Places 360 compared with Square.
Square is a till first, with online ordering, loyalty, marketing, kiosks and kitchen screens priced one by one beside it. Places 360 is loyalty, ordering, marketing and your own app at one price per business, running beside any till, including Square’s.
This page compares the Square products a café or restaurant would put together for loyalty, online ordering and marketing with Places 360. Every Square figure below comes from Square’s own UK pages, read on 25 October 2026. Square does not say whether its software prices include VAT, so we do not guess. We wrote this page, and we sell one of the two products. Prices move, so check theirs before you decide anything.
| Square | Places 360 | |
|---|---|---|
| The till | Square POS free, or Square for Restaurants Plus at £69 a month per location (Free also available). | An iPad counter that takes cash, and cards on a Stripe card reader. Or run Places 360 beside your till: on Growth, orders can go straight to a Square till. |
| Online ordering | Square Online: Free, Plus £20 or Premium £64 a month, billed annually. Free keeps Square’s branding and has no custom domain. | Included on every plan, with collection, eat-in, delivery, table QR and catering pre-orders. Your own domain from Regulars. |
| Loyalty | £25 / £45 / £65 a month per location, by monthly loyalty visits (0–500, 501–1,500, 1,501+). | Included on every plan, the Free plan too, covering every location. |
| Marketing | Email from £9 a month for 500 contacts, rising with your list: £29 at 2,000, £99 at 15,000, £299 at 75,000. | Scheduled campaigns from Regulars; customer groups, email campaigns and automations on Growth. |
| Kiosks and kitchen screens | Kiosk £35 per device a month; kitchen display £15 per device a month. | A self-order kiosk on an iPad and the order board on any phone or tablet, on every plan, with no per-device fee. |
| How a stamp is collected | The customer types their phone number on the Square screen after paying. The card pass is Apple Wallet only. | The customer taps an NFC tag with their phone, on iPhone or Android. A staff QR scan is the fallback. |
| Your own app | No branded customer app that we could find. Square Online offers an icon customers can add to their home screen. | Your own iPhone and Android app with push notifications on Branded app, £99 + VAT a month for every location. |
| Card fees | In person 1.75% on UK cards. Online 1.4% plus 25p on UK cards (1.4% plus 15p on Online Premium); Square does not say whether VAT applies. | Online card payments from 1.75% + 15p + VAT (2.10% + 18p inc. VAT) on UK debit cards on a paid plan; other cards cost their real rate. |
| Contract | No long-term contract. | No contract, no setup fee, cancel any time. |
| Price | Each product separately, per location or per device. | Free £0 a month. Regulars £19 + VAT (£22.80 inc. VAT). Growth £59 + VAT (£70.80 inc. VAT). Branded app £99 + VAT (£118.80 inc. VAT). Per business, covering every location. |
Add it up for one café.
On Square, the smallest version of loyalty, online ordering and email marketing for one café is Square POS (free), Loyalty (£25), Square Online Plus (£20, billed annually) and Marketing (£9): £54 a month, while the café stays under 500 loyalty visits a month and 500 contacts. As the programme works, loyalty moves to £45 and then £65, and marketing climbs with the list. A second café adds another loyalty subscription.
On Places 360, Growth covers the same ground, loyalty, ordering, offers and email campaigns, for £59 + VAT (£70.80 inc. VAT) a month, and it does not move when the programme works or when you open a second site.
Where Square wins.
It is the till. Card payments in person, cheap hardware from a £19 reader, next-day payouts and one account for everything you sell. If you are choosing a till first, Square is the longer-established answer; our iPad counter is newer.
Loyalty sits inside the sale, so staff have nothing extra to do, and kiosks and kitchen screens come from the same company as the till.
What is different about Places 360.
One price for the business, not a subscription per product per location. A tap on a tag instead of a phone number typed at the till. Your own app in both stores, with push notifications, on one plan. And Dalve, an AI agent that answers questions about your business and changes things when you say yes.
No dependency on the till. Keep Square for payments in person and, on Growth, let orders from Places 360 arrive on it. If you ever change till, your loyalty programme and your customers stay where they are.
Who should pick which.
If you want one company for the till, in-person payments and simple loyalty, and you have one site, Square keeps it tidy. If you want loyalty, ordering, marketing and your own app at one price that covers every site and does not climb as it works, that is the case for us, and you can keep the Square till. If you are unsure, start on the Free plan at £0 beside it.
Square figures from squareup.com/gb pricing, Square for Restaurants, Square Online plans, Square Loyalty, Square Marketing, Kiosk and hardware pages, read 25 October 2026. Square does not state whether software and processing prices include VAT. Not affiliated with Square; the name is used to identify the product. See Square Loyalty on its own or the other comparisons .
Try it beside what you use now.
Start on the Free plan at £0. No contract and no setup fee, so you can keep your current tools running until you are sure.
Free to start · No contract · Cancel any time