You shut the cafe on Saturday with a good day of card sales on the terminal and none of it is in your bank account. The milk invoice is due Monday, the wages run Tuesday, and the takings are sitting somewhere between the terminal and the bank until the banks open again. Every cafe, salon and counter business in Australia lives with a version of that gap, and the two names most owners are choosing between are Zeller and Square. Both work. Both are cheap to start. The question is where the fees actually land once you add up a real month, and from 1 October 2026 that question gets sharper, because the card surcharge disappears and the whole fee comes out of your margin.
Zeller charges 1.4% on every in-person card payment, including American Express, and its published rate includes GST. Square's rate is 1.6% for any account opened since 30 May 2024, and its pricing page does not say whether GST is included or on top. Settle into Zeller's own transaction account and the money lands every night, including weekends. On Square it arrives the next business day for free, or straight away for 1.5% more. On a quiet counter the difference is a coffee a day. On a busy one it is a wage.
| The decision row | Zeller | Square |
|---|---|---|
| Tap, insert and swipe rate | ✓1.4%, all cards, GST included | ●1.6%, all cards, GST not stated |
| Terminal | ●$99 on sale, normally $199 | Reader $65, Terminal $329 |
| Monthly software fee | $0 | $0 on the free plan, from $129 a month for the restaurant plan |
| Money in your account | Every night to a Zeller account, next business day to your own bank | Next business day free, instantly for 1.5% |
| Surcharging from 1 October 2026 | Gone. The fee comes out of your price | Gone. Square switches the setting off for you |
Prices as published on each company's own pricing page, 4 September 2026, worked out in the sections below.
Which one is cheaper?
Between Zeller and Square, Zeller wins on the rate, by 0.2 of a percent. Whether that matters depends on how much goes through the terminal, so count last month's card sales before you read anything else on this page.
Take a cafe putting $30,000 a month through the terminal. Zeller takes $420. Square takes $480. That is $60 a month, or $720 a year, for exactly the same tap, which is a fortnight of milk for most cafes. A smaller counter doing $8,000 a month pays $112 on Zeller and $128 on Square, and at that size the hardware price matters more than the rate: Square's little reader is $65, Zeller's terminal is $99 on sale and $199 at full price, and Square's own terminal is $329. One catch on the Square side: if you opened your account before 30 May 2024 and still tap on the little reader, you may be on the older 1.9% rate, and it is worth checking your last statement.
Most owners end up comparing Zeller vs Square vs Tyro in the same sitting, and Tyro is the one that charges rent. Its rate is 1.3% including GST, lower than both, and the terminal costs $19 or $29 a month depending on the model. Tyro also has an app that turns your own phone into the terminal for no rent at all, which on paper beats Zeller as well, if you are happy tapping cards on a phone at the counter. Above $20,000 a month Tyro asks you to call for a custom quote, and it is running an introductory 1% rate until 31 March 2027 for new customers over that line who apply before 24 November 2026. So on a busy counter the cheapest tap is probably a rented Tyro terminal. On a quiet counter it is Tyro's phone app by a whisker, then Zeller. Square is the dearest of the three either way.
| Card sales in the month | Zeller at 1.4% | Square at 1.6% | Tyro at 1.3% plus $19 rent |
|---|---|---|---|
| $8,000 | $112 | $128 | $123 |
| $15,000 | $210 | $240 | $214 |
| $30,000 | $420 | $480 | ●$409before the custom quote |
Illustrative arithmetic from each company's published rate, 4 September 2026, using Tyro's cheapest terminal. Your mix of cards and your volume will move these, so redo the sums with your own figures.
Is GST included in the rate?
On Zeller, yes. On Square, the pricing page does not say. Zeller's pricing page states in writing that the 1.4% is inclusive of GST. Square's page lists 1.6% with no GST note, while the Afterpay rate on the same page is marked as excluding GST. Owners have asked the question on Square's own community forum without getting an answer. That is the kind of difference a comparison page skips and a bookkeeper notices, so ask Square in writing before you compare, because a rate with GST added on top is a different rate from one that includes it.
When does the money arrive?
Every night on Zeller, if you settle into its own account. Next business day on Square. The nightly settlement, including weekends and public holidays, applies only to the Zeller Transaction Account, which is a free business account with a Mastercard attached. Point Zeller at your existing bank instead and it becomes the same next business day as Square, where the free transfer lands the next business day and an instant transfer costs 1.5% with a cap of $5,000 a day.
For a business that trades on weekends and buys stock on Mondays, nightly settlement is the difference between paying suppliers from this week's takings and paying them from last week's. That is worth more to a lot of cafes than the 0.2% on the rate.
What changes on 1 October 2026?
The surcharge goes, on both. The Reserve Bank of Australia has banned surcharges on eftpos, Mastercard and Visa from 1 October 2026, and American Express is dropping them on the same day. Square will switch off the surcharge setting on your account for you. Zeller merchants lose it the same day. Either way the 1.4% or 1.6% comes out of your menu prices from that morning, so this is the month to reprice, and the month the rate difference starts to show in your margin rather than on your customer's receipt.
Two things survive the ban. You can still offer a discount for cash or for a bank transfer, and you can still keep a card minimum, as long as you decline the payment rather than charge a fee for it. The Reserve Bank is also cutting the interchange caps behind the scenes, which should bring the underlying cost of cards down over time, though neither Zeller nor Square has announced a rate cut on the back of it yet.
Which one holds your money?
Both can. Owner reviews on Trustpilot and ProductReview describe funds held on both after a large or unusual payment while the company asked for documents. That is how every payment company works, because they are on the hook for fraud, and the fix is the same on both: keep your ABN details, your ID and your invoices up to date, and answer their questions the same day they ask. A frozen settlement on the week you owe wages is the real risk in this whole comparison, and it has nothing to do with the rate.
What do you get past the terminal?
Past the terminal, Zeller adds a bank account and Square adds a shop. Zeller's terminal comes with a free transaction account, a debit card, invoicing, and a built-in point of sale on the newer terminal at no monthly cost, all connected to your Xero through a bank feed that updates through the day. Square's free plan gives you the point of sale, inventory, online ordering and invoicing, and for a full cafe or restaurant setup with a kitchen screen the plan is $129 a month per location. Square also connects to Xero. Use the free tiers on both until something you actually need is missing.
How we read each one
With Square, our morning report reads your sales straight from Square through a read-only connection you set up and control. With Zeller, the same numbers arrive through your Xero bank feed, and we read Xero. Either way you open the morning report before the doors open and it has yesterday's takings, what is sitting unpaid, and what needs a decision today, without you exporting anything. We wrote up what goes into it in the daily business report.
Where to start
Count last month's card sales, decide whether nightly settlement matters to you, and pick from there: Zeller if you want the lower rate and the money every night, Square if you want the shop software and already run on it. Then make it earn its keep. We build the systems on top of whichever one you run: enquiries answered while you are on the coffee machine, the follow-up that gets a regular back in the door, invoices chased in your own words, and the morning report above pulling your sales and your money into one page. Everything is approved by you before it reaches a customer, and your terminal stays exactly where it is. You can see the whole thing working on our demonstration website for a cafe, built on the Sunshine Coast.
Our prices are flat and published: the Engine is $3,500 one-off and element packs are $950, yours outright. Or start smaller: answer a few short questions and the 60 minute consult is $295, credited toward a build.