In our last post, we talked about Square, the leader in the field among phone- and tablet-based POS systems. With more than 3 million users, Square has the corner on the market, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t any healthy competition. One lively contender is PayPal Here, which offers features similar to Square as well as the consumer confidence elicited by the PayPal brand.
These are Square’s features that we’re using as a baseline for comparison:
- Digital or printed receipts
- Tip suggestions
- Tabs
- Inventory management
- Edit items
- Analytics
PayPal Here Hardware
PayPal Here requires you to have a Business or Premier account, and it’s a breeze to convert your current PayPal account to a Business account with a few clicks. As for hardware, PayPal Here offers a chip and swipe reader that connects to an app on your smartphone or tablet via Bluetooth, a Bluetooth chip and tap reader, a Bluetooth chip card reader, and a mobile card reader that plugs into a smartphone or tablet’s audio jack. You can learn more about the options here. Unlike Square, PayPal Here doesn’t offer any free hardware options. The least expensive piece of hardware is $14.99 and it tops out at $79.99.
One important point to note when choosing your hardware:
Key-in transactions and sales over $500 in a 7-day period made with the Mobile Card Reader are subject to an automatic 30-day reserve where funds are held in your PayPal account to cover the high risk associated with these types of transactions. For increased protection from fraudulent transactions, we recommend using a chip card reader.
PayPal Here: A Head-to-Head Comparison with Square
Digital Receipts: Yes, you can send receipts digitally, or you can use a compatible receipt printer. Unlike Square, you can also issue invoices on the fly with PayPal Here.
Tip Suggestions: Unfortunately, it looks like the tipping process with PayPal Here is a little awkward. One user posted in the help forum:
Is there a way to make the application on my phone display the tip option as opposed to the card reader? Unfortunately, I don’t want to have to ask my client if they want to give me a tip, I want them to make that decision. The old slider did it on the phone and my client was able to select a tip option on my phone without my prompting. Now I have to ask, “Would you like to leave a tip?”, and then hand them the card reader for them to add a tip, that doesn’t work for me. [sic]
Tabs: Square has PayPal Here beaten on this front; PPH does not seem to offer any functionality along the lines of opening a tab or splitting a check. But if you do want to use PayPal at your venue where tabs and split checks are common, there are a number of PayPal-compatible POS services to choose from.
Inventory Management: Yes, you can use the PayPal Here app on your desktop or mobile device to manage and categorize your inventory list and upload photos.
Edit Items: PPH does let you add options and add-ons that are available for various items. You can take a peek at the simple interface here. Unlike Square, PPH doesn’t seem to allow you to bulk upload items with a .CSV spreadsheet, although there are third-party paid services that you can use to do this if you need to.
Analytics: Yes, you can run reports summarizing your sales transactions by date, user, payment type, or item. You can also email yourself a copy of the report.
PayPal Here Fees
PayPal Here’s fees are a little lower than Square’s 2.75% fee. And though Square doesn’t have any chargeback fees, PayPal Here charges $20.
- 7% per US card swipe
- 5% + 15¢ to key in cards
- 9% + 30¢ to invoice
- 5% for cross-border transfers
PayPal Here Customer Service
PPH is reputed to have decent customer service. You can choose from PayPal’s live phone support system, or you can event tweet them at @AskPayPal.
In conclusion: if you need a simple but effective POS and you don’t have hundreds of SKUs that you’re constantly updating PayPal Here is a perfectly serviceable, simple way to go. Watch this space for our next Square competitor evaluation.
