Compare
Grace vs Square.
Square is a payment processor that grew into a POS. Great if you want a card reader that does a bit more. Less great if you're an independent UK restaurant that needs reservations, CRM, loyalty, marketing and EPOS all talking to each other.
Square's strength is being everywhere — free entry tier, broad hardware ecosystem, a global brand. For market stalls, food trucks, coffee shops doing counter service, it's a perfectly reasonable choice. For an independent restaurant or bar running table service with a returning guest base, the picture shifts. Square's reservations, CRM, loyalty and marketing modules exist, but they're bolted on rather than built in, and the product reads as American-first throughout.
How they compare
Side by side.
Pricing model1
Grace
£99 / £179 / £299 / Enterprise. Per venue, per month. Whole product on every plan. 0% Grace fee on in-venue card payments.
Square
Square for Restaurants Plus at £69 +VAT per location per month, plus 1.69%–1.75% + 20p per in-person card transaction. Premium tier in USD only on UK site at time of writing.
Square's free POS tier exists but excludes most table-service features; Plus tier (£69 +VAT) is the entry point for restaurants.
Hospitality focus
Grace
Built specifically for UK independent hospitality — restaurants, bars, cocktail bars, pubs, small groups.
Square
Built for retail and coffee shops first, restaurants second. Product is American-first; UK is one of many markets.
Reservations
Grace
Native booking widget on your domain, deposits, OTP-verified guest identity, service-aware availability, walk-ins, waitlists, host screen.
Square
Free Square Reservations module exists. Basic booking widget; limited deposit flow; no service-aware availability; no OTP verification.
Guest CRM
Grace
One record per guest, automatic behavioural tiers, marketing consent per channel, dietary/allergy tracking, walk-in identification via WiFi.
Square
Customer Directory tracks contact info and basic visit history. No behavioural tiers, no walk-in identification.
Loyalty2
Grace
Universal tiers, automatic enrolment, points on bookings + spend, EPOS redemption, service-recovery overrides.
Square
Square Loyalty bolted on as a separate paid add-on (£45/month). Points and visits only.
Marketing
Grace
Always-on email + SMS journeys. UK SMS from a venue-specific number. Revenue attribution as the headline metric. Meta Pixel + Conversions API integrated.
Square
Square Marketing as paid add-on (from £15/month). Email campaigns, basic automation. SMS via US-style shortcodes; not all features available in UK.
EPOS
Grace
Native iPad EPOS. Hash-chained audit trail, accrual accounting, native KDS, dual-attribution on sensitive actions.
Square
Square for Restaurants on iPad or Square Register hardware (£599 +VAT). Locked to Square hardware ecosystem.
Inventory / stock3
Grace
Stock tracking included on every plan.
Square
Basic inventory in Square Plus. Ingredient-level (recipe) inventory requires Square Restaurant Inventory by MarketMan at $199/month extra on top of Plus subscription.
Hardware lock-in
Grace
Bring your own iPad. Pair with your existing card reader or move to Mollie. No vendor hardware lock-in.
Square
Square card readers, Square Register, Square Terminal — hardware locked to Square ecosystem. POS only works with Square's own hardware.
AI
Grace
Grace AI as the primary operator interface. Plain-English commands across every module.
Square
No AI operator surface. Some AI features in Square Online (auto-product descriptions).
Offline behaviour4
Grace
Offline mode survives WiFi blips without re-fetching. Cached transactions sync when connection restores.
Square
Square requires connectivity to process payments. Offline mode is limited compared to dedicated hospitality POS.
Per published Square documentation, offline payments are accepted but with a 24-hour expiry and limited reconciliation.
Accounting integration
Grace
Xero-ready sales summary with accrual accounting baked in.
Square
Xero integration available. Cash-basis only; no native accrual treatment.
Target venue type
Grace
Independent UK hospitality — table-service venues with a returning guest base.
Square
Retail, food trucks, coffee shops, market stalls, counter-service hospitality. Single-location independents to multi-location chains.
- 1.Square's free POS tier exists but excludes most table-service features; Plus tier (£69 +VAT) is the entry point for restaurants.
- 2.https://squareup.com/gb/en/loyalty
- 3.https://squareup.com/gb/en/restaurants/inventory
- 4.Per published Square documentation, offline payments are accepted but with a 24-hour expiry and limited reconciliation.
What Grace does
Specific to Grace, missing in Square.
Hospitality, not retail with hospitality bolted on.
Built specifically for UK table-service venues — reservations, deposits, host workflow, waitlists, guest CRM all native.
- Service-aware availability (different rules for lunch / dinner / private hire)
- OTP-verified guest identity on every booking
- Walk-in identification via WiFi captive portal
- Behavioural guest tiers, not visit counts
Marketing that actually attributes revenue.
Always-on email + SMS journeys with bookings, covers and revenue attributed back to each message.
- UK SMS from a number specific to your venue
- Meta Pixel + Conversions API integrated
- Welcome, win-back, birthday journeys ship by default
- Open rates as a footnote, not the headline
Loyalty included, not a separate subscription.
Universal guest tiers and rewards run through the same guest record as everything else.
- Every guest classified behaviourally, regardless of opt-in
- Points on bookings and on spend
- EPOS redemption with service-recovery overrides
- No second login, no separate dashboard
Keep your card processor. Or use ours.
0% Grace fee on in-venue card payments. Native Mollie or bring Square, SumUp, Teya, more.
- No hardware lock-in to one card vendor
- 0% Grace fee on in-venue payments
- Processing fees go directly to your provider, not us
- Stay on your existing provider if you want to
Where Square leads
What they do that Grace doesn't (yet).
Honest reverse. If these matter to your venue, Square is worth looking at.
Cheapest entry point
Square's free POS tier (no monthly fee, transaction fees only) is genuinely the lowest cost of entry in the market. If your operation is small enough that the free tier covers it, nothing beats free. Grace's Launch tier (£99/month) is competitive but not free.
Hardware ecosystem breadth
Square's hardware lineup — Terminal, Register, Stand, Reader, Kiosk — is the broadest in the market. If you specifically want a fixed-function payments terminal with no iPad, Square has options Grace doesn't.
Global presence
If you operate in multiple countries, Square works across them with one account. Grace is UK-only by design.
Customer fit
Two different venues.
Grace is built for…
UK independent restaurants, bars, cocktail bars and pubs running table service — venues where guests come back, the host stand matters, and reservations, CRM, marketing, loyalty and EPOS need to talk to each other natively.
Square is built for…
Coffee shops, food trucks, counter-service quick-service venues, retail-style hospitality, or any operator who already lives in the Square ecosystem and primarily needs a card reader that does a bit more.
Common questions
Things operators ask before switching.
Claims verified as of June 2026. Competitor pricing and features change — we update this page as we notice changes worth noting. If you spot something stale, tell us.
Want to see Grace at work?
30 minutes, no slides, just the product running at a real venue.