Square
Pay-as-you-go EFTPOS and online payments with no monthly fees or contracts.
Est. cost
£210/mo
Best for
Small retail, hospitality, and pop-up businesses
- Entry plan
- £0 (Free)
- Tx fee
- 0%
- Free themes
- ~3
- Apps
- Square Marketplace
13 providersAll prices in GBP
Compare E-commerce Platforms in the United Kingdom
Compare e-commerce platforms for UK businesses. See subscription costs, transaction fees, features, and integrations side by side, all in GBP.
Updated
Square | Squarespace | PrestaShop | WooCommerce | ShopWired | BigCommerce | Webflow | Ecwid by Lightspeed | Shopify | Adobe Commerce (Magento) | GoDaddy Online Store | EKM | Wix | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Est. platform cost | £0/mo | £16/mo | £8/mo | £10/mo | £35/mo | £22/mo | £22/mo | £35/mo | £19/mo | £50/mo | £15/mo | £300/mo | £16/mo |
| Est. processing fees | £210/mo | £210/mo | £229/mo | £229/mo | £210/mo | £229/mo | £229/mo | £229/mo | £255/mo | £229/mo | £285/mo | £0/mo | £435/mo |
| Est. total cost | £210/moCheapest | £226/mo | £237/mo | £239/mo | £245/mo | £251/mo | £251/mo | £264/mo | £274/mo | £279/mo | £300/mo | £300/mo | £451/mo |
| Ratings | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| User rating | 4.6Capterra (330) | 4.6Capterra (1,200+) | 4.3Capterra (332) | 4.5Capterra (1,042) | 4.8Trustpilot (666) | 4.4Capterra (339) | 4.5Capterra (266) | 4.6Capterra (582) | 4.5Capterra (6,694) | 4.3Capterra (658) | 4.2Capterra (1,379) | 4.8Trustpilot (3,169) | 4.4Capterra (10,704) |
| Plans & Pricing | |||||||||||||
| Entry plan /mo | £0 (Free) | £16/mo (Basic) | £0 (open source) | £0 (open source) | £34.95/mo (Pro) | £22/mo (Core) | £22/mo (Standard) | £0 (5 products) | £19/mo (Basic) | £0 (open source) | £14.99/mo | £300/mo (Evolve) | £16/mo (Core) |
| Third-party gateway fee | 0% | 3% (Basic), 0% (Core+) | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 2% (Standard), 0% (Plus+) | 0% | 2% (Basic) | 0% | 0% | 0% with EKM Pay, 0.6% external | 0% |
| Native processing rate | 1.4% + 25p (online) | 1.4% + 25p | Via gateway (PrestaShop Checkout / Stripe) | Via gateway (WooPayments / Stripe) | Via gateway (e.g. Stripe 1.4% + 20p) | Via partners (no native processor) | Via Stripe | Via connected gateway (no native processor) | 1.7% + 25p (Basic) | Via gateway (Payment Services / Stripe) | ~1.9% + 25p | EKM Pay (0% EKM fee) | 2.9% + 30p (approx) |
| Typical app costs /mo | £0 | £0 to £25/mo | £8 to £80/mo | £0 to £40/mo | £0 to £30/mo | £15 to £80/mo | £0 to £40/mo | £0 to £25/mo | £40 to £150/mo | £80 to £400/mo | £0 to £15/mo | £0 to £30/mo | £0 to £40/mo |
| Free tier | Yes | No | Yes (open source) | Yes (open source) | No | No | No | Yes (5 products) | No | Yes (Magento Open Source) | No | No | Yes (no e-com) |
| Hosting (if self-hosted) | Included | Included | ~£8/mo (managed) | ~£10/mo (managed) | Included | Included | Included | Included | Included | ~£50/mo (managed) | Included | Included | Included |
| Contract required | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No (open source) | No | No | No |
| Platform & Store | |||||||||||||
| Products allowed | Unlimited | Unlimited (Commerce) | Unlimited | Unlimited | 750 (Pro) to Unlimited | Unlimited | 500 (Standard) to 15,000 (Advanced) | 5 (free) to Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited (Core+) |
| App/plugin ecosystem | Square Marketplace | 40+ extensions | 5,000+ | Thousands | Built-in features + integrations | 1,000+ apps | Webflow Marketplace (apps + integrations) | 100+ | 10,000+ apps | 4,000+ | Limited | Built-in features + integrations | 500+ apps |
| Free themes | ~3 | 100+ | Hundreds | Thousands | ~25 | ~14 free | Hundreds (community + Marketplace) | 70+ | ~13 free | Hundreds | ~50 | Hundreds | 900+ |
| Staff accounts | Limited | 1 to 2 | Unlimited | Unlimited | 2 (Pro) to 15 (Premium) | Unlimited | 3 (Standard) to 15 (Advanced) | 1 | 2 (Basic) | Unlimited | Unlimited | Multiple | Unlimited |
| Mobile store app | Yes | Yes | No (third-party) | Yes (WooCommerce app) | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes (excellent) | No | Yes | No | Yes (Wix Owner) |
| Built-in blog | No | Yes | Via plugins | Yes (WordPress) | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Via extensions | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Dropshipping support | No | Via extensions | Via modules | Via plugins | Via integrations | Via apps | No | Via apps | Native (DSers, Oberlo legacy) | Via extensions | Limited | Via integrations | Via apps |
| Digital products | Yes | Yes (Commerce plans) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes (via Memberstack) | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Multi-channel selling | Limited | Limited (social sharing) | Via modules | Via plugins (Google, Amazon, Facebook) | Amazon, eBay, Google, Facebook | Amazon, eBay, Facebook, Instagram, Google, Walmart | No native | Facebook, Instagram, Google, Amazon, eBay, TikTok | Amazon, eBay, Facebook, Instagram, Google, TikTok, Pinterest | Via extensions | Facebook, Instagram, Google | Amazon, eBay, Google, Facebook | Facebook, Instagram, Google, Amazon (via apps) |
| POS integration | Built-in (Square POS) | No | Via modules | Via plugins | Yes (ShopWired POS) | Via apps | No | Yes (Lightspeed POS) | Built-in (Shopify POS) | Via extensions | Yes (GoDaddy POS) | Via integrations | Via Wix POS |
| Technical skill required | None | None | Developer | Basic to Developer | None | Basic | Basic (design skill) | None | None | Developer | None | None | None |
| AI | |||||||||||||
| AI features | Native (AI site builder, AI copy, Photo Studio) | Native (Blueprint AI builder) | Via modules | Via plugins (WordPress AI) | Limited (GPT support assistant) | Native (BigAI Copywriter) + apps | Native (AI site builder, Assistant, AI SEO) | Native (AI store builder, AI descriptions) | Native (Sidekick assistant, Magic copy/images) | Native (Adobe Sensei + GenAI) | Native (Airo AI builder) | Native (AI descriptions) | Native (AI Site Builder, Astro assistant) |
| MCP / AI agents | Native MCP (dev/ops, beta) | Via 3rd-party (+ ChatGPT checkout) | Via 3rd-party (community MCP) | Native MCP (developer preview) | API only | Native MCP (Storefront) | Native MCP (site/CMS, Claude connector) | Via 3rd-party (Zapier MCP) | Native MCP (Storefront) | Native MCP server | Via 3rd-party (official MCP is domains only) | Via 3rd-party (Zapier MCP) | Native MCP (site/dev) |
| Integrations & Support | |||||||||||||
| Payment gateways | Square only | Stripe, PayPal | 100+ | 100+ | 20+ | 65+ | Stripe, PayPal, Apple Pay | 70+ | 100+ | 100+ | 3 gateways | 40+ | 70+ |
| Abandoned cart recovery | Yes | Yes (Core+) | Yes | Yes (via plugins) | Yes | Yes (Plus+) | Yes | Yes (Business+) | Yes (all plans) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Multi-currency | No | No | Yes | Yes (via plugins) | Yes | Yes | Yes (Plus+) | Yes (Unlimited) | Yes | Yes | Limited | Yes | Limited |
| Customer support | Business hours UK | 24/7 email; live chat (business hrs) | Community + paid | Community + paid | UK-based phone, email, chat | 24/7 chat, phone, email | Help center, support portal, Webflow University | Business hours | 24/7 chat, email, phone | 24/7 (Enterprise) | 24/7 phone, chat | UK-based account manager, phone, email | 24/7 online |
| API available | REST API | Limited | REST API | REST API | REST API | REST + GraphQL | REST + Data API | REST API | REST + GraphQL (excellent) | REST + GraphQL + SOAP | Limited | REST API | REST API (Velo) |
| Webhooks | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Custom checkout | No | No | Yes | Yes (fully customisable) | Limited | Yes (Checkout SDK) | No (uses Stripe Checkout) | Limited | Limited (Plus only for full) | Yes | No | Limited | Limited |
Estimates based on £15,000/mo revenue and 10 products. Best-in-row cells are highlighted in emerald. Rates can change without notice, confirm current pricing with the provider before signing on.How we calculate fees
Self-hosted platforms require separate hosting. Estimates use entry-level managed hosting. Actual costs vary by hosting provider, traffic, and extensions.
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