on the free plan?
3.3% plus 30 cents per online payment in the US.
Can I build a website with Square free?
Yes, an online store or ordering site is included. It is a store site rather than a general-purpose builder.
When does Square Plus pay for itself?
At roughly $12,250 a month in online sales, where the lower rate saves more than the $49 fee.
Do I need hardware?
No. Tap to Pay on a phone works, though most sellers buy a reader for speed.
Plans, fees and rates verified against Square's own pricing page on 23 October 2026. Rates shown are the US online and card-present rates.
Sources
- Square pricing and fees: squareup.com/us/en/pricing.
All sources are the vendor's own plan or documentation pages, checked on 22 October 2026. Plan terms change without notice, so confirm current limits before you rely on them.
