The Bike Project of Urbana-Champaign (Illinois) has been using Square for over five years now. We like it for the following reasons:
- No monthly fees
- Transaction fees are 2.75% per swipe -- no 20 or 30 cent charge, which is nice because sometimes people just buy a tube, so a $4 tube costs us 11 cents in Square fees
- Can record cash transactions as well (no 2.75% taken). This centralizes our record-keeping.
- Cloud-driven, so good at both of our locations (we have two shops, one community and one University). Also good for mobile setups, if you have one. We've also done an art show where we accepted payments through an iPhone at the gallery.
We are using iPads in secure enclosures with receipt printers wired to a cash drawer. It was an investment in hardware, but worth it as it has saved us so much time vs filling out paper pads, in addition to saving time for accounting and providing us with numbers to use for business reporting. Users seem to like it, and if they've shopped elsewhere with Square it will remember their email. Maybe 1 out of 5 people max want a paper receipt; most are satisfied with an email or no receipt, so it keeps paper costs down and reduces waste.
There are probably some other great solutions out there, but in 2012 this was best in class for our needs. The only feature I really want would be to have an API where it can tie into other apps or allow for embedding on a web page (especially for donations). We do accept donations through the Square Online Store, but it's a clunky solution at best -- at least how we have it set up.
Cheers,
Phil
Volunteer, The Bike Project of Urbana-Champaign