Braintree vs Square

Side-by-side — pricing, strengths, tradeoffs, and fit.

Braintree

Full-stack payment platform by PayPal

Square

Commerce and payment solutions for every business

At a glance

Free Tier
· Not enough data·From 2.89% + 0.29 USD per card or digital wallet transaction (standard merchants)
Free Tier
· Not enough data·From Freemium

Overview

One-liner

Full-stack payment platform by PayPal

One-liner

Commerce and payment solutions for every business

Maturity

Not enough data

Maturity

Not enough data

Open source

✕ No

Open source

✕ No

Pricing

Free tier

✓ Available

Free tier

✓ Available

Starts at

2.89% + 0.29 USD per card or digital wallet transaction (standard merchants)

Starts at

Freemium

Model

Usage-based

Model

Usage-based

Enterprise

✕ None

Enterprise

✕ None

Best for

✓ Best for

Businesses needing PayPal/Venmo alongside card payments in a single integration

✓ Best for

Small-to-medium businesses needing unified online and in-person payment processing

Not ideal for

✕ Not for

—

✕ Not for

Pure internet businesses without physical locations or subscription-first SaaS

Strengths

↑ Strengths

Custom flat, interchange-plus and discounted rates for established businesses by volume

↑ Strengths

POS hardware
Online payments
Invoicing
Subscriptions

Weaknesses

↓ Weaknesses

Transaction fees are not returned when you refund a customer
Venmo payments are available in the US only

↓ Weaknesses

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Full Braintree profile →Full Square profile →