Retail POS · reliability comparison
Square for Retail vs Zettle by PayPal: which is more reliable? (2026)
Zettle by PayPal is more reliable than Square for Retail, scoring 78.1 vs 53.3 out of 100. Over the last 90 days Square for Retail reported 13 incidents and Zettle by PayPal reported 2, with effective uptime of 98.92% and 99.82% respectively. Square for Retail resolves incidents faster on average (11h 54m).
Data updated Nov 1, 2026 · How we score
VS
| Metric | Square for Retail | Zettle by PayPal |
|---|---|---|
| Reliability score | 53.3 | 78.1 |
| Rank (retail POS systems) | #8 | #6 |
| Uptime (90 days) | 98.92% | 99.82% |
| Incidents (90 days) | 13 | 2 |
| Partial / major outages | 0 | 0 |
| Avg time to resolve | 11h 54m | 12h 51m |
| Outages we detected | 0 | 0 |
| Transparency score | 100/100 | 100/100 |
Where Square for Retail and Zettle by PayPal differ
- Square for Retail reported 6.5× as many incidents as Zettle by PayPal over the last 90 days (13 vs 2).
- Square for Retail fixes problems faster: 11h 54m on average, against 12h 51m for Zettle by PayPal.
- Square for Retail's longest outage on record lasted 17h 43m (Apr 30, 2026); Zettle by PayPal's lasted 3d (Nov 14, 2025).
90-day uptime
Square for Retail
Zettle by PayPal
- No incidents
- Degraded
- Partial outage
- Major outage
- No data
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
Recent Zettle by PayPal incidents
- Degraded performanceOct 30, 2026 · resolved in 2h 34m
Unable to contact Support team
Affected: UK, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands +6 more
- Degraded performanceOct 7, 2026 · resolved in 23h 8m
DNS incident presenting errors
Affected: UK
Other retail POS systems to consider
- Shopify POS · #1 · 100% uptime
- Loyverse · #2 · 99.91% uptime
- Clover · #3 · 99.88% uptime
- Epos Now · #4 · 99.86% uptime