DNA Payments vs Dojo Payment Processing

Verdict

• Dojo, hospitality and single-site merchants.
• DNA Payments, omnichannel businesses that need one acquiring relationship across in-store, online and mobile channels.
• The two companies are independent competitors. DNA Payments Group (FRN 806630) built its business through eight acquisitions of UK payment businesses. Dojo is a trading name of Paymentsense Limited (FRN 738728), owned by Typhoon Noteco. Neither acquired the other.

Best For

• Dojo, restaurants, pubs, and cafés using Kobas, Tevalis or another of Dojo’s 450+ EPOS integrations. Merchants where next-day settlement is operationally important. Any hospitality operator who wants built-in cashless tipping and Dojo Bookings (online reservations, virtual queue) without paying for a separate system.
• DNA Payments, multi-site businesses or ecommerce-first brands that want a single acquirer for in-person, online gateway, pay-by-link and virtual terminal. Merchants who process high enough volume to negotiate bespoke interchange-plus pricing and absorb a 2–4-year minimum term.

Not Ideal For

• Dojo, if you need an omnichannel gateway and want a single commercial relationship across online and in-store. Dojo’s online product exists but it’s secondary to its card-present offering.
• DNA Payments, if you’re a small-volume merchant who can’t absorb a long minimum term or negotiate rates from a position of strength.
• Neither, if you process under £10,000 a year. Both providers’ minimum monthly charges make them poor value at that scale. SumUp or Square will cost you less until your volume grows.

Key Facts

• Dojo pricing: 1.2% blended on all cards below £100k annual card turnover (custom above), plus a £0.05 per-authorisation fee. Software Essential is free, Plus is £11.99/month per location for new customers (£25 otherwise).
• DNA Payments pricing: quote-only across all channels.
• Dojo hardware: bought outright (from £149) or rented (£15–£25/month).

Which Is Better for Hospitality Businesses?

If you run a restaurant, pub or café and your biggest headaches are cash flow timing, tableside tipping, and keeping your EPOS system talking to your card reader, Dojo solves all three without asking you to switch systems.

If you run a restaurant, pub or café and your biggest headaches are cash flow timing, tableside tipping, and keeping your EPOS system talking to your card reader, Dojo solves all three without asking you to switch systems. That’s the short answer.

Dojo’s built-in cashless tipping is available on every device. Customers are prompted at payment; the merchant sets the percentages. The Dojo Pocket device is designed specifically for tableside ordering and payment in full-service restaurants.

Dojo Bookings is included rather than sold as a separate add-on. It combines online reservations and a virtual queue with Google discovery and the Dojo diner app, reducing the number of systems a restaurant has to manage.

DNA Payments has a hospitality angle: it announced a partnership with Hospitality Digital Services in November 2024. But no feature-level tipping product or bookings system sits on DNA Payments’ public website.

Dojo comes out ahead when cashless tipping and EPOS connectivity decide the purchase. We based that judgement on the providers’ published feature sets, where Dojo gives hospitality businesses the more complete package.

The main cost to watch with Dojo is the contract. For businesses under £1m card turnover it runs a 12-month initial term, then rolls monthly, with one month’s notice.

DNA Payments typically runs 2–4-year minimum terms, long enough that a restaurant group with a rocky first year could face meaningful exit costs.

Take a group running three restaurant sites with 80 covers each, all on Kobas EPOS. Dojo activates its Kobas integration in minutes, settlement lands the next working day, and built-in tipping removes the need for a separate tipping service.

DNA Payments could technically serve this group, but it would need a custom quote, a longer sales cycle, and wouldn’t offer the same depth of hospitality tooling out of the box.

For a group like that, we put Dojo first. DNA Payments belongs on the shortlist only when one acquiring contract across every site matters more than the hospitality tools included with Dojo.

DNA Payments vs Dojo Fees and Charges

Card Transaction Fees

DNA Payments does not publish a rate card. Dojo charges a 1.2% blended rate on all cards below £100k turnover, so you can model your costs before you sign. We set out both below.

DNA Payments does not publish a rate card. All in-person and online pricing is quoted per merchant based on volume and business type.

Third-party UK review sources (paymentmachine.co.uk, cardmachineproviders.co.uk) indicate typical debit card fees of 0.26%–0.29%, with overall transaction fees in the 1%–2% range and a fixed fee of approximately 20p per transaction. The same sources report a minimum monthly transaction fee of £10.

These figures are indicative only. They can help you judge whether a DNA Payments quote is in the right area, but they are not firm enough to support a contract negotiation.

Contact DNA Payments directly with your monthly volume and card mix.

Dojo charges a single 1.2% blended rate on all cards in person for merchants below £100k annual card turnover, Amex included, plus a £0.05 secure transaction fee per authorisation. Above £100k the rate is a custom quote; above £5m it is bespoke.

For online and card-not-present transactions (payment links, virtual terminal, checkout), Dojo applies a surcharge over the face-to-face rate, set by your plan, plus the same £0.05 secure transaction fee per authorisation.

We think quote-only pricing quietly favours the seller: it puts a time-poor owner on the back foot in a negotiation they did not ask for. Dojo’s published plans show you the rate before a salesperson is involved.

Monthly, Setup and Contract Costs

DNA Payments minimum monthly fee: £10. Dojo: Essential software free, Plus £11.99/month per location, hardware separate. The contract length difference is where the real cost lives, we explain the exit terms below.

Third-party reviewers report a minimum monthly transaction fee of £10 when your transaction fees fall below that amount. DNA Payments does not publish it.

Beyond that, there is no published monthly platform fee, your monthly cost is the sum of transaction fees on your actual volume, any add-on product fees (pay-by-link is reported as £5/month by third parties), and any hardware rental or setup costs agreed at signing.

Dojo’s software is free on the Essential plan; the Plus plan is £11.99/month per location for new customers and new locations, and £25 otherwise. Hardware is separate: bought from £149 or rented at £15–£25/month.

The 1.2% blended rate and the £0.05 per-authorisation fee are the running costs to model.

DNA Payments sets the minimum term in the merchant application form. Third-party reviewers report 2–4 years, with 4-year terms common, and a termination fee of £150–£159 if you exit early, on top of the remaining contract value for some service lines.

That is a material lock-in risk for any business that isn’t confident of its volume over a long horizon.

For businesses under £1m card turnover Dojo runs a 12-month initial term, then rolls monthly; above £100k turnover you can choose a 12-month fixed plan or a 30-day rolling one.

Dojo also covers a rival’s exit fees up to £3,000 if you switch from a previous provider, a genuine switching incentive that DNA Payments does not currently match in published form.

Other Fees to Watch

Dojo charges £0.50 per refund. DNA Payments does not publish its chargeback fees.

Dojo charges £0.50 per refund transaction. If your business processes returns regularly, fashion retail with a high return rate, for instance, that adds up: 100 refunds a month is £50 you might not have priced in.

DNA Payments’ chargeback fee is not published on its website, which matters most in a category with elevated dispute rates.

DNA Payments next-day settlement is reported as an optional add-on at £7.99/month by one independent reviewer.

Dojo includes next-day settlement at no additional charge, because Dojo’s pricing page lists next-day takings under what every package includes. If daily cash flow matters to your business, that is a real and meaningful cost difference, though the DNA Payments figure needs primary confirmation before you treat it as definitive.

Fee Verdict: Who Costs Less

Dojo lets you estimate the cost before speaking to sales. DNA Payments may still be cheaper for a merchant with enough volume to negotiate, but we can only call it the better deal once its quote beats Dojo for your actual mix of transactions.

For published, comparable pricing, Dojo is easier to assess. You can model your monthly cost before you sign. DNA Payments requires you to get a quote, which means a sales conversation, and rates that depend on your volume, card mix, and negotiating position.

At face value, Dojo’s 1.2% blended in-person rate for all cards is competitive for the mid-market. If DNA Payments quotes you below that for your actual volume, you have a better deal, but you can’t assume it will.

High-volume merchants (£1m+) will likely find DNA Payments interchange-plus pricing more cost-effective. Smaller operators are usually better served by Dojo’s published plans.

Our take: under roughly £1m turnover we rate Dojo the safer call, because you can price it before you commit. We only steer omnichannel sellers with real volume toward DNA Payments’ negotiated rates.

DNA Payments vs Dojo Payment Methods and Checkout Options

Cards, Wallets and Alternative Payment Methods

Both cover the card brands and digital wallets most UK customers use. Your sales setup separates them: Dojo is built around connecting the till and card reader, while DNA Payments covers a wider mix of in-store, online, mobile and unattended payments.

Both providers accept Visa, Mastercard, and Amex. Apple Pay and Google Pay are supported on both. That covers the vast majority of UK consumer card payments.

Dojo’s online checkout handles consumer and business cards, digital wallets, and standard card-present acceptance on its terminals.

Its Pay at Table and Pay at Counter modes integrate via EPOS, so your front-of-house flow and your card acceptance flow don’t run separately.

DNA Payments’ omnichannel stack covers in-person, online gateway, virtual terminal, pay-by-link, mobile, and unattended payments under one commercial relationship.

If you run petrol station forecourts, car parks, or vending machines alongside a physical shop, that breadth is a genuine advantage. Dojo does not publish an unattended payment product.

Checkout Experience

Dojo’s hosted checkout handles SCA automatically and reduces PCI scope. DNA Payments’ axept® POS gives you more custom logic if you need it.

Dojo’s online checkout is a hosted page handling 3DS/SCA automatically. For merchants without developer resource, it reduces your PCI compliance scope to the lightest SAQ A tier.

The virtual terminal lets you take card-not-present payments over the phone, useful for bookings and deposits in hospitality.

DNA Payments offers a hosted checkout, payment links, and a gateway API for custom integrations.

Its axept® POS software runs on Android smartPOS terminals and brings custom receipt templates, loyalty, and multi-operator modes. If your business needs bespoke POS logic, the axept® ecosystem gives you more flexibility than Dojo’s hosted checkout-first approach.

Neither provider currently offers the BNPL (Buy Now, Pay Later) or Open Banking pay-by-bank integrations that Stripe and some newer providers carry.

If alternative payment methods beyond cards and digital wallets are central to your checkout conversion, both are a weaker fit than a method-led processor.

Methods Verdict

Dojo wins on EPOS integration breadth. DNA Payments wins on channel breadth for omnichannel and unattended payments.

Dojo is the safer choice when keeping your existing EPOS system matters most: its 450+ integration partners mean yours is almost certainly supported. DNA Payments becomes more useful when the same acquiring relationship must also cover unattended terminals, mobile payments or a more complex gateway build.

Where the channels split, we side with Dojo for EPOS-led counter trade and DNA Payments for estates that genuinely run unattended or mobile payments too.

DNA Payments vs Dojo Hardware, POS and In-Person Payments

Card Readers and Terminals

Dojo Go is a PAX A920 smartPOS on a simple rental model. DNA Payments offers a wider range of terminal form factors, all on quote pricing.

Dojo’s primary device is the Dojo Go, a PAX A920 smartPOS with a 5-inch touchscreen, built-in receipt printer, WiFi/3G/4G connectivity, and a 10+ hour battery.

It is bought from £149 or rented at £15–£25/month, with £0 setup. The Dojo Pocket is a handheld ordering and payment device aimed at full-service restaurant tableside workflows. The Dojo Wired is the countertop option.

DNA Payments offers a wider hardware range: PAX A920 Pro, PAX Q25, PAX A35, Nexgo N86, SUNMI P2 Lite SE, SUNMI P2 Pro, and its own axept® PRO terminals covering mobile, countertop, unattended and SmartPOS form factors. Pricing is quote-only.

Third-party sources suggest terminals are provided free on sign-up for qualifying merchants, with a reported replacement fee of around £250.

POS Software and Hardware Add-ons

Dojo plugs into your existing EPOS, it does not push its own POS. DNA Payments’ axept® POS is proprietary and runs on its own terminals.

Dojo connects its reader to your existing EPOS rather than requiring you to adopt its own POS software. That is useful if your staff already know the current setup and you want to change payment providers without retraining them on a new till system.

DNA Payments’ axept® POS is an Android-based proprietary system that runs on its smartPOS terminals.

It supports custom receipt templates, multi-operator logins, loyalty card scanning, and integration with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Commerce (via MWC Partners, June 2025) and ETABS (retail/trade/warehouse platform, May 2026).

If you run a specialist platform already aligned to these ecosystems, DNA Payments may remove integration work you would otherwise have to build.

In-Person Verdict

Dojo wins for simplicity and hospitality. DNA Payments wins for terminal range and specialist POS ecosystems.

Dojo wins for simplicity and hospitality specificity. The Dojo Go is one well-specified device with a clear rental model, and Dojo Pocket adds genuine tableside functionality for full-service restaurants.

Dojo is the default when you want fewer hardware decisions and compatibility with the EPOS system already in place. DNA Payments makes more sense for unattended or mobile terminals, or for a business working within an axept® or Dynamics 365 setup, although quote-only pricing prevents a quick cost comparison.

On hardware we call it for Dojo on simplicity, and reach for DNA Payments only when you need a terminal form factor Dojo does not make, such as unattended.

DNA Payments vs Dojo Online Payments and Integrations

Hosted Checkout, Payment Links and APIs

Both offer hosted checkouts, but neither is built for ecommerce-first businesses. If online is your primary channel, shortlist Stripe or GoCardless instead.

DNA Payments covers hosted payments, payment links, telephone payments and custom checkouts through its gateway API. That range can suit a merchant processing enough online volume to negotiate, but custom pricing means the cost remains unknown until you enter the sales process.

Dojo’s online checkout is a hosted page with SCA handled automatically. It is designed to be fast to deploy, not deeply customisable.

Dojo lists Payment Links among its remote payment products, alongside Online Payments.

If your business lives primarily online and in-person payment is secondary, you should also look at Stripe or Worldpay before committing to either of these two providers.

Both DNA Payments and Dojo are primarily built around in-person acquiring, with online as an extension of that relationship.

Platform Integrations

Dojo integrates with 450+ EPOS systems but has limited ecommerce platform presence. DNA Payments connects to Microsoft Dynamics 365 and ETABS.

Dojo’s EPOS integrations (450+ partners) are its clearest competitive advantage. Lightspeed, Tevalis, Epos Now, and Kobas are named partners.

Dojo does not publish a Shopify or WooCommerce ecommerce integration as of May 2026, its integration story is primarily about connecting your card reader to your existing hospitality EPOS, not plugging into an online store.

If Shopify is your primary sales channel, Dojo is not the right fit and DNA Payments, or a Shopify-native processor, will serve you better.

DNA Payments’ integration highlights include Microsoft Dynamics 365 Commerce (via MWC Partners, June 2025), ETABS retail/trade platform (announced May 2026), and its own axept® POS ecosystem.

It acquired EFT Solutions to extend its portfolio. No confirmed Shopify or WooCommerce native integration was found in research.

Dojo integrates with QuickBooks natively for accounting. DNA Payments’ accounting integrations are not published on its website.

Online Verdict

Neither provider is the right choice if online is your primary channel. For omnichannel businesses, DNA Payments’ unified acquiring is the better offer.

Neither provider is optimised for ecommerce-first businesses. If your primary channel is an online store and card-present payments are secondary, Stripe or GoCardless (for recurring billing) will serve you better.

For omnichannel businesses where in-person is the primary channel and online is a secondary channel you want under the same contract, DNA Payments’ unified acquiring relationship is the more capable offer.

For hospitality businesses using an EPOS already integrated with Dojo, Dojo’s connectivity removes integration overhead and keeps your flow simple.

Online payments are the weakest part of both offers in our comparison. If your website is effectively your main till, we shortlist Stripe before either of these providers because both remain centred on card-present acquiring.

DNA Payments vs Dojo Payouts, Contract Terms and Account Risk

Settlement Speed and Payout Schedule

Dojo lists next-day takings as included with every package. DNA Payments does not publish a settlement timeline on standard terms.

Dojo lists next-day takings as included with every package.

For a restaurant group managing weekly payroll from card takings, a published next-day timeline is not a minor detail.

DNA Payments’ standard terms do not commit to a settlement timeline. Schedule 1 (clause 3.4.1) states DNA Payments is not obliged to settle before it receives funds from the card schemes.

Next-day settlement is reported as an optional add-on at £7.99/month by one third-party reviewer, but this has not been confirmed on DNA Payments’ primary website.

If settlement speed matters to your business, we rate Dojo the clearer, more evidence-backed choice here, because its next-day timeline is published and DNA Payments’ is not.

Contract Length and Exit Terms

Dojo: 12 months then rolling (30-day rolling above £100k). DNA Payments: typically 2–4 years. That is the single most important difference for most merchants.

DNA Payments sets the contract length in the merchant application form, and third-party reviewers report 2–4 years. If you cancel within 6 months of signing, the exit fee is 6x the monthly fees paid to date.

Third-party reviewers report a separate termination fee of £150–£159. For axept® services cancelled after the minimum term, the fee is the full remaining contract value. One month’s notice is required by the merchant after the minimum term.

For businesses under £1m card turnover, Dojo requires a 12-month initial commitment, then rolls monthly. Above £100k turnover you can choose a 12-month fixed or 30-day rolling term.

Dojo pays up to £3,000 towards your old provider’s cancellation fees, or up to £500 on its fixed-rate plan, a meaningful incentive if you’re currently locked into another provider.

Dojo does not publish early exit fees after the minimum term.

We treat contract length as the decisive line here: a 30-day rolling exit is worth more to most merchants than any rate DNA Payments is likely to quote for a two-to-four-year tie-in.

Reserves, Holds and Account Stability

Neither provider is known for aggressive account holds. The operational risk is contract lock-in, not reserve freezes.

DNA Payments has drawn contract-dispute complaints on Trustpilot, including reports of debt recovery actions on disputed terminations. If you’re signing a 3-year term, understand that the exit costs are enforceable, the contract is detailed and the early termination clauses are not soft.

Dojo complaints tend to focus on unexpected fee changes and cold-calling sales tactics rather than account holds.

The business is FCA-authorised under Paymentsense Limited (FRN 738728) and is regulated under the Payment Services Regulations 2017. No FCA enforcement actions were found during research.

The complaint patterns point more clearly to contract disputes than to frozen funds. We therefore judge the length and enforcement of the agreement to be the risk worth planning around with both providers.

DNA Payments vs Dojo Customer Reviews and Reputation

Trustpilot and Independent Review Themes

DNA Payments shows a 4.9 Trustpilot score across 1,786 reviews (checked 6 October 2026). Dojo shows 4.2 stars across 5,600+ reviews, a larger base.

DNA Payments reports approximately 4.9 stars (checked 6 October 2026) across 1,786 reviews on Trustpilot. A 4.9 score across a multi-year merchant base is unusually high, so we read it alongside the complaint themes below rather than on its own.

Positive themes in aggregated DNA Payments reviews: friendly staff, smooth terminal setup, responsive sales support.

Negative themes: contract disputes, exit fees higher than expected at signing, card machines requiring password resets mid-transaction, and debt recovery actions on disputed contracts.

If you’re considering a 4-year term, read a spread of the negative reviews before signing.

Dojo shows 4.2 stars across 5,600+ reviews on Trustpilot (checked 6 October 2026). The Dojo Go device scores 4.8/5 in hardware-focused review subsets. Positive themes: smooth installation, reliable next-day settlement, easy switching from previous providers.

The most common negative theme is persistent cold-calling sales tactics , the most frequently reported complaint by volume.

Support Channels and Response Times

Both offer phone and email support. Response time SLAs are not published by either provider.

DNA Payments offers UK-based telephone and email support. Specific response time commitments are not published on its website. Given the contract-length risks, the lack of a published service level counts against it.

Dojo’s support channels include telephone and online. Aggregated review data shows after-sales support quality is inconsistent.

Installation tends to go smoothly, but follow-on support has drawn lower ratings from a subset of merchants. The most consistent praise is for the settlement reliability, not the support team.

Reputation Verdict

Dojo has the larger Trustpilot base, 5,600+ reviews against 1,786, although DNA Payments scores higher. We suggest reading DNA Payments’ contract-dispute reviews before signing a long-term agreement.

Dojo has a larger verified review base and a cleaner reputation on the dimensions that matter most to operational merchants: settlement reliability and smooth hardware setup. The cold-calling complaints are a nuisance, not a financial risk.

DNA Payments’ 4.9 Trustpilot score is high. The pattern of contract-dispute reviews, exit fees higher than expected, debt recovery on disputed terms, is a signal worth taking seriously if you’re being asked to sign a 3–4-year contract. Go in with your eyes open on the terms.

Dojo leads on reputation in our assessment because its review base is larger and the complaints are less often about money at risk. DNA Payments’ contract-dispute reviews deserve particular attention before any multi-year agreement is signed.

DNA Payments vs Dojo for Rolling-Contract Hospitality

Rolling-contract hospitality is where the difference between these two providers is sharpest. Dojo’s 30-day Flex contract vs DNA Payments’ 2–4-year minimum, here is what that means in practice.

Contract flexibility is where Dojo’s commercial model most clearly outperforms DNA Payments. Above £100k turnover Dojo offers a 30-day rolling contract, and even its 12-month term rolls monthly after that.

If the relationship stops working, the integration breaks, fees increase without notice, you change EPOS systems, you can exit within a month.

DNA Payments’ standard minimum term of 2–4 years means you’re making a long commitment in an industry where circumstances change fast.

The practical difference: a restaurant group that signs with Dojo today and decides in 18 months it wants to change direction can do so at a month’s notice once the initial term has passed.

A restaurant group that signs DNA Payments into a 4-year term faces exit costs that could run to several thousand pounds depending on the remaining contract value.

There is one scenario where DNA Payments wins even for hospitality: a multi-site group (£5m+ annual card volume) that wants a bespoke interchange-plus rate, unified reporting across sites, and is large enough to negotiate contract terms from a position of strength.

At that scale, a 3-year commitment at a significantly lower blended rate could well save more than the flexibility premium of a rolling contract.

For a smaller hospitality business, we put more value on being able to leave than on a rate reduction that may or may not appear in the DNA Payments quote.

Downsides of DNA Payments and Dojo

Downsides of DNA Payments

Long minimum terms and no published pricing are the two biggest drawbacks. Read the exit-fee clauses before signing.

Long minimum terms. Most merchants sign 2–4-year contracts, and exit costs are material, reported at 6x monthly fees if you leave within 6 months, plus a termination fee of £150–£159.

For axept® services: the full remaining contract value. This is the single biggest operational risk for smaller businesses.

DNA Payments does not publish its pricing, so you cannot compare the likely monthly cost without entering a sales conversation. That slows down a decision that Dojo lets you begin with a visible rate.

DNA Payments’ reported Trustpilot score (4.9 across 1,786 reviews on 6 October 2026) is unusually high at this volume. Before signing a long-term contract, read the negative reviews carefully and weight them against the headline number.

No published settlement timeline on standard terms. Next-day settlement is reportedly available as an add-on, but not confirmed on the primary website.

We do not recommend DNA Payments to a small merchant that needs to know the cost before speaking to sales or cannot absorb a long contractual tie-in.

Downsides of Dojo

Cold-calling sales and limited accounting integrations. Online payments are a secondary product, not the core offering.

Cold-calling sales. The most common complaint in Dojo’s Trustpilot reviews is persistent outbound sales calls. Not a financial risk, but an operational irritant, register with the Telephone Preference Service if you’re not already on it.

Fee changes without sufficient notice. A subset of Dojo reviewers report fee increases that felt unexpected.

Limited accounting integrations. Dojo integrates natively with QuickBooks but not other major accounting platforms as of May 2026. If you use Xero or FreeAgent, check whether a third-party connector exists before assuming Dojo will reconcile cleanly.

Online secondary to in-person. If you need a full-featured online checkout or ecommerce integration as your primary payment channel, Dojo is not built for that use case. Its online product exists, but the product depth is weaker than dedicated online-first processors.

None of these are dealbreakers in our view.

Alternatives to DNA Payments and Dojo

If neither provider fits your volume or contract appetite, three alternatives are worth shortlisting.

If neither DNA Payments nor Dojo fits your business, three alternatives are worth shortlisting, particularly if you process under £50k a year or want a no-contract option.

SumUp

Payments Plus charges £19/month and cuts eligible UK consumer cards to 0.99%, with no contract and no minimum volume. If you process under £50k a year in cards, SumUp will almost certainly cost you less than either Dojo or DNA Payments.

Visit SumUp →

Square

Square charges 1.75% per transaction with no monthly fee, and its reader costs £19 + VAT. Its built-in POS does more than either competitor’s here. If you want a no-contract option with a capable POS and ecommerce integration, Square is the better-rounded choice for small retailers.

Visit Square →

Worldpay

Worldpay is a full-service acquirer with published pricing and a large UK merchant base. If you want a traditional acquiring relationship with more market experience than DNA Payments and more online depth than Dojo, Worldpay is the default benchmark to compare against.

Visit Worldpay →

Final Verdict: DNA Payments or Dojo?

Dojo for hospitality merchants who need rolling contracts and daily settlement. DNA Payments for omnichannel businesses who can negotiate rates and absorb a longer term. For most small-to-mid-size merchants, the contract terms are the deciding factor.

Dojo suits hospitality and mid-market merchants that value flexible terms, next-day settlement, and built-in tipping. DNA Payments is the more plausible choice for a multi-site or omnichannel business that wants one commercial relationship across its sales channels and has enough volume to negotiate.

The tie-breaker for most businesses reading this will be contract terms. Dojo’s term is 12 months then rolling (or 30-day rolling above £100k). DNA Payments typically asks for 2–4 years.

Unless you have the volume to negotiate out of that or the confidence in your business trajectory over the full term, that asymmetry is worth more than any rate difference the sales team quotes you.

For the independent restaurant group on three sites: Dojo, almost certainly. Pay at Table, built-in tipping, Dojo Bookings, and Kobas/Tevalis integration are features you’d otherwise have to stitch together.

For the omnichannel fashion brand running stores and a Shopify site at £800k combined turnover: DNA Payments is the better fit because it unifies in-store and online acquiring under one contract, provided the Shopify gateway compatibility lands in the proposal.

For the market trader doing £200 on a Saturday: neither. Payments Plus at £19/month and 0.99% on eligible UK consumer cards costs less and asks for nothing in writing.

Our overall call: we recommend Dojo for most hospitality and mid-market merchants, and reserve DNA Payments for high-volume omnichannel operators who can negotiate the rate and live with the term.

Frequently Asked Questions

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