Most comparison pages pretend the other product is bad. Square isn't — it's a household name with the smoothest signup in the business. This page concedes what Square genuinely wins, then shows the three things Batchly does that Square has no equivalent for: the card fee becomes your choice per sale, an AI answers your store's actual phone from the same system as your register, and if Square quoted you a rate — bring it. We'll match or beat it, and then dual pricing takes your effective card cost to about $0.
Square is a trademark of Block, Inc. Batchly is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Block, Inc. Where a Square rate appears on this page, it is the typical published in-person card-present rate as of publication (2.6% + 15¢); check Square's site for current terms. Square's Plus and Premium plans publish lower percentages; the Free-plan rate is used here. We make no claims about any merchant's individually negotiated terms.
If these four things are what decide it for you, pick Square. We'd rather lose you honestly than win you with a page that hides the ball.
Your customers have tapped a Square reader before. Batchly is a newer name — we win at the counter, not on the billboard.
You can open a Square account yourself and take a card the same day. Batchly onboarding starts with a phone call and a human doing the setup.
Square's third-party app marketplace is enormous. Batchly's list is shorter: QuickBooks, WooCommerce, Zapier/Make, product feeds, and an open API.
Square sells a wide range of its own readers, stands, and terminals. Batchly runs on a focused hardware list, set up for you.
Nine rows. Square takes three of them outright. The rows Batchly takes are the ones that show up in your margin and your missed calls.
| Square | Batchly | |
|---|---|---|
| Brand recognitionSquare wins | Square A household name. Customers recognize the hardware and trust it on sight. |
A newer name. What you get instead is a team that answers the phone when you call. |
| Getting startedSquare wins | Square Self-serve. Sign up on the website, take a payment the same day, no sales call. |
Starts with a call. A human sets up your catalog, hardware, and register — white-glove, at no cost. Slower to start, done for you. |
| Apps & hardware breadthSquare wins | Square A large marketplace of third-party apps and a broad line of its own devices. |
Batchly Built to order, in days. QuickBooks (Intuit-approved), WooCommerce, Zapier/Make, TikTok + Meta feeds, and an open API ship today — and if your store needs something that isn't on the list, we build it for you. Days, not years. Batchly builds itself around your store, not the other way around. |
| The card feeBatchly wins | Typical published in-person rate: 2.6% + 15¢ — and the merchant absorbs it on every card sale. There's no built-in way to have the customer cover it. | Batchly Your call, per sale: absorb (at your underwritten rate), split 50/50, or pass — the register posts the card price and gives a cash discount. Compliant dual pricing, works on any card, all 50 states. In pass mode your card-fee cost is ~$0. |
| Your store's phone & regularsBatchly wins | Not part of the register. Your phone rings; someone stops what they're doing, or it goes to voicemail. And nothing brings a regular back on its own. | Batchly Shophand does the shifts nobody's staffing. Front Desk — one of its duties — answers your actual line 24/7 from the same system as your register: it checks live stock, takes real pickup and delivery orders, and logs the full transcript in your Front Desk tab. The Usual — another duty — texts your regulars before they run out; they reply YES and it's bagged at the counter. One AI hire, $49.96/mo, and every new agent lands inside it at no extra cost. |
| Delivery & your websiteBatchly wins | Square Online offers delivery and a website. What your plan includes is on Square's site. | Batchly Included at $99/mo: local delivery with your own drivers (your zone, cutoff and fee; tonight's route with cash per stop; a driver view on their phones; a privacy-masked tracking link; cash at the door booked as a sale), plus a two-way, near-real-time WooCommerce sync if your website runs WooCommerce. Website delivery orders ride the same route. Local delivery → |
| The payments relationshipBatchly wins | The self-serve, published-rate model underwrites by algorithm. That's what makes same-day signup possible — and it means holds and account decisions at processors like this are made by automated review. | Batchly Batchly runs your payments — software and processing under one roof, backed by our sponsor bank, the same way every processor is. The difference: a person sets up your account around how your business actually operates, and if the rate matters to you, bring your current statement — we'll match or beat a published 2.6% rate, then dual pricing takes your effective cost to about $0. |
| Software priceJudge for yourself | Published plans on Square's site. | $99/mo, one plan, terminal included, 21-day free trial. |
| Switching inBatchly wins | Self-serve: you import your own catalog and set up your own hardware. | Batchly White-glove and free: catalog imported in one shot from a spreadsheet, gift-card balances loaded when your current system can export them. One honest limit: saved cards can't be copied from another processor — customers re-save their card once at the register. That's standard when switching processors, and we'd rather tell you now. |
A corner market or coffee shop doing $150,000/yr on cards at a $30 average ticket — that's 5,000 card transactions. Here's the year, three ways.
At 2.6% + 15¢, the merchant absorbs the fee on every card sale. There's no built-in way to do otherwise.
2.6% × $150,000 = $3,900
5,000 × $0.15 = $ 750
------
you pay ≈ $4,650
Your rate is set at underwriting, to your store. Holding a published quote — 2.6%, 2.9%, anyone's? Bring the statement: we match or beat it. And that's only the floor — pass mode is where the number stops mattering.
The register posts the card price and gives a cash discount — compliant presentation, any card, all 50 states. The customer covers the fee; your effective card-fee cost is ~$0. And it's per sale: absorb it for a regular, pass it on the next ticket.
card-fee cost to you ≈ $0 difference vs typical published rate ≈ $4,650/yr
Assumes $150,000/yr card volume · $30 average ticket · 5,000 card transactions. Card/cash spread is the register's pass-through fee, 3.5% + $0.20 ($1.25 on a $30 ticket); the rate you pay in absorb mode is separate and set at underwriting. Figures rounded; "typical published in-person rate" is 2.6% + 15¢ as of publication — check the processor's site for current terms.
Same math, three store sizes| Annual card volume | Card transactions | Fees absorbed at 2.6% + 15¢ | Batchly · pass mode | Kept per year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $60,000a year on cards | 2,000 | ≈ $1,860 | ~$0 | ≈ $1,860 |
| $150,000the worked example above | 5,000 | ≈ $4,650 | ~$0 | ≈ $4,650 |
| $500,000a year on cards | 16,667 | ≈ $15,500 | ~$0 | ≈ $15,500 |
Illustrative; typical published rate, $30 average ticket, figures rounded. Your rate is set at underwriting.
Shophand is the AI staff you hire from Batchly: the employee who never calls in sick. Answering the phone is one of its duties — Front Desk. It isn't bolted on: it reads the same live inventory your register writes to, so when a caller asks "do you have it in stock?", it answers from the shelf, not a script, and takes a real pickup or delivery order into your orders queue, with the full transcript logged in Front Desk. And it's more than a phone — The Usual texts your regulars before they run out, they reply YES, and it's bagged at the counter. One hire, $49.96/mo, and every new agent lands inside Shophand at no extra cost.
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With Batchly, the company behind your register is the company behind your payments — one number to call, one team accountable for both, backed by our sponsor bank like every processor you've ever used. Your account is set up by a person, around how your store actually operates. And on price: if you're on Square's published 2.6% + 15¢ — or anyone's published rate — bring your statement. We'll match or beat it. Then flip on dual pricing and your effective card cost drops to about $0, which no rate match anywhere can touch.
Multi-tenant row-level-security isolation with an automated proof script, gateway keys in a server-side encrypted write-only vault, a tamper-evident audit trail, per-user roles, live/test separation, a 24/7 automated security watchdog, and recurring multi-agent security audits (2026) with fixes shipped. Full detail on the security page.
Not as a built-in mode. Square's typical published in-person rate is 2.6% + 15¢ and the merchant absorbs it on every card sale; there is no built-in way to have the customer cover it. Batchly's register shows a cash price and a card price and lets you absorb, split or pass the fee per sale.
On software, Batchly is $99/mo, one plan, terminal included; judge Square's published plans for yourself. On processing, bring your statement: Batchly will match or beat a published 2.6% rate, and dual pricing then takes your effective card cost to about $0.
Batchly does: software and processing under one roof, backed by our sponsor bank, the same way every processor is. Card data is read on the terminal and never touches Batchly.
Send your monthly card volume and you get the fee math on your real numbers back the same day: what pass mode saves your store per year, the software price straight ($99/mo; Shophand, the AI staff, optional at +$49.96), and an honest answer if Square is the better fit for you — it sometimes is.
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