# Square vs Vendure

> Vendure scores 70.9 (BB) on agent readiness against Square's 69.2 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Square leads on agent ergonomics. Both do commerce products. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/square-vs-vendure
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/square-vs-vendure.md (~2,400 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/square-vs-vendure.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/square-vs-vendure.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-08

Vendure scores 70.9 (BB) on agent readiness against Square's 69.2 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Square leads on agent ergonomics. Both do commerce products.

- Square: grade B, 69.2/100, rank #166 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/square.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/square.json
- Vendure: grade BB, 70.9/100, rank #123 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/vendure.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/vendure.json

## Which one, for what

### Square (B)

Good for: Agents working for a seller already on Square, on catalogue, inventory, orders, payment links and customers, online and in person.

Ahead on:
- Agent ergonomics, 83 against 68

Also in its favour:
- Runs on your own machine
- No incidents deducted, where Vendure loses 3 points for them

Watch for: The MCP server is marked beta, and the remote server reaches production data only

### Vendure (BB)

Good for: TypeScript teams that want a typed GraphQL commerce server and will host it.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 89 against 58
- Payments & pricing, 45 against 40

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- Open source

Watch for: No vendor-hosted API. Vendure Cloud is only partly available


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Square | Vendure | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 58 | 89 | Vendure +31 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 87 | 91 | Vendure +4 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 83 | 68 | Square +15 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 67 | 65 | Square +2 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 45 | Vendure +5 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 81 | 85 | Vendure +4 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 70 | 67 | Square +3 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -3 | |
| **Total** | | **69.2 · B** | **70.9 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Square | Vendure |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Block, Inc. | Vendure (Elevantiq GmbH) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://mcp.squareup.com/mcp` | `https://readonlydemo.vendure.io/shop-api` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under the Square Developer Terms of Service. The MCP server and the OpenAPI specification on GitHub are Apache 2.0, and the Node.js SDK is MIT | GPL-3.0-or-later |
| Tools exposed | 3 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-09-16 | 2026-09-02 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-09-10 | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-09-15 | no date given |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 454k npm/wk, 72k PyPI/wk | 8.5k stars, 30k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 3/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**Square.** The REST API has a public OpenAPI 3.0 spec, OAuth scopes split by read and write for each resource, idempotency keys on writes and a free sandbox. The MCP server is in beta and its remote instance reaches production only. No numeric REST rate limits or SLA were found, and the status page recorded widespread errors on 27 September 2026.

**Vendure.** Full cart, coupon, shipping and payment flow in the GraphQL Shop API, with ErrorResult types an agent can branch on. No vendor-hosted API. Vendure Cloud is only partly available.

## Before you call either

### Square

1. Test against the sandbox first with the local MCP server and `SANDBOX=true`. The remote server at mcp.squareup.com reaches production only
2. Set `DISALLOW_WRITES=true` on the local MCP server when the task only reads
3. Call `get_service_info`, then `get_type_info`, before each `make_api_request`. The request body is otherwise untyped
4. Send a fresh `idempotency_key` on every write, and reuse it when retrying the same write
5. Pin `Square-Version` in each request. Use a page cursor within 5 minutes of receiving it

### Vendure

1. Keep the session token from the first Shop API response and send it on every call. It holds the active order
2. Check each mutation result's `__typename` and `errorCode`. Expected failures return 200 with an ErrorResult
3. Don't retry addItemToOrder blindly. Read the active order first, since a repeat adds the quantity again
4. For server-side work, enable `api-key` in authOptions.tokenMethod and give the key one role in one channel
5. Run 3.7.3 or later, and purge old job records, which may still hold session tokens

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Square or Vendure?

Vendure scores 70.9 (BB) on agent readiness against Square's 69.2 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Square leads on agent ergonomics.

### Do Square and Vendure need an API key?

Both take an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call Square and Vendure without installing anything?

Yes. Square has a hosted endpoint at https://mcp.squareup.com/mcp and Vendure at https://readonlydemo.vendure.io/shop-api.

### Are Square and Vendure open source?

No open-source release is listed for Square. Vendure is open source (GPL-3.0-or-later).


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/square-vs-vendure.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/square-vs-vendure.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "square", "b": "vendure"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare square vendure`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/square.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/vendure.json

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