The Best Mobile Card Readers for Small Businesses

Our research team’s deep dive into the best six mobile card readers on the market placed Zettle and Revolut in joint first place. But are these the best readers for your business?

Our researchers spoke to 12 businesses across the UK to find out what’s most important in a payment provider, which led to us scoring providers in several categories, including price, features, and customer support.

Based on our research findings, we also know businesses are looking for a reader that is reliable, simple and has relevant features such as invoicing.

Read on to find out more about each of the best six mobile card readers, so you can decide which one is right for your business.

If you’re short on time, you can also use our free comparison tool to compare the prices of merchant accounts. By providing us with a few brief details, our tool will match you up with providers who’ll then contact you with obligation-free quotes.

1. Zettle – Best for features

Of the merchant accounts we looked at, Zettle has the highest number of integrations after Square, which is in the hundreds. Although Zettle does have a free EPOS app, it has fewer features than Square’s. However, Square’s numerous integrations are more suited to businesses that want to build a customised and comprehensive EPOS system.. While Zettle is suited to businesses such as food trucks or mobile businesses that don’t need a comprehensive EPOS system.

Its reporting capabilities include sales forecasting, inventory management, and staff hours. Zettle offers the second highest number of reports in our research, after Stripe. Although Stripe has more reporting capabilities, it has the lowest score in our research (4/5) and only offers two integrations. Zettle is a better all-around provider than Stripe.

While Zettle’s strengths are in its features, it doesn’t score as well for pricing with a score of 4.1/5 making it one of the more expensive providers we looked at. Zettle charges 1.75% per card transaction, 2.5% for payment links and invoices, £29 for your first card reader, and £59 for any subsequent readers.

Revolut is the cheapest for low transaction fees, charging 0.8% +2p for in-person transactions, although its card reader is more expensive than Zettle, starting at £49. The card reader price is less relevant, however, as the transaction fee is a recurring cost, impacting every transaction your business processes.

Zettle is suitable for businesses that want to focus on processing card transactions with the ability to access EPOS features, such as inventory tools.

2. Revolut – Best for cheap transaction fees

Revolut’s transaction fees are the cheapest out of all the providers we compared, which means you’ll receive more money. However, its card reader isn’t as cheap at £49. It is beaten by Tyl, which our research has found is best for low cost hardware. Card readers are typically a one-off fee and, while a cheaper reader can be enticing, it might not always be worth it in the long run. If having a range of low cost hardware options is important for your business, Tyl could be a good choice, but overall Revolut is cheaper and has been rated as a better provider.

Revolut scores a 4.5/5 for its features, offering 16 integrations, 25 currencies, and payouts within one to three working days. Revolut has the third highest number of features in our research, but Square’s countless integrations take first place. If you don’t need an EPOS system, Revolut’s modest number of integrations is still worthwhile and includes accounting software.

Scoring a 4.7/5, Revolut is up against stiff competition in the customer support area with most providers scoring well. Revolut offers phone support, live chat, and a knowledge base. It, however, lacks email support. Zettle, Square, and Stripe all score 5/5 for customer support, as they all offer phone support, live chat, email, and a knowledge base. If you’re looking for email support, it’d be best to go with one of these three alternatives.

3. Square – Best for faster payouts

Its closest competition in this category in our testing is Zettle which offers fast transfer times of one to two working days, which isn’t quite as fast as Square but Zettle does offer multi-currency. Square doesn’t offer the ability to accept multiple currencies, but you can set up accounts in each of the countries your business is located in to accept the local currency. If you want to be able to easily take multiple currencies, Zettle is a better option, but you’ll need to wait an extra day or two for payouts.

It’s worth noting that Square scores fairly low (3.3/5) in the pricing category of our testing because its transaction fees are the highest (alongside Zettle) of all the providers we looked at. Square’s transaction fees are 1.75% for card transactions and 2.5% for payment links and invoices, whereas Revolut charges 0.8% +2p per in-person transaction.

Square’s high number of integrations makes sense for businesses that want to use Square’s free EPOS software alongside the card reader, and create a customised and comprehensive system. If you aren’t interested in this, and simply want to process payments, Revolut is the better option as its transaction fees are much lower.

4. Tyl – Best for low cost hardware

This is on the pricier end, when compared to small card readers such as Square, which retails for £16. However, Tyl also offers a countertop reader for £13.99, but it's fairly chunky when compared with Square’s small (and square) handheld reader.

If size isn’t an issue, then Tyl’s lower cost readers might make more sense for your business, especially if you want to purchase multiple.

Tyl’s transaction fees are 1.5% per transaction, making it the third most expensive fee in our research. Revolut offers much cheaper transaction fees at 0.8% +2p per in-person transaction, plus, Revolut is a much better rated provider in our research (4.8/5). Despite its higher score and cheaper transaction fees, Tyl still offers cheaper hardware and 4G connected readers whereas Revolut does not. If you have a mobile business, 4G connectivity is important to ensure you can seamlessly continue to take payments, wherever you are.

Tyl scores 4.7/5 for its customer support, offering its customers phone, live chat, and knowledge base support. It lacks an email support option, which can be frustrating if you don’t have the time to make phone calls or go back and forth on live chat. If email support is important to you, Square might be a better option because it offers email support and its card reader starts from £16, which is the closest price to Tyl’s options. The huge jump in pricing can be unaffordable for businesses that need multiple readers.

With Tyl you can opt for a pocket reader and a comprehensive POS (£14.99 Wi-Fi/£16.99 4G) for a more affordable price. Tyl makes sense for small businesses that want to purchase multiple types of readers without breaking the bank.

Tyl doesn’t carry out credit checks on new customers, which is good news if you’re a startup or small business that has poor or no credit score. From the providers we looked at, Revolut, Zettle and SumUp all carry out credit checks, which can make it difficult for your business to be accepted.

The low cost hardware and lack of credit checks make Tyl a good provider for businesses with smaller budgets and a poor credit score.

5. Stripe – Best for reporting

Stripe’s closest competitor in our research is Square. While Stripe offers more options for reporting, it does only offer two integrations (Quickbooks and Netsuite) while Square has many more integrations. If you want access to an EPOS system, Square is a good fit, however, if reporting is more important to you and you don’t need a comprehensive EPOS system, Stripe is a good choice.

When it comes to pricing, Stripe receives the lowest score of the providers we looked at. It scores a 3.2/5 because it charges 1.4% +20p for card transactions and 0.4% for invoicing. The card transaction fee is fairly high if your business takes lots of small payments. Revolut charges much lower transaction fees at 0.8% +2p for in-person transactions, however, it offers fewer reporting tools. If you’re unlikely to take tons of small card payments and you want access to detailed reporting, Stripe would be a better fit over Revolut.

Stripe charges the least for invoice payments when compared with the other providers we looked at. This fee is typically around 2.5% when compared with Stripe’s 0.4%. Even Revolut charges a higher fee of 1% +20p for online transactions. So, if you’re expecting to process a lot of invoice payments, Stripe is a good fit.

For businesses that want detailed reporting over a high number of integrations and low invoicing transaction fees, Stripe is a good choice.

6. SumUp – Best for 3G connectivity

SumUp is best suited for small mobile businesses because a 3G connection makes it easy for businesses to process payments on the road, where a Wi-Fi connection may be dodgy or non-existent. It also means you don’t need to connect your reader to your phone or tablet to access its mobile data or Wi-Fi, which can be problematic if you run into technical issues which mean you can’t process payments.

Having a 3G reader takes away this hassle and makes it easier for you to process payments, when you are on the road.

SumUp scores a 3.6/5 for pricing, with readers starting from £39. However, the 3G connected reader will set you back a pretty penny, £129 to be exact. This reader does come with a built-in printer, which explains the hefty price tag, but it’s certainly a lot pricier when compared with Tyl’s readers that include 4G, priced at £21.99 for a portable reader and £16.99 for an all-in-one POS, much more affordable than SumUp. The card reader price is typically a one-off expense and might be worth it, as SumUp offers over 11 integrations, compared with Tyl’s four. Plus, SumUp has a much higher compliance rating (4.6/5) than Tyl (1.6/5).

If you’re concerned about compliance and want access to a higher number of integrations, SumUp would be a better option over Tyl.

SumUp scores lowest in our research for customer support, with a 3.5/5, as it lacks a live chat option, which every other provider we compared offers to customers. However, SumUp does offer phone, email, and a knowledge base, but the lack of live chat is frustrating as you may not always have the time or resources to make a phone call or browse through the knowledge base.

We recommend SumUp for small businesses that are on the move and need a reader with 3G connection, plus, a high number of integrations.

How Did We Research Payment Providers?

Our research team compared 11 different card readers to find the best mobile card readers featured on this list. These were then split into two groups: mobile and traditional.

With the top six providers in the mobile readers category, we then scored each provider in the following areas:

• Price –  hardware fees, transaction fees, account fees, flexibility, and early termination fees were all taken into account to determine how affordable the provider is.
• Payment options –  the research team assessed whether the provider offers a physical machine, online payments, virtual orders, and payment links.
• Features –  the features we focused on were invoicing, integrations, reporting, and multi-currency.
• Compliance –  this area looks at how compliant each provider is based on fund transfer times, PCI compliance, and fraud prevention measures.
• Help and support –  our team identifies how much help and support each provider offers. This includes email, phone, and live chat support.
• Customer score –  this score is based on customer reviews and comments.

The average of all of these scores is combined to make up an overall score for each provider.