The short answer
If you take payments with Square, Square's own loyalty programme is the simplest option to compare: it is managed from the same Dashboard as your register. It is not always the cheapest, because its price follows the number of loyalty visits each month.
Minerva Flow is a different route, not an extension of Square. Minerva Flow does not connect to Square and claims no partnership with it. It runs beside your register: guests join by QR code or at the counter, keep their card in Apple Wallet or Google Wallet, and your staff adds the visit at the counter. See Without changing your register.
Minerva Flow publishes this guide and is one of the options described. Square's figures come from its official page, named below.
What Square publishes (Canadian page, checked November 14, 2026)
| Item | What Square's page says |
|---|---|
| Price | $60 a month per location for 0 to 500 loyalty visits, $100 for 501 to 1,500, $140 from 1,501 |
| What counts as a visit | A customer enrols, earns a point or redeems a reward |
| Commitment | No long-term contract |
| Billing | Based on each location's loyalty visits in the previous month (Square help article) |
| Trial | 30-day free trial for Canadian businesses |
These are the prices on the Canadian page at the time we checked. Square may change them, so confirm on its page before you sign. We did not confirm whether the amounts include taxes.
What this means for a restaurant
Square's price rises with traffic. That is fair from Square's side, but it changes your reward maths.
Fictional example, using the published prices. A café logs 450 loyalty visits a month and pays the first tier, $60. At 520 visits it pays $100 the next month. At 1,501 visits or more the bill is $140. Minerva Flow charges Flow Core at $149 a month per location, whatever the number of visits.
Two things follow:
- At low volume, Square costs less than Flow Core. If you only want points, that is a serious argument.
- At high volume, the gap narrows. Flow Core also includes the online menu, orders and reviews, and a free plan with a basic loyalty card exists. See Pricing for details.
Ask Square how it counts a visit where a guest earns a point and redeems a reward at the same time. The page does not say.
What Minerva Flow adds beside Square
- A card in the phone's wallet. Guests keep it in Apple Wallet or Google Wallet, with no app to install. See Minerva Flow loyalty.
- A fixed price per location. Flow Core: $149 a month for one location, $129 each for 2 to 5, $109 each for 6 to 15. The trial lasts 14 days, with no credit card.
- A free plan with no time limit. It includes the online menu and the basic loyalty card.
- Plans with a team. Growth plans start at $749 a month.
What Minerva Flow does not do
It does not read your Square sales or credit points on its own. Your staff finds the guest at the counter by code, phone or name and adds the visit. At the rush, that is one more step than a programme built into the register. That is the cost of keeping your register and leaving it later without losing your guests.
How to decide in ten minutes
- Count last week's visits and multiply by four to estimate a month.
- Place that number in Square's tiers to get its price.
- Compare with Flow Core and with the free plan.
- Ask someone to join each programme with no coaching.
- Pick a single reward rule whose cost you know. The guide to reward cost helps you price it.
Privacy in Quebec
Whatever the programme, you collect personal information: a name, a phone number or an email. Quebec's Law 25 asks you to tell guests why you collect it and how to withdraw consent. Details are in the 2027 guide to restaurant loyalty in Quebec.
Sources
- Square Canada: loyalty software, checked November 14, 2026 (tier prices, definition of a loyalty visit, trial).
- Square help article on Square Loyalty pricing, checked November 14, 2026 (billing on previous month's visits).
- Minerva Flow pricing and Without changing your register.
Method. We read the official pages above on November 14, 2026 and did not trial Square's product. Square's Canadian prices come from its public page and may have changed. Examples are fictional. Minerva Flow publishes this guide and has a commercial interest.
