Zluri vs Square
Side-by-side trajectory, velocity, and editorial themes.
Zluri is hardening into an access governance product, with SaaS spend management increasingly playing supporting role.
Zluri's recent releases are almost entirely identity-governance work: user-based access reviews, a revamped certification creation flow, customizable access request forms per application. The November 2025 App Insights release reframed the product as a 'governance-grade intelligence layer' surfacing orphaned admin accounts, SSO coverage gaps, and shadow IT in actionable cards. SaaS license and spend features still ship but no longer set the agenda.
The product is moving from SaaS spend tracking toward full IGA territory — competing less with Productiv or Torii and more with SailPoint and Saviynt at the lighter end. Each iteration on certifications, reviews, and request flows narrows the gap with enterprise IGA incumbents. The 2026 releases all sit in that lane.
Expect role-mining or risk-scoring next — the natural follow-on once certifications and request flows are mature. A 'least-privilege recommendation' agent layered on top of App Insights would also fit the trajectory and the broader market push toward AI-assisted governance.
Square is rebuilding itself around restaurants — and using AI and Cash App as the wedge.
Square's recent shipping pattern centers on food-and-beverage operators: voice-AI taking phone orders, side-by-side vendor cost comparison, multi-channel menu sync, and tighter integrations with Grubhub, DoorDash, and Uber Eats. The pricing model has been collapsed into a single monthly rate per tier (Free / Plus / Pro), replacing a patchwork of feature-by-feature add-ons. Underneath, Cash App's 57M-account network is being repositioned as a marketing surface for Square sellers via Neighborhoods. The old horizontal-POS positioning is visibly giving way to vertical depth in restaurants.
Square is converging on a thesis that vertical software plus AI doing operational work beats horizontal POS plus general-purpose payments. Voice ordering and Square AI Beta both push the product toward replacing labor and decisions, not just transacting. The Cash App side is moving from payment rail to demand-generation channel. Tier-flat pricing makes upgrade motions cleaner as more vertical features ship into Plus and Pro.
Expect voice ordering and Square AI to graduate from beta into paid tiers within the next two release cycles, with retail and appointments getting their own vertical AI surfaces after F&B. The Cash App Neighborhoods integration will likely expand from passive discoverability into outbound, seller-controlled campaigns.
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