Capterra Logo
Helping businesses choose better software since 1999

Square Point of Sale vs Wave: Which is a better fit?

Updated on February 10th, 2025
Capterra offers objective, independent research and verified user reviews. We may earn a referral fee when you visit a vendor through our links.
What's your intended use case?
Summary
Key features rated by users
Features selected based on 14,670 reviews from Payment Processing users.
% Fit
Missing features
Feature ratings
Expense Tracking
NA
Data Security
4.7
Payment Fraud Prevention
NA
Online Payments
4.6
Payment Gateway Integration
NA
% Fit
Missing features
Feature ratings
Expense Tracking
4.4
Data Security
4.9
Payment Fraud Prevention
NA
Online Payments
NA
Payment Gateway Integration
NA
User satisfaction
4.6
User reviews2,973
Ease of use
4.7
Functionality
4.5
Value for money
4.5
Customer support
4.4
4.4
User reviews1,663
Ease of use
4.5
Functionality
4.2
Value for money
4.6
Customer support
4.0
Price starts from
--
Not provided by vendor
Free version
Free trial
Monthly subscription
Free version
Free trial
Best for

Square Point of Sale (POS) is used by more than 2 million small businesses every day! It is flexible enough to serve every kind of business, from retailers to bakeries and delis to hairdressers.

Wave helps small business owners, freelancers, solopreneurs, and consultants in the US and Canada manage accounting, payroll, invoicing, estimating and other processes.

User reviews
pros & cons
1 / 4
View Reviews
1 / 4
View Reviews
Video reviews
video-d9a296d7-1f03-4e36-98b9-08da44f40610
Michael K
President
3.0

Michael: My name is Michael. I'm the president of a company. Today I'll be reviewing Square Point of Sale. I would give this software a three out of five. For more reviews, please click below. I started using Square Point of Sale, before that I was using paper, I was actually not using software and there had to be a better solution for cumbersome and non-sustainable use of paper. I chose Square Point of Sale because of the first price was that it was affordable to combine it with other services they have such as merchant services and also due to the scheduling, the convenience that it provided, being used in conjunction with the merchant services that they provided. Square Point of Sale was relatively easy to integrate into my business. Unfortunately, not all features that I learned with other software were available such as exporting data onto Excel. I recommend that with point of sale and with any other software that this is going to integrate and it's going to make your business run more efficiently and smoother. One reason that I really did like it is because it was very simple and basic to use. So for anyone that wants to get up and going immediately, this would be a good software to use.

How Capterra sources reviews
View all video reviews
Matthew C
CEO
5.0

Matthew: My name's Matthew. My title is CEO/Founder. Company of one, and for rating for Wave Accounting, I would give it five stars. I really like it. For Wave, it's specifically for accounting and invoices and payroll. I had tried to do all of that stuff manually, but I had never used any other software before. So that's the first and only one that I've used. Basically, it was a recommendation from a former coworker that he had used it for his consulting business in the past and basically said you should look at it because it's a good value, it's good for small businesses, it's good to keep track of payments and invoices, and it doesn't really cost of a lot, so it's something you should research. And based off that research, I went ahead and signed up and I've been using it ever since. For me, it was pretty easy. I don't think there was anything too complicated. I guess it really just depends on what you're looking to get out of it. Like I said, I use mine for invoices primarily and keeping track of payments from clients. So there's a few other different features that you can utilize on there, but because those are my two main priorities, it was really easy just to get everything set up with the account, play around with all the different features, and at least get a few invoices written up. So I would say pretty easy. I would say if you're a small, medium business, it's definitely something that you should look into. It might not make sense for large corporate clients because maybe you have a lot more users or something like that. But for small, medium business, it's definitely something to look into. I mean, I would say especially also, the other thing is if you're not necessarily very knowledgeable about accounting practices or managing your books or keeping track of the ledger and invoices and stuff like that, payroll, this is a good way to help with that because they are able to walk you through each step-by-step part of the process. So I found that part to be helpful as well. So yeah, I would say it doesn't hurt for a small and medium business size owner to look at that and just consider it. But I've really enjoyed using it so far and I don't anticipate changing anytime soon.

How Capterra sources reviews
View all video reviews
User interface
275802 video thumbnail}
1 Video
178021 video thumbnail}
1 Video
275802
5 screenshots
178021
4 screenshots
Do these products fit your needs?

Prioritize real-user-identified key features according to your needs to find your best fit.

Logo Img
--%
Logo Img
--%
ACH Payment Processing
207
Important
Activity Dashboard
388
Important

Square Point of Sale

Top Features
18/35
  • ACH Payment Processing
  • Cryptocurrency Processing
  • Debit/Credit Card Processing
  • Digital Wallet Payments
  • eCommerce Integration
  • Expense Tracking
  • In-Person Payments
  • Multi-Currency
  • Multiple Payment Options
  • Payment Fraud Prevention
  • Payment Gateway Integration
  • Payment Links
  • Payment Reconciliation
  • Point of Sale (POS) Integration
  • Self Service Portal
  • Status Tracking
  • Transaction Monitoring
  • Activity Dashboard
  • Alerts/Notifications
  • API
  • Billing & Invoicing
  • Customizable Branding
  • Data Import/Export
  • Data Security
  • Electronic Signature
  • Loyalty Program
  • Mobile Payments
  • Online Payments
  • Partial Payments
  • PCI Compliance
  • Real-Time Data
  • Receipt Management
  • Recurring/Subscription Billing
  • Reporting/Analytics
  • Search/Filter
See All features
Hide Payment Processing Software Features -

Wave

16/35
Show Payment Processing Software Features +
Square Point of Sale
Deployment
  • Cloud, SaaS, Web-Based
  • Desktop - Mac
  • Desktop - Windows
  • Desktop - Linux
  • Desktop - Chromebook
  • On-Premise - Windows
  • On-Premise - Linux
  • Mobile - Android
  • Mobile - iPhone
  • Mobile - iPad
Support
  • Email/Help Desk
  • FAQs/Forum
  • Knowledge Base
  • Phone Support
  • 24/7 (Live rep)
  • Chat
Training
  • In Person
  • Live Online
  • Webinars
  • Documentation
  • Videos
Wave
Deployment
  • Cloud, SaaS, Web-Based
  • Desktop - Mac
  • Desktop - Windows
  • Desktop - Linux
  • Desktop - Chromebook
  • On-Premise - Windows
  • On-Premise - Linux
  • Mobile - Android
  • Mobile - iPhone
  • Mobile - iPad
Support
  • Email/Help Desk
  • FAQs/Forum
  • Knowledge Base
  • Phone Support
  • 24/7 (Live rep)
  • Chat
Training
  • In Person
  • Live Online
  • Webinars
  • Documentation
  • Videos
Square Point of Sale
  • By Square
  • Located in United States
  • Founded in 2009
Wave
  • By Wave
  • Located in Canada
  • Founded in 2009
Recommendations

Products similar to those you're currently comparing: