Square Payroll vs. Wise

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Square Payroll
Score 6.1 out of 10
N/A
Square Payroll is a payroll solution for hourly employees, from Square headquartered in San Francisco, California.
$0
per month
Wise
Score 9.4 out of 10
N/A
Wise, formerly TransferWise, from the company of the same name headquartered in London, provides international accounts and payment solutions for businesses. Wise helps businesses pay international invoices, vendors, and employees with the real exchange rate, in 80 countries, boasting cheaper rates than traditional banking options. It also helps to make faster, lower-cost payouts to all business customers, freelancers, employees, investors, and suppliers around the world.
$0.02
One time/%
Pricing
Square PayrollWise
Editions & Modules
Free
$0
per month
Plus
$29
per month
Premium
Custom
ATM Fees over 100 USD per month
2%
One time/%
Accounting Funding transactions
2%
One time/%
Receiving USD wire payments
4.14 USD
One time/%
Getting the Wise Debit card
5 USD
One time/%
Getting account details in 10 currencies
31 USD
One time/%
Sending money
From 0.41%
One time/%
Converting money
From 0.41%
One time/%
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Square PayrollWise
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Square PayrollWise
Features
Square PayrollWise
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
Square Payroll
7.8
Ratings
5% below category average
Wise
-
Ratings
Pay calculation8.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Support for external payroll vendors8.60 Ratings00 Ratings
Off-cycle/On-Demand payment4.40 Ratings00 Ratings
Benefit plan administration9.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Direct deposit files7.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Salary revision and increment management8.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Reimbursement management7.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Square PayrollWise
Small Businesses
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Score 9.5 out of 10
Square Invoices
Square Invoices
Score 9.2 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Paypro Workforce Management
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Score 9.7 out of 10
Apple Pay
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Score 9.3 out of 10
Enterprises
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Adyen
Adyen
Score 8.8 out of 10
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User Ratings
Square PayrollWise
Likelihood to Recommend
4.7
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Square PayrollWise
Likelihood to Recommend
I would say that Square Payroll is perfect for companies that don't exceed 100 employees. The multistate payroll system allows for us to be able to handle business with ease when we go do work in Mississippi or Arkansas. The multiple payout options are great for our particular business. We might deal with a multimillion dollar contract one day and a $120 order the next.
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Transferwise it is great for transferring money across countries (never for transfers within the same country) and when the countries in question use different currencies. It is very quick, especially if the amount is not big. For larger amounts, it would take longer so it would be good only if you are not time-constraint.
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Pros
  • 1099 contractor payments are easy, and they provide you with the IRS filing as part of the service.
  • Direct deposit/debit from your already connected account to the employee.
  • Reporting and management features are simple yet inclusive.
  • Low cost compared to alternative solutions.
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  • Quick - because funds are transferred domestically, even when going international, you don't have to wait long.
  • Easy - the printout of what information I needed to give the sending bank was complete and easy to understand.
  • Affordable - the fees on both ends were minimal.
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Cons
  • [In my experience] they can cancel your service at any time, without warning or explanation. When they do this your funds are held by them for up to 90 days, at which time they are presumably accruing interest on your money. This could take a small business under very quickly and there is nothing you can do about it.
  • [I believe] getting verified is complex and not customer friendly. Until you are verified you can't talk to payroll customer service, which is paradoxical. Even getting a hold of account services for this purpose is tricky and exceedingly time-consuming, plus they can not answer most questions directly.
  • [I feel] they don't communicate well, closed my account with no notice whatsoever. The only notification I had about the need to verify my account was one easily lost email. Not having responded to this email fast enough created months of stress and difficulty in the setup process, only to find in the end I would need to start from scratch to attempt to sign up again.
  • [In my experience] if they close your account you can never reopen it. You have to start a new account from scratch.
  • [In my experience] they can hold your money and not deposit funds if your account is "under review". This can happen without explanation. No customer service is directly available for this. I was told I had to wait for them to call me.
  • [I believe] they are either lying, or the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing to such an extent that they give a great deal of misinformation.
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  • TransferWise (at the time of this review) does not allow one to transfer money to all kinds of business accounts. This can be a limitation for people who want to use it as a way to pay directly for goods and services.
  • Sometimes it has problems with some credit cards. But the most popular types are accepted without problems.
  • TransferWise accepts fewer currencies than other services. But it seems like this is a temporary problem, and the company is making efforts to support transferences to all of the currencies.
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Usability
It could use a mobile-friendly interface. Other than that it's a simple layout and non-cluttered which allows you to get done what you need to get done. No unnecessary dodads or distractions.
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No answers on this topic
Support Rating
I think they have quick and helpful customer service reps, however, I give them a 9 because I have had to wait on hold for long periods of time before.
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We haven't really had to engage with TransferWise support. The platform is simple and easy to use.
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Alternatives Considered
We have tested the QuickBooks Online platform. Before using Square, we tried QuickBooks, but the experience we had was not to our liking. QuickBooks Online is a much more complicated platform to use, the interface is much larger and has complexity in the configuration of the collection of hours of work of the employees. In addition, QuickBooks technical support does not respond in time to users' doubts, on several occasions we had several doubts about the operation of the platform and the response was too late and inconsistent. We decided to use Square Payroll because it offered us a much more accessible UI, a simpler but more precise interface for what we needed in our company, to be able to make payroll payments and make detailed reports on the workers.
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Apple Pay has high fees and hidden charges, not easy to use and it does not really support enterprises. It is also not regulated by MAS so we don't feel safe using it. Transferwise account was easy to set up (within minutes), the admin fee is low and the pricing is very transparent (no hidden fee). Lastly, we needed a platform which is safe to use and we are happy to know that Transferwise is regulated by the MAS of Singapore.
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Return on Investment
  • Square Payroll has dramatically reduced the time it takes to process payroll.
  • We could have a faster payroll with the Square POS integration for commission, but that is not something we've implemented yet.
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  • We can save around 5% on our transfer fees
  • The online account management is easier than going into banks personally
  • There's no negative impact...
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ScreenShots