We’ve seen many of you trying the Clover and the Square Stand POS. Many other business owners are confused about which is better. It really does depend on what you are looking for.
After researching articles Square Stand is more geared towards new businesses who want to take advantage of technology, but who don’t need the extra capabilities and shouldn’t have to pay for features they won’t use.
Clover Station is geared toward small to medium businesses looking to update their POS system and take advantage of new technology, while expanding what their current POS can do.
Price
It seems everyone is loves Sqaure’s low price of $99, but for the whole set up (tablet w/ card swiper, cash drawer, and receipt printer) Clover actually comes out to be a few hundred dollars cheaper when you consider the mini and mobile. That said, businesses who need a very minimal POS system can benefit from Square’s a la carte pricing if they can get by without the cash drawer and receipt printer.
- Square $1,126-$1,326 (depending on the iPad purchased)
- Stand: $99
- Cash Drawer: $229
- Receipt Printer: $299
- iPad: $499-699
- Clover Station $1,250
- Included in price: tablet and station, receipt printer, and cash drawer
- Clover Mini $349 with wifi $399 with wifi + 3G.
- Included in price: tablet and station, receipt printer, and cash drawer (Same unit as the traditional Clover just smaller)
- Clover Mobile $449 Docking Station $85
- Included in price: tablet and station, receipt printer, and cash drawer (Same unit as the traditional Clover just smaller and mobile)
Both POS systems offer additional accessories, like bar code scanners or cables, as well as, additional units. The cool thing with Clover they have 3 POS offers depending on what your needs will be.
Credit Card Processing
Both the Clover Station, Mini and Mobile and the Square Stand are payment solutions for businesses, but completely different in flexibility and prive. With Square stand you’re going to use Square processing, but with Clover you can process payments with a much wider variety of companies and with Kentucky CPS you work with First Data.
- Square: with this POS you would process directly with Square, who charges 2.75% per swipe and 3.5% + $0.15 for keyed in transactions.
- Clover: Clover is sold as a standalone POS system, which means it can be used with a large variety of credit card processing companies. This is good for merchants because it gives them the ability to shop for credit card processing companies and get a lower cost (i.e. less than 2.75% per swipe). Typically, those who process with Kentucky CPS have seen Credit Card fees 25-35% less than other Credit Card Companies and around the same vs. Square.
Manage Your Day to Day operations
You can manage day to day operations with both systems easily.
- Square: With Square Stand, merchants download the Square Register app, which is the all in one POS. Within the app, users are able to manage payments, reporting, etc. One downfall of this type of system is that merchants only have the business management tools Square builds into the app.
- Clover: With Clover Station, merchants are able to access the Clover App Market, which allows merchants to download the specific business management apps they need. This app market is the same idea as the Apple App Store, where Apple and third party developers can build apps, which allows for more app diversity, as well as some that are free and some that must be paid for. Also, with Clover if you have an idea for an app for your business they will try to build it for you through their app submissions. Like Commerce Sync which helps with quickbooks:
Customer Support
Merchants using Square Stand will deal directly with Square’s customer service department while Clover Station users will deal with the credit card processing company they choose to work with. Unfortunately, Square’s customer service has gotten a pretty bad reputation because of lack of availability. With Clover, merchants are lucky that their customer service is processing company they choose, so with Bowling Green Kentucky CPS will be on the job for you.
Design/Aesthetic
Both of the companies have done a great job with design. That said, Clover seems to have done a more masterful design including the cash drawer and receipt printer into the main concept (In the mini it’s all in one), where Square seems design was a secondary thought. None the less, these two POS systems are built for the modern business.
Apple Pay/EMV
Clover already has availability to take Apple Pay and chip reader (EMV) cards. Square will catch up with this technology this fall. We discussed the importance of this recently.
If you are a local business that is trying to save money on processing or are interesting in the Clover, contact Kentucky CPS. Locally you can contact them at 270-303-4982.
