POS & Payments comparison
Square vs Stripe
How Square and Stripe compare for wellness franchise operators — side-by-side specs and our verdict on which fits which concept.
Side-by-side
| Square | Stripe | |
|---|---|---|
| Type | All-in-one | Payments infra |
| POS | Yes | No |
| Booking | Partial | No |
| Memberships | Partial | Yes |
| Payments | Yes | Yes |
| Pricing | Free–$149/mo | 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction |
| Best for | Single-location operators who need a simple, reliable checkout system | Franchisors building or heavily customizing their own booking/billing stack |
| Differentiator | Best-in-class SMB point-of-sale hardware and checkout flow | Best-in-class subscription billing API with franchisor-to-franchisee payout routing via Connect |
Our verdict
This is a payments-infrastructure choice, not a full studio platform. Square is the fastest path for a single location or pop-up: hardware, POS, and payments work out of the box with no development. Stripe is the developer-first layer you choose when you're building custom booking or membership flows and want programmatic control over payments across locations. Pick Square for turnkey in-person retail; pick Stripe when engineering owns the checkout and you need flexible, API-driven billing.
Full profile
Square
POS hardware, payments, and invoicing for small business locations.
Full profile
Stripe
Payment infrastructure and billing APIs for custom software stacks.
See more options in our roundup of the best pos & payments for wellness franchises.