Choice vs Square
Choice is a European alternative to Square: same crm & marketing use case, headquartered in Czechia and governed by EU GDPR, while Square (Block) is based in the United States.
By the EU Alternatives team Last updated
- Jurisdiction
- EU / EEA
- Primary privacy law
- EU GDPR
- US CLOUD Act exposure
- No
- Open source
- No
- Free tier
- No
Card payments in minutes, with free POS software, a reader you can buy off the shelf and same-day onboarding that small merchants rarely find elsewhere. In-person cards cost 2.6% plus 15 cents, online 3.3% plus 30 cents, with no monthly software fee. Square belongs to Block, Inc., whose executive office is in Oakland, California.
- Jurisdiction
- United States
- GDPR by default
- Requires DPA + TIA
- US CLOUD Act exposure
- Yes
Choice vs Square at a glance
| Choice | Square | |
|---|---|---|
| Headquarters | Czechia | United States |
| Data jurisdiction | EU / EEA | United States |
| Primary privacy law | EU GDPR | Requires DPA + transfer assessment |
| US CLOUD Act exposure | No | Yes |
| Best for | Teams that need crm & marketing built for European data-protection requirements | Teams already invested in the Block ecosystem |
Choose Choice if…
- You want a provider governed by a European privacy regime
- GDPR or public-sector data-protection requirements apply to you
- You'd rather back the European tech ecosystem
Stick with Square if…
- You depend on integrations only available in the Block ecosystem
- Your organisation has no EU data-residency constraints
- Migration costs outweigh the jurisdiction benefits for now
Why choose Choice over Square?
The decisive argument is data jurisdiction. Square is headquartered in the United States, which means personal data processed through it can be subject to non-EU legal regimes: the US CLOUD Act, FISA 702, or similar laws depending on the provider. After the 2020 Schrems II ruling, EU organisations must carry out a transfer impact assessment for every such data flow.
Choice removes that overhead. As a Czechia-based provider, it operates under EU GDPR, and data stays inside the EU/EEA by default. For regulated sectors such as health, public administration, and finance, that's not a nice-to-have but a requirement. For everyone else, it's concentration-risk insurance: you avoid depending on a single jurisdiction that can change the rules without warning.