Clover vs SpotOn for restaurants
Last updated: September 7, 2026
Clover
B
Clover is a widely used, all-in-one POS platform (hardware + software + app marketplace) favored by small and medium retailers and restaurants and backed by Fiserv, offering broad functionality but with real-world variability in support and reseller pricing.
SpotOn
B-
A restaurant-first point-of-sale and payments platform founded in 2017, with published plan rates, next-morning funding and unusually well-regarded support. The catch is the contract: a two-year minimum on its headline plan, a mid-2026 rate increase applied to existing merchants, and cancellation terms it does not publish.
VS
Overview
Clover has the lower card-present rate on its full-service restaurant plans — 2.3% + 10c against SpotOn's 2.45% + 15c — but asks for a three-year contract on its subscription route, holds funds for one to three business days as standard, and charges 1.75% to get them sooner. SpotOn will put a full restaurant POS in with $0 monthly software and hardware included on a two-year term, funds the next morning free, and charges 0.2% for money in under 30 minutes. Clover's App Market is the bigger ecosystem; SpotOn sells direct, so the price you read is the price you get.
Key Takeaways
- ✓Clover's card-present rate is the lowest here: 2.3% + 10c on full-service restaurant plans against SpotOn's 2.45% + 15c on POS Essentials and 2.79% + 20c on All-In.
- ✓SpotOn funds next morning at no cost and charges 0.2% for money in under 30 minutes; Clover's standard schedule is 1-3 business days and its Rapid Deposit costs 1.75%.
- ✓SpotOn's All-In plan is $0 per station a month with hardware included; Clover's cheapest full-service bundle is $179 a month for 36 months, or $1,799 of hardware plus $89.95 a month.
- ✓Clover's hardware promotion requires a three-year contract; SpotOn asks two years on All-In and nothing on month-to-month POS Essentials.
- ✓Clover's App Market is far larger, and it is the reason to accept the rest of Clover's terms.
Clover
Clover suits busy full-service restaurants with the cash to buy hardware, the volume to make a 0.15% rate difference pay, and a specific third-party app they need from the App Market.
SpotOn
SpotOn suits operators who want to open without capital outlay, want their card money the next morning, and want to buy from one company at a published price rather than from whichever reseller reaches them first.
The Verdict
It Depends on Your Needs
Why?
This one splits cleanly on volume and cash. Clover holds the lowest card-present rate on the page at 2.3% + 10c, and a full-service restaurant doing serious card volume will save more on rate than it spends on SpotOn's software — but only if it buys through clover.com, since a reseller-boarded Clover account can be priced quite differently for identical hardware. Everything else favours SpotOn: no software fee and hardware included on All-In, next-morning funding free against Clover's one-to-three business days, 0.2% for instant money against 1.75%, two years or month-to-month against three years, and one seller with one published price list. Clover keeps its slightly higher grade on the strength of the App Market and its feature depth per tier. Choose Clover for rate and ecosystem; choose SpotOn for cash flow and terms.
Feature by feature
Detailed Comparison
Filter Options
What it costs to start
| Feature | Clover | SpotOn |
|---|---|---|
| Software, per station per month | $89.95 (Restaurant Growth plan) when hardware is bought outright | $0 on All-In; $55 on POS Essentials Winner |
| Cheapest full-service bundle | $179/month for 36 months, or $1,799 up front plus $89.95/month | $0/station per month on All-In, with POS hardware included Winner |
| SpotOn recovers the hardware through processing minimums on the All-In plan and a two-year minimum term, so the $0 is a financing choice rather than a giveaway. | ||
| Hardware prices | Bundles from $1,799 (Starter) to $4,447 (Advanced) for full-service restaurants | Station 15 $750, Station 10 $415, handheld $297, guest display $200, router $300; included on All-In |
| Not identical kit — Clover quotes bundles, SpotOn quotes devices — so no winner is claimed here; read it as the shape of the outlay rather than a per-device price fight. SpotOn also adds implementation costs it does not publish. | ||
| Add-on software | Individual apps priced separately in the Clover App Market | Core Bundle at $50/month plus 20 bps of card volume, capped at $200 |
| Different models: Clover charges per app, SpotOn charges one bundled fee that scales with volume to a ceiling. | ||
Software, per station per month
Clover
$89.95 (Restaurant Growth plan) when hardware is bought outright
SpotOn
$0 on All-In; $55 on POS Essentials
Winner
Cheapest full-service bundle
Clover
$179/month for 36 months, or $1,799 up front plus $89.95/month
SpotOn
$0/station per month on All-In, with POS hardware included
Winner
SpotOn recovers the hardware through processing minimums on the All-In plan and a two-year minimum term, so the $0 is a financing choice rather than a giveaway.
Hardware prices
Clover
Bundles from $1,799 (Starter) to $4,447 (Advanced) for full-service restaurants
SpotOn
Station 15 $750, Station 10 $415, handheld $297, guest display $200, router $300; included on All-In
Not identical kit — Clover quotes bundles, SpotOn quotes devices — so no winner is claimed here; read it as the shape of the outlay rather than a per-device price fight. SpotOn also adds implementation costs it does not publish.
Add-on software
Clover
Individual apps priced separately in the Clover App Market
SpotOn
Core Bundle at $50/month plus 20 bps of card volume, capped at $200
Different models: Clover charges per app, SpotOn charges one bundled fee that scales with volume to a ceiling.
Best For Your Business
Recommendations based on your business type
Established full-service restaurant with high card volume
Recommended
Clover
At 2.3% + 10c, Clover's rate saves roughly $245 a month on $80,000 of card sales against SpotOn's POS Essentials — more than the software difference — provided the account is boarded at clover.com's published rates.
New restaurant opening with tight capital
Recommended
SpotOn
SpotOn's All-In plan is $0 per station a month with POS hardware included. Clover's cheapest full-service route is $1,799 of hardware up front or $179 a month for 36 months.
Operator who needs card money in the account by morning
Recommended
SpotOn
SpotOn funds next morning at no cost and charges 0.2% for under-30-minute transfers. Clover's standard schedule is 1-3 business days and Rapid Deposit costs 1.75%.
Restaurant that depends on a specific third-party integration
Recommended
Clover
The Clover App Market carries hundreds of third-party apps with REST APIs behind them. SpotOn covers most restaurant needs in-house but has a far shorter list of outside integrations.
Operator unwilling to sign a multi-year contract
Recommended
SpotOn
SpotOn's POS Essentials plan is month-to-month at $55 per station. Clover's hardware promotion requires a three-year contract and its bundles are quoted over 36 months.
Merchant offered Clover by a bank or independent sales agent
Neither. Take the quote away and compare it to clover.com's own published pricing before signing. Reseller-boarded Clover accounts set their own rates, fees and exit terms on identical hardware, and the numbers on this page will not apply to them.
Clover: Best for 2 use cases
SpotOn: Best for 3 use cases
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about this comparison
It depends on volume. Clover's full-service restaurant plans process at 2.3% + 10c against SpotOn POS Essentials' 2.45% + 15c, so Clover wins on rate — worth about $245 a month on $80,000 of card sales across 2,500 transactions. SpotOn wins on everything you pay outside the rate: $0 or $55 per station a month against Clover's $89.95, hardware included on the All-In plan against $1,799 and up, free next-morning funding against 1-3 business days, and 0.2% instant transfers against 1.75%. High-volume restaurants tend to come out ahead on Clover, newer and lower-volume ones on SpotOn.
On the route Clover sells itself, yes. Its hardware promotion terms state that the offer requires a three-year contract, and the monthly bundle prices on clover.com are quoted over 36 months. Buying hardware outright and paying month-to-month for software is the alternative. Clover does not publish an early termination fee, because the acquirer or reseller that boards your account sets it — which is exactly why you should get it in writing before signing.
SpotOn is materially faster. Its standard morning funding lands the next day at no extra cost, and Rapid Fund moves money in under 30 minutes, 365 days a year, for 0.2% per deposit. Clover's help documentation gives a standard funding schedule of 1-3 business days, with Rapid Deposit available in minutes for a 1.75% fee on up to $10,000 per request.
SpotOn does not publish one. Its All-In plan carries a two-year minimum term and processing minimums; POS Essentials is month-to-month. Because the All-In plan includes hardware, an early exit typically involves the unrecovered hardware value, so ask specifically what leaving in year one would cost and get the answer in the agreement.
Clover scores 2.0 from 2,185 reviews and SpotOn 4.5 from 620. Part of that is real and part is collection method: SpotOn holds a paid Trustpilot subscription and invites customers to review, which pulls in satisfied users who would not otherwise write, while Clover's profile fills up mostly with people who arrived with a complaint. The structural point underneath is that Clover is sold through many resellers who set their own rates and contracts, so a bad Clover experience is often a bad reseller experience attributed to the brand.
No. The 2.3% + 10c figure is Clover's full-service restaurant pricing; its retail plans process at 2.6% + 10c and start at $16 a month for 36 months on a compact terminal. SpotOn's published pricing on this page is SpotOn Restaurant; it sells a separate small-business POS line. Compare like with like before deciding.
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