Shift4 vs Genius

PayPal

Venmo

Stripe

PayPal provides an end-to-end suite of tools that can integrate with a business's existing systems and service providers. Its network of shoppers and businesses provides AI-driven data insights to help businesses reach new customers and drive results.

Venmo is a digital wallet and payment gateway that allows customers to send money and make purchases via mobile device, and share activity via the purchase feed

Stripe is a financial infrastructure platform that enables businesses to accept payments online and in person. It offers a suite of APIs for payment processing, subscription management, fraud prevention, and financial services integration Stripe provides both developer-focused tools with extensive documentation and no-code solutions for businesses without technical staff.

Shift4 (NYSE: FOUR) is boldly redefining commerce by simplifying complex payments ecosystems across the world. As the leader in commerce-enabling technology, Shift4 powers billions of transactions annually for hundreds of thousands of businesses in virtually every industry.

Data Security

Debit/Credit Card Processing

Electronic Signature

In-Person Payments

Mobile Payments

Multi-Currency

Multiple Payment Options

Online Payments

Partial Payments

Receipt Management

Recurring/Subscription Billing

Reporting/Analytics

Transaction Monitoring

Shift4

Web-based

Square Point of Sale

Clover

Square Payments

Cash App

Shopify

Wave

Clio

Basic

Manager

After 40 years of delivering food trying to change and have third company handling my delivery need, Barely started with skytab, at the same time with chownow to handle my delivery’s customers and found out that these two doesn’t work together, hoping they start soon

Owner

when you call for issues, you're on the phone for ever. If you have a Server that runs a credit card on the wrong check and the guest has already left, you as the merchant eat that check amount!

Shift4 then deliberately circumvented this block by using alternate business names to attempt to process payments—a blatant act of fraud.

POS system was unreliable, I was on the phone for 2-3 hours every month with them to push updates that would rarely come through.   When I called to cancel they wanted me to buy the contract out on the back end even though there was a documented history of their system not being reliable.

Integration Specialist

It seems to have its ability to grab information and connect to many sources for our CRM.

It was a pretty easy system, The workflow was nice with starting tabs and I enjoyed the backend product.

We had outages with Shift 4 and that impacted checking in guests for our hotel.

Companies like this do not deserve a chance to earn your business, save the nightmare and go with toast, this company sucks!

The terminals were returned and I did not hear anything else until I got an automated ticket notification 2 months later and then a RMA request another 2 weeks after that.

Our experience with Shift4 / Lighthouse has been nothing short of a nightmare, and we want to warn other businesses before they fall into the same trap.

Cases were marked as “resolved” automatically after five days, even though nothing had been fixed or explained.

I would be willing to change my review if customer service would work with me on the fee as they have been good in previous years about reversing fees for services was not using when calling in.

They hide the contract length and early termination fees for their contract via a website titled terms and conditions.

Customer service was helpful at this time and reversed some previous fees for services I was not using and put me on a basic plan and assured me there would be no additional charges.  

I want a report that shows me Total deposit amount, what transactions were included and what fees were taken.   If you want to see that you have to look at multiple reports, it's very confusing and difficult to enter info into our accounting software.

President

I moved from IRN card processing to Shift4 with the understanding that monthly Reporting and Fees would be more transparent and easily understood. While the fees charged actually showed up in the month they were incurred, the reporting did not reflect the actual transactions.

Even though our hotel was in DC and centrally located it took a long time for anyone to figure it out.

owner

They have added monthly fees and a contract which is charging $525 in early termination fees.  

We strongly advise all small businesses to avoid Shift4 / Lighthouse at all costs.

Shift 4 is our processor but cannot help you retrieve a credit card mistake!

The icing on the cake was our new card processor could not get us installed before our 12 month contract expired, so Shift4 charged us for the entire following 12 months of support and reporting.

Co-CEO

They are now trying to have me cancel and pay $2,400 or charge me $310 a month in no usage fees

Owner 

Bugs with Advantage, Dual Charges, Tax Calcs, Handhelds, gift cards, reporting, on and on and on.

General Manager

After telling us they would match we stayed only to find out they didn't match.   When we approached shift 4 with this, the response was sign this new contract.  

At the start of 2025 ( January 2nd) noticed a 189.00 charge on my bank account  and called the next day to find out what is was for.

This all-in-one system simplifies operations, allowing us to focus more on customer service and less on administrative tasks.

They refused to refund me even though I had proof that I was unable to access the equipment to return it.

It offers a seamless blend of sales processing, inventory management, and customer tracking.

Delay in processing credit cards.   After you select cc you have to wait until it connects to the reader,  Only about 5 seconds but seems like a long time when we are busy.

They said if I switched over to charging the customers 3%, there would not be any fees.  

I also do not like that they do not involve the sales rep and others when developing the menu for your resturant, the developers need to observe how a restaurant is run before they build it out.

Continued to charge fee after service cancelled and then charged high fee to cancel.

This thing is like learning another language.

No where on the agreement is any mention of contract length or fee for early termination.

We went with Clover after spending over 50 hours on hold with them and getting nowhere and now we can’t even ship their crappy product back to them because they don’t have us listed as owners of the company that they send bills to.

It has been a terribly exasperating experience to try and get information out of them to try and understand their reports.

I also love that it helps keep track of employee time locks, and generates reports on sales etc.

Then when I need just certain things from a daily report it gives me too much information and there is no way to tailor it to what we need and customer support does not help much as they don’t seem knowledgeable.

We called several times and told them WE DON'T have them and "customer service " said there is nothing they can do.  

Nothing to report because we didn’t receive anything but debits to our bank for nothing.

Shift 4 charged me $2600 for not having the equipment returned in time!

We still took the $3K buy out option, just to get rid of this awful company.

Customers have to jump through hoops to get technical support.  

We have been charge for 15 months in the raw.

I have a great local rep that I always have to call because the larger company usually cant help.

Customer service can improve, when I call several times they seem not as knowledgeable and have to follow up everytime keeping me hold for a long time.

Pricing

Customer Support

Credit Card Processing

Phone Support

Sales and Billing

Restaurant Operations

Reporting

Equipment Charges

Transaction Processing

Service Cancellation

Freelancers

Small Business

Large Enterprises

Mid-size Business

Fishbowl

Designed with simplicity and efficiency in mind, Fishbowl’s complete manufacturing and inventory management solution transforms the inventory process and uses automation to help growing businesses make strategic and precise decisions based on real-time data and cut costs.

NetSuite

NetSuite is an AI-powered cloud-based business management suite. It helps organizations streamline their operations and gain real-time insights into their performance. The suite caters to a range of industries such as manufacturing, retail, and professional services.

Odoo 

Odoo is an all-in-one, open-source business platform covering CRM, Sales, Accounting, Inventory, Manufacturing, and Projects. It’s fully integrated, customizable, and scalable for companies of any size or budget.

Genius is the all-in-one cloud POS built for retail, restaurant and enterprises. With powerful — but user-friendly — features, it helps businesses of all sizes operate smarter, delight customers and maximize profits.

Access Controls/Permissions

Ad hoc Reporting

Alerts/Notifications

Automated Scheduling

Barcode/Ticket Scanning

Bar Tab Management

Billing & Invoicing

Customer Database

Data Visualization

Delivery Management

Electronic Payments

Employee Database

Employee Management

For Bars/Clubs

For Food Trucks

For Restaurants

Gift Card Management

Inventory Control

Inventory Tracking

Loyalty Program

Mobile Access

Multi-Location

Online Ordering

Online Time Clock

Order Entry

Order Fulfillment

Order Management

Order Tracking

Payment Processing

Payroll Management

Point of Sale (POS)

Promotions Management

Purchase Order Management

Real-Time Data

Reporting & Statistics

Restaurant POS

Rewards Management

Sales Reports

Table Management

Third-Party Integrations

Timesheet Management

Tips Management

Transaction History

Waiting Time Tracking

Wait List Management

Genius

iPhone

iPad

Digital creator

It improves efficiency, simplifies operations, and supports smooth day-to-day restaurant management, making it a reliable choice for many restaurant environments.

Ambassador

One of the biggest strengths I like about Genius-restaurant is its simplicity and order of management, the brand focuses on delivering good food which makes it appealing to wide range of customers and suppliers as well as management in the company.

Supplier

I could manage and monitor my order without no hard learning curve lastly the payment process is easy and I can track my transactions from A-Z

It seems like the  new updates on the devices with whole touch screen, that has helped us taking the payments more convenient

Marketing and Sales

Orders are easily placed with just a few clicks; The price charged initially is very acceptable; Reports that are essential for understanding the business are easily obtained in the tool; Quality stock control; The service and support team is very good and can resolve situations easily and effectively.

Pastry Chef

Heartland Restaurant provides us with an outstanding online ordering tools that has helped us to simplify the whole food ordering process from check out to delivery.

Restaurant Manager

Heartland restaurant makes payment management so much easier in my opinion because of its quick POS system, super helpful customer care support and the option to take payments right from my phone at the go

Assistant Manager

The inventory management system is not robust and does not accommodate most of the products we need to track.

Talent acquisition specialist

Inventory management is easier with the help of this software, user can track their ingredient and can prevent the shortage while in peak business hours.

HR Manager

Inventory management that sync perfectly with our ecommerce website ensure all the product is correctly counted and make no mistake with missing product or sold-out.

Sales

Heartland Retail helped to make it easy to running a retail operation, tracking order/inventory and flawless payment processing from different payment option.

Accounting Admin

Being that there is such a wide feature set the learning curve did take a bit of time but that is expected with any intricate app.

Finance Manager

Genius makes it easy to recruit and manage candidates and this creates an organized hiring process

Administrative Manager

Table-side ordering and payment: Customers can order and pay for their food at their table but many times customer face problems in ordering their food.

The one saving grace is that their local support is very responsive, but they can't fix most of our issues.

Associate recruiter

It has been wonderful to manage our restaurant hassle free and Everything including payment , ordering , reports of order can be easily managed from the dashboard.

Our previous cash drawer isn't compatible with Heartland Retail POS system, we had to buy a new hardware for it to work and it is working smoothly after the change.

Executive director

Some of their staffs can speak English fluently and they don't attend to customers on time which make a lot of people complain about the restaurant

Marketing Manager

Cheapest payment fees charged by the payment processor and solved every issues that we had with payment and retail processing issues.

Village ops facilitator

Heartland Restaurant is truly exceptional in operating with vast amount of tools to easily order , manage restaurant and delievery management as well.

At times, there can be slight delays or communication challenges.

The label printer will not connect to the new system and my sales rep told me to not add it to the POS because it could slow it down and now I’m realizing he must have known how terrible and slow the new system is because he cautioned me multiple times about adding anything else to the POS.  

Genius requires some employees to learn and understand how the application operates

Operation Clerk

Impressive sales order management that integrate easily with CRM platform to sync between the two software in real-time.

Athlete

Overall, my experience with Genius – Restaurants was positive. Despite the costs and limited flexibility, the benefits of increased visibility, smoother operations, and ease of use made it a valuable tool for the business.

In as much as Genius Restaurant is concerned they’re well positioned, secured, organized and managed I highly recommend its service as prior to their unique food and settings, they’re well enjoyable.

Operations Manager

Heartland Retail is the helpful solution that makes us manage any retail process and penetrate to different markets.

Shift4 vs Genius Comparison (2026)

Shift4

Genius

Overview

Video & Screenshots

Pricing

User reviews

Key features

Integrations

Alternatives