Can you run memberships on Square? The UK guide (2026)

Short answer. Not directly. Square in the UK offers recurring billing through recurring invoices and a points programme through Square Loyalty, but neither is a walk-in membership: there is no way to sell a monthly plan with in-store entitlements, redemption caps and a wallet pass, then check members in at the counter. Most UK shops on Square that want a Pret-style membership run a dedicated membership platform alongside their Square till. Platforms like PerkClub are POS-agnostic, so nothing has to integrate and nothing touches the till; PerkClub also offers an optional Square integration that logs kiosk redemptions in Square as orders automatically, included with every plan.

What people mean by "membership on Square"

When a UK shop owner searches for "Square membership" or "Square subscriptions", they usually mean one specific thing: a paid monthly plan their customers can join, with a real perk attached. A coffee a day. A weekly blow-dry. Ten per cent off everything plus a free pastry each visit. The customer pays every month, walks in, shows something at the counter, and redeems.

A quick word on the words. The billing behind a membership and a subscription is identical: a fixed amount, charged monthly. The relationship is not. A subscription is something people tolerate and cancel: a streaming service, a gym contract, a box that keeps arriving. A membership is something people belong to: their coffee shop, their barber, their name known at the counter. Same direct debit, different feeling. That is why this guide, and PerkClub, talk about memberships. If you arrived here searching for subscriptions, you are in the right place; you may just leave preferring the other word.

That model has three moving parts:

1. Recurring billing. Charging the member automatically every month.
2. Entitlements. Knowing what each member is allowed, and how often: one drink per day, two washes per week, whatever you set.
3. In-store redemption. A fast way for staff to confirm the member is active, check today's allowance, and mark the perk as used.

Square, which is genuinely excellent at running a till, covers part one and offers a separate points product nearby. It does not cover parts two and three. That gap is the whole story, so let's be precise about it.

What Square actually offers in the UK

Two Square products come up in this conversation, and they are different things.

Recurring invoices (Square's subscription billing)

In the UK, Square's recurring billing lives inside Square Invoices. You set up a recurring series from the Square Dashboard, the customer gives one-time consent to keep a card on file, and Square charges that card on the schedule you choose (Square Support Centre). Payments are taken automatically at 10:00 local time on the scheduled date, and card-on-file and invoice payments are processed at 2.5% per transaction for UK cards (Square pricing).

For what it is, it works well. If you sell a monthly produce box, a weekly flower delivery or a fixed retainer, recurring invoices will bill it reliably. But billing is all it does. There is no concept of an in-store allowance, no counter check-in, no way for a barista to know whether this customer already had today's coffee. It moves money on a schedule; it does not run a membership.

Square Loyalty

Square Loyalty is Square's points programme, and it is a proper product in the UK. Customers enrol at the point of sale, online or via a signup link, earn points on what they spend, and redeem points for rewards on a later visit. They can even add a loyalty pass to Apple Wallet to track their balance. UK pricing is per location per calendar month, tiered by loyalty visits: £25 for 0 to 500 visits, £45 for 501 to 1,500, and £65 for 1,501 or more, where a visit counts each time a customer enrols, earns a point or redeems. There is a 30-day free trial (Square Loyalty UK).

Loyalty is the mirror image of a membership. Points are retroactive: the customer spends first and the reward follows. A membership is contractual: the customer pays up front and the perk is the product. One rewards past behaviour; the other books future revenue. We compare the two models in depth in PerkClub vs Square Loyalty, and if you are weighing up loyalty tools generally, the Square Loyalty alternatives guide covers that ground.

Where the membership gap is, precisely

Put the two Square products side by side with what a membership needs and the gap is easy to see.

Recurring entitlements. A membership is a promise: "£40 a month gets you a coffee a day." Square can bill the £40 through a recurring invoice, but nothing in Square knows about the coffee. There is no object in the system representing what the member is owed this month, this week or today.

Redemption caps. Caps are what make a generous perk financially safe. "One drink per day" is the difference between a membership that grows margin and one that gets drained by edge cases. Neither recurring invoices nor Square Loyalty can enforce a daily or weekly limit on a perk. Loyalty caps redemptions only in the crude sense that points run out.

Wallet passes for membership. Square Loyalty offers an Apple Wallet pass for points balances, which is genuinely nice. But a membership pass is a different artefact: it identifies the member, reflects whether their billing is active, and updates when their plan changes. Square has no equivalent because it has no membership object for a pass to represent.

Counter redemption. The moment of truth is a queue at 8:40am. Staff need a flow that answers "is this member active, and have they had today's perk?" in a second or two. Square's till answers "how much does this cost?", which is a different question.

None of this is a criticism of Square. It is a payments and POS company, and the till side of its product is among the best available to UK independents. Memberships are simply a different product category, in the same way that rota software and accounting software are different categories. Square does not claim otherwise: nowhere in its UK lineup is there a membership product.

The comparison, in one table

Three different tools for three different jobs. The mistake to avoid is stretching one of the first two to do the third's job: a recurring invoice with a note in the memo field saying "one coffee per day" is a membership programme enforced by memory and goodwill.

How UK shops run a membership alongside Square today

Here is the honest version of how this works, because it matters: PerkClub does not need to integrate with Square. PerkClub is POS-agnostic by design. Square runs the till; PerkClub runs the membership rail. The two systems stay decoupled, which means there is nothing you have to connect, nothing to configure and nothing that can break your till. For shops that want the two joined up, there is now an optional Square integration: every kiosk redemption is logged in Square as an order automatically, so nothing is re-keyed at the till. It is included with every plan, and it is deliberately built so that a Square problem can never hold up the counter. The one-paragraph version is at does PerkClub work with Square?

Day to day it looks like this:

1. Members join online. Your membership page carries your branding, your plans and your prices. Members pay monthly by card and get a pass in Apple or Google Wallet.
2. Members redeem at the kiosk. The PerkClub kiosk is a web page, so it runs in any browser on a spare tablet or phone at the counter. The member scans their pass, the kiosk confirms they are active and shows what today's allowance is, and the redemption is logged with the cap enforced automatically.
3. The redemption lands in Square. With the Square integration switched on, each scan is logged in Square automatically as an order with the redeemed items on it, recording the redemption rather than taking a payment. Without it, staff simply ring the item through the Square till as a £0 line item, as with any other POS.

That is the whole setup. Nothing is required to connect, and the till never depends on PerkClub. If you ever change POS, the membership keeps running untouched, and the same is true in reverse: nothing you do in Square can affect your members. The full flow is on the how it works page, and if you run a coffee shop specifically, the coffee shop page shows worked examples of plans and caps.

The economics are what make this worth a second device on the counter. A shop with 100 members at £40 a month books £4,000 of monthly recurring revenue, £48,000 a year, before anyone walks in. Square Loyalty at its best lifts visit frequency by a few percentage points; it cannot book a pound of next month's revenue, because points are earned after the sale by definition.

Who should stay Square-only

Being fair cuts both ways, so here is when you should not add a membership platform.

Your recurring product is delivered, not redeemed. If you sell a monthly box, a delivery subscription or a retainer, there is no in-store redemption moment and no cap to enforce. Square's recurring invoices bill it cleanly, and adding a membership platform would be paying for machinery you will not use.

You want points, not plans. If your goal is a light-touch nudge on existing spend and you are happy with the points mechanic, Square Loyalty is the cheapest competent option for a Square shop, and the one-click setup inside your existing dashboard is a real advantage.

You are not ready to design a perk. A membership lives or dies on the offer. If you have not yet worked out what you can give generously and sustainably, start there; the FAQ covers how shops usually price their plans. Launching a membership with a thin perk is worse than not launching one.

If two or more of those describe you, stay Square-only with a clear conscience. If none of them do, and what you actually want is booked monthly revenue and a perk your members use in store, then the tool you are looking for is a membership platform, not a Square setting you have missed.

Bottom line

Square in the UK gives you excellent payments, a solid till, recurring billing through invoices, and a competent points programme in Square Loyalty at £25 to £65 per location per month. What it does not give you, anywhere in the UK product line, is a membership: recurring entitlements, redemption caps, a membership wallet pass and a counter check-in flow. Shops that want the Pret model on a Square till run both, side by side: Square at the till, PerkClub as the membership rail. Nothing has to integrate, and your till stays exactly as it is; if you want the two connected, the optional Square integration logs kiosk redemptions in Square as orders automatically, included with every plan. See what's included and pricing, or compare the models directly in PerkClub vs Square Loyalty.

Common questions

Does Square have a membership feature?

Not as a single product in the UK. Square offers recurring billing through recurring invoices and a points programme through Square Loyalty, but there is no built-in way to sell a monthly membership with in-store entitlements, daily redemption caps and a wallet pass. Shops that want that run a dedicated membership platform alongside their Square till.

What is the difference between Square Loyalty and a membership?

Square Loyalty is retroactive: customers earn points after they spend and redeem them later. A membership is contractual: the customer pays you a fixed amount every month and receives a defined entitlement, such as a drink a day, in return. Loyalty rewards past spending; a membership books future revenue.

How much does Square Loyalty cost in the UK?

Square Loyalty is priced per location per calendar month, tiered by loyalty visits: £25 for 0 to 500 visits, £45 for 501 to 1,500 visits, and £65 for 1,501 or more. A loyalty visit counts each time a customer enrols, earns a point or redeems a reward. There is a 30-day free trial.

Can I run a membership programme without changing my POS?

Yes. A POS-agnostic membership platform runs alongside any till, including Square. Members redeem at a separate kiosk or counter screen, staff ring the item through the till as normal, and nothing about your Square setup changes. Shops on Square can also switch on PerkClub's optional Square integration, which logs each kiosk redemption in Square as an order automatically so nothing is re-keyed at the till.

Does Square do subscriptions in the UK?

Yes, through recurring invoices with a card on file: Square bills a fixed amount on a schedule, and it works well for exactly that. But it only handles the payment. It does not track what the customer is entitled to in store or cap how often they redeem, which is what separates a subscription charge from a membership.

Is a membership the same as a subscription?

The billing is identical: a fixed amount charged monthly. The relationship is not. A subscription is something people tolerate and cancel; a membership is something people belong to, with a named perk they use in person. For a walk-in business, membership is the better word and the better product, which is why PerkClub describes itself as a membership platform.