Adyen vs Square

Adyen is a global payments company founded in Amsterdam in 2006 by Pieter van der Does and Arnout Schuijff, and listed on Euronext Amsterdam since 2018. Adyen runs its own acquiring, processing and risk stack in one system, so a merchant gets one contract and one report for card payments, local payment methods and in-store terminals across many countries. Customers include Uber, Microsoft, eBay and OpenAI.

The platform covers online checkout through Drop-in and Components SDKs, point-of-sale terminals, Tap to Pay on phones, RevenueProtect fraud scoring, network tokenization, payouts, and Adyen for Platforms for marketplaces that onboard and pay sub-merchants. Pricing is published and usage-based: a fixed $0.13 processing fee per transaction plus a payment method fee, such as Interchange++ plus 0.60% for Visa and Mastercard. There are no setup or monthly fees, though a minimum invoice can apply depending on industry.

Adyen fits large retailers, travel and mobility companies, and marketplaces processing high volumes across several regions, where unified data and acquiring margins matter. It is a poor fit for small shops: onboarding is sales-led, integration needs developers, and support is tuned for enterprise accounts. Stripe is easier for startups and SaaS billing, PayPal brings consumer wallet reach, and Square suits small in-person sellers.

Adyen keeps growing: H1 2026 net revenue was about EUR 1.3 billion, up 19% year on year, and in July 2026 it completed the acquisitions of Talon.One (loyalty and promotions) and Orb (usage-based billing).

Square is the payments and commerce platform of Block, Inc., the San Francisco company founded in 2009 by Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey. It started with a card reader that plugged into a phone and has grown into an all-in-one system for small and medium businesses: point of sale, online store, invoices, appointments, payroll, team management, banking, loans and loyalty.

The core POS app is free, and businesses pay per-transaction processing fees at flat rates that differ for in-person, online and keyed-in payments. Square sells its own hardware, from mobile card readers to Square Register and Square Terminal, and offers editions for restaurants, retail and appointment-based services with paid Plus and Premium tiers per location that add advanced features such as kitchen displays, inventory tools and multi-location management. Square Online, Invoices and Appointments share the same catalog and customer directory.

Square suits brick-and-mortar businesses such as cafés, salons, shops and food trucks that want to start taking payments the same day. It operates only in a limited set of countries, including the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, Japan, Ireland, France and Spain, and is not available to businesses in Turkey. Flat rates become expensive at high volume compared with interchange-plus pricing, and account holds can occur. Toast is a stronger restaurant specialist, Shopify POS fits omnichannel retail brands, and Stripe is better for online-only software businesses.