Square Retail vs. Vend

Square for Retail is very easy to use. Everything from the back-office dashboard to the “smart” store builder is designed to streamline the process of taking and managing payments.

The POS register, which is usually accessed via an iOS tablet or Square’s in-house register, follows a typical block format, with an area that displays individual products and categories, a checkout box, and additional options like discounts, gift cards, popular items, and so on. It’s also possible to use your tablet to receive tips, send email receipts, check inventory at different locations, and so on.

The back-office is also designed in a traditional way, with a left-hand sidebar providing access to dedicated areas for managing sales, analytics and tracking, employee permissions, and more.

“Square is a great product that is a wonderful tool for small businesses and nonprofits like ours.

“It operates just like your mind works. It is so logical.”

“I liked that it was a convenient way to accept payments anywhere via my mobile cell phone through the Square App.”

Vend scored very well for ease-of-use on all devices, including desktops, iPads, and mobiles. The central dashboard, which links to dedicated areas for reporting, sales, product management, and saved customer details, is minimal and intuitive. Vend integrates with multiple hardware and checkout providers and also provides a customer-facing interface (such as for entering email addresses).

“I love Vend. It’s one of the easiest platforms to use, and I have used a lot.”

“Absolutely love the ease of use of Vend.”

“Great easy to use systems on the front-end.”

Square for Retail has a fairly comprehensive feature-set and comes with everything you would expect from a point-of-sale system. Keep in mind that you will only have access to all features on the $60/month “Plus” package. The free plan provides only limited functionality.

Square back-office is a browser-based app. The register interface is accessed via an iPad or the Square register. Support for Android tablets is not provided, but you can download a feature-limited Android app to take mobile payments.

Checkout features include saved carts, barcode scanning via the iPad camera or Square register, discounts, item searches, and exchanges. Payment functionality, which works on a straightforward, transparent fee structure, comprises next-day transfers, invoices, and both physical and digital gift cards.

You won’t find anything lacking on the inventory management front, either. Tools include unlimited products, low stock alerts, bulk inventory uploads, barcode printing, and more.

If you decide to use Square’s in-house ecommerce solution, you will also have access to a user-friendly store builder, automated inventory syncing, and integration with Instagram.

Finally, analytics reports cover sales, profit margins, vendor sales, and total costs.

Vend has an excellent set of features and, most store-owners and managers will find everything they need. Vend provides integrations with various payment processors, a simple, easy-to-use dashboard and sales interface, secure cloud back-ups, an outstanding customer service package, support for promotions, gift cards, and product variations, and in-depth analytics.

As a cloud-based solution, Vend will run on Windows, Android, iOS, and macOS. Vend also integrates with a wide variety of hardware suppliers. A dedicated app means that mobile devices and iPads can be used to create ePOS (electronic point of sale) stations in conjunction with a main register.

Centralized management of multiple retail outlets and advanced analytics are available on the “Pro” and “Enterprise” plans. Users on the “Lite” plan have access to a limited set of analytics tools.

It’s worth pointing out that while Vend brands itself as an “inventory management” app, its functionality in this area is only really suitable for brick-and-mortar stores. If you need to manage inventory and fulfillment for your ecommerce store, you should look for a dedicated inventory management solution. Vend is perfectly suitable, however, for managing in-store inventory. What’s more, it will integrate with many of your other retail channels, allowing for the seamless flow of data between platforms.

Integrations represent one area where Square could have performed better. If you’re looking for a POS system that syncs up seamlessly with your existing tech stack, you may be forced to look elsewhere. That said, Square does provide a small package of integrations, so you may find what you’re looking for. A Zapier integration is also available, so you can sync up with most apps, albeit with limited functionality.

Square performs best in the area of accounting and tax, where a large selection of integrations is offered, including Quickbooks, Xero, Shogo, Kahoo, OneUp, ZohoBooks, and more. A small number of connectors with analytics, team management, and restaurant apps are provided.

Square’s online payment processing tool also integrates with most well-known ecommerce platforms like WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Magento, and so on.

Vend offers a good - but not mind-blowing - selection of integrations. Some users have complained that the integrations or “add-on” library could be more extensive. That said, small and medium retailers will likely find everything they need. Just be sure to check that any integrations you absolutely require are included before you subscribe to a paid plan. It was also a little unfortunate that Vend hasn’t built a connector for Zapier, which would have overcome many of the shortcomings of the current library (although a similar app, Workato, is supported).

So what does Vend offer? On the accounting front, users can link up to QuickBooks (online version), Xero, MYOB, and Accounts Portal.

Supported ecommerce platforms include BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Shopify, Ecwid, Pointy, Near St, and Magento (through Vortex HQ). You can also connect Vend with some ecommerce platforms using ShopIQ as an intermediary (if you have an account and want to take advantage of its omnichannel analytics tools). As Vend doesn’t offer direct integrations with third-party marketplaces (like Etsy, eBay, and Amazon), data must be processed by your ecommerce platform or your inventory management solution before syncing. Inventory management integrations include Unleashed, Ecomdash, and Orderhive.

Finally, Vend offers a handful of marketing, scheduling, and deep analytics (including Vonto and 9Spokes) integrations. For enterprises, NetSuite is supported. Link-ups with other leading ERPs are currently in development.

Square has a straightforward, competitive pricing structure. We consider the free plan to be one of the best available to small and medium retailers. Three plans are offered: “Free”, “Plus”, and “Premium”.

The free plan is ideal for small shops and comes with a limited number of features. If you want to add extra team members, you will have to pay $35/month per store. The “Plus” plan, which most users will opt for, costs $60/month per location and includes the full feature-set and discounted payment processing fees.

Finally, the “Premium” plan, which is geared towards larger enterprises, operates on a custom pricing model and is available to sellers turning over in excess of $250,000 a month.

Vend has a reasonably competitive pricing model. Smaller retailers with a low number of registers will find the pricing reasonable. For larger brands, however, with multiple locations and sales-points, expenses can quickly add up. It costs an extra $59/month to add cash registers. That said, the “Enterprise” plan, which is offered on a custom pricing model, is worth exploring.

There are three plans - Lite, Pro, and Enterprise. The Lite plan is suitable for stores with up to $20,000 in turnover a month. Pro and Enterprise allow for unlimited turnover.

Notably, Vend doesn’t charge any fees on top of those required by payment processing providers.

Square customer support is available via phone, email, live chat, and social media. Users also have access to extensive documentation and an active seller community.

User reviews of the quality and speed of support are mixed, with many users talking positively about helpful staff and fast response times but complaining about receiving generic answers.

There are no custom onboarding packages, although the ease of setting up largely removes the need for them.

Vend really shines when it comes to customer support. The Vend customer service team, which has won multiple awards and has offices around the world, is available via email or in-app live-chat. Phone support is also offered on all plans.

Dedicated onboarding assistance and a personal account manager are both included on the “Enterprise” plan. Users can also pay extra for one-on-one training, with several service packages available). There’s also the option to search for a local Vend specialist to help with hardware installation and account setup.

Finally, Vend offers a wide selection of training materials, including webinars, courses, and in-depth documentation.

Overall, we were very impressed with Square. It’s one of the easiest-to-use platforms we reviewed, and the “forever free” plan is arguably the best on the market. Small and medium-sized retailers that are looking for a streamlined, straightforward solution with transparent pricing will find a lot to like. The only real downsides are the limited integrations library and the expensive hardware, although this won’t be a problem if you’re using an iPad.

Larger store-owners will likely require more extensive functionality, especially when it comes to analytics and integrations. Nonetheless, it is still worth getting in touch to discuss options if you’re generating sales of over $250,000 per month.

Overall, we were very impressed with Vend. As a POS system, it’s reasonably priced, has a good selection of features, and is very intuitive and easy to use.

It’s best for small and medium brick-and-mortar retailers. So if you fit into this category, it’s well worth taking advantage of the free trial. It’s also a good option for sellers that have an online presence and want a POS that will sync with their ecommerce stores and inventory management apps.

There are a small handful of downsides, including a somewhat limited integrations library, the absence of a native payment processor (although most popular third-party options are supported), and limited enterprise features, such employee permissions. Most retailers won’t find these drawbacks to be an issue, but they should be considered when evaluating the software.