If you sell in person — at a counter, a table, or a market — you will be pitched four names first: Square, Shopify POS, Clover, and Helcim. All four can take a tap and print a receipt. The differences that actually affect a small business are not in the tap, but in the fee structure, the hardware and software lock-in, and how cleanly sales, fees, and payouts reconcile to your books.
Here is the 2026 comparison by what matters to a small operator, not by marketing.
The Four Profiles
Square is the default for new and small businesses that want to start selling today with minimal commitment. POS software is free, payments are built in, hardware starts at a $49 reader and scales to $799 registers, and the flat rate is 2.6% + $0.15 in person (3.3% + $0.30 online). No monthly fee on the free tier, $149 on Retail Plus. It is the fastest path to a working counter and the simplest bookkeeping — one provider, one payout, one fee line.
Shopify POS is the choice for businesses that already sell online on Shopify and need the in-person and online inventory, orders, and customers to stay in sync. POS starts at $5/month (Lite/Pro tiers to $89) plus Shopify plan fees. In-person processing is 2.6% + $0.10 through Shopify Payments, online 2.9% + $0.30. If your pain is omnichannel — one SKU pool across web and store — Shopify's unified catalog is worth more than a lower fee.
Clover is the hardware-forward, processor-agnostic option. Clover hardware (from Fiserv) is capable and the software covers counter, kiosk, and mobile, but the pricing depends on which Fiserv partner and which merchant account you choose — $0–$84.95+ per month and processing that varies with the acquirer. The advantage is choice: you can shop rates and keep Clover hardware while changing processors. The cost is complexity and often a longer contract — read the merchant agreement carefully before you sign for "free" hardware.
Helcim is the interchange-plus transparency play. POS software is free, hardware is bring-your-own (third-party Bluetooth/USB readers) or Helcim-supplied, and processing is interchange plus 0.4% + $0.08 in person (0.5% + $0.25 online, plus interchange). There is no monthly fee and no markup on the interchange base — the card network cost is passed through at cost plus the small Helcim margin. For B2B businesses with large average tickets and for wholesalers where interchange-plus can be cheaper than flat-rate, that structure often wins as volume grows.
Fee Math That Actually Affects the Books
Do not compare headline percentages alone — compare the effective cost on your average ticket and volume.
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Square 2.6% + $0.15 on a $25 ticket: $0.80 fee, 3.2% effective. On a $200 ticket: $5.35, 2.68% effective. Flat-rate favors small tickets where the $0.15 fixed is small relative to the percentage, and penalizes large tickets where interchange-plus would be lower.
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Helcim 0.4% + $0.08 + interchange on the same $25 ticket: If interchange is ~1.6% + $0.10, total is ~2.0% + $0.18 = $0.68, 2.7% effective — cheaper than Square on larger tickets, but the fixed $0.08 + interchange fixed makes very small tickets (e.g., $5 coffee) less favorable.
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Shopify 2.6% + $0.10 sits between Square and Helcim for mid-size tickets, but the win is operational: one inventory so you do not oversell the same SKU online and in store.
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Clover varies — you can negotiate interchange-plus through some partners that undercuts flat-rate at scale, but you must negotiate it and the hardware may be tied to the processor.
A business doing $20,000/month in card sales at $40 average ticket will see annual fee differences in the low hundreds between Square and Helcim — not nothing, but rarely the deciding factor. A B2B wholesaler doing $150,000/month at $800 average ticket will see an interchange-plus saving that compounds to thousands annually — enough to justify Helcim's bring-your-own-hardware trade-off.
Hardware and Lock-In
- Square: Owns the stack — readers, registers, handhelds — and they work out of the box. If you leave Square, the hardware does not follow to another processor.
- Shopify: Readers and Go/Dock work with Shopify Payments; third-party hardware support is limited.
- Clover: Hardware is tied to Fiserv's ecosystem; you can switch merchant account partners but generally stay within Fiserv's world.
- Helcim: Supports third-party readers and is the most hardware-flexible, but you assemble the stack yourself.
For a pop-up or market vendor, Square's $49 reader that needs no monthly fee is the pragmatic winner. For a multi-location retailer that already invested in Clover hardware, staying within Fiserv and renegotiating rates may be cheaper than replacing terminals.
The Bookkeeping Link — Where POS Differences Hit the Ledger
Every POS, regardless of brand, creates the same bookkeeping requirement: sales, fees, and payouts must reconcile.
- Sales are gross. The POS reports gross sales by product and tender. That is revenue.
- Fees are expense. Processing fees are a separate line — 2.6% + $0.15 is not a reduction of revenue, it is a cost of collection. Helcim's interchange breakout makes this explicit (interchange + network fees + processor margin); Square's flat rate bundles them but they are still expense.
- Payouts are net cash. The bank deposit is gross sales minus fees minus refunds minus chargeback reserves. Book the gross sale, book the fee expense, book the refund liability — do not book the net payout as sales.
Square and Shopify make this easier by providing integrated reports where sales, fees, and payouts tie natively. Clover and Helcim require more manual reconciliation, especially when a separate merchant account is involved, but the discipline is the same: tie the POS daily sales summary to the payout report to the bank deposit, daily or weekly, not monthly.
Which Should You Pick?
- Choose Square if: you are new, small, mobile, or want the simplest start with no monthly fee and integrated bookkeeping.
- Choose Shopify POS if: you already run Shopify online and your core problem is keeping inventory and customers in sync across channels.
- Choose Clover if: you want hardware choice and the ability to shop processor rates within Fiserv, and you are comfortable with a merchant agreement.
- Choose Helcim if: you process larger tickets, are B2B or wholesale, and will benefit from interchange-plus transparency as volume grows.
None of these is the best POS — each is the best POS for a specific lane. Match the lane before you compare the fee table.
Simplify Your Financial Management
Your POS tells you what you sold; your accounting system tells you what you kept after fees, refunds, and payouts. Beancount.io keeps that accounting layer transparent and version-controlled — every sale, every fee line, and every payout traceable from POS report to ledger to bank. Get started for free and make your next tap as clean in the books as it is at the counter.