Payment Processors · reliability comparison
Square Payments vs Stax: which is more reliable? (2026)
Square Payments is more reliable than Stax, scoring 53.3 vs 49.0 out of 100. Over the last 90 days Square Payments reported 12 incidents and Stax reported 4, with effective uptime of 98.93% and 98.48% respectively. Square Payments resolves incidents faster on average (12h 49m).
Data updated Nov 1, 2026 · How we score
| Metric | Square Payments | Stax |
|---|---|---|
| Reliability score | 53.3 | 49.0 |
| Rank (payment processors) | #10 | #11 |
| Uptime (90 days) | 98.93% | 98.48% |
| Incidents (90 days) | 12 | 4 |
| Partial / major outages | 0 | 2 |
| Avg time to resolve | 12h 49m | 21h 59m |
| Outages we detected | 0 | 0 |
| Transparency score | 100/100 | 100/100 |
Where Square Payments and Stax differ
- Square Payments reported 3× as many incidents as Stax over the last 90 days (12 vs 4).
- Stax had 2 partial or major outages, compared with 0 for Square Payments.
- Square Payments fixes problems faster: 12h 49m on average, against 21h 59m for Stax.
- Square Payments's longest outage on record lasted 17h 43m (Apr 30, 2026); Stax's lasted 2d 2h (Oct 27, 2026).
90-day uptime
Square Payments
Stax
- No incidents
- Degraded
- Partial outage
- Major outage
- No data
Recent Square Payments incidents
- Degraded performanceSep 27, 2026 · resolved in 4h 25m
- Degraded performanceSep 24, 2026 · resolved in 12m
- Degraded performanceSep 21, 2026 · resolved in 2d 4h
- Degraded performanceSep 18, 2026 · resolved in 3h 54m
- Degraded performanceSep 18, 2026 · resolved in 15h 7m
- Degraded performanceSep 16, 2026 · resolved in 34m
Recent Stax incidents
- Partial outageOct 27, 2026 · resolved in 2d 2h
Potential Funding Delayofficial update ↗
Affected: Settlements, Fees, and Payouts
- Partial outageOct 20, 2026 · resolved in 14h 41m
Funding Delay October 20, 2026official update ↗
Affected: Settlements, Fees, and Payouts
- InformationalOct 7, 2026 · resolved in <1m
- Degraded performanceSep 28, 2026 · resolved in 49m
Affected: Scheduled Payments, Stax API