Dripos vs Square for Coffee Shops: What You'll Pay
Are you trying to decide between Square and Dripos to run your coffee business? You are not alone, and it is a good thing to take your time on. Your POS touches every drink you sell, every shift you schedule, and every dollar you count. This guide walks through how the two compare for coffee shops: what each one is built for, what you will pay once you use the features you need, and who should pick which. I run Dripos, so read this with that in mind. Every Square number below comes from Square's own pricing page as of October 23, 2026. Check it before you decide, because both companies change prices.
What you get with Dripos
A team you can talk to. We are a NYC team, and our 24/7 support sits in the same office as our whole team. When something breaks during a rush, you reach people who can fix it, and often the people who built it. We advertise no long-term contract.
A product that keeps getting better. We ship new features all the time, and we build them directly with our customers. A lot of what is in Dripos started with an owner saying "can you build this?" Our Oct 20 update rebuilt the customer order app and added a new review tool. You can read the full release notes.
One app for the whole business. Sales, schedules, inventory, payroll, marketing, and your customer order app live in one place, under one login. Hours worked, tips, and sales sit side by side, so labor percentage is easy to see. If you are the owner, the manager, and sometimes the barista, fewer tools to juggle is worth real time.
Built for coffee. A cortado with oat milk, one pump of vanilla, and extra hot is not a normal retail sale. We built the menu builder and the order flow around that rush. Square handles modifiers well and is a perfectly good counter system. Test either one on a busy Saturday during a trial, not a quiet Tuesday.
A true partner. We want to be the tech team behind your shop, not just another piece of software you pay for.
What it costs
Use all the features on both platforms and the price roughly evens out. Dripos is one flat $160 a month per our pricing page. That includes the order system, scheduling, inventory, mobile ordering, and marketing tools. Square charges per location, from $0 (Free) to $49 (Plus) and $149 (Premium), and lists add-ons separately. Payroll is $35 a month plus $6 per person, and inventory by MarketMan is $99 a month per location. A Square Plus shop with both is about $183 a month in base fees. Dripos with payroll is $190.
Card rates are close too. In person, Square Free and Dripos both charge 2.6% + 15¢. For online and app orders, Dripos is 2.6% + 30¢ against 2.9% to 3.3% + 30¢ on Square.
Running a cart or a small shop? We have a discounted Dripos Lite plan built for you, and we support a lot of carts and small shops. And if the price is a stretch for your business, talk to us. We are a small, flexible team, and we would rather find something that works than lose you over a number.
One thing to check on any platform: ask what you will actually be billed. Square's page lists loyalty, scheduling, and online ordering as features without a separate price.
Who should pick what
Pick Square if your business is retail-heavy with thousands of SKUs, or if you run table-service dining. Those are things Square is built for.
Pick Dripos if you run a coffee shop, cart, or mobile operation and want POS, scheduling, inventory, payroll, and an order app in one place, built for coffee, with a team that works as your partner. See how it works on our coffee shop POS page.
Whichever you choose, run your own numbers. Pull last month's sales, your transaction count, and your online share. It takes ten minutes.
