thread Re: Own PC/Hardware for Square in Hardware Setup & Troubleshooting

Own PC/Hardware for Square

michelle_sk8 — Sun, 21 Sep 2025 11:08:47 GMT

Hello,

Can we use an existing Point of Sale PC we have with Square POS software or do we need to purchase Square hardware products? If we can use our own, where do I find the URL for the POS Location/Devices I setup?

Thank you

Michelle

Re: Own PC/Hardware for Square

Arie — Thu, 24 Nov 2022 23:36:13 GMT

Hey @michelle_sk8,

Welcome to the seller community and thanks for writing in with this question!

While you can't download our point-of-sale app onto a PC, you can use the Virtual Terminal on a browser and connect it to the Square Terminal to take in-person payments. Learn how here.

You can also download our point-of-sale software on tablets, or mobile phones listed as compatible here to accept payments via the Square Reader.

I hope this clears things up, let us know if you have any other questions.

Re: Own PC/Hardware for Square

michelle_sk8 — Mon, 28 Nov 2022 05:54:34 GMT

Hello Arie,

Thank you for the info. As I understand, the Square software/apps have no SaaS/upfront fees associated, the way you pay for the software is by %age of sales that are processed via the "Terminal".

Part 2 of question:

We would like to test drive the software on the PC Touchscreen (POS) hardware we have. I am presuming we cannot until a Square Terminal is connected. True?

Thank you,

Michelle

Re: Own PC/Hardware for Square

Arie — Tue, 29 Nov 2022 00:22:06 GMT

That's right, @michelle_sk8, you can use the point-of-sale software for free, and only incur a fee when processing card payments. The easiest way to get an idea of what the point of sale interface looks like would be by downloading the app on a mobile or tablet.

The Virtual Terminal, which you can visit on your Dashboard, is a more minimal interface https://squareup.com/dashboard/pos/overview. You can manually enter card payments via the Virtual Terminal without the need for a physical terminal. Manually entered payments attract a fee of 2.2%, compared to 1.6% on the Square Terminal, or 1.9% on a Square Reader. You can learn more about our fee structure here.