QuickBooks Payments vs Square
Last updated: September 5, 2026
QuickBooks Payments (Intuit)
B
QuickBooks Payments is Intuit's card and bank-payment service, sold as an add-on to QuickBooks Online rather than as a standalone merchant account. Intuit was founded in 1983 and is headquartered in Mountain View, California; money movement is provided by Intuit Payments Inc., licensed as a money transmitter by the New York State Department of Financial Services, and the card acquiring itself runs through JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. and Paymentech, LLC under the commercial entity merchant agreement Intuit publishes. Rates are published in full and, as of the figures Intuit dated 30 April 2026, are 2.5% for in-person payments, 2.99% for invoices and other card and digital-wallet transactions, 1% for ACH bank payments, 3.5% for keyed cards, and 2.99% for buy-now-pay-later through Affirm. There is no monthly fee for Payments itself, no minimum and no long-term contract. The defining trade-off is reconciliation: nothing else puts card, ACH, PayPal, Venmo and Affirm volume straight into your books with no matching step, and nothing else in this price band has quite the same reputation for freezing deposits.
Square
A
Square offers simple, transparent payment processing ideal for small businesses. Flat-rate pricing, no monthly fees, and excellent software make it a top choice — but account holds and limited support are key concerns.
VS
Overview
Both are pay-as-you-go processors with no contract, but they are built around different halves of a business. QuickBooks Payments is a billing tool: its rates are the lowest published here on every card entry method, and every payment reconciles itself inside QuickBooks. Square is a point of sale: it costs more per swipe on the free plan, but it sells the hardware, runs the register, and charges nothing when a customer disputes a charge. The right answer follows from whether you invoice clients or ring people up.
Key Takeaways
- ✓QuickBooks Payments wins on card-present price, at a flat 2.5% with no per-transaction cents against Square's 2.6% + 15¢ free-plan rate.
- ✓Square wins on disputes: it charges no chargeback fee at all, while Intuit deducts $25 per chargeback.
- ✓Square wins on hardware and retail tooling, from a $299 Terminal up to an $899 Register, against Intuit's single $49 mobile card reader.
- ✓QuickBooks Payments wins on cash flow, at 1.75% for an instant deposit versus Square's 1.95% instant transfer.
- ✓Square wins on third-party standing, with an A+ accredited BBB profile against Intuit's A- unaccredited one.
QuickBooks Payments (Intuit)
QuickBooks Payments is for businesses that get paid by invoice — contractors, consultants, agencies, professional services — and already keep their books in QuickBooks, where the lower published rates and automatic reconciliation both land in the same place.
Square
Square is for businesses that take money across a counter or in the field — retail, food, appointments — where the register, the hardware range and the absence of a dispute fee matter more than a few basis points.
The Verdict
It Depends on Your Needs
Why?
On price alone QuickBooks Payments wins outright: 2.5% in person, 2.99% online and 3.5% keyed all beat Square's free-plan rates, and none of them carry per-transaction cents, which matters most on small tickets. But price is not the whole bill. Intuit charges $25 for a chargeback where Square charges nothing, and Intuit sells one $49 reader where Square sells a full hardware range and the register software to run it. So the decision is really about how you get paid. If your revenue arrives as invoices and your books already live in QuickBooks, QuickBooks Payments is cheaper and the reconciliation is free. If you sell face to face, Square's tooling is worth more than the rate difference, and its A+ accredited BBB profile against Intuit's unaccredited A- reflects a company that answers complaints more reliably. Above roughly $250,000 a year in card volume, neither flat-rate model is the cheapest option available and an interchange-plus merchant account should be priced against both.
Feature by feature
Detailed Comparison
Filter Options
Pricing
| Feature | QuickBooks Payments (Intuit) | Square |
|---|---|---|
| In-person card rate | 2.5%, no per-transaction cents Winner | 2.6% + 15¢ (Free plan) |
| Square's in-person rate falls to 2.5% + 15¢ on the Plus plan and 2.4% + 15¢ on Premium, but those plans cost $49 and $149 per location per month. Intuit's own comparison page quotes Square at the same 2.6% + 15¢. | ||
| Online and invoiced card rate | 2.99% for cards and digital wallets Winner | 3.3% + 30¢ (Free plan) |
| Square's online and invoice rate drops to 2.9% + 30¢ on Plus and Premium. | ||
| Manually keyed and card-on-file | 3.5% Winner | 3.5% + 15¢ |
| ACH bank payment | 1%, no cap published | 1%, $1 minimum, capped at $10 on invoices |
| Neither wins outright. Square's $1 minimum makes it dearer on small bank payments — a $50 transfer costs $1.00 against Intuit's $0.50 — but Square caps an invoice ACH payment at $10 and one taken through its API at $5, while Intuit's rate page publishes 1% with no cap, so a large transfer costs more there. | ||
In-person card rate
QuickBooks Payments (Intuit)
2.5%, no per-transaction cents
Winner
Square
2.6% + 15¢ (Free plan)
Square's in-person rate falls to 2.5% + 15¢ on the Plus plan and 2.4% + 15¢ on Premium, but those plans cost $49 and $149 per location per month. Intuit's own comparison page quotes Square at the same 2.6% + 15¢.
Online and invoiced card rate
QuickBooks Payments (Intuit)
2.99% for cards and digital wallets
Winner
Square
3.3% + 30¢ (Free plan)
Square's online and invoice rate drops to 2.9% + 30¢ on Plus and Premium.
Manually keyed and card-on-file
QuickBooks Payments (Intuit)
3.5%
Winner
Square
3.5% + 15¢
ACH bank payment
QuickBooks Payments (Intuit)
1%, no cap published
Square
1%, $1 minimum, capped at $10 on invoices
Neither wins outright. Square's $1 minimum makes it dearer on small bank payments — a $50 transfer costs $1.00 against Intuit's $0.50 — but Square caps an invoice ACH payment at $10 and one taken through its API at $5, while Intuit's rate page publishes 1% with no cap, so a large transfer costs more there.
Best For Your Business
Recommendations based on your business type
Contractors, consultants and agencies billing by invoice
Recommended
QuickBooks Payments (Intuit)
2.99% online with no 30¢ adder beats Square's 3.3% + 30¢ free-plan invoice rate on every ticket, and the payment posts itself against the invoice in QuickBooks without a sync step.
Retail shops, cafes and food trucks selling across a counter
Recommended
Square
Square sells the terminals and registers, runs the POS, and its 15¢ per-swipe adder is a small price against having no counter hardware option at all from Intuit.
Appointment-based businesses such as salons, studios and clinics
Recommended
Square
Booking, reminders and card-on-file are built into Square's free tier; QuickBooks Payments would need a separate scheduling product bolted alongside it.
Merchants who see frequent chargebacks
Recommended
Square
Square charges nothing per dispute. Intuit takes $25 per chargeback unless you buy Dispute Protection at 0.99% of every transaction, which costs more than the disputes for most sellers.
Businesses processing more than roughly $250,000 a year in cards
Neither. Both quote flat rates at that scale — Square directs sellers past $250,000 a year to its sales team. An interchange-plus merchant account normally lands below either published rate at that volume and should be priced first.
QuickBooks Payments (Intuit): Best for 1 use case
Square: Best for 3 use cases
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about this comparison
On published rates, yes, on every card entry method. QuickBooks charges 2.5% in person, 2.99% online and 3.5% keyed, none with a per-transaction cent fee. Square's free plan charges 2.6% + 15¢, 3.3% + 30¢ and 3.5% + 15¢. Square only matches or beats the in-person rate on its $49 or $149 monthly plans. The picture changes if you take disputes into account, where Intuit's $25 chargeback fee has no Square equivalent.
No. Intuit sells QuickBooks Money, a subscription-free account that includes QuickBooks Payments and QuickBooks Checking with no monthly fee. A QuickBooks Online plan, from $38 a month for Simple Start, is what buys the accounting and the automatic reconciliation — not the ability to accept a card.
No. Square does not add a fee when a customer disputes a payment, and it does not charge for its dispute-resolution team, though you still lose the disputed amount if the case goes against you. Most processors charge $10 to $25 per dispute; QuickBooks Payments charges $25.
Yes. Intuit publishes a free Square connector for QuickBooks Online that imports Square sales, refunds, taxes, tips, discounts, deposits and processing fees each night, and can backfill up to two years of history. It is a one-way import, so it does not push data from QuickBooks into Square — but it means using Square does not cut you off from QuickBooks accounting.
Both are next business day by default. QuickBooks deposits the next business day if the payment is processed before 3 p.m. PT; Square's cut-off is 5 p.m. PT. Past the cut-off both take two business days. For same-day money, QuickBooks charges 1.75% — waived if you deposit to a QuickBooks debit card — and Square charges 1.95% per instant transfer.
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