Best Card Machines for Small Businesses
We ranked these by the decision most likely to cost you money if you get it wrong. Each pick below answers a specific business question: what’s your volume, how do you trade, and what breaks if settlement is slow? Every category includes an explicit condition for when that pick is the wrong call.
Best Overall
Square Reader. We keep coming back to Square as the safe default. Nothing else combines a £19 reader, no monthly fee, no contract, Amex acceptance at the flat 1.75% rate, and a free POS app that most owners are taking payments through within an hour of signing up.
The flat rate isn’t the cheapest in this guide, but it removes the biggest early-stage risk: committing to fees before you know your monthly volume.
Pick a rate before you know your volume and you pick wrong. Businesses turning over less than roughly £2,300 a month in card sales pay less with Square than with any plan-based alternative.
Not right if: your monthly card sales consistently exceed roughly £2,300. Above that, a plan-based reader starts to win: Dojo’s Fix plan from about £2,300, Tide’s Sell In-Person (0.89%+3p) from about £2,500, both beating Square’s 1.75% by enough to justify the monthly fee.
Visit SquareBest for Low Fees
Tide Sell In-Person. We checked Tide’s plan rate against tide.co in June 2026: 0.89%+3p on the £17.99+VAT monthly plan. That makes it the cheapest reader in this guide bundled with a full business account, once monthly card sales pass roughly £2,500.
A business processing £5,000 a month pays around £66 all-in on Tide versus £87.50 on Square: about £21 a month, or roughly £255 a year, back in the business. The reader requires a Tide business account; it’s not sold separately.
One reader undercuts it on headline rate: the Revolut Reader at 0.8%+2p, if you already bank with Revolut. Tide wins when you want the low rate and a full UK business current account in the same place.
Not right if: your customers regularly pay by Amex. Tide accepts only Visa, Mastercard, Apple Pay and Google Pay. Businesses in hospitality, premium retail or professional services where Amex is common will lose sales at the point of payment.
Visit TideBest for Mobile and On-the-Go
MyPOS Go 2. The Go 2 is the only reader in this guide with a built-in 4G SIM that operates entirely without pairing to a phone.
A plumber on a new-build site, a market trader under a steel-framed roof, or a mobile hairdresser can’t rely on Bluetooth-to-phone when the signal is poor and the job needs paying for. The Go 2 takes the phone out of the transaction entirely.
Settlement is instant to a MyPOS e-money account; a separate bank transfer step moves funds to your business account.
Not right if: you already run everything from a tablet at a fixed counter. A phone-paired Bluetooth reader works fine in a stable WiFi environment and costs substantially less.
Visit MyPOSBest for Shops and Fixed Checkouts
Tyl by NatWest. A countertop or portable PAX terminal on rental from £13.99+VAT per month, with a flat 1.39%+5p rate across all UK and European personal cards in-person and online. Funds settle same day into NatWest, RBS and Ulster Bank accounts, and next working day for all other banks.
Tyl was running a three-month free hardware rental promotion as of May 2026: confirm current terms before signing. The 12-month contract is a commitment, but for an established fixed-location business with predictable volume it’s the most cost-efficient path beyond a Bluetooth reader.
Not right if: you trade across multiple sites or pop-up style. A 12-month rental contract assumes a fixed address and early exit carries cancellation penalties.
Visit TylBest for Cafes and Hospitality
Dojo Go. The Fix plan at £39.99 a month covers all card processing up to £3,999 in monthly turnover, with next-day settlement by 10am including weekends and bank holidays in year one of the contract.
The Dojo Pocket handles table-side orders, custom tipping and split bills without a separate app. Dojo also covers exit fees from previous providers up to £500 on the Fix plan, which removes switching friction if you’re currently locked into a contract elsewhere.
Not right if: your monthly card turnover is reliably below £2,300. Below that figure, SumUp’s 1.69% flat rate costs less than Dojo’s £39.99 monthly fee. Run the break-even calculation before committing to 12 months.
Visit DojoBest for Fast Payouts
Zettle by PayPal. Card payments settle to your PayPal balance in minutes, the fastest route to spendable funds in this guide for businesses already in the PayPal ecosystem. The reader costs £29 excluding VAT, the rate is 1.75% including Amex, and there’s no monthly fee or contract.
If you invoice or take online payments through PayPal, consolidating in-person and digital takings into one balance removes a reconciliation step entirely.
Not right if: you need settlement direct to a business bank account without a PayPal transfer step. Moving money from PayPal to your bank adds one action and typically one working day to your actual cash position.
Visit ZettleBest for Growing Businesses
SumUp. SumUp’s real value is that you don’t have to switch providers as you grow. Start with the Air at £25 and 1.69% PAYG with no commitment.
When monthly card sales pass roughly £1,900, the Payments Plus plan at 0.99% for £19 a month recovers the subscription cost within a few months. The SumUp Solo standalone reader (£79) removes the phone dependency when the business is ready for a fixed till.
Nothing forces a provider switch as volume scales.
Not right if: you already bank with Tide or Revolut. At comparable growth stages, both offer lower per-transaction rates within their existing account ecosystems without the overhead of a separate payment provider.
Visit SumUpBest No-Contract Option
Barclaycard Smartpay Anywhere. £29+VAT reader, 1.60% on all cards including Amex, no monthly fee, no minimum transaction volume, no contract. Funds settle next working day, earlier for Barclays account holders.
If you want to start accepting cards with no financial commitment beyond the hardware cost, this is the most straightforward path. The Barclaycard name also carries recognition with customers who are cautious about unfamiliar card terminals.
Not right if: you want the lowest possible transaction rate. At 1.60%, Barclaycard is cheaper than Square (1.75%) and Zettle (1.75%), but more expensive than MyPOS (1.10%+7p) or Tide’s plan (0.89%+3p) at comparable volumes.
Visit BarclaycardBest for Tech-Forward Businesses
Revolut Reader. At 0.8%+2p on UK consumer cards, the Revolut Reader offers one of the lowest in-person rates in this guide without a fixed contract. It requires a Revolut Business account from £10 a month, so the true minimum cost is £10/month plus £49+VAT hardware.
Settlement is next day including weekends. If you’re already using Revolut Business for expenses, multi-currency payments or international transfers, the reader is a natural extension rather than a separate provider to manage.
Not right if: you need Amex acceptance on the reader hardware. The Revolut Reader does not accept American Express in person. Merchants who need in-person Amex must upgrade to the Revolut Terminal at £169+VAT.
Visit RevolutCard Machines for Small Businesses Compared
Square ReaderTop Pick
SumUp AirBest for Startups
myPOS Go 2Best for Mobile
Revolut ReaderBest for Growing Businesses
Tide Card ReaderLow-fee option
Dojo GoBest for Hospitality
TakepaymentsBespoke pricing
Zettle by PayPalNo monthly fee
Barclaycard Smartpay AnywhereBank-grade acquirer
Tyl by NatWestFixed checkout
WorldpayHigh-volume option
How to Choose the Best Card Machine for Small Businesses
BusinessExpert Take: What Card Machine Rankings Miss
Most comparison sites rank card machines by transaction fee and stop there. That misses two things. First, hardware cost matters for businesses just starting out: SumUp at £25 versus Dojo at £179+VAT outright is a real difference when you’re bootstrapping. Second, monthly fees change the total cost calculation entirely. A provider with a lower transaction fee but a £15/month rental can cost more than a higher-rate provider with no monthly charge, depending on your volume. We compared total monthly cost across each provider at £3k and £10k volumes in May 2026, with hardware amortised over 12 months. The other thing that gets missed: Square’s free POS software. If you’d otherwise pay £30 to £50/month for a POS system, Square’s “free reader + free POS” package is worth significantly more than the 0.06% transaction fee premium over SumUp. Run the maths on your total cost, not just the per-transaction rate. We reviewed the full feature list for Square POS in May 2026 and found inventory management, staff accounts, and analytics all included at no extra charge.
Monthly card turnover
Start with your card sales volume, because in our break-even work this is where most businesses choose badly. The rate is not the cost; the monthly fee is.
The choice between PAYG and a plan is a break-even calculation, not just a question of who has the lowest transaction fee. Flat-rate readers, such as Square, SumUp, Zettle and Barclaycard, charge the same percentage on every transaction with no standing fee.
Plan-based providers, such as Tide, SumUp Plus and Dojo Fix, charge a lower rate offset by a monthly fee. Tide’s plan breaks even against Square at roughly £2,500 a month in card sales; Dojo’s Fix plan breaks even against SumUp at roughly £2,300 a month.
Below those thresholds, flat-rate readers cost less. Above them, plan-based providers win. The trap is choosing the cheaper-looking rate before you’ve checked whether your own sales volume is high enough to justify the monthly fee.
Amex acceptance
We’d not dismiss Amex unless you know your customers won’t miss it. Square, SumUp, MyPOS, Zettle, Barclaycard, Dojo, TakePayments, Tyl and Worldpay all accept Amex. Tide and the Revolut Reader don’t.
If a meaningful share of your customers carry Amex, refusing it becomes a conversion blocker. Amex you can’t take is a sale you don’t make.
Hospitality, premium retail, professional services and B2B businesses face this most acutely. A high-street bakery typically does not. The point is not that every small business needs Amex; it’s that a card reader can look good on fees and still lose you sales at the till.
Connectivity
We treat connectivity as a reliability question, not a spec sheet. The question is not whether the reader works in ideal conditions; it’s whether it still works where you actually take payments.
Bluetooth-to-phone readers, such as Square, SumUp, Zettle and Revolut, use the phone’s data connection. They stop working if the battery dies, the app crashes or the signal drops. If you are outside, in a basement, or under a marquee at an event, that is a live problem.
Readers with a built-in 4G SIM, such as MyPOS Go 2, Tide Card Reader and Dojo Go, operate without a phone. For a fixed-site business on stable WiFi, Bluetooth is fine. For outdoor trading, basement locations or events, a self-contained reader pays for itself the first time a phone dies mid-queue.
Settlement speed
Settlement speed looks like a back-office detail until cashflow is tight. MyPOS settles instantly to a MyPOS e-money account. Zettle settles in minutes to PayPal. Revolut and SumUp, with a SumUp account, settle next day.
Dojo and Tyl settle next working day by 10am. Square and Barclaycard settle in 1–2 working days.
Tide’s standard plan settles in 3 working days, with a £2.99+VAT/month add-on for next-day settlement. A one-day difference matters when stock cycles are tight or supplier terms are short.
Check where the money lands as well as when it arrives: MyPOS and Zettle settle to their own accounts first, not directly to your bank.
Contract and exit costs
We’d check the exit cost before you sign, not when you want to leave. PAYG providers, such as Square, SumUp, MyPOS, Zettle, Barclaycard and Revolut, carry no exit cost.
Rental and contract providers, such as Tyl, Worldpay, TakePayments and Dojo Fix, carry early termination fees equal to the remaining contract value plus any minimum monthly service charges. A contract is a bet on your own volume.
A 12-month Tyl rental at £13.99 a month has an exit cost of up to £167 at month one. An 18-month Worldpay contract at £35+ a month carries proportionally more.
Sign a rental in a quiet January, watch trade dry up by March, and you keep paying the rental and the minimum monthly service charge every month until the term runs out.
The contract term is the premium you pay for a lower rate. That can be a fair trade-off, but only if your volume justifies it over the full term.
EPOS integration and support
The card reader is only one part of the payment setup. Dojo connects with 450+ EPOS systems and is the natural fit for hospitality businesses with existing till software. Square and Zettle come with free POS apps that handle tables, modifiers and staff management without a separate system.
Fintech providers, such as Square, SumUp, Zettle and MyPOS, run chat and email support, with phone lines on higher-tier plans. Bank-backed and brokered providers, such as Barclaycard, Tyl, Worldpay and TakePayments, give named account managers.
That account manager relationship matters most when something breaks mid-service. It is not always worth paying extra for, but for a busy restaurant, bar, salon or shop, payment downtime is not a small inconvenience.
Fees and Costs to Watch
Device Cost
Bluetooth readers cost £19–£49 outright: Square Reader £19+VAT, SumUp Air £25, Zettle £29 excl VAT, Barclaycard £29+VAT, Revolut Reader £49+VAT.
Portable 4G readers carry a higher upfront cost: MyPOS Go 2 is £39 and the Tide Card Reader starts from £99+VAT with the Sell In-Person plan. Rental terminals (Tyl, Worldpay, TakePayments, Dojo) avoid upfront hardware cost but lock you into a monthly payment.
Over a 12-month period, outright purchase is almost always cheaper than rental unless a promotional free period compresses the break-even point significantly.
In-Person Transaction Fees
We pulled these rates straight from each provider’s own pricing page, not a comparison site.
For UK consumer cards, lowest first: Revolut Reader 0.8%+2p, Tide Sell In-Person 0.89%+3p (plan), MyPOS Go 2 1.10%+7p, Tyl 1.39%+5p, Worldpay 1.50% Simplicity, Barclaycard 1.60%, SumUp Air 1.69% PAYG (0.99% on Payments Plus), Square Reader 1.75%, Zettle 1.75%.
Dojo’s Fix plan bundles all processing up to £3,999/month into the £39.99 monthly fee, with a 1% overage rate above that. TakePayments rates are custom-quoted from 0.3% to 2.5%.
The headline rate is not the full cost. Plan-based and rental providers typically quote a low domestic consumer debit rate and charge more for commercial cards, non-UK cards and Amex. Always request the full rate card, not just the headline, before you sign.
Online and Remote Payment Fees
Most providers extend in-person rates to online payment links and virtual terminals, but not all at the same rate. Dojo charges its face-to-face rate plus 0.5% for card-not-present transactions. Square and SumUp include payment links at the standard in-person rate.
Revolut charges 1%+2p for online transactions. TakePayments and Worldpay quote separately for card-not-present volume. If you take phone orders or remote payments alongside in-person transactions, confirm the CNP rate explicitly before assuming it matches the hardware rate.
Monthly Fees and Contract Costs
True monthly cost includes more than the headline subscription or rental figure.
Worldpay’s terminal rental from £17.50 sits alongside a £15 Minimum Monthly Service Charge and a £5 PCI compliance fee: the actual minimum monthly cost is £37.50 before processing a single transaction.
TakePayments’ indicative package adds a £20 MMSC and £4.80 PCI fee to terminal rental of £12.50+. Tyl bundles terminal rental and acquiring into one charge with no separate MMSC.
Dojo’s Fix plan includes hardware, software and processing in the single £39.99 monthly fee.
Refunds, Chargebacks and Other Charges
Refund fees: Dojo charges £0.50 per refund and £0.05 per authorisation. Most PAYG providers (Square, SumUp, Zettle, Barclaycard) do not charge separately for refunds. Instant payout fees: Square charges 1% for same-day settlement; standard 1-2 day settlement is free.
Tide charges £2.99+VAT per month for next-day settlement (default is 3 working days). MyPOS and Zettle offer fast settlement to their own accounts without extra charge, though a bank transfer fee may apply when moving funds to a business bank account.
Chargeback handling differs by provider type. Fintech providers (Square, SumUp, MyPOS) manage disputes inside the app with self-service tools. Bank-backed providers (Barclaycard, Tyl) and brokered providers (TakePayments, Worldpay) assign account managers to contested transactions.
For high-ticket or high-dispute-risk businesses, account manager support is worth more than a marginal rate advantage.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I switch card machine providers without replacing my hardware?
No. Your card machine is locked to the acquiring bank that issued it. If you switch from Square to Worldpay, you need a new reader: the hardware doesn’t transfer. The only partial exception is some tailored-rate terminals (Worldpay, Barclaycard) where the same physical device supports multiple plan structures, but it remains locked to one acquirer. Factor in the cost of new hardware when you compare switching savings against your current deal. New hardware is the real cost of switching.
How quickly will I receive payouts from card sales?
It depends on which provider you use. MyPOS settles to its own e-money account instantly. Zettle settles to your PayPal balance in minutes. Revolut and SumUp (with a SumUp account) pay into your account next day. Dojo and Tyl settle by 10am the next working day. Square and Barclaycard take 1-2 working days. Tide’s base plan settles in 3 working days; you can pay £2.99+VAT per month to upgrade to next-day. If you use MyPOS or Zettle, note that your money lands in their account first: you then transfer it to your business bank.
How do I find the cheapest card machine for my business?
Start with your actual monthly card volume, not a rough guess. Apply each provider’s fee structure to that figure and include any monthly fee. If you process under £1,900/month, flat-rate readers (Square, SumUp, Zettle, Barclaycard) cost you less than any plan. Between £2,500 and £4,000/month, Tide’s plan at 0.89%+3p for £17.99/month or Dojo’s Fix plan at £39.99/month will save you money. We ran these numbers for every provider in this guide: at £5,000/month, Tide saves you around £255 a year versus Square. The monthly fee is what saves you money.
Do I need a business bank account to accept card payments?
For most providers, yes. If you use Square, SumUp, Tyl, Worldpay, Barclaycard, TakePayments or Tide, you need a UK business bank account for settlement. Tide specifically requires you to bank with Tide. Revolut requires a Revolut Business account. The exceptions are Zettle (your funds land in PayPal first) and MyPOS (your funds land in a MyPOS e-money account). You still need a bank account eventually to move the money out. When you receive a payment, it settles into that account before you can spend it.
Do I need internet for my card machine to work?
Yes. Your card machine authorises every transaction in real time, which needs a live internet connection. If you use a Bluetooth reader (Square, SumUp, Zettle, Revolut), your reader depends on your phone’s data or WiFi. If your phone battery dies mid-shift, you can’t take payments. Readers with a built-in 4G SIM (MyPOS, Tide, Dojo Go) work independently of your phone. If you trade outdoors or in locations with weak signal, we recommend a self-contained 4G reader.
What is the Dojo Fix plan and is it right for me?
Dojo’s Fix plan charges £39.99 per month and covers all your card processing up to £3,999 in monthly turnover. Above that, you pay 1% per transaction. The plan includes your terminal rental, software and next-day settlement by 10am including weekends in year one. You sign a 12-month contract. It makes sense if you process between £2,300 and £4,000 a month. Below £2,300, you’ll pay less on SumUp’s flat 1.69%. If your volume is above £4,000, ask Dojo for a Flex quote: you get a lower rate and a 30-day rolling contract instead.
Can I use my phone as a card reader?
Yes. Tap to Pay on iPhone (available on Square, SumUp, Tyl and others) turns your phone into a contactless reader with no physical hardware needed. You pay the same transaction rate as you would on a physical reader. The main limit is the contactless ceiling: most UK banks are voluntarily keeping the £100 cap following the FCA’s March 2026 rule change, so you can’t tap transactions above £100. For anything higher, you still need a physical reader with a PIN pad.
How we reviewed Best Card Machines for Small Businesses
Ranking criteria. We ranked providers on cost structure, hardware options, contract flexibility, settlement speed and Amex acceptance. Cost carries the heaviest weight because it compounds across every transaction the business takes.
Data sources. Every provider’s UK pricing, terms and product pages were checked in May 2026; Square, Tide and Revolut re-verified in June 2026. No comparison sites or press releases. Break-even uses published rates only; TakePayments and Worldpay need a direct quote.
Update cadence. We re-verify every provider on this page at least monthly and whenever a provider changes pricing, contract terms or hardware. The verification date reflects the most recent full check. Some links on this page are affiliate links: see our editorial policy.