Which Is Better for Mobile Traders and Market Stalls?
Square and Lopay are solving different problems. Square sells a till system and hands you a card reader as part of it; Lopay sells a card reader and includes a simple app to run sales through. If you are selling from a van, a stall or a client’s kitchen, the till system is weight you are paying for and not using.
If you are a mobile tradesperson, market trader or freelancer who only wants to take cards, Square charges you roughly twice what Lopay does for the same tap. On £3,000 a month that is £273 a year, and all of it buys software you are not opening.
Square is the better buy once the counter needs a real till, or once Amex and corporate cards make up roughly three quarters of your takings, which is where Lopay’s 1% surcharge finally eats the saving.
Visit Lopay Visit SquareSquare vs Lopay Fees and Charges
Card Transaction Fees
Lopay charges three different rates for the same card payment, and what separates them is how long you wait to be paid. The longer you can leave the money with Lopay, the less each sale costs you.
Essential charges 0.79% and pays out every Thursday, which suits a business with no mid-week bills to meet. Standard charges 0.99% and pays next working day, and that is the tier most small businesses should be on. Instant-to-Bank charges 1.79% and lands within minutes, any hour of the day, through TrueLayer. Note what that last one does to the comparison: at 1.79% you are paying more per sale than Square’s standard 1.75%, so if you need the cash the same day, Lopay’s price advantage has gone.
Square settles next working day as standard at 1.75%, with a midnight GMT cutoff including weekends and bank holidays. Square’s instant transfer option costs 1.95% of the payout amount on its pricing page (its help centre still says 1.5%), with a daily limit that starts at £750 for new sellers and a maximum transfer of £3,500.
| Monthly card volume | Square 1.75% | Lopay Essential 0.79% | Lopay Standard 0.99% | Annual saving vs Square (Standard) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| £500 | £8.75/month | £3.95/month | £4.95/month | £46/year |
| £1,000 | £17.50/month | £7.90/month | £9.90/month | £91/year |
| £3,000 | £52.50/month | £23.70/month | £29.70/month | £273/year |
| £5,000 | £87.50/month | £39.50/month | £49.50/month | £456/year |
| £8,000 | £140/month | £63.20/month | £79.20/month | £729/year |
| Assumes UK consumer Visa/Mastercard. Amex and international cards change the calculation on both sides. | ||||
Monthly, Setup and Contract Costs
Neither Square nor Lopay charges a monthly fee on its base plan, and neither charges to set you up. The one exception is Lopay’s Business Terminal, its countertop machine, which costs £15 a month on a 12-month contract. That is £180 you owe whether or not the business is still trading in month eight.
Other Fees to Watch
Lopay adds a 1% surcharge on Amex, corporate, and international cards on top of the base rate. Square’s payment link fee is 1.4% + 25p; Lopay’s payment links add 0.49% to the base rate. Lopay’s Instant-to-Bank payout at 1.79% is more expensive than Square’s standard 1.75% rate.
Fee Verdict: Who Costs Less
Lopay Standard at 0.99% is cheaper than Square at 1.75% on UK Visa and Mastercard at every volume we checked, from £500 a month to £8,000. Amex is where that changes: Lopay adds 1% and Square adds nothing, so at 1.99% against 1.75% Lopay is the dearer of the two on every Amex sale.
Square vs Lopay Payment Methods and Checkout Options
Cards, Wallets and Alternative Payment Methods
Both providers accept Visa, Mastercard, and American Express in-person via contactless, chip and PIN, and magnetic stripe. Lopay also supports Tap to Pay on iPhone and Android, removing hardware cost entirely for contactless-only businesses.
Checkout Experience
For payments taken away from the counter, Lopay adds 0.49% to your base rate, giving 1.28% on Essential and 1.48% on Standard. Square charges 1.4% plus 25p. The 25p is what decides it on small jobs: on a £20 invoice Square takes 53p against Lopay’s 30p, while on a £500 invoice Square takes £7.25 and Lopay £7.40. If you invoice in tens rather than hundreds, Lopay is the cheaper link.
Square also provides a virtual terminal (2.5%), a full invoicing product, and an online store builder. Lopay doesn’t have an online store or invoicing product beyond payment links and QR codes.
Methods Verdict
Lopay covers in-person card acceptance well and adds Tap to Pay; Square adds online store, invoicing, and virtual terminal for businesses that need more than a reader.
Square vs Lopay Hardware, POS and In-Person Payments
Card Readers and Terminals
The Square Reader is £19 + VAT and pairs to your phone via Bluetooth. We rate it the strongest entry-level POS hardware for new businesses.
Square also sells Terminal (£149 + VAT, standalone with built-in printer), Handheld (£169 + VAT), and Register (£699 + VAT, dual-screen countertop). All are bought outright. Instalment options exist for Terminal and above.
POS Software and Hardware Add-ons
Lopay’s Bluetooth reader (WisePad3) is £35 plus £6.95 postage when ordered through the app for your first reader, or £49 via Amazon or for subsequent readers. It pairs to your phone via Bluetooth. Lopay also offers Tap to Pay on iPhone and Android, which removes the hardware cost entirely.
The Business Terminal is Lopay’s countertop option: a Wi-Fi touchscreen device at £15/month. Note the lock-in: the terminal requires a 12-month subscription. Lopay’s “no contract” messaging applies to the reader tiers, not to the terminal.
In-Person Verdict
Square has the more complete in-person hardware range and POS software depth; Lopay is the leaner option for mobile traders who need a reader and basic app without the countertop ecosystem.
Square vs Lopay Online Payments and Integrations
Hosted Checkout, Payment Links and APIs
Square Online gives you a free e-commerce store connected to the same inventory as your reader. Lopay has no native e-commerce product.
Platform Integrations
Lopay names Xero as its accounting link, and we found no QuickBooks connection on its pages, so if Xero is what your bookkeeper uses, the choice between the two is unaffected. Square also connects to QuickBooks, and to Wix and WooCommerce if you sell online as well.
Online Verdict
If any part of your takings comes through a website, Square is the one to choose: Lopay’s own pages list no online store and no invoicing, only payment links and QR codes for taking money remotely.
Square vs Lopay Payouts, Contract Terms and Account Risk
Settlement Speed and Payout Schedule
Square settles next working day at 1.75%, with a midnight cutoff that runs through weekends and bank holidays. Lopay Standard settles next working day too, at 0.99%, while Essential holds the money until Thursday for 0.79%. That 0.2 percentage points is worth about £6 a month on £3,000 of card sales, and in exchange a Saturday’s takings sit with Lopay until the following Thursday. For most businesses with a supplier to pay on a Tuesday, we’d choose Standard.
Lopay’s Instant-to-Bank costs 1.79% and runs 24/7 via TrueLayer. Square instant transfers have a daily limit that starts at £750 for new sellers, with a maximum transfer of £3,500.
Contract Length and Exit Terms
Neither provider requires a contract on their base reader plans. Either can be walked away from at any time. The Lopay Business Terminal is the exception: it carries a 12-month commitment at £15/month (£180 + delivery) if you choose it.
Reserves, Holds and Account Stability
Lopay does not process your card payments itself: Stripe Payments UK does, under its FCA authorisation, and Lopay Ltd is a UK company, number 13384279. Square has been trading in the UK since 2017. Neither is a bank, and with both the money sits with the processor before it reaches you, so a frozen account means a frozen float, which is the argument for not running every penny of your takings through one provider.
Square vs Lopay Customer Reviews and Reputation
Trustpilot and Independent Review Themes
Lopay Ltd was incorporated in May 2021, so it has about five years behind it against Square’s nine in the UK. It is seed-funded rather than publicly listed, and its review volume is correspondingly thin, so treat it as a provider whose record is still short rather than one with a record you can lean on.
The processing infrastructure runs on Stripe Payments UK (FCA-authorised), which provides the underlying reliability.
Square has a long UK track record since its 2017 launch. On Trustpilot UK, Square scores mixed reviews with consistent praise for the POS software and complaints centred on account risk holds and customer service response times. These patterns are typical of large payment processors.
Support Channels and Response Times
Square answers the phone during UK business hours and runs in-app chat on the free plan. Lopay has in-app support only, which means that if the reader will not pair on a Saturday morning, there is nobody to ring. We could not find a published response time for either.
Reputation Verdict
Reading both fee schedules against each other, Lopay’s is the plainer document: three rates, a 1% surcharge on Amex, corporate and foreign cards, the 8p Tap to Pay charge and the 12-month terminal contract, all on one page. Square’s Trustpilot profile is the mixed one you would expect of a processor at its size, with the software praised and the account holds complained about.
Square vs Lopay for Amex and International Card Volume
Your card mix can reverse the answer on this page, and it reverses it in opposite directions for Amex and for foreign cards.
The Amex and international card picture is the most important nuance in this comparison.
- Amex, Square wins: Square charges 1.75% on Amex, the same flat rate as every other card. Lopay adds 1%, making Amex 1.99% on Standard. For restaurants, professional services, or corporate-facing businesses where Amex covers 15–20% of transactions, this closes most of the headline gap.
- Non-UK cards, Lopay wins: A tourist-facing business with 30% non-UK card transactions pays an effective Square rate of around 2.20%. On Lopay Standard with the same card mix, the effective rate is around 1.29%. Lopay still wins on total cost even with significant international volume.
Downsides of Square and Lopay
Downsides of Square
At £8,000 a month Square takes £140 in card fees where Lopay Standard takes £79.20, and if all you do is take cards, the £60.80 difference buys you nothing. Square’s same-day option costs extra on top of the 1.75% you have already paid: 1.95% of the payout on its pricing page, though its help centre still says 1.5%. For a new seller it is capped at £750 a day, so it will not clear a busy Saturday in one go.
Downsides of Lopay
Lopay’s POS is basic. For any hospitality or retail operator that needs table management, modifiers, or kitchen display integration, Lopay will not replace a proper EPOS.
The 1% Amex surcharge takes Lopay from 0.99% to 1.99%, above Square’s 1.75%, so on Amex it is the dearer reader. Lopay’s reader plans carry no contract, but its Business Terminal carries twelve months at £15 a month.
Alternatives to Square and Lopay
If neither fits, consider:
- SumUp, 1.69% flat, £25 reader. Cheaper hardware, simpler for solo traders.
- Tide Card Reader, 0.69% + 3p in person on the Sell In-Person Premium plan. Competitive if you already bank with Tide.
- Dojo, a 1.2% blended rate on every card for businesses taking under £100,000 a year by card, with custom rates above that.
- Zettle by PayPal, 1.75%, £29 reader, instant settlement to PayPal balance.
Final Verdict: Square or Lopay?
Choose Lopay Standard at 0.99% with next-day payouts if you are a mobile trader, a market stall or a sole trader who wants to take cards and nothing else. The saving holds at every volume from £500 a month upwards, it reaches £273 a year at £3,000, and it costs you nothing you would miss, so long as the till you need is a list of prices and a card reader.
Choose Square at 1.75% on its free plan if the reader has to sit alongside a working till. Lopay’s point-of-sale page lists stock tracking and product variants, but says nothing about a table plan, modifiers for a flat white with oat milk, or sending an order to a kitchen screen, so a café or a restaurant is likely to find the limit on its first busy service.
Count your Amex and corporate-card sales before you sign up to either. Lopay adds 1% to each, so on those cards it costs 1.99% against Square’s 1.75%, but it stays the cheaper of the two overall until roughly three quarters of your takings are on them. Foreign cards work the other way: Square adds 1.95% to a non-UK card in person and Lopay 1%, so a tourist-facing business is better off with Lopay.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Lopay cheaper than Square?
For most UK small businesses taking UK consumer Visa and Mastercard, yes. Lopay Standard at 0.99% saves £273 a year versus Square at 1.75% on £3,000/month in card sales. The gap narrows with Amex volume: Square charges no Amex surcharge, but Lopay adds 1%.
Does Lopay have a POS system?
Lopay includes a free POS app with inventory management, unlimited team members, and sales reports. It handles basic checkout and stock tracking but not Square’s depth of table management or kitchen display integration.
Is Lopay safe to use?
Lopay is powered by Stripe Payments UK, which is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority. Lopay Ltd is incorporated in the UK (company number 13384279).
Can I use Lopay without a card reader?
Yes. Lopay’s Tap to Pay feature turns a compatible iPhone or Android into a card reader without additional hardware.
Does Square work without a monthly fee?
Square’s free plan has no monthly fee. You pay 1.75% per in-person transaction. The Retail Plus plan at £49/month reduces your in-person rate to 1.6% and adds advanced inventory tools.
How we reviewed Square vs Lopay
How we compared them. We costed both providers’ published rates at five monthly card volumes, from £500 to £8,000, and worked out where Lopay’s 1% surcharge on Amex and corporate cards cancels its saving. We then compared the settlement terms each one publishes, and what each free app does and does not include.
What we checked. We pulled every fee, hardware price, and payout term straight from Square’s and Lopay’s own pricing pages in October 2026, and we cross-checked both against the FCA register for their permissions.
Update cadence. We re-verify every provider on this page at least monthly, and whenever a provider changes pricing, eligibility, or terms. The verification date on the page reflects the most recent full review. Some links on this page are affiliate links, see our editorial policy.