Which Is Better for Small UK Businesses?
The deciding question is your volume, your average sale, and whether you trade where the phone signal holds.
Take a mobile hairdresser doing 50 sales a month at a £20 ticket. For this group, Lopay wins on cost and on payout flexibility outright.
Market traders taking £1,500 to £3,000 a month sit in the same camp. Lopay Standard (0.99%, next-day) clears the weekly cash lag.
A quiet rainy week in October costs nothing in subscription, because there is none. Tide’s plan still wants £17.99 + VAT that month, trade or no trade.
Signal flips the picture. A plumber in a Victorian basement, an electrician on a rural Devon farm, a trader at a blackspot county show, all need a reader that does not lean on a phone.
Tide’s reader has a lifetime-free 4G SIM built in. If you can dial 999, you can take the card.
Lopay’s WisePad 3 is Bluetooth-only and rides on your phone’s data. The signal drops mid-tap, and so does the sale.
Shops and cafés above £3,000 a month can model Tide’s plan, but the maths rarely beats Lopay Essential.
Tide only pulls ahead once your average sale clears roughly £60. Below that the 3p surcharge eats the rate saving, and most counter trade averages £15 to £25.
Tide Reader vs Lopay Fees and Charges
Card Transaction Fees
Tide runs two in-person structures. On PAYG you pay 1.5% + 5p per consumer card.
On the Sell In-Person subscription that drops to 0.79% + 3p for consumer debit and 0.89% + 3p for consumer credit on Visa and Mastercard.
Tap to Pay on iPhone, no hardware, sits at 1.5% + 11p on PAYG, or 0.79% + 9p debit and 0.89% + 9p credit on the plan.
The physical Tide reader does not appear to take Amex by insert or tap. Amex on Tide is only documented through Tap to Pay on iPhone.
Lopay turns on payout speed rather than a monthly fee. Essential (weekly) is 0.79%; Standard (next-day) 0.99%; Instant (same-day, any UK bank) 1.79%.
Amex runs through Lopay’s reader at a +1% surcharge on your base rate.
Payment links shift it again. Lopay adds 0.49% to your rate, so 1.28% all-in on Essential.
Tide’s links cost 1.5% on consumer cards, 2.5% on Amex, 3.7% on Discover or Diners. Take a real share of remote payments and that gap compounds fast.
Monthly, Setup and Contract Costs
No Lopay tier carries a monthly fee. The WisePad 3 is £35 + P&P for your first reader, £49 for extras.
No setup charge, no minimum term, no exit penalty.
For counter use, the Lopay Business Terminal (Stripe Reader S700) rents at £15 a month or sells for £270 + P&P. That is the device for MOTO payments or a fixed till.
Tide hardware costs several times more. The standard reader is £159 + VAT on PAYG, or £99 + VAT on the plan.
The Card Reader Plus, with a 5.5-inch screen and a built-in printer, is £199 + VAT, or £119 + VAT on the plan.
On top of hardware, the Sell In-Person plan is £17.99 + VAT a month. Tide raised this price in early 2026, so check tide.co/pricing before signing.
Other Fees to Watch
Need the cash in the account today? Tide charges 1% of the transaction for an instant payout to your Tide account, around the clock.
Lopay’s Instant tier (1.79%) bakes the same-day payout into the rate, with no separate fee.
Ad-hoc instant payouts on Essential carry a +1% surcharge, on Standard +0.8%. Verify those from lopay.co.uk or your in-app terms before relying on them.
Chargebacks are the hidden one. Neither provider publishes a standard chargeback fee on its main pricing page.
Run a category where disputes are common, hospitality, beauty, ticketing, and you should request the full fee schedule from both before signing.
Lopay’s terms allow a surcharge where your average sale sits well below £20. Sell street food at £4 a portion or candles at £3, and that clause may catch you.
Refunds are free on Lopay. Run a clothing brand with a returns policy and that quietly saves the per-refund fee some acquirers charge.
Fee Verdict: Who Costs Less
Lopay is cheaper at every volume band we modelled, and we tested three.
At £1,000 a month (about 50 sales at a £20 ticket) you pay around £7.90 on Lopay Essential against £17.50 on Tide PAYG. You keep an extra £9.60.
Step up to £5,000 a month and Lopay Essential costs about £39.50. Tide’s plan lands nearer £65 once the 3p surcharge and the £17.99 + VAT are added in.
At £15,000 a month the gap widens rather than closes. Tide’s plan only catches Lopay once your average sale clears roughly £60.
That is the point where the 3p fixed element shrinks against each transaction. Most UK retail and hospitality averages £15 to £25, so the break-even is rarely reached.
Tide Reader vs Lopay Payment Methods and Checkout
Cards, Wallets and Alternative Payment Methods
Visa, Mastercard, contactless, chip and PIN, Apple Pay and Google Pay all work on both, up to the £100 contactless cap. Amex is the differentiator.
Lopay takes Amex directly on the WisePad 3 at a +1% surcharge. Tide’s physical readers do not appear to.
The only Amex route on Tide is Tap to Pay on iPhone at 1.5% + 11p. Serve hotel guests or diners who settle on corporate Amex and that gap costs you sales.
Checkout Experience
Payment links work on both: you generate a URL and send it by text, WhatsApp or email. Tide calls them Instant Checkout Links; Lopay calls them Payment Links.
Lopay adds Subscription Links for recurring billing, useful if you sell a monthly retainer or a subscription box and want to skip a separate Stripe or GoCardless account. Tide does not match this.
For phone and mail-order payments you need Lopay’s Business Terminal, not the WisePad 3. Tide handles MOTO through a virtual terminal with no hardware upgrade. QR payments work on both.
Lopay digital receipts are customisable, with your logo and trading name. Tide’s pages do not document receipt branding clearly, so check with Tide if till-slip branding matters.
Methods Verdict
On checkout breadth we would give it to Lopay: Amex on the reader, links at 1.28% all-in against Tide’s 1.5% floor, and built-in subscription links.
The one thing Tide does that Lopay does not is MOTO without a hardware upgrade. Handy if your call-in orders are occasional and you do not want to rent a Business Terminal.
Tide Reader vs Lopay Hardware, POS and In-Person
Card Readers and Terminals
The standard Tide reader is a 4-inch touchscreen device, 170g, with a built-in 4G SIM, WiFi and Bluetooth.
Battery lasts about a working day. It is £159 + VAT on PAYG or £99 + VAT on the plan, and the SIM is free for the life of the device.
The Card Reader Plus steps up to a 5.5-inch screen with a built-in printer, £199 + VAT on PAYG or £119 + VAT on plan.
It weighs 495g, noticeable in a market trader’s apron, fine on a coffee-shop counter where printed slips matter.
Lopay’s WisePad 3 is the opposite end: Bluetooth-only, no screen, contactless and chip and PIN. It is £35 + P&P for the first reader, £49 after.
That is among the cheapest entry costs in the UK market. The catch is that it leans entirely on your phone’s data. No signal, no sale.
Lopay also offers Tap to Pay on iPhone and Android at no hardware cost, handy as a backup or for occasional acceptance.
For counter use, the Lopay Business Terminal (Stripe Reader S700) adds a touchscreen and WiFi, at £15 a month or £270 outright, and unlocks MOTO.
POS Software and Hardware Add-ons
Both run companion POS apps on iOS and Android. Tide’s carries a basic product catalogue.
Lopay goes deeper: product grids, stock tracking, inventory and unlimited staff accounts, all inside the same flat fee.
Run a small bakery with three counter staff and a stockroom and that depth saves bolting a separate till app on top.
For printed receipts, Tide needs the Card Reader Plus; Lopay handles it through the Business Terminal.
Neither documents native support for external cash drawers or barcode scanners. Ask for written confirmation before ordering peripherals you may not be able to use.
In-Person Verdict
For mobile trades in signal-flaky spots, we rate Tide the winner. The 4G SIM means a boiler engineer in a Cornish farmhouse or a trader at a county fair still takes the card with no phone bars.
That is the job the Tide reader is built for, and we could not find a way for the WisePad 3 to match it.
For counter businesses, we would give it to Lopay on entry cost (£35 against £159 + VAT) and on POS depth.
Pricing a fixed till, the fair fight is the Lopay Business Terminal against the Tide Card Reader Plus, not the WisePad 3 against the entry Tide unit. On that, Lopay is cheaper with richer inventory tools.
Tide Reader vs Lopay Online Payments and Integrations
Hosted Checkout, Payment Links and APIs
Tide’s Instant Checkout Links spin up a hosted payment page you share by URL, text or email, and Tide publishes Open Banking APIs through its developer portal.
A freelance copywriter taking fixed-price deposits from a custom WordPress page has a route there.
Lopay’s Payment Links cover one-offs, and Subscription Links add recurring collection, handy for a monthly coffee subscription or a quarterly retainer.
There is no public Lopay developer API documented. For a custom-built checkout you would integrate Stripe directly.
Platform Integrations
Tide connects to Xero, QuickBooks, Sage, FreeAgent, Kashflow, Crunch and ClearBooks via bank feed and transaction data, broader accounting reach than Lopay.
Tide also lists Shopify and WooCommerce integrations. Confirm whether these are native plugins or partner-built connections before you architect your stack around them.
Lopay connects to Xero, and you can embed Lopay links inside Xero invoices so a client pays from the invoice email.
QuickBooks pulls daily sales and payment data into your books. Beyond that, you are into manual workarounds.
There is no direct Shopify or WooCommerce plugin for Lopay yet. Pasting links one by one into online orders is not a substitute for a proper checkout integration.
Online Verdict
Run an online shop through Shopify or WooCommerce, or work with an accountant who insists on Sage or Kashflow, and we judge Tide the better fit on integration breadth.
If remote payments are mostly invoice deposits or one-off links alongside in-person trade, Lopay’s 1.28% all-in link rate beats Tide’s 1.5% floor and adds the subscription-link option on top.
Tide Reader vs Lopay Payouts, Contracts and Risk
Settlement Speed and Payout Schedule
Tide settles next business day, cutoff around 10pm, into your Tide account and nowhere else.
Bank with Lloyds or Starling and the friction shows on every cycle: a Saturday card payment lands in Tide on Monday night, then you trigger a separate transfer on Tuesday to move it.
Tide’s instant payout moves funds to your Tide account in minutes, around the clock, for 1%. The speed is real; the destination is still Tide-only.
Lopay’s schedule follows your tier. Essential (0.79%) pays weekly, Standard (0.99%) next day, Instant (1.79%) in minutes to any UK bank, around the clock.
You get that speed whether you bank with Barclays, Monzo, Revolut, NatWest or anyone else with a sort code.
Contract Length and Exit Terms
Neither locks you in. No minimum term, no exit fee, no notice period to cancel.
Your Tide hardware is yours once paid for, and Tide does not ask for the reader back. Lopay’s WisePad 3 is a third-party device too, so leaving Lopay leaves you with usable Stripe-compatible kit.
Reserves, Holds and Account Stability
Tide’s Trustpilot profile (3.9 out of 5 across 20,000-plus reviews) shows a recurring pattern of accounts frozen or closed with little warning, usually tied to AML checks.
The risk for a cash-dependent sole trader is real. If Tide is your only business account, a hold cuts off banking and card settlement in one stroke.
Your suppliers’ direct debits bounce on the same Monday your reader takings stop landing.
Lopay’s profile (4.7 from 1,300-plus reviews) shows no comparable freeze pattern; its complaints cluster on thin reporting and minor app glitches.
Because Lopay is payments-only, a compliance event there hits your card takings but leaves your current account, bills and salary untouched. That separation is structural protection.
Tide Reader vs Lopay Customer Reviews and Reputation
Trustpilot and Independent Review Themes
On Trustpilot, Tide sits at 3.9 out of 5 across 20,000-plus reviews. The praise is easy to pick out: simple onboarding, a clean app, quick setup for a new limited company.
The negatives are consistent: unexpected account freezes, slow support when things go wrong, and friction verifying identity documents.
Beyond Trustpilot, Tide scores 4.3 on G2 (37 reviews) and 4.3 on Capterra (107), more balanced feedback, and its iOS app sits at 4.8, so the day-to-day experience is good.
Lopay reads very differently: 4.7 on Trustpilot from 1,300-plus reviews, iOS 4.9, Android 4.8. Reviewers call out low fees, fast payouts and a setup that takes minutes.
Its complaints are narrow: reporting limits and the odd app glitch. The satisfaction gap is wide enough to take seriously, even allowing for Lopay’s smaller base.
Support Channels and Response Times
Support on both is in-app chat and email. Neither publishes a phone number for standard queries.
Tide’s chat runs UK business hours; Lopay’s are extended but not 24/7. The shared lack of voice support hurts any business that needs a person on the line in a crisis.
If your Tide account freezes on a bank-holiday Saturday, you are at the mercy of the chat queue to dig out.
We would read recent support reviews on both before committing, especially if your year turns on one high-stakes weekend, a festival caterer, a Christmas-market trader, a wedding.
Reputation Verdict
On reputation we give it to Lopay clearly: 4.7 against 3.9, with no documented freeze pattern against Tide’s well-evidenced complaint thread.
If your cash flow needs uninterrupted card payments week in, week out, we treat Lopay’s stability record as the deciding factor over the rate gap, not on top of it.
Tide Reader vs Lopay for International Payments
Foreign Visa and Mastercard work on both readers. When a US tourist taps an American Visa, their issuing bank handles the FX at their end.
Neither Tide nor Lopay advertises a merchant-side FX surcharge for accepting that card on its main pricing page.
Lopay’s terms may apply a +1% surcharge on international cards through the reader, though we could not confirm that from a primary source.
Trade in tourist-heavy spots, a Bath souvenir shop, a London street-food stall, a Cotswolds B&B, and verify it from lopay.co.uk or your in-app terms before trusting the headline rate.
Both settle reader transactions in GBP only. The real cross-border difference sits at the banking layer, not the reader.
Tide’s platform offers EUR accounts and international payments, which can save reconciliation hassle if you invoice in euros or dollars alongside GBP at the till.
Lopay is GBP-only with no multi-currency wallet. Run serious cross-border volume and we would pair a reader with a specialist like Wise Business or Airwallex.
Downsides of Tide Reader and Lopay
Downsides of Tide Reader
The structural one is the lock-in. Tide reader payouts only ever land in a linked Tide business account.
Bank elsewhere with no plan to move, and the reader is unusable on day one. That is a design choice, not something support can negotiate around.
Hardware is dear against any direct rival. The standard Tide reader is £159 + VAT.
A Lopay WisePad 3 is £35, a SumUp Air around £39, and Square ships its reader free or near-free with a new account.
Tide’s PAYG rate of 1.5% + 5p is roughly double Lopay’s Essential rate for low-volume users.
Account-freeze risk is material in our judgement, not remote. Trustpilot shows a recurring pattern of AML checks locking accounts without warning.
Treat it as a planning input: if Tide is your only business account, keep a second current account elsewhere for emergencies.
Phone support is absent. If your account freezes on a Friday afternoon and the chat queue is 147 deep, you wait.
Downsides of Lopay
Bluetooth-only is a real limit in signal-poor areas. Lose data partway through a card at a Cornish caravan park and the reader stops. Tide’s 4G SIM removes that; Lopay has no equivalent.
Lopay is payments-only by design. No invoicing, no budgeting, no expense management, no business account.
You need a separate bank account for the rest, which means another app, another login, and one more reconciliation step at month-end.
On Essential, settlement is weekly. Depend on Friday’s takings to pay Monday’s stock order and waiting until Wednesday is a real cash-flow constraint.
Upgrading to Standard (0.99%, next-day) costs 20 basis points. Whether that pays back depends on your stock cycle.
Reporting inside Lopay is thin, and reviewers flag it. For VAT returns or management accounts, lean on Xero or QuickBooks rather than the Lopay app.
Lopay is also younger and smaller than Tide. It raised an £8m seed round in early 2024, which signals momentum but not Tide’s multi-year track record.
If provider longevity ranks high in your criteria, factor that in.
Alternatives to Tide Reader and Lopay
SumUp Air charges 1.69% flat with no monthly fee. The reader lists around £39, often discounted, so check sumup.com before ordering.
Brand recognition is high among UK sole traders, and the rate sits between Tide PAYG and Lopay Essential. Pick it for a simple flat rate with the brand recall.
Square Reader sits at 1.75% flat, and Square ships its reader free or near-free depending on the offer, so check squareup.com.
What Square adds that neither Tide nor Lopay matches is POS depth: free inventory, staff timesheets, appointment booking and e-commerce. Run a salon needing a booking system beside the till and we would rate Square the stronger fit.
Zettle by PayPal charges 1.75% flat and settles into your PayPal balance, with the first reader around £29; check zettle.com for the current offer.
If you already lean on PayPal for online sales, eBay sellers, Etsy traders, we would shortlist Zettle: it pools card and online income in one PayPal balance.
Final Verdict: Tide Reader or Lopay?
For most UK sole traders and small businesses, the answer is Lopay. Its 0.79% Essential rate undercuts Tide PAYG by nearly half.
It pays out to any UK bank, so a sole trader who banks with Starling keeps banking with Starling. Its 4.7 Trustpilot score reflects far fewer stability issues than Tide’s 3.9.
The £35 WisePad 3 lets you trial it without serious outlay, and exit is painless: no contract, no hardware to return.
Tide earns the pick in two cases. First, mobile tradespeople in poor-signal areas.
A gardener in rural Devon, an electrician in a Welsh farmhouse or a trader at a county show will be glad of the lifetime-free 4G SIM the first time a Lopay user beside them loses signal.
Second, businesses already banking with Tide that want one dashboard for payments and finances. If Tide is already your account and your volume clears the plan’s break-even, the reader is a sensible extension of an account you trust.
So: Lopay wins on cost, payout flexibility and reputation. Tide wins on hardware independence and banking integration. Match the tool to the trade.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Lopay cheaper than Tide Card Reader?
Yes, for the majority of UK businesses. Lopay Essential charges 0.79% with no monthly fee; Tide PAYG charges 1.5% + 5p, almost double.
Even Tide’s ‘Sell In-Person’ plan (0.79% + 3p plus £17.99 + VAT/month) works out more expensive than Lopay Essential at a typical £20 average basket.
Does Lopay pay out to any bank account?
Yes, Lopay pays out to any UK bank account via Faster Payments. No requirement to hold a specific account, no need to switch banking.
Tide Card Reader is the opposite. Settlements only go to a linked Tide business account. Close that account and you cannot use the reader.
Do I need a Tide account to use the Tide Card Reader?
Yes, a Tide business account is required to receive Tide Card Reader payouts. You cannot redirect settlements to Barclays, Starling, Monzo, or any other bank.
The Tide Card Reader and the Tide business account are sold and operated as a single product. Understand that lock-in before buying anything.
Does Lopay accept American Express?
Yes, Lopay accepts American Express on both the WisePad 3 and the Business Terminal, at a +1% surcharge.
Tide’s physical card reader does not appear to accept Amex. On Tide, Amex is only documented as working through Tap to Pay on iPhone at 1.5% + 11p.
If your customer base routinely settles on Amex (hotel guests, corporate diners, US tourists), we’d recommend confirming Tide’s Amex position directly with their support before committing.
How fast does Lopay pay out?
Three speeds, depending on tier. Essential (0.79%) pays weekly. Standard (0.99%) pays next business day. Instant (1.79%) sends funds to any UK bank within minutes, 24/7.
That includes weekends and bank holidays. Ad-hoc instant payouts are also available on the cheaper tiers at a surcharge.
Tide’s standard settlement is next business day (T+1, cutoff around 10 PM) into your Tide account only. Instant payout to that Tide account costs 1% of the transaction value.
Is Tide Card Reader FCA regulated?
Yes. Tide Platform Limited is an FCA-authorised electronic money institution (FRN: 900843).
Lopay Ltd is registered with the FCA as an agent of Plaid Financial Ltd (FRN: 804718) for payment initiation and account information services under the Payment Services Regulations 2017.
What Lopay does not publish prominently is the specific acquiring relationship its card-processing runs under.
Check the FCA register at fca.org.uk and Lopay’s current T&Cs directly if the precise regulatory wrapper matters to your due diligence (accountants advising client onboarding, higher-risk merchant categories).
How we reviewed Tide Card Reader vs Lopay
Ranking criteria. We compared Tide Card Reader and Lopay on pricing, fees, feature set, eligibility, and contract terms. We also verified regulatory status and deposit protection where applicable.
Data sources. Every provider’s pricing page, terms, and product docs were checked directly in May 2026. No comparison sites, no press releases, no affiliate material. FCA register cross-checked for regulatory status.
Update cadence. We re-verify every provider on this page at least monthly, and whenever a provider changes pricing, eligibility, or terms. The verification date on the page reflects the most recent full review. Some links on this page are affiliate links, see our editorial policy.