Kaspa vs Square: a free POS that works in Sri Lanka

Every few months someone in a small business WhatsApp group asks the same question: “I saw a YouTube video about Square POS. Can I use it for my shop in Colombo?” The short answer is no. Square is not available in Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, or most of South and Southeast Asia. Its hardware does not ship to these countries either. And even if you found a way to set up a Square account through a US LLC and a routed bank, you would still need a stable internet connection, an Apple or Android tablet, and a willingness to pay a per-transaction fee on every sale you ring up.

This article explains why that is, what shop owners outside the US, UK, Australia, Canada, France, Ireland, Japan and Spain are actually doing, and why Kaspa is the closest like-for-like — but free and built for the way shops here run.

The 30-second answer

If you are a small shop owner in Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka adjacent, or anywhere Square does not serve, your real options are:

Kaspa — free, browser-based, offline-first, 23+ language AI assistant, available globally
Loyverse — free tier with limits, app download, partial offline, no AI
Local POS resellers — usually $30–80 a month, often offline-friendly, language support varies

This post is about why Kaspa is, in practice, the closest thing to Square for someone who liked the Square pitch — clean app, fast checkout, sells from a phone — but with a few important differences that actually matter outside North America.

Why Square is not available here

Square’s parent company is Block, Inc. They are a US payments company. They built Square around a core service: card processing. The POS is a layer on top of that. Every sale you make on Square either goes through their card reader, their tap-to-pay service on your phone, or their manual card entry, and Block takes a cut of every transaction (typically 2.6% + 10 cents in the US, varying by country).

That model requires Block to have a banking and card-acquiring license in every country they operate in. Acquiring those licenses takes years. It is not a question of Square not “caring about” markets like Sri Lanka — it is that the regulatory build-out has not happened, and probably will not for a long time.

The practical implications for a shop owner in Colombo:

No app. The Square Point of Sale app on Google Play is geo-restricted. If your phone is registered in a country Square does not serve, you cannot install it.
No hardware. Square’s readers, registers, and printers do not ship here. Even if you import one, it will not pair to an account.
No payments rail. Even if you had the app, you cannot process customer cards through Square.

If you read a “Best POS systems 2026” article that lists Square at #1, the author is almost certainly American. The list does not apply to you.

What Square does well — and what to look for instead

Square’s reputation is deserved. The app is clean. The checkout is fast. The marketing is honest. They were the first big POS company to take “anyone can sell” seriously.

When a shop owner says “I want something like Square”, they usually mean one of these things:

Sell from my phone, no register required. This is what Kaspa does. Open pos.trykaspa.com in Chrome on the phone you already own. No hardware purchase.
A modern checkout that doesn’t look like Windows XP. Kaspa’s sell screen is designed for the same thing. Big buttons, tap to pay, scan to add, done in 3 seconds.
Easy enough that I don’t need an IT person. Kaspa goes further — there are zero settings screens. The AI assistant handles configuration in conversation, in Sinhala, Tamil, or English.
Inventory and reports without a spreadsheet. Kaspa does both, with the assistant proactively telling you what is running low and how sales compare week-on-week.

So the spirit of the Square pitch — modern, mobile, friendly — is exactly what Kaspa is. The execution is just localised for here.

Where Kaspa goes beyond Square

A few things Kaspa does that Square does not, even in the US:

Works fully offline

Square needs internet for many core operations. Their offline mode is limited to card-not-present sales for a few hours, with restrictions. Kaspa runs every sale, every product edit, every inventory adjustment 100% on the device. Lose your connection for an entire day, you can still sell and edit your catalog. Sync happens automatically when the network returns.

In Sri Lanka, where router reboots and ISP outages are part of the texture of a normal week, this is not a “nice to have”. It is the difference between selling and turning customers away.

No app to install

Square requires you to install their app from the App Store or Google Play. Kaspa does not. It is a Progressive Web App — it runs in Chrome, and you can “Add to Home Screen” for a native-feeling icon. Your phone treats it like any other app. There is nothing to download.

This also means any phone with a recent Chrome works. The cheapest Android in the market today can run Kaspa. You do not have to buy a Square-approved iPad.

AI configures everything

Square has a settings panel — actually a whole admin dashboard. You configure tax rates, payment methods, modifiers, employees, and so on through nested menus. Kaspa has none of that. Open the assistant. Say “Set tax to 8% and add a cashier named Niro with PIN 1234.” Done.

For a shop owner who has never touched a POS before, this changes the learning curve from “spend the weekend with YouTube tutorials” to “open the link and start asking”.

Speaks Sinhala, Tamil, and 21 more languages

Square’s interface is available in a small number of languages, mostly the ones their target markets speak. Kaspa’s AI assistant speaks Sinhala, Tamil, Hindi, Tagalog, Bahasa, Thai, English and 20+ more, and it understands code-switching mid-sentence. The UI is translated too.

Free forever, not “free for the first device”

Square has a free tier. Then it has a monthly tier (Square Plus, around $29/month per location) and a custom-priced enterprise tier. The free tier is genuinely capable, but the moment you add a second register, advanced reporting, or some inventory features, the price ladder kicks in.

Kaspa is free across the board. Two registers, ten cashiers, a thousand products, unlimited AI messages — same $0 a month. See our pricing for the line item list.

No hardware lock-in

Square strongly nudges you toward their card readers and registers. Kaspa works with any 58 mm or 80 mm thermal printer, any USB or Bluetooth barcode scanner, any cash drawer. The hardware your local supplier carries works. The printer you may already have works.

Where Kaspa is intentionally narrower than Square

We do not believe in pretending to be everything.

No card processing yet. Square is, fundamentally, a card processor with a POS attached. Kaspa is a POS. If you want to take cards in Sri Lanka today, you use a local processor like PayHere, IronOne, or Sampath. Card receipts can still be tracked in Kaspa — pick the “Card” payment method on checkout. We are working on direct integrations, and we will write a post when they ship.
No restaurant table service yet. Square’s restaurant tier supports table service, splits, and a KDS. Kaspa is excellent for takeaway, counter-service cafes, and small kitchens, but full table service is on the roadmap, not in the product today.
No e-commerce store builder. Square has a website builder bolted on. We do not. Use a separate Shopify or Stan store if you want online sales — Kaspa stays focused on physical sales.

If you need any of the above today, you have a real reason to look elsewhere. For everyone else — corner shops, pharmacies, hardware stores, groceries, market stalls, takeaway food, salons, micro-retailers — Kaspa is the closer fit.

The honest “Square alternative” matrix

	Kaspa	Loyverse	Square
Available in Sri Lanka	Yes	Yes	No
Free tier	Unlimited everything	Limited features	Limited then paid
Install required	No (browser)	Yes (app)	Yes (app)
Works fully offline	Yes (sales + edits)	Partial	Limited, time-bound
AI assistant	Yes	No	No
Sinhala / Tamil support	Strong	Limited	None
Card processing	Use local provider	Use local provider	Built-in (where available)
Time to first sale	60 seconds	15–30 min	15–30 min
Monthly cost	$0 forever	$0 with limits → paid	$0 with limits → paid

A note on the “I just want Square” objection

We hear this a lot. “I watched a YouTube video. I want exactly that experience.” Two responses.

First, the parts of Square that look great in the videos — the speed, the simplicity, the no-IT-required feeling — are exactly what we obsessed over when we built Kaspa. Open Kaspa once and ring up a sale. We are confident you will recognise the feeling. (Side note: we think our 3-second checkout is faster than Square’s in practice. Try it.)

Second, anything in Kaspa that is missing today is on a list, and it is a list that ships. Card integrations, table service, and KDS are all priorities. We are a small team. We move quickly. If you switch now, the updates land for free, automatically, without you ever opening an App Store.

How to start

There is nothing to install. There is nothing to buy. Open pos.trykaspa.com on your phone. Sign in with your phone number. Tell the assistant what you sell. Ring up your first sale.

If you would rather read first, here is what’s in the free tier and the full feature list. When you are ready, the link is the same.

Square is excellent — for the markets it serves. For the rest of us, Kaspa is the answer that is actually available.