Retail POS · reliability comparison
Shopify POS vs Square for Retail: which is more reliable? (2026)
Shopify POS is more reliable than Square for Retail, scoring 99.6 vs 53.3 out of 100. Over the last 90 days Shopify POS reported 1 incident and Square for Retail reported 13, with effective uptime of 100% and 98.92% respectively.
Data updated Nov 1, 2026 · How we score
VS
| Metric | Shopify POS | Square for Retail |
|---|---|---|
| Reliability score | 99.6 | 53.3 |
| Rank (retail POS systems) | #1 | #8 |
| Uptime (90 days) | 100% | 98.92% |
| Incidents (90 days) | 1 | 13 |
| Partial / major outages | 0 | 0 |
| Avg time to resolve | — | 11h 54m |
| Outages we detected | 0 | 0 |
| Transparency score | 100/100 | 100/100 |
Where Shopify POS and Square for Retail differ
- Square for Retail reported 13× as many incidents as Shopify POS over the last 90 days (13 vs 1).
- Shopify POS's longest incident on record lasted 42m (Oct 29, 2026); Square for Retail's lasted 17h 43m (Apr 30, 2026).
90-day uptime
Shopify POS
Square for Retail
- No incidents
- Degraded
- Partial outage
- Major outage
- No data
Recent Shopify POS incidents
- InformationalOct 29, 2026 · resolved in 42m
Some merchants encountering error messages within their admins
Recent Square for Retail incidents
- Degraded performanceOct 27, 2026 · resolved in 45m
Affected: Point of Sale, Kitchen Display System (KDS)
- Degraded performanceSep 27, 2026 · resolved in 4h 25m
- Degraded performanceSep 24, 2026 · resolved in 12m
- Degraded performanceSep 21, 2026 · resolved in 2d 4h
- Degraded performanceSep 18, 2026 · resolved in 3h 54m
- Degraded performanceSep 18, 2026 · resolved in 15h 7m
Other retail POS systems to consider
- Loyverse · #2 · 99.91% uptime
- Clover · #3 · 99.88% uptime
- Epos Now · #4 · 99.86% uptime
- Revel Systems · #5 · 99.84% uptime