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Retailers and restaurant operators shopping for point-of-sale hardware often find themselves choosing between a full countertop register, a handheld unit that travels with staff, or a stripped-down reader that plugs into a phone. squareup‘s hardware lineup covers all three approaches, with distinct price points and setup requirements attached to each option. The following breakdown looks at what each device actually offers, how the pieces fit together, and where the costs land.
Square Register: The Full-Featured Countertop POS
The Square Register, now in its second generation, is built as a two-sided countertop system, with one screen facing the staff member running the sale and a second screen facing the customer for checkout. It is priced at $899 outright or $44/mo. over 24 months, positioning it as the most substantial single hardware purchase in the range. Because both displays are built into one unit, there is no separate tablet or stand to source, which simplifies setup for a fixed checkout counter.
The Register is marketed as suited to businesses that want a dedicated, always-on terminal rather than hardware shared with other tasks. The dual-screen format is a meaningful difference from the single-screen devices described later, since it lets customers see their order and complete checkout independently of the staff-facing side.
Square Handheld and Square Terminal: Mobile and Compact Options
Square Handheld is described on squareup‘s own site as the point-of-sale hardware that moves with the business rather than staying fixed at a counter, priced at $399 or $37/mo. over 12 months. It launched as a newer addition to the lineup and is built for operations where staff need to take orders or payments away from a single station, such as a sales floor or a restaurant dining room.
Square Terminal sits at a lower price, $299 or $27/mo. over 12 months, and is described specifically as the receipt-printing option in the range. That built-in printer is the detail that separates it from Handheld and from the Reader described further below, since neither of those includes printed receipts as a standard feature. The device is compact enough to sit on a counter but does not require a separate tablet or stand to function as a complete checkout station.
- Square Register includes two built-in screens and does not require a separate tablet to operate.
- Square Terminal includes a built-in receipt printer, a feature not listed for Square Handheld or Square Reader.
- Square Stand is built around an iPad rather than a proprietary screen, so it requires a compatible tablet to complete the setup.
- The platform does not require proprietary Wi-Fi, so existing network equipment can be used with any of these devices.
- Square Reader is the smallest and most portable option in the lineup, designed for contactless and chip payments rather than countertop use.
Square Stand: iPad-Based Countertop Systems
Square Stand is priced at $149 or $14/mo. over 12 months and is described as an intuitive, swiveling iPad POS, with the same screen turning from staff-facing order entry to customer-facing checkout much like the two-sided Register, only built around a tablet rather than a dedicated second display. Because it depends on an iPad the business supplies or pairs with the stand, it carries the lowest price of the three countertop-style devices described so far. Compatibility with the right tablet model matters more for this option than for the Register or Terminal, both of which are self-contained units that do not rely on separate hardware.
Complete POS Kits: Pre-Configured Solutions for Restaurants and Retail
The restaurant and retail pages point to full setup paths rather than single devices in isolation. The squareup for Restaurants page notes that more than 100,000 restaurants use the cloud-based platform, and that the process involves choosing a software plan, selecting hardware from squareup or reusing existing equipment, and picking an onboarding path that ranges from self-guided setup to full-service support. No long-term contract is required under standard rates and pricing, though custom rates or discounted hardware may involve a contract commitment, according to that same page.
On the retail side, the switching process outlined involves a free 30-day trial of Square for Retail Plus, a selection of hardware suited to a storefront counter, and building an item library through bulk upload or catalog import. Specialty retail pages, such as those for home and gift shops or wine and liquor stores, describe additional software capabilities layered on top of the hardware, including inventory syncing across locations, automatic restock alerts, and ID scanning for age-restricted purchases.
Payment Readers and Add-On Hardware
At the lower end of the price range sits the Square Reader for contactless and chip payments, priced at $59. It is described as a portable reader meant for tap and dip transactions rather than a full checkout station, making it the accessory most likely to pair with a phone or tablet rather than stand on its own at a counter. It also functions as an add-on for businesses that already own a register or stand and need an additional payment-accepting device for a second line or a roaming staff member.
Beyond the Reader, the ecosystem is built to connect with outside software and hardware rather than lock a business into a single setup. squareup partners with hundreds of apps so that payroll, scheduling, marketing, and loyalty tools can run alongside the hardware without requiring separate systems.
Pricing and Financing Options Across the Range
Every device in the lineup is available either as an outright purchase or as a monthly payment plan, a structure applied consistently across the catalog. Square Register runs $899 or $44/mo. over 24 months, Square Handheld runs $399 or $37/mo. over 12 months, Square Terminal runs $299 or $27/mo. over 12 months, and Square Stand runs $149 or $14/mo. over 12 months, with Square Reader as the only device sold solely at a flat $59. That spread means the financing term lengthens as the price rises, with the Register alone stretched over 24 months compared to 12 months for the three lower-priced devices.
Looking at the point-of-sale hardware as a set rather than as individual units, the pricing pattern shows a business can add a register or handheld device alongside a reader or stand already in place, since the software is described as working across the devices rather than tying features to one specific piece of hardware.
Selecting hardware from squareup depends on matching the device type to how a business moves through a transaction, whether that means a fixed counter, a roaming staff member, or some combination of both.
