Payoneer vs. Square Quick Comparison
Comparing Square versus Payoneer, Square wins on cost and transfer speed. Square speed is within 36 hours or 1-2 business days, while Payoneer is 2-3 business days within U.S. or 2-5 days globally. Transfer fees with Square are free for next-business-day or 1.5% per transfer for instant or same-day transfers, while Payoneer is 1% per ACH or local bank transfer or 3% by credit card.
Payoneer offers cross-border payments, and Square doesn’t for payment transfers of earned revenue, which are payouts. Both handle mass payments. Square’s offerings are much broader, including e-commerce websites for small businesses, invoicing and invoice payments, in addition to retail payment processing POS and mobile card readers used for sales pay-ins.
Payoneer and Square are both payment processing software companies. Payoneer specializes in making global payments from its customers to freelancers or contractors and online sellers, including e-commerce companies. Square offers transaction processing with U.S. and international credit cards, debit cards, and gift cards, website, and invoicing business for retail point-of-sale, e-commerce, and freelancers.
Both Payoneer and Square offer good software in their niche markets.
To compare Payoneer vs. Square, we primarily focus on money transfers related to earned revenue and consider the following:
- Fees and transfer speed
- ACH, Prepaid debit cards, credit cards, and gift cards
- Multi-currency capabilities
- Security
- Ease of use and Customer support
| Area | Payoneer | Square |
| Transfer speed | 2-3 business days within U.S. or 2-5 days globally | Next-business-day: within 36 hours or 1-2 business days based on business closing time. Instant: Same-day |
| Transfer fees | 1% per ACH or local bank transfer or 3% by credit card | Next-business-day: free. Instant and same-day: 1.5% of the transfer amount |
| Bank transfer types (electronic payments) | U.S. ACH, global bank transfers | U.S. ACH |
| Point of sale and POS integration | No | Yes, Square Point of Sale and third-party POS integration apps available. |
| Prepaid debit cards | Payoneer Prepaid Mastercard | Square Card (prepaid debit card for spending issued through Sutton Bank and Square Capital). Also processes debit cards transactions by retail and online business customers(pay-ins) |
| Credit cards | No | Credit card processing for business transactions by retail and online business customers(pay-ins) |
| Gift cards | No | Gift card acceptance for business transactions by retail and online business customers |
| Multi-currency capabilities | 200+ countries; 150+ currencies, including Payoneer local currency accounts | No cross-border money transfer transactions. Accepts most international credit cards in retail and online transactions(pay-ins) |
| Security | Secure, including encrypted passwords, firewall to protect personal information, PCI annual audits for PCI DSS compliance, physical security, anti-hacking, and fraud detection monitoring | Secure, including machine learning fraud detection and team, 2-step verification, free dispute resolution, PCI DSS compliance |
| Ease of use | Yes | Yes |
| Customer support | Support options: Online knowledge base and FAQs, phone, message, or live chat online support, or through Payoneer Community. Payoneer offers multilingual, 24/7 customer support. | Support options: Online knowledge base and FAQs, email, live chat online support, social media, phone, or through Seller Community. |
| Mobile app | Yes | Yes |
What is Payoneer?
Payoneer is a cross-border global mass payments service with customers ranging from small business to enterprise size. For example, Payoneer is used by freelancing platforms like Upwork to pay freelancers, enterprise companies like Google to pay independent contractors, and by Amazon to pay e-commerce online merchants in the Amazon Marketplace and Amazon Associates affiliates.
Payoneer’s Global Payment Service (for payouts) pays fund recipients using a local bank transfer in a Payoneer receiving account. Payoneer offers these currencies: USD, EUR, GPB, JPY, AUD, CAD, and MXN for local bank transfers to a Payoneer account. Payoneer account holders can withdraw funds to their local bank account in local currency (pay-ins) or pay another Payoneer customer for free (payouts).
Payoneer offers other types of payment services besides Global Payment Service, including Request a Payment. In some cases, currency exchange rates and fees may apply. Global payment methods include ACH bank debit for direct deposit, local bank transfer, and credit card or debit card payments.
Payoneer Prepaid Mastercard holders can use an ATM to withdraw funds from their Payoneer account or use the card for online and in-store purchases.
Payoneer Pros
Payoneer focuses on its niche of making payments for freelancers, service providers, affiliates, and e-commerce companies. Payoneer makes cross-border payments and uses local currency Payoneer accounts.
Payoneer Cons
Payoneer’s transfer fees are higher than Square’s, which are free for next-business-day. Payoneer lacks some tax validation and approval controls, although it has good overall security.
What is Square?
Square not only processes money transfers of sales and service revenue amounts. It also has a lucrative Square Payments payment processing business for retail and e-commerce customers, including hardware and software. Square offers easily-designed and customizable e-commerce website templates for accepting pay-ins from online customers. Square also provides invoice templates as part of its invoicing and online payments service software.
Square lets businesses receive payments next-business-day for free (as Square payouts). Square sends money first to a Square account, and then Square transfers it next-business-day into a linked bank account. It’s almost a direct deposit. For an instant or same-day transfer payment, the Square fee is 1.5% of the amount per transfer.
Square offers Point of Sale App for iPhone, iPad, and Android mobile devices. Square Terminal and Square Register products are for POS retail use for retail customer pay-ins. Square Reader for iPhone, iPad, and Android app is for contactless and chip card payments. Square even enables accepting prepayments as customer pay-ins upon booking Appointments.
Signatures aren’t required by U.S. and Canadian card issuers for dip, tap, and swipe POS payments. Square Payments syncs with QuickBooks and Xero.
Square acquired Weebly in 2018 for building websites and online stores that attract web traffic and sales leads and provide the tools to close online e-commerce sales. Customers select tiles with pictures and captions for item purchase decisions from the merchant’s Square e-commerce website.
To better understand its business, Square directly competes with PayPal in processing sales transaction amounts from purchasers (pay-ins) and charges for each transaction processed. Square excels at point-of-sale. PayPal is primarily used for online sales, although PayPal has introduced a competing card reader that’s similar to Square for brick-and-mortar POS.
Square also competes directly with Stripe, which has a software platform for Internet businesses to conduct online business and process payments.
Square e-Signature is integrated software from third-party company signNow for the electronic signature of contracts using PDF files. Square itself currently doesn’t offer any electronic signature software.
Square Pros
Square makes money transfer payments of sales proceeds (payouts) quicker either for free for next-business-day by close of day or just 1.5% of the amount per transfer for speedier access to funds. Square’s prepaid debit card has been reliable for receiving and accessing the funds received.
Therefore, the Square rate vs. Payoneer and Square transfer speed are better.
Square Cons
Square doesn’t handle cross-border payments for transferring revenue earnings to owners.
Payoneer vs. Square – In Summary
Payoneer and Square win in their niche markets and tie overall.
For payouts, Payoneer lets customers pay earnings via local bank transfer to a local currency Payoneer account within 2-5 business days globally, or 2-3 U.S. Payoneer transfer fee is 1% per ACH or local bank transfer or 3% by credit card. (Payoneer customers can pass on their costs to payment recipients.) Square makes payment money transfers to merchants as payouts via Square account, and then free next-business-day transfer (or sooner for 1.5%) to a linked bank account.
Payoneer is used to pay freelancers, other service providers, affiliates, and e-commerce online sellers. Square is used by brick-and-mortar stores, e-commerce merchants, and other online sellers for their customer pay-ins, then payouts to the merchant. Square doesn’t make cross-border payments for payouts. But Square accepts most international credit cards for sales transaction payments, which are pay-ins.
Recipients can use a Payoneer Prepaid Mastercard (a prepaid debit card) for spending or withdrawing funds via ATM for a usual Payoneer ATM withdrawal fee. Square also provides a prepaid debit card.
In Square vs. Payoneer, your business needs will determine whether Payoneer or Square provides the most value for money spent. Both software vendors provide excellent software for their niche markets. Read user reviews. To find the right solution for your purchase decisions, when evaluating mass payment software vendors, also consider Tipalti global mass payments automation software.
Tipalti automates the entire payables and payments process, saving time by up to 80%. Tipalti AP automation software starts with self-service vendor onboarding and contractor tax compliance and controls fraud risk and erroneous payments.
