Square is a till many people have seen on a counter: a free app, a reader, and a card rate on every tap. It is owned by Block, Inc., a US company. For a cafe or a stall that sells whole things it is hard to beat on price to start, and over the last few years it has grown a rota product, Square Shifts, an online shop, Square Online, and paid Plus tiers for retail and restaurants, with stock counts and purchase orders on the retail one.
Omni Tend is a single system rather than a family of them: the till, the web shop, the stock in kegs and metres, the purchase orders, the rotas and the daily checks on one login for one monthly fee, built and supported in Suffolk.
| Feature | Omni Tend | Square |
|---|---|---|
| Where the company is | Suffolk, UK | US (Block, Inc.) |
| Monthly price, one till and a web shop | £59 a month (Standard: up to 5 tills and the web shop; £29 for one till without it) | £0 a month for the POS app plus the card rate; Retail Plus £49 or Restaurants Plus £69 a location a month; Square Online Plus £20 a month, billed annually |
| Contract | Monthly direct debit | Monthly; Square Online Plus and Premium are billed annually |
| Card processing | Stripe reader, or keep your own terminal | 1.75% in person on UK cards (1.6% on Retail Plus), 1.4% + 25p online; more on non-UK cards |
| Till (ePOS) | ||
| Web shop | Yes, on your own domain, from the same stock | Square Online, a separate product; its free tier syncs items, orders and stock with the POS |
| Sell by the metre, kilo or pint | Yes: metres, kilos, pints from a keg or cask | By weight with a scale in the Square POS app, and decimal quantities with custom units; the scale is not supported in Square for Retail |
| Stock and purchase orders | Yes, with purchase orders from what sold | Stock counts and purchase orders on Retail Plus |
| Rotas and holidays | Yes, with holidays and blocked periods | Square Shifts, free to 5 staff then per member, with time-off requests |
| Training records | Yes, signed off with a PIN | |
| Daily checks and tasks | Yes, with photos and a log | Not found |
| Kitchen printing and phone orders | Yes, and phone orders | Kitchen display from £15 a device a month |
| Who answers when something breaks | The people who built it, in the UK | Square support: UK phone Monday to Friday; 24/7 on Retail Plus, Restaurants Plus and Online Premium |
The Square column was checked against their own published pages on 23 October 2026; prices and plans change, so check before you decide. Sources: Square pricing, Square Shifts, Square for Retail, Square Online pricing
Yes. Square Shifts handles scheduling and time-off requests, free for up to five staff and then per team member (checked 23 October 2026). Omni Tend includes rotas, holidays with blocked periods and training records on every plan.
The Square POS app is free to use and charges 1.75% on each in-person UK card payment and 1.4% + 25p online on UK cards (23 October 2026). Stock counts and purchase orders are on Square for Retail Plus at £49 a location a month, Restaurants Plus is £69, and the web shop is Square Online, free to start with a £20-a-month Plus tier billed annually. Omni Tend is £29, £59 or £99 a month by number of tills, with the web shop from the £59 plan.
Square is owned by Block, Inc., a US company, and its privacy notice says data is held in the United States, Japan, the UK, the EU and other countries. Omni Tend is built, hosted and supported in the UK.