In 2009, Square revolutionized ecommerce with their mobile credit card reader, and is now processing $6 billion a year in payments from more than two million Square users.But now Square has competition from PayPal — it boasts 110 million users worldwide and more than $118 billion in transactions last year — which is preparing to introduce the PayPal Here mobile payment service.
We compared the two services to help you decide which one is right for you and your business.
The Apps
The Square app comes in two flavors. There’s the mobile app and then there’s iPad-exclusive, Square Register (There’s also a basic iPad app, but Register has many of the same features and more). The smartphone app is fairly bare bones, letting you enter a description, a photo and a total price. Unfortunately, itemized receipts are not available, so you’ll have to list multiple items as one description and charge a lump sum.
For a more complete storefront experience, Square Register lets you create a catalog of items with different prices, descriptions, photos or icons. Items are shown in alphabetical order or your most popular products can go on the Favorites tab for easy access. And, yes, this one spits out an itemized receipt to email, text, or certain models of receipt printers.
The PayPal Here app is the best of both worlds. It runs on a smartphone, but also lets you create a catalog of products, complete with description and photo. The items can be arranged for ease of use on the iPhone, but for now the Android version only shows items in the order they were added.
Currently, PayPal Here is optimized for smartphones only. Though it works fine on the iPad, it’s not full-screen. According to Anuj Nayar, senior director of global communications at PayPal, the company has “near-term plans” for a dedicated iPad and Android tablet app.
Payment Types
Square accepts credit and debit cards, but can also manage cash transactions. If your customer has the Pay with Square app loaded on their mobile device, they can send payment from within the Square network. No matter how they pay, you can send an electronic receipt, plus Square adds the transaction to an integrated sales history feature so you can track inventory and spot consumer trends.
Turnaround for payment is fast, with transactions processed before 5:00 p.m. available in your bank account the next day.
Like Square, PayPal handles cards, cash, or customers with the PayPal app installed on their mobile device. Unlike Square, though, the app can snap a picture of a personal check and submit it to PayPal, too. Every transaction gets added to an in-app sales history, and you can send a receipt via text, email, or a hard copy from a network printer.
For most transactions, the money is available in your PayPal account within minutes. Coupled with a free PayPal Debit Mastercard or the PayPal app, you can use the money almost immediately (plus earn 1% back with the Mastercard). Or if you prefer to use your own bank account, a card transaction is deposited in two to three days, but checks have to clear first, which delays the deposit up to six days.
The Fees
Both services offer a free card reader by mail, but only Square’s reader is available in more than 20,000 nationwide retail locations, including many Walgreen’s and Wal-Mart stores. You pay $10 if you buy it in a store, but once you activate it you’ll get a $10 credit to your account.
For each swipe of a card, Square takes 2.75% of the transaction total, with no monthly fee, which is a lot better than most traditional merchant accounts. If you don’t have your reader, you can type in the card number, but the rate goes up to 3.5%, plus a .15 cent transaction fee. There’s no fee for tracking cash transactions.
PayPal charges a slightly lower 2.7% transaction fee, with no monthly fee. You can key in the card number, but your mobile device’s camera will also scan the front of card to input the numbers and expiration date, eliminating typing time and fat finger errors. The fee for non-swipes goes up to 3.5%, with a .15 cent fee tacked on. Like Square, tracking cash transactions is free.
Getting Started
To setup a Square account, just head over to Squareup.com with your bank account information and you’ll be ready to go in minutes. However, the service is currently only available in the United States. They are looking to expand internationally in the future, but these partnerships are not in place just yet.
Signing up for PayPal Here is as easy as going to PayPal.com and logging in with your existing account. Unfortunately, the demand has been so high for the service since it was announced in March, that they’re working through a backlog of more than 300,000 eager early adopters. PayPal’s, Nayar says they are continuing to ramp up distribution of the card readers, which should allow them to have the wait list knocked out in the next few weeks. After that, new requests will be addressed more quickly. The good news for international customers, is that PayPal Here is available in the U.S., Canada, Hong Kong, and Australia, with Japan coming soon thanks to a partnership with the country’s largest telecommunications company, Softbank.
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