Top 7 Square Alternatives Competitors. Our unbiased reviews and content are supported in part by affiliate partnerships. Learn more. Designed by none other than Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey, Square is an innovative mobile payment system that allows your business to accept credit card payments via an i. Pad, i. Phone, or Android device. Coupled with the free Square Reader, a small plastic credit card reader that plugs into the audio jack of a supported smartphone or tablet, the Square Register app turns a mobile device into a point of sale. Its very cool, yes, but its also kind of a big deal. Because of the way Square has changed how millions of people pay for things and get paid for things Id argue that its revolutionary. Without a doubt, Square is the biggest player in mobile payment processing. Emv Chip Reader Writer Software' title='Emv Chip Reader Writer Software' />Since its 2. In other words, theyre kind of a big deal. Some of the things you probably love about Square include its fast and free setup and its easy to use interface. In addition to acting as a point of sale, Square facilitates payment processing. Square has no monthly usage fees, charging only a flat 2. NFC payments. Despite its immense popularity, Square is not without its downsides  in fact, Squares flaws are no small matter. Troublingly, Square offers very little in the way of customer service, and many business owners have complained about Square withholding funds and shutting down accounts without sufficient cause. Not cool, Square. Not cool. While Square was one of the only mobile payment games in town five years ago, this is, fortunately, no longer the case. If you want to offer customers mobile payment options using a service with a more merchant friendly reputation, you can test out several robust Square alternatives that fit this profile. Heck, even if youre happy with Square, you might consider offering an additional mobile payment choice to give customers more options. The new Square contactless and chip reader, plus the Dock for Square Reader, is included so you can accept every way your customers want to pay. Free Emv Chip Reader Writer Software' title='Free Emv Chip Reader Writer Software' />As the U. S. shifts toward governmentmandated EMV credit card chips, heres what small businesses need to know about the technology behind it. Shop from the worlds largest selection and best deals for Point of Sale POS Equipment. Shop with confidence on eBay OnePlus told Gizmodo that theyre working with customers individually to solve the issue, but it did not provide any details on the bug. We have contacted the. As follows is my breakdown of the top Square alternatives. Clover Go. Clover Go see our review is the mobile version of the super popular Clover suite of POS products. Clover Go is easy to use, chip card compatible, and uses an actual merchant account. And even though its a mobile POS, you still get access to Clovers back office reporting and features like customizable tax, emailSMS receipts, and features from inventory management softwares. You can also use Clover Go as a supplemental on the go payment option in addition to your primary Clover Station. While the other Clover POS systems Clover Station and Clover Mini require you to purchase proprietary hardware, Clover Go lets you use an i. Phone or Android phone, just like Square. The cost of Clover Gos EMV compliant headphone jack card reader varies somewhat depending on the reseller, but you should be able to get it for less than 1. The cost to use and process payments with Clover Go also depends on the reseller  for instance, if you decide to go with Dharma Merchant Services for your merchant account, you can get interchange plus pricing at 0. Clover Go app. What makes Clover Go better than Square The main benefit of Clover Go compared to Square is that you get a real merchant account with Clover Go, rather than the aggregate account you get with Square. This equates to better account stability and reduced risk of account freezes, withheld funds, and other such headaches. The only caveat is that your merchant account provider must use First Data as its backend processor. Businesses with higher sales volumes will also be able to save money with Clover Go. Zettlei. Zettle see our review is a chip card based mobile payment service that currently serves merchants in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, the UK, Germany, Spain, Mexico, and Brazil. Notably absent from this list is the US. However, with chip card usage on the rise, i. Zettles expansion into the US could be imminent. If right now youre thinking, What the heck is a chip card check out our article Do You Really Need an EMV Chip Card TerminalTo process mobile payments, i. Zettle offers two separate mobile credit card readers, including one that works with chip and PIN cards, and another for chip and signature cards. In the UK market, card readers range from 2. Yanks. The main draw of i. Zettle is its low ultra low processing fees, which start at just 1. While the lowest volume merchants will pay 2. Some features of i. Zettles mobile point of sale POS app include Inventory library. InformationWeek. com News, analysis and research for business technology professionals, plus peertopeer knowledge sharing. Engage with our community. A smart card is a plastic credit cardsized device with an embedded chip designed for secure identification or EMV payment applications, among others. Cash drawerreceipt printer connectivity receipts can also be sent by emailCashcard acceptance. Online reporting tools. Multiple staff accounts. On the customer service side, i. Zettle offers email support and phone support during weekday business hours. As with all of the Square competitors on this list, i. Zettle has fewer complaints about its customer support than does Square. What makes i. Zettle better than Square Compared to Square, i. Zettle offers both superior pricing and reliability. It does not provide you with as many features, but you cannot beat i. Zettles pricing if you are a higher volume merchant. While this Square alternative isnt yet offered in the US, its a solid choice for merchants in the markets it serves and may soon be a strong domestic competitor for Square as well. Exeba also offers ExebaCOMM Magnetic Stripe ReadingWriting Software. A Russian organized cybercrime group known for hacking into banks and retailers appears to have breached hundreds of computer systems at software giant. CONTACT_IC_CHIP_CARD_READER_WRITER_USB_PORT_ACR38/f0bc.jpg' alt='Emv Chip Reader Writer Software' title='Emv Chip Reader Writer Software' />Pay. Pal Here. Everybody knows Pay. Pal, but have you heard of Pay. Pal Here Pay. Pal Here PPH see our review is Pay. Pals popular mobile processing service with a model similar to Squares. It requires a Pay. Pal Business or Premier account, but the upgrade from a personal Pay. Pal account is free, as is the app and card reader. In addition to accepting swiped or keyed in credit card payments, PPHs reader can use image capture i. Pay. Pal payments, as you might expect. It works with most Apple devices and some Android and Windows devices. PPH comes with all the standard features mobile card processing, mobile POS, free mobile app, free audio jack swiper, and the service also offers the advantage of immediate access to funds via your Pay. Pal account. Why is Pay. Pal Here better than Square PPH offers more features and an overall superior user experience when compared to Square, or compared to most any standalone mobile processing service. PPH also has lower fees 2. Square. Like most other mobile payment solutions, PPH also comes with much better customer support than Square. PPH uses Pay. Pals main support system, which includes many options, ranging from phone support to a Twitter account that fields service and support questions Monday through Friday, 9 0. AM to 5 0. 0 PM Central Time. You can tweet your questions to Ask. Pay. Pal. 4. Inner Fence. Cable Tv Broadcast Automation Software Cracks. Launched in 2. 00. Inner Fence see our review has the distinction of being better established than Square. Inner Fence was the first developer of the mobile processing app and virtual mobile terminal, though the company does not actually process mobile payments. Allow me to explain. With Inner Fence, users are able set up with their own merchant account and gateway. This feature offers merchants greater stability but comes with a higher price tag. Even the basic service, which uses Stripe for the payments and gateway, costs 3. You get one free card reader and additional ones are 7. Honesty and transparency are other words you commonly hear in association with this small but sturdy merchant services provider. What is smart card Definition from What. Is. com. A smart card is a security token that has an embeddedchip. Smart cards are typically the same size as a drivers license and can be made out of metal or plastic. They connect to a reader either by direct physical contact also known as chip and dip or through a short range wireless connectivity standard such as Near Field Communication NFC. By submitting your personal information, you agree that Tech. Target and its partners may contact you regarding relevant content, products and special offers. You also agree that your personal information may be transferred and processed in the United States, and that you have read and agree to the Terms of Use and the Privacy Policy. The chip on a smart card can be either a microcontroller chip or an embedded memory chip. Smart cards are designed to be tamper resistant and use encryption to provide protection for in memory information. Those cards with a microcontroller chip have the ability to perform on card processing functions and can add, delete and manipulate information in the chips memory. The first mass use of smart cards was the Tlcarte, a telephone card for payment in French pay phones which launched in 1. Smart cards are now ubiquitous and are fast replacing magnetic stripe card technology, which only has a capacity of 3. There are various international standards and specifications that cover smart card technology, with some focused on industry specific applications. In the United States, smart card technology conforms to international standards ISOIEC 7. ISOIEC 1. 44. 43 and is championed by the Smartcard Alliance. Various attacks are possible against smart card technology that can recover information from the chip. Differential power analysis can deduce the on chip private key used by public key algorithms such as RSA while some implementations of symmetric ciphers can be vulnerable to timing attacks or differential power analysis as well. Smart cards can also be physically disassembled to gain access to the on board microchip. Eurosmart, a trade organization for smart security based in Brussels, forecast that nearly 9. EMV payment cards cards equipped with a chip instead of just a magnetic stripe. The arrival of the Internet of Things and 4. G wireless communications as well as machine to machine applications like Apple Pay will drive demand for smart card technology for some time to come.