Two tools that meet at the menu
Square is a point of sale, payments, and ordering company. On September 29, 2026 it prices restaurants on one set of plans, the same on its restaurant POS page and its online store page: Square Free at $0 a month per location, Square Plus at $49 a month per location, Square Premium at $149 a month per location, and Square Pro with custom pricing for sellers over $250,000 a year. Square has also renamed “Square Online” to websites. Card processing is charged on every sale.
In Square, the menu is a catalog: items, prices, modifiers, and categories that feed the register, the online ordering page, kiosks, and delivery apps. Square’s support pages describe menus with set hours “for dayparting (e.g. lunch versus dinner service).” That catalog is what guests order from online.
Gaslamp is only the menu a guest reads. You pick one of eight designs, type your dishes over the sample menu, and get a hosted menu, a QR code that never changes, printable table tents, and a print-ready PDF. It takes no orders and no payments. Different job, which is why many restaurants will want Square and a menu tool, not one or the other.
Square and Gaslamp, side by side
Every Square fact below comes from squareup.com on September 29, 2026. Where Square does not say, the table says Not listed.
| Row | Square | Gaslamp |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly price | Free $0, Plus $49, Premium $149, each per location. Pro: custom. Annual pricing: Not listed. | $19 a month, or $190 a year. Per account, not per location. |
| Per-sale fees | Free: 2.6% + 15¢ in person, 3.3% + 30¢ online. Plus: 2.5% + 15¢ and 2.9% + 30¢. Premium: 2.4% + 15¢ and 2.9% + 30¢. | None. Gaslamp takes no payments. |
| Trial | Plus and Premium: “free 30-day trial.” If you do not choose, “you’ll automatically be downgraded to the Free plan.” | 30 days, no card. |
| QR codes | QR code ordering on Plus and Premium, one code per table or ordering spot. Not on Square Free. A view-only menu code: Not listed. | One code per menu that never changes, for every table. Five styles. |
| Printed QR pieces | “Generate and print your QR codes.” Designed table tents or signs: Not listed. | Table tent (4×6), window sign (letter), counter card (3×5). |
| Printed menu | A menu designer from your catalog: Not listed. Free Word, Excel, and PDF templates on its blog, behind a sign-up form. | Print-ready PDF in eight designs from the same edit, on paid plans. |
| Online ordering | Yes, “commission-free delivery and pickup orders” that sync with Square POS. Delivery adds a provider fee. | None. |
| Time-based menus | Menu hours for dayparting; time-based categories on Plus and Premium. | No. |
| Languages | Plus and Premium, through the Weglot app or separate translated sites. | English only. |
| Dietary info | Optional nutrition information, “dietary preferences, and allergens” on prepared food items. | Eight dietary tags, shown on the hosted menu and the PDF. |
| Hardware | “Hardware is not included with your subscription.” Not needed to take payments, per Square. | None. A phone browser. |
Where Square wins
- It takes the money. Payments, the register, the kitchen display, online ordering, and delivery, all from one catalog. Gaslamp does none of that.
- Change a price once. In Square, a new price in the catalog reaches the register and the ordering page together. Gaslamp does not sync with Square, so you change the price in both.
- Guests can order from the table. Square Plus maps a QR code to each table for ordering and paying. A Gaslamp code opens a menu to read; the server still takes the order.
- A $0 way in. Square Free has no monthly fee and includes a website builder and an ordering profile. You pay per sale instead.
- Dayparts and languages. Menus with set hours, and translation on Plus. Gaslamp has neither.
Where Gaslamp wins
- The menu on the table looks like your restaurant. Eight designed menus, your logo and colors, printed from a real PDF. Square’s catalog is built for ordering screens, and a printed menu designer is not listed.
- One code for every table, printed once. A Gaslamp code opens the same menu from every seat and never changes. Table tents, a window sign, and counter cards come ready to print.
- Reading is not ordering. Plenty of dining rooms want guests to read the menu on a phone and still order from a person. A per-table ordering code is the wrong tool for that room.
- No per-sale fees and no per-location plan. $19 a month flat. Nothing is taken out of a check.
- A QR menu without Plus. Square lists QR code ordering on Plus at $49 a month per location. Gaslamp’s QR menu is part of the $19 plan, and it is in the free trial.
Who should pick which
If you need to take payments, you need a point of sale, and Square is a strong one for independents with a $0 plan to start. If you want guests to order and pay from the table, Square Plus does that with a code per table. Gaslamp is not a substitute for either.
If you already run Square and the problem is the menu guests read, add Gaslamp. Keep the register in Square. Put a designed printed menu and a QR menu on the table from Gaslamp, and update both when prices move. That second step is the honest cost of using two tools: our price update guide lists every place a price lives, the POS included, in the order to change them.
If you are not on Square and do not take orders online, a POS is more than you need for the menu. Start with the menu.
Running both, in practice
- Set up the menu in Gaslamp once, starting from your Square item list or current printed menu as a head start. Write guest-facing descriptions there.
- Print the Gaslamp QR code on table tents for reading. If you use Square Plus for table ordering, keep those codes separate and labeled “Order here.”
- When a price changes, change it in Square first (that is what charges the guest), then in Gaslamp from your phone, which takes about thirty seconds.
- When a dish sells out, 86 it in Square and switch it off in Gaslamp. The hosted menu catches up about thirty seconds after you save.
What Gaslamp does not do
- No payments, POS, ordering, delivery, or kitchen display.
- No Square sync, and no Toast, Clover, or delivery-app sync either.
- No per-table QR codes, no time-of-day menus, no translation.
- Up to three labeled prices per item, from $1 to $9,999, and 12 sections of 20 items per menu.
The verdict
Square is how many restaurants take money, and its menu lives to serve the register and the order page. Gaslamp is the menu guests read, on paper and behind a code that never changes. If you need to sell online, pick Square. If you need the menu on the table to be right and look like your room, add Gaslamp. For other options, see the QR code menu software roundup.