Stripe vs Square for Selling Physical Products: Fees, Stock and In-Person Sales

If you sell physical products and need to track stock or sell face to face, Square is usually the better fit: its item library counts stock, and its point-of-sale app and card readers work out of the box. Stripe suits sellers who mostly take payment online through a checkout link or their own website, and it is slightly cheaper per online card payment in the US. Neither one finds you buyers. Both are where you keep products and take money, which is why many small sellers end up putting the same catalogue onto marketplaces as well.

Is this for you?

This page is for someone selling physical items: clothing, homeware, records, crafts, vintage. If you sell subscriptions, software or services, the inventory and point-of-sale questions below will not matter much to you, and Stripe’s billing tools are the bigger topic. All fees here come from the two companies’ own pricing pages for the US and the UK, read in October 2026.

The short answer by situation

Product catalogue and stock

Square keeps an item library that drives its point of sale, its online store and its invoices. Its help centre on adjusting inventory levels describes “basic tools to keep a clear count of in-stock items”, with counts going down after sales in the point-of-sale app, after invoices and after online orders that ship.

Stripe has products and prices, but no stock count. The nearest thing is on Payment Links: Stripe’s guide to customising Payment Links lets you limit how many times a link can be paid, “if you have limited inventory, or only want the links to be used once”. When the limit is reached the link deactivates and shows a message you can write yourself. That works well for a single vintage jacket. It does nothing to stop the same jacket selling on a second link, in person or on another site, because nothing ties those sales together.

So does Stripe have inventory management? No. If stock matters to you, either use Square or add a tool that keeps the count for you.

Online fees

Stripe’s US pricing is 2.9% + 30¢ per successful domestic card payment. International cards add 1.5%, currency conversion adds 1%, and a manually entered card adds 0.5%. Payment Links are included at no additional charge on standard pricing. In the UK, Stripe’s UK pricing is 1.5% + 20p for standard UK cards, 2.8% + 20p for premium UK cards, 2.5% + 20p for cards from the European Economic Area and 3.15% + 20p for international cards, plus 2% if currency conversion is needed.

Square’s US fees page lists 3.3% + 30¢ for online payments and invoices on Square Free, 2.9% + 30¢ for payments taken through Square’s developer API, and 3.5% + 15¢ for keyed-in cards or cards on file, with 1.5% extra for cards issued abroad. On Square’s UK pricing, online payments with UK cards cost 1.4% + 25p and non-UK cards 2.5% + 25p, while keyed-in payments and invoices cost 2.5%.

A worked example on a $40 item paid online with a US card: Stripe takes $1.16 + $0.30 = $1.46. Square Free takes $1.32 + $0.30 = $1.62. On a £40 item paid online in the UK with a standard UK card, Stripe takes £0.60 + £0.20 = £0.80, and Square takes £0.56 + £0.25 = £0.81. In the US Stripe is cheaper online; in the UK they are level, until a buyer pays with a premium card on Stripe.

In-person selling

Square was built for this. Square Free costs $0 a month, the contactless and chip reader costs $59 and Square Terminal $299. In person, US cards cost 2.6% + 15¢ on Square Free. In the UK, Square charges 1.75% with no fixed fee for UK cards. On a $40 sale that is $1.19; on a £40 sale, £0.70.

Stripe’s in-person product is Terminal. US pricing is 2.7% + 5¢ per domestic card, plus $0.10 per authorisation for Tap to Pay; UK pricing is 1.4% + 10p for EEA cards and 2.9% + 10p for others. The Stripe Reader M2 costs $59 and the S700 $299. On a $40 sale Terminal costs $1.13, or $1.23 with Tap to Pay.

The difference is set-up. Stripe’s own Terminal documentation is written for building a custom point of sale with its SDKs, and Tap to Pay inside your own app needs an entitlement from Apple and an app review. Without a developer you have three routes, listed on Stripe’s page for in-person payments without code: Tap to Pay in the Stripe Dashboard mobile app, where you type an amount and the customer taps their card; standalone mode on certain readers, still in preview; or a Payment Link QR code the customer scans. None of these gives you a till with your product list on it.

The QR route deserves a closer look for market traders. Stripe’s guide to sharing a payment link says the QR code does not expire, and if you deactivate the link, the code sends the buyer to an expiration page. A printed QR tag on an item therefore stops working once that item’s link is switched off. If you change the price, you make a new link, and the old printed tag needs replacing.

Disputes and refunds

This is where Square is clearly cheaper. Square lists chargebacks and dispute management among the things it does not charge for. Stripe charges a dispute fee of $15 in the US and £20 in the UK for each dispute received, and a second fee of the same amount if you contest it manually, which you get back only if you win.

Refunds work the same way on both. Stripe charges no fee to issue a card refund but keeps the original processing fee. Square’s refund guide says “the processing fees for the payment aren’t refunded back to you.”

Monthly cost

Neither charges a monthly fee to start. Square Free costs nothing a month, and its UK Plus plan starts at £29 a month for lower processing fees and extra features. Stripe’s standard pricing is pay-as-you-go, with optional extras such as a custom domain for Payment Links at $10 a month.

What neither one does: find buyers

Square and Stripe both process payments and hold your products. Neither has a marketplace where shoppers browse. If your stock is unique or second-hand, buyers are searching on eBay, Depop, Etsy and Vinted, not on your checkout page.

FLUF Connect connects either one. You connect Square or Stripe from the Channels screen in FLUF Connect, with no browser extension needed, and your products come into FLUF ready to list. From there you choose which marketplaces each item goes to: a Stripe product picked in FLUF can go straight to Depop, for example, without retyping it.

Here is how each behaves once it is connected.

At a stall this means one habit. FLUF does not see sales you take on Stripe or Square, whether a buyer scans an item’s QR code, pays a link or taps a card. When something sells there, mark it sold in FLUF, and it comes off eBay, Depop and your other channels.

Crosslisting and inventory sync are on every FLUF plan; relisting, offer management and smart pricing come with the Pro plan upwards. You can start with 7 days for £1, then from £9/month.

For what Stripe takes on each sale, with worked examples, see Stripe fees for selling products.

For the payment limit, QR codes and shipping settings on a link, see our guide to Stripe Payment Links for selling products.

If you also sell face to face, our guide to selling in person with Stripe compares Tap to Pay, QR codes and Terminal readers.

Weighing other payment providers? Our guide to Stripe alternatives for product sellers compares Square, Shopify Payments, PayPal and SumUp.

Sources

• Stripe: Pricing (US) (checked October 2026)
• Stripe: Pricing (UK) (checked October 2026)
• Stripe Docs: Customise checkout for Payment Links (checked October 2026)
• Stripe Docs: Share a payment link (checked October 2026)
• Stripe Docs: Terminal (checked October 2026)
• Stripe Docs: Accept in-person payments without writing code (checked October 2026)
• Stripe: Terminal readers (checked October 2026)
• Square Support: Square’s fees (US) (checked October 2026)
• Square: Pricing (UK) (checked October 2026)
• Square Support: Adjust inventory levels (checked October 2026)
• Square Support: Issue refunds (checked October 2026)
• Square: Hardware (US) (checked October 2026)