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Best Card Machines for Small Businesses
The right pick depends on how you trade, which is why we ranked them that way. You take a busy Saturday afternoon of card sales, then spend Monday morning waiting for the money to reach your account, and that gap is where settlement speed earns its place.
A customer stands at your counter on a Friday afternoon while the reader keeps trying to reconnect, and the queue behind them grows. Connectivity is the difference between a sale and a walkout.
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 1.75% rate applies to UK-issued cards taken in person; Square charges a different rate online (1.4%+25p) and on non-UK cards (2.5%+25p online, more in person).
It isn’t the cheapest rate in this guide, but it removes the biggest early-stage risk: committing to a monthly fee before you know your volume.
Pick a plan before you know your volume and you pick wrong. Two providers now beat Square on rate once your numbers are big enough to justify them.
Tide’s Sell In-Person plan (0.89%+3p on £17.99+VAT/month) undercuts Square once monthly card sales pass roughly £2,500, assuming an average £20 transaction on domestic consumer cards.
Dojo’s 1.2% blended rate beats Square’s 1.75% on every single transaction, provided your annual card turnover stays under £100k. You’re then paying for Dojo hardware (from £15–25 a month, or £149 upfront) rather than a one-off £19 reader.
Not right if: you can already forecast steady monthly card sales above roughly £2,500, or you’re comfortable renting Dojo hardware for its lower blended rate.
Run your own average transaction value and card mix against the maths in the fees section below before assuming Square is cheapest.
Get Square’s £19 readerBest for Low Fees
Tide Sell In-Person. Tide charges 0.89% plus 3p on its £17.99+VAT monthly plan, which is the lowest rate here that comes with a full UK business current account attached.
Whether that plan fee earns itself back depends on your turnover and your average sale, and we work that through properly in our guide to the cheapest card machines.
The reader requires a Tide business account and is not sold separately, so this is a choice about where you bank as much as what you tap cards on.
Two readers undercut it on headline rate: the Revolut Reader at 0.8%+2p, if you already bank with Revolut, and Dojo’s 1.2% blended rate below £100k a year in turnover, though Dojo adds a hardware rental Tide doesn’t.
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.
Switch to Tide’s 0.89% rateBest for Mobile and On-the-Go
MyPOS Go 2. The Go 2 is one of the cheapest readers in this guide with a built-in 4G SIM, at £29 outright with no phone pairing required, alongside Tide’s Card Reader and Dojo’s Go Max.
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.
The 1.10%+7p headline rate is the UK domestic consumer-card rate only: Amex costs 2.45%+7p, EEA-issued cards 2.20%+7p and other commercial cards 2.85%+7p. Check your customers’ actual card mix before assuming every transaction lands at the headline rate.
Not right if: you already run everything from a tablet at a fixed counter, or a meaningful share of your takings come from Amex, EEA or commercial cards.
A phone-paired Bluetooth reader works fine in a stable WiFi environment and costs substantially less; a flat-rate reader avoids the card-class surcharges entirely.
Go phone-free with 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 in May 2026. Promotions expire and the contract does not, so price the 12 months on the standard rental and treat any free period as a discount you might not get. On that basis it still suits an established fixed-location business with predictable volume better than a Bluetooth reader does.
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.
Get Tyl’s 1.39% rateBest for Cafes and Hospitality
Dojo. A cafe clearing coffees and lunches all day lives on two numbers: how fast the queue moves, and what each tap actually costs once Amex and business cards are in the mix.
Dojo rebuilt its pricing in 2026, and the old £39.99-a-month Fix plan is gone. In its place is a 1.2% blended rate on every card transaction for businesses under £100k a year in card turnover, with hardware and software billed separately rather than bundled into one figure.
The blended part is what matters in hospitality. That 1.2% applies whatever card the customer hands over, so a lunchtime run of Amex and commercial cards doesn’t quietly cost you more than the Visa debit before it, the way a headline flat rate with card-class surcharges can.
That 1.2% beats every flat-rate reader in this guide on transaction cost alone.
The catch is that the low rate doesn’t come with a free reader. The Dojo Go Max terminal costs £149 upfront (a launch discount from £229) or £25 a month; the countertop Dojo Wired is £179 upfront or £15 a month; the order-and-pay Dojo Pocket is £239 upfront or £20 a month.
Software is a genuinely separate decision: the free Essential plan covers standard acceptance, and the £11.99-a-month Plus plan adds customer analytics and remote refunds.
The Dojo Pocket handles table-side orders and split bills without a separate app, still the strongest fit in this guide for hospitality.
Dojo also advertises a contract buyout of up to £3,000 for switching from another provider, well above what it offered under the old Fix plan, which removes switching friction if you’re currently locked into a contract elsewhere.
Not right if: you want one bundled monthly number rather than separate rate, hardware and software decisions, or you process low enough volume that a flat-rate reader’s zero monthly cost beats paying for Dojo hardware at all.
Weigh the 1.2% saving against what you’d pay monthly for the terminal before committing.
Get Dojo’s 1.2% blended rateBest 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.
Get paid in minutes with ZettleBest for Growing Businesses
SumUp. SumUp’s real value is that you don’t have to switch providers as you grow. Start with the Solo Lite (formerly branded SumUp Air) at £25 and 1.69% PAYG with no commitment.
When monthly card sales pass roughly £2,700, the Payments Plus plan at 0.99% for £19 a month pays for itself: the 0.70 percentage-point rate saving covers the monthly fee at that turnover, assuming domestic consumer cards. Below that figure, stick with PAYG.
The SumUp Terminal (£135) removes the phone dependency when the business is ready for a fixed till; online and payment-link transactions are charged 2.5%, separately from the in-person rate.
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.
Grow with SumUp, no switchingBest No-Contract Option
Barclaycard Smartpay Anywhere. £29+VAT reader, no monthly fee, no minimum transaction volume, no contract. Funds settle next working day, earlier for Barclays account holders.
Barclaycard’s current pricing page no longer publishes a headline percentage for this device: the transaction rate is customised per business, quote required. Treat any older “1.60% flat” figure you see elsewhere as out of date.
If you want to start accepting cards with no financial commitment beyond the hardware cost, this is still a straightforward path. The Barclaycard name also carries recognition with customers who are cautious about unfamiliar card terminals.
Not right if: you need Amex acceptance, or you want a published rate to compare before you sign. Smartpay Anywhere accepts only Visa and Mastercard, not Amex; Barclaycard’s other devices (portable, countertop, Smartpay Touch) do accept Amex, at their own quoted rates.
Get Barclaycard, no contractBest for Tech-Forward Businesses
Revolut Reader. At 0.8%+2p on UK domestic 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 entry cost for a new buyer is now £10/month plus the £129+VAT Lite Terminal, since the £49 Reader is discontinued.
Settlement is next day including weekends. If you’re already using Revolut Business for expenses, multi-currency payments or international transfers, the reader remains a low-cost extension of Revolut Business for existing owners. It is no longer sold to new customers, who need the £129 Lite Terminal.
Revolut’s current pricing page lists Amex at 1.7%+2p against 0.8%+2p for domestic Visa and Mastercard, and 2.6–2.8%+2p for international or commercial cards, for its in-person devices.
Revolut’s hardware lineup has shifted to a Terminal (£169+VAT) and Lite Terminal (£129+VAT); whether the original £49 Reader specifically still carries the same Amex acceptance and rate, or has been superseded, isn’t clearly confirmed on the current site.
Confirm the exact device and its Amex terms with Revolut before assuming either way.
Not right if: you need certainty on Amex terms before you order. Given the unclear device lineup, a provider with an unambiguous published Amex policy may be the safer pick if Amex volume matters to you.
See Revolut card machinesCard Machines for Small Businesses Compared
Square ReaderTop Pick
SumUp Solo LiteBest for Startups
myPOS Go 2Best for Mobile
Revolut ReaderBest for Growing Businesses
Tide Card ReaderLow-fee option
Dojo Go MaxBest for Hospitality
TakepaymentsBespoke pricing
PayPal Point of SaleNo 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 Solo Lite at £25 versus Dojo’s Go Max terminal from £149 upfront (or £25 a month) is a real difference when you’re bootstrapping. Second, monthly and rental 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. This is exactly the trap Dojo’s 2026 pricing rebuild sets: its 1.2% blended rate is genuinely lower than Square’s 1.75%, but only once you’ve accounted for the hardware rental Square doesn’t charge. 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’s PAYG rate. Run the maths on your own total cost, not just the per-transaction rate: your volume, average sale and card mix decide the winner, not the headline percentage on its own.
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 with a published percentage, such as Square, SumUp and Zettle, charge the same rate on every transaction with no standing fee.
Barclaycard’s Smartpay Anywhere works the same way operationally, no monthly fee, no contract, but its rate is now quote-based rather than published.
Plan-based providers, such as Tide and SumUp Plus, 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, assuming a £20 average transaction on domestic consumer cards. That is the running cost alone. Count the hardware too and Tide does not actually catch Square until about £3,470 a month, which is the basis we use in our cheapest card machines costing.
SumUp’s Payments Plus breaks even against its own PAYG rate at roughly £2,700 a month.
Dojo works differently again: its 1.2% blended rate undercuts every flat-rate reader on percentage, for card turnover under £100k a year, but that’s before Dojo’s published 5p per-authorisation fee and 50p refund fee, and before the separate hardware rental (from £15 a month).
On a high volume of small transactions, the per-authorisation fee narrows the gap.
Below the relevant threshold, flat-rate readers cost less. Above it, a plan-based rate or Dojo’s blended rate starts to win.
The trap is choosing the cheaper-looking rate before you’ve checked whether your own sales volume, and your own average transaction value, are high enough to justify the monthly cost.
Amex acceptance
Don’t dismiss Amex unless you already know your customers won’t miss it, and don’t assume “accepts Amex” means Amex costs the same as everything else. Square, SumUp (PAYG) and Zettle charge Amex at the same flat rate as other cards, no surcharge.
Most others charge more for it. MyPOS, for example, charges 2.45%+7p for Amex, well above its domestic headline.
Revolut’s published in-person Amex rate is 1.7%+2p against 0.8%+2p domestic, though which of its devices that applies to isn’t clearly confirmed, ask before assuming it covers the £49 Reader specifically.
Tyl’s 1.39%+5p is a UK/European personal-card rate; other cards, including Amex, cost 1.99%+5p or need a custom quote. Worldpay’s 1.50% Simplicity rate is for Visa and Mastercard only, Amex and other schemes cost more and aren’t published.
Dojo folds Amex into its 1.2% blended rate with no separate surcharge disclosed. TakePayments and Barclaycard’s Smartpay Anywhere can’t be compared on a headline Amex rate at all, one being quote-based, the other not taking Amex.
On SumUp’s Payments Plus plan, Amex stays at the 1.69% PAYG rate rather than dropping to the 0.99% domestic-card rate. Tide doesn’t accept Amex at all.
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 Max, 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 advertises next-day settlement; Tyl settles by 10am the next working day. 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
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 and TakePayments, carry early termination fees equal to the remaining contract value. A contract is a bet on your own volume.
Dojo doesn’t publish a contract term for its sub-£100k blended-rate tier, but does advertise a £3,000 buyout if you’re switching in from a contract elsewhere, worth asking about directly.
A 12-month Tyl rental at £13.99 a month has an exit cost of up to £167 at month one. A rental-based Worldpay contract at £17.50 a month before any promotion carries proportionally more the longer the remaining term.
Sign a rental in a quiet January, watch trade dry up by March, and you keep paying the rental 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
Check below the headline rate before you sign, because that’s where the fees that catch people out sit. The real cost is the card mix underneath the headline, not the headline itself.
We compared each provider’s full rate card, not just the headline percentage you see advertised, so the gaps below are the ones worth knowing about.
Picture your bookkeeper reconciling the week’s takings against the bank feed when a refund charge nobody budgeted for finally shows up.
When your Monday takings haven’t hit the account by Tuesday morning, you end up on the phone to the provider asking where the money is.
Device Cost
Phone-paired readers start around £19 and stop around £49, so hardware price is rarely what decides this. Standalone readers that carry their own connectivity cost more and earn it back in reliability, not in rate. Every current hardware price sits in one table in our cheapest card machines comparison.
Portable 4G readers carry a higher upfront cost: MyPOS Go 2 is £29 and the Tide Card Reader starts from £99+VAT with the Sell In-Person plan.
Tyl, Worldpay and TakePayments are rental-only and avoid upfront hardware cost, but lock you into a monthly payment. Dojo now offers a genuine choice: buy the Go Max terminal outright from £149 or pay £25 a month.
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
The rate that matters is the one your customers actually trigger, and the headline figure is rarely it.
For UK domestic consumer cards, lowest first: Revolut Reader 0.8%+2p, Tide Sell In-Person 0.89%+3p (plan), Dojo 1.2% blended (under £100k/year turnover), MyPOS Go 2 1.10%+7p.
Tyl 1.39%+5p (UK/EU personal cards; other cards 1.99%+5p), Worldpay 1.50% Simplicity (Visa/Mastercard only), SumUp Solo Lite 1.69% PAYG (0.99% on Payments Plus, domestic cards), Square Reader 1.75%, Zettle 1.75%. Barclaycard’s Smartpay Anywhere no longer publishes a rate: quote required.
Dojo’s 1.2% blended rate replaced its old £39.99-a-month Fix plan in 2026; above £100k a year in turnover, Dojo quotes a custom rate instead.
TakePayments has no published rate at all: every quote is bespoke, set by the acquiring bank it nominates.
The headline rate is not the full cost. MyPOS is explicit about this: its 1.10%+7p is the UK domestic consumer rate only, with Amex, EEA and other commercial cards each charged more (the full four-tier breakdown is in the MyPOS pick above).
Other plan-based and rental providers typically quote a low domestic consumer debit rate too and charge more for commercial cards, non-UK cards and Amex, without always itemising the difference publicly. That gap between the headline and the actual is where a cheap-looking rate quietly costs you.
If a fifth of your takings arrive on Amex or business cards, the rate you pay in practice is nowhere near the number on the pricing page. Always request the full rate card, not just the headline, before you sign.
Online and Remote Payment Fees
Online and payment-link rates do not automatically match the in-person rate, and providers vary in how far apart they are.
Square charges 1.4%+25p for UK-issued cards paid online (versus 1.75% in person) and 2.5%+25p for non-UK cards; manually keyed transactions are 2.5% flat. SumUp charges 2.5% online against its 1.69% in-person PAYG rate.
Revolut charges 1%+2p for online transactions. TakePayments and Worldpay quote separately for card-not-present volume, and we could not independently confirm a current published card-not-present surcharge for Dojo under its new pricing model.
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, and some of the figures long assumed for this market have moved.
Worldpay’s Simplicity plan currently runs a promotional £0-a-month terminal rental (standard price £17.50), with no minimum monthly service charge disclosed on the public pricing page.
Treat that as a dated promotion, not the standing price, and reconfirm the end date before signing. We could not confirm a separate PCI fee on the current page.
TakePayments does not publish a monthly figure at all: rental, any minimum charge and PCI cost are all set in the individual quote. Tyl bundles terminal rental and acquiring into one charge with no separate MMSC.
Dojo now separates its costs into three lines instead of one: the 1.2% blended transaction rate, a hardware rental or upfront purchase, and an optional Plus software plan per location.
Add the three together for your real monthly cost, rather than assuming one bundled figure the way the old Fix plan worked. The hardware and software prices are itemised in the Dojo pick above.
Refunds, Chargebacks and Other Charges
Most PAYG providers (Square, SumUp, Zettle, Barclaycard) do not charge separately for refunds. We could not confirm a current published refund or per-authorisation fee for Dojo under its new pricing model; ask directly if you process a high volume of 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 the provider, and the range is wide. MyPOS and Zettle are fastest, settling to their own accounts almost immediately; Revolut and SumUp pay in next day; Square and Barclaycard take 1-2 working days; and Tide’s base plan takes 3 working days unless you pay £2.99+VAT a month to upgrade to next-day. The How to Choose section above ranks all eleven. One thing to watch: with MyPOS and Zettle the money lands in their own account first, so 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 and your average transaction value, not a rough guess: the two together decide which fee structure wins. The trap is chasing the lowest advertised rate before you know your own volume. Below roughly £2,500/month at a typical £20 average transaction, flat-rate readers (Square, SumUp, Zettle, Barclaycard) usually cost less than any plan. Above that, Tide’s plan at 0.89%+3p for £17.99/month starts to win (the Tide pick above works the saving through in full). Dojo works on a different logic entirely: its 1.2% blended rate beats every flat-rate reader on percentage terms regardless of volume, provided your annual card turnover stays under £100k, but you pay for Dojo hardware separately rather than a one-off reader. Run your own numbers against your own card mix; the cheapest headline rate and the cheapest actual bill are rarely the same provider.
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?
Almost always, yes. Most card machines authorise every transaction in real time over a live internet connection, and that’s the safe assumption to trade on. A small number of providers support limited offline capture: the transaction is stored and authorised later once connectivity returns, usually capped at a low value and carrying the merchant, not the provider, the fraud risk if the card is later declined. Treat offline capture as a fallback for a dropped connection, not a way to trade without internet as a rule. 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 Max) work independently of your phone. If you trade outdoors or in locations with weak signal, we recommend a self-contained 4G reader over relying on offline capture.
What is Dojo’s 1.2% blended rate and is it right for me?
Dojo restructured its pricing in 2026 and no longer offers the flat-fee Fix plan. Its current headline rate is 1.2% blended on every card transaction, for businesses under £100k a year in card turnover, and that 1.2% beats every flat-rate reader in this guide on percentage terms alone. The catch is that hardware and software are priced separately rather than bundled in, so the rate on its own isn’t your real cost (the Dojo pick above itemises the terminal and software prices). It’s right for you if that 1.2% saving over your current rate outweighs what you’d pay monthly for the Dojo hardware. If your annual card turnover is above £100k, Dojo quotes a custom rate instead of the blended rate.
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. We read every provider’s UK pricing, terms and product pages directly on 21 July 2026, with no comparison sites or press releases used as primary sources. The FCA’s contactless-limit change is sourced to the FCA’s own press release.
Break-even figures state their assumptions (average transaction value, card mix) rather than standing as universal thresholds. TakePayments and Worldpay’s tailored rates need a direct quote and aren’t ranked by cost until one is provided.
Testing basis. This comparison is desk research against each provider’s current official pricing and product pages, not hands-on device testing.
We haven’t put these readers through a live shift, so the verdicts reflect published pricing, contract terms and features, not first-hand reliability, support quality or how the hardware handles across a counter. Treat the pricing as verified and the day-to-day feel as still yours to test.
Update cadence. We re-verify every provider on this page at least monthly and whenever a provider changes pricing, contract terms or hardware. Dojo’s 2026 pricing rebuild, caught in this pass, is a reminder that a provider can restructure its entire model between checks.
The verification date reflects the most recent full check. Some links on this page are affiliate links: see our editorial policy.